2014 Projects: Finish the Spanner Edit, Write Book 0, and Get Published

The holiday season was my excuse to slack off from editing and writing at the end of 2013. The combination of a Blu-Ray player and a new widescreen TV didn't help. That's over now. I've had my year-end vacation. It's back to work. And the muse is obliging with the craziest story ideas I've had in a long time:

1. The entire plot to Spanner Book 0, complete with new title ("Banned in Japan"). Now it begins with a Yakuza-Triad war interrupted by a certain masked prankster and graffiti tagger who goes by the handle Spanner, and ends with a political crisis that may end in a devastating war between an increasingly fascist Japan and Chinese Communist Party (Holdings) Limited.
2. A new graphic novel idea incorporating the "Blake Island incident" repeatedly referred to in Spanner Book 1, and which takes up one night during the time period of Spanner Book 0. On the night of July 14 this year, Jennifer will kill 52 hitmen, mercenaries, and serial killers. Now I know how it begins: with her and some far more broken female former child soldiers robbing the Seattle Triad (under flashy young boss Ringo Wing) of money, sex slaves, and a snuff pornographer who resembles an infamous web cartoonist, as dozens of disposable gangsters die John Woo style (I ask myself the question: how would Lone Wolf and Cub artist Goseki Kojima do a "heroic bloodshed" shootout?). Because it's so action-oriented, it will not be called "The Jennifer Theory"; I'll have to find yet another new story to match that title.
3. Three final tweaks to Spanner Chapter 1 (Jennifer's "Red Baron name" changed from Blonde Phantom to White Phantom; Shira kicking Johnny-Johnny in "his nonexistent manhood" to begin a recurring motif linked to the Blake Island incident and ending in Chapter 11; and a rewrite of the fourth flashback) and such a complete overhaul of Chapter 2 R5 that I'm even switching the positions of 2.2 and 2.3 to avoid pointless time reversals.

Getting that graphic novel off the ground necessitates, of course, that I start drawing again and actually improve my skills so I can actually draw real comics. I decided I'll even throw in a "comic within a comic", of the bad-webcomic kind, which I'll draw in the inferior style I abandoned in 1999, when I stopped trying to ape Masamune Shirow (and failing) and began developing my more recent Clamp-influenced style, which I'm now modifying in a more Takeshi Obata direction that allows me to incorporate more of my "school of Alex Raymond" influences: Neal Adams, Ryoichi Ikegami, Tony Wong, and Raymond himself (with elements taken from Will Eisner and midperiod Frank Miller).

Meanwhile, I'm going to get one non-Spanner novel published this year. In March, during NaNoEdMo, I'm going to pick one previous NaNoWriMo novel and edit it to as close to publication quality as I can in one month. I have four options: Bad Company from 2007, Black Science from 2008, Dirty Pop from 2009, and Freefall from 2013. Once I feel it's ready for release, I'll publish it online. Thus, after 25 years of practice and planning, I will become a published author at last. Then in April, now that Script Frenzy is dead, I'll throw myself into NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) the way I do FAWM. To be a NaPoWriMo winner, you must write a poem a day for 30 days. I'll do my usual stuff inspired by the Surrealists and Beats, of course, but I'll also make my first attempts at traditional forms such as the sonnet, ode, and villanelle.

Above all, 2014 will be the year I complete the final edit of Spanner Book 1. Last year it took me 5 whole months to edit Chapter 1. One reason is that I completely changed certain older story elements (e.g. removing Hope and Karen and replacing them with Elle and new character Rico) and threw in new ones (e.g. the propaganda-video opening). I will not spend that much time on any later chapter, no matter how much I change it, not even Chapter 2 which I'm radically overhauling. Books 0, 1, and 2 are set this year, so I plan to get at least Book 1 published this year, Book 0 if I can squeeze it in.

And so it begins again...

Spanner R5 Update: Putting Omitted Scenes Back In, Plus Even Crazier Ideas

It's been a while since I last posted. Hell, it's been a while since I last did any editing. Well, now the editor's block is over, the crazy ideas are returning, and I'm finally putting back into the final version of Spanner Book 1 the long-planned scenes I left out of Revision 4.

