Pimping my friends in an attempt to feel better

It's late, and I'm tired and grumpy, so just a little something to make this actually count as a blog entry.

Actually, I think something that will make me feel better is to tell you about something one of my friends has done. Jenn Brissett has written a novel that is getting all kinds of amazing notice. Elysium is a new and notable book at Locus Magazine, it's been well reviewed at places like Publishers Weekly, The Washington Post and i09. And. AND it's nominated for a Philip K Dick award. I haven't yet had the chance to read it, but it's on my short-list, and I've heard from a few people I truly respect that it's nothing shot of amazing. Jenn and I went to Stonecoast together and she was one of those folks who were ahead of me that I wanted to keep an eye on. And with good reason. On top of having written a great book, she's also super nice.

You should all check out her book, and tell her that I told you to do it, okay?

There. I do feel better.

Here are tonight's numbers:

Daily word count: 1,466

Novel word count: 53,143

It's Zomburbia release day -- let me give you something

My book hits store shelves today. This brings up huge feelings for me that will probably lead to tears (mine) if I talk about it. Instead, let me send you a free something.

I'm doing readings in both Portland and Salem for the book's release, and folks will also be able to get their books signed at these readings, if they want. But I don't have any other events planned right now, so how might a person who is geographically-challenged get a signature from me for their book? With these lovely bookplates that I have designed and had made which I will send to you free of charge. All you need to do is ask for it.

I'm especially happy with this piece because I got my buddy, Todd Demong, to supply me with an original zombie sketch. Todd is the artist with whom I created the comic 100 Girls, and he's truly amazing. Please don't hold it against him that he's Canadian.

You want one, right? Well, all you have to do is email me your meat-world address using this here email address and I'll sign one of these bad boys and put it in the mail to you.* Just like that. Once you get it, just place the sticker in your book and you'll have something that book-selling site like AbeBooks considers just as valuable as an original signed book. Not that you'd ever consider selling your copy of Zomburbia, right? Right?

*I think I'm going to have to restrict this to North America only as postage anywhere else would probably break me. Sorry, four-fifths of the world's population...

Wasn't there some sort of contest going on?

Last night I had my son, Oscar, help me draw names from a literal hat to determine the winners of the little contest I had going. Remember, there were ten signed cover flats up for grabs and one lucky person won a signed ARC of Zomburbia, my debut YA novel which is set to be released next month from Kensington.

Without any more rambling, here are the winners:

Signed cover flats (in the order they were drawn):

1. Marlene Pardo
2. Hans Strickler
3. Mike Perron
4. Zachary Jernigan
5. Victoria Fountain
6. Trinh Le
7. Dan Jones
8. Benjamina Harmon Balmer
9. Kat Kem
10. Eryca Latham

And the winner of the signed Zomburbia Arc:

1. Aaron Marvin!

I'l be contacting all of the winners in the next day or two to get addresses where I should send their goodies.

I want to thank everyone who helped me spread the word about my book. I truly appreciate it.

And if you're disappointed that you didn't win an ARC, Goodreads.com is still giving away 25 of them. Of course, more than 300 people have entered the contest, so maybe the odds aren't great – and none of those will be signed. Or not signed by me, at least... Also, I think I'll be doing something different as the pub date gets closer, but I'll be giving away a signed copy of the regular book. So stay tuned.

Finally, if you definitely want a copy and don't want to leave it to chance, you might consider preordering it from one of these fine online retailers*:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Powell's
Indie Bound

Thank you again to everyone who helped out!

*I realize I called Amazon a fine online retailer, but rest assured I did it with tongue firmly in cheek. Still, I won't judge you if that's where you choose to preorder the book.

I make with the talky

My Buddy, Devon Devereaux -- a name you might recognize as the artist/co-creator of my new web comic, Triptych -- started a podcast several weeks ago. He held out as long as possible, but he finally scraped the bottom of the barrel guest-wise and asked me to be a guest. 

We spent an hour talking about writing comics and novels, about my history in the comics industry and about what exactly is going on in Triptych. It was a lot of fun talking with him mostly because it was just like any of our conversations, it just happened to be recorded. Everyone should check it out. Here's the link to our conversation.

