In-Store Signing: The Source's Thanksgiving Bash 2005

A couple of weeks ago I was at the Source Comics and Games (the magical place where I buy all my comics) and Nick (one of the owners and, in my mind, the roue for the Minnesota comics community gumbo) told me that my buddy Grant Gould was going to be doing a signing Thanksgiving weekend. The conversation turned surreal when he asked if I wanted to sign too.

It's part of the store's Thanksgiving Bash, the store's big celebration of the Biggest Shopping Days of the Year. There'll be tons of creators there signing over the course of the weekend. Of course I said "yes," but I can't imagine how this is going to go. I always get folks at the cons stopping by my table, 'cause I have an interesting-looking table with some pretty art and a vampire cow, but I don't sell a lot of books. Anthologies are tough sells and horror anthologies are an even smaller niche. I do have that story in the back of several IDW books, so maybe people will buy those. Or maybe I'll just sit and watch Grant draw.

However it turns out, it's going to be a blast and I can't wait for it. Grant and I will be there on Friday, November 25th, from 10:00 a.m. to at least 2:00 p.m. We'll stay longer if they'll let us.

"Completely Cold" Update

According to Diamond, Jon Sable, Freelance: Bloodtrail #5 comes out tomorrow. "Completely Cold" was supposed to be in the back of #3, so I missed it and have to track it down. Got kind of lax in keeping up with what was coming out and what I wanted over the last couple of weeks. Not sure if Metal Gear: Sons of Liberty #0 is out yet or not, but that one and Jon Sable or the only two "Completely Cold" comics left that I haven't seen and held in my hands.

If I Were a Wise Man

I don't wanna talk about the novel. I've fallen off the wagon and gotten out of the habit of working on it every day. I've eaten up the cushion I had in the month, but if I can do a chapter a day from here out, I can still finish in November. My confidence is shaken, but I can do it. Just need to frickin' prioritize.

Comic World News is taking more time than I should be letting it. I was getting embarrassed by my pitiful review output, so I ramped that up this week and it hurt me. If I was smart, I'd quit CWN and I'd beg off my commitments to PopThought and The Great Curve. But I really like doing that stuff (and I have an emotional investment in CWN that I can't shake) and it's helped me get into the habit of writing every day and it's helped me find my voice, even if it's not producing what I ultimately want to produce.

Pushing Through

Well, I don't have an excuse for last night. Still wrote nothing on the novel. Not sure what the problem was. It's an exciting, action-packed scene that I need to write; maybe I'm not as confident about that as I should be. I'm a good dialogue guy, but writing exciting action prose is a muscle I don't stretch a lot.

Gotta remember that I'm making mud here and not get caught up in making it perfect yet. Just need to get it on paper; I can make it thrilling later.

Novel Update

Didn't write my chapter yesterday, but I did work on the book. I've been deviating from the outline enough that I needed to spend some time tweaking it to fit what I've written. I eliminated an entire chapter that way, which makes up for the chapter I added earlier on. Trying to pace this thing right so that I don't skip over interesting stuff just to drag through some fluff later on.

Happy Belated Bram Stoker Day

Meant to post this yesterday, but forgot. Yesterday was Bram Stoker's 158th birthday.

Procrastinators Anonymous

I got my chapter written yesterday, but tonight will be another challenge. I feel like I'm in a 12-step program. One day at a time. Just get today's chapter done and worry about tomorrow when it's here.

Because I comped out some overtime and got off work early yesterday, I was also able to get a new review up at CWN and another Conan column at PopThought. Good writing day.

Lessons Learned

First of all, I could do this. Given a day without a day job and with priorities in place, I can write a chapter a day easy and still have time for errands and lunches with friends and other things. A chapter a day equals roughly a novel a month. A rough draft of a novel anyway. Figure another month (maybe, I haven't tried this out yet) for re-writing and maybe a month up front to plan and outline, that's three months for a complete novel. Stay on that schedule and that's four novels a year. A guy could make a living off that, assuming they were publishable. I certainly have enough ideas to stay on that kind of schedule.

I also learned that the idea of one, special Writing Place probably won't work for me. It was incredibly helpful to get out of the house and go somewhere to write, but I'd start to go stir crazy about two-thirds of the way in to every chapter. I'd need to change something, even if it was just moving to another seat in the same coffee shop or going for a drive to clear my head and then coming back to finish.

Out of the three coffee shops I tried, Barnes & Noble was the most comfortable and conducive to getting things done. My laptop has plenty of battery power to allow me to get a chapter done before taking it home to recharge.

So, yeah. I can do this. I didn't get a chapter done yesterday and that bothers me, but it's not a disaster. There's plenty of time left in the month to finish the draft as long as I keep at it every day. Today will be a big test because I'm back at work and on a tighter daily schedule. We'll see.

Oops.

Sorry about not updating for a couple of days. I'm kicking butt on the novel and learning a lot from the experience of having this week off to work on it, but it's also throwing my routine off (not necessarily a bad thing if it makes me reprioritize, which it has) and that's why I've been quiet here.

If not before, I'll post some lessons learned on Monday.

NaNoWriMo Profile

Got my Author's Profile completely updated now for National Novel Writing Month. There's even an excerpt from Chapter Two.

I hesitated about the excerpt. This is just the rough draft that I'm trying to complete by the end of the month and I'm not sure I should be sharing from it at this stage. But I'm reasonably happy with the bit I chose, so maybe it won't change much in the final draft. And anyway, it does a good job of explaining the title, which I've changed back to The Blades of Bragadini after a brief stint as Le Corsaire. The book's much more about the blades than the corsaire who doesn't even appear until two-thirds of the way through. (Actually, it's about neither, but Pride and Honor was way too high-falutin'.)

Writing Place/Novel Update

Went to the hippie coffee bar today. They've rearranged the furniture and the only table near an outlet now is a huge round one that I'd feel conspicuous using by my lonesome. So I sat in a booth and used battery power. That was okay though because my real time limit was the two hours I had change for on the meter where I parked. That's the biggest drawback to this place: no free parking. Gonna keep looking.

I got most of my chapter for the day done though and finished it up a couple of minutes ago here at home. Nineteen chapters to go.

There's another coffee shop not too far away (one with a nice bakery in it) that I'm going to try tomorrow. Diane and David will be home and I'll definitely need to get out of the house to work.