First drafts of fiction including micro, fanfic and NaNoWriMo.
Jim Aparo is one of the first artists I have a distinct memory of from my earliest days of collecting comics, and his version of Batman remains to this day one of my favorites. He was one of the first artists whose styles I could recognize at first glance and who could get me to pick up a comic book I normally wouldn't, including Aquaman!When people say "they don't make them like they used to," they could easily be talking about Jim Aparo. Rest in peace. (Batman and the Outsiders #1 cover courtesy of the Grand Comic Book Database.)The following…
Tell me what you think about your sit-u-a-tionComplication - aggravationIs getting to youBack in 1995, I attended AA meetings for 89 days, partly because I thought I had a drinking problem, but mostly to get closer to a girl I was interested in. Approx. 50 days in, I found myself in a bar with her because she had to pick up something from a bartender friend of hers. I hesitated at the door for a second, wondering if I'd be able to handle the temptation, before going in and staring in awe at the elaborate spread of liquor behind the…
Prior to 9/11, there were many who believed that my generation's defining moment happened on January 28, 1986, when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff from Kennedy Space Center, instantly killing all 7 crew members aboard, including the first teacher scheduled to fly in space, Sharon Christa McAuliffe. I was in 11th grade at the time and while it was definitely a notable moment, I recall feeling somewhat removed from it all, born a year and a half too late to have any memory of Neil Armstrong's historic walk on the moon and therefore lacking any real…
I was still out of comics back in 2000 when Marvel pulled off its Sentry hoax, pretending to have discovered a Silver Age creation of Stan Lee's that pre-dated even the Fantastic Four, and getting that bastion of reputable comics journalism, Wizard, to go along with the stunt. Purportedly their answer to Superman, but with the personal foibles that were Marvel's forte, even Lee played along, claiming to remember shelving the character because he was "so powerful, he could very well have destroyed the entire Marvel Universe and everything we were planning." They even created, and then killed, a fictional…
The Chapter One contest I'm one of the judges for is finally wrapping up. 125 manuscripts, the majority of which, like a poetry slam, went the maximum 20 pages! The panel wasn't able to meet in person so the contest coordinator is...um, coordinating our top six choices, trying to come up with a representative final four. The other two judges had two finalists in common, while neither had any crossover with my list. Should be interesting. With so many manuscripts to read, I developed a three-stage weeding process that netted about 15 solid "yes" entries, from which I had to…
Thursday, October 31, 2013: Sherman Park, NY, USA Herman Ruth stood perfectly still, partially hidden behind a large oak tree three hundred yards into Leitas Pond Park, directly across from Detective Eric Pearson’s house. It was the first time he’d observed the house, but it was the first time he had company doing it. His eyes sparkled, as if lit from within, as they moved back and forth between Pearson’s house and the other zombie watching it from the edge of the tree line. When the last light in the house had turned off ten minutes ago, he’d locked his…
Thursday, October 31, 2013: Sherman Park, NY, USA Eric Pearson gave the hot water knob another turn, wanting more than anything at that moment to scald away the invisible layer of fear coating his entire body. He winced sharply, but didn’t back away from the steaming spray showering down on him. He’d been standing there for the past 20 minutes and was planning to keep standing there until the hot water had completely run out. The Department of Homeland Water Conservation could fine him double for the violation, for all he cared. It was another twenty minutes before the water…
