TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE February/07 - A good news message.
I got a publishing deal, a new comic out, an rpg, and a lotta hope for 2022.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
-------
2022 -- bounce.
Just sitting and waiting and hoping and praying [and working my ass off: a story of how I got my next book deal].
Looks like I have my 2022 writing situation all stitched up. The other day, I got an email from a publisher giving a greenlight to the expanded pitch I had sent them.
I’m incredibly excited to tell this story, and deeply honoured to be working with this new publisher who I haven’t worked with before, but I have to admit, when I read the email there was also an overwhelming wash of relief that flooded over me.
This greenlight doesn’t just unlock my chance to tell a story that I’m deeply passionate about. The email also means I can unclench and stop trying to generate new worlds, people, stories, and polished pitch documents in the hope of landing something meaty to creatively work on. The email means my 2022 now has a solid single creative focus. The email means maybe I don’t completely suck [which is a thought surprisingly great at staying alive in the constant game of Pong my mind is playing] and I’ll take every slice of validation in this life I can find. It meant maybe I still know what I’m doing - if I ever did.
I find not having something to write difficult. Mentally. It is akin to bobbing up and down in shark infested waters, at night, and just scrambling to keep my head up, but also my feet up, and wondering where the fins might be while also trying to point in a direction and find land, even though the current will take me where it wants anyway. Constantly putting together pitches is draining because the majority of those amazing stories don’t ever land anywhere, so they are 90% effort for 10% yield. It’s hard to continue slogging through, but I do it, and these moments remind me why.
For transparency, over the past year I think I’ve sent over half a dozen pitches to this publisher, and each has been rejected. But each rejection came with a few more words, and I always felt like I was circling a bullseye, or at least a dart on the board and not bouncing off the chipped plaster beside it. I kept putting together documents, thinking about these stories, sending them off, and repeating the process.
My only superpower in making comics has been the stupidity to not give up when anyone else would have. And I don’t mean that most people are weak and would give up, I mean that with my continued low level status of readership and publishing deals, many would have been smart to quietly drop off and find something else to do. But I endure because at present I don't know how to quit comics. I’m just glad it’s mostly worked out for me at this glacial pace as I’ve told stories I deeply love, won a few awards, and managed to find deals here and there that keep the lights on in my office.
So I read the email and felt this relief, and then I felt the joy.
Now I just get to feel the anxiety and pressure of having to actually do the work and do it well. But nobody asked me to become a writer, so it’s the life I chose, etc.
I still need to iron out the contract, and settle the terms of the deal, blah blah blah, so there are hurdles yet on which I could stumble. But that initial email already gives my brain a bit of food to gnaw on while I wait. Even a deal that falls apart is a deal that was offered, and offered for a reason, which turns up the thermostat in my cockles instantly.
Hopefully, if/when we sort that out, I can just crack the notebook open, sink deep into this one, and do my absolute best!
- - -
The Seven Islands of Qoy - my latest writing rpg.
Yes, I could easily get addicted to writing these little 1 page solo writing/journaling games where you roll a d20 & d6 and slowly write your own story using a set up and 20-list prompt table to uncover an outcome for what lies ahead.
My latest one that just went live - The Seven Islands of Qoy
It is a mystical kung fu tournament wherein you are a fighter for your island, and you must fight, survive, and uncover which other fighter is a nefarious villain with a catastrophic plan, and also why your island is harbouring a deep and terrible secret that somehow relates to your unknown past/origins.
Really, it’s my love letter to The Seven Capital Cities of Heaven, perhaps the greatest story in The Immortal Iron Fist by Aja/Fraction/Brubaker.
I love that storyline, itself inspired by ENTER THE DRAGON [which I also hugely dig], and I wanted to capture that level of awe and epic in this single page document.
If you want another creative writing tool in your arsenal, something to pump the brainpan full of inspirational juice and thunder, then you can get this absolutely for free on itch.io where I’ve hosted it. I love seeing people snag a free download, so please do, but also consider two things: 1. Share the link around with any other nerdy friends, and 2. If you’re active over there, give me a follow, too.
CLICK HERE TO GET A FREE COPY OF A RAD KUNG FU CREATIVE WRITING TOOL
- - -
SPEED REPUBLIC landed last week.
Launch day was pleasant - some people on the socials excited to check it out, some nice messages in my inbox. We got some good reviews. I know we’re supposed to Always Be Closing, and always project success, but I’ll be honest: this one might be one of my lowest reviewed works. Though that might be me seeing the negative in it. We have a 7.4/10 review score on that site that aggregates review scores, and only accepts reviews that give a numerical that can be fed into the machine. And 7.4/10 is right on a C+/B- grade, so it is by no means catastrophic, and we got a 9/10, which is lovely, so I cannot complain - more just laying it bare.
Getting a 4/10 didn’t help the score, but reading that review offered me a sentence which gave me an honest belly laugh, so I’ll call it a win.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time, but I did please myself writing that book, I pleased my bank account, and I *loved* working with Emanuele Parascandolo. The guy is a top bloke.
Issue #2 is out next month, you can make sure your LCS has you down for #3 as well, here is the cover for that one:
Seriously LOVE this cover, and it is a great representation of the madness within this issue. It’s very much an RKL comic, that one.
You can buy this Rossi Gifford variant cover; only 100 of these have been printed. It’s only $20 on the site, which I think is reasonable, but I guess is only for the true collector at heart, ymmv. It is a striking and beautiful image.
---
ASD&D.
Had to skip a week due to day job madness, but I'll be prepping to DM again tomorrow night and am very much looking forward to it.
-------
PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
It appears I have no links, it’s true. Again: the day job. It’s been a busy, and wonderful, week, but it has left me little time for link surfing.
-------
GRIST FOR THE MILL
WATCHMEN tv show - I wrapped up watching this over the weekend and I absolutely loved it. Set decades after the events of the comic, it’s a look at some new characters and some old ones and it’s about how things seem to go in cycles. The same old problems seem to crop up, in new forms, and thinking what they think are new ideas, but it’s the same old shit. What’s the quote? “All evil needs to succeed is the apathy of others.” Well, seems like that’s an electric fence evil will test constantly, waiting for the moment of success.
I really liked a lot of the actors, and the structure of many of the episodes was fantastic. It attempts to be just as layered, complex, and intricate as the original comic. I think it does an admirable job of reaching for that kind of quality. There is obviously contention around adaptations around this work because of the vitriol with which Alan Moore views his original deal with DC in publishing this, and rightfully so. This is something that’s difficult to reckon with, especially when co-creator Dave Gibbons was actively a creative force for the show in small ways.
I appreciate that the story is just one season, a complete tale, and now it’s done. Lindelof was asked to return for S2 and declined because he’d told his story. I love that true creative spark, not driven by the need for a gig, or money, and just to tell the best story he can, which I believe he has.
-------
Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
-------
POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
I’m one week into classes in the new year. It’s been a huge shake up compared to any other teaching year I’ve ever started, and I’m glad to have rattled the cage. The joy and challenges I’ve found this week have been worth every moment. It’s got me very excited about what’s to come for the year ahead.
I hope now that we’re into February that your year has also shown itself to be pointed in the right direction.
Great to hear you’re pumped about so much that things you live are bumping into and disrupting other things you love - but in exciting, workable ways. Also, btw, I liked discovering that Mad Cave offers a series subscription to send me digital copies as they are published and then a trade collection at the end. 😃 Is this more common than I knew?
Glad for the reminder for Speed Republic Numero Uno! My shop didn’t have it, I guess, so I didn’t see it and this reminded me to submit a request for them to get me one. Well done! I’ll let you know my thoughts after I’ve read it.