Category: newsletter

So, hey… the past week’s been pretty brutal on a personal level (and, well, a national level, too, really), but I do have some cool news for you.

We’ve officially signed everything for GJD which I guess I can now tell you stands for God’s Junk Drawer. What’s it about? Well…

Forty years ago, the Gather family—James, his daughter Beau, and her little brother Billy—vanished on a whitewater rafting trip. No sign of them was ever found.

…until five years later, when Billy Gather appeared on the far side of the world, telling a ridiculous, impossible story of his family plunging down through time to a primordial valley populated by dinosaurs, a clan of cavemen, an alien, and an android butler from the far future. Little Billy became the punchline of so many jokes, until he finally faded away.

Now years of research and calculations have told adult Billy Gather exactly where and when he needs to be standing in order to get back to his prehistoric valley.

But the valley isn’t the place he remembered. Maybe it never was. He’ll need to navigate more danger, more violence, and even more mysteries if he has any hope of finding his way back to the present-day world again.

And so will the handful of grad students he accidentally brought with him.

And to stop you now, no, there isn’t an official release date yet. I’m guessing maaaaybe next spring, going off past experience? As soon as I know, you’ll know.

Meanwhile, I’m just over halfway through the second draft of TOS. Which is very cool. And maybe deserves a little explanation.

(if you’ve followed the ranty writing blog for any amount of time, you’ve probably heard some of this before)

When I sit down to write a first draft, I’m a big believer in forward motion. I don’t like to linger or puzzle over things or worry about if I’m getting some detail right or not. My first draft goal is to get to the end. It’s much easier to renovate a house when you have, y’know, a house, and I think it’s much easier to find the right words and details for a story once you’ve actually got a story.

Now, in all fairness, this means my first drafts often have lots of filler names for people and places, markers to make sure something gets a second look (#########), and lots of all-caps notes to myself Things like ASK JEFF RE: OLD REPORTS or DOES THIS LINE UP??? or the ever-popular DO I EVEN NEED THIS BIT???

So for me, the second draft is when it becomes a little less about the wild, fun creative process and a little more about the work. Filling in the empty spaces on the page. Researching the facts. Talking to people smarter than me about this and that. And doing a little basic editing along the way, too. My real goal at the end of draft two is to have a manuscript that I could hand to someone and they could read beginning to end with no problem. Is it the most efficient method? Don’t know, but it works really well for me.

Also, please keep in mind this doesn’t mean I do let people read it at this point. I normally do one big solid, pure editing pass after this. Examining, cutting. rephrasing, cutting more

So that’s where I am with that.

Also, hey, one last thing– San Diego Comic Con is next week and I am not going to be there. Not officially, anyway. I’m not doing any panels or signings, but it’s just a ten minute train ride away for me so I may be wandering around (masked, because the SDCC floor was a cesspit of disease before the pandemic) just to say hi to a few folks and maybe try for one or two con exclusives. Look carefully, maybe you’ll see me there. Look for the wine-red blazer and the cool t-shirt.

What else have I got for you…?

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
Deep into My Hero Academia now. Star Trek: Prodigy is back and it’s still wonderful. A Million Ways To Die In The West wasn’t a great movie, but it was pretty fun with wine and pizza (we’re going to be joking about kids with sticks and hoops for a while, I think).

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
I got a bunch of Atomic Robo graphic novels to fill holes in my collection and have enjoyed all of them. I also picked up a Tintin book (Explorers on the Moon) that I had as a kid and adored, and I’m pleased that it still holds up in its own, very retro way. Currently deep in the Micronauts omnibus.

Cool New Toys
Hey, I sold a book, which meant a trip to the LEGO store for the big Jazz Club set and a couple smaller, Mandalorian-themed Star Wars sets. Also, I was very fortunate that a friend picked up the two exclusive Monster Force figs for me at JoeFest right around the time of the last newsletter and… wow. I hoped they’d be good, but I really like this Forgotten King/ Omen of Doom. I also got a small handful of Animal Warriors of the Kingdom figs during Spero’s Fourth of July sale and I’m really liking them as well.

