Dead Roots - The launch

Just leaving this here for folks to see:

Dead Roots on the App Store

Imminent zombie outbreak! I only received the news myself this evening so this is very much hot off the presses. Indeed, awooga awooga.

Just in time for the scary season. That was curiously well timed, wasn't it? One might almost think ...that it was planned...

(I am stroking my beard and arching an eyebrow now, in an attempt to look enigmatic and knowing. It loses much in the translation to a blog post, but I feel it important to convey the information. Perhaps if feedback indicates that it's necessary I will, at a later date, upload a photo of said beard stroking and eyebrow arching for your continued reference.)

Back to The Front

So, then. A blog entry. Finally. As you might have guessed, I've had a couple of weeks off from all things writery. This has not been deliberate.

Well, I say that, but at least the first week was on purpose. I wanted to take a step back from everything after Kapow and just ponder things for a bit while I planned ahead. Through my natural laziness that one week became three. Oops.

On the plus side, I watched a lot of Jackie Chan movies and played a fair bit of Star Wars: The Old Republic. So it's not like I sat there doing nothing.

So to catch up, Kapow was - as you probably all know by now - awesome. The weekend went by in a bit of a blur in hindsight, but the running highlights included hanging out with that lovely Bayou Arcana lot, sitting in baffled silence on our panel while other people talked, and meeting Glenn Fabry. That last one was a bit of a shock. I was genuinely starstruck and lost for words when he handed me his work-in-progress and asked me what I thought. I managed to hastily cobble together some comments that possibly made sense, but there's an equal chance that they were gibberish. I shall have to make more of an effort to not react that way when people I admire and respect ask me things.

It was great to see all those I saw. Overeager puppydog wavings go out to all, including Jon Lock, Corey Brotherson, Yomi Ayeni, Lynsey Hutchinson, Dan Hartwell, Karen Rubins and of course Jimmy Pearson for making Bayou Arcana happen. If I missed anyone out, next time I see you I will make it up to you by picking you up in a warm embrace and shaking you until you go limp.

I won't dwell any more on Kapow, because everyone is probably sick of hearing about it at this stage. I will instead look ahead, to that vast horizon that beckons from the other side of my keyboard, where magnificent stories unfold and I make big bags of cash. To that end, I'm once again postponing the novel I was supposed to start in April to get another comic book project going.

I know, I know. At this rate I'll never start that book. But this comic project is hopefully not going to be an enormous undertaking. It's a rewrite and possible retooling of Hudson Falls, my project from last year, which I will be aiming at a new publisher. Nothing definitive yet, as I wasn't able to pitch it to the publisher at Kapow, but I remain optimistic about its chances. There's no artist attached to it yet so once the new version of the script is properly underway I shall be going on a bit of a talent search.

Trying something new

Another week rolls by, another submission is sent - Come & See is once again done with for the time being, leaving me to soldier on with 'Broken,' my next project. Still a working title, natch.

I'm going to try something a little different with the blog entries for this one - I've noticed in the past that I've not been particularly specific about things until I'm done with them. I guess I like to play things pretty close to my chest. This time I'm going to try to change that, and make much more specific entries that dig into the minutiae of the writing of the script. That way the blog will not only include the usual progress reports, but will also chronicle the writing process, its missteps, dead ends and various other warty bits. The intention is to give people a much clearer picture of how I get through the writing process.

I thought it might be interesting to try it - being fully open about what I'm finding fun, what's proving to be a ballache, etc. Never let it be said I'm afraid of trying new things.

'Broken' then. It's a revenge story about a former soldier who gets volunteered for a super-soldier type program like Captain America. Only in this case, the powers manifest unpredictably and end up crippling him the first time they kick in, killing both his superhero and his soldier careers in one fell swoop. Then the man learns that he was volunteered for the program by his superior officer for exactly that purpose, to get him out of the way for nefarious reasons. The theme is the man learning to turn his powers to his advantage, taking a curse and it turning into a blessing in his pursuit of retribution.

Firstly, I'm fairly constrained by a limited page count of 40-50 to tell what could, if left unchecked, develop into a much more convoluted story that's just too long. I already have a lot of plot that I'm going to have to cut, as I originally conceived it as a story of intrigue that I just don't think I'll be able to tell in the pages I have. To that end, I'm going by the rule of "show, don't tell" to avoid it getting too wordy, and streamlining the story to cut out the stuff I don't need.

