Happy Holidays, Everybody!

As I like to do at a time like this, I like to wish all my friends and family a Merry Christmas. [I know I am kind of pushing it to the last minute this year.] Given how the post office has become a bit of an antiquated notion in the whole digital age, I chose to send my official hello out via email. I figure what I am saving on postage and stamps alone by using this somewhat impersonal technique more than pays for my Internet service for the month. So let’s get it started.
All and all, 2007 has shaped up to be a pretty good year.
As with most people, our career often defines who we are. I have made my way through another year working in the produce department at Reasor’s to pay the bills. I doubt anyone finds that fact interesting but it is a means to an end until Amy finishes her nursing degree.
However, my regular work in comic books is certainly growing into a potential full time job. Original series, commissions, work-for-hires, I’ve got all sorts of stories in development ranging from vampires to gladiators to Martians to vigilantes. Couldn’t be happier.
Working at Reasor’s is great motivation as it is a stark reminder that I would rather tell big-boobed girls and musclemen in spandex how to fight aliens or demons as opposed to stocking bananas and throwing away out-of-date salad.
Regarding the family, Amy is going to start her official nursing program in January. We are all excited for her to get started. The boys have done well in school this year (their second at Osage Schools) and Lauren is close to finishing up her time at the Big Cabin Headstart. Alex is playing both football and basketball. Jason’s grades continue to be great. Lauren is very much continuing to grow into a little girl.
Amy and I celebrated out tenth wedding anniversary this year.
Despite having to battle two ice storms that left us without power (one in January, one in December), I can now say that I have lived in a Federal Disaster Area twice in my life. Who else can say that? Raise your hands. I notice the people in New Orleans aren’t laughing. We all miss your city but fear not. Loose women will gladly expose themselves for cheap plastic beads once more. If you know those women, send them my email address.
Other things that brought my life joy this year:
I joined the XBOX 360 Nation.
I joined the MySpace Nation.
I had a lot of fun playing Fantasy Football with some guys from work.
Marvel Civil War was awesome.
The Harry Potter novel series concluded and brought sentimental tears to my eyes.
All and all, I would say 2007 has not exactly been a tent pole year for RMF Enterprises but I think I will look back and say what we did this year laid a firm foundation for the success in the coming years.
So for all my family and friends, I wish you a Merry Christmas, A Happy Hanukkah, a Kwazy Kwanzaa, a tip top Tet, and a solemn and dignified Ramadan.
Happy Holidays Everybody!

Ryan Foley

General of the Groove Armada

Bakers trade bread recipes on a knead to know basis.

As I am known to do from time to time, I like to throw out some recommendations for those that visit the blog.

MOVIES: Two big movies hit on DVD this coming week (Tuesday the 18th). The Simpsons Movie might be one of the funniest movies of the year. Having already seen it in theaters, I’m looking forward to studying the extra features on DVD.
Also coming out on DVD this week is the best movie you have never heard of. Stardust comes out this week and it is getting my highest recommendation because most people probably haven’t heard about it. It is a magical fairy tale that is truly unlike any other movie I have seen before. I love when a movie comes along that I cannot equate to any other because of its originality and Stardust is that movie this year. It isn’t eclipsing 300 as my favorite movie of 2007 but it is certainly going in my Top 10.

BOOKS: With the highest possible recommendation, I strongly advise all members of the Foley Nation to go out and purchase your own copy of Stephen Colbert’s I Am America (And So Can You!) on bookshelves now. Now, I am a huge fan of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report. I believe that it is consistently funnier than The Daily Show, largely in part to the great “character” that Stephen portrays in the book. The book has a laugh out loud moment on every single page and the clever use of comedy in the margins and footnotes only increases the absurdity of the commentary.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. There are just rampant jokes throughout every page, some of which you really have to pay attention to get. I would loan out my copy of the book but Mr. Colbert’s rules on such are very clear. No loaning out. Which is also why you will not find this book in libraries. No free rides.

Thanks to reading this book, I am now 25% more patriotic and I am now one of the heroes. Thanks to Mr. Colbert, just like him, I am now America. Read the book and you can be too!!!

Right now I am also reading R.A. Salvatore’s The Orc King. The adventures of Drizzt Do’Urden continue in this novel. Mr. Salvatore is one of the reasons why I write and going on another Drizzt adventure is always a great joy for me. There is no greater character in fictional literature than Drizzt and Salvatore is one of my “magnificent seven” of inspiration.

Enjoy everybody!

Surviving the December 2007 Ice Storm

Written on December 11, 2007

So life in Northeastern Oklahoma came to a screeching halt this past weekend. We were blanketed with a sheet of ice that downed power lines, snapped trees, and sent the population into a mad panic looking for candles, lamp oil, fuel for generators, and all the other madcap hi-jinks that go along with a storm such as this. Our power went out at 7:15 on Sunday night and as of this writing at 9:45 a.m. on Monday the 11th, we still have no power. (I’m writing this blog entry at work with intentions to post it whenever we get back on-line.)

Here is the ironic thing. On December 10th, the temperature was above freezing for both the whole day and the whole night. You would thing that after last winter’s nightmare storm, our power company would have had things better in hand this time around. I guess that is not the case. So, in theory, this is the last of the precipitation and things should hopefully get back to normal fairly soon. Until then, I am living on generator power and bundled up in heavy sweatshirts when I am at home.

