"Where ya been, Man?!?!"

How has it been six months since my last blog entry?  Wow, as Dr. Ian Malcolm was found of saying, "Life finds a way."  In this case life finds a way of getting in the way and preventing me from updating my blog.  Needless to say, I am still around doing what I do (e.g. working, podcasting, writing, and playing Donkey Kong).

Let's address something that came up in a conversation I had with some friend.  I am not an author.  I am not even sure I would call myself a writer.  Even though I have written several screenplays, two collections, of short stories, and one collection of movie reviews, writing is not even close to a career path for me.  It's a hobby that I enjoy.  So as an independent person who writes, some months I make enough money to go out to a dinner at Red Lobster...and some months I go to a dinner at Subway.  Not exactly a rags to riches story, but there's enough money that the IRS is always happy to come checking for their portion.  Note to newbie writers, authors, and people who write: Royalty payments never have taxes taken out in advance, so be ready at tax time to pay the fiddler.

I have been actively writing.  My second volume of There Goes Tokyo! reviews will be completed by the end of summer (then it's editing and formatting time) and if all goes well should be available for purchase by the conclusion of 2015.  This collection covers the Heisei Series, Millennium Series, and more.  There's over thirty reviews total and I made sure that this summer's Jurassic World made it into the book.  Nothing like sitting in a dark theatre frantically taking notes while eating a pretzel and attempting to enjoy an Icee.   I know at one point a man in the row behind me looked over my shoulder with a, "What the hell is this guy taking notes for?  Is there going to be a test?"-expression on his face.

Aside from TGT2, I have also been working on my first novella.  This one will clock in around 150-pages and, trust me, it's a bloody affair.  It'll be under my Late Night Horrors collection and should be available also before the end of calendar year 2015.  I can't share much about it other than the title - A TALE OF TWO MONSTERS.  I know there's a full-length novel in me, but I'm baby-stepping my way toward it.  Writing this novella as certainly taught me plenty since the concept was originally going to be a short story but as ballooned into a much larger work that I think is a real grabber for fan's who like scares, violence, vampires, and...did I mention blood?

Lastly before I end this entry and return to my writing I want to address something.  Wiser writers than me have often said it is a fool's errand to engage with critics.  Sadly, I guess I don't listen.  When people take the time to buy my work on various sites and post reviews, I like to respond and thank them for their time.  If the review isn't positive, I do my best to explain my point as well.  But, wow, there are some angry people out there.  I'm not sure if this is because an exchange of money has taken place or not but I find it interesting that when someone does not like something I wrote their review inevitably either offers me strong advice on what I should have done ("Go be a blogger ya bum!") or has such a powerful opinion that cannot in any sense me wrong, "I hate this book.  If you read it and like it you are wrong.  Nothing positive will ever come from purchasing and reading this book.").   My all time favorite was one from a year ago where the reviewer claimed my book (There Goes Tokyo!) was horribly edited with hundreds of factual and grammatical errors.  When I tried making some responses inquiring this reviewer to give me one example he responded with, "Well, I'm really busy but I'll be in touch."  A year later and I'm still waiting for that ONE EXAMPLE.  So I get suckered into a debate, have a negative review posted about my work, and naturally none of what the review wrote was true.  But, because I didn't follow that timeless advice of, "Don't engage with critics" I'm the one who ends up wasting his time trying to defend my work while some angry man with a keyboard simply wants to knock it down because apparently it threatens some part of their happy existence.  Weird.

But I guess there's caveat emptor and there's the law of being a critic which is if you pay your money you can say whatever you want whenever you want critiquing someone else's work whether it is the truth or not.  Seriously, the ire in some reviewers has caught me off guard, sometimes I think it may be jealousy that other people have accomplished a task like writing one (or several) books, and seen them through to completion where the buying public can read and enjoy them, which sets some people into a sour mood so strongly that instead of politely making a point they lie, name call, or just do what they can to sling mud over another person's efforts.