I've already thrown out what little I wrote last year and come up with a punchier opening that in one page exactly defines the man, his powers and his mission. That's what I'll be going for in this script - if a scene isn't doing at least two or three different and relevant things, it's getting the elbow and I'll be searching for some other way to tell the story.

So it's going to be a challenge. I actually think that keeping these blog entries is going to help. Being quite neurotic, I may not be able to cope with the guilt of not having anything new to report in my weekly posts. That should keep me writing.

In other news, I'm regrettably shelving my plans to attend the London Super Con in February. Unexpected expenses and London prices are not compatible. Hotel prices for that weekend are just bloody stupid. Unfortunate, but it didn't look like it was going to be much cop anyway (excluding Stan Lee), so I'm not losing any sleep over it.

Demons! I have slain your mighty guards!

...God, I love writing lines like that.

So, after a week or so of fretting over lettering, the submission I was working on with Jack Tempest is complete and submitted to Clint. Now it's in their hands and we just have to wait and see, but now that it's finished I don't feel at all hesitant about putting samples up here, so this blog is about to get a bit more colourful, with pictures and everything.

See?

Jack's art has been great on this one, as you'll be able to see in this blog entry. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Clint feel the same way. You can check out more of Jack's work, and news about his upcoming projects on his blog.

In other news, things chug along. I'm not mucking about, and next week I get on with the next submisson, which is the new submission pack I prepared for Come & See, off for it's second attempt with some American publishers after a number of years on standby. I've decided I've had enough of faffing around. This year I want progress, and if it means I have to bombard publishers with my stuff then so be it.

Once the Come & See thing is done, which should be by this time next week, it's time to get stuck into the script for Accent. I still have Hudson Falls, which was the original script but turned out too long, but that's not one I'd like to cut down. So onto the backburner it goes, waiting for the time to be right. I have a new script to write for Accent, and I want to crank this one out hard and fast with no procrastinating or messing around so I have a good few months to do something else.

And by something else, I mean a novel. I was supposed to start it last year, but one thing after another happened and I had to shelve a lot of my schedule. Getting back on track I learned that Terry Pratchett has an award this year for new writers' debut novels, with a deadline of New Year's Eve.

So I have a deadline. I can DO deadlines. Less time wasting, a definitive deadline, and a net result of a completed book. Even if it doesn't win, I'll be armed with something I can do something with in 2013.

Beyond that, in comic book terms this year is all about exploration and putting feelers out. I'll be attending as many cons as it is economically responsible to, and I'll be at those events with my game face on, looking to aquire further projects to keep my comic book momentum going while the majority of my runtime is devoted to the novel.

It may sound like I'm planning on spreading myself a little thin, and maybe I am. Time will tell. But it's a definite improvement on last year, where I didn't spread myself at all.

Indeed. And of course, in amongst all this mighty guard-slaying I'll be doing, I'll have to find time to indulge in my gaming/DVD/reading habits, which I haven't been doing anywhere near enough of.

Uncharted 3, Batman Arkham City, Picture of Dorian Grey and season 3 of Northern Exposure all sit around me, wondering why I'm not giving them the attention they deserve. I need to start getting paid for this writing schtick so I can free up more time for all my hobbies...

The Unknown Future Rolls Toward Us

Well, the year has gotten off to a fine start! After an extended Christmas period of doing sod all, which followed a bit of a rubbish year to be honest, 2012 has started with a lot of activity. Go Seahawks, etc.

Bayou Arcana continues to get press attention from all over the place. Everyone from The Canberra Times in Australia to Wired magazine in the UK seems to be inquiring about the project, which of course everyone involved is made up about. Well chuffed, in fact. You can follow out the latest news and developments on the public page on Facebook at this location. My contribution is proving to be an interesting experience - my artist is Davina Unwin, who is so talented it's almost obscene. Her art is heavily stylised, with heavy Japanese watercolour influences, which should give the story a beautiful aesthetic. Samples of her art can be found here.

