THIS WILL BE OUR YEAR

June 1, 2004

The morning after...a comic book crack-up.

It seems a weird twist that the first copies of I Was Someone Dead will hit some shops today: a year to the day of my leaving Oni Press and becoming a full-time writer (which was a year to the decade of having started as a comic book editorial assistant at Dark Horse). It's been an exhilirating 365 days, full of wild mood swings and manic creativity. In some ways, I am not as far along as I wanted to be; in others, farther. I Was Someone Dead wasn't even on the cards last June. It was hiding in a drawer gathering dust. Now it lives and breathes and costs you $9.95.

Taking stock, here is what I have done with my time:

* Completed my novel The Everlasting, which I’ve been shopping around; skeleton of possible companion book, as well, depending on what form the main book takes
* Completed the novella I Was Someone Dead, just now published
* Published three comic book short stories in various anthologies
* Wrote three short stories, nearly done with a fourth (more of an accomplishment when you factor in that it had previously taken me ten years to write the same amount)
* One complete graphic novel script: 12 Reasons Why I Love Her; first draft of screenplay adaptation of that script
* One work-for-hire comic book proposal stalled in red tape
* Proposal for a creator-owned comic book series, plus the first 64-page script and half of the second volume (currently in the approval process)
* Notes and opening for novel #3, They Are All In Love
* Initial plans for a possible installment of a pre-existing ongoing book series (note: I have not talked to anyone connected to this series yet, it's just an idea and a bare outline, but I plan to pursue it)
* Fourteen manga scripts, and the final CLAMP School Paranormal Investigators novel
* Continued the semi-monthly DVD column, “Can You Picture That?”

It's not a bad list. You also have to factor in time making copies, writing query letters and synopses, researching markets, mailing, bugging Jen about all the things I don't know how to do, having Kelly Sue talk me off ledges, working three days a week in retail, going to the gym five days a week, etc. I try to adopt a Hemingway A Moveable Feast approach and turn off when I'm not wrting, push some idle time on myself so the batteries can recharge, too. I feel like I have approached it like a job, which is how I always believed it should be done (like my role model Matt Wagner)--albeit an amorphous, exciting, fun job. I have no regrets, except for the times when I was ignorant and stumbled as a result. I wouldn't reverse time, not even if I could.

The author and the damage of twelve months...

June 1, 2005

I wonder what the future holds...?

Current Soundtrack: The Coral, The Invisible Invasion

Current Mood: quixotic

golightly@confessions123.com * The Website

[to leave comments, click on the time-stamp below, then scroll down on the new page] – All text (c) 2005 Jamie S. Rich