comic books

Two non-writerly questions for you

Maximum Z adventure, Battlestar Galactica, Breaking Bad, comic books, confidence, Doctor Who, French, Mad Men, Netflix, screenwriting, script, The Walking Dead, writing
Inquiring minds want to know
Inquiring minds want to know

1. Seen anything good lately?

Thanks to Netflix for finally updating some of their content. I’ve been working my way through Season 3 of THE WALKING DEAD (phenomenal, of course) and Season 1 of ARROW (better than expected, a little cliched here and there, but still fun). Next up – second half of Season 7 of DOCTOR WHO, followed by either BREAKING BAD, MAD MEN or finally getting around to BATTLESTAR GALACTICA.

-Watched SHARKNADO (2013) – so bad, it’s extremely bad – and THE EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES OF ADELE BLANC-SEC (2010) – a live-action adaptation of a French comic book that started out charming and strong, but lost its footing in the second half.

2. How’s your latest project coming along?

As chronicled here, my 3 projects are all moving ahead slowly, with confidence levels gradually increasing for each.

That’s me. Now you.

Devilishly handsome? Sure. But lovely…?

Maximum Z baking, Comedy Film Nerds, comic books, cooking, half-marathons, Julie Gray, Just Effing Entertain Me, Mark Evanier, Mark Sanderson, My Blank Page, New Jersey, running, screenwriting, Sex in a Sub, Sprinting to Fade Out, William Martell, writing ,

One Lovely Blog

You never know who’s reading your stuff.

Such is the case with this blog. All I know about my readers is how many there are and where they’re reading me, geographically speaking.

So it was a very pleasant surprise to get a message from The Novice Screenwriter: “I really enjoy your blog (and might I add your great sense of humor:) and I just wanted to let you know that I have nominated you for the One Lovely Blog award.

In the words of the Cowardly Lion, “Shucks, folks. I’m speechless.”

One of my earlier bosses in radio stressed the importance of PIE. Not the world-changing, life-affirming dessert  (which, granted, is very important), but how your performance should always be Professional, Informative and Entertaining. That’s an acronym I’ve tried to adhere to in all forms of my media output, including this blog, which is why I’m flattered to get this kind of recognition.

And apparently there are rules/guidelines for this as well:

1. Add the “One Lovely Blog” image to your post
2. Share seven things about you
3. Pass the award on to seven nominees
4. Thank the person who nominated you
5. Inform the nominees by posting on their blogs

Thanks to Aarthi at The Novice Screenwriter for the nomination. When somebody tells me they heard me doing traffic on the radio, I always say “It’s nice to know somebody’s listening.” So in this case, it’s nice to know somebody’s reading.

Seven Facts you may or may not know about me:
-I’m the youngest of 5 in a typical Jewish-American family. And by “typical”, I mean there’s a doctor, a lawyer, and the one in showbiz.

-I was born and raised in the great state of New Jersey. The southern half, where there are no accents.

-My wife and I saw HEATHERS on our first date. We’ve been together ever since.

-I really enjoy cooking and baking. One of my specialties is pecan pie from scratch – crust and everything. A friend with strong roots in Georgia was practically orgasmic over it, which must mean something.

-I like to run half-marathons, averaging about 4 a year. My pace is around 9 minutes a mile, with the goal to someday break the 1:55 time limit. The idea of doing a full marathon is intriguing, yet very intimidating.

-I collect comic books, but have never attended Comic-Con in San Diego. Someday I will. In fact, the dream is to be there while The Movie I Wrote is being promoted (with a panel in Hall H and everything!).

-I didn’t go to school for screenwriting. Everything I’ve learned comes from reading books and scripts, watching and studying movies, attending a handful of seminars, and most of all, writing and rewriting.

Here are the seven blogs I heartily recommend:
My Blank Page – good nuts and bolts advice from a working screenwriter
Just Effing Entertain Me – practical advice for writers and a high-profile script competition (hurry! final deadline is Aug 15)
Sex in a Sub – an extremely prolific writer plus fantastic analysis of Hitchcock films
Sprinting to Fade Out – great info for aspiring writers (regrettably on hold for now, but worth checking the archives)
News from ME – a wide variety of topics from a veteran writer-director who works in TV, cartoons and comics
Scott Tipton’s Comics 101 – got a question about comics? More info than you could possibly imagine, especially if you’re a fan of ROM: SPACE KNIGHT
Comedy Film Nerds – actually a podcast about movies, but extremely hilarious, entertaining, informative and very NSFW

I have no idea if there’s an actual award connected with this, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m just happy to be nominated, and will practice my “forced smile to mask my internal pain” look just in case it’s not my name if a winner is ever announced.

