the manakalita manifesto

The Final Manifesto (take 2)

2011-03-29T01:24:00.093-04:00

[EDIT: This posted in a somewhat different form back at the beginning of 2011. A lot happened prior to the New Year and I forgot to finish it properly, I have now rectified that in time for the one year anniversary of my last (proper) post!]

So ends the Manakalita Manifesto (version 4.0). I'm back for one more run around the blog, and then moving onto purpler pastures.

I stopped posting last spring to take off some of the unnecessary anxiety I was feeling for not posting to begin with. And by and large it's worked, I moved on to a few others things that were impending, most prominent among them getting married to my wife Catherine last May:

Whoo-hoo!

I think this is my favorite picture, though:

Picture © Dana Strickland

Sadly, I only got one of those cupcakes (a most excellent lemon one made by our friend Lauren) as we were bouncing around after the ceremony from guest to guest the rest of the night. A bunch were left over, but we forgot to pack any for our honeymoon. Sigh.

When we returned, I was supposed to get to the business of finishing up the final three scripts for the Critical Millennium series I started for my former creative/business partner Drew Gaska and our (well, his now) company BLAM! Ventures. Yes, these are the three scripts I was supposed to have finished at the end of 2009. Obviously life happened in full force, and continues to, as I only finished one of them. Treatments for the other two are pending, where Drew will finish the scripting duties and a magnificent series will be produced for 2012. Really.

Anyway, the first series, Critical Millennium: Dark Frontier, was released last summer to rave reviews. If you haven't read it yet, go buy it. Issues one through three are out in stores and online, and the fourth one is on the horizon (with the hardcover collection out in time for your next gift goiving holiday, to be sure). Here's the first cover for Dark Frontier, with art by the very talented Dan Dussault:

Andrew E. C. Gaska and BLAM! Ventures, LLC

In addition to taking time away from the blog, I've also backed off from writing for the most part (the above script aside). I moved onto expanding my horizons, dabbling in welding and researching a bunch of other fields I want to try my hand at.
The welding spark (yes, yes--pun) was our honeymoon, where we went up to Massachusetts to an art and craft program called Snow Farm and took a sculptural welding class together. I've wanted to work with metal for a long time, and this was a nice little taste of what could be. So the decision was made to educate myself so more and see what else it could be. I have more to learn in the future beyond my brief forays last year, but I look forward to the possibilities. Meantime, here's a couple of things we put together:

The owl got auctioned off, but we kept the American Radiator sculpture and a couple of others, all of which happily reside in our garden.

Along with Day Job and assorted reading, catching up on four seasons of Lost, a couple of Doctor Who and the like, that's been most of my past year. What holds for the future, you ask? That's the question.

I'm just about done with my fiction writing sabbatical of sorts, and I intend to get back to blogging. Just not here.

The Manakalita Manifesto no longer reflects where I'm at. Truth be told I never really had a clear direction for what this blog was about. Some vague thoughts, a few stabs at coherence, but it never really jelled for me. As I'm wont to do, I'm starting fresh. But this time I'm not doing it alone.

I originally planned to invite you to Cool Beans and Such. It was to be a blog about my life (because all blogs are pretty much self serving that way) and the things that fascinate me. I will still do that, but in recent weeks something exciting has come together with a couple of friends and the promise of that collaboration is too good to pass up.

So, along with my fiends Paul Wargelin and Bryan Landsberg, we are launching Scribblers Hall, a blog of art and fiction and the collision of the two (and more).

We'll be premiering the blog on April 15th--normally tax day--but the IRS was kind enough to move that to the following Monday because they obviously sensed we needed that day to go live [EDIT 04/18/11: Yeah, didn't happen, some time in May I imagine. Sorry, kids] . I haven't been excited about writing and creating this way in a very long time, and it is a welcome feeling.

The Manifesto will remain online for as long as I see value in that, but I'm moving on from here. The internet is ripe for the picking, and the world past my computer screen is just begging to be explored.

Life is waiting.

Not "Goodbye," just a "See ya later."

2010-03-29T00:05:00.002-04:00

Things have been anxious for me lately, hence the lack of posting (and I had done fairly good in 2009). Part of it is my upcoming wedding (the planning of which is in relatively high gear now and going well), part of it is Day Job (nothing worrisome like losing it, just change in the system) and other things of a more personal nature.

Rather than fret over not posting, I have decided to sign off for a bit in an effort to ease my mind over things that shouldn't cause me anxiety anyway. A sabbatical of sorts.

This is, of course, after I do a little makeover on the blog (nifty new banner, slightly easier to read postings, etc). I've got good timing that way.

25x52 will move to its own blog as planned, I've been playing with that layout as well. I have fallen behind on my donations, but plans are afoot to make that up and post them retroactively. I also plan to have a little addition content on that project as well. With luck, that will roll out at some point in April, and I'll make one more post here announcing it before shutting up for good until at least Autumn.

In the meantime, I'll continue to learn to live, taking a cue from here:

Right now, though, I'm going to go watch an episode of Doctor Who and go to bed.

Don't smoke, kids. Or maybe smoke, if you're on a break an in a gold metallic suit. Or somthing...

2010-03-13T00:17:00.002-05:00

Hmmm, haven't blogged in over a month. Time to rectify that.

And how do we do that? By showing the hypocrisy that is apparently thriving in Star Wars--and it's not George Lucas tellikng us he never promised a third trilogy. Rather, it's via the seemingly innocent C-3PO:

From Suvudu, here's a PSA they posted for their "Top Ten Most Awkward, Strange and Hilarious PSAs Featuring Super Heroes, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Characters"

Awkward? Yeah, but even more so when you see this...

(The folks at io9 dug up this bit of evidence.)

What kind of game are you playing, Goldenrod?

Life sucks less because you can make Lemonade

2010-02-07T19:31:00.004-05:00

I watched a documentary the other night that wound up having a profound affect on me, it was called Lemonade. The film was about, well, I'll just rip the short version from the site:

What do people who were once paid to be creative for a living do when they’re laid off? They get creative with their own lives. Lemonade is an inspirational film about 16 advertising professionals who lost their jobs and found their calling, encouraging people to listen to that little voice inside their head that asks, “What if?”

You may not be an advertising professional or work in a creative field; and hell, you may not even be on the verge of or even close to losing your job, but it certainly gives you something to think about. With my creative life in flux as it has been the last year or so, and with my leaving BLAM! Ventures--the publishing company I co-founded--last fall, I found the stories of the sixteen people involved at turns moving, enlightening and familiar.

Lemonade creator Erik Proulx is one of those sixteen, he founded the blog Please Feed The Animals to help other advertising professionals transition to new lives. In creating Lemonade, he sought to give hope to those in a position he'd been in three times himself, on the receiving end of a pink slip.

From coffee roasting to painting to gender transitioning, the breadth of change these people have gone through is simply amazing, and demonstrates that the world doesn't end when you lose a job. In fact, it can be the beginning you never knew you needed. Here is the trailer:

One of the best, and most often quoted lines in the film comes from Lisa Hickey, who said:

“Don’t be the person looking for a job. Be the person doing something interesting.”

You can watch the full video here on Hulu. If you've ever thought about what you'd do if you lost your job, or even if you've thought about ditching your job and following your dreams, the 35 minutes is well worth your time.

25x52: An Update

2010-02-06T21:39:00.001-05:00

I missed yesterday's posting, but that's OK (really, it is), because I am in the process of moving 25x52 to its own blog!

After giving it some thought, I felt that what I'm trying to do with 25x52 would be better served in a place dedicated to the idea, rather than thrown in among a mix of other thoughts. I will, of course, cross-post here when I make a new donation, but the details and links will all be on the new blog. The added bonus is I will be able to expand what I cover in relation to my donations and elaborate thoughts on giving and community service in general. And where will that blog be located, you ask? Why, right here:

http://25x52.blogspot.com

The link will remain private until I post next week's donation on February 12th (and I'll remind you in those handy cross-posts I mentioned a moment ago) as I'm still figuring out the layout. I found a nice template at Deluxe Templates, which is the first time I've not used a standard Blogger template, and will serve me until such a time as I learn to create one myself, or find a benefactor who would be willing to help fund that particular part of the project.

I will also be changing a couple of things. Actually, those changes have begun already in how I format the posts, and it may continue to evolve over time. For one, I've discontinued posting receipts with my personal info redacted. I have the first few up and I think that's enough. I initially put them up there to both act as proof of what I was doing and be another spur to call others to action by demonstrating the end result, and that it is not that hard to do this if you have the means.

I also think all the links I placed were too much, so there will only be one on the image I post at the top of the post--which will go to the home page--and one directly to a place on the site where you can donate (if there is such a page, otherwise I will indicate how best to make your donation below the link).

As indicated, I will also be expanding some of the coverage for 25x52, this may include interviews, impact stories and whatever else I can think of. It is my hope the blog will grow over time, and that you will watch and hopefully participate as it does.

I will be making this week's donation during the weekend, but will post it on the new blog next week. Until then, have a great day.

25x52: Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing

2010-01-29T20:15:00.008-05:00

Bringing you the authors of science fiction and fantasy.

- from the AISFP main page

Why I chose Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing:

A little over a year ago I discovered Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing via Lou Anders, editorial Director of Pyr Books. Lou or one of his authors was being interviewed and I decided to tune in. At that point, while podcasts were something I had known about for years, they were something I had never really listened to. After listening to that show, and browsing through some of the archives (along with the recent discovery of another fine podcast, If You're Just joining Us, at about the same time), I became a big fan of the format and of AISFP in particular.

Creator and host Shaun Farrell, along with his charming co-conspirator Sam Wynns, bring humor, love of subject and a truckload of invaluable information every time a new show hits the internet. There is a good-natured chemistry to the hosts, evident in their banter and obvious enjoyment of each others company. An aspiring writer himself, Shaun proves he is also an adept interviewer who honestly enjoys what he does and relishes the chance to learn something new during the time spent interviewing authors. Sam brings her lifelong passion for reading and all things science fiction and fantasy to the show, along with her quick wit and her other passion: teasing Shaun.

And while Shaun and Sam have a good time together, the real heart of AISFP are the interviews. Each episode brings such luminaries as Michael Moorcock, Robert J. Sawyer, Neil Gaiman and Larry Niven. Newer writers such as Tobias S. Buckell, Mary Anne Mohanraj and Thom Lloyd are also featured, as well as publishers, editors, retailers. And while the focus is on publishing, there are the occasional jaunts into other media with interview subjects such as musician Bear McCreary (Battlestar Galactica) and TV writer/producer Joseph Mallozzi (Stargate: Atlantis). Hey, I was even interviewed (briefly) for a project I'm involved in this past fall, which was very exciting for me. So, all in all a well rounded, well produced, and very fun program (my minor participation notwithstanding).

One of the reasons I began 25x52 was not only to give to charities who needed help, but also to support worthy personal and artistic endeavors that entertain and enrich our lives. AISFP fits that bill for me and many others. I have been given hours of enjoyment, and learned more about writing in the past year than I have since, well, probably the rest of my adult life. The show had a rough 2009, with Shaun Farrell moving and changing careers, and episodes more sporadic than in previous years. But friends have stepped into to help, and Shaun remains committed. So do I.

I hope you will join us.

Donate to Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing

(The donation button is on the left side of the main page)

Tuesday's Ripe Pears

2010-01-26T13:37:00.005-05:00

Haven't posted much of late aside from my 25x52 project. A short one with some old news to rectify that.

Recent movies I've seen: Up in the Air and The Book of Eli.

Verdict: I enjoyed both, but Up in the Air was the better of the two. Both are worth a watch if either appeals to you, though.

