Lindsey Goddard and I talk about our craft.
My Publisher Giovanni Gelati has my good friend Lindsey and I on to talk about our current and upcoming works. What we're reading and our thoughts on horror.
Hear some info on Creephouse Comics, Mythica, the writing craft itself.
And while you're here drop by and download Broken Toys and the rest of my work for your free Kindle program on any device!
Feel free to leave a comment and let me know what you think.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Mythica Production Blog- Issue 4 Gantlet
Okay, as we convene here for this blog Mythica Issue 2 is in the 3/4 done stage over at Mythica Free Web Comic but behind the scenes Matt and I continue to finish work on the first arc. The first arc is being titled "Awakenings" as its theme if the awakening of the Descendants to their true nature.
Issue 3 Rude Awakenings is in the can as much as the scripts ever are. I was sort of dubious bout getting off of the standard script format but once I just let myself write a scene and tell the story I found a groove. Now, issue 3 is a pace shifting game changer. It starts out tense and shortly thereafter explodes.
Issue 4- Gantlet has an outline. Matt and I haven't gotten together on it yes but no matter the outcome of that meeting it will be action and twists front to back.
The first two issues were not devoid of action but obviously were required to establish character and what normal life is for Kim, Magnus and Riley. We get to see Kimberly as a happy young girl with a may/late July/relationship living a very normal life and thinking about becoming a woman in this era. Magnus was a military commander having a strange revelation on the battelfield. Riley is a spy getting by on her wits, pulchritude and deadly fighting skills at the side of her distinguished partner.
Once we have these paradigms established so you understand the status quo and what it is they're losing, its time to take it away or (to paraphrase Thomas Covenant) to return it them broken. And once the story allows for the pains to really run, that's what's going to happen. Like...now.
From this point on we're going to keep the pace at full throttle and see from how many frying pans into how many fires we can leap.
Issue 3 Rude Awakenings is in the can as much as the scripts ever are. I was sort of dubious bout getting off of the standard script format but once I just let myself write a scene and tell the story I found a groove. Now, issue 3 is a pace shifting game changer. It starts out tense and shortly thereafter explodes.
Issue 4- Gantlet has an outline. Matt and I haven't gotten together on it yes but no matter the outcome of that meeting it will be action and twists front to back.
The first two issues were not devoid of action but obviously were required to establish character and what normal life is for Kim, Magnus and Riley. We get to see Kimberly as a happy young girl with a may/late July/relationship living a very normal life and thinking about becoming a woman in this era. Magnus was a military commander having a strange revelation on the battelfield. Riley is a spy getting by on her wits, pulchritude and deadly fighting skills at the side of her distinguished partner.
Once we have these paradigms established so you understand the status quo and what it is they're losing, its time to take it away or (to paraphrase Thomas Covenant) to return it them broken. And once the story allows for the pains to really run, that's what's going to happen. Like...now.
From this point on we're going to keep the pace at full throttle and see from how many frying pans into how many fires we can leap.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Mythica -issue 3 Production Blog
So now that Choosers of the Slain is in the can I turn my attention to Matt Campbell's Mythica project. Following the link will lead you to the page a week preview Matt does on his website every week on Mythica Monday.
My intention is to push through issues 3,4,5 and 6 to finish the arc so Matt can work it out straight through. In short Mythica is the tale of a group of people called Descendants who are the progeny of the old demigods. None of them are really aware of their legacy and they have managed, for the most part, to blend into society and live normal lives. But now (circa 1917) a goddess with a grudge has managed to force open a crack between life and death and is massing her forces to invade first Europe and then the rest of the world. The first thing on her dark to do list is to eliminate the descendants as the only real line of defense against her.
The first arc is the tale of the core of this group coming together, becoming self aware and making survival a priority. Issue one introduces us to young Kimberly Bradshaw and her fiance Yose who live in Jebbekke, Belgium. He is a slightly older gentleman in medical school and back in his home town to wrap up his affairs before heading off to do Red Cross work near the front. Kimberly, young and a little naive yet freaks out on Yose at family dinner and storms off. She returns to a series of dreams that have been plaguing her about a big Scot soldier named Magnus MacDracken who leads a Scottish Black Watch Team. Over the course of the issue Magnus's band band is destroyed by a series of attacks from demons and the German military.