This session's first edit involves a radical change in the story thread revolving around the mad bioroboticist, Dr. Mina Tatsumi. I've been doing a lot of brooding about transhumanism and the ultra-rich lately; it's a major theme in Spanner, but one I don't really go into in Book 1, at least among the High Corporates. So now the "Oliver springs Mina out of the madhouse" scene I planned for Chapter 13 and put in Chapter 19 is now in Chapter 4 as the first scene in the thread, and its "Oliver brings Mina back to Biotron Labs" sequel is now in Chapter 6. Mina has all those green-haired Sonoda-twin clones for a reason: she dies at the end of the "Raid on Biotron Labs" sequence in Chapter 13 and comes back in Chapter 16 as all the Sonoda-twin clones at once, a collective entity and the story's first genuine transhuman. All the "transhumans" up to that point are merely superhuman. This will have major consequences, mainly from Chapter 25 onward.

The first of the omitted scenes I'm returning to the story is one I plotted out long before I started writing the novelization and originally planned to put in Chapter 18: the scene with the murderous bikers (vat-grown ninja in the final version) who emerge from a tunnel only to all get their heads cut off by a monowire stretched out at the portal. I'm also restoring that Revision 4 scene I left out of Chapter 23 in which Radica's hoverboard gets shot by one of the superhero antagonists and Liz makes a desperate flight to save her.

And so the editing resumes. And it's about damn time.

My 6-Year Artist's Block Is Over

It was 2006 when I abandoned drawing in order to focus on NaNoWriMo, sometimes to the exclusion of all else. It wasn't even till the exact middle of JulNoWriMo 2010 that I even returned to Spanner at all (with the inspired near-final version of the Intro). Suddenly, after six years, I find myself inspired to draw again.

Now, inspiration sometimes comes for the most unexpected reasons. Shira's own tagline is "expect the unexpected". And of course she's the character I've started to draw again. So why did I start drawing her again? Why, because her butt is so beautiful I felt compelled to visualize it on paper.

No, I'm not posting sketches; I'm still rusty, so they're not good enough yet. I'm going to post complete drawings, done in Inkscape, in full color, showing off some of the clothes she wears in the story. There's the getup in Chapter 3 with the purple Pedobear baby tee, pleated tartan microskirt, gangsterskin boots, and Cookie Monster plushie hat. There's the (not much of a) Kitsap Kouriers uniform she hoverboards in during Chapter 4. And of course there's the sailor-suit school uniform she wears to Bangor High. Last but not least, video body paint. And then I'll update her character profile for the new Fourth Revision continuity. In the meantime, I'm going to practice so I get her looking right, and other characters as well. Once she looks right, I'll post pictures.

So now I'm drawing again. That means I'm back to teaching myself how to draw the figure. I already know a few things, but only enough to draw figures standing rigidly upright in front, back, and side views. My challenge: learn to draw my characters so they look like they're moving naturally. This is important not just for character designs and the eventual comics, but for animation as well.

And that's not all. With 50 Songs in 90 Days coming in just under a month, songs are starting to come to me again, and I realize I'm going to have to practice my singing and instruments again...

NaNoFiMo: And The Writing Resumes...

After winning NaNoWriMo for the fifth straight time, I still don't have a finished novel. Even after winning JulNoWriMo this year, I still haven't even finished Spanner book 1. And so I'm doing NaNoFiMo — National Novel Finishing Month. For the first time in my four years attempting FiMo, I intend to finish a novel. And I'm going to win it for the first time, even though my goal this year is 50,000 words, 20,000 more than FiMo's original standard 30,000-word target.

Right now, as of tomorrow morning (next post, in fact), I'll be ten chapters into book 1 (counting the Intro, or "chapter zero"). I've got two chapters ready to post. That means I'm only halfway through book 1. I'm going to edit a couple chapters, especially 2, 7, and 10, to add a few things: one short scene in chapter 7, the song lyrics in chapter 10, and . I need to get all the way to Chapter 23. The only way I can do that is by writing. Thus, FiMo: my goal this month is to finish the whole thing and get it ready to post. When I'm done with that, I'll finish book 2 during JanNoWriMo.