The sooper secret show I mentioned a while back, well it wasn't that secret, but it was apparently not well publicized and most people seemed to have had to win a contest to get into. And who did Catherine and I see? Well, Evelyn Evelyn of course. They were performing in a small showcase at the Slipper Room in Manhattan. It was ostensibly their first public performance, but I am skeptical of this. You can search them on YouTube and find a couple of clips. Supposedly they don't like being photographed or filmed (so alas, being the obedient boy that I am, I acquiesced to their demands of no pictures so all I have to show you is the awning above the Slipper Room's side entrance), but you can see some early footage which I'm not quite certain they are aware of. The twins (for that's what they are, Siamese twins) are a bit sheltered. They didn't speak outside of whispers between each other, or to the host Sxip Shirey, but sang in clear and beautiful voices while looking frightened and lovely and not quite strange but mysterious (yes, mysterious).

The odd thing about it all was even though they don't like pictures, a camera crew was there shooting a documentary on them. Sure, they only shot them from behind, but still.... Catherine and I were briefly interviewed, don't know if we'll make the cut. I'll let you know if we do. (That's funny, too, since we don't like pictures much either, or at least I don't).

Neil Gaiman was in attendance as well, as the twins were the discovery of his fiancee Amanda Palmer and her friend (and my favorite musician) Jason Webley. We actually didn't participate in the contest to get a spot in the audience (which was to draw Siamese animals, or some such thing), I think we got the invite because of the series of flash stories I wrote recently based on Jason's song titles. But whatever the reason, we had a wondrous time, and were back home at a reasonable hour because the show was at 3pm.

You should follow the link to their MySpace page and listen to their songs, they are quite catchy. An album will be available in March, and if you get a chance, see them in action, they'll be touring this spring.

And that's all I have for you this evening. Good night.

25x52: United Way

2010-01-22T20:15:00.001-05:00

From the United Way info page:

“United Way is a worldwide network in 45 countries and territories, including nearly 1,300 local organizations in the U.S. It advances the common good, creating opportunities for a better life for all, by focusing on the three key building blocks of education, income and health. The United Way movement creates long lasting community change by addressing the underlying causes of problems that prevent progress in these areas.”

Organization Homepage:

http://national.unitedway.org/

Why I chose the United Way:

The United Way helps provide people with the opportunity to live better lives. Through their three building blocks of Education, Income and Health they offer support and challenge everyone to do their part in making sure we are all afforded the chance to make it.

One of the best parts of the United Way is that it is a community based organization, with each of the nearly 1300 chapters across the country tackling the issues of its local neighborhoods. By establishing partnerships with local schools, businesses, governments, etc. they are able to serve the needs of the citizenry and bring the community together.

On the national level, the United Way has created partnerships with organizations such as the NFL, which gave them a visible presence in your living room during games--promoting the work they do with the players who come aboard to support them. The organization is also a part of the current efforts to raise funds and bring aid to those affected by the recent quakes in Haiti, which is just one more reason to support them.

Plus, my future sister-in-law works for them, and for me that right there was as good a reason as any to donate (she's good people).

Click here to donate to the United Way

25x52: American Red Cross

2010-01-15T20:15:00.002-05:00

From the American Red Cross’ Info Page:

“As part of a worldwide movement that offers neutral humanitarian care to the victims of war, the American Red Cross distinguishes itself by also aiding victims of devastating natural disasters. Over the years, the organization has expanded its services, always with the aim of preventing and relieving suffering.”

Organization Homepage:
http://www.redcross.org/

Why I Chose the American Red Cross:
The American Red Cross is well established and well regarded, offering a host of services to help those is need. I had already picked the Red Cross for week three when the earthquake hit Haiti the other day, so when I went to make my donation yesterday and the option to direct my contribution to relief efforts there came up, that is of course where my money went.

Normally I would only focus on the organization I’m giving to this week, but the situation in Haiti warrants further exploration, and the Red Cross isn’t the only organization out there marshaling its resources. If you plan to give elsewhere, make sure you aren’t being scammed by checking out the organizations credentials first. If you aren’t sure, ask a friend for a recommendation, or head over to Charity Navigator, an organization that tracks and vettes charitable organizations, they currently have a list of groups providing aid to those affected by the current crisis in Haiti.

Donation Page:
The American Red Cross' "Giving and Getting Involved" page

My Donation Receipt:

The 42 Challenge Review...

2010-01-14T00:42:00.003-05:00

...will start ~~next~~ Thursday, January ~~21st~~ 28th. [Because I can't get my act together, so I'll have two reviews then]

While I have finished the first book I was planning to review (Mary Robinette Kowal's debut story collection Scenting the Dark and Other Stories), my unexpected trip into New York City on Tuesday sort of knocked me for a loop, shifted my plans and further exacerbated my already wonky sleeping schedule. The concert we saw (that sooper-secret show I mentioned before, which may not have been as sooper secret as I assumed, more on that later) was well worth it, but trips into NYC always leave me tired and usually with headache, this one being no exception.

Rather than throw something together and possibly give a less than well thought out review, I've decided to hold off another week and get my balance back. In addition to Scenting the Dark I've already got a bunch of stuff lined up to absorb and review from various media (books, TV shows, music), and look forward to sharing them with you.

Don't be disappointed, the world isn't going to end because of this. I've delayed that, too.

Tuesday’s Unique Music

2010-01-12T13:37:00.017-05:00

The week got off to an interesting start, as two music related events greeted me on Monday morning.

The first, which I don’t think I can really talk about (I’ll have to confirm with the person who made the offer), prompts me to visit New York City today with Catherine for a secret concert—which I should be attending shortly after this posts (the wonders of scheduled blogging, you know). I’ll let you know how it went later, and reveal the deal if it’s not a sooper-secret event and I’m allowed to tell you all. I know for sure I won’t have pictures to offer, as they have asked attendees to refrain form taking any. Bummer, but I only have my iPhone camera which isn’t all that great anyway for high quality pictures.

The other bit of news is that I won a contest. SF Signal, a great news site for all things SF/F related, ran a contest to giveaway three copies of John Anealio’s SciFi Songs CD. SciFi Songs is a collection of Anealio’s science fiction inspired music, among my favorites’ is “George R. R. Martin is Not Your Bitch” which if you don’t know who he is and why he’s not your bitch, is probably not all that amusing (I won’t go into the long backstory here, but it involves Mr. Martin, Neil Gaiman, and a bunch of angry fans). Sadly, that one is not on the album, but other cool cuts are. You can check out some of his songs on his site. I’ll most likely have a review for the 42 Challenge after I receive it, it should be fun.

The 42 Challenge

2010-01-10T02:56:00.006-05:00

Back on my New Year's Day post I named two projects I was going to be undertaking this year (two of several, but what those others are among the unnamed will have to wait for now, they're not ready to play with you, Internet Peoples). The first was my 25x52 giving project, which has now has two weeks worth of goodness under its belt and is rolling along nicely. The second, also numerically inclined, is the 42 Challenge.

While 25x52 was my creation, the 42 Challenge was born of and is curated by Becky of Becky's Book Reviews (and a few other blogs; aside from leaving a comment on her blog announcing my participation, I haven't really made her acquaintance yet, but I will remedy that soon enough). I had heard of it last year and thought it was a neat idea, but didn't give any more thought to it until I saw a link to it again at the end of the year (or two weeks ago, take your pick), when I read her call for 2010 participants. I have been wanting to put up reviews here for a while (along with interviews, so far only one in that category, but hopefully more this year), and this seemed like a nice way to do it and hopefully get a little more traffic the Manifesto's way.

What is the 42 Challenge? Well, the short of it, borrowed from the Challenge's blog, is to...

Review 42 sci-fi related items: short stories, novellas, novels, radio show episodes, television show episodes, movies, graphic novels, comic books, audio books, essays about science fiction, biographies about sci-fi authors, etc. Adapted or abridged works are okay as well.

Keen, no?

Originally, my first entry was going to be a review of Avatar, but everyone's mother has already done one, and I have ever-growing mixed feelings about it to posit any kind of decent review. Instead, I just received a long-anticipated short story collection from Subterranean Press that I'm almost through and can't wait to tell the world about.

Starting next week the 42 Challenge reviews will post on Thursday afternoons, weekly, until I hit the magic number--and maybe beyond if I'm inclined. I'll keep my requisite running list as per the challenge rules on the sidebar somewhere with linked entries to each of the reviews (that'll go up when the first review does).

Until then...

25x52: WFUV

2010-01-08T20:15:00.005-05:00

From the WFUV’s Info Page:

“WFUV is a non-commercial, listener-supported public radio station, licensed to Fordham University for 60 years. Serving nearly 350,000 listeners each week in the New York area and thousands more worldwide on the web, and a leader in contemporary music radio, WFUV offers an eclectic mix of rock, singer-songwriters, blues, world and other music, plus headlines from National Public Radio, local news and sports and Metro Traffic.”

Organization Homepage:
http://www.wfuv.org/

Why I Chose WFUV:
To be honest, my betrothed is the real fan here. This is her station when she’s on the road with the radio on. Like the their info page says it’s an eclectic mix of music and programming and one worthy of continuing.

This is actually my second donation to the station. Last year my 23 year old car finally crapped out beyond the point where it was worth fixing (I had only had it for a couple of those 23 years). Rather than just junk it, Catherine suggested I donate it to WFUV, which I did. The process went smoothly except for the tow truck driver getting caught in traffic on the way to our house from NYC so he was a little later than anticipated. I don’t recall how much they got for the car, but I don’t think it wasn’t enough to qualify me for a tax deduction (and even if it was, I’m bad at that kind of thing, so I doubt I would have).

Donation Page:
http://www.wfuv.org/contribute/

My Donation Receipt:

Tales of Pending Rejection: Nasty in the Cupboard online

2010-01-03T20:20:00.000-05:00

My story Nasty in the Cupboard is now online at Everyday Weirdness. Go read it, it's cool. And so is the site--read that, too.

25x52: The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund

2010-01-01T20:15:00.018-05:00

From The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund’s Info Page:

“The CBLDF exists to fight censorship and defend the first amendment rights of comic book professionals throughout the United States.”

“The CBLDF's guiding principle is that comics should be accorded the same constitutional rights as literature, film, or any other form of expression.”

Organization Homepage:

http://www.cbldf.com/default.asp

Why I Chose The CBLDF:
I’ve been a comic book fan since my early teens. I love the medium and have even produced a few myself. One of the things that constantly comes up in the world of comic books are freedom of speech issues. Like any other form of entertainment, artists are going to come out with things that may offend, and like those others forms of entertainment, they have the right to do so. To take that right away from one group, means that yours could be snatched from you in the future. There's more to it than that, of course, but I don’t want that to happen for the above or any other reason, and that’s why I’ve made this my first 25x52 donation.

Donation Page Direct Link:
http://www.cbldf.com/Donations_s/2.htm

My Donation Receipt:

25x52, a new direction

2010-01-01T19:00:00.003-05:00

For several years now I have told myself that “this year” I’m going to set aside a few bucks each week and buy a toy. And while I've been known to still occasionally buy toys for myself, these toys were intended for tots. Or rather, Toys for Tots. I would see the signs around my neighborhood during the holidays and think it would be great to be able to come in and put 52 toys into the donation box. Ideally, 52 more kids would have some fun because of me than would have before. It would be great for them, and probably better for me.

Years have passed by, and I haven’t done it once. Fed up with myself, and seeing more and more great things I could be helping out--even in a small way--all through-out the year, I decided to take a different approach this year. Instead of remembering to buy a new toy every week to save for one grand gesture at the end of the year, why not give something each week to someone or some organization who needs it right then.