Issue Two shows us Magnus has been whisked away from the battlefield by some angelic being who tells him that he is the of the line of the old gods. He also throws him the responsibility for keeping the dark goddess from running amok on earth.. Kim wakes up and feels like an ass for cold shouldering Yose for being noble.
From there we meet seductive minx Riley Scott getting a lift on a U Boat. Too bad her father is such a hard ass douche.
This is about where we are right now so i won't go too much farther into details of that. But while that is playing out on the link above I am starting up issue three.
Issue Three: Rude Awakenings takes off like a shot. The pacing on this is quick and carries a series of quick jabs and 1/2 punches. It's a big payoff for me as a writer because it is where I get to put into motion things I have been setting up since deciding on the framework as Kimberly's dreams. Confluences of events are running together and things which were teased get to become crystal clear.
So we have recently implemented a new format for writing the scripts. Matt has had a conversation with JT Krul and he thought that since I write principally in prose that I might be more comfortable writing Mythica that way. I've had a few days of wrestling with it as far as writing a panel at a time but that just felt odd. So I am working it now by writing these pages and scenes. What the deciding factor will likely be is the ease with which Matt can translate that into the paneled page.
It looks like Matt will be going on an installment of Gelati's Scoop podcast on May 29 with myself and Kevin Gentilcore talking about Mythica as well as Creephouse. But for now Mythica issue 3 awaits...
My intention is to push through issues 3,4,5 and 6 to finish the arc so Matt can work it out straight through. In short Mythica is the tale of a group of people called Descendants who are the progeny of the old demigods. None of them are really aware of their legacy and they have managed, for the most part, to blend into society and live normal lives. But now (circa 1917) a goddess with a grudge has managed to force open a crack between life and death and is massing her forces to invade first Europe and then the rest of the world. The first thing on her dark to do list is to eliminate the descendants as the only real line of defense against her.
The first arc is the tale of the core of this group coming together, becoming self aware and making survival a priority. Issue one introduces us to young Kimberly Bradshaw and her fiance Yose who live in Jebbekke, Belgium. He is a slightly older gentleman in medical school and back in his home town to wrap up his affairs before heading off to do Red Cross work near the front. Kimberly, young and a little naive yet freaks out on Yose at family dinner and storms off. She returns to a series of dreams that have been plaguing her about a big Scot soldier named Magnus MacDracken who leads a Scottish Black Watch Team. Over the course of the issue Magnus's band band is destroyed by a series of attacks from demons and the German military.
Issue Two shows us Magnus has been whisked away from the battlefield by some angelic being who tells him that he is the of the line of the old gods. He also throws him the responsibility for keeping the dark goddess from running amok on earth.. Kim wakes up and feels like an ass for cold shouldering Yose for being noble.
From there we meet seductive minx Riley Scott getting a lift on a U Boat. Too bad her father is such a hard ass douche.
This is about where we are right now so i won't go too much farther into details of that. But while that is playing out on the link above I am starting up issue three.
Issue Three: Rude Awakenings takes off like a shot. The pacing on this is quick and carries a series of quick jabs and 1/2 punches. It's a big payoff for me as a writer because it is where I get to put into motion things I have been setting up since deciding on the framework as Kimberly's dreams. Confluences of events are running together and things which were teased get to become crystal clear.
So we have recently implemented a new format for writing the scripts. Matt has had a conversation with JT Krul and he thought that since I write principally in prose that I might be more comfortable writing Mythica that way. I've had a few days of wrestling with it as far as writing a panel at a time but that just felt odd. So I am working it now by writing these pages and scenes. What the deciding factor will likely be is the ease with which Matt can translate that into the paneled page.
It looks like Matt will be going on an installment of Gelati's Scoop podcast on May 29 with myself and Kevin Gentilcore talking about Mythica as well as Creephouse. But for now Mythica issue 3 awaits...