And I think that’s all for now. Thanks, as always, for your interest.

<<Yeah, normally the newsletter comes out the last Monday of that month, but it just worked out weird this time so you’re getting it the first Monday of the next month. You could avoid this sort of weirdness by just subscribing…>>

Okay, sorry this is running a bit late. A bunch of things happening. Which I’ll get to in just a bit.

But first, as usual, some random musings…

Some of you may have seen a few articles floating around the interwebs about how adults are now the biggest audience for toys. I thought overall it was one of those cases where a lot of data got thrown out there, but none of the articles bothered to dig any deeper or actually make any conclusions. Which is a shame, because I think there’s some interesting possibilities in there if, y’know, anyone bothered to look.

Anyway, at one point famous toy enthusiast Dan Larson (interviewed for the article) said that some toy collectors spend up to $400 dollars a month on their collections and I thought, whoa, I’ve got a habit going but at least I’m not one of those guys.

Wait, am I?

I mean just last time I was talking about how I’d kind of given up on Games Workshop, and I’d been pouring a ton of money into that for years. I mean, it wouldn’t shock me to find out there were points in my life when I spent two or three grand a year, easy, on GW stuff, and that’s probably not even counting some of the little bits I’d buy piecemeal on eBay. So now that I’d broken that habit… how much was I spending on toys nowadays?

I started by thinking, hah, I maybe buy one or two action figures a month. Maybe. But then I realized once you start counting preorders, LEGO sets, and a few Kickstarters (I think I may technically be a stockholder in Spero Studios after that Animal Warriors of the Kingdom campaign)…

Yeah, even spreading that out over a year or two, I may not have saved that much money when I gave up Games Workshop.

Anyway… let me give you some updates.

Between StokerCon, by birthday, friends in town, a shingles shot that knocked me on my butt for a day and a half, plus all the other usual stuff I then had to get caught up on after that week, I’m running behind on a lot of stuff. Like this newsletter.

That said… we have a deal for GJD. We still have a few last things to sign before it’s 100% official but, yeah, that’s a thing that’s happening now. Before anyone asks, no we don’t have any dates yet. If I had to guess, we’re probably looking at next spring. Ever so slight chance of it happening before then, but I doubt it. Hopefully next month I’ll have more information about all of that for you.

I just this morning finished polishing a short story for something that could be considered… a childhood dream? Wild fantasy? Definitely a personal milestone if it happens. We’ll see about that.

Tomorrow morning (after all the above stuff) I dive into my first big rewrite of TOS. I think it’s going to go faster than the first draft did but there’s a chance I may have to put it on hold at some point to work on publisher-edits of GJD. We’ll see how the next two months go…

Finally, I had a very interesting phone call last week about a possible film project. Just a casual phone call. Me and one other guy. But still very interesting and a freakin’ amazing name may have come up in connection to said project. And also… just a Hollywood phone call. Not worth talking about more than this for now.

And I think that’s all the big stuff…

What else have I got for you…?

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
For my birthday I watched Godzilla x Kong: the New Empire and Godzilla Minus One back to back. They’re both very good, although in extremely different ways. I’ve convinced my beloved to watch My Hero Academia, so we’ve restarted that from the beginning. The end of Star Trek: Discovery was very nice, even if this last season has felt a bit uneven. As a Doctor Who fan of a certain age, I shrieked when the big bad was revealed this season.

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
DuaneSwierczynski’sCalifornia Bear by was amazing on several levels. About to finish The Art of Saving the World by Corrine Duyvis and really liking it so far. I think I want to dive into some graphic novels/ collections after this.

Cool New Toys
For my birthday I was lucky enough to get several LEGO sets (which carried me through that second shingles shot), plus my beloved gave me the Patch – Joe Fixit two pack, which means I now have multiple Joe Fixits! I also got myself the utterly amazing Four Horsemen Anubis and Bast two pack, but I haven’t opened it yet.

And I think that’s all for now. Thanks, as always, for your interest.

