Tag Archives: writing

Song of Simon News, CPAP Madness, and a Tribute to Valerie…

Posted on by
1

SongofSimon_200x300_dpi72 small

Hey everyone. I just got an email from the artist that is doing the cover for “Song of Simon.” She sent me the final draft, and I like it a lot. It’s a different interpretation from how I pictured Simon–the boy looks more Latino than Irish–but there is a haunted look in his eyes that perfectly describes who Simon is. I am not too concerned with details. Details are less important than Truth. Also, I wouldn’t want to interfere with another artist’s interpretation. Seeing other people interpret your work is part of the fun (See my post on Fan Fiction).

On Wednesday I finally got a CPAP Machine to help with my Sleep Apnea. The doctor said to try it a little at a time to get used to it, so I used it for an hour during the day yesterday. I used it for an hour this morning, and I was almost able to fall asleep. Maybe tonight I can go all the way and actually get to sleep. It makes me sad that I can’t wear my glasses with it on though. I need the full mask, and it just wasn’t made for glasses. Oh well, don’t need glasses to sleep.

Next Wednesday, Mercy College is giving out a small award in Valerie’s name. I think that the award goes to either the top student in the writing department, or the winning story in a contest. Either way, I am happy about it. Even if years in the future, people no longer know who she was, she will still be helping her students. I remember when I was a senior, I was runner up for a similar contest. I only won a gift certificate, but it gave me the confidence I needed. Maybe my writing wasn’t as terrible as I thought. The encouragement is more valuable than the prize.

Odd Weekend

Posted on by
Reply

It was an odd weekend.

I’ve been in a depressive cycle for the past few weeks, and the weekends have been the worst. I’ve felt very lonely. I used to spend my weekends with Valerie, and now that she is gone, I don’t know what to do with myself.

On Saturday, me and Val’s mom cleaned out her apartment.

Most of the things were already packed away, but Val’s mom’s wanted me to have some of her stuff. She is moving, and the books are too much to store or move cross country with. So i took some of her things: a few books that have meaning to me, some dvds, and the rest of her toys. I took a small cabinet too because I need something to rest my CPAP machine on, and it is just too pretty to go into storage. I have a big box of books too, which I am going to offer to friends or to the library. My books are already in storage, I don’t know why I took more, except that I loved the reader.

I am kinda excited about how the complete runs of “Buffy:TVS” and “Angel.” I feel a little guilty for being excited about it though.

I thought that it would be much harder than it was. I thought that I would be overcome with grief. The truth is, I carry my grief around with me and no specific time or place will make it better or worse. It was actually very nice to see Val’s family again, and I had a great time.

Saturday night I went down to Chelsea to see my brother perform at the Metropolitan Room. He’s an aspriring stand up comic, and even though he’s only done a couple of shows, his act is pretty damn good. Writing must be a familial talent.

Speaking of, I did almost no writing last week. Every five chapters or so, I take a week off to edit the previous five chapters. It’s hard to get back into it though. I only wrote about 700 words yesterday, and I am struggling today.

Re: Charlaine Harris

Posted on by
1

I want to comment on a situation that recently happened to Charlaine Harris. Some of you might know her as the author of the Southern Vampire Mysteries, also known as the Sookie Stackhouse Mysteries, of which the HBO series True Blood is loosely based on.

The last novel in the series, Dead Ever After is slated to come out next week. However, some douchebag not only pirated an early copy and put it on the web, he spoiled the ending, revealing who Sookie ends up with in her love triangle (quadrangle, dodecangle, etc).

Since then, there has been a shitblizzard of insults, curses, and death threats aimed at Harris. Her Facebook fan page
is so riddled with filth that after reading it, I had to go for an AIDS test.

The general complaint among the butthurt is that they DESERVED a certain ending. They DEMANDED it and she didn’t deliver.

I’m not sure what bothers me more: the piracy, which has destroyed the publishing industry and made writing a 20K a year business, or the butthurt fans demanded the ending that they want. Let me make it easy on you. FUCK YOU! Writers are not your bitches! They don’t owe you shit!

The story belongs to the writer and only the writer. They are the driver, and the reader is either along for the ride, or gets out of the car. A writer does not write because he wants money, or because he wants to please you. A writer writes because he has a voice inside of him that needs to be heard. The voice is the only one that a writer has to listen to, not editors and not fans. Once you stop listening to that voice, you have sold out, there is no reason to continue writing.

To those that didn’t like the ending, write some fanfiction and end it the way that you want. Don’t blame the writer for following her voice.

Novel Updates and more Comic Book Questions

Posted on by
3

Hi everyone. I decided that I am going to update every Tuesday and Friday. I’ll try, anyway. Sometimes I get so caught up in other work, I forget to update here.

I just finished writing the first 5 chapters to the currently unnamed Watchmage novel, which is a retelling of the serial that I’ve been working on since november. I expect to have the first draft done by the end of the Summer, unless I get a life. My serial, on the other hand, is going strong. It recently moved into 8th Place. If you haven’t VOTED, you really should. We emerging artists need your help.