This, 25x52 was born. It's my small way of helping out. Not just charities, but across a broader spectrum. There are many worthy people and organizations out there, and not all are providing obvious services such as helping the needy. Some are providing enlightenment through art. Others are offering advise on getting through life without charging for it, because they want to use their life experiences to improve and empower others.

With this in mind, my goal with 25x52 is to help support charitable organizations, public service programs, arts programs and, on occasion, individual artists. And rather than doing it anonymously, I'm documenting it here on the Manifesto, in the hope that others may be moved to help out one or more of what I believe are worthy recipients.

I'm excited by this, and look forward to sharing this journey. You will see my first 25x52 donation posted tonight, with a new one every Friday through 2010. See you then.

- Christian

New Years Eve Feast

2010-01-01T17:30:00.001-05:00

We stayed home, which is more of a tradition in my family than going out is, and had a grand feast:

We got take out from The Curry Club, an awesome Indian restaurant here on Long Island (should you ever find yourself in the wilds of Suffolk County, and you happen to like Indian food, check it out). Vindalu Chicken, Lamb Boti, Korma Chicken, Vegatable Samosa, Mango Lassi and more. We were stuffed, and had leftovers enough for lunch today, even though it may not have looked much like it:

The evening was topped off with Mimosas (though not being a drinker, I just had the OJ) and New Year's wishes all around.

2010, the year of giving...

2010-01-01T17:00:00.003-05:00

Happy New Year to all!

So, you've all had about 16 hours at this point to break your resolutions--16 hours in my time zone at least, some of you have had over a day.

As for the passing year, it was more rough than smooth. Some people had a very good year, though, which is promising for the rest of us. It means that even in tough times good things happen. 2009 was an up and down year for me personally. I got engaged, left the publishing company I co-founded, was lucky enough to have my Day Job at the end while others there were not so fortunate, and watched loved ones lose theirs.

Once again I have high hopes for the New Year. 2010 promises new challenges and the next phase in an exciting adventure I started three years ago when I met my beloved. Our wedding is this May, the 15th to be exact. It's going to be an awesome event which I'm sure I'll share here.

Along with my wedding, my departure from BLAM! Ventures enables me to re-prioritize my writing life, my creative life really. I'm not going to go into all that right now, rather I'll follow Derek Sivers advise on handling that.

I will let you in on two things I'm doing, though:

The 42 Challenge. This is something I discovered only yesterday, but it coincided with something I've been wanting to do for a while now, and just haven't had the time to do. So I've signed myself up for it and should have something posted in the next couple of weeks towards this.

25x52. This one is personal, of my own creation, and why I've christened this the year of giving. It's about giving back--which in many respects has been a lacking quality in my life--and a reassessment of where I'm at. I'll have more on this in another post to follow tonight, along with my first donation of the year (which I just made a little while ago).

With that, I will wish you all a Happy New Year once more, and I look forward to taking on 2010!

Days With You

2009-12-31T23:50:00.000-05:00

This is the video for the song for one of the titles I used for the Tales from the Tomato Patch stories I wrote (one of the ones way back over the summer, not the more recent ones). Anyway, it's a fitting way to end the current year (Plus, Catherine and I are in it a couple of times--we were at the show it was filmed at--in the background, mostly shadowed, in the second half of the video. If you spot us, leave the time marks in the comments.)

Tales From the Tomato Patch #11

2009-12-31T11:00:00.002-05:00

We made it! The final story in the Tales From the Tomato Patch series. I had a lot of fun writing these (even though I didn't get a 1,111 word story in the mix like I had planned), and I hope you've had fun reading them. I'm also glad I got to finish them before the year let out. I had a lot of plans this year, and many of them didn't come to fruition, but more on that in my New Year's post tomorrow.

As for the Tales, well, I may well write more of them as Jason releases more albums. So this may not be the final tomato, er, word.

That's the future, for now here's story number eleven, enjoy:

“Almost Time”

I looked for you. There was only the bottle of coins.

Story title from the Jason Webley Quartet’s album The Cost of Living, 2007

Tales From the Tomato Patch #11: The Cost of Living by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #10

2009-12-30T23:00:00.001-05:00

Story number ten:

“There Is No Number 11”

“…stop all this ridiculous talk about an exit 11, there is no number eleven,” the woman sounded exasperated. “It’s not on the map.” They passed exit 13.

The man drove on in silence for several moments. Exit 12 came and went. Clouds gathered overhead, fog rolled in, making it twilight at 2 pm.

“That’s what he told me.”

“Well, he’s an idiot,” she replied.

After a mile he shouted, “Explain that!” Exit 11 loomed in the glow of the headlights.

“I don’t understand. It’s not on the map…”

Before she could protest, he turned toward it.

“What if he’s wrong?” She said.

“What if he’s right?” He answered, as they disappeared.

Story title from Jason Webley’s and Andru Bemis’ collaborative album How Big is Tacoma, 2006

Tales From the Tomato Patch #10: How Big is Tacoma by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #9

2009-12-29T11:00:00.001-05:00

Story number nine:

“Goodnight Evelyn”

She was beautiful in her bed, still in the moonlight like a porcelain doll or a statue, with the sheet tucked beneath her chin.

He had traveled through time, space and the myriad dimensions to find her. An entire species of sentient avians was lost in his search, a planet cracked and spread like dust in the cosmos. One dimension was swallowed up by a demon with six heads and eleventy million eyes as payment for her location.

It was all so he could see her again.

And here she lay, breath shallow, eyes restless under their lids, he had only this to say:

“Goodnight, Evelyn,” he whispered. “Daddy loves you.”

Story title from the Evelyn Evelyn album produced by Jason Webley and Amanda Palmer: Elephant Elephant, 2007

Tales From the Tomato Patch #9: Goodnight Evelyn by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #8

2009-12-28T11:00:00.001-05:00

Story number eight:

“August Closing His Mouth After a Long Summer’s Yawn”

Yuri walked unnoticed among people. This would seem surprising given that he was a large man who sweated profusely even in the cool night air, a handkerchief always dabbing at his forehead.

Yuri was used to the lack of attention, as if he were a tree or a bench or an ill dog in the street, they grazed his body as they passed but didn’t look. He felt the press and sting of their presence.

Yuri rarely had fun, only sometimes in the early morning hours before the world woke up. In quiet moments while the birds flew and the sun rose. Then the air was warm and dry and breathable.

Story title from Jason Webley’s album Viaje, 1998

Tales From the Tomato Patch #8: August Closing His Mouth After a Long Summer’s Yawn by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #7

2009-12-27T23:00:00.001-05:00

Story number seven:

“Quite Contrary”

The ladybird alighted on the branch above the spider’s web, her hindwings folding under their red and black shard. She stared at her fellow predator, asleep in the center, surrounded by the mummified corpses of recent meals.

She sighed.

“Why are you sad, little ladybird?” The spider asked, waking up.

“I wish,” the ladybird replied, “that I could make such an elegant home as you to trap my prey.”

“Ah,” the spider said, his eight eyes shone. “But I can share mine with you, and a meal as well.”

“Really?” The ladybird rushed onto the strands with joy.

It wasn’t until her second leg stuck she realized what the spider meant.

Story title from Jason Webley’s album Counterpoint, 2002

Tales From the Tomato Patch #7: Quite Contrary by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales of Pending Rejection: Time Traveling

2009-12-26T23:29:00.003-05:00

Hey Gang,

Forgot to update this with all of the holiday madness, but I had another acceptance recently. There's a cool little e-zine out there called 50 to 1, they publish 50 word stories and first lines (ostensibly of longer works, basically what they want is something intriguing that makes you wonder what the story is).

I submitted two 50 word stories and two first lines, and they accepted one of the first lines! Whoop!

You can find my entry to the most recent issue here, but check out the other pieces, it's cool what you can do with only a few words.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #6

2009-12-26T23:00:00.001-05:00

Story number six:

“Eleven Saints”

The first saint was there when she was born on a mild sunny afternoon.

The second saint loomed under a tree when she fell off her tricycle.

As she entered her teens, the third saint sabotaged her first date, thus losing her only chance at everlasting happiness.

The fourth saint smoked heavily and told her weird stories.

The fifth, sixth, and seventh saints guided her haphazardly through her twenties.

She listened to the eighth saint patiently as he worked through his issues.

The ninth saint chatted with her baby’s first saint in the delivery room.

The tenth saint was… best forgotten.

And during her final breath, the eleventh saint was ready.

Story title from Jason Webley’s and Jay Thompson’s collaborative album Eleven Saints, 2006

Tales From the Tomato Patch #6: Eleven Saints by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Stomping around the homestead and a long overdue return to the Tomato Patch

2009-12-24T11:00:00.017-05:00

Happy Christmas Eve!

Today is the first day of an eleven day vacation for me. Day Job is a distant memory until January 4th, and things are winding down here at home. The rest of the year will be a holiday festivities-filled, life assessing, office organizing, TV show catching-up on, book reading bonanza.

Things good and bad went down this year, and I think I inadvertently grew up a little more than I planned, which is OK. I also have more focus on the future, and a better handle on the present than I've had in a long time. I continue to learn to live.

One bit of unfinished business that's been buggin' me, though, is my Tales From the Tomato Patch series. I left off back in July at tale number five, and due to various events both in and out of my control, I never finished. The good news is, I have now. I spent part of the past month polishing the unfinished fragments and laying out the final stories in an acceptable order. So to celebrate the end of 2009, and continue the party for Jason Webley's eleventh anniversary of his first album's release, I will post the final six stories in the series between December 26th and December 31st. One each day at 11:00 am.

While they're all short stories (some as short as 11 words), finishing the series is actually pretty big for me. I have a habit of not following through, and the fact that I did with this makes me happy. Hell, the fact that I've kept up with this blog all year makes me happy.

For those that need a refresher, you'll find the first five stories here:

2 AM
February Relaxing Her Fingers After a Short Winter’s Grip
Days With You
Artichoke
Clown Car to Mulberry

Now, enjoy your Christmas, make merry on the New Year (obviously you'll hear from me before then, but just in case), and we'll talk soon, kids.

Winter... not so magical anymore

2009-12-21T23:42:00.000-05:00

I'm sure most know by now of the massive storm that hit the east coast over the weekend.

In my last post I remarked out how the Lego Hoth pictures made me almost wish there was snow outside my window right at that moment. You can see where this is going--be careful what you wish for and all that.

I did enjoy looking at it as the snow fell overnight. I enjoyed it less so during the two shoveling sessions (one a midnight jaunt, the other a clear morning adventure) with brother-in-law Ben and my Betrothed.

26 inches in my part of the world is more than enough to keep me going for the rest of the winter, so let's hold off with any more, Mother Nature, shall we?

The magic of winter and legos

2009-12-16T23:38:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted in a while, and will start up again soon with a bunch of cool stuff, but I couldn't resist showing off this:

I have a personal ban on Star Wars* going on at the moment, however the internet conspires against me constantly, and the above picture is just one example. Aside from the fact that it features Chewie (my favorite character, to whom I have a shrine... really... sort of), it's part of a series of awesome pictures of Legos on Hoth by photographer Avanaut on Flickr. There's even a cameo by Dr. Jones.

They're beautiful, funny and haunting all at once. Almost makes me wish there were snow outside my window right now (but I'm cool with there not being any). It's amazing what people can do with something as silly and wonderful as Legos.

This made what had been a kind of crappy day end on a high note, so I thought I'd share.

*It's more of a ban on the unwieldy and overbearing juggernaut it has become since the prequels (as opposed to the one it was before - you know what I mean), but awesomely creative people keep doing cool things like this, and I'm reminded of why the world can be a wonderful place.

