What’s that strange glowing orb in the sky?

Meet the Mole-Man––patron saint of writers everywhereOh yeah, it’s the sun.  

I suspect that writers must share the same DNA as the mole-rat, minus the buckteeth and the need to gnaw on wood-products (not counting #2 pencils). Because as soon as I sent partials of the new book off to a few beta-readers, I immediately dove headlong into another project.

I dig the new book immensely and the research has been thoroughly enjoyable—but the opportunity to work on something new elicits that same feeling my golden retriever gets when I say C-A-R R-I-D-E. Yes, I have to spell it out, because my dog knows the meaning of certain words and will throw a barking, tail-thrashing hissy if she hears the phrase. She goes from being mistaken for a throw rug to bumping around like a toddler with a crack-popsicle.

If only I were that energetic. Instead, I’ve been glued to my desktop, plinking away 20 pages of a short story that secretly wants to be a novel.

Okay, back to the writing I go. Besides, the sun will always be there––at least for another few billion years.

Storyland vs. Storyville

Busy writing. Or, in Storyland, as my significant other calls it. As opposed to Storyville, which was the name give to the red light district of New Orleans.

I'm sure some interesting books came out of there too.

I’ll catch up mañana.

Gonna get my geek on

It’s official.

To celebrate my 40th birthday this summer I’m going to ComicCon in San Diego with a group of guys I’ve known since grade school. Kyle, Kev, Rey, Paul, Timm—I ain’t mad at ya, I ain’t got nothing but love for ya. Now if we could only convince Ragnar to fly out from Connecticut––yes, I have a childhood friend named Ragnar. With a name like Ragnar, you’d think he’d been born into a clan of Techno-Vikings, but his dad just liked the name. In fact, Ragnar’s brother is named Ed. **Scratching my head over that one**

If you’ve never heard of ComicCon, it’s the largest comic/sci-fi/gaming/entertainment gathering in the world. They sell out each of the four days—125,000 people each day. That’s a lot of pocket-protectors. If you put all the 20-sided dice in one room you’d create a geeky singularity so dense, not even light could escape. Or as my significant other likes to call it---Nerdgasm 2008.

Sure, there are the things you’d expect. Big premieres—like Superman Doomsday, Heroes, Lost and Battlestar Galactica––with producers, writers and cast members milling about. There will also be the perennial panelists, like Kevin Smith, Cory Doctorow and of course the venerable Stan Lee himself.

But what I didn’t realize is how many authors will be there speaking and presenting. Notables include: Neil Gaiman, Dean Koontz, David Morrell, Laurell K. Hamilton, Orson Scott Card, Frank Beddor and some guy named Ray Bradbury.

While my friends are checking out the Star Trek weddings and metal-bikini clad Princess Leias, I’m hoping to catch a few writing workshops—specifically regarding comics and graphic novels––a medium I’m earnestly trying my hand at. (I went to art school to become an illustrator, how I ended up a writer…)

Speaking of which, I had a small script accepted by Secret Identities, the first-ever graphic anthology of Asian American superhero stories, scheduled to be released April 2009—just on the heels of HOTEL. The publisher is The New Press, an amazing independent house, dedicated to cultural, educational and ethnic subjects. A heart-felt shout-out goes to editor Jeff Yang, for managing to squeeze a very square peg (that be me) into a very round hole.

The author as a franchise (Or why I wish I could hire someone to write this blog for me)

I returned a movie yesterday (don’t ask, it wasn’t worth watching) and was gobsmacked by the ginormous James Patterson edifice at the front of my local Hastings store. There were no less than 46 titles on display––a few being duplicates. Some were written by Patterson himself, but most were written with Andrew Gross, Maxine something...and someone else, I’m drawing a blank and honestly does anyone remember or really care?

I’m amazed at the author-as-franchise model, especially since Patterson IS an accomplished writer, rather than a celebrity like William Shatner––who’s "co-written" numerous books that have all won Pulitzer Prizes, in Mirror-Mirror parallel universes.

The author/co-writer franchise: Good? Evil? Neutral? You be the judge.