Why I Don’t Give Career Advice: Army Dazed

I was tickled when I saw how Microcosm titled our conversation about my career path in the industry, and listening to it for the first time, it's another reminder that my path was a relatively unusual one, difficult and unlikely to be replicated in the structure of the current industry. That said, I do think there's still an opportunity (and more importantly, a need) for people to be more outspoken about the various challenges the industry is dealing with, dismantling whisper networks to level the playing field for those coming from non-traditional backgrounds.

How Manga Took Over My Bookshelf — and the World!

Between research for Comics Plus (aka, the day job) and many hours of the wonderful Mangasplaining podcast, I've been able to zero in on stories that are most likely to be up my alley without putting too big a dent in my wallet. As a result, manga has become the majority of what I've read and enjoyed this year.

Five Things: February 25, 2021

Five things of interest, every other Thursday. That's it! That's the description.

INTERVIEW: Charlie Huston & Moon Knight | PCS Flashback

Back in 2005, I spent two hours over cold beers talking with Charlie Huston about Moon Knight and the pressure of living up to the hype surrounding his relaunch; what “decompression” and “9-out-of-10 of those single issues sucked!” have in common; and what Doug Moench and Steve Gerber don’t have in common. The resulting interview, originally published at Buzzscope, is my favorite ever.

6Qs: Tobias Buckell, Traversing Publishing’s Diverse Fantastic

In the beginning, when I was trying to sell my first novel, I had a weird experience of editors really wanting me to write, sort of magic realism set in the Caribbean, or about recent immigrants with a magical ability (I've had two editors actually give me that logline and ask if I'd be interested in writing that story, but it's just not there for me, I've got other stories still to tell). There was a strong sense that, hey, this is how you can be marketed as a Caribbean novelist.

6Qs: Alex de Campi, Comics Innovator and Provocateur

We are not anywhere near the digital future yet with comics. There is so much exciting ground to be staked out! We just need a new publisher, or a collective of coders, comic writers, and artists. I think the latter is more likely than the former.

“Weird and Wonderful”? Me, on the Future of Publishing

The above tweet led to a fun interview over the at the Book View Cafe blog, "Weird and Wonderful: Digital Book World and Guy LeCharles Gonzalez," with author Sue Lange asking me some interesting questions that really made me think hard to solidify some of my ideas about the "Future of Publishing" and what it means for … Continue reading “Weird and Wonderful”? Me, on the Future of Publishing →

6Qs: Richard Eoin Nash, Social Publisher

"Basically, the best-selling five hundred books each year will likely be published much like Little Brown publishes James Patterson, on a TV production model, or like Scholastic did Harry Potter and Doubleday Dan Brown, on a big Hollywood blockbuster model. The rest will be published by niche social publishing communities." --About Richard Eoin Nash Richard … Continue reading 6Qs: Richard Eoin Nash, Social Publisher →

6Qs: Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed

"I don’t know if there’s any light at the end of the tunnel for publishers, but I think the future for writers is bright." --Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed I had the pleasure of working with the Editor Unleashed herself, Maria Schneider, for about 18 months, back when we were both with Writer's Digest -- as Editor … Continue reading 6Qs: Maria Schneider, Editor Unleashed →