The schools are out but the roads are drivable. Most of the school closings are the result of having no power as opposed to road conditions. With highs supposed to be in the forties for the next couple of days, I’m hoping most of the ice will be gone.
Unfortunately, our front yard looks like a war zone that only a few hours with a chainsaw and several burning brush piles will cure.
So, to answer your next question… Yes, this was the worst birthday ever. My first couple days of being thirty-three years old have not started out very good. But I guess when it starts out this far in the toilet, you have nowhere to go but up.

Written on December 14, 2007
As I reach close to 7:15 a.m. on this day, we are now 108 hours without power. Five and one half days. Admittedly, we are far better off than we were when this happened last winter. I have a generator so we have limited power that basically gives us the bare necessities and some entertainment to get by.
Still having no stove, microwave, or refrigerator is really starting to get old. According to my power company websites, there are crews in our area and they are supposed to be working on individual homes… but still I am not holding my breath. As I learned last time, false hope is worse than no hope.
I think the most frustrating thing is that things are relatively back to normal. The roads are free of ice and were never treacherous and the ice is all off the lines because of several days spent above freezing. So we are much better off than we were before, let progress seems to be just as slow when it comes to getting everything powered up despite what you might call “favorable” conditions.
Oh well…
Yesterday was the first day off that I had from work and I spent the better part of two hours cleaning up my front yard. I have built a brush pile about the size of a full-size pick up. Maybe bigger. And I am nowhere near close to being done.
So as we continue to shoulder on, let me just say: Ice sucks.

Written on December 14th, 2007
God bless Will Smith. He fights aliens, he saves the planet, he delivers us from vampires, and be brings me electricity. Coming out from watching I Am Legend with some friends from work, I was given the good news. Power has been restored!!!

Written on December 15, 2007
What a difference a few hours makes. At approximately 5:20 p.m., 118 hours after this whole ordeal began, we finally have power restored and life is getting back to normal here in Adair.
Right now, in my refrigerator, there is a bag of bacon bits, a block of Velveeta, lemon juice in a squeeze bottle, some Arm & Hammer baking soda, Kool-Aid, and ice. Oh, and some Pepsi. Yeah, the refrigerator is pretty bare, folks. I don’t even want to calculate how meat we had to throw away.
Still I think we were much better off this time around than in January. I keep telling myself that I am slowly going to stock up on essentials like lanterns and lamp oil.
It could have been worse. When the power went out, I just walked out the front porch to start the generator. Last time, we had to scramble to find/buy one.
Now I just have to get the front yard cleaned up and get the house put back together. One step at a time… Or I could spend my day off going to watch Hitman in Pryor. Yeah, screw the yard. I’m going to the movies…

A NOVEMBER TO REMEMBER

I know my blog has been lacking lately but believe me when I tell you that it has been for an outstanding reason! Now, I am not revealing a lot here because of certain confidentiality agreements but I have been hired by an overseas company to adapt a literary classic into a graphic novel. [Graphic novel is the fancy term for a bound comic book.]
I was given a mid-December deadline and I have finished the first draft of that assignment on the last day of November. That’s sixty-four comic pages in about 14 days. I think that is pretty darn impressive considering I am still working my full-time job as well. The money on the project is very good (from my point of view) and it has been a great opportunity for me to expand my base and my contacts. Hopefully, my Arcana Studio mates might even get some work out of this project through freelance coloring and lettering. It could very well be a win/win for everyone involved.
After chewing through the rough draft and completing my page structure and such, I have sat back and relaxed for a few days. I celebrated by hooking my XBOX 360 back up. I passed the script over to my editor to catch all of my spelling and grammar mistakes. I might go back and play with the finer points to really make this a Ryan Foley book. But I was so jazzed after I finished the assignment.
I think that writers—good writers—are always writing. It is in their bloodstream. Over these last few weeks, I have found myself getting up at 5:00 a.m. to write before going to work. I would write on my coffee and lunch breaks at work. I would write when I came home from work. I was writing all the time, telling myself, “Self, let’s just get this one more page done.”
Part of me was doing this because I was terrified of my deadline. (FIFTEEN DAYS AHEAD OF SCHEDULE!!!) This is why my blog has been suffering from a lack of updates!
Now I was writing during the Thanksgiving rush (a pretty busy time for a grocery store) and I went for a pretty long stretch without a day off. And when I finally got my day off, I made a startling discovery. I told myself that I was going to treat it like my normal job and write for eight hours straight and treat it like a 40-hour a week job.
That’s when I discovered that if you do that your brain into pudding in your skull. After that day, I felt like I had just come off the ACTs. And I would rather be physically tired than mentally tired, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
I think you have to off-set your work with a relaxing break. So I found that unhooking the XBOX was a mistake and I function better if I write for a few hours, take a break by watching an episode of My Name Is Earl or playing a level on Tomb Raider Anniversary.
Of course, it is after that break that I find myself drifting back to the computer to work and when you put all that time together, it probably equals out to a forty-hour-a-week job but you do it over the course of eighty hours.
Still, this is the job I would love to do full time. I wish I could write for a few hours, take a break to clean house and do dishes, write a little more, fold clothes, and then write a little more… I just need to start having steady paychecks coming in.

We’ll see how it unfolds. More news soon.