Thanks, Jack!

Jack Tyler is a writer of cool steampunk stories as well as just a cool, enthusiastic and encouraging fellow himself. On his website lately, he's been blogging about other writers he's enjoying and he gave a very lovely shout out to me:

Michael’s blog posts and podcasts are more discussions than recommendations. They go heavily into depth, and they talk about virtually every aspect of the culture we’re surrounded by every waking moment.

Thank you so much, Jack. I have a great time doing this and it means a lot when folks let me know that they appreciate it.

It's quiet. Too quiet.

I didn't mean to leave the blog alone for this long. I've got a post or two from GW Thomas to put up and a bunch of podcasts to tell you about, but we've been planning a trip that took a lot more preparation than I expected. We're here now though in Tallahassee, Florida, which is my hometown and also where CT from Nerd Lunch lives. Spent some time with him and his family yesterday afternoon and are getting together with them again today, along with Pax from Nerd Lunch and Hellbent for Letterbox. There will be podcasting.

I tell you all that to say that I hope to find some downtime to update the blog a couple of times this week. I expect to; it's just that it's been 25 years since I've been here and there are a lot of folks to see.

I feel like I need to explain that beard. I haven't gone full mountain man, yet. But last Christmas we sent to see Santa at Macy's - as is our annual tradition - and I came away with a job offer for 2016. I didn't realize until right then that being a Macy's Santa was a Bucket List item for me, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity. The one thing I needed to change was to let my beard grow out. I think I'm ready, but it does make me look rather wizardly in the meantime.

Join me on Letterboxd

I had to let the "7 Days in May" feature slip over the summer as I was getting caught up on Bond, but intended to come back to it. But since I was mostly using that for capsule reviews of things I've been watching, I realized that Letterboxd is a better way of doing that. So I started a page there.

I love the design of the site and how it lets me keep a diary of what I'm watching as well as create lists. Sadly, it doesn't let me track TV series as well, so it doesn't fully replace IMDB, but it's much prettier and consolidates all my activity into a single, easy-to-navigate page. So I probably won't be coming back to "7 Days in May," but if you want to read short thoughts on what I've been watching - and to share your own thoughts on what you've been watching - follow me on Letterboxd and I'll follow you back. I'm still in early days there and would love to add to the people I'm interacting with.

I used to worry about dispersing my content too much over multiple platforms, but now I enjoy having different tools for different jobs. Tumblr works really well for quickly sharing news links and inspirational artwork; Letterboxd is great for movie discussion. Blogging is still perfect for longer essays, so that's what this site has almost exclusively become. There's much less daily content than I used to put up back in the day, but my hope and goal has been that what does show up here will be more thoughtful.

If you'd like to financially support the blog

It doesn't take a lot of money to run a blog, but it does take some and it certainly takes time. In the past, I was able to recover some of that through ads and Amazon's Associates program, but Minnesota tax law now prevents me from participating with Amazon Associates and the ads... Well, the ads were cluttering up the place and I couldn't control which ones showed up as closely as I wanted, so I've removed those.

None of this is meant to be read accompanied by the sound of a sad violin. I blog for love, not money, and the Adventureblog will always be free to read. But it occurred to me that there may be some who want to support the blog with a small, monthly financial donation, so I've created a Patreon page to make that possible. No pressure; it's just there if you want it.

Done!

We did it!

I really wanted to get through the Bond films before October and we totally did it. Now it's time to be like Bond and Melina, quiet down, and have a little rest.

At least until tomorrow when we start the Countdown to Halloween. After all, that's why we had to be done by October in the first place.

Break Time

I was planning to cover Licence to Kill this week and spend August just on Pierce Brosnan. It's turning out to be an unusual week though (in a good way), so I'm taking a break and will pick up again next week.

See you then.

Countdown to Halloween!

James Bond will return!

But first, we have some Halloween to take care of.

So, my James Bond project hit a giant speed bump. More of a speed mountain, really.