<<Just a quick reminder that you could subscribe to the newsletter and get all these brilliant thoughts delivered to you a good two weeks before they show up here. Just sayin’…>>

Sorry this is running a bit late. A bunch of things happening. Which I’ll get to in just a bit.

But first… a ramble.

A while back I made a BlueSky post about not being able to buy something on eBay. Not that I couldn’t find it or afford it. It was right there in front of me. It was the Ogre Mawtribe from Games Workshop. My gaming group and I are pretty much just playing OPR these days, but I’m still using GW models for most of it. I’d seen these particular ones back when they were first announced and thought they’d fit nicely into my existing Ogre army.

(if all that is meaningless to you, congratulations on getting so much vitamin D)

But I just couldn’t pull the trigger for some reason. I’d get ready again and again but just kept hesitating. And I didn’t know why. I stared at the set for maybe a week, and finally bought it but I was left wondering about all that unease. Why’d I been so hesitant? What’d been holding me back?

Right after the last newsletter it finally hit me that, on some level, I knew this was probably the last time I was going to buy a Games Workshop set. I’d played 40K & Fantasy for years (many, many years), but I’d lost interest in the game (twice) and I’d been losing interest in their models for a while. They were making some beautiful things, in a general sense, but they were becoming less and less useful as actual game pieces (also harder to store, less customizable, harder to paint, etc).

And this was a scary realization. Warhammer had been my main hobby for over two decades, crushing out other things I was interested in because it needed so much time and money. And even knowing that, it was a little unnerving to realize… wow, I guess this is it. I’m not done with tabletop wargames, but… yeah, done with that aspect of it.

It can be scary to admit that something you’ve sunk a lot of time and effort and, yeah, money into just isn’t bringing you joy anymore. That it’s not doing what you need it to do. Especially when there’s a big sense of community around said things (and yeah, sometimes a percentage of that “community” is very much a marketing strategy). But it’s also good not to have your life fall into some weird sunk-cost fallacy, where you keep spending money on something that doesn’t make you happy just because you spent money on it when it did make you happy.

We’ve all only got so much time. Don’t waste it on things that just frustrate you. Or, to quote world’s most famous declutterer, things that don’t bring joy.

So there’s your not-so-deep life thought for the month.

Anyway… let me give you some updates.

Speaking of being done with things and bringing joy, the first draft of TOS is complete. It’s on the larger side (just past 130K). Messy in some places, goddamn art in others (if I may say so myself). But it’s a first draft and that’s what first drafts are. I’ve also got about five pages of notes to myself for the next draft—things I need to add, things I ultimately realized I can just lose, a few details and tweaks here and there. I’m hoping to have this in front of a couple readers by mid-July, maybe? Let’s say early August.

Also speaking of things being done… I think we have a deal forming for GJD. It went out to a lot of publishers two weeks ago. Some showed interest. Some didn’t (for a variety of reasons). That’s just the way it goes. But it looks like something might be kinda-sorta in place and that’s a big part of the reason I was holding off writing the newsletter—so I’d have cool news. But hopefully I’ll be able to tell you more next time.

And I think that’s all the big stuff…

Oh, eleven days from now <<four now>> is StokerCon here in San Diego. I’m not officially attending, but I’m probably stopping by once or twice to say hi to friends. If you see some guy in the bar who looks like they might be me… well, it might be me.

What else have I got for you…?

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
Finished Fallout and just… damn, that show seems a little fun on the surface but it is ruthless on so many levels. Also watched Parasyte: The Grey and it was a very nice take on the original books/shows. Dead Boy Detectives was wonderful, creepy fun. Also Doctor Who is back and is simply fantastic.

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
Alas, with all the writing these past weeks I got very little reading done. I’m almost done with The Deep by Alma Katsu and it’s so beautifully creepy. Then I’m diving into California Bear by Duane Swierczynski.