Davina works in quite an unconventional way, which is to paint each panel separately, which Jimmy Pearson; the editor of the book; and I will assemble into the finished comic book pages. I'm very much looking forward to that process - as well as eager to see Davina's wonderful artwork, it's going to be an interesting experience to build the pages from the separate images. Hopefully Jimmy's contribution will compensate for my total lack of visual flair.

You can preorder Bayou Arana here.

In other news, Mike Garley's Dead Roots anthology is chugging along, and I'm now up on the official website as a contributor, so that's all in hand. I've yet to be assigned an artist for my short story, but considering the sheer quality of the samples that are already up, I think my script will be in safe hands. I've got every confidence in the world that Mike will find someone ideal for the script.

It was a tough slog getting through this script, and it went through numerous iterations before I found the one that will be featured. Credit goes to Mike for pushing me in all the right directions.

In addition to those two, work continues slowly on the Clint submission I'm working on with Jack Tempest. Jack only has a couple of pages to colour and his contribution is complete, and I've just got a couple more drafts of the synopsis to do before we can bung that out in the post to them.

And finally there's one more submission that's ready to go. This one is a collaboration with Roland Bird that is pretty close to my heart, so I'm keen on getting this sent out as soon as possible. I'm being realistic about it's chances, but we'll see. Even if it gets rejected I'm not giving up on it. I'm determined to see it published.

Beyond that, once the Clint thing is done, I'll - finally - be soldiering on with the one shot for Accent that just got delayed over and over again last year, which will probably take up the first half of the year. Busy times ahead!

So, there's a lot going on, and my head is swimming with it all. And in between all that I've got to find time to play Uncharted 3 and Batman - Arkham City before Mass Effect 3 is released, so my free time has pretty much been solidly baggsied for a good few months.

And that's before we get to the season of comic shows, which begins with The London Super Con in February. Stan. Bloody. Lee. No way am I missing that. Damn the expense.

I'll check in later this month with more progress updates. Maybe I'll manage to keep posting regularly this year. I should set aside half an hour on a Sunday afternoon just to come here and gibber, even if there's been no news.

I have been learning new things.

It's time for me to pick up some new skills! A project that I'm working on at the moment with Jack Tempest is progressing nicely. I haven't mentioned much about this one because, well, we've been moving forward very quickly on it. I say 'we' but what I really mean of course is Jack. Dude works fast, and I've just had to keep up. I'll post more about it once the submission pack is done and sent off.

It's been fun. I've been enjoying working on this project immensely, and seeing the pages of artwork coming in has made me feel like a proper writer again.

But to the new skills - I have decided to have a stab at lettering this project myself. I've never done it before, so I will shoulder the blame if it all cocks up. Lettering seems to be one of those skills that's very easy to do badly and incredibly difficult to do well.

Roland has been kind enough to offer me a few pointers, and I've had tons of fun just mucking about in Illustrator assembling the speech balloons and captions.

So hooray for doing things I've never done before!

Lost a Luchas de Apuestas against myself

Like Samson and Chris Jericho before me, I have had my hair cut and have thus become lessened. On the plus side, for the first time in many years I don't have to worry about what to do with my hair or become infuriated when I feel the damned stuff tickling my ears. Unfortunately I'm currently suffering Phantom Hair, and the back of my head occasionally feels tight, as if I still have my hair tied back. It's most peculiar.

In other news... oh dear, look like there isn't any other news. Sorry. I've been immersed in literature, classic films and comics recently, trying to get back my passion for writing.

I might have a little more to show for it soon - I've just dived headlong into Broken Smile for Accent again, and not before time. I'm again trying something new - I'm just opening a word document and slapping stuff down on the page, regardless of whether it's a cohesive scene or even a definite part of the story. I'm unconcerned with waiting to feel 'ready' to write, or what sort of mood I'm in. The important thing is that I'm getting stuff down. I can dwell on how to turn it into a story at a later date.

I've written about thirty pages of stuff that's probably never going to go anywhere.

It's an exercise, and if it gets me enthusiastic about writing after this extended period away from it, all the better. I don't think I've ever had a less productive time than during the last eight months. It feels strange to be doing something again...