I blame a couple of things. First, the end of August got super busy with End of Summer activities and I slowed down my reading of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. But probably more impactful was finally hitting the Dr. No movie in my schedule. I started the Bond project because I wanted to blog through the movies, but I wanted to do that after a fresh look at the books since those have always informed my opinions of the films. When I discovered what looked like an actual character arc through the book series, I got excited about that and was looking forward to OHMSS, which I imagined to be the top of that arc. When I got to it, I was raring to go. But then I watched Dr. No and had such a ball blogging about it that I suddenly got bored with the idea of going back to the novels again.

Don't worry. I'm still reading OHMSS and I'll finish blogging through the Fleming novels and all of the films. But the scope of the project has changed and I'm not going to make myself do a bunch of stuff that I'd planned to do. I feel like I've said what I want to say about the newspaper strips, for instance. I'm still planning to read those, but I'm not going to force myself to write about them if I don't notice anything new. I'm also not going to blog through the non-Fleming novels. I'd still like to read those too, but I know that when I finish Man with the Golden Gun I'm gonna want a break. I made a trip to our local mystery bookstore a few weeks ago and picked up a bunch of stuff I can't wait to dig into, so I'm not going to put that off while I force myself to endure Q'ute. Not having to blog all that relaxes my schedule so that I won't get burned out and leaves me extra time to do some things I want to do like the Countdown to Halloween.

I'm doing this year's Countdown a little differently from the last few years. Instead of picking a monster and writing about various iterations of it over the next 31 days, I'm going to watch a ton of horror movies and write about those. The plan is to do that for 31 movies, but I'm not going to beat myself up if I miss a day or two. There's some awesome Kill All Monsters stuff brewing that I shouldn't talk about yet, but it involves deadlines and I need to make sure I hit those. There should be plenty of time to do that and watch/blog about 31 horror movies, but if I ever end up in a spot where I have to make a choice... well, you know.

One way or the other though, this blog's about to get a lot busier. Hope you're up for some Halloween, then we'll get back to Bond in November and take another break in December for the next installment of the Christmas Carol project. We've also got new posts scheduled from GW Thomas, who's guest-blogged here about space pulp a few times and has lots more to say. Fun times ahead.

This is my Boomstick (Award)

A million thanks to Italian book blog Tutto Benenella Mia Testa for not only picking me to receive a Boomstick Award, but also saying very nice and encouraging things about me in the process. It couldn't come at a better time, because frankly I've been overwhelmed with work and life since about last Fall and it's been especially tough the last couple of months to balance this blog with everything else. I never intended for sporadic reviews of James Bond novels to be the only content here, but it's worked out that way lately and that makes me sad. TBMT, on the other hand, makes me happy.

I also got another encouraging note recently from a different person - I'll share that tomorrow - so it's been a nice week and I'm going to use that encouragement to motivate me to post more often. Thanks for being patient.

Please Hold

Sorry for the radio silence. Been busy prepping for a Nerd Lunch episode I was just a guest on, but that's done and I'll tell you about it soon. 

Super Busy

31 Scares and Werewolves will resume, but this has been a crazy week. Sorry for the delay. 

Adventureblog slow-down (and Kill All Monsters! news)

Kickstarter

Now that we're out of October and Halloween, I need to slow things down around here a little. Life's been extremely hectic for the last six weeks or so (not just because of Countdown to Halloween) and my writing has suffered for it. I've got to figure out a way to cut some corners. For at least the month of November, I'm gonna cut back to three posts a week here.

In December, my plan is to continue the Christmas Carol series I started last year, so I'll probably need to ramp up temporarily then, but my hope is to cut back in general on the amount of time blogging requires from me. I have other writing commitments that I need to fulfill and slowing down here will help me do that.

One of the things I've got to dig into is work some more on Kickstarter. If you follow the Kill All Monsters! Facebook page, you know that Jason and I are planning a Kickstarter campaign. What we didn't mention there is that the campaign would fund the printing of the first volume of the complete Kill All Monsters! graphic novel. We've got the first half (over 120 pages of story) totally done, so rather than make people wait for the whole thing, we're going to print up what we have as we continue working on the second half.