Thursday, May 3, 2012
The Invisible Society Chronicles: Choosers of the Slain
I finished the second part of Invisible Society Book 1 yesterday. This is the second story involving sorcerer/tough guy Jack Fugazi.
I'm not going to give away a lot of information about it here but I do want to discuss the process that goes into it. The concept behind this series is the existence of a society of sorcerer's that live unseen among us. The idea itself is nothing brand new I'm sure. Harry Potter is the most famous example but I like to tell my stories with a darker edge. and for me it was that I loved fantasy as a younger man but know dick all about castles or horses and didn't care to become an expert. So for me it was just about taking what I liked about that genre and moving it to a setting I could relate to when writing.
Another part of the equation occurred to me while considering the concept of evil sorcerer dark lord types and the paths they took to get there. Now Sauron was more than a sorcerer he was sort of a sub-demon under what was essentialy Tolkien's devil Morgoth. Terry Brooks's Warlock Lord was corrupted by a magical tome known as the Ildatch so was essentially a pawn to a dark power. and what of Voldemort, speaking of Harry Potter? Tom Riddle was a boy born racist and with a dark streak a mile wide. I'm not trying to offend any fans of Robert Jordan but I tried to get into the Cycle of Time series and could not break 30 pages. Now, while all of these books are classic in their own rights it didn't provide much for me by way of understanding the motivation of the regular guy who tries to go all Aaron Burr on the rest of us.
But what I have come to understand after watching enough politics on TV is that some folks are not flexible on their worldview. It's not ever really been a surprise that some folks have some very specific ideas of what right and wrong really is...for the rest of us. This was way more useful in the creation of someone who is power hungry. I can see You're not doing it right! as a fairly direct path towards seeing what you can do to making those other folks to whom rules apply comply. Now naturally, not everyone with similar ideas about the methodology of making others behave has the same idea of how they should behave or who should be in charge of making them behave.
Now I was sort of caught up with an intellectual conundrum embracing this premise it seems like The Invisible Society would, among other things, be a Voldemort factory. There would probably be some small but undeniable presence of wannabe dark lords each with plans and ambitions. You'd need a no pest strip for these dudes. Of course, some of these people would not be alpha types so that would account for fewer actually vying for power but that would just leave brotherhoods and cabals now vying for control.
That was just about when it snapped into focus. Of course The Invisible Society would naturally attempt to create authority in their ranks to get this under control but as with organized crime there would be a lot of things happening in secret and below radar. But these wannabe dark lords made open moves for power they would not only have to deal with essentially law enforcement but other ambitious sorcerers as well. It seemed to me that there would be occasional flareups but that the factions would actually lead to a balance of power among the outlaws. Lots of these sorcerer dictators would probably have little Apocalypse Now type societies set up away from the prying eyes of the law and other sorcerers.
That is all just concept work on how this world works. Where I want to pick up here in The Invisible Society is where the sort of average joes of this world trip over not just the existence of this society but one of its hungriest, ambitious residents. This is where The Pain Eaters picks up. Invisible College graduate and newly educated sorcerer Jack Fugazi has returned to pick up his normal life keeping the Society's secrets meantime. A terrified raver girl comes staggering into his establishment after a day of being terrorized leads noble tough guy Jack into direct confrontation with the forces of a mysterious bad ass he only identified as The German. The point of the first volume of The Invisible Society is to create a power vacuum and meet the central players of the continuum.
I have a commitment to keep with Matt Campbell to finish the first arc of his Mythica series. So I will likely be writing about that process as I go through it. It will be challenging as my most sustained scripting effort at one time and involve a lot of interaction with Matt as creator and sort of God of this universe. Matt has created some characters that let me stretch my skills a bit but are ripe canvasses for truly epic emotional journeys. But once I'm done with that run or at least locked in on those 88 pages I will return to part 3 of The Invisible Society: Mrs. Downbelow.
Pick up part 1 of The Invisible Society:Pain Eaters at this link on Amazon and I'll post here and on my Author Page on Facebook. For a list of my collected work on Amazon go to My Collected Works Page here.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to check in for more Mythica, Creephouse and Invisible Society posts, and feel free to comment or ask questions.