There's one other Spanner-related goal I've set for December, and that's to draw at least one thing each day. I know I can do that; it's just that I haven't bothered. I'll be returning to the Spanner script that won Script Frenzy '08 (after I rewrite it up to chapter 5), so I'll need to get my drawing skills back up to a tolerable level. I'll start my drawing self-instruction again, needless to say, since there's still a lot of things I haven't learned how to draw.

I'll post updates here. And I'll make sure to keep the Spanner novel's page updated regularly.

NaNoWriMo Fivepeat: or, After the Happy Dance

For the fifth consecutive time, I've won NaNoWriMo; for the second time in a row, I've won it early. I'm not about to reach last year's 85,000-word record, but then now that I've won I no longer feel the urgency that drives me during Panic Time. After all, I'm actually posting my novel right here, and I've set semiweekly deadlines for myself.

Still, when the NaNo validator bot turned my green word count bar purple, I whooped and hollered loud enough to disturb the neighbors and did my happy dance; and I still intend to celebrate my victory with champagne and pizza. I now have enough NaNo victories to put rings on all the fingers of one hand, like the Steelers and 49ers.

But what comes next? Since both volumes of Spanner are far from being even half done, there's NaNoFiMo, and then JanNoWriMo after that. I'll use those WriMos to whip up enough chapters to post so Spanner won't interfere with my fourth and last go-round with Bad Company during NaNoEdMo, nor with my next 50-song FAWM. Also, I can get back to drawing, too, now that I have enough time again.

One thing won't change. I'm going to continue posting Spanner, chapter by chapter, all the way to the Outro. It ain't over, as the saying goes, till it's over.

Pre-NaNoWriMo Progress, Part the Last

Okay, it's official, NaNoWriMo starts tonight! Since I got to stay home all day and no trick-or-treaters graced me with their disruptive presence, I took advantage of the opportunity to finish all the Spanner Book 1 chapters I'm posting in November. Every single one of them, from the Intro to Chapter 8: they're done! And shortly after I post this, Chapter 9 (the last one I did during JulNoWriMo and AugNoWriMo will be finished as well!

Finally, starting at (schedule change here) 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time, Spanner will cease to be a pipe dream for me and become a reality at last! The vision that has tormented me since 1992 will be ready for you to read in its final form. Of course, it won't be a manga, but you won't be disappointed. Not after 18 years of self-instruction in writing and 4 years of NaNoWriMo and other WriMos. At last, it's real!

My next post, after the Spanner prologue/intro, will be a NaNoWriMo progress report. My NaNo project this year is — surprise! — Spanner book 2. I won't rush into the word wars just yet. First I need to plot it. And to that end, at the stroke of midnight, I will perform my annual NaNo ritual of opening a fresh new pack of index cards. I intend to write at least 100,000 words this November. Plus, I intend to return to my drawing self-instruction that I've been neglecting since I first discovered NaNo, and post at least one drawing a day on my Posterous blog.

Anyway, back to writing...

Now That I've Started Drawing Again, Some Comics-Related Goals

The other night, Spanner main character Shira pretty much forced me to draw her. (She does that to me occasionally.) So I blogged about it and posted the sketch. That, of course, means I'm drawing again. I'm now teaching myself how to draw comics again, and at my Posterous blog, I'm posting a daily report of my progress with at least one complete page of practice sketches. I'm improving one of my drawing skills each day. Of course, this brings up the subject of what I'm actually going to do with my drawing skills. That is, what are my goals for my comics this year?

JulNoWriMo Day 1: And They're Off...

At midnight I start completely rewriting Black Science for JulNoWriMo. I'm looking to beat the almost 65,000-word WriMo record I set with Bad Company last JanNoWriMo. And I'm doing it with not just Black Science, but with at least one Spanner Side Story ("Mind Bomb") and maybe some still unwritten scenes of BadCo as well. And all this while I'm doing 50 Songs in 90 Days and resuming my Project 365 (I'm in the Flickr group).

