March Day(s) of Reckoning Part II

Day 148

I am going into my fourth month of my New Year's Resolutions and it feels like I have been doing them for YEARS. Time does fly but when it comes to these goals, time is dragging.

These last two weeks have been a ton better. I think having to blog about what I have done has helped me be more accountable and more aware. Part of me feels bad for those that follow my blog since I am sure this bores the snot out of you.

So let's get to it!

WRITING:

As many of you know already, I am starting a new writing challenge called Script Frenzy. I am looking forward to this new challenge and hope it helps hone my writing skills. It starts April 1st but I have been spending some time plotting and figuring out where I want to take this story.

I still have not yet completed my last insert into the Vessel. But that WILL be done this week. I guarantee it!

READING:

Last week, I felt horrible by not doing one single iota of reading. I certainly have changed that these last two weeks. I have read two books and I am on my way to completing my fourth ahead of schedule.

This book was an easy sell. Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite characters and I was feeling nostalgic so this book was right up my alley. DeFalco (the author) interviews about ten writers and artists about working on Spider-Man. This book is not a Marvel book so these creators really could let their feelings be known. Reading these types of books really inspire me to write. The part I enjoyed the most was reading about the Clone Saga. For those that don't know, this will go down in history as the WORST Spider-Man story ever (it lasted for years) but hearing the behind-the-scenes stuff was cool. The creators really thought that had something in that story but it quickly derailed when Sales and Marketing got involved.

I also started and completed this book by Warren Ellis. Ellis is one of my favorite comic book writers and this was his first novel. What I like about him is his cast of characters and how they are very unique. The plot was about a guy searching for the real US Constitution and who's hands it passed through. It was pretty violent and filled with stuff that I hope I never come across in real life. Definitely not for the weak of heart. I definitely like his comic books better and probably only because it is filtered down. Still, a fun and imaginative book.

The next book I am currently reading is the autobiography of Bret "The Hitman" Hart. He was a famous professional wrestler and this chronicles his life. He was a smart man, he kept audio diaries when he was wrestling just so he could write a book later in life. So far the book is excellent. Again, I like behind-the-scenes stuff and this is filled with it. A lot of funny stories; especially about the time his dad Stu would take perspective wrestlers down to the Dungeon and beat the tar out of them. In one case Stu was 65 years old and he made this one kid (who thought he was awesome) bawl like a baby because of the pain.

Exercise and Eating Right
I exercised most of the days, only missing one sessions. Unfortunately my weight was off a bit. We splurged last weekend and now I am suffering for it. No treats until Easter except for a few rare exceptions. But even then, I can only have treats in moderation. And since the weather has been nice, I have been running up to the Logan Temple and walking a few times around it. That gets the heart going since it is on a pretty big hill.

Every Tuesday during Lost I have been doing some drawing. More than likely next time I will be doing some storyboards for my script.

So not a bad two weeks.

By the way, I keep forgetting to thank Milton for the tip on cheap Creme Eggs. I got a bunch of those "gross" little things. Too bad I cannot eat them until Easter!

February Day(s) of Reckoning Part II

Day 120

I am starting to loathe these columns already. They may be no fun to read but believe me, they are not fun to write either.

It has been two months since I have made my New Year's Resolutions (or has my friend Betsy calls them New Year's Goals) and looking back, in the long run, I am pretty happy for how things have turned out.

But when I look at the last 2 weeks I am only slightly happy. It has been a hard two weeks but at the same time, I feel like I have grown a bit (and luckily not in the weight category) especially these last 2 weeks. At least there has been some improvement going on.

So how am I doing?

WRITING:

HUZZAH! I finished my 2nd draft! I felt a bit guilty for hardly doing anything the last time that I really focused and completed it. I have to admit that editing the ending was a lot of fun, there is a ton of stuff that I totally have forgotten about. It reads a lot stronger than my first draft. I still have a small portion to add, about maybe a thousand words or so.

2ND DRAFT: 93,993 words
1ST DRAFT: 65,285 words

Yeah, I would say that I have added quite a bit of content. Now for another set of edits and I should be completed!

