TWO FISTED HOMEOPAPE March/28 - Stressing about why I’m relaxed?
Nah, not really, just soaking in the relaxation like a warm bath.
♫ I applied for a rescue dog,
But if I get you dog,
You're rescuing me ♫
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2022 -- bounce.
It takes the time it takes.
There’s something relaxing about having a publishing deal and the publisher being chill about not pressuring you for everything every step of the way.
I know I’m dragging my ass on this book’s outline at present, but I also know I’ve spent the last fortnight marking about 80 of my 100 papers from work, and trying to keep my exercise routine up, and running a 2 hour D&D session for my kids, and still sleeping my glorious 6 hours a night, and so I haven’t been able to dedicate insane amounts of time to the writing, and yet I’ve been fairly chill about it.
Being chill…about writing…I barely understand the concept.
I think because right now, I’m not hustling my ass off. I’m not developing half a dozen pitches and stressing about what comes next. What comes next is this book, and I want it to be amazing, so I’ve stopped production on pitches and new ideas, and I’ve put what focus I have into this story. I’m typing up my page-by-page breakdown for the entire thing after having spent weeks on it in my notebook. My brain hasn’t been casting tendrils out to figure out what the rest of the year looks like. This is my year. And if I only write one comic this year, I think I’m actually okay with that.
Again, a weird place for my brain to be at because I’m not used to it. I’m used to writing one thing, but worrying about what’s next again, and what I’m doing, and where it’s all going. But for some reason, this year, I’ve become more relaxed about such things. I don’t exactly know why. I think I just know I only have so much time and effort and work left in me and what work I do I want it to be good. Really good.
Maybe I’m not expecting to be able to make 2-4 miniseries a year. I’m not expecting to go full time. I’m expecting to slowly add to my catalogue and be proud of each spine that goes onto the shelf. Not that I wasn't before, I always have been, but now I’m content in doing so at a slower rate.
So this week has been the plan, and a lot of marking, and a lot of mindfulness. I’ll certainly take it for as long as it lasts. My brain has a very strong habit of derailing me in regards to these things and so when it’s good, I ride it.
I should be sending off my plan this week, fingers crossed, and we can take it from there.
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The Heist at Foley Lane - a writing rpg.
I’ve created another solo writing one-page RPG, this one a crime/heist story with some cool prompts and an open slate.
I already shared it on my Patreon, for those who like an early look at such things and to help support me enough to give me the brainspace to craft such creative insanity.
But the file will go live on itch.io for free, or PWYW, next Monday.
Until then, feel free to check out my other stuff over there, I’ve got suburban horror, mystical kung fu, and a small town eldritch mystery with a lighthouse [not a genre, but it should be].
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Taylor Hawkins and our teen inspirations.
I was never a huge music guy. I listen to music, a lot, and I know what I like. But I was never musically smart enough to read music mags and spot different drummers by ear or any of that. I’m just a guy who knows what I like. And in the 90s, I liked the Foo Fighters. They would go on to form a very large basis of my musical taste and background for decades to come.
It started with ‘Monkeywrench.’ I was never a Nirvana kid. ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ seemed too hardcore for my CCR and ELO and Queen listening self. I was a soundtrack kid, and Nirvana’s grunge rock was far too intense for me. I didn’t realise I’d go on to discover Nirvana Unplugged years later and it would become a Top Ten album for me. No, then, I just knew Nirvana wasn’t for me, and I wasn’t for Nirvana. I have a habit of pigeonholing myself.
But then, a little older, I started exploring music a little more thanks to MTV. Monkeywrench became one of those singles/videos that just got to me. I loved it. I bought the album, The Colour and The Shape and over the next decade could reasonably say I listened to it over a thousand times, easily. It is the album that introduced me to the concept of a ‘perfect album.’ One where every single song is awesome. Listening to this, I can still feel the 15yo inside me just loving it. ‘See You’ was my jam from that album, a heavy hitter on repeat for easy university vibes, but ‘Everlong’ would become the All Timer from this album.
I never fell deep into music - see: just not smart enough to get it - but I always knew what I liked, and I’ve always liked the Foo Fighters. I’ve listened to every album, though not all of them as much on repeat, but In Your Honor Disc 2 became another perfect disc where every song lands for me. I play it more now than any of their other work.
I find Dave Grohl a deeply inspiring creative person - always hustling, always aiming for more. He was in Nirvana and it imploded and he found a way to survive that and become something new, and he still does it now - he’s drummed for Tenacious D, and Queens of the Stone Age, and Them Crooked Vultures, and he’d made other weird albums, he just dropped a death metal one because the band put out a film called Studio 666, which sounds epicly weird. Grohl even wrote a book recently, which I’m dying to read.
Alongside Grohl, one of the greatest drummers in the world, and allegedly the third richest drummer in the world, you had Taylor Hawkins, the guy actually tasked with drumming for the Foo Fighters - and I could never imagine it, being the best drummer’s drummer. It must've been a whole other experience, but they made it work for decades [not without their ups and down, admittedly]. I dug Taylor Hawkins enough to follow him over to his side-band, Taylor Hawkins and the Coattail Riders and their first album was a lot of fun.