But first we've got to fund it, and before we do that, I've got to finish getting it set up. I've been talking to some friends who've run successful Kickstarter campaigns (and will be talking to more), so I think I've got a good understanding of what we need to do. Now I have to actually get in and do it. Finalize rewards, make a video, all that stuff. If you'd like to suggest rewards for backer levels, we're collecting those on the Facebook page or you can mention them in the comments here.

So that's what's going on with me. What's going on with you?

Gonna tweak the comment system

Just kidding. No one's banned. You guys are all way too awesome.

However, I've heard that Blogger's word verification system is making it impossible for some folks to comment, so I'm turning that feature off. Unfortunately, I still have to have a way to control spam and the only option I can see with Blogger is for me to moderate all comments. I'm willing to do that if it lets more people participate in the discussion, but it does mean that your comments won't appear until I've had a chance to look at them. I'll try to be efficient about that.

Just wanted to let you all know what's going on and that it's not that I'm trying to control conversations. In the seven years I've had this blog, I don't think I've ever seen a rude comment. I love hearing from all of you and just want to include as many people as possible.

Thanks!

[Update: Snell from the awesome Slay, Monstrobot of the Deep! has encouraged me to have more trust in Blogger's spam filter and I think he's right. Since I turned off verification last night, more spam is coming through, but Blogger's catching it all so far. I'm going to turn off moderation for a while and see if that continues to work. Thanks, Snell!]

[Update to the update: Well, that didn't last long. Spam filter's catching everything, but it's still filling up my email with notifications. With word verification off, there's way more spam than I can deal with, even if it doesn't show up on the blog. I had to turn verification back on or abandon my email account. I'm sorry it didn't work. I'll keep thinking and I'm very open to suggestions and recommendations.]

The Awesome List: Now at Google Plus

I used to run a feature here called The Awesome List. It was my attempt to linkblog adventure news from various media, but it got way too time consuming to keep up with. I tried using Twitter instead, but that didn't last very long. I like images too much and Twitter's just dull to look at. (Seriously, I accept that Twitter is a Thing and want to figure out how to use it well, but I don't actually like it. I admit though that may be because I don't know how to use it well.)

Google Plus is my answer. I don't see it stealing everyone away from Facebook, but it's extremely useful for sharing links in a way that looks cool and also allows me to comment briefly on them. If you miss the Awesome List - or just could use a daily feed of announcements about genre projects - I hope you'll check it out.

A word from our sponsor...

As I type this, AdSense is running a couple of political ads on the blog. Which... ick.

That's never happened before as far as I know and I've asked them to filter those out, but I don't know how long it'll take before the filter kicks in. In the meantime, I know nothing about the candidates whose ads are currently appearing and certainly don't endorse them. Maybe they're fine candidates; maybe they're not. All I know is that I don't want political ads on the blog.

Update: This is undoubtedly interesting to no one but me, but I just noticed in the You Might Also Like links below this post that I struggled with political ads last November as well, but chose to keep them going. The difference this time is that one of the ads was of the smear/attack variety and I hate those so very very much.

The Versatile Blogger

This is a post that's way past due, but I wanted to take the time to do it justice. Artist Michael Dean "MD" Jackson was kind enough to tag me with the Versatile Blogger Award and it's a special honor. I struggle all the time with how broadly focused this blog is. Most of my favorite blogs are very specific in their subject matter, even if the subject is just "comics," but I especially like extremely specific blogs like Double O Section, Shanna the She-Devil Blogger, and Love in the Time of Chasmosaurs. I love those so much that I often think about narrowing Adventureblog's range to one genre or medium. If only I could pick just one that I wouldn't get bored with eventually.

