July 12th, 2010 by Neal

Okay… so… I know it’s been a while. That’s the torture part in “tortured artist”. Or at least, the tortured part in tortured dumbass, given present company. But at any rate, I do have news and updates and regular goodness.

First off, the Nightmares of the Macabre book has good news/bad news. The bad news? Well, it was supposed to be out this last week. It’s not. I know, you’re thinking, “Oh God! DELAYZORS!” But no. It’s not a delay, it’s not an inadequacy of the company, it’s not anything comic book nerds hypothesize, it’s something better still and more exciting…. the book is likely being distributed by Diamond now, and I’m gonna be the new regular writer of the series. Ergo, now it’s been juggled a bit so that the book will come out with a wider distribution a little later, and then I’ll be picking up the title as the main writer soon. Booya. More as I know more.

Hal 4 is in progress. I did 14,000 words, scrapped it, rebroke it as a novel from another character’s perspective, then totally redid the plot again, started writing again, and now I’m at 4,000 words. I can’t explain why it’s been so hard without spoiling a major plot point, so I’ll just say I’ve struggled with this one so far. I’m still sitting at the desk and writing every day, but it took a month and twenty days and a lot of screen staring this time. I’ve never really experienced that with something I’m flat-out ready to write. It wasn’t writer’s block, though, it was me choosing to write only one thing at a time, something I’m working on rectifying. For instance, I just finished today’s writing on Hal, so off I go to script some comics. That’s good. It means I can move the juice around to whatever my brain’s feeling up to at the time.

So in other words, yes, long absence, but it was part of the process. More soon.

June 23rd, 2010 by Neal

I know it’s been a while, and there is a reason. I’ve been twisting myself stupid over the new book and a few more exciting prospects. I dealt with a bout of what appears to be emerging depression based around shit I can’t and won’t go into. I also got lazy, which is rare with me, so I indulged it, given that I’ve had a hard time being lazy in the last few years. Well, that and I wrote three books in a year and a damned half, and I’m not even scheduled to start the next novel at my breakneck pace until the beginning of next month.

Hal 4 is started, and it’s called “Live in Hope.” I can’t really say anything about what happens in the book without completely blowing the third book’s payoff, which sucks, but it’ll also help me keep my lid shut.

I will, in the next few days, be posting previews of the new comic. It’s going to be available for the iPad, and it’s looking to come out (as far as I know) on the tenth of next month. It’s also got… wooo… diamond distribution, which is a good good thing.

I am (God help me) more prevailent on the twitter of late. As I get this book going (and I’m only at about the 5,000 word mark of yet, but that should rapidly increase as I get the flow), I’ll be updating more. I’m just posting to let you all know I haven’t dropped off the face of the earth, and that if you keep watching, you’ll have preview pages soon.

I’ve seen this whole book, and I think it’s quite honestly the thing I’m most proud of that I’ve had published thusfar. I think you’ll love it.

June 8th, 2010 by Neal

I am alive, yes, and all is well. I am pre-writing Hal 4, believe it or not, though I don’t know how my mind isn’t recoiling in horror at the prospect of yet another novel in such a short period of time. Must be a work ethic. Or insanity. Regardless…

Just yesterday I saw the final version of my next comic, The Anti-War Museum of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as featured in the Nightmares of the Macabre anthology, and I am quite proud of it. The art, by Barry Montgomery, is insanely good, and it features a painted cover that just blows me away:

Cantrell is my rad editor and the creator of the anthology.

We’re trying to nail down the release date. It will either come out near the Fourth of July, or a week after, but very soon. Rest assured, you’ll know where here. Since it will debut before Jet City, you will likely be able to get a copy there.

The BEST thing you can do is go to your retailer, right now, and ask them to carry the book. If they want more information on how to, they can contact me or Creator’s Edge Press. I’m also more than willing to do signings, and point of fact I’ve already lined up one, but I’ll give you more on that as it develops. Until then, bask in that cover awesomeness and anticipate! Woo!

Expect a few pages of preview, shortly!

May 26th, 2010 by Neal

May 19th, 2010 by Neal

Two songs profoundly informed the new novel. “No Surprises” by Radiohead, and “The Genius Next Door” by Regina Spektor. This in turn was informed by Ben Folds’ “Hiroshima” song, which inspired the title for the book (among other things), and through Folds I found Spektor.

Today, fishing around the net, I found this, recorded the week I finished the book.

Creepy, man. I love extraordinary coincidence (or dare I say with an air of presumption, great minds thinking alike?):

God damn, is it beautiful.

May 18th, 2010 by Neal

Hal 3 is done.

This is exactly what the process is like. You start out finding some interesting someone or something concept you don’t know or understand (suicide, plural marriage, child molestation, and SHRIMP!), fully explore it to the point that makes you feel stupid, and then:

That’s… that’s about it.

Nothing to do but look up and go…. Okaaaaay.

May 17th, 2010 by Neal

Work continues apace, which is nothing new.

I’m trying to decide if I should read one more time through or just let it fly away. I think I’ll probably read through again, because I’m a nut. Mostly it’s the beginning. It’s fine by any standard, but I love making little tweaks.

I’m tired, though. 44 pages of editing today. Ten hours. I want to be done, as much as I know that the minute I’m done, I will wish I had it back. Catch-a 22.

99,710 words, so far. Probably the most tiring book I’ve ever written, despite its relatively short time frame. But, I hope, a good one.

May 12th, 2010 by Neal

I’m very tired, but work progresses. The book is at almost 98,000 words, and will probably top out at 100K ish.

I’m doing about thirty pages a day, which puts me at completion at roughly the end of next week or the beginning of the following week, but either way, I should be done by the end of May. Then I’m gonna take a well-earned bloody break for a few.

Today I had a strange scene where I went into a 7-11 and saw the clerk being accosted. I was in perfect position to utterly ruin the day of the potential assailant, but he decided to leave. Had he taken a swipe at the clerk, I would have taken him down. It was literally a hair away from a really crazy scene. Instead he left, and now I have gummy worms and half a day of work.

In another universe, though, I karate chopped a bum today.

Sigh.

May 12th, 2010 by Neal

Happiness is playing with the word count function and realizing that the word “Just” appears 450 times in a 98,000 word document. It makes the pulse quicken, and you begin to excise the “just” from your book. Sometimes “only” will substitute. Usually it’s a character doing what people do when they talk in real life, just doing this, just doing that, I was just using just to just, I don’t know, Justify something.

There’s that old maxim that good dialogue sounds how people really talk. I disagree, as do some of my writer pals I’ve talked to about it. Good dialogue makes you think you’re reading how people really talk while still showing craft.

Nonetheless, it’s when you’re talking and you realize you say “like”, “All right?” or “Right?” all the time. You realize that it’s damned near impossible to remove your personal habits, no matter how practiced you are. For instance, the last sentence read “it’s just damned near impossible” until I saw it and went back before I made an ass of myself.

Point remains, after looking at the word “just” for an hour, I doubt I’ll be less conscious of it in the future. If only to avoid going mad.

May 10th, 2010 by Neal

I just got a letter addressed to the previous occupants of this house.

The name of the gal on the address is “Lora.” Laura wouldn’t make me queasy, but that exact spelling… wacky improbable.

For those of you familiar with the books, that is exceedingly coincidental in a crazy way. Dig it, just don’t deify it. Heh. Life is strange.