Who Am I?

Sometimes I'm a day late and a dollar short.

Let me tell you a little about myself in terms of my writing experience.

I've written for national publications, primarily music magazines. I have have credits with Release, 7 Ball, and Feed in addition to the now defunct Classic Entertainment Flash and Spectrum newspapers. I also used to be a staff writer at a local paper here in Toledo called the Toledo Journal.

In reference to my fiction writing, specifically comics, I was published in a graphic novel anthology last year titled Ellium: Hybrid (since then, my buddy Jason has been picked up by Speakeasy Comics). There's an eight page short in there which I'll eventually post here. I also completed a prose story for that graphic novel last minute when the guy that was supposed to do it backed out. Two for one on that.

Since I've gotten paid for some of my writing, I guess you could say I'm a part-time professional. But I'm not going to leave it at that. I'm currently working on my first novel, editing some short stories, and sending out proposals for two graphic novel ideas which you've already seen, The Justice Directive and Twelve.

They'll be a lot of material posted here in the coming months. Looking forward to see how things pan out. Join me.

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Justice Directive Preview - Part I

Well, I'm back from my excursion in Chicago at Wizard World 2005 and I learned quite a bit. One of the key things that I learned (which I already knew going into the con) was that as a writer, you have to have a package ready to show, not writing. Cons really aren't the place to pitch a story unless you have something done that editors can see. And this I had.

I also employed a technique that I only got to use once, but once was enough.

I had an editor over at an independent comic company looking at our material. He said he wanted to see some of it and I asked him to do me a favor. Then I took out one of my business cards and asked him to write on it, "I asked for this." then sign it. At first I think he was a little taken aback but then I noticed a small smile on his face as he proceeded to do it. I believe he caught on to what I was doing

Now, what was I doing exactly? I was finding my way out of the slush pile and into the wanted pile.

For those of us in the business, the slush pile is the last place you want to be as a writer. It's where scripts and stories go that get ignored and unread, especially at the higher publishing houses. It's where unsolicited manuscripts go.

Before I went to the convention, I was thinking about ways to make sure any proposal we put together would bypass that pile and go to the solicited pile where stories get looked at and read. What better way than the editors own handwriting and signature.

Now, will this work? Not sure yet but it seems like it would. I'll let you know though when I put the package together and send it off next week.

Being at the con excited me to continue on the path I'm going with the projects that I'm working on.

Last week, I gave a little bit of a taste on two projects I'm currently working on. I'm going to focus this week on one of those projects called The Justice Directive.

The story is about a billionaire who forms a covert organization to prey on criminals who take advantage of the American justice system only to discover that he’s fighting against people who work for the justice system he’s trying to save. It's a gritty crime drama about vigilantes, assassins, terrorism, murder, and betrayal.

The story has been fermenting in my mind for a while and was basically inspired by news stories of known terrorists who are being painted in the media as victims for what blatantly appears to be political reasons. That got me to thinking about why someone would want to do that and what kind of skeletons could be in their closets.

Then other questions starting forming in my head randomly: How far will a person go to achieve power? Could a person with the resources really make a difference? What do people really think about vigilantes, especially police? Would there be public backlash? How bad? What would a patriot do if they had a lot of money?

As you can see, it went off in a flurry of directions but it was enough that I began to piece together the plot for a graphic novel. Because of the mood of this, I want it to be in black and white. I even want the cover to be in a glossy black and white with colored lettering for the title. Kind of Sin City-esque I know but that's really the feel I'm looking for. Whether an editor will buy it is another story.

I posted one of the sample pages last week but these are the first four in sequence. Simply start from top to bottom, clicking on each image to enlarge it. I'll be posting the last five after I feel that enough people have commented on what I have here. But please...be gentle.....

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Posted in: comics

Wizard World Chicago 2005

Yes. I'm taking the trip to Chicago so I can network with all the comic heads out there. Who am I kidding? I want a job man!

Conventions are one of the places that as a writer, you have to work just so because on the whole, conventions are not a real good place to show anything unless it's finished work. So, you guessed it, I'm taking about three finished 8-10 page samples with me (well two at least. The other is just art).

So, what does that look like you ask? I'll give you a sample. These are two pages from two projects I'm working on. One is Justice Directive, a story about a billionaire who forms a covert organization to prey on organized crime who take advantage of the American justice system only to discover that he’s fighting against those working for the justice system he’s trying to save.

The other is Twelve, a story is about twelve people gifted by God to be his instruments of judgment on the United States in order to save the country later during World War III. I'm very interested in doing this one because it's a story that talks about so much . Each will be pitched as a graphic novel primarily but could be a mini-series also. It's still in the process of being finished so no letters on this one. We've been pushing to get this completed but it won't be fully by the time we get there. However, if I can sell them on the art and a verbal pitch, it just may be enough.

Well...I have quite a few things to do with packing and other stuff. I'll let you know how it went when I get back.

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Posted in: comics,industry news