And you're all reading Triptych every Friday, right?

Guest Grok: Dana Haynes

I've known Dana Haynes since he was a wee reporter, toddling up to the Oregon State Capitol to grill some politician or other. And now he's all grown up and writing thrillers! He's an excellent and passionate writer  and a hell of a nice guy. Dana was nice enough to write the first ever guest post in a (I think) monthly series of same. I'll let Dana take it from here and come back at the end to wrap up.

Adam Gallardo asked me to be today’s designated hitter for this blog, and the timing was perfect. I’m working on a lecture for the Portland chapter of Sisters in Crime and this will give me an opportunity to mull some of the thoughts I want to share with the “Sissies” (as the members call themselves). 
First, some brief background. I am, by training, a journalist. Twenty years in Oregon newspaper newsrooms, split evenly between weeklies and dailies. I am very proud of this background. 


Second, I published three mystery novels from Bantam Books and Severn House in the 1980s and early 1990s, then experienced a … shall we say, “dry spell.” A really, really dry spell. I couldn’t get any traction on anything, either novels or screenplays, for close to 15 years. Then Minotaur, the mystery and thriller arm of St. Martin’s Press, picked up my novel “Crashers.” That was published in 2010. The sequel, “Breaking Point,” hit stands this month. Minotaur has asked for two more thrillers, the first due in early 2012. 


OK, that’s me. 


So: topic. 


Here’s one of the things I’m going to tell the Sissies: When thinking about the characters in a scene, remember that “important” is not the same as “essential.”


Always ask yourself: “who should be in this scene?” And keep in mind The Embassy Rule. 


Which is this: 


During most times, the most important person in a foreign embassy is the ambassador. The ambassador is charged with speaking for his or her country, and for the head of state. The ambassador reaches out to indigenous leaders. The ambassador paves the way for the business community back home, and for tourists. The ambassador serves as a mini head-of-state for a tiny, often walled-off bit of real estate that serves as a slim slice of his or her sovereign country. 


In your novel, your protagonist is your ambassador: the most important person, and the one who is charged with carrying the message (the story). 


But if there is a suspected bomb in an embassy, or if there is a maddened mob tearing at the gate, or if the military is about to knock down the walls, then the U.S. State Department can make the decision to evacuate all non-essential personnel. 


And that usually includes the ambassador. 


The ambassador is the most important person in an embassy but, in an emergency, also is a non-essential person. It’s not his or her job to defuse the military or the mob or the bomb. A chargé d’affaires might have that task, or a representative of the State Department, or a military expeditionary force, or the CIA. But not the ambassador. 


When writing your novel, there is a tendency to put your protagonist in ever scene. She is your most important person, right? But if you’ve written a scene and something seems wrong, or “fat” or somehow crowded, ask yourself: Do I need my protagonist in this scene? Could the scene move the plot forward, or serve to develop character, without her? 


If the answer is “yes,” get her out of there. 


Same for other characters. If you have a scene with five characters, ask yourself: Would it have worked with four? With three? 


If they don’t serve a person, think about nixing them. 


(This, obviously, assumes you write in the third-person and not in the first-person. If you do write first-person … well, you’re screwed, mate. We the readers cannot know anything your protagonist doesn’t know. And any scene in which she’s told about something that happened in her absence, that’s just crap writing. That’s telling-not-showing. David Mamet rightly reminds us that any time you write a scene in which Character A and Character B are talking about Character C, that’s bullshit. Rewrite it.) 


OK, that’s my thought for today. Thank you to Adam for this opportunity to test drive one of my themes for the Sisters in Crime speech. 


Cheers.


You should check out Dana's web site here, and then go here to look at and buy his books -- Crashers is now out in paperback and his new novel, Breaking Point is out in hard cover today!

Mazel Todd!

My friend and collaborator on 100 Girls, Todd Demong, got married this past weekend. He and his bride chose to have a destination wedding in Mexico and school work, finances and family obligations conspired to keep me from attend. I am sick, SICK, that I couldn't be there. Maybe they'll let me join them on their honeymoon...

The accompanying photo is of Todd and me at my wedding reception five years ago.

Congratulations to Todd and Marta!