I can't, so for better or worse, I'm stuck with a versatile blog. That's why I appreciate someone's creating this recognition and Mike's including me in his picks for it. I appreciate other versatile blogs too. I can't read too many of them before they become overwhelming, but I was able to pull five to mention from my follow list. I'll list them in a minute, but one of the other criteria for accepting the award is listing seven random facts about yourself. So that first:

1. My high-school job was bagging groceries and I was really good at it. As a result though, I'm overly critical (silently so, I promise) of baggers who can't make a paper bag keep its shape and mix items that shouldn't be mixed. Cold items don't go with non-cold items. Detergents don't go with food.
2. In college, I played the title role in The Sound of Music. I also ran the sound for My Fair Lady, which was an even more fun production. But that may have been because I had a minor crush on the girl playing Eliza Doolittle. Or her Georgia accent anyway. (She switched to Cockney for the play, but that wasn't nearly as attractive.)
3. You can get me to do just about anything if you ask me in a Georgia accent.
4. I can read ancient Greek, though I don't understand as much of it as I used to.
5. My first pet was a black cat we found at the garbage dump. He was only a few days old and we couldn't even tell what gender he was yet. We named him Muffit after the robotic daggit from Battlestar Galactica.
6. I was 10 years old when I wrote my first story. It was Star Wars fan fiction and I proved in not only the title, but also in a major plot element that I didn't know the difference between an "asteroid" and an "android."
7. My son has a live dragon living in his room. It's about two-feet long and bearded.

And now for the blogs I'm passing the award to. Mike says that the official rules call for fifteen recipients, but I'm following his example and only choosing five. In alphabetical order:

1. Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool: I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Brother Cal's already received this award at some point. That guy collects awards like mermaids collect swooning sailors. He deserves it though for being extremely prolific with posts on a variety of subjects ranging from the Cephalopod Menace to Selena Gomez.
2. Lady, That's My Skull: I came to Sleestak's blog thinking it was a comics blog, and with lots of posts on romance comics and space pulp heroines like Futura and Mysta of the Moon, it is. But it's also a lot more than that, including rants about the grocery store where he works and appreciations for Hayley Mills and of course The Land of the Lost.
3. Poplitiko: My friend Alex Ness started this pop culture group blog. Because it's a group blog (and because its theme is as broad as "pop culture," it has a lot of different interests. Just looking at the current page, I see a love letter to enjoying comics with your children; a linkblogging post covering superhero movies, Doctor Who, and Twecon; and Whatever the Opposite of an Ode is to Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson movies.
4. Siskoid's Blog of Geekery: Siskoid does tend to stick to geek-related topics, so he's not as all over the place as some of the other blogs I'm mentioning, but he has a broad range of interests from Star Trek to Kung Fu movies and he crosses genres and media types easily.
5. That F'ing Monkey: I've known blogger Ken O a long time from Steve Niles' message board, so his was one of the first blogs I thought of in creating this list. He's a huge fan of DC's The Flash and talks about the character often, but you'll also find regular posts about his other interests, especially games and booze.

Blogger Trouble

If you're wondering where Wednesday and Thursday's posts went (I sure did), Blogger apparently had a problem early this morning and in trying to fix it, temporarily removed all posts since Wednesday am. They tell us that they're now restoring those posts and expect to be back to normal soon. 

I'm going to trust them and not repost those two items myself.

Update: And they're back. Yay!

Missing the Art Shows?

Just a reminder that I've moved all the images, quotes, and comics-linking to the Adventureblog Annex. It's on my mind because I just threw a bunch of nautical and island stuff on there. And thanks to the way Tumblr does archives, it's much more fun to browse than when that stuff was mixed in with everything here.

The Adventureblog Annex (or, Michael gets a Tumblr account)

And lo, there came a day when I realized that watching TV shows at their regularly appointed time just wasn't working for me. I didn't immediately buy TiVo though, oh no. I started taping everything on VHS to watch later, trying to keep up with six different video tapes while remembering what was on each one. My friends and family told me, "Mike, you really need TiVo. It was made for people who watch TV the way you do." And of course they eventually wore me down and now I love it.

I feel the same way about Tumblr. "I've already got a blog," I thought. "Why do I need Tumblr?" Because, Dummy, it's made for people who blog the way you spend a significant amount of time doing. I don't know why it takes me so long to figure this stuff out.

So, I've started a Tumblr and called it the Adventureblog Annex. The idea is to move stuff there from here that makes more sense on that platform. Namely: The Art Show, Pass the Comics, and Quotes of the Week posts. Stuff that doesn't take too long to look at or read. I've already started loading it up, so you can take a look and get a feel for what it's like. It's a bit random, but I'm hoping that'll be part of the fun.