Putting Hitler in the cupboard

OK, now I've fully recovered, write up time - most importantly, Predators is now available, and my short is in there for the world to see. I genuinely forgot that this was coming out, and it was a pleasant surprise to find out when doing my pre-show homework and stopped by the Accent UK blog. It's a gorgeous looking book, so congrats to Colin and Dave for making their books progressively sexier as time goes on.

They even had that lovely new book smell! I stuck my nose in one for a sniff, and quickly realised that it had to become my copy because I'd left a little blob of snot on the edge of the pages. I played it like my usual supercool self though and nobody noticed. However, I did realise when reading it that I'd forgotten to send them an updated Bio, so I should get on that soon.

I met up with a few old faces, and chummed around with some new ones, too. Jon Lock was good enough to let me have a flick through his 'Afterlife, Inc.' file, which looks like jolly good fun and hopefully I'll see it on sale at one of these shows soon. I am currently making the first delicate, tentative steps towards trying to nick one of his artists - with his permission of course. I'm not some sort of artist-stealing slut, you understand.

Refreshed in my mind the need to crack on with my most recent projects - Last night I had a minor revelation of sorts regarding the short for Mike Garley's Dead Roots. So completely did the story take shape in my head that I will be able to bash that out in double quick time, which I shall get onto this week.

Oddly enough, it's another zombie story that deals with loss, grief and emotional anguish. It seems to be a theme I return to again and again. I do so wish I could come up with a cheerful idea one of these days.

I think I am going to become busy again. Hopefully busy enough to forget the quagmire of misery I've been languishing in long enough to get some sodding work done.

I am Writor, fear my pen of doom

The Dead Roots short is chugging away nicely.

I felt it click in my head tonight as I found the proper shape of the story. I gave myself a pat on the back and sat there looking incredibly pleased with myself for at least ten minutes.

Nobody does smug and self-satisfied like a writer who is on a roll.

Is the verb 'to chillax' in the dictionary yet?

...It should be, for that is what I have been doing.

Occasionally I like to reaffirm my right to kick back and do sweet FA, and to that end I have been spending my time sat around eating Doritos, watching TV, playing video games and reading books. Bliss.

I am awash with information. I've been watching lots of BBC documentaries - and nobody does documentaries as well as the BBC - including a classic: Simon Schama's History of Britain, which aside from the unconvincing low-budget recreations it spews forth every now and then is pretty faultless.

Also been trying to get into HBO's Game of Thrones, because Sean Bean is The Man, but I'm not sure I like it very much. Having read up a little on the story arc of the books, I don't think I'll like subsequent seasons any more, either. It seems that the entire series is nothing more than a procession of unnecessarily horrible things befalling House Stark, who are the only likeable characters in a cast of contemptible bastards.

Contemptible bastards seem to be a recurring theme in the fiction I'm subjecting myself to at the moment. I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, which features such a shower of repugnant, self-indulgent arseholes I feel like I need a shower after finishing each chapter. I'm not usually a fan of stories where the main characters are such unapologetic cocks, but I'm enjoying it a hell of a lot more than Game of Thrones. I'm guessing it doesn't have the ending I feel it deserves, and that's to have a Predator land in the street, gut everyone and steal their spines.

Maybe that should be the next project for the "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies" gang.

Tonight was the first night this week I opened up OpenOffice and started writing a bit, this time working an a little short for Mike Garley's Dead Roots anthology (http://deadroots.blogspot.com/) before I get cracking on 'Broken Smile' once again. The first draft of this short should be finished by Friday, and it should be ready to go by Monday.

Cheese!

Finally, I've managed to sit my arse down in front of my PC and start writing again. It feels weird. I've not done much, and what I have done is probably going to change. I've got a feeling that this project is going to be another tough slog. But it has begun, and that's the important thing.

Brevity is the key word this time around, and I'm shooting for 40 pages, so if it does run over slightly it'll still be within the page count. My tendency to gibber in my scripts being what it is, I'm doing a scene at a time, and not moving on from one to the next until it's as concise as possible. I'm getting the protagonists's character established on page 1, and I'm not taking another step forward until that happens.

