t​Under normal circumstances I like to read adventure and intergalactic travel in the summer time but at the moment it’s all I want. Escapism is a very real and very necessary thing. For me at least. It’s why I watch movies and read fiction. I avoid most dramas (even genre dramas) because they deal with real life issues. I want the farfetched and fantastical. I want a fully immersive experience forgetting everything about the current state of the world, whatever it may be. As we enter year two of a world-wide pandemic, I feel this need to escape more than ever.
 
I wanted to share some of my favorite reads so far. Movies and TV are great but they are over in a few hours. Also, they require zero imagination. When I have to conjure up the people, places, and things in my own mind, I feel like I’ve been there. I’m involved. Watching something is too passive. I am a slow reader so it takes me hours to work through a book. The more hours I spend reading, the less hours I have to be bored or freaked out.
 
Here are a few of my favorite escapes so far.
 
I’ve worked my way through a huge chunk of IDW’s Transformers, Phase Two series. Over 80 issues so far. This is a world I have wanted to be a part of since 1984. The comics, unlike the movies and TV shows have little to no humans, something I am very grateful for. I’m here for the giant robots. Period.
 
I recently read both The Night Circus and The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern. Probably the most fantastical novels in this bunch. If I could choose to live in either of those novels I would. They are beautiful and I love them.
 
In contrast, I just finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. It’s pretty grounded in reality, but not as we know it. It’s fast paced and exciting. The idea it plays with throughout is something I think about a lot and it was fun to see someone tackle the notion of the multiverse and all its possibilities.
 
One of my favorite random discoveries is the The Daevabad Trilogy by S.A. Chakraborty. I was in the bookstore and I was stopped in my tracks when I saw the cover of the second book, Kingdom of Copper. I quickly found the first one, City of Brass, and started reading it that day. Growing up one of my favorite books was Arabian Nights. This series is Arabian Nights to the nth degree. The world is vividly rendered in lavish colors and rich detail. The political intrigue and personal relationships are complex and surprising. I love so many of the characters. I have avoided the final book so it can never end but then again, I must know what happens. But Empire of Gold is next read and I have zero doubt that I will cry and be utterly amazed by the time I turn the last page.
 
I really enjoyed The Golem and the Ginni by Helene Wecker. While set in NYC, a place I have visited a few times, it’s in the past and entrenched in the day to day lives of some really wonderful characters. It’s anchored by the lives of these very normal people who have no idea the magic in their midst.
 
The Revenger Trilogy by Alastair Reynolds. I read book one, The Revenger, a couple of years again. At the time I was so bummed because I really liked the world he had built. There were some really cool concepts of time and space. When I found out that it was a trilogy, I immediately bought the other two books. Besides, it’s hard to get much cooler than space pirates.
 
The Prey of the Gods by Nicky Drayden was a little gory but unlike anything I have read in a while. The best word I can think of to describe this one is, unexpected.
 
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia was not at all something I would usually read but I don’t regret it. It is a true gothic novel with giant scary house and a cast of suspicious characters. I admit I was enraptured by the mystery of what was going on that I read it only a few days. It was intense. But it did have an ending I could live with and that is important to me.
 
I finally read Snowcrash by Neal Stephenson. I see why so many people love it. It’s set in a hyper reality we move closer to every day and yet I’m not sure our tech will ever be as cool as it is in the book. It’s fast paced from page one and a lot of fun. I am 100% convinced we would not have Ready Player One without this book.
 
Stars Wars and Halo novels are good diversions. I have only read a fraction of these, but I am familiar enough with the overall scope of these worlds that I’m not usually too lost. When I am not sure what to read, I resort to my short story collections of Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, both masters in imagination.
 
Those are few of my humble suggestions. If you have any great escapes to recommend, let me know on FB or Twitter. Stay safe and happy reading!

“Good things come to those who wait.” A popular mantra since 1892. I recently saw a modified version of that quote that crossed out “wait” and replaced it with “work their asses off.” In this case, both are true.
 
Some of you have asked, and I really appreciate your interest, when book three will be out. My original hope had been this year, already. I had hoped to be done with it in 2015.  But alas, that is not the case. It WILL be published in 2018 or I will die trying.
 
When I started book one I had no idea it would lead to a second or third book. And I definitely did not have any notion of where the trilogy would (will) end.  (Word to the wise, don’t publish anything until you know how it’s going to end.) Anyways, once I had completed Trespassing, I had no conscious plans to do another book. Linchpin just came out of nowhere and writing it was so easy. So easy. I emphasize this because book three has been anything but easy. Book three, Iteration, is making me work for every single word. Which is fine, it’s just pushed back my timeline. When I was explaining to my writing coach what I wanted to accomplish with book three I realized it is an ambitious undertaking so it will need time to make sure it’s done right.
 
I have had to work for absolutely every word and I hope they are worth it. At the moment the word count is hovering around 100k, the wordiest of the three. I will wrap up the first draft by the end of November and then it will go through the hoops with my workshop group, writing coach, and finally the editor. Who knows how many words will survive after all of that. In any case, the waiting will be well worth it. I promise.
 
