Changing Vision

Let's talk about changes. I've mentioned before an odd desire to make collectible card style games--though I don't like the collectible bit in the sense of some cards being astronomically priced or hard to get a hold of. I may or may not have mentioned comics. I've been kicking that idea around for as long as the cards. Both of these require visual art components. It's no secret that I have an online gallery of art (Macabre Male's Grotesquerie) that I have been adding to over the years. The consistent element between cards and comics and writing books is providing entertainment revolving around story. Characterisation, plot, and the depiction of emotion through a fictional framework--from character emotions to situation moods and less tangible feelings inherent in a milieu--are what I think drive me. The tiny dabbling I've done in musical scores is in a similar vein.

As much as there is a greater satisfaction in fiction writing, especially the long form, I will be leaning more heavily in the art direction this year. Tight finances are a big part of this. Timing ties in directly to the money aspects. A piece of art is a snapshot of a piece of a story, and since there is much less connective tissue between one piece and the next even in a series that tells a tale, the creation time is less. There are some issues involved that having nothing to do with creating the art that I need to sort out. One of them certainly is dealing with censors. There is a sales site I have been eyeing, but they seem uneven in their treatment of what images can be sold. Another site seems better but isn't free like the more conservative one. I do not intend to pursue as dark or as graphic art as I do fiction, but still it is a consideration.

I do not intend to do away with any of my blogs. I want to discuss the same sort of topics here as always, but the posts may be more about the snapshot-style of story elements, and the artistic markets and the considerations with dealing with them, in addition to the writing market-speak that has occasionally come up here. I may tie more things back and forth between here and Learning Dark Arts, my blog for talking about art--frequently from the point of view of the software that I use to make my art. We shall see what future posts hold as they come out of my head and into my typing fingers.

• Tags: art, blogging, characters (fiction), emotion, Grotesquerie, Learning Dark Arts, marketing, mood, music, story.

2012 Quick-Busts a Move

Hello and welcome to 2012. Welcome to the future, right now. Will this be the final year for all of us? I seriously doubt it. Normally I would begin with a look back. There is no time for that. It's onward and upward. There is no time for lollygagging. It's the 20th of January already. It's Friday, which means there is nothing to post anywhere on my sites until Monday again. Next Saturday I will re-ignite On Dark Rhoads™, but it will no longer be called that. I knew from the first post that I would be changing the name sooner rather than later. In the interest of surprise I will not tell you the new name or what changes there will be. You will not want to miss any of it if you even marginally liked On Dark. One thing I can say it is still will be Joshua Rhoads telling his story as it unfolds around him. I guess I can also tell you it will get darker and more frightening. It pretty much has to do that given just a fraction of what I have in store.

Cheers, and let's make 2012 everything the previous year was and way more.

• Tags: hiatus, New Years, On Dark Rhoads™.

The Year in the Rear-view

The first half of the year was quite outwardly productive with the release of the third year of Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™ issues. Then after that things quieted down. Killing Time's fourth year will not begin this year (2011). At this point I have no expectation of when it will happen. I won't get people's hopes up. It will arrive when it does or it won't at all. I have not worked any further on the serial story and I will not begin a new year of issues without that done completely in first draft this time. I will also have to do most of the short story work first. I'm keeping the submissions page open at Battered Spleen Productions™, but it's all a chicken and egg process where I don't count on submissions until the certainty of the E-Rag is resolved. I do not expect it would be any different even if I offered to pay a pro rate. That's the way these things go. Time will tell.

R.G. Male's Dark Corners made its transition to it's new home. There are still miles to go before I sleep on that one but it's been a mostly smooth transition. It was a fine year over at Learning Dark Arts. I created a number of tutorials. I posted throughout the month of October during Dark Corner's "13 Nights of Hallowe'en" rather than taking October off entirely there. I made a fair number of images this year not even counting the ones from Killing Time. The big event of the year was On Dark Rhoads™. It burst onto the scene in April and ran almost every Saturday until December 3rd. It had a great run and you won't want to miss what's going to happen when it returns in January.

Okay. That is all I have. I wish everyone a Happy December/Kwanzaa/Hanukkah/Solstice/Yule or a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. See you in 2012!