Tales of Pending Rejection: 4 poems out, 3 picked up & gettin’ Nasty... again

2009-11-24T23:07:00.001-05:00

It’s been a good week submission-wise. My poem "The Sun Shines Down" was accepted two days after I had submitted it. You can find it here at the Black Lantern Publishing website (up already, pretty cool).

Buoyed by that success, I decided to head to the files and see which of my older poems deserved a new look (yeah, yeah, I’m supposed to be writing new stuff, and I have a lot of that scheduled for this holiday weekend, but I was eager to send out more). I found nine poems that weren’t cringe-inducing, and for various reasons never found a home the first time around.

I sent out four additional poems to two new markets, Rose & Thorn Journal and The Lesser Flamingo. While I have to wait at least a few weeks on the ones for Rose & Thorn, I heard back within hours on the ones I sent to The Lesser Flamingo (I love that name): both of them accepted! But not until the January issue. I’ll remind you, no worries.

I'm also giving "Nasty in the Cupboard" another run, in the daily journal Everyday Weirdness. It's a pretty cool publication and I'd be happy to be included. We’ll see what happens there.

None of these are paying markets, of course, but I’m good on that for now. Day Job keeps the bills in line and the internet pulsing. I’ve still got five more poems to dole out, and a couple of markets in mind before I start turning out some newer material. Needless to say it has been a good week thus far, made better by the fact that Day Job only lasts three days for the holiday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all.

Tales of Pending Rejection: Nasty in the Cupboard & The Sun Shines Down

2009-11-20T12:00:00.004-05:00

For over two weeks I've left you hanging. You've probably been wondering, nay pining to know where I stand with my weekly story and poem submissions. I know, I'm sorry.

But here's the good news, I've kept up on the submissions. The first story submitted, "The Six Stages of Grief," is still out and awaiting response. I've since threw out and had tossed back a 100 word flash story called "Nasty in the Cupboard" to a flash horror market called MicroHorror. Nasty was an old story written years ago, but I always liked it ad would like to see it published eventually.

That was week two, this past week I wrote a new poem called "The Sun Shines Down" and submitted it to Black Lantern Publishing. This was the first poem I had written in a while, and I'm a little nervous about it, but I like the imagery I got down on the page and am hopeful.

I'm also going to keep a running tally of these tales of pending rejections on the sidebar, updated as I submit and hear back from various markets. [Edit to add: I'm removing the tally, as it's not really a good motivator for me, and an annoyance to update - 01/12/10]

Next up: I have an idea for a superhero short story, and I have a market in mind for it. We'll see if I can pump it out in time and save the day! (sorry)

NaNo no more, and an interesting couple of weeks in the meantime

2009-11-19T23:44:00.000-05:00

Since the last time I posted a lot has happened in my corner of the world. I decided that 2009 was not the year to do NaNoWriMo. This decision was arrived at in a sensible manner by me stressing out and over-thinking my novel (the opposite of what you are supposed to do, and precisely the habit I signed on to learn to shed)—then scrapping it eight days into NaNo to try another idea that’s been floating around my noggin, only to have the same problem. Add in the Day Job, a couple of home improvement projects we had scheduled for November (that are actually happening in November) and my proclamation of submitting a short story or poem a week for as long as I could keep it up, and, well, you know…

A few drops of paint from the above mentioned home improvement projects sparked a few days of in-house arguments and tension recently that was really not about a few drops of paint. Fortunately, things are better now—or are on the road to being better in some cases—and I think points, counter-points and viewpoints are better understood by all. Plus, the bathroom is shaping up nicely.

One of the more surprising developments was my return to writing for BLAM! Ventures. As I noted here previously I had decided to leave the company. For a variety of reasons my timing was horrible and my exit was not how I had hoped it would be. I had intended to finish out several projects I was working on, but I was for better or worse being shut out during the conversation with my partner and could not make this point (and that is not his fault at all). However, I felt I could not stay any longer as I would just be stringing them along and make things worse down the line.

The happy news is relationships on that front have been patched up as well. I also find myself able to finish off the one project that I had left mid-stream I was personally upset to leave, which is co-writing the first story arc for the SF comic book series The Gilded Life, to be published sometime in the not-overly-distant-future by Archaia. I should have the remaining scripts done by the end of 2009 (three scripts in a little over 40 days is not quite on par with Bill Willingham’s recent announcement of 30 scripts in 30 days, but I’ll take it).

My contributions to the other major project I was working on, the Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes illustrated novel, will still be there, though I am not writing anything beyond what I have already. Frankly, I’m good with that. I enjoyed delving into the world more than I thought I would, but at this point in my life licensed projects are not what I am interested in writing. I’ve too many worlds crowding the real estate in my mind already, time for them to come out and be seen.

One interesting thing that came from my separation from BLAM! Ventures was the notion that I had somehow sold out in leaving. It had struck me as odd at the time though I didn’t pursue it, but further consideration has brought me to the conclusion that it’s an incorrect thought.

The way it was presented to me—at least what I got from it—was the reason I had sold out was more or less that I chose to pursue a life with my future wife and not make my career as a writer/creator my defining identity.

Here’s how Selling Out is defined on Wikipedia:

"Selling out" refers to the compromising of one's integrity, morality and principles in exchange for money, success or other personal gain. It especially refers to the attempt to increase social appeal or acceptability through this compromising.

The Urban Dictionary also has multiple definitions for Selling Out. The few I read say much the same thing as above, just cite real world examples (and those not always correct in my mind).

By the above definition, I think the opposite is closer to the truth: staying with BLAM! would have been like selling out. Had I done that, it would have been purely for any payday or notoriety as a writer I might receive. Staying with BLAM! in the long run would have compromised who I am today, and wouldn’t have been very helpful to their cause, either.

This is not to say BLAM! Ventures is an unworthy endeavor. I am proud of the books I was (and for a while yet, still am) involved in. I think the company and the projects they are pursuing are pretty awesome all around and will enjoy reading/watching them when they arrive at my local comic store, bookshop, television set, theater, etc.

Of course, Catherine (the future wife I talked about earlier) is a big part of where I’m at today and headed in the future, but the shift in my direction as a person began long before that. Indeed, those prior changes are what allowed me to be ready for Catherine when she came into my life a few years ago. They’re also what finally prodded me to make the major decision to leave BLAM! Ventures in the first place. Once I would have defined myself solely as a writer, now I’m more interested in defining myself as a person—someone who is complex and at times unfathomable to himself and others (hence some of the household stress sparked by the renovations), and who is learning to live his life in a way he never did before.

As far as I am concerned, I’m not selling out. I’m anteing up.

Story submission

2009-11-04T23:25:00.001-05:00

I submitted a flash story I wrote a while back to Every Day Fiction tonight. This was the first time in a long time I tried that. It was actually six 100 word stories that told a larger tale, I just gave it a new title ("The Six Stages of Grief"), did a bit of fancy formatting (not really, just added a few extra words, six of them being "stage"), and there you have it (can you guess what the other six words were?).

I was so happy having done it, I started a story submission tracker spread-sheet thingie on my Google Docs. After I had done that, I realized I didn't really have much else to submit. Certainly nothing recent. I wondered what to do.

That was when the AH-HA! moment happened... write more stories. And a few poems (mostly free form, but maybe a sestina, the format has always fascinated me). But mostly stories.

My new goal is to write one flash story or poem a week, and send it out for however long I can keep it up. I know, it's crazy, especially now with NaNoWriMo going on this month. I can't help it, I'm feeling free and enjoying it, and I want to take advantage while it lasts.

NaNo update tomorrow, bed now.

NaNoWriMo: Days 2-4

2009-11-04T02:14:00.004-05:00

Day One started with barely a whimper, 59 words. That's where my total stood until tonight, just after midnight when I ground out an additional 349.

Days Two and Three were zero word days, and when you're supposed to be averaging over 1,600 words a day, that ain't good. November's young yet, and I'm not too worried at the moment. I am a little surprised how the beginning is shaping up, but then, I really don't have much clue how things are going to play out in general so I shouldn't be.

My main character is a mystery still, I knocked him down a bit from my original vision of who he was so he wouldn't turn into a silly Mary Sue character. He's still got some of me in him, but hopefully not so much that it overpowers him and ruins the story.

Total word count as of Day Four: 408

Just remember kids, Day Four isn't over. And like the profile on the side there says: I'm magic...

Good night.

It has begun!

2009-11-01T00:39:00.000-04:00

59 words written since midnight rolled around. It's a small start, a mere fraction of the final goal. But I'll take it.

Time for bed now.

T-minus less than two hours

2009-10-31T22:46:00.000-04:00

Less than two hours to go until yet another Halloween passes by and I can officially begin my NaNoWriMo novel.

Halloween was pretty quiet on my street this year, only a handful of kids came, mostly in groups. One four or five year old proceeded to grab a large handful of candy as I was telling him "You can take a.... couple. OK, then." He looked up at me, and without a word ran back to his parent who were holding his bag. All the other kids were polite, saying "thanks" even when they grabbed a handful instead of a couple. We're still left with half a cauldron of candy, which Catherine and I will split between our offices and let the hungry hordes descend upon.

So, NaNo is imminent, and I've gotten very little done in the way of plotting. Right at the start I'm thinking I won't hit the 50,000 word mark. That's all right, however, a start is what I need this year so whatever I end up with is good.

NaNoWriMo update: The Greatest Year

2009-10-28T21:26:00.005-04:00

Made a little progress on my story notes today during lunch, think I might have a hook into the first book. This is good because the first book will set the tone for the three subsequent ones in the series, and it was the one I knew almost the least about (that honor belongs to the final one). Books two and three are centered around holidays so I have lots of fodder, but the first one takes place during summer, and the Fourth of July just isn't that exciting for me.

The post subtitle--The Greatest Year--is the name of the entire series. Actually, it's more of a working title that I can use here, which because I'm lazy I will shorthand TGY1 for the first book even though I hate when they do that with movie titles.

I'll reveal more as I go about writing it, so you get a better sense of what it is without spilling the beans wholesale. In the meantime, all you need to know is it's an adventure that takes a kid from the last vestiges of childhood to the brink of adulthood; with fallen friends and lost family, in a setting that's less than familiar, but still feels of home.

Unless I change my mind. Then your guess is as good as mine.

Camera Culture

2009-10-28T00:41:00.002-04:00

I only recently discovered This American Life, Ira Glass' seminal radio show about, uhm, life in America. Each week's show centers around a particular theme, examining it from various points of view through stories and essays.

Now I say "recently" discovered, but only in the I've-actually-started-listening-to-it recently sense. I first heard of This American Life when Showtime produced a six episode series back in 2007. A cursory look into the series sparked my interest. I had learned it sprang from a radio show, and told interesting stories about people and ideas and other assorted things, but simply never got around to it.

A few weeks back I was listening to the Search Engine podcast, hosted Jesse Brown, and he interviewed Glass about his career in radio, noting that he was one of his heroes. Curiosity piqued again, and my growing love of podcasts providing the perfect vehicle to find out more, I subscribed to TAL's feed and became a fan.

Tonight I came upon this YouTube clip (via Boing Boing, another on my internet loves, and the inspiration for a future blog post) from the Showtime series, though I'm not sure which episode. It's animated by Chris Ware, cartoonist of Acme Novelty Library fame, and tells the tale of school kids and fake cameras and how it all went horribly wrong...

The Devil's Dogs (and a llama)

2009-10-27T22:35:00.002-04:00

Not those Devil Dogs. Though I imagine these are dry on the outside and squishy on the inside as well.