It's not going to be anywhere near finished in time for the Comics Launchpad in June, but at least I can now say it's officially in progress. I've even managed to find a working title for it amongst my notes. I'm currently calling it "Broken Smile." Smiles and what are behind them is the central theme of its current incarnation as it slumbers in my head.

Time will tell if that's how it ends up.

Settling Down

After a month or two of tension and rigorous house hunting, I'm finally set up in my new pad. It's nice, my new housemates seem like good people, and I'm keen to get stuck into this script for Accent now that things have settled down a bit. I'm hoping that this weekend I can finally get it started after so many delays. I have a nice dramatic opening in mind, and I'm looking forward to writing it.

Looking forward to just writing, really. These last few months I've been letting myself go and feeling increasingly out of the loop regarding the whole comic book thing. I'm missing Bristol (the relocation expenses ate my Bristol money...) but I'm going to the Comics Launchpad next month, which I'm hoping will revitalise me to some extent.

All this time away from writing has given me a good opportunity to take a step back to reflect on my current plans. I'm now a good couple of months behind schedule this year, so I've made the decision to postpone the comic book project with which I was originally planning to follow the current script. Instead, once the Accent script is finished I'm going to hammer straight into my novel. I've been putting off writing it for years, and I figure with two full-length comic scripts I'll have enough to keep myself busy with on that front while I spend my time on that wee beastie.

I'm trying not to think too much about writing it, as I want to give the Accent script all the attention it deserves while I've got that on the go. Also, I'm feeling rather ambivalent about the idea so I'm trying not to dwell on it too much. It's been ages since I wrote anything that wasn't a comic script so the very thought makes me a bit nervous, but on the other hand it really is a bloody good idea and I've been desperate to get stuck into it for years.

So after the current script is done I'm diving in. The comic book stuff will still be going on - I'll still be shilling Hudson Falls to whoever's around, and I might even find time for another few short stories here and there. But mostly, I'll be working sans-artist in the world of text.

I'm quite excited. But one step at a time, eh?

Unforeseen Events

Not a great deal of progress is going on at the moment. Regrettably, real life has reared its ugly inconvenient head and thrown a bunch of awkward and time consuming bloody problems my way, which means that I will be temporarily suspending all writing activity.

Long story short, my housemate is selling his house to move in with his missus, so I need to find a new home. On my salary, and where I live, it's easier said than done. My employers were good enough to let me take today off at short notice, so much browsing of letting agencies has been going on today, with some encouraging results. But mostly disappointment and incredulity at the prices round here.

To be honest, I've been thinking about relocating for a while - I've been getting a bit weary of Chester. It's nice but there's not much in the way of activities or venues for people of my admittedly narrow set of interests, and it's only my small circle of friends in town that make the place worthwhile. They're top notch people, but I feel the lure of the south tempting me and I've realised how little there is stopping me maybe for the first time. There's a greater likelihood of chumming around with artsy types down south than where I am currently, which can only be good for progress into professional writerdom, so it seems to me that my impending homelessness might end up being a blessing in disguise.

Not that I've found a job down there or anything, and I'm going nowhere until that changes. So I'm also looking for a new home here. I'm hoping I can get somewhere decent with an open contract, so if the opportunity arises I can sod off down south at the first opportunity, but can happily stick around if that takes a while to come to fruition.

In addition to that, I've begun the slow, steady process of learning Dreamweaver so I can make some changes to the website to get it looking extra-swanky for this year's batch of convention attendings. I figure if I'm a bit more hands on and creating the content myself there will be much more of me online, so when people visit my site they will feel like they are staring STRAIGHT INTO MY BRAINS!

Plus i can finally get rid of the WIP next to it in the links section of the old blog here.

See? Lots of things rattling around in my head, and sadly this current script is going to have to wait until things settle down again. Once I get myself sorted in my new digs I can knuckle down to the big 2011 website redesign/writing extravaganza. I've only got until July to finish this current script and the next one. After that I was hoping to put comic books down for a while and start writing my book, so I'm already pretty badly behind schedule.

Maybe a new home in perhaps a new hometown will be the kick up the arse I sorely need. Creatively speaking.

Sitting still, but still doing stuff

That's me at the moment, that is.