And I have done a few more doodles of some cover art. That will be the goal for next time. I will post some rough drawings.

READING:

I feel like I have failed here. But with some fancy justification I can amend that. Unfortunately I never got 'Then We Came to the End' back from the library. And I am only about halfway through my replacement book 'Veeps'. So I have not completed a book this month. So the justification is that my goal for the year is 12 books which is at least once a month. I will finish 'Veeps' for sure but it may take some time to revisit the other book.

The book for March will be Warren Ellis's 'Crooked Little Vein' which I have not read yet. I read the first chapter awhile ago but never completed it.

Exercise and Eating Right
Ugh. I have not done as well as I would have liked. I skipped exercising a few times and I have not eaten great. But I still have exercised so at least I am getting something. And I have been a little more choosy when it comes to food. Still, this is better than normal.

With Spring right around the corner, I am feeling pretty ambitious. Which is good since I will need to exercise more to burn off all those Creme Eggs.

List-Mania: Warren Ellis

Day 111

I have been really trying to keep my geekiness in check but some days these columns just scream out geekiness. And who I am I to stop it completely? Especially when I am having a hard time wanting to blog.

So bear with me or just skip this column altogether because I am going to be talking about comic books and graphic novels. Today I am going to spotlight my favorite writer Warren Ellis.


I first discovered Ellis with his run on Stormwatch and immediately I was impressed. He took a team of just typical superheroes and turned them completely into real people with real situations. It is hard to describe why I like his writing but I will follow him where ever he goes and no matter what he writes. What impresses me is his imagination and how well he grasps human emotion. He can write some impressive hardcore science fiction but yet gives us characters with many layers and personality quirks. Like I said before, I will pick up anything he writes. He can write horror, science fiction, superhero stuff and crime books. And he can mix these genres together and get something extremely fascinating and exciting. I prefer his superhero work but I love pretty much everything he has done. I better stop before I really start gushing. Here are my Top 5 favorite works by Warren Ellis. I have listed the product description along with my comments.

5) NextWave
RRRAAAAAGGGGGHHHHH! Action! Excitement! Explosions! The Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort, or H.A.T.E. (a subsidiary of the Beyond Corporation) put NEXTWAVE together to fight Bizarre Weapons of Mass Destruction. When NEXTWAVE discovers that H.A.T.E. and Beyond are terrorist cells themselves, and that the BWMDs were intended to kill them, they are less than pleased. In fact, they are rather angry. So they make things explode. Lots of things. And that's only the beginning! Starring Monica Rambeau (formerly Captain Marvel and Photon), Aaron Stack (Machine Man), Tabitha Smith (X-Force's Meltdown), monster-hunter Elsa Bloodstone, and The Captain! If you like anything, you will LOVE NEXTWAVE! BOOM!
I love this book because he takes the Marvel Universe (and superhero stuff in general) and makes fun of it. Ellis's dark humor at its best.

4) Fell
Detective Richard Fell is transferred over the bridge from the big city to Snowtown, a feral district whose police investigations department numbers three and a half people (one detective has no legs). Dumped in this collapsing urban trashzone, Richard Fell is starting all over again. In a place where nothing seems to make any sense, Fell clings to the one thing he knows to be true: every body's hiding something.
I love this book because it is not for the squeamish. Ellis takes his stories from real events in life and that makes it all the more creepy. Like the pack of dogs in Detroit to the man that keeps his daughter sick on purpose to the horrifying tradition of hanging baby corpses in your house to ward off evil spirits. Fascinating stuff!

3) Scars
How much of a monster do you have to become to hunt monsters? John Cain has been working Homicide long enough to get hard to pretty much anything; even wrenching personal loss. But everyone has a limit, and today it's gotten too much to bear. Today, he gets assigned something that finally breaks through his defenses - a child killing that hits horribly close to home. Until today, he's been a good cop, a cop who goes by procedure because it's the best way to ensure that scum go to prison. Now, he makes the parents of the victim a chilling promise: he will find the killer using any means necessary. And the killer will not get away with it - no matter what it takes!
This is perhaps the only Ellis work that I have only read twice. This book felt too real and is based on a horror that we unfortunately see every day in the news. Horrifying and heart wrenching at the same time. This book stayed with me for a long time.