Via The Art of M. S. Corley. He's also done some pretty awesome mock book covers for Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and other series.

Eight Days...

2009-10-23T23:42:00.004-04:00

...and counting.

NaNoWriMo 2009 and a change of direction

2009-10-22T22:29:00.009-04:00

After not being able to really able to devote the time necessary since I discovered it a couple of years ago, this year I'm going to do NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month! What is that you ask? I'll let them explain (click through to the site for further info):

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month's time.

Who: You! We can't do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let's write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era's most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

My biggest decision to make after deciding to do it was figuring out which of the several suitable backburner projects to pursue: 1) The near future genre mash up with giant monsters, luchadores, Lovecraftian creatures, alien invaders and more; or 2) a contemporary horror/thriller set in a city you can’t easily escape; or 3) a YA novel about a boy whose twelfth year takes several unexpected turns (there's some magic in it, but it will most likely be of the wonderment kind since he's not a magician). The first two are pretty massive undertakings, containing large worlds inhabited with lots of characters and I haven't had too much opportunity to really think them out yet. That's what knocked them out of contention.

The YA book, well, it's a bit smaller in scale (even though it is the first of four) and somewhat more fleshed out in my head. I've just over a week to get down further notes, ideas etc. (you can't start actually writing until November 1st), and plan to spend part of this weekend doing just that. At the end of each day you're supposed to update your word count on their site, I'll do it here as well, perhaps with occasional excerpts and updates on the action. The goal is 50,000 words in 30 days. Tough on a full time Day Job, but not impossible. I'm excited for the challenge, and the new direction in my writing.

That new direction comes at a price, however. I've posted before about my involvement with the upcoming Planet of the Apes novel, as well as my own creator owned comic series, both produced by the company I co-founded--BLAM! Ventures--and the latter to be published by Archaia. For reasons mainly personal, as of October 1st I have left BLAM! and both of those projects. It was a difficult decision, but one a long time coming and which I believe will be best for myself and for BLAM! Ventures in the long run.

My friend and BLAM! partner Drew Gaska has been stewarding these projects and more at BLAM! for a while now, and I know he will bring you nothing less than the highest quality entertainment. When they arrive I will be trumpeting them to all who will hear, and I will be eagerly awaiting to see the final product myself.

The funny thing about all of this is for the longest time I have been disheartened with my writing life and fully expected to back away for months at the very least before trying again. A week ago, though, I saw the link to NaNoWriMo and the spark I got quickly spread to flame. I feel a desire to write that I haven't in years. It may not last, I may fall back to where I was before on the brink of giving it up, but for now the words call to me again. And I believe I am back in the business of listening to them.

Nine days and counting...

Personally I don't care for the word

2009-10-22T00:02:00.000-04:00

But since the holidays are coming, I figure I can make an exception.

Let's hear it for randomly placed objects!

Does he wish he was in Dixie...

2009-09-21T22:49:00.004-04:00

...or was the owner of this bike just a really big fan of The Dukes of Hazzard and couldn't afford a '69 Dodge Charger?

Saw this at a local movie theater in Holbrook, NY. Couldn't tell if the gas tank had a confederate flag on it or not, that would've been too much.

AISFP interview (I'm interviewed, not AISFP, silly)

2009-09-06T22:40:00.005-04:00

Exciting news! My first interview for the Planet of the Apes novel I'm co-writing is up at Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing podcast right here.

I was interviewed back in July by Lou Anders for the podcast during San Diego Comic Con. The interview itself was a bit unexpected, I had invited Lou over to see the booth and say hi as I had only meet him in person once before and was curious to get his reaction to what we were doing with POTA. When he told me he was doing short interviews for Shaun Farrell over at AISFP and asked if I would like to participate, I was quick to say yes.

Anyway, Shaun (another guy I would someday like to meet in person), has now put the interview online. You can find it here, my segment begins at 37:26 but I encourage you to listen to the whole show because AISFP is always entertaining and informative.

Enjoy your evening, and tomorrow to, should you have it off.

Oh, hey, and another thing...

2009-08-27T10:34:00.003-04:00

Yeah, so, uhm, the other big(ger) news: I got engaged!

Whoop!

Catherine and I are getting married next May. I realized this morning I had posted that on Facebook last week, but forgot to note it here.

Here we are at my sister and brother-in-law's wedding shower in 2007 (also, Happy Anniversary to them, married 2 years now--but together 9(ish)!):

(photo by Kim Shapiro)

New glasses

2009-08-26T23:20:00.005-04:00

So, after many years of not seeing an eye doctor, my primary care physician told me to go.

And I did.

And now I have spanking new glasses, shown here:

My eyes were not that bad all things considered. One eye is nearsighted, the other farsighted (they even out, see?), and I have astigmatism. The lenses make the world clearer, thus making the reading and driving I was advised to use them for a bit more focused--one hopes on multiple levels.

I wore glasses briefly as a young teen, but either wasn't given much choice, or there wasn't much choice as the frames I had were large and heavy despite being rather thin (no, they weren't Buddy Holly frames, but they did have presence and they were a pale gold color). I didn't wear them long, at the time I didn't feel I was getting any benefit from them and they quietly went away.

I do see an immediate improvement with these, however, but I do hope the slightly wonky feeling my eyes have right now is just a matter of adjusting to the new element. The only real drawback to my chosen frames is something I discovered while typing this entry. The shape doesn't allow for easy checking of the keyboard as I type. If my glasses are up high on the bridge of my nose for better viewing of the screen, I find myself looking under the bottom rims when I glance down at the keyboard. I'm one of those in between typists--I don't hunt and peck, I use more than my index fingers--but I can't fly across the keyboard with my eyes on the screen and hope to get anything legible out of it.

I'm sure a solution will be found, or I'll get used to quickly adjusting their position. Or, I'll become some sort of mutant head contortionist and bend my neck in all sorts of directions to obtain the perfect keyboard view. In the meantime, I've bored you enough with my tales of clear vision and posable body parts.

Goodnight all.

The I Haven't Read Your Angry Robot Book Interview, with special guest Chris Roberson

2009-08-06T22:36:00.007-04:00

The Introduction

I met Chris Roberson briefly at the BookExpo America held in New York City in 2007. It wasn’t a planned thing, more of what I would come to think of as fortunate circumstance.

I was attending with two purposes in mind: the first to touch base with my then prospective, now current comic publisher Mark Smylie of Archaia; the second reason was to meet Lou Anders, the editorial director of Pyr, who happened to be one of Chris’ publishers. Lou introduced us and had nothing but praise for him. Before went parted ways Lou, excited about Chris’ work, made sure I and my companions had copies of the ARC for Set the Seas on Fire and the chapbook for the novella Line of Dichotomy, both being books not even published by his company—but that’s just how Lou Anders rolls, I’ll have more on him in another, future entry. The two stories represented his two major series, the Bonaventure-Carmody sequence and the Celestial Empire universe respectively. Chris graciously signed all of our copies, with a note to read Cordwainer Smith—a subject of conversation at the Expo, and he’s is on my reading list, really, I’ll get to him—and we were shortly on our way.

Not too long afterwards, intrigued with the setting of the Celestial Empire stories (in brief, an alternate reality where China has become the major superpower on Earth and vies for control of the stars with challenger the Aztecs), I finally sat down and read a few of them available online. I quickly fell in love with the concept and the storytelling and have been a fan since.

I had set up an interview with Chris for earlier this year for his YA novel Iron Jaw and Hummingbird, but unfortunately that fell through due to reasons on my part. Chris has been kind enough to agree to second interview, this time to talk about his latest offering, Book of Secrets from Angry Robot Books. Fueled by a lifetime love of all things pulp, cartoon, comic and stuff that’s just plain cool, Chris Roberson is an intriguing mix of influences, with a style and voice wholly his own.

We talk about Book of Secrets, of course, but I also wanted to get a broader picture of the man behind the words. With that in mind I touched on a few other topics, including his recently announced creator owned comic book series with artist Mike Allred called I, Zombie from Vertigo, a brief note on his own publishing company MonkeyBrain Books, and the cutest little blonde kid on the web, his daughter Georgia (pictured below with dad).

The I Haven't Read Your Angry Robot Book Interview

Manakalita Manifesto: As the title of this interview series implies, I haven’t read your book yet (‘cause that’s the gimmick here), and know little about it beyond the description on the Angry Robot site and the few reviews I’ve read. I’ll be linking to the Angry Robot page for Book of Secrets, but can you expand a little on what readers can expect?

Chris Roberson: Book of Secrets is a murder mystery combined with a secret history of mankind, wrapped up in a story about a man coming to terms with his heritage. Oh, and there are gangsters, masked avengers, highwaymen, mythological beings, cat-burglars, and more, to boot!

MM: Books of Secrets began life as a novel called Voices of Thunder. Was this a part of your output during the publishing era of your writing group Clockwork Storybook?

CR: It was indeed. I actually started working on the story that ultimately became Book of Secrets shortly after I graduated from college in 1992. I’d written two novels in college (which thankfully will never see the light of day), and when I began working out the story of Spencer Finch, the Black Hand, and the secret history of mankind I figured I’d have it written in another year or two, at most. As I continued researching and outlining, though, the story kept getting bigger and stranger. Over the course of the next decade or so I wrote bits and pieces of it here and there, but it wasn’t until I was part of the Clockwork Storybook writers group that I decided it was time to finish the damned thing. That version of the story was published as Voices of Thunder through the CWSB imprint, and probably sold a dozen copies, if I’m being generous. I was never entirely happy with that version, though, and kept noodling with it over the following years, until finally a year or so ago I got it to a point where I was willing to let the world see it in its finished state. Angry Robot got in touch to see if I had anything to submit, and things took their natural course.

MM: Does Books of Secrets tie into any of your other fiction or is it a stand alone? I’m thinking specifically of the Bonaventure-Carmody sequence.

CR: Book of Secrets is entirely standalone, but you’re not wrong in thinking that there might be connections between it and the Bonaventure-Carmody novels, though most of the connections are from the other direction. That is, in several Bonaventure-Carmody novels there are references to characters and situations from Book of Secrets (most notably in End of the Century, published last spring by Pyr), some obvious and some less so.

MM: I read a bunch of reviews in preparation, and perhaps my favorite quote from the lot is the Random Musings review: “This tremendous modern fantasy is like The Da Vinci Code rewritten by the Coen Brothers.” That’s quite a mash up there, what was your reaction upon reading that?

CR: It’s not a formulation I would have come up with on my own, probably, but I think it fits the book as well as any “It’s This meets This” formulas. My conscious models in writing the novel in the first place were people like Umberto Eco, though I’ve since recognized fellow travelers in reading the novels of Arturo Pérez-Reverte and Hal Duncan.

MM: How did you become a slave to the metal overlords at Angry Robot? What enticed you to join the ranks? Is the “angry” part of their name just for show and they’re really just a bunch of mellow mechanical constructions?

CR: I’d worked with Angry Robot publisher Marc Gascoigne in his days at Black Library and Solaris, and the scars had all healed by the time he contacted me in the early days of Angry Robot. Honestly, he had me at the words “Angry” and “Robot”—everything else after that was gilding the lily.

MM: Being that Book of Secrets was originally self published, I wanted to know what your take on that aspect of publishing was. In pretty much every other form of entertainment the DIY method of getting your work out there is no longer looked down upon—if, indeed, it ever was in some of them—yet in the literary field it is still considered bad form and that strikes me as such backward thinking. What are your thoughts on this?