What that leaves here is original content, which is what I think blogs are best suited for anyway. I may have to pull some features back from some of my other, newer blogs like Amazon Village and Dear Dairy in order to have things to write about [hmm...would I be more faithful to Old Sinner if I did it here?], but I'm going to figure that out later.

In the meantime, I hope you'll add the Annex to your RSS reader or follow it on Tumblr or whatever you like to do. And if you know of great Tumblr accounts that I should be following too, please tell me about them in the comments.

...In with the new

I think I've figured out why I'm not feeling the Newness this year. For me, the New Year started back in November when I went back to work and Kill All Monsters! launched. But it's still a time for goal-setting, so I feel like I should be doing that even if I don't feel like doing it, if that makes sense.

Fiction-wise, the priority is to finish the Kill All Monsters! script. I'm close enough to the end now that I realize I've got some re-writing to do on the earlier stuff. Nothing that Jason and Ed have already drawn and lettered fortunately, but it's going to be more involved than just completing the current draft and typing, "The End." Lesson learned: even on a webcomic, finish the script before you launch. Frankly, had I had the completed script (instead of just a detailed outline) before we pitched to publishers, we would have had a stronger idea about what we were pitching and might have received a more enthusiastic response. That uncertainty was a casualty of also not knowing what format we were pitching: complete graphic novel or serialized mini-series. In the end, it shouldn't have mattered though. I should have had the script done either way.

I won't make that mistake with the next project, which is going to be the pirate/jungle girl story that Jessica Hickman and I want to do. As soon as I finish Kill All Monsters! it'll be on to that. Hopefully I'll be able to at least get started on it this year because there's a second - though very different - pirate story I want to do with Darla Ecklund right behind it.

On the blogging front, the goal for this year is to be more adventurous and try new things. I have no idea what that will look like, but I've settled into a comfortable niche and I need to step out of it occasionally and see what other possibilities and opportunities are waiting. I'm a planner and it's very difficult to leave this goal vague and open, but I'm going to and will consider doing so my first step towards meeting it.

Out with the old...

As I said last year, I love the week between Christmas and New Year. I love the quiet and the time to reflect on the past while planning for what's next.

I'm having a hard time feeling it this year though. I suspect that's because it's been such a strange year, full of challenges, but also victories. On a personal level, my family and I are glad to put 2010 behind us. I was unemployed for seven months (except for writing, but that doesn't pay any bills) and my wife's mom was diagnosed with cancer around the 4th of July. She was gone by the end of the summer.

On a creative level though, Jason and I finally got Kill All Monsters! out (or started anyway) and that's something that we've been working toward for a long time. There's still a lot of work to be done on it, but I'll leave that for tomorrow's post.

Looking back on my goals for 2010, I didn't achieve a lot of them. Looking for work took a lot of time (or at least I'll blame it on that) and there were a couple of comics that I wanted to start writing and never got around to. But launching Kill All Monsters! easily makes up for that. My dream for it is that as the story unfolds, it'll eventually come to mean half as much to readers as it now does to Jason and I. And where those other projects are concerned, I have done some thinking about them and have a better idea not only about what they'll be, but how quickly I can realistically write them. More on that tomorrow too, I suppose.

Robot 6 has also gone well this year. I started contributing to the weekly Food or Comics? feature and that's been a lot of fun while forcing me to stay on top of which comics are hitting stores every week. And this blog continues to be successful. By which I mean that I love doing it and interacting with you guys over pirates and jungle girls.

I also finally figured out how to use Twitter and Facebook in ways that complement this blog. Not that I'm doing it perfectly (or even well, necessarily), but at least I have a basic understanding now of the strengths and weaknesses of those communities and how they're different from a blog. That was a huge light bulb moment for me this year. I can be kind of slow sometimes.

That's enough reminiscing, I think. Tomorrow I'll talk about plans and goals for 2011, but until then have a Happy (and Safe) New Year's Eve.