2) The Authority
From the ashes of StormWatch (a United Nations super team) comes a new team of individuals who will use their incredible powers and abilities to force the planet Earth to pay attention. Together they are the Authority and they will change the world.
The Authority grew naturally from being a United Nations super response team to a group of heroes that are proactive instead of reactive. They are not afraid to use their power to make the world a better place and they will not let anyone stand in the way. I love Ellis's run on this book because his ideas get bigger and bigger. It starts off with a super villain terrorist that tries to take over the world and they wipe him out. Then the Authority wards off an invasion from another dimension and lastly they fight off the original owners of the Earth.

1) Planetary
This first collection stars a team of super- powered mystery archaeologists who have uncovered evidence of super-human activity that spans the centuries. The team includes the ancient and enigmatic Elijah Snow, hot-tempered Jakita Wagner, and the insane techno-expert Drummer, as they deal with a World War II supercomputer that can access other universes, a spectral spirit of vengeance, and more!
I love this series because it blends everything that I love about Ellis's writing in one place. You get superheroes, crime, horror, action, it homages every genre of comics.

Honorable Mention: Orbiter
In this science fiction mystery tale, Venture, a space shuttle that disappeared ten years ago with its crew of seven, miraculously returns from outer space without warning or explanation. Occupied by only an insane pilot, the spacecraft shows evidence of a remarkable journey through the solar systems. Now, in order to solve the mystery of the shuttle's inexplicable journey and the fate of its six lost astronauts, three NASA specialists are called upon to investigate the alien instrumentation and materials that adorn Venture. But as secrets are revealed, it soon becomes apparent that the shuttle's journey not only took it outside our solar system but to a realm of existence that is unimaginable.
If you love science fiction, I cannot recommend this book enough. Beautiful, haunting and full of imagination. You just gotta read it!

New Year's Resolutions Part I

Day 60

Every year I make New Year's Resolutions and every year I forget them and I get just plain lazy and I don't accomplish them. And every year I claim that 'this year will be different' and we know how that ends.


But this year WILL be different because I am going to use this blog as a way to motivate and more importantly, hold myself responsible and accountable for these New Year's Resolutions. Over the next few days I will cover all that I want to change. For this column, I am going to concentrate on how I am going to challenge myself when it comes to my hobbies. As you already know, I like to read and write and this is what I am going to blog about today.

WRITING


1) Last November I participated in the NaNoWriMo event and finished my novel well over 50,000 words. Because I passed that mark, I was given a special coupon code to use to get my book published in book form and to help me market my book. But I only have six months to use this coupon code. So my first New Year's Resolution is to finish my novel. I recently started writing a new beginning to the book that I need to complete. I have another chapter based on the Deacon character that I need to write and then I need to rewrite and edit. To assist me I am giving this book to my sister and my cousin Jeremy to assist in editing. I don't have a lot of time left to accomplish this so I need to get cracking on it. The plan is to at least spend an hour on it a day.

2) While I am editing my novel I am also going to plot out my next book for next November's NaNoWriMo competition. I can do this when I am bored of my novel.

3) There is another writing competition called Script Frenzy that I might try as well. Basically it is the same things as NaNoWriMo except this time you develop a script. You get to choose whether to write a screenplay, stage play, TV script, or comic book script and you get to choose whether to write with a partner or on your own.
This starts in April.

4) And of course I will continue to write this blog. That should be an easy one. I also want to keep updating my other geeky blog, The Banshee Blog at least monthly.

READING

I love comics and I will continue to read them, I really don't need a New Year's Resolution to do this. But for this year I want to do something a little different.

5) I don't read books/novels as much as I should and this is what I am going to change. With the help of my friends from the Bad Genious Board I am going to try to read a book/novel every month. And I will post a review of the book on this blog too.


I already have January's book lined up. My friend Jon recommended 'Beat the Reaper' by Josh Bazell. A couple of other books I have planned to read is Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis and Bret Hart's autobiography Hitman.