Cooperation!

Something I've never done before is to collaborate on a piece of writing. That may be changing. If I'm lucky.

I have a friend who also writes comics on occasion. He contacted me out of the blue last month to tell me that he had an artist who was interested in working with him to put together a comics pitch. They both know an editor at a large comics publisher and wanted to work up something to pitch to him specifically. My writer friend worried that he didn't have enough time to work on anything by himself, so he wrote to me and asked if I'd like to write something with him. For a number of reason -- the chance to work with my friend, the chance to be published by this particular company -- I said yes.

I thought that we would just be working on an idea that he had come up with, but he and the artist had not actually settled on an idea yet, so I was asked to contribute some ideas as well. My friend then put the four best ideas, two from him and two from me, into one list and sent it off to the artist. I just heard back from my friend today and it turns out the artist picked one of my ideas. I won! General congratulations and back slapping for me...

And now I feel the pressure to deliver since it was my idea that was chosen. *sigh*

And the idea? In a nutshell, t's about Mexican wrestlers, Aztec death gods and general mayhem and untra-violence. You know, the usual...

More updates as the situation warrants, of course. Oh, and this is the comics project that I wrote about on occasion last month. It'll be interesting to fit in even more writing with everything that's going on now, and everything that I know is coming down the pike in the near future.

Wish me luck.

Gear School news

I have just been informed that the short film based on my comic, Gear School, has been chosen to be screened at the Sitges International Film Festival. Wikipedia tells me that Sitges is "considered the world's foremost international film festival specializing in fantasy and horror movies". Sounds good. And it looks like the festival is underway even as I type this. Congratulations to everyone at Bamf! Productions who produced the film. I hope to hear a full report on the doings over there in Spain.

And you can go here to see the trailer for the short film.

From the Land of Ice and Snow

You owe it to yourself to listen to this. NPR's "All Songs Considered" posted this song of their show a week or two ago and I forgot to write about it until just this moment. The song, "Hey Hey What Can I Do", is from an album of Led Zepplin covers called From the Land of Ice and Snow. The album is being released by Jealous Butcher Records and it features bands from Portland the Northwest, which means that I have several friends and people I know on the record. If this song is any indication, this record is going to make me very happy when it shows up in the mail.

I remember when I was a teenager, Led Zepplin was a big deal at my high school but, like so many things that were popular then, I rejected them out of hand. I dismissed them as just a blues band. I was, of course a jerk. They may have been a blues band, but they were a good, maybe even a great blues band. And I know now how difficult it is to be a good anything. Good blues band, good pop band, filmmaker, writer, artist--anything. I think I now have a healthy appreciation for their music.

Back to From the Land of Ice and Snow, I would encourage you to listen to the following song and, if you like it, pre-order the record. Thirty-three songs for a paltry $15, available from Jealous Butcher Records.

Josh does BART

A buddy of mine, modern-day raconteur Josh Ellingson, was commissioned by the Bay Area Rapid Transit to produce posters to that both celebrate BART and enhance the physical appearance of their stations. Josh nailed the commission. You can see some of his designs at the BART blog. And please check out more of Josh's work on his personal site, JoshEllingson.com.

Giveaway

Over on her awesome blog, Karen Healey is giving away a copy of 100 Girls. Go here:

Karen's awesome blog

Follow the instructions and cross your fingers! The contest ends in 24 hours, so get cracking.

Astute readers may recognize Karen's name. I first met her after she reviewed the book and made several very cogent points about it. I told her as much, after which she asked to interview me. Our conversation has been ongoing ever since. Karen writes for the Girls Read Comics column for Girl-Wonder.org. In addition to this, she is currently writing her PhD thesis about an aspect of comics that is way over my head. And, because she doesn't sleep ever, Karen has her first YA novel, Guardian of the Dead, coming out next year. Basically we shall all be bowing down before her within the next few years. I for one welcome our new New Zealander masters.

Seriously, she's the real deal. Would she be giving away such a terrific book if she weren't?

Photo parade

We let our flickr account lapse a while ago, but we've rectified that and I've just uploaded more than 100 photos there. These go all the way back to the beginning of May. Enjoy!