CR: I essentially self-published four novels, and don’t recommend that anyone try it. There are the occasional success stories, but for every one person who sells a healthy number of copies of their self-published book there are literally thousands of writers who manage to sell only a handful to their friends and family. One of the inherent problems with self-publishing prose, I think, is that it takes time to judge the quality of a novel or story. You have to read it to see if it’s any good. (You can often tell if something is horrible in the first sentence, but the difference between “good” and “mediocre” can often take pages and pages of suffering to determine.) If a musician self-publishes online or on CD, you can tell within a minute or two if this is something you’re going to be interested in. A self-published comic? Glance at the cover and one or two interior pages. Independent movies can be trickier, but there’s an example where they’ve managed to established a process for self-produced and self-financed films to reach a wider audience through the various film-festivals and such.

In the days of Clockwork Storybook, we had this utopian vision that if we simply produced good work and put it out there, the audience would find it. We did a monthly webzine with original stories and art, and published novels and story collections by the members. But though we managed to get some good reviews from “mainstream” genre outlets, the books themselves were just lost in the sea of crappy POD and self-published titles. (There’s often a reason why those thousands of self-published authors never sell any copies.)

If someone has already established a large following, whether through being published before by high-profile mainstream publishers or by having a heavy-traffic blog or something like that, then I think self-publishing might be viable. But for a writer just starting out, it’s an absolute waste of time. If your goal is to have published a book, it’s fine, but if your goal is to actually have people read that book, or maybe even have a career in writing, then it’s the wrong row to hoe.

MM: OK, so the last question has kind of shifted us off topic a bit, but since we’re tackling a slightly off topic subject, perhaps we could jump on a few more. You can consider it a lightning round if you like. Though you’re more than welcome to give more than a one word answer. Here we go:

According to Wikipedia, there are two other Chris Roberson’s out there of note, both athletes. What do you know of them and are they worthy of your name?

CR: All I know about them is that they show up constantly in the automated Google searches I do on my name, and that I can’t help but feel a nonsensical bit of pride that I’m still the top couple of hits on Google for “Chris Roberson.”

There are a few other Chris Robersons, though, including an artist in Chicago, an academic, and a musician. I think we should form a League of Chris Robersons and take over the world.

MM: You have an adorable little girl named Georgia to whom you devote a lot of space on your site. What’s the best thing for you about being a dad?

CR: My daughter is an antidote to depression. It’s just impossible to be down when I’m around her. In addition to being beautiful and a genius (objectively speaking, of course) she’s also hilarious, and can always manage to crack me up. We spend a lot of time together watching cartoons, reading comics, and drawing pictures of monsters, robots, and aliens. What could be more fun than that?

MM: You’re a publisher as well as a writer, guiding MonkeyBrain Books with your wife Allison. Often you call your publishers your “masters” or “overlords,” do you make your authors do the same for you?

CR: Ha! No, and I wouldn’t let them if they tried. Many of the writers I’ve published are people I admired even before I started the publishing company, and one of the main reasons I started MonkeyBrain was so that I could publish more books by them to put up on my shelf. My novel End of the Century is dedicated to three writers who have been particularly influential on me—Alan Moore, Michael Moorcock, and Kim Newman—and it’s no accident that I’ve published books involving each of them.

MM: All right, the lightning round is over. I just want to wrap this up with a couple of congratulations and then give you the final word.

You’ve been nominated for a Sidewise Award, which honors works of alternate history, for your novel The Dragon’s Nine Sons. This is your second nomination—a wonderful achievement in itself—and hopefully your second win, since you took the short-form prize home in 2003 for “O One” a short story also set in your Celestial Empire universe. I know this news has been out for a while, but with the presentation of the award coming up soon at Anticipation, the 67th Worldcon in early August, I figured it was a good time to remind people.

CR: Actually this is my fourth nomination, if I’m remembering correctly. I’ve been up three times in short form, and once in long form. I don’t have any expectation of winning this year at all, given the contenders I’m up against. The only way I’m taking that plaque home is if the jury somehow mistakenly believes that Terry Pratchett is spelled “C-H-R-I-S R-O-B-E-R-S-O-N.” Nation is arguably the best book he’s written in a long career filled with great books, and deserves all of the accolades it can get. (Though I wouldn’t mind seeing my pal George Mann win for his novel The Affinity Bridge, though, come to that.) [MM: UPDATE - Apparently the jury did see fit to misspell Mr. Pratchett's name, Chris won the Sidewise award for his novel The Dragon's Nine Sons. Congrats, Chris!]

MM: The more recent, and equally exciting news, was the announcement from Vertigo of your creator owned comic with Mike Allred called I, Zombie. The details were laid out at the Vertigo panel at San Diego Comic Con this year and expanded upon in a very fine interview at Comic Book Resources, so rather than rehash those particulars, how about you tell us just how cool is it to have your own comic book?

CR: It is ridiculously cool. I’ve been a comics fan my whole life, and been to the comic shop every week for new release day for the last thirty years or so. And I’ve been a fan of Allred’s work for nearly twenty years (has it been that long?), since the days of Grafik Musik. Getting the opportunity to write comics was already mind-blowing enough, but having the chance to work with Allred as a collaborator? On an ongoing creator-owned book from Vertigo? Unbelievable.

(I just hope this is my karmic reward for all of the bad shit I’ve had to endure the last few years, and that I’m not racking up a karmic debt that I’m going to have to repay sometime down the road!)

Where to find Chris and Book of Secrets

Book of Secrets is out now in the UK, and available October 15, 2009 in the US and the rest of the world (because there are just too many of you countries to name).

For more on Chris Roberson, visit his website.

Yes, there was a second day at Comic Con

2009-08-06T22:09:00.003-04:00

But, no, I'm not going to rehash it here.

For all the fun and excitement, pop over to The Conspiracy Apes, the blog I started to chronicle the happenings leading up to the publication of our first Apes novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes next spring.

I do have some other things going on here at the Manifesto, however. Yes, I will someday finish my Tales from the Tomato Patch series of flash stories. No, it did not happen by the end of July like I had hoped. This was due in no small part to my trip to San Diego, and the fact that my health was absconded by some variation of the flu shortly after returning home. Life is better now, but there was a night of chills and a 102 degree fever where all seemed lost.

But before I get back to the stories, I have an exciting new development with this blog: the introduction of interviews!

I had mentioned the possibility of this before, and it's time has come. A long time ago I had worked for a comic industry periodical called Comic Culture, and among the feature stories and reviews, I also got a chance to conduct interviews with creators. It was probably my favorite aspect of working for the paper (aside from transcribing the tapes, hated that part of it). I loved getting the chance to sit down with people I admired, or getting to know creators I knew little about. I talked to Stan Sakai of Usagi Yojimbo fame, who was really nice and who I crossed paths with again a couple of years ago. Sadly that time he was late for a panel, I for a meet up with friends, and I didn't get to talk to him for more than a few seconds (it was a phone interview anyway, so I didn't even have the opportunity for him to say "Hey, you look familiar...." I also interviewed both Walt and Louise Simonson, on separate occasions, the second of which my partner and I were treated to pancakes made by Louise.

So, I had a good time doing them and have lately wanted to do more. The next post will see the first of what I hope is many interviews with people I admire from the literary and comic worlds. It features author Chris Roberson, who I became acquainted with a couple of years back, and is also one helluva nice guy in his own right.

I hope you enjoy this new facet of the Manifesto, and I'll be back soon with more Tomato Tales. Promise.

First Day Down

2009-07-24T02:56:00.004-04:00

First for me, the others have been here a day or two already.

Settling down finally after a long day of travel, booth monitoring, premise explaining, convention wandering and dinner searching.

Dinner was something of a comedy of errors, pretty much all on the kitchen staff's part. From a late entree to an undercooked burger most of the stuff that could've gone wrong did. The waitress was good though, got everything right in the end and took my dinner off the bill.

I'm alone in the hotel room right now (I'll post a view later) and enjoying the quiet and not having to walk or stand for a while.

Time for sleep.

Edit to add:

San Diego Comic Con

2009-07-23T19:32:00.000-04:00

This is a big convention:

More later...

Happy Birthday, Sis!

2009-07-22T11:17:00.003-04:00

Today is my sister Dana’s birthday. I can be pretty crappy at showing the love, but I’m trying to get better at it. So here’s to you, sis, enjoy your day. See you at The Olive Garden for dinner tonight and for Chocolate-covered Strawberry Short(Cup)cakes later!

Birthday bonus: Cuteness abound!

The Ultimate RickRoll!

2009-07-21T23:10:00.004-04:00

This is awesome! How come this did not happen before now?

I'm a fan of Nirvana. And, yes, I even like Rick Astley (go ahead and do your worst). So this so works for me.

Cobain on the other hand, probably Rickrolling in his grave.

Other things that occupy my time

2009-07-19T13:09:00.005-04:00

News of the POTA novel I posted earlier is the highlight of the day, and indeed we've been getting a steady stream of people signing up for the mailing list and I expect we'll start hearing from news outlets shortly, but I’ve got a few other doings in the works.

I’ll be continuing my Tales from the Tomato Patch series shortly, with an eye for finishing up by month’s end. I’m enjoying these stories, but they’re not always as easy to write as I had hoped. That, and I have, you know, a novel to work on and stuff. There’s six more to go, and it occurs to me now that I should pop over to the Jason Webley forums at his site and maybe let them know about it. Something to do this week maybe.

I will also be starting my I Haven’t Read Your Angry Robot Book Interview series soon. My first interview will be with Chris Roberson, author of Book of Secrets, which is due out on August 6 (I hope to have it up by then). Chris will be at San Diego Comic Con to promote his newly announced Vertigo series I, Zombie. Follow the link for a brief description, it sounds cool (and I’ll sneak in a question about that for the interview). I still have yet to choose who my next Angry Robot interview victim subject will be, but I’ll wait until after the con to decide.

Also, I have a few scripts to write in what I believe will be our second Critical Millennium series from Archaia. The first series, set in the Dark Frontier time period, is scheduled to debut in the spring (which, along with the POTA book, means a lot of product coming out from our camp next year).

That’ll do for now. Talk to you soon.

Beans. Spilled. Finally.

2009-07-19T11:33:00.004-04:00

So, I hinted earlier in the year about a big project I was working on. If it hasn’t already, news should be filtering out soon, though for the sharp eyed among you, you probably already know this. While we waited for a few things to fall into place before the news could be officially released rumors have been circulating among fans for a few weeks now, and the news broke on one the Planet of the Apes fan groups a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah, that’s what I said. Planet of the Apes.

To add to the pre-announcement hype an image was posted last week on Joe Jusko’s DeviantArt page.

Yeah, that’s what I said. Joe Jusko.

What do Planet of the Apes, Joe Jusko and I exactly have in common? We’re both working on a new illustrated novel set in the POTA universe (the Heston one, not the Wahlberg one, you can breath easy now) and being put out by the company I started with my friend and co-writer Andrew E. C. Gaska, along with our other co-writer Erik Matthews.

Yeah, that’s what I—waitwaitwait. Neither Andrew, Erik nor I are gonna really spark any name recognition in you. At least not yet. Back to the news:

The book is called Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, it’s the first of two we have signed on for with Fox (though I’m only in on the first one), and it’s going to be a wild ride for long time fans of the series. We’re staying true to the spirit of the original films, filling in gaps while revealing untold tales, and generally having a grand time with it all.

Conspiracy centers on the character of John Landon, the navigator of the Liberty One mission that crash lands on a mysterious planet ruled by Apes. Where the movie focused on Heston’s character George Taylor, Conspiracy shows you what happened to Landon. Those who have seen the movie will know his fate, what you don’t know is how he got there. And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.

