Lifelines and Deadlines

The semester so far has been turbulent and I haven't had much time to write; though, as it stands I won't need to write all semester. The only fiction related class I have is Fiction Seminar and since I'm getting the first 4 chapters of my novel worked on I won't need to write anything new. So the only thing I've really been doing is reading a whole lot. I don't mind too much but it's...draining I guess. I wish I had the time to write but I guess this is one of those necessary dry periods that allow me to go all howitzer shark crazy like I did over the summer. I'm done whining...for now.

One thing that's been keeping me psyched is the fact that Black Dogs is fast approaching existence...like a greased up baby shooting out a....yeah let's just leave that metaphor alone...but it's true. Black Dogs will be premiering (hopefully) on Oct 21st which also happens to be my 23rd birthday, hurray for oldness. It's hard not to be excited when I see stuff like this.



I guess this has been the much needed lifeline to my creative sanity, I also need to stop being such a lazy ass and but the website...I swear if the URL is taken I'm going to stab myself and make everything all around unpleasant for...well me I guess. Alright I'll stop wandering off, this has been by far my most pointless post. I'm mostly posting out of self-discipline because I'd like to keep up at least two posts a month.

I'll be getting to work on some short stories soon, because I really want my third publication before I graduate and that means I'm going to be spraying a couple pieces all over the net around Christmas, which really means I need to start WORKING on said pieces.

Oh on another note I went to the Chicago Women In Comics panel at my school and got to see Spike, the artist/writer of Templar, Arizona a really cool webcomic you guys should probably check out. I've been bugging spike about the comic, and particularly webcomic business for like 3 years now. I ended up talking her husband's ear off about Black Dogs and he honestly seemed pretty down with the whole idea...and I feel like Sarah's art speaks for itself...so if I'm lucky she may throw me a shout out eventually. Only a couple of weeks till launch folks...I'm fuckin excited.

Marathon Man

So, I've been done novel writing for a couple of weeks now...but it feels like forever. Everyone has always told me that you should let the smoke clear between bursts of work, while I've never heeded ANYTHING anyone has ever told me ever, cept maybe Tina Jens...school makes for good breaks, I get all of my horridness out then and then as soon as that bell rings and the last day of school comes around, I'm back on the horse and I'm riding it until it's legs break. Anyways I haven't even started to make a point yet, other than I'm going to miss the freedom to work of summer and the confining coffin of school, but only two more semesters to freedom.

ANYWAY.

I started on Chapter 2 of Black Dogs on August 30th and I finished the 27 page chapter off last night with an 11 page sprint, and a part of me doesn't want to stop. It was sticky at first, switching from noveling to comicing is a bit clunky, especially when you're shifting drastically in subject matter and tone...and I was doing both. After a couple days in however I hit my stride and took off like a coked out rabbit. I think a part of the reason I exploded so rapidly is because I'm more excited to work on the webcomic than I was to work on the novel, not because of the subject matter or anything like that because I love both of my incomplete children equally...kind of. But I like the comic more because as anyone who know me knows, I'm an impatient spaz; I want to be started yesterday and I personally think life has been taking to long for quite some time now. To make that a bit more coherent, I know the webcomic is going to take a lot less time and effort to get to the masses than my novel will.

The webcomic, Black Dogs, is a steampunk fantasy written by me with art, colors, and bloodysweatytears by Sarah Smith, a former Columbia Fiction Major. It follows the crew of The Black Dog (go figure) as they go on adventures and have problems. Sounds a bit like firefly if you replace space with steampunk. What I'm hoping really sets us apart from those inevitable accusations is the story or should I say stories, like your typical guys on a ship adventure series (Andromeda, FireFly, Babylon 5 ect) are going to be the fact that most of the stories I'm writing or dreaming up for the series are going to be big overarching plots that almost always develop characters and change the social dynamics of the crew, basically I'm not here to fuck around. As a writer I'm a plot whore, I like seeing people forced to do things they hate, I like palpable atmosphere and I like for people to feel connected to my characters and my stories, and I'm going to do everything in my power to evoke that from every orifice of Black Dogs, even the not so pretty ones.

Looking back on the chapter I really like what I did, I have plenty of ideas that could easily run the series for a decade or more and since I've plotted that far ahead I have hints that need to be dropped early, like first, second chapter early, and I'm doing my best to do that. As I've stated before I'm a huge anime and managa fan but I can only stand manga's that know where their going to end from the beginning, and that's how I write, the end isn't crystal clear yet, but I'm pretty positive of where I want to leave it off, but it's going to be a long and crazy ride along the way and I'm going to relish every moment of it.

The main characters in Black Dogs (for now DUNDUNDUN) are

Asher-the man whore of the crew, the son and great grandson of two legendary inventors who's more of an engineer than an inventor but is just as talented as those family members. He's also in love with Alex, or so he thinks, and he and Lucien have been kids since childhood. Like his father Asher is an inventor and creates all kinds of things on board; after a couple of unfortunate technological mishaps Cap and Alex stitched to the back of his coat "if you see me running, try to catch up".

Anastasia the female Captain of the crew known better as Cap, she's a feisty gun and sword wielding lady with a shadowed past (lulz cliche) and a bit of a drinking problem. Her crew is her family and like a good matriarch she does what she needs to do to protect them, even if she has to skirt the borders of morality.

Alex-the female first mate of the crew, she's more composed and quite than Asher or Cap and tends to be the voice of reason in the face of her emotional and compulsive crew-mates. No one but Cap knows where she's from but it is known she spent extensive time in the east in the circus, preforming as a trapeze artist and an animal tamer, she's deadly with her hands, and a whip.

Lucien-Lucien is the suave handsome man of the crew, he's the type that doesn't open his mouth unless something needs to be said. Lucien is the bastard son of a nobleman who was raised by his peasant mother to retain his status in spite of the fact that his father refuses to claim him. Lucien as a result does have a sense of regal poise about him that's more intriguing than arrogant, he's also an amazing swordsman and the ships main gunner.

Sir Roderick R. Clemens II-The son of the famous General Roderick aka General Rock a battle hardened soldier and renowned strategist his 19 year old son isn't exactly a spitting image of his father. Roderick II surpasses his father as a strategist but fails miserably as a fighter, he's also a surprisingly adept airship pilot with his mandatory year of military training.


Those are just some brief character biows of the crew...and now, A PICTURE!!!! YAYYYYY




These are the first two panels of the FIRST Chapter..the one I wrote last summer...but that's another less fun story.