Gettin Ready

Getting ready for an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party tomorrow. We're hosting it. I'll post pics next Friday.

I Want A World That's Alive

For those not in the know, since the summer of 2007 I've been pursuing a series of wuxia stories, trying desperately to write them down. Wuxia is a genre of fantasy martial arts. If you've ever seen Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon then you're already acquainted with wuxia.

In the summer of '07 my cohort Jason Ho was in dire need of something to draw for his blog (http://bootlegsketch.blogspot.com/). I had had an idea in my head for a while of a character that was a wise koi fish that could speak, imparting wisdom to other characters in his world. I told Jason to draw a 'mystic fish'. I immediately began writing the background to the character... and Xiao-tep was born.

Xiao-tep is a mystic koi fish that can fly, speak and fight. He's quite adept at fighting with his famous Spear of Sorrows. From the very beginning I wanted him to live in a world that's alive. I've done pretty well in that respect, in my humble opinion. The daytime sky in this world is a mythic giant swan named Etain whose wings stretch beyond each horizon. She is being chased by her unwanted suitor, a giant black swan named Kalavata. He is the nighttime sky. And beneath Kalavata flies Zingtai the Birdwing Butterfly. She is mostly black with jewels embedded in her wings that sparkle, creating the stars of the night sky. She follows Kalavata, in love with him and happy to be near him.

As 2009 draws to a close, I've been looking back on the year and evaluating my progress. I'm not entirely happy where I'm at professionally right now. My work could and should be in every media out there. Xiao-tep is an example of this. I think his wuxia world lends itself to comics, anime, video games and printed text as well as merchandise like apparel and toys.

In other respects, however, I've also continued to grow somewhat insofar as fanbase is concerned. Not exponentially, but I've still seen growth. I hold onto that dearly.

Of all the things I'd set out to accomplish this year, the one thing I did not do was finish the latest Xiao-tep novel. Originally calling it "A Band of Dark Hearts" and now calling it "Broken Sorrows", it is the third installment of Xiao-tep's story and his last. The first installment was a 145-page novella called "Escape from the Cottonwood Chamber" (originally "The Children of Gods"). That's quite a background story!

The second installment was "The Theft of Heaven", a 450-page novel I wrote over the course of the summer of 2008.

This summer I meant to start and finish "Broken Sorrows". Alas, I've been down on my writing. I've not pursued Xiao-tep the way I should and I've allowed myself to question my skills. I've doubted myself a lot this year and I don't like it. It's the first time in my entire career this has happened.

Before writing this, I slapped what I have of "Broken Sorrows" together into a single-spaced, yet-to-be-formatted-for-publishers file. I'm 147 pages in... and still introducing characters! I won't be surprised if this novel pushes 600 pages.

On a bright note, I've finally started writing "Moyete" (originally titled "Hush Little Baby"). It's perhaps the most ambitious work I've tackled... yes, even moreso than a potential 600-page anthropomorphic wuxia novel. To help illustrate: I've even developed part of a language for this absurdist sci fi action-adventure. And I'm brushing up on my Baudelaire and Rimbaud, my Taoism and Mongol Empire and Native American knowledge for this novel.

I hope to continue writing them both.

I just needed to get some of this out.

Thanks for reading. The attic isn't clean, but it's cleared out a bit now.

Missed my blog last Friday

I hate to say it, but I didn't blog this last Friday. I haven't time or energy right now, sadly. Sorry folks; I'll be back to regular postings soon enough. :-/

Xmas Lights

Putting up decor early this year.

Halloween Make-up

Halloween pictures

Halloween is tomorrow! Here are some pictures of my Halloween to come.