With the death of Taylor Hawkins this week, I can’t help but cast my mind back through the various times I’ve listened to him drum, had him as the background to my life, and there’s a hint of melancholy to this. The guy was only 50, still touring, and with him gone a large part of my musical sound has died off. I have no doubt the Foo Fighters will continue, as bands often do without a member, but it’ll be bittersweet. Hawkins was there for so much of it, and for me he represents a real tour through music as the Foo Fighters evolved and yet remained a constant for me.
This Rolling Stone chat with Taylor Hawkins is nice. He sounded like a passionate guy, and it’s always a shame to see someone gone too soon, no matter what the cause.
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ASD&D.
Last week’s session turned into two hours of no combat at all. Just the way events played out - player choices as well as my read on NPC responses meant it was all conversation, set up, trading of info and favours, and then ending on a big cliffhanger for a sneak attack on the crew.
I like a session like that. This campaign has had 5 sessions so far, so that’s nearly 3 months of playing, and it’s been a mix of heavy combat, no combat and all role play, problem solving and tricks, and it’s proving to be interesting having a different flavour to each session. It’s all moving along nicely, the story started small, entered a strange location, and now is hinting at something much larger. It’s fun having a campaign that almost uses the Levitz Paradigm of seeding a C plot, while the character resolves the A plot and so the B plot steps up, and then the C plot becomes the background and a new far off D plot emerges. A neverending cascade of story layers.
Though I do wonder where/when I’ll end this one. I don’t want to Bogart the DM role for too long, but this is all drawing out nicely.
AND, I ran a session for my kid and their two mates and it was a blast. I kept it very contained, just a 2 hour thing, and they started in the bottom of a boat in the water, and took it from there. They got some action, some roleplay, and some very epic moments. They were constantly trying to do things, but Do Them Epic. Was a blast, and now I need to back up with another tale because they want to do it again soon.
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PERHAPS YOU'D CARE TO SAMPLE
KINGDOM OF LIFE - these Bad Space Comics are always brutally epic, but this week's one is something else. These are ten panel comics, scroll down to read them one panel at a time. Scott Base’s art is wonderfully stark, but his writing is a lofty trip all its own. This is the kind of comics as poetry vibe I love - I mean, I’d kill to write this well:
"All the while, imagining ourselves lords of the kingdom of life.
While we multiply like bacteria on the face of a dead god."
It’s. Just. So. Good.
WE ARE SCARLET TWILIGHT #3 - this comic has been dropping on Kickstarter, and I’ve loved the first two issues. One of the best comics I’ve read via crowdfunding, honestly. Jump in here, and you can pick up all 3 issues, if you need.
An article about THE CONVERSATION - reminding me I haven’t watched this flick in a long time and I would like to revisit it. This digs deeply into the concept of wiretapping, and the historical aspects of its use and legislature. This article would be a good, if not somewhat dry, link to share in regards to the deep contextual understanding of the use and fears of technology invading personal privacy in the US.
It’s very interesting to note that apparently Coppola performed his first wiretap on a phone at the age of 13 - I need more details on this story. But ultimately this all makes me think about the ubiquity of cameras and mics in our pockets now and how we have no idea when/if they’re ever turned on, or recording, or storing their information somewhere accessible for others to see. It’s a wild future we live in, and one we can’t fully imagine until perhaps it’s too late for some of us.
Oooh, and to teach this film alongside the comic THE PRIVATE EYE by Marcos Martin and Brian K. Vaughan would be interesting as it’s about a future after the internet cloud breaks and every single person’s dirty little online secrets become open fodder. Like when that married cheating site had all its client names exposed - Ashley Madison? That’s what it was called right? Huh, this would be a really interesting unit to teach. Surveillance and Secrecy, or something. Wonder if there’s a tight novel you could put with it?
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GRIST FOR THE MILL
Not a lot taken in this week. I’m watching del Toro’s NIGHTMARE ALLEY and am not sure I’m digging it all that much. Visually beautiful, but I don’t think I care enough about anyone in it. I’m also reading Jason Aaron’s 7th Avengers trade, or maybe the 6th, it’s the one with Cosmic Ghost Rider, and the series continues to be the tentpole fun it’s supposed to be.
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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
Saw my kid sitting in a chair reading a book yesterday. Just a perfectly quiet and blissful moment. It made me smile. Guess it doesn’t take much.
But I love finding those moments. For others, for myself.
Awesome update! I'm going to have to get a copy of THE PRIVATE EYE. Never read it but sounds interesting. I have like all of your Writing RPGs bookmarked. I need to get over to them sooner rather than later. Sounds like a lot of fun. Good to hear everything is going well. so well that it bothers you lol. I know the feeling though, so just take it easy and soak it up!