Every calendar's days are numbered.

Top Ten Cool Things in My Life Right Now

10. My Blog. In August, I will have been keeping this blog for a year. Recently I made the decision to archive these entries on my hard drive which I will eventually print out. It is a neat little time capsule that reflects back on my life. It’s like a journal but cooler. If you don’t have one, get one.

09. Christmas Shopping. That’s right, losers. Christmas shopping for my wife is over. God bless overtime hours. Eat it, procrastinators. I am your antithesis. Fear and/or worship me!

08. My DVR. We recently upgraded our satellite package and now we have a DVR (Digital Video Recorder). I’ve quit watching live TV and now I can fast forward through commercials. Watch what I want when I want. Pause live TV if someone calls. Totally cool.

07. Darth Vader. I’m currently reading Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader which is the novel sequel to Episode III. It is a very unique look and insight into film’s greatest villain.

06. Breaking Benjamin. I’ve become a big fan of Breaking Benjamin. I think the singer has a good voice and the drummer is phenomenal. I haven’t liked a rock group this much since Puddle of Mudd. Check their music out, espeically Breath, Blow Me Away, and Here We Are.

05. Tomb Raider. When people are in miserable financial shape, it means selling off prized possessions at less than market value. And since I have no pride, I’m the perfect person to capitalize on said misery! (You show me a man with pride, I’ll show you a man with limited options.) Because of this I purchased an X-Box 360. The first game I purchased? Tomb Raider: Legends. And word around the campfire is that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena is in the works for a fall release. I’m saving my money already!

04. Republic Commando. Since the X-Box 360 is backwards compatible, I now get to play all those cool games that came out for the X-Box… and play them at dirt cheap, used prices from Game Stop. My first X-Box game? Star Wars: Republic Commando! I also just got GTA: Vice City. Hey, it’s new to me!!!

03. Movie Season! While some have been disappointing (Spider-Man 3), others have lived up to the hype (Pirates of the Caribbean, Ocean’s 13) and some have exceeded expectations (Fantastic Four), I still have Live Free or Die Hard, Transformers, and the next Harry Potter to look forward to. Man, I love movies.

02. Working with Artists. Back in February, I was contracted to work on a comic book mini-series for Arcana Studios. [Details to be disclosed later.] I finished the scripts back in late March/early April and submitted them. In mid-April a very talented penciler named Gian Fernando (located in the Philippeens) was brought to the project and he has been working on the pencils. So I get pages via email every few days and it is exciting to see how the artist transforms my words into pictures. It is just very, very cool!

01. Working on Original Projects. While I have enjoyed the commission work, I have sold two original ideas to Arcana Studios. My first mini-series is about vampires. I submitted my first two (of five) issues to my publisher and my editor has given me Issues #3 & #4. Having just implimented these changes, I think the series is shaping up to be a real humdinger. I think this is going to be a real springboard to my career.
But not content to just sit idly by while waiting for edits, I have already moved on to my second original mini-series (this one about gladiators) that is going to be six issues long. I have started work on Issue #6. And it is shaping up to be a really great series. I can’t wait to tell you all more about it!!!

Marathon runners with bad footwear suffer the agony of defeat.

Okay, so I am currently working in the produce department of a local grocery store to give us money while Amy is in school. It’s not a bad job. It’s not excessively hard work. It’s air-conditioned. I like the majority of my co-workers. I try not to think about the fact that this is the same place I worked in high school. I don’t want to fall into that trap of “I’m too good for this job but too lazy to go out and find a better one.” I know that I am out as soon as Amy gets a job and that will allow me to go back to writing full time. (More on that in the next blog!)
It is no secret (at least to me) that the grocery business is a young man’s game. And in a few more years, I will be bringing Alex and Jason to meet my man James to get them a job. So working in the place gives me a certain connection to the youth of today.
So I am working today with my guy Nolan. So we are lining up the apples and Dave (my boss) is working the fruit. And I’m yelling (if you can call it that) about how the apple overflow should always be to the right. It was kind of a “Laces OUT, Dan!” moment.
So Dave comments on how the rack should be a living breathing thing that can expand and contract, giving more space to items that sell more. To this I said, “Well I guess if you want anarchy and chaos to reign.”
Dave talked about how I clearly needed to having things neat and orderly.