Getting massively hooked on this Sherlock Holmes box set. It's tremendously easy to get totally immersed in the world, and I'm only a fraction of the way through it so far. It's proving to be a source of fine inspiration, and I'm popping back into my notepads and my spreadsheets every episode or two to make some more notes or devise another plot element for my next project. I even think I have a name for the main character.

I'm still trying to get used to the second Watson. The first chap did a fine job and his replacement isn't quite fitting with me yet. Plenty of time though.

In any case, lots of fun is being had, and wonderfully I don't feel bad about idling around for a change! Because after all it's research, isn't it? Research, which is a bit like work, only with less effort! It's certainly a change from how I usually spend my Valentine's Day - cuddled up to my pillow, deep guttural sobs sticking in my throat and choking me, wishing I was dead.

Not really, of course. Although I have got an appointment with my sexy lady dentist first thing tomorrow morning, so I'll spend my day off having a pretty girl cause me enormous pain and suffering.

And when you think about it, isn't that what Valentine's Day is all about?

Next!

I wouldn't say work has begun on the new project yet. I'm officially referring to this as my 'preliminary research' stage, which is to say that as I'm going to be writing something of a twisty-turny-mystery type thing, I'm watching a fat pile of DVDs that run along similar lines.

That Sherlock Holmes box set I bought recently - the version starring the legendary Jeremy Brett - will come in handy, along with a bunch of Christopher Nolan films and the like for inspiration regarding unconventional story structure. Lots of quality stuff, but I guess this means I won't be playing too many video games in the next few weeks.

I've pretty much decided the story is going to begin in medias res, but beyond that I have only the basic story in my head and not a lot else. So far. I should have the full story plotted out - maybe even structured in the correct narrative sequence - by the end of February, to begin the first draft in March.

I'll be keeping the sequence of events very economical - I don't want to run over the page count this time. This should be a much more compact story than Hudson Falls. Good thing too. I don't quite feel up to another 130 page titan just yet.

Finally Fallen

Finally, all my work on Hudson Falls is complete. Character bios, script, everything. I can draw a line under that, stick a fork in it, and rest easy. It's done.

Onto the next project! My posts from now on will detail the growing work on that one, which is so preliminary right now it doesn't have a name.

I tend to come up with the names quite late in the development of a script. Normally they tie in thematically with the content of the story, and as I sometimes don't know exactly what shape that will take when I originally come up with an idea, and writing being a spontaneous, fluid thing that can go in directions you don't expect, it's premature to constrict yourself with a name so early in the development of an idea.

Needless to say, as soon as I have a name for it, it'll be up on the blog.

Nearly There

Progress update!

I've now finished the last, final and remaining rewrite of Hudson Falls - on paper. The weekend stretches away in front of me as does the task of typing it all up, but that shouldn't take long. After that and the character bios, I can finally call this particular project done.

And not a moment too soon. It's been a monumental job. Sometimes it's felt like such a tough slog to get through and I'm glad I'm nearing the end of it, but I'm incredibly proud of the end result, and I hope that I have some luck when I start shopping it around to publishers.

So, starting next week (fingers crossed) I'll be making preparations for the next project, which is the 40/50 pager for Accent. That'll be a toughie, too. It's a bit of a detectivey, mystery type story, so the first thing I'm going to have to do is put a spreadsheet together so I can structure the chronology of each character. This should mean the events of the story still make perfect sense when they get broken up and told out of sequence. Should help me flesh out the characters as well.

This is going to be one project where my OCD is going to come in handy.

Horizontal Frolics

As I'm currently incapacitated and stuck in my bedroom as I recover from some minor surgery, I've been trying to remain as active as possible while not actually moving. This has, I'm pleased to report, involved doing a bit of work on the rewrite of Hudson Falls. Thankfully I had the forward thinking to print off a copy of the script a couple of months ago, so I haven't even had to get out of bed while I do it. A perfect activity to occupy someone barely capable of walking to the bathroom and back.

Progress is being slightly laborious, but fulfilling. It's remarkable how many more spelling and grammatical errors you notice when you're reading words on a page rather than on a screen. I'm coming up for three quarters of my way through it now, so not long to go - hopefully later on in the week I will be able to sit at my PC for more than 20 minutes without needing a lie down, and I can type it all up and finally call it done, for real this time. Then I can spend my time thinking about this new idea for Accent and get the ball rolling on that one.