That said, years ago I read Susanna Clarke's book Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell.  The book received high praise from people and I was excited to delve into the world of English Magic.  Needless to say, I did not like the book.  I wrote a review and explained my position.  I never said her writing was bad, that the effort was better served as being published on a blog for free, or that anyone who liked the book was an idiot.  Simply put, I did not like the book.

In retrospect I may have been wrong.  This summer BBC America has been airing the seven-part mini-series on Clarke's novel and it's a hoot.  I am enjoying the story, the pacing, and the world that is being presented on my television.  I'm liking it so much that I may have to go back and revisit the novel since perhaps my review was too critical.  Nevertheless, I showed class in explaining my opinion and what worked and what didn't work and made sure I didn't explain to Ms. Clarke that her work was a waste of time for the planet and we'd all be better off for it.  That said, I'm no Susanna Clarke and I'm sure she's smart enough to have learned the lesson about never engaging critics.  I'm a fan of Kevin Smith and in his book Tough Sh!t he made a point of explaining that if you have creative energy get out there and share it with the world and let those sour naysayers be damned.  And that's why I'm still writing, because I have tales that need to be told.

But...there's always time for BBQ!

Godzilla 2014 & TGT2




My wife and I are fans!  We were there at the first advance showing
IMAX 3-D was incredible!  When Godzilla roared - WOW!

The summer of 2013 was a Kaiju filled three months in my house.  That’s when I was inspired to collect my thoughts on twenty-three films from the Kaiju Eiga library and see if it would work as a book.  The finished product has worked better than I could have expected.  In fact, the fun of watching movies with giant monsters was so engrossing that it pushed several of my other writing projects (including this blog) to the background.

 



The Sequel!  Prototype cover image!

And, this summer will be more of the same.  Besides booking my tickets for G-Fest XXI in Chicago this July, I have also been hard at work on the second volume of Kaiju Eiga goodness which I am calling There Goes Tokyo 2: Kaiju Boogaloo.  I’ve been talking with my cover artist on various designs and am attaching our first pass (plenty of changes coming).  We want it close enough to the original to invoke a sequel without being too much of a copy.  I'll hold off on any reveals until it's closer to sales time.  At this point in the writing I have completed the Heisei Series and will be shortly entering into the Millennium Series.  All told, this volume will contain thirty different Kaiju movies (so considering both of those series are totaling thirteen movies there’s plenty of room for some surprises - and boy did I watch a couple stinkers!).  The biggest shock was when I compiled my list of possible choices I discovered there's enough Kaiju Eiga films remaining for a third and even a fourth book in the future.  Most likely I'll wait for a Pacific Rim 2 or Godzilla 2 to have at least a couple main films to tie into all these obscure titles. 

I also have an actual novel to finish first.  I'm currently 65 pages into what looks to be a 300+ page book.  I have all the notes and plotting worked out.  There's only one character so that makes much of the writing fairly easy.  Oh and there's...monsters too...but more to human scale.  Besides works in progress I also have a long finished collection which I will be releasing shortly - the completed HORROR 101 - look for it sometime in October.  I have at least managed to get to my computer and write every single day on one project or another (a first for me as a writer).

 


My notes, never looked at the page - too dark.

Obviously the big release for Kaiju fans this summer is Legendary’s new Godzilla movie.  This was a first for me, not only seeing a great movie on the big screen multiple times, but also attempting to take notes of the movie at the same time.  It’s an interesting experience writing in a dark movie theatre, there’s no point in trying to look at what you are writing, you simply write and hope at the conclusion of the movie there is something legible and straight on the paper.  Luckily my wife has become a diehard Godzilla fan and was able to assist with the highs and lows of the movie as I furiously wrote.  Did I mention AMC provided us with a private screening?  Well, they didn’t but through fate we were all alone in the theatre.  When the lights came up I had four pages of thorough notes and a surprised look from an usher wondering, “What the hell is this guy doing?”

Here’s a picture of my movie snack leftovers along with my notes, taken as the credits rolled.  Interesting that four pages of notes translated to a nineteen page chapter in the book.  For the diehard fans, look for this to be on sale in December 2014.