Meanwhile…

Mercier’s Flight continues to have no luck. The latest venue I submitted to, Britain’s excellent Murky Depths, has closed its doors. I had reason to believe the story stood a decent chance there, and it’s a market I’ve wanted to get into for a while, so I’m extra sad about this. I think I have another place in mind, but the response time there is something on the order of a year, so it’ll probably be a while before you hear anything more about the story I think is one of my best.

Meanwhile, I have a couple of flash pieces making the rounds, so maybe look for those over the next few months. Particularly around Christmas.

In other news, this volume of Fantastic Four taught me there is still oil in these cybernetics-enhanced tear ducts of mine. Gods speed, Johnny Storm. See ya in a few years when they resurrect you.

The assorted winners (and almost winners) of the WoTF 3rd Quarter have been posted. I’m in there with the other like 80 people who got honorable mentions.

Normally I am stricken with an inability to remember Edgar Rice Burroughs’s name whenever I am in a bookstore or library, but I finally remembered. While selling some useless old textbooks yesterday I came across this little gem of an edition and snagged it. How can you not love that cover?

I’ve gotten quite a few books over the past few months. I’ll report in my findings as I chew through them. I spent all day Saturday building several new sets of bookshelves for our living room. Then filling them. It looks lovely. Then we lugged the loveseat in front so the baby can’t get at them. You can take my word for it though, they look nice.

In awesome news, I discovered over the weekend that my Mercier’s Flight has received an Honorable Mention over at the Writer’s of the Future Contest. Link when they’ve posted it. It’s the furthest a story of mine has gotten over there (though it’s probably the only one that’s deserved it) and I’m pretty excited. I’ve resumed submitting the story to markets in the hopes that it’ll sell somewhere so you guys can read it.

A while back, I picked this up for my wife, a bit of original art (not a print, but the actual pen-and-ink) crafted by the incomparable Skottie Young, whose work you can find in the fantastic Wizard of Oz adaptations Marvel is putting out. (And also a lot of awesome covers – seriously, just do a Google image search and spend an hour in slack-jawed wonder.) Finally got around to framing it tonight. It also seemed appropriate because of the release of the last movie this weekend.

He refers to this sort of thing as a warm-up sketch. Had I any talent with a pencil, I’d quietly keep it to myself from now on.

I’ve finished up the robot story I posted a bit of last time. I’ll let you know when (and if) it sells. I like it, and I wouldn’t mind writing more adventures for this pair of characters.

Watching The Last Starfighter, with commentary, on Blu Ray. It looks fantastic. It’s interesting hearing the director and production designer talk about some of their frustrations butting up against territory that had been tread so well by guys like Spielberg and Lucas. Love this movie.

Anyway. Watched the BBC’s new Sherlock, an updating of the classic detective set in modern day London. Another home run by the BBC. The villains are a little weak, but Holmes and Watson are so perfectly executed that I don’t really care. The ending of the third episode…well, I don’t want to spoil anything. It is exquisite. Can’t wait for more.

First up, my Buffy sketch from Cal Slayton. I’m a fan of Slayton’s style, and at every show I intend to get a piece from him, but never seem to get around to it. So I made a point (hah!) to do it this time.

Next is a piece I got from David Marquez. He recently had his first work for Marvel with the excellent Secret Warriors series, so I got a Nick Fury from him. It is awesome.

As I mentioned before, meeting Amanda Conner was one of the highlights of the show for me. Her line was ridiculously long all weekend, and I got to her literally in the last minute of the show. Totally worth it.

What a weekend.

My car’s radiator exploded. Sources close to my baby report that she seems to be having her first “wittle cowd.”

But I went to the Dallas Comic-Con, and it was a blast. Met Stan Lee. John Romita, Jr. Two creators who’ve probably influenced my life more anyone else, and seeing them banter on stage was immensely fun. Getting them to sign my first issues of Spider-Man and Daredevil, respectively, was a deep honor. Those are going on the wall.

I avoided buying books and collectible stuff in favor of supporting the artists directly. I picked up a couple of commissions that I will post here as soon as I get a chance to scan them in. After Stan and Romita, the highlight of the show was meeting Amanda Conner, whose art on Power Girl and other things is a delight. I snagged a quick sketch from her and this awesome print for my daughter’s room. Amanda agreed: the girl is doomed.

My only disappointment with the new Thor movie was that he never said that.

It’s a fun film. As good as they could make a Thor movie without it being a five-hour HBO mini-series. There were whole scenes I watched with a giant grin on my face, because you just never expect to see Thor hovering in mid-air, in the midst of a summoned tornado, twirling his hammer and shooting bolts of lightning at The Destroyer, anywhere but a comic book page. People can say what they will about superhero movies, moments like that are worth Volstagg’s weight in gold.

In Thor’s honor, I dug out this sketch of the lovely Lady Sif I got from Tom Raney a few years ago.

Looking forward to Cap in July.

Mercier’s Flight is still making the rounds, with a fresh rejection just this past week.

Currently reading: Homicide, by David Simon. Fantastic.

Today begins the writing group’s annual Story Every Day event. Should be fun! I’ve got a jump on a story already that I’ve been working on, so some of my SEDs will likely be chunks of that. We’ll be meeting tonight to get started, as a group. I’ll be posting as much as I can here in the process.

In other news, I’ve been watching “Luthor” via Netflix. Sooooo good. If you need a good example of how to write great villains without overshadowing your equally great hero, this is where you want to look.

Edit: SONUVA–link removed because there are some major spoilers there. I just ruined some major plot points for myself. Thanks, BBC!