Writing Update

At DragonCON I met a comic writer for Heavy Metal magazine who is a very cool guy. He is now helping me learn how to write in comic script format. He sent me an e-mail, explaining the basics and I took a story and changed it over to comic format.

First, I took some printer paper and a pencil. I drew out the panels and wrote the captions. I also wrote the descriptions for the artist. It didn't take me but an hour to do it and the story is actually much better for it. Then I put it into Word using basic comic script format, which goes something like this:

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PAGE ONE

1/4 (Page One, Panel Four)

Caption (top): I knew Jim had a secret, but I never in a million years figured him for a fairy.

Pic:

Split Panel
We see a girl staring through a lock. On the other side is a man stretching, thinking he is alone. He has fairy wings.

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Like I said, I still have a lot to learn.

When I was a kid, I loved reading comics. I read all the old EC comics and I was a Marvel fan. I liked some DC, but Marvel had the best story lines and characters. It had never occured to me that I could write comics. Now I'm thinking it is a possibility, especially now that there are more horror markets for comics.

This is just another avenue for my work, another skill to hone. And it's fun.

Update

The kids are home for spring break which is wreaking havoc on my writing time. Also, the pollen launched a full blown assault last week (count of 5,500 most days) and so I've been battling my allergies.

On the writing front, I have a couple of stories out and I'm writing a zombie story set in feudal Japan. I'm up to 20,000 words on DYING MOON. I'm currently going in and outlining what I have so that I don't get lost, making notes of characters, etc. I need to see where everyone is at the moment so that I don't leave everyone out. It's going really well. I did a little work on my other novel BLOOD & MOONLIGHT. I have a fantasy novel I'm working on and another supernatural thriller. I get bored easily, so I bounce around on projects.

As for Outre Dark Publications, I'm justing waiting for the okay from the publisher and when I get it, I'll be sending him the final layout of DEGREES OF FEAR, a collection of Cthulhu Mythos tales by C.J. Henderson.

In the beginning, the publisher asked to publish my story "Vendetta" as a chapbook. This is the one that I had sold before to Dream Goblin Press and while we were negotiating, they fell off the map. I'm guessing due to monetary reasons since they wanted to change from doing the chapbook as a print publication to an CD version. I wanted to publish it myself, but finances have prevented it. So, I have agreed to allow Outre Dark to publish it. I held back because I felt since I am Editor-in-Chief that it was a conflict of interest, however, I decided that since I will be paid for the project and will not be doing the pre-publication edit on it, that it will be alright. Besides, I really want to get this out. I wanted to have it out in time for HyperiCON, but that isn't going to happen unless I get a windfall in the next month or two.

I have enough stories that I could publish a collection, also.

Now I just need business cards and post cards for HyperiCON to promote OD. I am hoping that we will have the first publication released by then so that I have something to show.