I'm not going to give away a lot of information about it here but I do want to discuss the process that goes into it. The concept behind this series is the existence of a society of sorcerer's that live unseen among us. The idea itself is nothing brand new I'm sure. Harry Potter is the most famous example but I like to tell my stories with a darker edge. and for me it was that I loved fantasy as a younger man but know dick all about castles or horses and didn't care to become an expert. So for me it was just about taking what I liked about that genre and moving it to a setting I could relate to when writing.
Another part of the equation occurred to me while considering the concept of evil sorcerer dark lord types and the paths they took to get there. Now Sauron was more than a sorcerer he was sort of a sub-demon under what was essentialy Tolkien's devil Morgoth. Terry Brooks's Warlock Lord was corrupted by a magical tome known as the Ildatch so was essentially a pawn to a dark power. and what of Voldemort, speaking of Harry Potter? Tom Riddle was a boy born racist and with a dark streak a mile wide. I'm not trying to offend any fans of Robert Jordan but I tried to get into the Cycle of Time series and could not break 30 pages. Now, while all of these books are classic in their own rights it didn't provide much for me by way of understanding the motivation of the regular guy who tries to go all Aaron Burr on the rest of us.
But what I have come to understand after watching enough politics on TV is that some folks are not flexible on their worldview. It's not ever really been a surprise that some folks have some very specific ideas of what right and wrong really is...for the rest of us. This was way more useful in the creation of someone who is power hungry. I can see You're not doing it right! as a fairly direct path towards seeing what you can do to making those other folks to whom rules apply comply. Now naturally, not everyone with similar ideas about the methodology of making others behave has the same idea of how they should behave or who should be in charge of making them behave.
Now I was sort of caught up with an intellectual conundrum embracing this premise it seems like The Invisible Society would, among other things, be a Voldemort factory. There would probably be some small but undeniable presence of wannabe dark lords each with plans and ambitions. You'd need a no pest strip for these dudes. Of course, some of these people would not be alpha types so that would account for fewer actually vying for power but that would just leave brotherhoods and cabals now vying for control.
That was just about when it snapped into focus. Of course The Invisible Society would naturally attempt to create authority in their ranks to get this under control but as with organized crime there would be a lot of things happening in secret and below radar. But these wannabe dark lords made open moves for power they would not only have to deal with essentially law enforcement but other ambitious sorcerers as well. It seemed to me that there would be occasional flareups but that the factions would actually lead to a balance of power among the outlaws. Lots of these sorcerer dictators would probably have little Apocalypse Now type societies set up away from the prying eyes of the law and other sorcerers.
That is all just concept work on how this world works. Where I want to pick up here in The Invisible Society is where the sort of average joes of this world trip over not just the existence of this society but one of its hungriest, ambitious residents. This is where The Pain Eaters picks up. Invisible College graduate and newly educated sorcerer Jack Fugazi has returned to pick up his normal life keeping the Society's secrets meantime. A terrified raver girl comes staggering into his establishment after a day of being terrorized leads noble tough guy Jack into direct confrontation with the forces of a mysterious bad ass he only identified as The German. The point of the first volume of The Invisible Society is to create a power vacuum and meet the central players of the continuum.
I have a commitment to keep with Matt Campbell to finish the first arc of his Mythica series. So I will likely be writing about that process as I go through it. It will be challenging as my most sustained scripting effort at one time and involve a lot of interaction with Matt as creator and sort of God of this universe. Matt has created some characters that let me stretch my skills a bit but are ripe canvasses for truly epic emotional journeys. But once I'm done with that run or at least locked in on those 88 pages I will return to part 3 of The Invisible Society: Mrs. Downbelow.
Pick up part 1 of The Invisible Society:Pain Eaters at this link on Amazon and I'll post here and on my Author Page on Facebook. For a list of my collected work on Amazon go to My Collected Works Page here.
Thanks for reading. Be sure to check in for more Mythica, Creephouse and Invisible Society posts, and feel free to comment or ask questions.
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