So what are my plans for JulNo '09?

First thing, start writing Black Science at midnight my time. I'll be writing it as if it were a brand new NaNoWriMo novel, basically a first draft of a novel of which only one scene survives from the original fiasco I wrote during NaNo '06. I want to write as much of it as I have time for before my busy July 4, in which I'm recording two songs for 50/90 and playing my first songs live (albeit in front of family members).

Second, there's the first of my Spanner Side Stories. I've decided I'm going to use my neglected DeviantArt account and post these short stories to it. "Mind Bomb" will be the first. I'll post it chapter by chapter, and of course hope there's not too many chapters to call it a short story. After that, I'll start a new one. I hope to do one a week — if I don't pour out too many words of Black Science.

Third, I intend to start drawing again. At first, I intend to spend at least a few minutes a day on practice sketches so I can get back into it again. It'll be rusty at first, since it's been so long since I've drawn anything; I've spent too much time over the past couple of years writing novels and songs.

Of course, I'll write songs.

I've got an ambitious agenda for the next month. Let's see if I can actually pull this off for the first time...

Goal before I go to bed: 1,000 words. After I wake up: 5,000 words.

A New Goal: A Drawing A Day

On the NaNoWriMo forums, I discovered something called Project 365, in which you take (and preferably post online) a photograph a day. Digital cameras make it easy. And so I set up a Flickr account and a photo blog just for this. (My blog entry on this is here.) Which got me thinking: shouldn't I do something similar with my drawing? If something like Project 365 can make you a better photographer, then posting a drawing a day (drawn and scanned that day, of course) can make me a better artist.

My Goals for June 2008

May is finally done. Since I no longer have writer's block to deal with, I think I can actually achieve my goals for June. These are:

1. Rewrite the Spanner script. This is a Script Frenzy thing, using the old month (June) as the "EdMo". The deadline is June 30. In addition to the script rewrite, I'll do the accompanying page layouts.
2. Finish the second draft of Bad Company. This is when I'll start fitting the old scenes and plotlines from the first draft back into the rewritten story alongside the new ones.
3. Complete my self-instruction course on how to draw the human figure, then begin drawing my character designs.
4. Learn how to play the guitar, learn at least a little about how to play the piano (or keyboard), and learn to read music better. This is for the "50 Songs in 90 Days" thing I'm doing in lieu of FAWM.
5. Start relearning French, German, or both.

I should have a better chance at pulling this off now that I'm able to write again. The script rewrite should be the easy part.

Script Frenzy Is Over.

It's May 1. Script Frenzy is now over. I didn't just win. I won with 171 pages. Now, you're probably saying that's a lot of pages for a script. To which I reply: not if the script is for a manga. The first draft of the first four issues is almost finished, with just a few new scenes and one scene relocation to do. And yet I'm still not stopping, even though I have 50,000 words of a novel (Black Science) to write for MayNoWriMo (which is being held by NaNoPubYe) and another novel (Bad Company) whose second draft I want to finish this month. I'm not stopping till I have something I can draw. And then there's the rest of Spanner book 1 to finish, and then there's the rest of the series...

What did I learn from the Script Frenzy experience? For one thing, I found out how much better a scripter I am than a prose writer. In prose, I'm better at nonfiction than fiction. In fiction, I write better for visual media than for prose. The visual medium of my preference is, of course, comics.

But the real challenge for me is to actually draw my comics. I still don't have the drawing skills I need to draw my comics, or even do character designs. So, in priority between writing Bad Science and editing Bad Company, I'm setting a goal of drawing for at least 50 hours this month. If I set and keep this goal, I can then make some major progress in my drawing, something I haven't really done in years.

So now I have a script to edit, a novel to write, another novel to edit, and some drawing to do. I might be overloading my schedule this month. If so, I can sacrifice a goal or two. But under no circumstances will I give up on my drawing. After all, I've wanted to draw Spanner since 1992, and I intend to achieve this goal no matter what. And so I intend to get Spanner #1 published online on September 9.

