Annual Housecleaning
Trim away the excess and leave the good stuff
2022 had a bunch of abrupt lane changes and gear shifts, which ran me ragged well into December. On the writing front, I completed another draft of my novel, Blackfire, outlined the sequel, wrote most of the first act for said sequel, and outlined the first book to a mystery series. With the client work wrapping up, I returned to the writing desk this week. I won’t claim any great word-count victory for the week, but the practice has resumed.
My focus now is improving Blackfire in every capacity. The journey to produce this first book is much longer and harder than I expected. There’s a simple reason for this. Everything I don’t know about writing could fill a book—an enormous book. So I must do the hard work to become better at this craft. To this, as I write this, someone is proofreading and suggesting light edits for the manuscript. These notes should be ready by the end of the month, that means an edit pass turnaround for February. Along with a query letter, the book will be ready for agent submission in early 2023. Like I said, longer than expected.
I’ve mentioned my client design work has returned to pre-pandemic levels. While this put the pinch on writing as much as I like, I’ve enjoyed the variety of projects and elements within these projects. Just this weekend, I designed a holiday poster project for an aerospace company. Not enough time to craft a masterpiece, but developing a concept and design in quick succession carries its own level of satisfaction. I’m fortunate to have the work.
The greatest constant this year was the podcast, though it had its share of trials. Production dialed back in February for personal matters. After the respite, Gary and Phil continued to focus on their amazing projects away from the show. And it’s been great to watch them produced three comic book series, and run two successful Kickstarters as a duo. Plus, Gary relentlessly wrote, performed, produced, and created videos for his band, Vetika. While Phil’s been super busy on a secret project that I just learned about. And it could be a game-changer for the independent comic book industry. I’d like to take credit for giving them that extra hour and a half a week to do all this, but they really are the heroes of their stories. Super glad we shared two-plus years of talking comics.
As for the state of the podcast. Between travel and work, it’s been a mad scramble in the last quarter. With time at a premium and recent video file crashes coupled with the hours it takes to upload to two hosting platforms, I’m moving forward as an audio-only podcast at the end of this year. This has been my goal for a while, and most people listen to the episodes, so why fight it? Maybe I’ll use the extra time for my writing?
Bonus content!
For my birthday, Molly and I went to see The Fablemans. This is the autobiographic/fictional tale of Steven Spielberg’s youth. The film weaves together the creative spirit of cinema’s greatest director as his childhood family unravels around him. It’s as gripping and revealing as it is entertaining.
The last shot is note perfect. No dialog, just camera work that sums the film up. Do yourself the favor and make the journey to the movies and see this one. If you’re a storyteller of any sort, this is a must.
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