Christmas Wish List

I like making lists, especially when I'm not writing overly much. At the risk of sounding a bit trashy, here's a Christmas wish list! LoL :D


Usagi Yojimbo books -- I've been a fan of the comics for years and yet I don't own a single one.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_0_5?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=usagi+yojimbo&x=0&y=0&sprefix=usagi


Fallout Trilogy for PC
http://www.amazon.com/Fallout-Trilogy-3-Pack-Compilation-Pc/dp/B001V9PTVE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1256126492&sr=1-1


The Groovie Goolies DVDs
http://www.amazon.com/Groovie-Goolies-Saturday-Mourning-Collection/dp/B000ILYYD0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1256126604&sr=1-1


The Munsters -- The Complete Series
http://www.target.com/Munsters-Complete-Discs-Dual-layered-DVD/dp/B002OXUQTG/sr=1-2-mmb/qid=1256126536/ref=sr_2_2/176-5007434-2766766?ie=UTF8&search-alias=tgt-index&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k%3Athe%20munsters&page=1


Batman The Complete Animated Series
http://www.amazon.com/Batman-Complete-Animated-Kevin-Conroy/dp/B001CTXUTQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1256126724&sr=1-2


Epiphone Dot Studio -- Worn Brown color
http://guitars.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-Dot-Studio-SemiHollow-Electric-Guitar?sku=518706


Target Gift Cards


Kohl's Gift Cards


Burlington Coat Factory Gift Cards


Naturals Vanilla Shower Gel from Avon
http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?pf_id=30016


Wild Country cologne from Avon
http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?pf_id=2978


Black Suede cologne from Avon
http://shop.avon.com/shop/product.aspx?pf_id=1154


Dovo Classic Black Straight Razor -- Cuz I'm old skool
http://www.classicshaving.com/catalog/item/522940/190308.htm


Nuttin But Stringz CD
http://www.amazon.com/Struggle-Subway-Charts-Nuttin-Stringz/dp/B000HKDE7Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1256128276&sr=1-1


House of Blues -- Blues Guitar Course DVD
http://books-videos-music.musiciansfriend.com/product/House-of-Blues-Blues-Guitar-Course-DVD?sku=942821

Iffy

Iffy will be making his annual visit this Halloween. Here's a similarly themed video.

Haha

Annual Halloween Issue!

The Annual Halloween Issue of my webzine, If - E - Zine, is here! Read it for free at http://ifezine.com/

Halloween Issue due out tomorrow!

Issue 15 - this year's Annual Halloween Edition - will be published tomorrow! Look for it at http://ifezine.com/

Writers Should Watch Wrestling

There's a few things writers should do. One of the most obvious is reading. A writer should read everything his or her grubby little hands come across -- from comic books to classics, from Wikipedia to harlequin romance novels, poetry to prose. I can imagine there's quite a few writers, today and yesteryear, that have only rarely ever read. For me that seems to minimize their potential range insofar as subject, style and approach/technique is concerned. A writer should read the works of others to discover what works, why it works; what doesn't work and why it doesn't work. Also, it impossible, in my mind, to be everywhere at once doing everything and thereby learning through experience. If we held true to the old adage of "write what you know", then how the hell are all these science fiction writers writing about alien races and space travel? Of course, you could make the argument that alien races and space travel symbolize matters the writer does understand and know via firsthand experience. I get that. But it doesn't validate the phrase for me. So we're left with trying to experience life on our own and to supplement it through reading materials. R.E. Howard loved reading histories and look at the classic icons he spawned in his short career.

Writers should also watch movies and shows, even the bad ones. We should learn from the bad ones as much as from the good ones.

Anthropology and mythology are also good subjects to study.

Finally, writers should watch wrestling. The business of professional wrestling is all about selling drama. The wrestlers themselves have to push aside differences or similarities and create drama that enthralls an audience, maintaining drama through a match. Without the drama, viewers at home tend to switch the channel. If there's no drama and no viewers, there's no revenue from commercials because sponsors won't purchase air time if nobody's watching. Without drama wrestlers won't sell merchandise. Every aspect about wrestling is about selling drama, about reaching out and tearing out the guts of the audience to keep them hostage and coming back next week for more. Disney, an icon in the United States in marketing efficiency, would love to have the kind of program running that professional wrestling does.

I recently read Eric Bischoff's book Controversy Creates Cash. Within it he details his formula for his success as SARSA, an acronym standing for Story, Anticipation, Reality, Surprise and Action. He said if you have just a few of these elements within a storyline, you can get by for a few weeks on the story. If you have four, you're really cookin'. But if you have all five elements, you've got gold.

I also finished Ric Flair's book To Be the Man. His approach to entertaining an audience is solid, old school, basic and effective. He is an in-ring general of the finest kind and knows what it takes to create drama in the ring and out of it.

Wrestlers are masters of drama.

Writers should definitely watch wrestling.