As to the why behind a third book, is really because – trilogy. Everybody loves them. Two books doesn’t feel complete. There is something so satisfying about sets of three, ask any art or writing major.
 
For the release of book three, I hope to publish a definitive collection of DPA/Elbie material. Including all the short stories, the graphic novel, and an alternate beginning to Trespassing. It’s going to be a big deal you guys. So I have my work cut out for me over the next six months, working my ass off, so that once the wait is over, you will be very happy with the results.

A.K.A. National Novel Writing Month.

The goal of this annual frenzy is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That's it. Those words could be arranged in iambic pentameter, back to back flashbacks, stream of consciousness, doesn't matter. The point is to get it done come hell or high water and some days that is what it takes. I have pulled off this feat on three occasions so far. Come November 30th, 2015 I completed 31,583 words of my next novel. But I consider myself a winner and here's why.

There is a blissful euphoria that you can experience doing something like this, probably similar to a runner's high. It's an amazing feeling to look back on just 30 fast and furious days and have over 200 pages to show for it. It's a mess, sure, but you can't edit nothing. Progress is still that. You've moved forward on a project. It does however, consume every waking moment and every spare thought. I block off my calendar and send out a mass e-mail to friends and family to announce my disappearance for the month. I have a day job so my only opportunities to write are after work and on weekends.

This year, I didn't want the all consuming fire that is NaNoWriMo. But I did want to ride the wave of momentum that comes with meeting with other writers in the act of writing. It's very encouraging to be in the company of people who have your same obsession with imaginary people and places. I really needed the jump start but not the stress. So I decided to make my own goal of doing 30,000 in 30 days. Since I have accomplished the 50k in years past this could seem like I was not challenging myself. However, I had been suffering from writer's block for about ten months. I attempted the same goal 30k words for Camp Nano in July and didn't even break 15k. So while doing 1000 words a day is achievable it still felt considerably more daunting.

Then about a month before NaNo I found my idea. In the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep it stared back at me in the dark. I turned on my light and started writing it all down. At the time I wasn't even sure of the full implications of what had come to me but I as continued to turn it over in my mind the ideas began to bloom.

This was the difference between Camp NaNo and NaNoWriMo.

Here's the thing about a 1000 words. If I'm on a roll, I can do that in an hour. Two hours if I'm struggling. Just one hour. That's it. I could make dinner, go to the gym, watch a show, or take a nap and still have time to write. And I don't mean me up until 2am when I can no longer see the screen. It was liberating. It was FUN! The burden that I had felt trying to get in the standard 1667 words a day was no more. The burden that had been the last ten months had vanished. At a 1000 words a day I could still make steady, valuable progress and still enjoy the process. 

Here's the other thing about 50,000 words in 30 days. My experience has been that only two-thirds of that material is useful so I figured, I am actually being more productive because I am not writing whole chapters that have to be scrapped later because I was trying to pad my word count. So 30k is what I normally end up with after the fact anyways.

Lastly, one of the great benefits of NaNo is that it gets you into the habit of daily writing. Once your brain is used to it, it is very easy to maintain and with that 50k deadline you can't let up, no excuses. You've just got to do it. For me once that habit is there, I really want to do it. The daily word count moves from a "have to" to a "get to" ritual.

So I won NaNoWriMo 2015 because I had fun, didn't waste my time, and now a have regained a solid writing routine that fits with my life. Every writer has to find their own way to the sweet spot and mine is 1000 words a day. What's yours?

Every time I feel like giving up I stumble onto something that gives me the strength to keep going. Below are a few things you need to know as an artist of any kind.

The 4 Ps – Practical, Proactive, Professional and Patient.

Practical – what is your current standard? Are you better off trying to attract a studio to a blockbuster treatment, or attract student film-makers to produce one of your short films? Do you have the craft to handle a feature film? Being practical about your position, you are better placed to take the right strategic step, which will payoff and build your career, rather than frustrate and ultimately perturb you.

Proactive – take your success into your own hands. Write as much as you can, attend networking events, enter competitions, call producers, take on internships, put together your own short films.

Professional – even if you are not yet a professional, always handle yourself in a way befitting a professional. Punctual, delivering what you’ve promised, communicative and clear.

Patient – success very rarely comes overnight. If you quit your job to write a screenplay, convinced it well sell within a few months, then you’re likely going to be in for a rude awakening. Success can take years in this industry – though smaller measures of success can occur daily, weekly and monthly. Set yourself short-term, mid-term and long-term goals – weeks, months and years – and plan for sustained growth.

This is from Lesson 23 of Industrial Scripts screenwriting course. 

And if all else fails I turn to Ray Bradbury who said:

[There are two sentences that could be considered spoilers if you haven’t read Trespassing. I colored them in purple so it's hard to read. If you DO want to read it, just highlight it.]