The coolest part, at least to my mind, is the fact that this is an illustrated novel. That means we were able to bring on board a lot of top notch talent from the comic book and illustration worlds. Not only did we get Joe Jusko, but Ken Kelly, Matt Busch, Tom Scioli, Arthur Suydam and more. Twenty plus artists have contributed, along with a cover image by the legendary Steranko! These guys are pouring their hearts into the work they are doing and what I’ve seen so far is amazing.

I've been sending out press releases all weekend and forwarding links to our website to get the word out. Take a click over to the site we’ve set up for it and have a look around. Also, be sure to visit us at Comic-Con International in San Diego this coming week (July 22-26), we’ll be exhibiting at booth 2547, showing off a handful of paintings, offering a couple of prints for sale, along with their respective artists at the booth to sign them (Jusko and Sanjulian!), and have a couple of other “while supplies last” assorted goodies.

You can, of course, check back here for periodic updates, where I’ll hopefully offer some different perspective than you will find on the official site (hey I like traffic, too). Either way, take note of the progress, because it’s going to be awesome.

Edit to add: Oh yeah, the book will be out sometime in the Spring of 2010.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #5

2009-07-13T23:38:00.005-04:00

Hello!

Once again, long time between entries. And yes, the Eleventh Anniversary show has passed us by. That's OK, I started the celebration here early, I can stretch it out. For those new to the blog (and I expect some new people shortly with news that will be breaking in the next day or two), start here to find out what this whole Tales from the Tomato Patch business is about. The rest of you press on!

I've been busy with Day Job, and busy with some other matters which have caused me to hold off on entries for a bit. While Day Job must continue, and other matters still prevail, I promise to get cracking and bring the remaining stories to you by month's end. Six more to go from this point, and without further delay, I give you tale number five:

"Clown Car to Mulberry"

They had packed into the car, less like sardines, but still way beyond what they should have.

Springtime was a powerful elixir to the young, many songs were sung of fortunes lost and status won. From the tundra of the campus to the ivory tinted beaches, the blinding white light would not be the same. Neither would they, each secretly hoped.

It’s funny how something so small as a used condom on the road could stop your progress (best not to ask how). And an evening spent on a damp roadside, watching dreaming buffalo float in sharp contrast to a moonlit field of lime green grass, can leave you wanting cookies.

BONUS! Check out the song that inspired it. It was written by Jason Webley with a bunch of college kids while he was on tour in late 2007 and a lot of fun:

Story title from Jason Webley's collaboration with a bunch a show stragglers and/or college kids from Nov/Dec 2007 (Sorry, I have no more information, but if you do let me know in the comments!)

Tales From the Tomato Patch #5: Clown Car to Mulberry by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #4

2009-06-23T00:31:00.003-04:00

Story number four:

"Artichoke"

The sign read:

The Lonely Artichoke Hearts Club
~ Singles Support Group ~
We meet every Thursday evening.

Bring three artichokes, your favorite recipe,
and any ingredients you need.

We’ll supply the love.

Byron had been lonely, and he liked artichokes, so on Thursday he found himself at a small apartment with a middle-aged mother of three grown boys. They were joined by a former college football star, two septuagenarians (one black, the other white, both life long friends), a transgendered woman, a retired math teacher in a dusty tweed sports coat, and the lovely Lola.

Both the college football star and Lola smiled at him.

He didn’t think he’d be lonely anymore.

Story title from Jason Webley’s and Reverend Peyton's collaborative album 2 Bottles of Wine, 2007

Tales From the Tomato Patch #4: Artichoke by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #3

2009-06-22T00:27:00.003-04:00

Yeah, this is a long time coming, and I'm running out of time to get these up, so, here's number 3, with a promise of the fourth one Monday evening.

"Days With You"

H. Chang had shuffled back and forth between stovetop and deep fryer and freezer in the kitchen of the Pensive Dragon Palace everyday for nearly twenty years.

His wife had left him and come back five times during the first five years the Pensive Dragon was open. After the sixth time, she hadn’t returned.

Still, H. Chang walked the walk in his kitchen. He never missed a day, never opened late, closed early.

His wife had called in the morning, telling him she was back home.

“I miss my days with you,” she said.

A crowd stood outside the restaurant at 4:30 when she arrived.

The Pensive Dragon Palace was closed.

Story title from Jason Webley’s and Sxip Shirey's collaborative album Days With You, 2009

Tales From the Tomato Patch #3: Days With You by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Gaiman & Palmer

2009-06-07T01:37:00.005-04:00

Here's a tale about a writer and a musician and a little cafe in Manhattan:

Last Wednesday Catherine and I headed into NYC to see Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at Housing Works for SPIN’s Liner Notes event (the blurry picture above is the best I could get with my iPhone from where I was). It was the second entry in SPIN’s new series pairing a writer and a musician.

It was a very cool night as they traded off spinning stories and singing songs, pausing only to auction off an advanced copy of Ms. Palmer’s photobook Who Killed Amanda Palmer, which Mr. Gaiman wrote stories to accompany; and to interview each other with audience questions, during which it was revealed to the world they have been dating for several months now (and I thought that was lovely for them, good on you guys! I did have to resist the urge to title this post “Gaiman & Palmer sittin’ in a tree…” thought that would just be in poor taste).

You can find other places online to give you a rundown of who performed what during the evening, but I will let you know the auction generated $1,300.00 for Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, an organization that supports homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with AIDS. (Other reported amounts for the auction itself varied, from reports of $1,100.00 to $2,000.00, but being there I watched in amazement as it crept up to the $1,300.00 as both Palmer and Gaiman at times proclaimed “Naked Amanda Pictures!” to the audience.) The night has a whole garnered something like $10,000.00 for the charity. Awesome.

I had seen both of them live once before, each on a different occasion. Neil Gaiman I met at a convention years ago in NYC not too long after I had discovered Sandman. It was a signing, where the convention volunteers wrangling the line made sure to tell everyone not to talk to Mr. Gaiman because he didn’t like that, and generally made him sound to be some sort of fan-hating monster. My friend and I thought this weird, and I was worried the experience would be short and uncomfortable. It wasn’t. He was very pleasant, saying something to me which I can’t recall now as he signed my copy of Death: The High Cost of Living #1 and some random Sandman comic (which I wish was issue number 42, the first one I had read – huh, 42, I just got that – but of course was not). I’m shy in person, and take a while to warm up to people, so I’m sure I mostly responded to his kindness in brief. I do recall leaving there thinking the convention staff at that signing were idiots, probably trying to make themselves seem more important that they were. Mr. Gaiman proved to be nothing more than the incredibly wonderful and charismatic guy he was then and is now.

Amanda Palmer I saw in concert with Catherine on New Years Eve 2007 as she played with her band The Dresden Dolls. It was an awesome show where New Years came six minutes late because someone stopped watching the clock or something. It didn’t matter. The energy of that night was incredible, and though I had only become a fan a few months prior (I sense a theme here), I became one for life that night. It was an extra special night because that was Catherine and my first New Years together, and a grand way to spend it.

That’s my story about Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer. I have more to say on both, and will do so soon enough but this was a bit timely and timeless as far as events in my life go, so I wanted to share now. Moby was there, too, but aside from passing ten feet in front of me, he doesn't really figure into this tale.

One odd off-shoot of the whole affair occurred over on writer John Scalzi’s Whatever blog. A reader emailed to scold him for not letting the world at large know via his corner of the internet about the Gaiman/Palmer romance. He went on a little rant about why, even if he had advance knowledge of such relationship, he was not obligated and/or inclined to do so. While he sometimes gets a little too snarky for me (though I hang on because he is damned entertaining in all other aspects), Mr. Scalzi has a pretty much spot on sense of what is right/appropriate, and let the anonymous emailer know exactly what he thought of the scolding. It’s weird how some people view those working in entertainment.

Tales From the Tomato Patch #2

2009-06-06T23:11:00.005-04:00

For those who just wandered in, this is the second in a series of stories celebrating the eleventh anniversary of Jason Webley’s first album. This one is 111 words long. For the deal, see the last entry on June 1. There isn’t a “Tales From… #1” , because I didn’t think to name this series of posts until after the first was up.

So as not to be quite as loquacious this time out, we’ll get to the story and I’ll save further commentary for a future post (enjoy!):

"February Relaxing Her Fingers After a Short Winter’s Grip"

Oksana exhaled slowly, watched the tendrils of condensation form, rise and disappear in the air. Her golden hair caught the mid-winter sun and held it haloed around her head.

All about her men, women, children, and animals paused to stare. She paid them no mind as another cloud of breath was fashioned before her, though not quite the same as before. This one was thinner, easier to see through.

The city had all but stopped as Oksana slipped off the ledge of the retaining wall she sat upon, and walked further into its heart. For those who had witnessed her that day, in that moment, hope had touched their hearts.

Story title from Jason Webley’s album Only Just Beginning, 2004

Tales From the Tomato Patch #2: February Relaxing Her Fingers After a Short Winter’s Grip by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

First things last (edit to add: Tales From the Tomato Patch #1)

2009-06-01T23:25:00.008-04:00

Welcome to the end of the first day of June, I hope you enjoyed it.

Yesterday I returned from a ten day vacation that had me traveling from New York to North Carolina to Florida and back home again. It was a good trip, but exhausting, so I wound up taking an extra day off from the Day Job to recover (which I have mostly done now, so sadly back to work tomorrow, excuses gone).

Last time I promised to start exploring the things I love here on the manifesto through a series of profiles, and also conduct a separate series of interviews. This post contains neither of those.

Instead, I offer up the first of a series of short short stories inspired by my favorite musician: Jason Webley. I told you here about the awesome concert of his Catherine and I went to last January; this upcoming July 3rd marks the eleventh anniversary of his debut album Viaje.

One of the things I should have done was write a profile of Mr. Webley first, but time is slippy, and, well you know. The profile will now come at the end of this series of stories, and may be the better for it. You’ll learn a bit about him through the story titles, because each is named after a song on one of his many albums.

One thing you will notice about Mr. Webley is he has a thing about the number eleven. It’s the name of his record company, figures into some of his songs, and in general is a good number to have around (he also has a thing for tomatoes, but I still haven’t figured that one out quite yet.). To honor that, all of the stories I write will be either 11, 111, or 1,111 words long, and, of course, there will be eleven of them all together between now and his anniversary concert on July 3rd.

I only have one written, the one below, and a few others sketched out, so this may well end up being a seat-of-the-pants type operation. I hope you’ll excuse that and know this is all in celebration of an artist I admire and am inspired by. Most of the stories will have nothing to do with the songs they are named for, though some might. Some might borrow a few words, others an image or two, but you need not be familiar with the songs to enjoy the stories. I will try and get permission to post the songs in the future (and if I can figure out how), so those who have never heard his music can have some fun at the juxtaposition.

I believe that covers most of what you need to know going in, except that today is also Jason Webley's birthday (a fact which I either didn't know or didn't recall, but works well for this first post anyway). With that, I will leave you with the first of eleven tales (a short bit consisting of eleven words), I hope you enjoy and will see you in a few days with story number two:

“2 AM”

Tired and bone weary. The accordion’s suddenly heavy.
My heart remains.

Edit to add: Story title from Jason Webley's album Against the Night, 1999

Tales From the Tomato Patch #1: 2 AM by Christian Berntsen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Change of pace

2009-05-15T16:25:00.003-04:00

I started the year off wanting to take things slow with this blog. The idea was to remove the pressure of doing it daily like I thought I should, and go monthly relieving myself of the guilt of not making it on schedule. I also wanted to make sure I had something of interest to say.