Later this week I will go over some other New Year's Resolutions. Some other hobbies and the dreaded EXERCISE resolution will make his dreaded appearance.

The Write Stuff: The Epilogue

Day 31

The month of November flew right on by, I cannot believe that it is December already. I hate to sound cliche but time flies when you are having fun.

This has been a fun month. I didn't ruin Thanksgiving this year and my creative juices have been at an all time high. This blog has been very rewarding, it is hard to believe that this is my 31st official entry. This challenge has been not only so much fun to write but also to read. I am following quite a few other people that have taken the challenge and it has been neat to get to know them and see how creative they have been so far. I appreciate the ideas I have stolen.

As I have blogged about many, many times already, this month was also NaNoWrMo. And not only did I complete the 50,000 word challenge, I also have completed my novel.

Yes, I got to write the words The End. I named my novel, "THE VESSEL" and the final word count is 65,817.

I am pretty proud of this achievement. Here is a short sypnosis of the novel:

A young girl holds the key to saving a parallel universe. Only she doesn't know it yet and every one is out to get her. The only person that is trying to save her is her basketball coach. Or was he the janitor at the hospital when she was born? Or perhaps the fellow church-goer when she was in elementary school? There seems to be more to her coach than it seems.

But this is not the reason for today's column. I wanted to take some time to write about some of my favorite comic book authors and how they influenced me. Each of the writers I have chosen have something that I think they are the best at and something that I try to emulate. I have included links to Amazon at the end so you can check out other reviews. I suggest if you are trying comics out for the first time, you should check out Orbiter or Brian K. Vaughan's Y-The Last Man.

WARREN ELLIS:
Master of the Imaginative Details
My favorite writer is Warren Ellis. Ellis does the small things that make things more memorable. With one written line of dialouge he can breathe life and create a memorable character. It is the attention to detail that makes Ellis a favorite of mine. He also has a crazy imagination that really inspires me to rethink things and think beyond the box. He can do it all too, he has written superhero books that are inspiring, horror comics that creep into your mind when it is dark, comics about crime that make you feel helpless and science fiction that makes you think of what lies beyond the stars. He is one of the few comic authors that I will follow anywhere.
FAVORITE WORKS: Orbiter, Scars, Planetary

GEOFF JOHNS:
Master of Continuity
He is known for his superhero work. Comic book writers either love him or hate him, I fall into the "love" camp more than anything. What I appreciate about this writer is his obvious love for continuity. He can take any storyline from the past, no matter how good or bad it is and rework it. He does not ignore continuity, he embraces it. His run on the comic Green Lantern is the best example. I hated that the original Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, was being brought back and I was against reading it but after years and years have gone by, I tried it out. And he made it work, he didn't ignore what had gone on before with Hal Jordan, he used it to further his story.
FAVORITE WORKS: JSA, Green Lantern

CHRIS CLAREMONT:
Master of the Subplots
When I was a kid I had read a ton of comics but none of the impacted me as much as Claremont's work on the Uncanny X-Men did. His first run on that title remains my all-time favorite run. A lot of readers do not care for his work, claiming that it is outdated and has too many subplots. It seems like today's audience wants stories that are told and ended, no various plotlines but I am not like that. I love subplots, it is what keeps me buying the books. I love subplots and I think he is the best at it. His later work is not as strong as his older stuff but I will still check his stuff out.
FAVORITE WORKS: Uncanny X-Men, WildC.A.T.S/Cyberforce, Wolverine

BRIAN K. VAUGHAN:
Master of the Cliffhanger
I like comics because I like the monthly serial. You can read Vaughan's stuff when they are collected but I think you miss out a bit with his monthly cliffhangers. BKV is a fantastic writer, his dialogue is very belivable and his stories are full of imagination. But his cliffhangers are the best. The first issues of Ex Machina and Y-The Last Man are perfect cliffhangers.
FAVORITE WORKS: Y-The Last Man, Ex Machina, Pride of Baghdad

There are other comic book writers that I like too. Alan Moore, Christos Gage, Jeff Smith and Alan Davis come to mind. But these are the ones that stick out to me the most.