• Tags: Battered Spleen Productions™, Christmas, Halloween, Hanukkah, hiatus, Killing Time - Horror E-Rag™, Kwanzaa, New Years, On Dark Rhoads™, R.G. Male's Dark Corners, Solstice, writing, Yule.

Last week I brought you my review of S.S. Michaels' first novel, Idols and Cons. If you missed it, do yourself a favour and check back for it. Today I have another post that you will find exciting. I knew when I was asked to review the book that I certainly would, and if at all possible I would follow it up with something a little more intimate. That said, I present to you my...

Interview with S.S. Michaels

Tell everybody a bit about yourself, please.

I am a recovering accountant and Hollywood drone hoping to become the next Chuck Palahniuk.

Do you do a lot of pre-planning for your writing or do you just jump right in and sort the details out as they show up?

I do waaaay more research than I need to. Then, I make meticulous outlines and plot charts. And then, I throw all that away and write the story.

Why did you choose to use multiple first person perspectives in Idols & Cons? Were there other styles you considered?

I chose multiple first person because I wanted the reader to be able to get inside everyone's head, to know what they were (or were not) thinking. I did consider a boring third person omniscient, but that just didn't work for me.

What do you consider the most important element in a story? (Character, setting, mood, etc?)

I think you've got to have a story. Having great characters is a close second, but if they don't have anything to do, then what?

How does it feel to have your first novel published?

It feels great! It's even better than an Adventure Time marathon!

Do you have your second novel in mind already?

I have three novels completed, actually. You've only seen the first one so far. The second, REVIVAL HOUSE, will be out sometime early next year. It's a quirky horror story, of course.

Do you have a lot of stories just bouncing around waiting to be pulled out of your thoughts?

I have stories about all the stories I've got dancing around in the caverns of my head.

What is it like to have a great quote for your novel from Jeremy C. Shipp? Jeremy gets a lot of great accolades himself from big names, and you certainly deserved yours.

Jeremy is a great writer - one of my new favorites - so I was, of course, over the moon to get such high praise from him. It really means a lot to me and I'm very thankful.

Have you done many interviews yet? I expect there will be a lot sooner than later.

I have done several so far.

What question would you like an interviewer to ask you, that they otherwise might not ask? What's the answer to that question?

Where do I get my ideas. The answer: everywhere.

Thank you for answering my questions. I hope this is the start of a long and distinguished career.

Thank you, Robert!

• Tags: horror, interview, Jeremy C. Shipp, perspective, publishing, S.S. Michaels, story.

The schedule fell apart and there was no post last week, despite what the Dead Days Calendar™ said up until now. Instead I have a very special instalment for you today. I'd like to present my review of...

Idols & Cons by S.S. Michaels

John lives in an area being infiltrated by Hollywood types. He's into art, music, and selling drugs even though he's not out of high school yet. He's sort of friends with boy band idol Damien Tungsten of the band In Dreams. He's also friends with eccentric, artist Patrick Salinger. When John witnesses Damien murder a girl in his posh bedroom, and Patrick becomes involved, things go from bad to strange.

Idols & Cons is S.S. Michaels' debut novel, published by Omnium Gatherum. What a great way to start off a writing career. The book is a fast read that also moves along at a good narrative clip. It is written in the first person, but also changes character perspective from chapter to chapter as necessary. While not a new idea it is put to good use. It starts off with Jake, who is also John for much of the novel. It's an element of the somewhat fluid timeline, but it manages not to confuse if you pay attention to whose point of view you're in until you can tell without looking. Everything fits together well and really crystallises nicely. After teetering along in an exciting, wild ride of relish-worthy fulfilled expectations, and breakneck twists, it ends with short burst of abrupt reality hits that satisfy except that there is no more to read.

The writing is involving. There is excellent contrast between the dark and comedic. The satire is obvious but not in your face. The character work with John draws you in, with nice detail and depth to Damien as well. Patrick is kind of the odd one out. That however has more to do with his psychology and his action more than introspection role to the narrative. The characters are physically described mostly by fashion sense and personal style, which is a good fit to the world they live in just outside of where regular people do. This, the content, and some of the story stylings push the book into the transgressive milieu that the publisher is interested in.

You can pick up your own copy of Idols & Cons at Amazon.com.

• Tags: Bob's Reviews, characters (fiction), Omnium Gatherum, perspective, publishing, reviews, satire, S.S. Michaels, timeline, transgressive fiction.