Song of Simon is still at the editors. I recently submitted all of my author info, including my dedication and acknowledgements. I dedicated it to my Mom and to Valerie. There are some people that might be surprised that they’re in my acknowledgements. If I leave anyone out, I apologize in advance.

My publisher would like me to make a video trailer for SoS. I know nothing about that kind of thing. Luckily I have several filmmaker friends, that I can arrange something with (hopefully). I might even be able to get original music. I like getting my friends involved, so they could get some credit and exposure too.

Now about comics: i was thinking about DC the other day. Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and Shazam (Captain Marvel) all have connections to Greek Mythology. WW is an Amazon and the daughter of Zeus, AM is King of Atlantis, Shazam draws his power from several Gods/ heroes. So why hasn’t there been a WW, AM, and SZ crossover. As they all have connections to different gods (give AM to Neptune), it would be easy to turn a conflict between the gods into a conflict between their proxies. Both WW and AM, when they are at their best, are flawed heroes (as the best greek heroes are). Put them in a story with Shazam, who has always been portrayed as the purest of heart of all the DC heroes, and you are bound to find sparks.

I heard that the new Shazam isn’t quite as heroic as the one before the reboot. This really pisses me off. The whole appeal of Captain Marvel is his innocence and unshakable devotion to good. Sure, it makes it hard to carry a series like that, but as part of an emsemble, he’s fantastic. In fact, all three of these characters work best in an ensemble (IMHO). Put them together, see what happens.

Earth's Mightiest Mortal...I still think he can take Superman

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Posted on by
3

I just got back from GameStop (Stop Game! Stop!) and picked up Injustice. I’m a sucker for comic games, and fighting games are always fun when you have people over (which I never do, but want to. It’s a lonely life). I haven’t opened it yet, but from what I can gather, the story line is this:

The Joker blows up Metropolis and tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane (an obvious trope, and kinda infuriating). Superman goes full on fascist (as we all know that he was capable of…that any of us are capable of) and basically creates The Justice Lords. Batman leads a rebellion against it, which is kinda ironic since he is one of the biggest fascists in the DC Universe (more on this when some comic geek flames me for besmirching Batman).

It’s an interesting premise (though again, the “Women in Refrigerators” trope bothers me). It made me think about something: Has there ever been a crossover where Superman had to stop the Joker, and Batman had to stop Lex Luthor? I don’t think that Supes can stand up to the sheer madness of the Joker (and this video game agrees with me). I also don’t think that Batman can compete with Lex. Lex can very easily discern Batman’s identity with his money and tech (there must be a paper trail a mile long). From there, it would be easy to crush Wayne Tech and take away all of Batman’s toys. Batman without money is still potent, but not against Luthor and his inventions and connections.

I’m sure that this has been done before, but probably with the two heroes switching out. If anything, it shows how the hero and the villian in a comic are a matched pair, an opposite number.

On a side note, I bought the game with the gift card that Valerie gave me for my birthday. Fitting that the last gift that she gave me was something called “Injustice.”

I’m back, and some Watchmage news.

Posted on by
Reply

Hey readers. Sorry that I haven’t been around. I’ve been dealing with a bunch of medical issues, and I’ve just been too damn tired to update the blog.  I’ve really been too tired to deal with much of anything.

I have been working on my serial The Watchmage of Old New York.  I posted a new chapter yesterday, as I do every Monday.  It’s crawling up the ranks in popularity too.  Right now Watchmage is in 15th place, but your VOTES can push it into the top 10.  Seriously, VOTE FOR WATCHMAGE!!

You might want to read it too.  It’s a pretty good story, although as I read it now for the twenty millionth time, there’s so much that I want to change.  There is an IPHONE APP and GOOGLE PLAY app, so you can read on the go.

Here’s a review of Watchmage on Web Fiction Guide.

That’s part of the reason why I decided on this:  Since Watchmage is already comprised of 3 story arcs, I am going to turn each story arc into a full novel.  This will give me a chance to fully explore both the characters and the world that they live in. More Jonas and Hendricks buddy cop/ ambiguous homosexual bromance!  More Nathaniel dealing with sparkly shit!  And more 19th Century New York City, the real star of the show!  I am taking notes for the first novel now, and hope to start writing soon.

This also means that I will probably not post the 3rd story arc on jukepopserials.  This is fine, since the second arc will probably run until the summer anyway, and i have to wait 6 months for the rights to return to me.

More news on Song of Simon will be on the way soon.

Copyright Infringement: The sincerest form of flattery

Posted on by
1

I was having a conversation with a writer friend the other day.  The topic switched to fan fiction, and I said “I can hardly wait until there’s some fan fiction for Song of Simon out there.”  He agreed and said that he was looking forward to fan fic for his novel too.

The reason that I find this funny, is because of the crazy paradigm shift in the past 10 years.  Fan fiction used to be something to laugh at, and for writers to condemn for infringing on their intellectual property.  Now it is something that writers embrace. I would love it if people wrote fan fic.  I would be honored.