Cool New Toys
Alas, its my birthday month, so I’m not supposed to get myself anything. But I was (through a legal technicality) allowed to get my first in-hand Animal Warrior of the Kingdom, a Horrid Scavenger. He’s very nice and makes me feel even better about that Kickstarter I was shoving in all your faces for a month or so. I’ve also been building a massive Gaiking robot my friends 3D printed for me.

And I think that’s all for now. Thanks, as always, for your interest.

I’m hardly the first person to say this…

(brave start, eh? now I’m sure you’re eager to read more…)

…but social media’s become a pretty rough place. It’s like your favorite mug got dropped and broke into a dozen pieces and you’re trying to figure out if you can fix it and if you maybe cut your foot on a shard when it broke and also crap you’re probably going to have to go mug shopping now. And meanwhile that one friend who doesn’t even drink coffee is standing there going “I don’t see what the big deal is. Looks pretty much the same to me.” Which leaves you wondering, wait, am I getting really worked up over a mug? Is this silly?

I could talk a lot about how awful Twitter and Meta have gotten. Honestly, I did. I wrote out a bunch of paragraphs with a ton of recent examples and then said ugh, who wants to read through that? So… deleted. I told you this newsletter would never be spammy, so why go over stuff you already know?

Okay, I will share one bit I was proud of. I think for a lot of folks, posting on Twitter’s essentially become phantom limb syndrome. They’ve lost an arm but don’t want to admit it’s gone and are convinced they can still feel something in it.

Metaphor!

Anyway, this is really rough on artistic-types like myself because for the past decade social media’s sort of been our one big marketing tool, and to see it fracture and crumble is… well, it’s scary. I lost about 90% of my followers when Twitter went down the tubes–

(In all fairness, they’re still there, it’s just impossible to reach any of them and I feel dirty being there)

–and it’s just left me wondering if I’m going to be able to tell anyone about anything anymore. I mean, hell, at this point Instagram is my “big” account and even there I’m barely reaching… 5% of my followers?

Anyway… with all of this going on, I just wanted to say thanks for signing up here. At this point the newsletter feels like the only place I can be semi-sure I’m getting information out to folks, so I’m very grateful you signed up. And that you’ve read this far.

So, let me give you some updates on a couple things…

TOS passed 100K words last week and we’ve just hit the “everything goes wild” phase. Lots of action. Lots of death. Some scary reveals. Some (hopefully) Holy #@$% -worthy twists. i think this draft’ll be done next time you get one of these.

All the little tweaks got done on GJD and my agent and I are going to talk about some ideas and strategies for it probably later this week. One big thing is maybe if we want to wait a little bit longer and try to make someone a two-book offer with GJD and TOS. I see pluses and minuses to this but… that’s why we talk about stuff.

And, I’ve been trying to do some work on the comics pitch. It’s still kind of weird to me, but I’m breaking things down and trying to think a lot more visually (which is a bit more like film work) and I’m hoping to have this done before my birthday.

Okay, let me fill you in on some other fun things from the past month.

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Watching
A few years back at DragonCon I spent the night blissfully alone in my hotel room watching a few hours of My Hero Academia and I decided last week to sit down and actually watch the whole thing. I’m almost at the end of season two and loving it. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur has had a couple amazing episodes. We’re three episodes into Fallout and its fantastic so far.

Cool Stuff I’ve Been Reading
I’ve read… well, a few things I can’t actually talk about yet, but I enjoyed a lot. But I also read Chronicles of the Lazarene by Charles Soule and I alllllllmost think I enjoyed it more than The Endless Vessel, the book it’s spun off from. I also just finished The Grand Dark by Richard Kadrey, which has been sitting in my TBR pile for… jeeez, a year now, and I wish I’d read it sooner because it reminds me so much of old, classic sci-fi, in all the good ways.

Cool New Toys
I stumbled across a classic, X-Men Binary online for a nice price, and I figured she’d go well with my Starjammers. My Cosmic Legions Wal-Torr showed up and it’s just freaking fantastic. I’ve also poured waaaaay too much money into the Animal Warriors of the Kingdom Kickstarter, which—if steampunk/fantasy animal people appeal to you—probably has a few hours left if you opened this right away.