Most of my New Year thoughts have gone by the wayside (my plan to read more has been stopped in its tracks, and the financial instability of the world right now has caused me to withdraw from the web classes I wanted to take; another time, a better place for those now). On a personal note, I’m at something of a creative crossroads which I will explain more fully at a later date. At this moment, however, I find my mind is full of wonders I want to talk about, pockets of which are near ready to burst.

So I’m going to talk about them. In the coming weeks I plan on launching a series of post exploring things I love. People, places, music, art and more will be presented in the hopes that you get to know me a little better, and those things I love may find new homes with you.

I will also be conducting interviews with the first batch of writers coming out of the Angry Robot imprint (see post below). I hope to be able to do them all, there’s eight now, and maybe even someone from their editorial staff at the end of it. We’ll see.

There’ll be more. But that will suffice for now. I’ve got a vacation coming up at the end of May, perhaps there will be a post or two before then. The real action begins in June, though, so see you then.

I hear the grinding of gears coming closer

2009-04-07T22:46:00.003-04:00

So, I have gone and joined the army.

The Angry Robot Army, that is.

You see by the banner to your right that I am now their puppet.

Angry Robot is a new UK based imprint from HarperCollins, which, coincidentally enough, is a UK based publisher. Launching in July 2009, they publish modern adult science fiction, fantasy and other such genre favorites. To find out a little bit more about them, head on over to their website and click around the neighborhood.

I've only read one of their authors, Chris Roberson (linked in the authors section, again to your right and down a bit). If the rest are half as entertaining as I find him, then this venture should be pretty entertaining.

As for what I do now that I have been recruited, not really sure yet. You'll see some Angry Robot related posts, certainly. Maybe I'll do some investigating into the other authors and run a profile (that sounds like fun). But for now, go forth and learn about our new masters. I'm pretty sure they are benevolent.

As long as you buy their books, that is.

Lions and tigers and wookies, oh my!

2009-03-11T18:26:00.005-04:00

So, here arrives March like a lion (a wintery one here in the Northeast), and with it another monthly entry.

Late, to be sure, but here.

A lot has happened in the intervening six-ish weeks since I last talked to you, dear people of the internet. Most of it is good news.

First, the biggest news: after a little over a year of waiting, I can now say I have officially signed a contract with comic book publisher Archaia to put out my series Critical Millennium (they put out a little book called Mouse Guard). The series is co-created with my friend and BLAM! Ventures CEO Andrew Gaska and spans seven time periods over a thousand years of humankind’s foray into interstellar travel, their domination of what they find and their eventual downfall.

Critical Millennium is a huge undertaking, and has been in the works for many years. Much more will be written about it in the months to come, but here’s a tease on the first story arc: it’s set during the Dark Frontier period (the second major period we’ll be chronicling) and focuses on the efforts, effects and intrigue intertwined to bring humanity into space. This is a desperate attempt to save a decadent and dying race, many of which do not want to be saved, or indeed see nothing wrong with the world as it is. With art by the fantastic Dan Dussault, we’re extremely excited to launch in November as a part of Archaia’s new publishing line up. So keep an eye on our MySpace page for updates, and to our website for the eventual revamp (which should hopefully happen by the summer).

My other big writing project, which I scribbled about last time but was unable to elaborate on; well, it must remain un-elaborated on. At least until April, which is when we are officially announcing it. The first draft is done and approved by the licensor (big step, yay for making it!), waiting on readers and should go to the next and possibly final draft soon. So, stay tuned for details.

Elsewhere in my world I was also sick, but got better (finally) by mid-February. It was a rather miserable month and a half of coughing and being unable to use my newly acquired C-Pap machine (for my recently diagnosed, but probably not recently acquired sleep apnea). Now I don’t cough and can sleep well (yay again!).

One other recent highlight was receiving the drawing of Chewbacca I commissioned from Colleen Doran. She did an awesome job, and I am pleased that she will be the first in what I hope will be a long line of artists I love doing pictures of one of my favorite characters. I’ve posted the picture below, which I hope is cool as she already posted it on her blog (which, by the way, you should read if you are an aspiring artist, she gives lots of excellent advice. You should also read if you are not an artist, as she also maintains an excellent blog in general and is an extraordinarily talented artist. While I’m at it, you should also buy and read her series, A Distant Soil, seriously - NOTE: I'm not an amazon affiliate, so I make no money from the links I just provided).

My girlfriend Catherine and I are currently in the process of redoing our home office. A couple of weeks ago it was an overcrowded mess, and we had been planning on tackling it toward the end of March, but things were so bad that I was having trouble working. She suggested we do it early, having a window of opportunity where I had completed the first draft of the unnamed novel and the first script for the second Critical Millennium story arc (set during The Gilded Life period, out in 2010! Whoop!). I was reluctant at first, but soon agreed because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

So now we’re freshly painted, with new shelving installed, new recessed lighting in the ceiling and shortly a spanking new work table will be erected across from our desks. We still have some organizing to do, which has dragged a bit longer than necessary, but the vibe is much better, and I think work will flow easier and more evenly after the final touches are done this weekend.

OK, I think I’ve rambled enough; the internet doesn’t need to be bored any further by me (I’ll spare you the sad story of my car not passing inspection). See you in April with a book title in hand and some art from Critical Millennium on display.

Oh, sorry, there weren't any tigers in this post. Maybe next time.

The Under-the-wire Birthday Post

2009-02-01T23:28:00.007-05:00

It has been a long, long month. I’ve been sick for the majority of it with a nasty cough that still hasn’t totally gone away (there were two doctors trips and a round of antibiotics, along with codeine laced cough medicine – as prescribed by my doctor, of course). I also missed three days of Day Job due to it. I feel better now, and continue to get better with each day, which I suppose is all I can ask for at this point.

I also spent the past month wrestling with my first novel, as noted in my first post of the year. No, still can’t let the cat out of the bag as to what it is, as my publisher still hasn’t formally announced the property we’ve licensed. But with a few bits on my part to finish up tonight, and a few bits for one of my co-writers to finish up for his part tomorrow, we should be turning in the first draft to our licensor on Tuesday, and I should be able to announce it here by my next monthly posting, if not sooner.

While there is a sense of accomplishment in reaching this hurdle and making it past, it was a hard one to jump (more so than I had anticipated). I had trouble at times finding my way into the story, that door I need to open behind which the words are waiting for me to plunk them down and make sure they are properly ordered. Usually this happens and the whole thing comes freely. For this project it was more a series of doors I had to find, some of which lead to nothing more than the janitor’s closet, if you catch what I mean.

On one level, I think it’s because, while the property we are writing for is spun from a movie I have watched many times and enjoy, it’s not a world which I am uber-passionate about, so I had a more difficult time generating the spark I needed (or finding the key, to continue the metaphor above) than I have with my own stories. It wasn’t that I thought the property not worth doing or that I couldn’t contribute to it, I wouldn’t have agreed to work on it if I thought that (and I have passed on participating in other licensed projects for one or both of those reasons). Indeed, I think there are only a few things I could say I have that kind of passion for where I would be able to slip into the story with any ease.

That was the hard part of the month, and while I await the response back from the licensor and our various readers in the coming weeks, I look forward to round two of the process to work out all the rough spots I know are there, excise the bad, and make the next incarnation as kick ass as it can be.

The best part of January was Catherine and I getting to see Jason Webley perform in New York City on the 6th. He played the Zipper Factory with guests Sxip Shirey and Corn Mo (who has an awesome voice). Jason and Sxip have an album coming out in March, the fifth in a series of eleven collaborations that Mr. Webley is producing with friends over the next few years. It was an awesome show overall, and one of the cooler parts was the fact that they shot a video for the title track, staging a faux New Years Eve celebration on stage before Jason played his set. Catherine and I jumped onstage to join for the filming (something I never do, but I am such a fan I was actually happy to be a part of it – we hung out in the back of the crowd, but you may be able to see my sequined top hat) and danced around, sang along (another thing I don’t really do), and generally had a good, silly time of it.

All right, I’ve got some writing to do, and some sleep to get. Next time on the Manifesto I should have a couple of announcements to make, a few discoveries to share, and hopefully a better month to report on.

Be well.

The Inaugural Sunrise

2009-01-20T23:29:00.004-05:00

This was the scene this morning behind my house:

It is indeed a shiny new day.

We now have a new president. Let's hope the sun shines on us every morning, and that each day is better than the last.

2009, the year of the frog...

2009-01-01T22:56:00.008-05:00

I wasn’t going to post, didn’t feel the need to mark the New Year in that way, but with less than 2 hours left to the first day, I got the urge and decided not to fight it.

I’ve taken down the previous posts and archived them in my personal files. Version three of this blog was not the charm I had hoped. It wasn’t a dud either, it just hasn’t morphed into something I’m compelled to do on any type of regular basis.

So, attempt number four. On a New Year.

We all know that there was little to celebrate in 2008. We have a grand new president waiting in the wings, which I hope will bring our nation to a more even keel. He has ego (I think you have to even to simply run for president), but I think it is tempered by a lot more reality than our current commander-in-chief.

Look at the economy for other reasons why 2008 was a period in time I am more than happy to say goodbye to.

Personally, 2008 held good things as well. Early December marked one year of living with my girlfriend Catherine, and that has been awesome (and I look forward to all the rest). My sister and her husband celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary. I am working on my first novel, a licensed project which I will get into at a later date. I also should finally be signing a deal for my first comic in collaboration with my friend Andrew, we are just waiting on the publisher to look at our proposed contract changes. Another friend, Paul, and I decided to go forward with a small project which you will hear more about later in the year. Other highlights include: Ray LaMontagne delivering another great album; My acquisition of a small, but very cool painting from Bob Eggleton; John Scalzi giving us another Old Man’s War universe book; and my coming to a few decisions about 2009, which I hope will make for a better year.

The first of these decisions was to be more proactive about my future career options, so I have enrolled in a web design course for the next year and a half. It’s online (and accredited) so I can do it on my time, not struggle to drive somewhere and hope to be on time, in a class with people who don’t want to be there.

The second was to decide to cut back on what I want to get done writing. I tend to cast big plans out there for what I want to write. I then tend to not get any or much of it done (at least in a presentable form). So, for 2009, all I plan to do is finish the earlier noted novel, write the scripts for the comics mentioned after earlier noted novel, and maybe a few short stories and poems (maybe). I had a couple of great big schedules worked up for this year, and decided to scrap them all. They give me too much stress as I come up on them, and cause some guilt when they pass unfinished/not started.

The next decision was to read more. I am woefully lacking in my reading. These days books get started but often go unfinished. To solve my dilemma, I decided to read a book a week (and a comic a week as well) in the hopes of fostering a better reading habit. I mapped them out last night before and after the ball dropped in NYC – my time zone for such an event – and finished typing the list up this evening. I put no absolutes on the list as far as get it done or else (I have back up books in case of emergencies). I did pick books I have either started and then stopped, for whatever reason, or have been waiting a long time to be read. First up for books is Clive Barker’s Mister B. Gone, a book I started last fall and intend to finish this coming week (I start this process on January 5th). And in comics, I will read the first volume of Y: The Last Man.

Obviously I won’t be idle, with the web design classes, I hope to have my own site up by Winter 2010, along with a handful of project to promote on them. I’m going to take the blog slow at this point, not get myself worked up about it. For now, I’ll deliver a monthly dose of pontification, likely on the first of each month. As I get more organized, I’m sure I will reach out to the internet more.

Before I go, Catherine just read to me a bit of wisdom from one of her 2009 books to read books (she’s doing it,too!): There are five frogs on a log, one of them decides to jump off, how many are left?

The answer is five. The frog only decided to jump, he hasn’t yet.

I’ve made a lot of decisions for 2009.

Now it’s time to jump.

See you in February. Ribbit!