To which I replied, “Yes. I would have made a great Stormtrooper. Or more accurate, Clone Trooper. And I mean the cool clone troopers. Not the guys from Episode II with the fin. I mean the 501st Troopers from Episode III. The guys with the bad ass helmets with the T-visors and the blue armor. Right, Nolan?”
To which Nolan says, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Of course, I am appaled by this and said, “You have seen Star Wars right?”
And he talks about how he saw them a long time ago.
I said, “A long time ago? Episode I came out in ’99?”
At which time Nolan would have been around eight-years-old.
Now, keep in mind, I’m only 32-years-old but, suddenly, I feel very… very… old.

Note: When I hit the lottery, along with a Vader costume, I will totally have 501st Clone Trooper costumes on manniquens standing guard at the entrance to my home theater. Maybe more than two. Maybe four or six... Oh yes. I will have them…

If you don't pay your exorcist, you get repossessed.

Well, for the last few years I have been working at a grocery store that serves as a gateway to the weekend destination spot for all the rich folks of the Green Country area of Oklahoma. It is a nightmare weekend where sales are through the roof. Which would be fine if the employees got profit sharing but instead it is a time where you basically bust tail for your entire shift and beyond. Needless to say, I am not looking forward to it. The paycheck will be nice but it is times like this where I really wish I could just work in comic books full time.
Summertime continues to fly by. I would have to do the math but I think it is safe to say the kids are probably past (or very close) to the halfway point of their vacation. And we are pretty darn close to the halfway point of the year. Where all has 2007 gone?
Despite the long hours and minimal pay of my 40-hour-a-week job, I have been still plugging away with my comic projects and I am hoping to complete more and more in July but a lot of that will be dependent upon my work schedule. My goal is use this blog as a showcase for the creative process and show how the workings of a writer’s mind. Maybe if I can get a few minutes of peace and quiet, I’ll get to work on that.

A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.

There are many philosophers and theorists that state that life is a journey. The typical play on that is that life is a journey and not a destination. I tend to subscribe to this theory but I believe that life is like a highway. (Go ahead and sing some of the Tom Cochrane song lyrics.)
But as you travel down your highway of life, there are many off ramps and interchanges that can lead you in different directions. I think it is these forks in the road that you come to and you have to decide which road to go down.
I think it is human nature to look back on those choices and wonder which different direction your life could have taken. The three big choices that change your life probably come down to spouse, children, and career because these choices invariably have the biggest impact on your life or—in keeping with the metaphor—have the biggest interchanges. It is these three moments that you look back and wonder how your life could have been different.
Here very recently, I have been considering my career path. I feel that every person has a destiny. Typically this destiny is often associated with your career because, let’s face it, in American society—more often than not—you are what you do. I do not personally feel that this is the case.
I think that a person has to find their destiny and that is what brings them to happiness in their life. Unfortunately, no one can tell you what your destiny is. That is something that you have to discover for yourself.
However, there are the lucky few—that small percentage—that discover their destiny and are able to make a living at it. Those people are the truly happy. They don’t ask for vacation time. They don’t dread getting out of bed in the morning to go to their daily grind. No, they leap out of bed both happy and excited.
I am on my way to becoming one of the bed-leapers. Unfortunately, the paychecks from writing comic books are not substantial and frequent enough (yet) for me to become solely dependent upon them.
I currently have a full time job to pay the bills but I consider it my second job and writing is my first. And in the words of every bong-smoking hippie from the ‘70s, “What a long strange trip it has been.”
Remember how I said that life is a journey and decisions you make take you down one road instead of another. I like to think that writing comics was (and is) my destiny. In a way, I don’t like that word because it makes it sound like I didn’t have a choice. While the pull of writing has been impossibly strong (imagine it like the four-lane highway), there were many off ramps that I could have taken to take me off my path.
I think anyone who works in a creative endeavor often looks back on their lives and wonders about the choices that they make (both big and small) and wonder what might have been and what could have been.
I have turned down opportunities and offers and paths that could have lead me in a different direction but in the end, I think that pursuing my dream will make me happier and in the long run that makes me a better person.