The points, they are bulleted...

• Today marks the last day of visitors at our home. More than a week of guests. For someone as hermit-like as myself, it was a little hard there at the end.

• One of these guests was my mother-in-law. She watched Oscar for a week and cleaned our house and made us dinners and generally made life very easy for us. Just so that you understand I am not complaining.

• She also paid a very nice young man to mow and weed our entire yard. Lord, there is no way we can repay her.

• The day today was capped off with a mad dash to the Portland airport because our friend TM left her wallet at our house and she would be unable to board her flight without it. It was a lot like every romance movie you've ever seen. Minus the romance.

• This week I did manage to letter the Dalton short story that Todd and I are doing for Myspace/DHP. I am happy with the results and hope the editor is as well.

• I realize that I need to get serious about writing. Is there a pill I can take to make this happen?

• I purchased much music this weekend via the Interwebs: albums or EPs by Arcade Fire, Jenny Owen Youngs, Au Revoir Simone, The Pixies, They Might be Giants, Bon Iver, Spinerette, and The New Pornographers. That's a lot of music I need to find the time to listen to.

• I can't stop thinking about new comics. This is a problem because I can't concentrate on already existing ideas.

• It is not, per se, a bad problem to have.

That is all for now.

Much the Miller's Son

Received in the mail today a very nice surprise. Steve LeCouilliard was nice enought to send me the first two volumes of his comic, Much the Miller's Son. And all I had to do was give him a semi-coherent quote to put on the back of the book--which I was happy to do.

Steve is a very nice guy who holds a day job in animation, much like Todd Demong, with whom Steve is friends (but please don't hold that against him). I bring that up to point out that Steve's time in animation informs his comic. The art style is fluid and crisp. The action flows smoothly. And there are gags aplenty.

The story is a retelling of the Robin Hood cycle told from the point of view of the title character. I have to admit that before reading this comic, I didn't even know there was a character called Much in the Robin Hood stories. So, you know, it's educational, too.

The book is a lot of fun, something comics aren't very often. I highly recommend it. Hell, I let Steve put my name on the back of the book, right? Of course I recommend it!

New photos -- finally

Many new photos are up on our flickr page. There's so much Oscar cuteness there that you may want to ready an insulin shot.

You've been warned.

Banning update, now with audio

I have written several times about the banning of Steve Martin's play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile by the La Grande school district. This play is being directed by my friend, Kevin Cahill, who teaches English and French at the high school there.

I'm writing to let you know that Kevin appeared today on a call-in show on Oregon Public Broadcasting, Think Out Loud (that link takes you to an mp3 of the show), to speak about the troubles. You should all go and listen.

Also appearing on the program were two people who opposed the production, Mrs Melissa Jackman, the woman who initially complained about the play and eventually got it banned from the high school; and a pastor from a local church.

I originally thought about expressing the following views in the comments section of Kevin's blog, but decided against it. I didn't want anyone to misconstrue that my opinions were the same as Kevin's. I believe that Kevin has made his own views well enough known.

The individuals who spoke against the play, especially Mrs Jackman, seem, to me, almost completely divorced from reality. She spoke several times about how the play's content--content which includes people talking about sex and pretending to drink alcohol--meant that her daughter could not participate in the production. She goes on to say that her daughter can't take part because she has higher standards. That's telling. Not "different standards", but higher. Because anyone with standards that differ from hers must, by definition, have lower standards.

Later in her taped interview, Mrs Jackman asks rhetorically if the best thing to have children do is to talk on stage about sex because, she says, there are already seventeen pregnant teens at the high school. By all means, Mrs Jackman, let's not have your students talk about sex. I mean, whatever you're doing now is apparently working like gang-busters.

And finally, I wonder if Mrs Jackman knows who Steve Martin is. When asked for her reaction to Mr Martin's offer to help fund the play, she seems at a loss. She implies that Mr Martin is doing this to gain publicity for his play. Because I'm sure that Mr Martin has been looking at the weekly receipts for his play (a play first staged in 1993 and not in production at any major American theaters as far as I can find on google.com) and thinking that one thing he really needs to boost ticket sales is for some backward-thinking school district to ban his play so he can swoop in and save the day. You know, for publicity. It's almost laughable. Almost.

