TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE January/24 - Proving I can unitask by writing about a bunch of random things.
Proving I don't follow my own advice, one day at a time.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2022 -- bounce.
Unitasking.
There’s a lot to be said for having one thing to focus on. I’ll naturally bounce around 5 projects in a given morning, and I don’t think the pandemic has helped me when it comes to this kind of mental gymnastics, but I know it slows me down. I know this, but sometimes you’ve gotta keep 5 plates spinning and so that’s the morning rush.
But sometimes you have one important thing to maintain eye contact with. And it’s in those times that I find I do my best work. I wrote already about the script I needed to write, and write it I did. That was the focus for the first weeks of the year, and I consistently smashed it out with enthusiasm and clarity. It was a joy to write.
With it done, I start to wonder what I need to do next. With nothing firm on the docket, I start doing a little of everything in the hopes one will become important or needed and I can race to the finish line with it, otherwise it’s like running to that line with your legs tied to all of the other people you’ve invited into the race.
Thankfully, I got word back from a publisher that had been sitting on a pitch of mine from last year. They liked it and wanted to see it expanded, so that became the focus for right now. I’ve spent the last week expanding what I’ve got, double checking the hinge points to see if they need a little grease, and making sure I’m selling the sizzle.
It would be nice to get this one picked up so I know what my next comic will be, and I’ll have those scripts to focus on for the coming months, but there’s never any guarantee. All I can do is do the work and try to enjoy it and hope for the best.
I start back at school tomorrow, with students following a week later, so I’m also going to have a new teaching year to focus on, which means I’m at least not running any risk of being bored any time soon :]
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Maybe writing a little something extra.
I won’t lie and say I put my energy into *only* one thing.
I want to have more of those solo writing rpgs to teach with in the classroom, and after the success of Welcome To Faraday, I put a little spare time into piecing together a few more.
For those who don’t know, Welcome To Faraday is a one-page creative writing tool/roleplaying game. In it, you assume the role of a suburban kid who is engaging with 3 mysteries. A d20 prompt table gives you different encounters and places and events to fit into each day and then you write about them like it’s a story.
I find these great fun just to look at and read, I love the system of how they work structurally, and I’m really keen to teach with them. I put Welcome To Faraday up on itch.io as a free download as a place to share this resource/game with anyone who might be interested because that’s a location those people are on. I had no idea how it would land, and I don’t know how other people fare, but I managed to clock 100 downloads in the launch week, and some people were kind enough to throw in some money that added up to a tidy little sum. If that was you, then thank you.
I’ve spent this month tinkering on a few more I can use in the classroom, and the process of writing these is always such a little joy. With the first one, I considered all of the suburban horror tropes I’d want my students to consider and I wrote little prompts around them, so with subsequent ones I just do the same and it’s awesome to delve into. Here’s what I’m working on right now.
THE SEVEN ISLANDS OF QOY is a mystical kung fu tournament directly inspired by Iron Fist. It’s a huge blast of fun and is just about all polished up for publishing.
DATSUN STATION is the working title for a sci fi one that’s going to star my comic character She as she tracks a bounty down. That one might wait for the release of Vol. 2
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE is an even more working title for one where you play someone returning to your small town to bury your father and you temporarily take on his role of lighthouse keeper. From there, you start to scratch beneath the surface of this sleepy waterfront burg to find the oddities beneath.
I’ll tinker with all 3 and get them ready for prime time and slowly put them online over the coming 2 months, I dare say. I wrote nearly the whole lighthouse one as I sat giving plasma the other day and it was the perfect distraction because it’s not too deep, my mind can still bounce around, but it lets me get something done.
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ASD&D.
I started DMing what might be a lengthy campaign the other day for my mates and I had a blast. I didn’t stress about how much to fit into a session, or what beats we needed to hit, i just let them move about in the sandbox and engage with stuff and trusted myself to fill a few holes in the world on the fly, but otherwise throw some stuff at them to make me laugh.
As usual, the hardest part is just getting the party to buy into the narrative hook as they look for ways around it at first, which does make me laugh, too.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
I got no links. Links? None. Robbo!?
“No links.”
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
Still reading ‘Salem’s Lot; still loving it to bits.
ELEKTRA: WOMAN WITHOUT FEAR #1 - this miniseries spilling out from the Daredevil event DEVIL’S REIGN had a good first issue. It’s using a little of Elektra’s history to paint a backdrop onto which the current problem can be painted. Some of the sequences in this comic are quite sparsely beautiful and well written and feel worthy of living up to the usual level of Elektra minis, which has been more top shelf than not.
There’s a big reveal at the end of it, though, that reminded me it’s a Marvel Event tie in comic and so it’s also gonna be big stupid fun. Thankfully, I’m down for that, but I get the feeling this won’t be ELEKTRA LIVES AGAIN, but instead will still be something pretty cool.
As for the actual event, DEVIL’S REIGN, well…I guess it’s alright. It’s an event, it’s trying to touch a bunch of places and characters and things and that’s hard to do. I’m enjoying it, but it still feels like it’s just setting itself up in 2 issues, which I guess it should be, but I don’t think the spinning tyres have met the road yet on this one.
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Be one of the good guys, because there's way too many of the bad.
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POST CREDITS SEQUENCE
CW: suicide
Got an email that left me pretty hollow.
Found out a comics person I know, respect, and like quite a bit took their life and I don’t even think I know yet how to properly process this news, honestly.
Their partner sent me an email to let me know because he knew how highly I thought of them, and they don’t use social media a lot so no word had been put out online about this, which is why I’ll not name them here. I think a kind of announcement of sorts will be put out soon, but it’s not my place. I’m just here to process my grief a little.
I met them at a convention years ago, randomly stumbling across their table and buying a comic they had made. A comic I loved, still love, and have already put into my plans to teach this year. I told everyone I could about this comic because it was something people needed to read, this was talent that deserved recognition. It was comics that brought me joy, and I wanted to share that at every turn.
Over the years, I saw them at many conventions. I bought every single comic they ever created, I even provided a glowing blurb that was everything I believed about their talent. I had a great chat every single time, they were funny and humble and always left me smiling. They were a top tier talent, but I always thought an even higher tier person. Good people are a delight when you stumble across them, and I try to interact with them every chance I get.
Honestly, knowing I won’t get another chat, another story, another smile makes me incredibly sad. Gets me thinking the usual useless thoughts of “Maybe I could have done more…?” but I know in these matters there’s usually little you can do. Which sucks, and only makes us feel more powerless, but that’s a fraction of what I know her family and close friends will be feeling and my heart goes out to them.
Then I have the other thoughts of “We should help each other out more, and reach out more, and try to understand that we’re all going through some shit.” And we are, but the sun keeps rising and falling, and the shit keeps raining and swirling, and it all runs away from us. I just hate that this could have happened, that someone can be out there feeling this way, this low, and there’s no other/better solution at hand to it all.
It makes me sad, and hollow, and there’s little I know I can do about it. There’s little advice I can end on that feels helpful or worthy. I guess: just remember that people are going through some shit. Every single person has some weight on their shoulders, and we rarely know about it, so even if you can’t figure out what the burden is, or find a way to take some of the weight, maybe just assume there’s something there, invisible, insidious, and don’t be a dick.
Just because we can’t really do anything doesn’t mean we can’t still do our best.
If you’re feeling down, reach out to someone. Talk shit about a movie, or something. I never process this stuff better alone so that’s my plan. It’s the best I got.