Why is “Bra” singular and “Panties” plural?

So back a few years ago, I saw information about something called a Force FX Lightsaber. It is a scale replica of lightsabers used in the Star Wars movies that have fluorescent lights with motion and clashing sounds. They were pretty darn expensive but very, very cool.
Then when I saw the blades in action on a reality TV show, I really wanted to get one. I remember my mom telling me (in her infinite wisdom) that if I bought one, I would have to buy two so I could fight with someone. I gave her the pish tosh and said, “No, I just want the one to put on my desk.” The one I purchased was Mace Windu’s purple lightsaber from Episode II: Attack of the Clones. After I got it home, opened it up, put the batteries in and turned it on, I realized… Mom was right.
It has been a few years since that first purchase but in that time I have purchased Darth Vader’s from Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, two Darth Maul’s from Episode I: The Phantom Menace (which combine together to make the full 7’ double-bladed lightsaber, and I have my blue Obi-Wan Kenobi lightsaber from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.
There are rumors floating that they are supposed to make Qui-Gon Jinn’s green lightsaber from Episode I. I plan on purchasing that one and then I swear I am done. That will give me a purple, blue, green, and two (technically three) red lightsabers.
See, in bright daylight, it is very tough to tell that the blades are on. Fighting in total darkness is kind of rough because you cannot see your surroundings and the light of the blades tend to be somewhat blinding. But there is a magic hour between dusk and darkness where you can see the blades clearly and still see your opponent. Needless to say, the neighbors must just shake their heads when they see the boys and me out on the front lawn. Many epic battles have been fought in the front and side lawns. Yes, some have involved the trampoline. But now that we have two “good Jedi” lightsabers, we can have two Jedi knights fighting against a deadly Sith Lord. And I need both of my double blades of the Darth Maul to defend against their relentless assault.
I’ve tried to get Amy to fight me but she considers it juvenile. Wimmens. So I’m off to fight yet another battle. Bothan spies have delivered secret information that a rogue Sith Lord is lurking in the Bantha pasture fields of the planet Adaira and the noble Jedi Knight Al-Ex Foelee and his skilled padawan Jay-Sunn have been sent by the Jedi Council to dispatch this dark lord…

A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

It is funny. I went out last night with an old friend to have a few beers (I’m getting old, kids!) but that was the first time I had been out in a long time. Even though I am a bit a of a homebody to begin with, even our weekly poker games or just getting together to do nothing with my friends has begun to slowly fade away as I get older.

Also, last weekend, Amy’s 1994 high school graduating class held a thirteen-year reunion. (They failed to have a 10-year reunion because of an unmotivated class president.) Amy was integral in the reunion and used a lot of contacts through MySpace to organize it. This has caused me to think back to my old high school days.

Way back when, my mom told me that your spouse should be your best friend because more often than not, that is the person you spend the most time with. Here lately, I have been spending too much time at work but aside from that time, Amy is the person I spend most of my time with.
Now don’t get me wrong, Amy is the person I would most like to spend time with any way but there are times when I wish it could be different. I sometimes think it is unfair that life pulls all of us in different directions. Maybe if I could hit that big lottery things would change. But until then, I sometimes wish there could be some driving force that could get all of my old friends back together. Or even maintain regular contact.

Well, like Dandy Don Meredith used to say, “If ifs and buts were candy and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.”

A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

You know I look at some people’s blogs and they update them daily. Man, I wish I had that much time on my hands!!!
Things have been busy for me lately but I want to consider that a good thing. Overtime means more money and this has been a heckuva couple o’ months! Aside from having to purchase a new van for Amy and working more than forty hours a week at my regular 9-to-5 job, I’m still trying to put together a comic career over here!
But news on that front is the best it has ever been. I have finished my last commissioned assignment and I am currently writing two original series. That’s right, kids. While I have been slogging through commissions and working with other people’s ideas, my publisher is showing enough faith in me to give me a shot at a few original series.
And I don’t want to sound like I am tooting my own horn but I think I have come p with two pretty impressive stories for my first outing. Time will tell but I wanted to let everyone know why I haven’t been updating my blog as regularly as I normally do.