I've got my work cut out for me. So now I'd better start doing it. Now that Script Frenzy has awakened my slumbering Muse so that she is now on a rampage and becoming insatiable, I think I finally have a chance to defeat my old enemy, procrastination, once and for all.

Next Week Is Mine...

I got little work done on Spanner and Bad Company. You see, most of the last week belonged to my mother and brother. It was too hectic. But the next week is mine. I hope to get some work done. After all, there's only 10 days left in Script Frenzy, and MayNoWriMo is coming up at NaNoPubYe.

I have one sequence left in Spanner #1: the terrorist attack foiled by Shira defusing yet another of the Toymaker's infuriatingly complex bombs, followed by the "rattlesnake flag" prank ("Freiheit oder Tod!"). That's my last fully plotted sequence. After that, I'll have to get some more plotting done if I want to write the full 100 pages of script. Bring out the index cards...

Bad Company has been stalled since last month. Why? It's been refusing to come together. The plot still isn't very coherent. That seems to be coming to an end. I've got some wild new ideas to throw into the mix (and into Black Science as well), which will not only tie the story together but increase the controversy quotient by a factor of at least 4 (rough guesstimation).

Since I've made so little progress on Bad Company so far, I've decided to add another goal to MayNo: not just 50,000 words of Black Science, but also 30 hours of editing to finish the second draft of Bad Company as well. Plus, I still need to complete my drawing self-instruction so I can enter NaNoMangO.

The key idea for Bad Company (and the newest one for Black Science)? Mad love. In other words, obsessive or forbidden love with the potential to provoke an outright revolution. This is one of the major ideas of André Breton, founder of Surrealism. And so some yuri ideas and pairings that have been floating around my brain and the Project Notebook for years (since 1996 and my introduction to yaoi under the full impact of Camille Paglia) now have their perfect justification. And so now Desiree returns to prominence in Bad Company — as the passionate lover of her own sister Charlie. They are famous, so they get into big trouble, and the Becket clan with them. Meanwhile, in Black Science, Willa's husband, one Eric Blair in the past several years of Project Notebooks, is now Dr. Julian Blair (named after a Boris Karloff mad-scientist antihero), the inventor of the brain scanner, who turns against her for the blood money offered him by Dictel and the US government. And the Cuban refugee scientist from the 2006 NaNoWriMo version, who becomes Willa's ally and lover, has been replaced by — Willa's own niece, who is as determined to marry her as her other nieces Charlie and Desiree are to marry each other. I'll have more about this in my next entry. I think I already know what to call it...

So I'm entering the homestretch in Script Frenzy, and I'd better make the most of it. After all, I'm going to have to pull off yet another come-from-behind...

My "How To Draw Comics" Plan...

Since 1999 I've been trying to teach myself how to draw comics. In the years since then, I've built up enough knowledge of one thing, the human figure (specifically female), that I realized I should offer a Web course on how to draw comics. I can do this. In the spirit of "If you can, do; if you can't, teach", I realized that the best way for me to learn how to draw, and keep it learned, is to draw everything I need to create such a course. And so, after several years, I've decided to actually do it. My goal is to put it online by the end of May.

I'll have to make an admission: my own self-instruction has been sporadic. 9 years, and I still haven't completely learned how to draw the human figure, or even the head. I realized that this is what I need to spur me to actually draw, and pretty intensively, so that I can prepare for NaNoMangO, which comes up next in June. This will also spur me to return to writing the script to Spanner, which I've been neglecting this week.

Earlier this week I drew the first set of illustrations for my comics tutorial site, then created the table of contents page. Since I've planned a complete website for all my projects and essays as long as I have the tutorial, I finally decided to organize the complete site hierarchy as well as the tutorial, and edit the site using the best website editor I had in Linux, which turned out to be Quanta Plus. (I also have Dreamweaver MX in Windows, but I'm told it's fairly hard and confusing to use...) When I'm ready to put the site up, I'll have not only the tutorial ready, but the project pages for each of my comics and novel projects: Spanner, The Jennifer Theory, and the Dictel trilogy (Bad Company, Black Science, and this year's NaNoWriMo entry, Points of Authority), plus the first complete essays written.

