Wednesday 29 June 2011

Is the verb 'to chillax' in the dictionary yet?

...It should be, for that is what I have been doing.

Occasionally I like to reaffirm my right to kick back and do sweet FA, and to that end I have been spending my time sat around eating Doritos, watching TV, playing video games and reading books. Bliss.

I am awash with information. I've been watching lots of BBC documentaries - and nobody does documentaries as well as the BBC - including a classic: Simon Schama's History of Britain, which aside from the unconvincing low-budget recreations it spews forth every now and then is pretty faultless.

Also been trying to get into HBO's Game of Thrones, because Sean Bean is The Man, but I'm not sure I like it very much. Having read up a little on the story arc of the books, I don't think I'll like subsequent seasons any more, either. It seems that the entire series is nothing more than a procession of unnecessarily horrible things befalling House Stark, who are the only likeable characters in a cast of contemptible bastards.

Contemptible bastards seem to be a recurring theme in the fiction I'm subjecting myself to at the moment. I'm currently reading The Picture of Dorian Gray, which features such a shower of repugnant, self-indulgent arseholes I feel like I need a shower after finishing each chapter. I'm not usually a fan of stories where the main characters are such unapologetic cocks, but I'm enjoying it a hell of a lot more than Game of Thrones. I'm guessing it doesn't have the ending I feel it deserves, and that's to have a Predator land in the street, gut everyone and steal their spines.

Maybe that should be the next project for the "Pride & Prejudice & Zombies" gang.

Tonight was the first night this week I opened up OpenOffice and started writing a bit, this time working an a little short for Mike Garley's Dead Roots anthology (http://deadroots.blogspot.com/) before I get cracking on 'Broken Smile' once again. The first draft of this short should be finished by Friday, and it should be ready to go by Monday.

Sunday 19 June 2011

Insert dodgy 'launch pad' pun here.

Comics Launch Pad then, eh? What a cracking day.

I'm still trying to digest everything that went on and work out what should happen next - I suppose the best place to start would be to thank Shane Chebsey and chums for organising the whole thing.

It was a bit different to other shows I've been to, and in a good way - without the big sales hall side that usually accompanies these things there was a much greater sense of it just being a big creative hub for writers and artists to pal around, chat and talk about the future. I spoke to quite a few excellent people I've not met before, so there was much exchanging of cards and such.

I even took in a few talks. Mike Carey's was insightful. It was geared a little more towards people who are just starting to write, but there was still a good chunk of the talk that was useful, and there was a lot for me to bear in mind - oddly enough, some of the stuff he said about how captioning and narration has changed is going to be handy when writing the script for 'Broken Smile', so that was well timed. Joey Cavalieri's talk was also incredibly useful. He said some very helpful things regarding how to go about getting published that I'll be bearing in mind in the future.

So lots to think about, and just as much to follow up on. I'll be spending most of my spare time for the next couple of weeks sending emails to folks and hunching over my keyboard.

But probably not today. Taking in a comics show where one must stay upright and chatty when one is quite poorly does take it out of one. I didn't roll out of bed until this afternoon, and I still feel like crap. I think I shall be remaining horizontal and stationary for the rest of the day.

Fluffy fluffy pillow nice

Got back from the Comics Launch Pad in Birmingham about half a hour ago. I love train delays. Too tired to write it up now - felt like absolute shit all day and have been running on empty since about 4.30pm, so I'll be crashing until at least noon tomorrow.

Hopefully I'll have regained control of my mental faculties to digest all that went on today. If that happens I'll give it a bit of a write up here.

Now, bed beckons. I must surrender to its pillowy embrace.