Sunday, July 11, 2010

Your Funny-book Shopping list














Okay, word on the street is that X-men #1 is doing very, very well. Details about that as doings unfold. And while anything new in the comic world automatically comes with a few haters, the book has found love in several places. I like THIS REVIEW. Get down to your local shop and pick up a copy. Also, keep your eyes open for one of the 1043 variant covers.

Also, if you've come late to the party on all this DEADPOOL CORPS stuff and you're saying to yourself, "How can I find out about this and get caught up and enjoy all the Deadpooly goodness?" Then gets yourself a nifty new hardcover of Prelude to Deadpool Corps. This handy tome collects all five Preludes and sets the stage for Deadpool Corps. Bring money.

And just to prove I talk about other people on this blog besides myself (every 100 years or so) I want to say that I hope you're all reading Wade Wilson's War by Duane Swierczynski. Great stuff.










Sunday, July 4, 2010

A Writer's Wish List

This occurred to me the other day: I'm not doing too bad.

For the second time in my life, I'm writing for a living. Translation: I get to stay home and work in my boxer shorts and sip coffee while I write. I feel like I've paid my dues. My first novel was on a great but small press. The advance was 0.00 dollars. I've graded so many stacks of freshman comp papers that they still occasionally haunt me in my sleep. I survived grad school. I wrote for a large New York publisher until they got sick of me ... then wrote for another big New York publisher until they got sick of me. Then along comes Marvel Comics. I write some things, prove myself, and boom I'm a full time writer again. But I'm not out of the novel business. If you haven't yet, check out THE DEPUTY from Tyrus Books.

So I'm not doing too bad. But the thing is ... I want more. Greedy? Maybe, but I'd prefer to think of it as ambitious. The list of things I still want to do is growing. Somebody will blog or twitter about some cool project and I'll think HEY! THAT SOUNDS NEATO! I WANT IN ON THAT! So below is my writer's wish list:

1. Video Games. I love games like Oblivion or Fallout 3 or Fable because they have such a strong narrative element. I'd love to be the writer for one of these cool games. (And don't you just think Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse would make a great video game?)

2. Novels. Yeah, I know I just directed you to my latest crime novel, but what about the next one? I love writing comics, but those deadlines come fast and it's cuttting into my novel writing time. I'm happy to say in the last 6 days I've put up 6200 words toward my next novel. Finally got off the dime.

3. More novels. I have a lot of ideas for a lot of different genres. Even while working on the novel mentioned above, I kept thinking of 3 other projects I wish I had time for.

4. Screenplays. I've been bitten by the bug and have made a few pennies here and there as a couple of my screenplays have been optioned. But I'd love to see something I've written actually get made into a film. A tall order, I know. Attention, producers: bring money.

5. I want to get an iPhone or a Droid. Not sure that belongs on this list but too bad. My list.

6. Believe it or not, I don't want to be 100% out of teaching. I'd love to be writer in residence or a semester guest for an MFA program. Grading freshman comp cuts too much into writing time, but I do like to work with enthusiastic creative writing students under the right circumstances.

7. I think I might need a new grill soon, and I saw one that had charcoal on one side and gas on the other. The thing was as big as a Navy destroyer.

So ... what about you guys? Got a wish list?

Thursday, July 1, 2010

DEATH OF DRACULA sells out !





Thanks for buying a copy, all you cool readers.