Yes, it is still copyright infringement (although a case can be made for parody), but there’s no harm in it.  Yes, most fan fic is pretty bad, but there is a lot of really good fan fic out there too.  Valerie wrote tons and tons of fan fiction, ranging from everything from Buffy to Downton Abbey.  Like everything else that she wrote, it was brilliant.  I would love to send some of her Buffy stuff to Joss Whedon, but I don’t know how he would respond.

Fan fiction is also a great “starter project” for people who want to write, but are not confident enough in their own characters.  I never had this problem.  I had D & D, which gave me a very strong background in characterization.  Others are not so lucky.

Note: aspiring writers should join at least one roleplaying campaign.

The downside?  Every now and then, a stinker like 50 Shades of Grey gets out there.  Meh, can’t be worse than its source material (Twilight)

Also, why do I hate Twilight?  Because the protagonist is a bland nobody who lacks the ability to do anything for herself.  Instead she must be saved by equally bland men.  When her man leaves her, she tries to kill herself repeatedly.  There isn’t a heroic bone in her body.  She is the epitomy of the weak, subservient female stereotype that people have been fighting for over 100 years.  She has single handedly taught an entire generation of women to look pretty, bend over and let your man take care of everything.

Motion + Lotion = Self Promotion?

Posted on by
1

I don’t enjoy promoting my work. I find it very embarrassing, and I fear that I annoy my friends with the constant Facebook posts and Tweets.  I don’t think that I am very good at it.  I am good at writing, and to be honest, that is all that I am good at (that, and cunnilingus…ask your mom).

So when I ask people to check out my serial “The Watchmage of Old New York” for free at Jukepop Serials, I am embarassed.  I am not a bold person and this is a problem, because if I can’t promote myself as a writer, I am bound to fail.  I don’t have anything else to fall back on, I have no useful skills.  If I fail, I am pretty much fucked.

I have the motion, but I don’t have the lotion.  I am not smooth.  I am ashamed.  I blush and I shake as I type when I ask people to VOTE for “Watchmage” (you can vote once for each chapter) and to share “Watchmage” with your friends through Twitter and Facebook posts.  When I brag that “Watchmage” is on the Editor’s Picks list, I only do so because it means that the story is one of the top serial on a website that only takes top serials.  I am proud, because I wrote a good story and I want people to enjoy it.

It’s only going to get harder when my novel comes out, and even harder than that when my second novel is done (1st draft should be done by April).

Fellow writers, I would love to hear how you got over the embarassment of self promotion.  Also, what techniques do you use to promote.  I think that I’ve gotten as much out of Facebook and Twitter as possible.  I started using TuesdaySerial, but I don’t know how much it has helped.

Readers, i would love to hear you opinions on self promotion. does it have a negative effect?  What can I do to improve my technique?  I want your feedback.  I want to not offend.

 

Oh, Batman, you wacky crime fighter, you

Posted on by
Reply

I inherited all of Valerie’s action figures.  She had many of them, and she would pose them in compromising positions, because what else do you do with action figures. (Besides Gay Action Figure Theater)
my shelf is now filled with action figures, and yes, they are all doing naughty naughty things.  My favorite combo is Obi-wan Kenobi fisting Harry Potter, but equally entertaining is Batman and Bane taggin up on The Joker.

This, of course, reminds me of The Dark Knight Rises, which pissed me off to no end.

I could go on forever about how terrible the movie was, but that’s not what this is about.  This is about Val.

We saw that awful movie together, and afterwards, we talked about it.  I was much more critical of it than Val, who was generally nonjudgemental.  We decided to go home and write stories based on what happened to Batman after the movie.  I wrote “Masked Man Works at Shop-Rite,” which was eventually published.

Valerie wrote this work of brilliance, “The Dark Knight Upsells.”  I’ll let it speak for itself 🙂

Val loved to write fan fiction.  I’ve been looking at fanfic sites on line, and she has stuff on all of them.  She wrote for the sheer joy of writing.  I wish that I could be like that, but I can so caught up in trying to make a living as a writer that I only write things that I can sell.  She never worried about that.  I mean, yes, she was a professor too and I am not, but even then, she didn’t have the drive to publish and promote that I do.  This is just one of a million reason why she was a better person than me.  Not that I’m a bad guy, she’s just better.

Speaking of only writing things that I can sell, Chapter 6 of “The Watchmage of New York” is ready at Jukepop Serials, and it’s still on the Editor’s Picks list.  If you haven’t checked out my serial yet, you really should.  It’s good, one of the best things that I’ve ever written (and I’ve written some very good stuff).  You have to register to get beyond chapter 1, but its free registration.  If you love webfiction, fantasy, mysteries, and demand historical accuracy next to your trolls and pixies, Watchmage is the way to go.

If you do go to read it, please VOTE for it (at the bottom) and share it with other people (on facebook, twitter, your blog, etc).  I hate to ask all the time, but this is my job, and if you don’t promote, you perish.  You have to be shameless.

Also, if you want to add me on facebook or twitter (CraigASanders), you can do that too.  (Just message me when you add me on facebook, so I know that you’re not a scam).