My own Poetry, Fiction, Non-Fiction, and occasional commentary on all of the above.
Among other things, that’s a signed/numbered photo of the Oct. 9, 1977 fight between Graig Nettles and George Brett up on the wall, and a Nettles autographed baseball in the box on the lower shelf. The boxing glove is the runner-up trophy we got from the 1999 National Poetry Slam, which I hold in slightly higher esteem than the 1998 Championship trophy because 1999 was my team, from my venue. The Moon Knight figurines and the Buddha are what pass for totems. The stamper in front of the Buddha says: “Aspire to Be”.
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I find it funny - though not the least bit surprising - that my wife, who won't so much as let me read the papers she writes for school, has finally started an anonymous blog, and in the few posts she's written so far, expresses more honesty and raw emotion than I have in my own writing in years. Perhaps ever.Sure, the anonymity makes it a bit easier, but more than that, there's the noticeably deeper connection she has to her feelings that I seem to lack. I'm more of an observer, never able to completely live within a moment,…
The jury's still out on CBC v2.0, but some recent developments have added a couple of unexpected twists to the plot, so this is sort of an update/brain-dump for future reference when real life isn't quite so hectic.Development #1: Out of the blue, about a month ago, Erech Overaker asked me to contribute a script to a comic anthology he's putting together, and after some initial hesitation, I figured what the hell. "Those who can, do..." sort of thing that I decided to approach as a challenge; a preemptive strike on thin-skinned creators who respond to negative reviews with variations…
Just emailed the first draft of my comic book story to Erech, the artist putting the aforementioned anthology together. Second draft actually, as I handwrote (!) the first draft during lunch last Thursday and did a lot of revising while typing it up. I like what I'm trying to do with it, but have no idea if I pulled it off, what with this being such foreign territory. In the immortal words of Charlie Huston: "I'm not fucking Joss Whedon! This is my first fucking comic book, motherfucker!"Seriously, though, I was way more confident - though admittedly, wrongly so -…
This has turned into an insane week!PISSY WORK STUFFLate Monday afternoon I found out I had to put together three PowerPoint presentations for the first day of our summer sales meeting, aka tomorrow, thanks to our Publisher's unexpected and, for all intents and purposes, immediate move over to our Conferences division, leaving our senior sales guy caught out there having to take over at the last second. Among the many things on the two-day agenda is a presentation on a new magazine we're launching in October that primarily lives in the no-longer-Publisher's head. Because I've been working on the marketing…
Somewhat randomly, I've been asked to contribute a script to an anthology comic book by this guy, Erech Overaker, whom I know electronically via CBC and Buzzscope. He's looking for "...strictly slice of life, everyday kinda stuff, humorous dramatic ambient whatever. I want to show the other side of comics, you know?" All things considered, it's a rather flattering request and I'm tempted to take him up on it, though I've never really given any serious thought to writing something for comics. I've joked about it, sure, but it's a tough form that I've come to have a much greater…
With CBC on hiatus for a bit while I come up with a plan for what to do with it, I'll be pimping my Buzzscope writing here for the time being.Weekly ReviewsCombat Zone: True Tales of GI's in Iraq, Vol. 1 TPWhatever side of the ideological fence you may be on, there is some great story-telling potential in the concept, True Tales of GIs in Iraq. Unfortunately, whatever Zinsmeister's talents may be as a journalist, they do not translate into compelling sequential art.Silent Dragon #1 (of 6)Andy Diggle offers up a veritable buffet of a story that demands you return…