In Trespassing you meet Brendan, Kristy, Matt, and Derek as adults. In Fallout they are teenagers. But age is not the only thing that changed.

The summer before middle school I wrote my first story. The kind you write for yourself. For fun, not for class. It was about a group of five friends who find an island of dinosaurs. (At the time I wanted to be a paleontologist.) Those five friends were Brenda, Jenny, Christy, Matt, and Derek. They have been living in my head for over twenty years.

Through middle school and high school these were the humans in my Transformers fan fiction. So they have had many adventures together. Hopefully they seem well rendered. And if they do, it is because I have been putting through quite a bit with giant robots before they ever met the Elbie. In Trespassing I have swapped out robotic life forms for energy ones.

If you look at the two lists of names you are going to see three differences:
                Brenda versus Brendan
                Jenny is missing from the second list
                Lysandra is missing from first the list

Brenda and Jenny were the core of the group as BFFs. In 2001 when I wrote my first draft of Fallout Jenny became Jake. Jenny never made it into the Elbie reality. I wanted the BFFs to be opposite sex because that was more of my experience and I had lots of these in my circle of friends at the time.

In 2006 I gave up on Fallout and I moved the timeline up, after the establishment of the Elbie in our world, Trespassing. This is when I brought in Lysandra. Lysandra had been a part of my Transformers fan fiction as well, in the post original movie reality. I really liked having Brenda and Lysandra as identical twins because it meant lots of messing around with identity and switching them out for each other but the story line still wasn’t panning out.

Finally, in 2010 I made a drastic change.

Brenda became BrendaN. The hobbies and interests of Jake became Brendan’s thus eliminating Jake and making Kristy the new BFF since she was now the only female in the group. Then it all came together. It seems so strange that something like that made the difference. While I don’t really know why it worked I can give you one theory.

The most interesting part about changing Brenda to BrendaN was their relationship to Lysandra. I say “they” because in a writerly way Brenda still exists on her own outside of Brendan but she is very different from her male counterpart.

One attitude Brenda/Brendan share is their hate for Elbie and specifically Esben. But for Brenda, the appearance of Lysandra meant she now had a method for carrying out the revenge she had wanted for years. Her feelings toward her identical sister were practically null. She was distant and calculated in the way she related to Lysandra.

**SPOILER** Brendan on the other hand, revenge is a thought only after Elbie have harmed his sister. Rather than becoming less human at Lysandra’s appearance, he becomes more human than he has in years.

This was not something I planned. Most of my characters are self-actuating. They tell me who they  want to be. I did not create Brenda to be cold toward her sister any more than I made Brendan to be gushing over her. That is just how they are. One worked and the other didn’t. Pure and simple. It is one of the mysteries of creating.

If I ever decide to release Fallout it will need some major overhauling because of the changes I’ve made to the character line up. I still write the kind of stories I want to, for myself, for fun, but it makes me happy to know that other people like them too. If you have any questions feel free to e-mail or Tweet me.

I just want to take a few moments and give credit where credit is due to Sven Geier, the artist behind the banner I am using here on my website. Sven's website is full beautiful and cool digital images that he offers all for free simply because he loves to create them. Over ten years of his creative life all there for you admire and download if you find something you like. Check out his work here.

I was watching the Italian Job the other day and it reminded me if another great movie that is also set in Venice. Are you ready for it?  If you say League of Extraordinary Gentleman we can no longer be friends.

Back when you could still wander around the local Blockbuster Video Store, I saw this sitting on the shelf and I was powerless to resist. There are so many bad movies in the world and this one of the best. If you really love a good bad movie, Sharks in Venice has to be on your must watch list.

I have been watching Mystery Science Theater since it first appeared on Comedy Central so suffice it to say that I'm a sucker for a good bad movie. In the spirit of truly terrible films that involve sharks, I found another real gem under the same circumstances, in a Blockbuster.

A strong second in this category has to be Hammerhead. IMDB.com has this to say: “A scientist tries to save his son from cancer but his experiments turn him into a shark-man instead. A group of people from a pharmaceutical corporation are sent to the mad doctor's island to investigate his activities.”

Besides its horrendous premise, Hammerhead comes with something for all you romantics in the audience. Long lost love, destined, possibly doomed, to be reunited with her once a man of a man boyfriend who is now a shark of a man (or is is man of a shark?) ex-lover.

When I did a Google image search for this one, and I recommend that you do the same, the images that filled my screen made me laugh so hard my roommates emerged from their rooms to see what all the noise was about. I don’t think it’s a “total terror” but is most definitely a total scream.

Okay, just one more. This one was recommended to be me by the Netflix algorithm. (As if they know me from my previous selections. Those silly equations don't know anything.)

It is everything you fear and hope it to be, including the tender love scene.

It is total coincidence that all three of these movies have sea creatures in them. As I said at the start, I was watching an actual good movie and there are no monsters in that one. But there you have it folks, the power of synaptic misfiring and association.