It's good - I feel the cogs turning in my head again. Maybe this means that even though I'm not particularly mobile I'm starting to shake off the Christmas and new year funk and will be feeling like myself again before I know it. I'd certainly like to get this year's activities under way with a flurry of work. Right now it only feels like a light drizzle.

The year ahead

Greetings once again! It's been a little longer than I foresaw between blog posts over Christmas, mostly because there's been nothing new to report - I've generally just spent the last month blobbing around like a fat tub of lard, eating choccies, drinking beer and watching telly. It's been bliss, but it's not been particularly noteworthy in a writerly way.

So, onwards, then. I've formulated a schedule of work for the next 12 months, although like most of my self-imposed deadlines, it's pretty loose and is subject to change, depending on what comes up.

Firstly, I'm going through Hudson Falls one final time, just cleaning up a few spelling and grammatical errors. This is turning out to be a slightly bigger job that I had anticipated, and once that's done I'll be putting together some character bios for the new submission pack I'm working on. I could have a bit of good news regarding an artist coming soon, but don't want to count my chickens.

After that, it'll be another script for Accent UK. After they passed on Hudson Falls due to its length I got to thinking about alternative ideas for them, and I have one that's absolutely kick ass and will come in with a much shorter page count. Fingers crossed they like this one when it's done.

After that, I'm going to write another script - no publisher attached, no artist on board, no nothing right now. This is going to be for future investment, as the plan is to have three full length scripts finished and at various stages of production by July.

The rest of the year will be taken up by Empty, my horror novel for younger readers. I'm determined to get at least a partial first draft done by the end of this year - I keep putting this off due to comic book projects, so I really need to stop procrastinating and get stuck in once the other projects are done.

So there we have it. A bit of an ambitious target for a 12-month period, and I'll probably get distracted by umpteen other possibilities along the way and not get it all done, but it's important to have goals, even if you're constantly shifting them.

Underwhelmed But Looking Forwards

I thought it was time, after an incredibly long lie in, to document my thoughts on Thought Bubble in Leeds - as the title suggests, I was rather disappointed and came home with feelings of frustration more than anything else.

As it was my first Thought Bubble, I didn't know what to expect, and assumed it would be a similar vibe to BICS last month, which turned out to be a bit wide of the mark - there was a much greater emphasis on the buying and selling at Thought Bubble, and not quite so much on the social aspects of the show. Good for the people with tables, not so good for me, I guess. I managed to have a quick chat with Dave and Colin at the Accent table, and caught up a little with old chums like Jenika, Doug Noble and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, but all in all it had much more of a market feel and I found it hard to wade through the bustle towards other creators. It was something of a shame considering my new quest for artists.

The organization of the event seems to be a little chaotic, too. Any event where those with pre-paid tickets take twice as long to get into the show as those who have just shown up with nothing is a bit uncoordinated, and In this regard, Thought Bubble was a bit of a shambles. It was livened up a little, however, by the troupe of rollerskating zombie chicks in gold hotpants, who were meandering around the entrance for the best part of the day.

So, not very much was done, and a lot still remains to do - Accent passed on the script that I had delivered to them due to its length, but reassured me of its quality, gave their blessings for me to shop it around, and welcomed a different, shorter script, which Roland will be able to fit better into his schedule. I've got a concept that I shall be developing in the next few weeks for them that will be ideal.

This has had the side effect of leaving me with a complete graphic novel script with no home and no attached artist, which is not necessarily a bad thing, because I already have a number of ideas regarding Hudson Falls which I'll be exploring in the next few weeks. That will all hinge on finding an artist to come on board, because as any writer will know, many publishers won't even look at a script unless it's accompanied by at least 10 pages of finished art.

Between that and the Clint submissions, I'm going to have to redouble my efforts and throw myself into my crusade for artists. By the last count, I now need at least three new collaborators for various projects.

In other news, progress continues to be made with Chris and the website - more subtle changes take place as time goes on. I'm hoping that some time in the new year the design will be complete and I can just concern myself with generating additional content to go into it.

Lots to do, and more to think about. This Christmas will be a quiet one, I think.