That's the website plan I've had for almost a decade, though I've never yet acted on it. (I had my own Tripod homepage back in 2000 or so, but I never put anything on it and allowed it to die...) It starts with the comics tutorial.

My Script Frenzy Halfway Progress Report...

Here I am, halfway through April, and yet the current page count of my Script Frenzy edition of the Spanner book 1 script is barely past 35. At the pace at which I normally write, I should have had the whole book scripted by now. Still, I got 10 pages and 3 complete scenes written tonight.

The problem is that I've allowed my focus to be broken. This got especially bad Thursday night, when I stayed up all night doing nothing but downloading and installing software in what I call an "Early Download Stage". Also, I told myself that I need to lay out the plot using my index cards before I can even think of scripting. That task was made a lot easier when I salvaged story cards from previous decks I'd used for previous Spanner book 1 scripts.

I'm posting some of my previous drawings. However, I haven't done any of the improved versions I've been planning for some of them, nor have I done any new ones in the last year and a half. I need to get back to drawing if I want to enter NaNoMangO, during which I plan to draw the first chapter/issue.

I may be less than halfway to 100 pages and sure victory, but my writing's back on track. I'll finish the script for chapter 1 soon. I'll need to pick up the pace for a while. And I need to return to drawing very soon.

Character Profile: Shira Thomas (revised 8/25/2010)

Shira Miranda Thomas, main character of Spanner, was born on September 9, 1999 to Cedric Anthony Thomas III (the legendary rocker Ric Thomas/"Red Mercury") and Hope Maureen Reston. This red-haired, dark-skinned, large-nosed beauty was a wild and mischievous child who attracted all kinds of controversy and scandal to herself. Today (i.e., during the Spanner timeline that starts in late August 2014), Hope Reston is the liberal Populist mayor of Metropolitan Seattle, making Shira a major player in the struggle to keep Seattle and the entire State of Cascadia from falling under the theocratic tyranny of the reconstituted Confederate States of America and still escape the rival tyranny of the United Corporations cartel that rules the EuroAmerican Union under the state-socialist system of Corporatism. As a leading champion of democratic Populism, Shira strives to rally people to her side through music, dance, style, and direct persuasion. But those who try to stop her in the name of Authority will find out that she is a legendary prankster for a reason...

Sketch of Shira from 2002

A little progress to report...

Last night I worried that I wouldn't be making the kind of progress that I hoped in writing Spanner and improving my drawing. Well, I haven't drawn anything since then. But I have done some writing. And then I had to do some more correcting...

My problem is that I haven't been plotting well enough. I've skipped some scenes I intended to write, put the wrong characters in certain scenes (the terrorist fleeing with Shira's older half-sister Talon Reston is not Josh Horton (a new character) but Adam Gabriel, the right-wing assassin from Bad Company, who by the time of Spanner has shifted to the opposite extreme). My solution is to bring out the index cards again so I can fix the plot.

Last night I did manage to write 16 pages of script. That is easy enough for a writer who can write 4,000 words a night during NaNoWriMo, and it takes less time. I wrote nothing but scene synopses on index cards tonight. But doing that, I finalized the plot of the first chapter/issue of Spanner. And I've started on the second.

Tomorrow I'll finish the script for chapter 1 and work to prepare chapter 2 for scripting. Then I'll down a 48-ounce energy drink, play the techno music loud, and start drawing. My next lesson: a review of the oblique views of the head, with a new principle added (horizontal and vertical center lines).

I'll start posting character sketches and quick profiles soon. Also, I'm going to write more about various story ideas. Stay posted...

(Lack of) Progress Report

The first week of Script Frenzy hasn't been all that productive at all. I've only written 10 pages, and I haven't yet gotten my rusty drawing skills back up to a level at which I can post presentable character designs. I need to pick up the pace, and soon, if I don't want to have to pull yet another exhausting "come from behind" like both my NaNoWriMos. Also, I haven't been posting here as regularly as I want.