Something I haven't written about here is that as a result of this controversy, the La Grande school district is going to evaluate and, more than likely, revise its guidelines for choosing the plays that are mounted at the high school. The subtext here is that they will regulate away the possibility that anything with any depth or complexity will ever be produced. I hope the kids interested in drama in La Grande will be happy with endless productions of Seussical the Musical and Little Women, because that's all they're going to get after this is all over.

Again, for a more eloquent review of this whole situation, I encourage you to visit Kevin's blog and read his excellent commentary.

Banning update (Steve Martin walks into a bar...)

I have written a few times about my friend, Kevin, and his problems staging a production of Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile at the high school in La Grande, Oregon, where he teaches. For my previous posts, you can go here, and here. But really, what you should do is visit Kevin's blog where he writes about the troubles with eloquence and a level head.

I'm writing about the play again because there's been, to me anyway, a very interesting development. One way or another, Steve Martin has become aware of the banning and he's weighed in. Mr Martin wrote a letter of support that was published in the La Grande newspaper. In addition to this, Mr Martin has offered to finance the play's production in it's off-campus site. This is a an amazing act of generosity, in my opinion, and my esteem for Mr Martin, which was already considerable, has gone up even more.

Since the playwright has weighed in with his support, the story has blown up. It has been mentioned on Entertainment Weekly Online, and the BBC.

If this kerfuffle had to happen at all, this seems like the best possible resolution.

Photo parade

Many new photos up on our flickr page. These bring us up through last weekend. None of this batch have captions or titles. I am sure that some day, perhaps after Oscar goes off to college, we'll get around to that.

Banning update

Earlier in the week, I posted about some trouble my friend, Kevin, was having staging Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile at the high school where he teaches. You can read that account by scrolling down, or by going here.

It was an eventful few days for Kevin and Co. They have a secured space, and an organization on campus, the Eastern Oregon University Democratic Party, will be funding the production. This is excellent news all around, and I want to congratulate Kevin. It's nice to see the good guys persevering.

Once again, I'd encourage you to go to Kevin's blog and check out his latest updates about the play.

Picasso and Einstein walk into a bar...

Last week, The Wife and I spent some time in her home town, La Grande, Oregon. It's a really beautiful place, one we've talked about moving to from time to time. In fact, it reminds me a lot of where I grew up, Meridian, Idaho. It's a farm community in a valley. It's somewhat isolated, and it's somewhat intolerant, unfortunately.

A friend of ours, Kevin Cahill has taught at La Grande High School for a number of years, and he also directs student productions there. This year he was attempting to stage Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile. I say attempting because a few weeks into rehearsal, a parent got hold of a copy of the play, a play that had been approved by the school's principal, I hasten to add, and she found it objectionable. Long story short, she got a lot of her like-minded fellow citizens to sign a petition and presented it to the school superintendent, who then ordered the play shut down. Kevin appealed this decision to the La Grande school board but lost that appeal. He and the students have since been offered a space at the local university to perform the play (though the university president did at first bow to pressure from conservative community members), but the fact that they have to go off-campus at all is astounding.

I attended the school board meeting where the matter was discussed and I was, frankly, taken aback by some of the comments I heard. Many community members admitted to not having read the play, but they felt they knew enough about based on what they'd heard about it. Kevin's argument that the play had been staged by other high schools, including West Linn HS which is also in Oregon, and that the play had won some of those high school drama competitions, was met with disdain. "This may be an award-winning play in other communities," one speaker said, "but things are different here in La Grande." They certainly are.

The story is being picked up by sources outside of La Grande, something I'm sure the school board hoped would never happen. The AP has run a story about the banning (and they supply papers nation-wide with their coverage). Here's the AP story which ran in my local paper, The Statesman Journal. and The National Coalition Against Censorship has commented on it on their blog.

Kevin has done a wonderful job of documenting what the experience and I'd encourage you to go to his blog and read it. Parts one, two, three, and four.

I wish Kevin the best in this and I can't express how sorry I am that it's come up at all, but I'm confident that the play will go on. And when It does, I'll be there opening night.