The Sinestro Effect -OR- Seeking my inner Hal Jordan

Maximum Z comic books, Green Lantern, screenwriting, script, self-confidence, writing
Not necessarily my internal struggle, but you get the idea...
Not necessarily my internal struggle, but you get the idea…

(If you have absolutely no idea who either of these guys are, go here.)

The rewrite’s done, and all of a sudden, I’m nervous. Like, ridiculously so.

I’ve sent scripts out before, but this time something is making it a lot different.

A fear of failure.  Of rejection.

What if nobody likes it?

What writer hasn’t gone through this?

But as I tell K every once in a while – the only way I could fail is if I stopped trying, and I don’t plan on doing that either.

It may be that after all this time, the idea of possibly being that much closer to actually achieving my goal is kind of overwhelming.  This is where that internal voice kicks in.

Do I have what it takes? Is the script just about ready to be sent out?

Damn straight. I’ve got a lot of confidence in this script and my writing ability.

I can and will do what it takes to make this work.

Originality abounds

Maximum Z comic books, webcomics

Kind of busy right now. Hoping to steamroll through to the end of the rewrite before the weekend.

In the meantime, check out some of the creative types I met at APE last week…

The Selling – I first heard about this on the Nerdist podcast with Diani & Devine. Can’t wait to see it.

Band

The Chapel Chronicles – written & drawn by 15-year-old Emma Capps

Zoms – V got a stuffed Horace and absolutely loves it.

Gulls

Kevin Wood

Squid Row – out of Salinas (Steinbeck country!)

Dr Lollipop, Unicorn MD – not sure if her site mentions the Kitten Pirates, but both are great

Boston Metaphysical Society – sort of a steampunk X-Files

Finn and Charlie are Hitched

Ryan Dow

Sumo Fish – cool designs. Both V and I liked the Sushi Robot shirt

The holidays are coming up fast, and a lot of these would make great gifts. Just a suggestion…

Leaps and bounds!

Maximum Z comic books, feedback, productivity, rewrite, screenwriting, The Walking Dead, writing, zombies
Up, up and away…

Honestly, I didn’t expect to be the rewrite to be this far along, but that’s how it’s working out.

Utilizing elements of the previous draft, the revamped outline and the occasional sudden inspiration, I’ve been copying, pasting and making fixes left and right.

Pretty significant – changes in Act One extended it another 6-7 pages, which turned out not to be the problem I thought it might. This combined with changes in the first half of Act Two have kept things on track, so now I’m around 4 pages ahead. Still not a problem.

Even more significant – I’ve been able to insert important story elements in appropriate places, except for one. Still working on that, but not worried about it.

Basically, the whole process has been extremely energizing. And I’m loving it.

-Had a nice chat with the guy whose script I provided notes for a few weeks ago. He’s already made two films on his own, and this is his third. Despite his eagerness to start filming, I did my best to emphasize the importance of making sure the script is rock-solid and bulletproof first, including recommending a 2-week break from the script, followed by a page one cold rewrite.

After I gave my two cents about other topics like incorporating theme, conflict, character development and so on, the poor guy seemed stunned. Almost as if I’d scared him into submission. But he said he’d take everything I said into consideration – but he had to get going because he was headed out to scout locations.

Can’t say I didn’t try.

-Movie of the Moment – THE WALKING DEAD, Season Two. I’d watched Season One on DVD about a year ago, and thought it was fantastic.  I never got around to catching Season Two when it actually aired on TV.  Now Season Three has started up, but we’re phasing out Comcast (Roku or Apple TV? Your thoughts please) and I’m using Hulu and Netflix Streaming when I can.

Hence Season Two.

One of the many things I really appreciate about the show in general is the suspense factor. Sometimes it’s low, and sometimes it’s through the roof, but it’s always gripping and definitely leaves you wondering what’s going to happen next.  And the occasional plot twist out of nowhere doesn’t hurt either.

Throw in 3-dimensional characters, believable situations (despite the whole zombie apocalypse aspect), and just plain great writing, and it’s easy to see why this has been so successful. Very eager to keep going.

-Totally forgot to mention – took V to APE this past weekend. Met a lot of great self-published comic creators. Hoping to write about it  later this week, including links to some extremely talented folks.