Fortunately, I've plotted out the complete first issue of Spanner. My task for tonight: script the remainder of this issue. Tonight, I'll also finish plotting issue 2.

In my drawing self-instruction, I left off last time (the night of the 5th) with a review of the 3/4 views of the head: front and back, horizontal and vertical. My next lesson is also largely a review, involving the oblique views combining the horizontal and vertical 3/4 views.

I was going to say the forums at National Novel Publishing Year were down, but today they came back up (WAAAHOOOOOO!!!!), so I can resume posting my progress there. I'll give my fellow NaNoPubYe'ers a big update on my progress during the time the forums were down. The "Daily Progress" threads have been a very important weapon in my never-ending battle against my archenemy, procrastination. Even so, I'll still post a weekly progress update here, just to keep you posted.

Two things I should start work on: the Spanner site at my still unposted homepage, with its story summaries, character profiles, and image galleries; and a tutorial on how to draw comics the way I've been teaching myself to draw them the last 9 1/2 years. As the saying goes: "If you know, do; if you don't, teach." I figured that one good way to keep myself drawing is to show people how I do it. I'll start on these sites soon.

Will I do these tonight? I'll keep you posted...

My Goals for April

I've begun writing the script to Spanner. But getting at least the first 100 pages of script written is just one of my goals for this month. Here's the complete list.

1. Writing at least 100 pages of the production Spanner script for Script Frenzy.
2. Continuing to edit Bad Company until I finish the second draft. I intend to finish it this month.
3. Finalizing the plot for the sequel, Black Science, so I can get back to writing it in May.
4. Finally learning how to draw the human figure competently, to prepare for NaNoMangO, coming up in June.
5. Learning how to play my guitar, and learning some music theory, to prepare myself for the upcoming "50 Songs in 90 Days" starting in July. This will make up for my being totally unprepared for FAWM last February. I want to be able to play an instrument and write songs.
6. Learning more about how to set up and run a blog, and learning HTML and web design so I can create my own sites beyond the blogosphere. Also, I may want to find a host for Spanner once I finish the first few issues, or I may want to put the comics on my own domain.
7. Exercising more. Obligatory. I need the stamina to be able to handle all my projects.
8. Learning German, just because.

I'll keep posting updates on my work. Soon, I'll start posting pictures again: I'll start by scanning some of my old sketches, then I'll add some of my new character designs as I finish them. When I put up my homepage (still in the works, since my original one died in 1999 due to lack of interest from me or anybody else; I simply wasn't interesting then), I'll add a gallery of my comics art and a direct link to it here.

The Work Begins

Script Frenzy has begun. Thus begins the most important phase in my comics career: production. For the first time ever, I'm now writing my comics for publication. I've passed the point of no return. Now the world will soon be able to see my vision. Spanner is about to be unleashed on the world.

In Script Frenzy, you're a winner if you write 100 pages of script (movie, TV, stage play, comics) in April. For the first time, comics scripts are allowed. This is why I took the manga project I've been working on intermittently yet obsessively since 1992, Spanner, and took it out of mothballs after almost 1 1/2 years of writing novels for NaNoWriMo and so on. For once I now stand a chance of getting it published, even if I simply publish it on the Web.

Now that NaNoEdMo is over (I'm a winner, of course, even if the second draft of Bad Company still isn't finished) and I've taken a break of a few days, I'll start writing the script for book 1 of Spanner. But before I can publish it, I need to learn how to draw it. I've already resumed the drawing self-instruction that I've delayed since early last year. My skill hasn't yet reached the point where I can start doing character designs again, so in those entries this week in which I introduce my characters I'll post drawings I did in the first half of this decade. I'll probably be able to get the first preliminary designs done by next week. This week I'm working out all the remaining problems I have drawing the human head this week; next week, I'll turn to the figure, which I've had even more trouble with over the years. By the end of this month I'll have improved my skills to the point where the characters I draw will be good enough to publish. Ultimately, I'm preparing to draw the first episode of Spanner for NaNoMangO, where you pencil 30 pages of comics in order to become a winner, in June or November.

Stay tuned...