Blog

The last couple of weeks have been interesting, as I try to adjust to the complete change in lifestyle that has come with quitting my job to write full time. My last “official” day was Oct. 31, and then I packed up and went to the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs for four days. Then I had one day off and was back at work to train my successor. Since then, I’ve been fumbling around, trying to get my rhythm back. 

Because I am an analytical personality, I decided weeks ago to come up with a daily regimen to strengthen body and mind as I craft my new lifestyle. I get up around 7am, and Dani usually gets home from work at 6:30-7pm, so I have a good 12 hours to myself each day. I had all these wonderful plans, about how I would spend at least an hour a day exercising and another hour reading, an hour on writing-related business (contracts, the website, talking my my agent or accountant, etc.), and the rest on actual writing, making sure to also take the time to enjoy the daytime and sunlight, and see friends so I don’t become a recluse. I am generally an introvert by nature, and it is only with great effort that I have overcome that in the past. I was (am) worried that spending all my time alone will slide me back socially to the wallflower I was in high school. I need to take care to avoid that.

Of course, life is hardly so regimented. Some days are quiet, and others filled with events. Sometimes you have time to write but lack inspiration, and others you are bursting with inspiration but still have to go out and keep appointments. Some days you want to exercise, but feel crappy and blow it off. Others you feel fine, but it’s raining or cold and biking in the park seems a less than thrilling prospect. It’s also proven more difficult than I thought to focus 100% on writing when there are so many distractions here in my seat of power (more on that in my next post).

I remember a couple of years ago, I was laid off from my job, and was in a similar situation. For a while I didn’t know what to do with myself. I felt like a bum and a failure, even though the layoff wasn’t my fault and I had decent severance and unemployment to cover the bills. It was weeks before I found my equilibrium and made peace with being a day-person. Hopefully that will be the case again. I should re-read my old blog entries on that at re-post them here.

On the plus side, my mean, bitey cat has become a lot nicer now that I nap with her during the day.

Posted on November 15, 2007 at 8:58 pm by PeatB
Filed under Life, Musings, Writing
1 Comment »

Well, it’s done.

At some ungodly hour last night, I sent out the final draft of The Painted Man to my publisher. There will still be line edits and copy edits and queries and printer proofs and Crom only knows what else before it goes to press, so there will likely be plenty of chances for me to touch the manuscript, but as far as I am concerned, it’s done. As good as I can possibly make it.

I guess.

I’m kind of a perfectionist, and it’s hard to let go of my baby, even though working on what feels like the 50th draft was by far the least pleasant pass. I agonized over every scene, every paragraph, every sentence.

Every. Fucking. Word.

Looking back at how the manuscript has changed, I can’t complain. Every change was for the better, and a book that sold all over the world as it was is now far better than it started. It’s ready to fly.

I guess.

The thing is, every time I’ve done a rewrite, I have looked back and thought the book was FAR better than it was before. Is it hubris to think this time is the charm? That it’s perfect now?

But if perfectionists were allowed free reign, what would ever be completed? We would keep ripping apart everything we’ve built, rebuilding it over and over instead of moving on to the next project and applying what we’ve learned.

And that’s what we all should strive for in our respective crafts. To keep learning, and do our next project better than the last. It’s not about finding perfection where you are, it’s about stretching your boundaries and challenging yourself with new things. And isn’t perfection overrated anyway? Once you create something perfect, where do you go from there?

The Beatles didn’t keep trying to perfect the same ablum. They experimented and tested new sounds. That is my goal as a writer, and at least as far as my next two projects are concerned, I am on target. I will apply what I have learned on The Painted Man, but also reach and try new things. I am off to an exciting start, with 25% of The Desert Spear written, and different from anything else I have ever tried.

So why am I looking back? Is it anxiety, because this will be my first published novel, and I want my debut to be spectacular? Is it doubt that I really, Really, REALLY did my very best? Is it plain fear, because every time you send your work out in the ether to be judged, there is a chance of rejection? I don’t know. In some ways, I honestly feel like there is nothing left to fix in the book. In others, I feel like I could have kept editing forever, in an endless loop of improvement and non-completion.

Sometimes, you just have to let go.

Posted on November 14, 2007 at 2:19 am by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Events, Musings, Writing
3 Comments »

No, not (The Artist Formerly Known As) The Painted Man. That sucker, while about to be sent to the publisher in its final form, will not grace bookshelves until somewhere in the vicinity of March 2009.

No, I’m talking about issue #1 of Division 18, the Union of Novelty Costume Performers (www.division18.com), in stores now!

Co-created by yours truly, Division 18 is the result of an ejaculation of raw creativity (and blatant disregard for company time) onto that most fertile of all mediums, the blank page.

Rewind 6 years or so. I am working in medical publishing, and more or less hating every minute of it. To help maintain my sanity, I use my powers of persuasion to get my bosses to hire my two best friends, Jeremy Donelson (who I have been making comics with since 7th grade) and Matt Bergin (who I worked with when I managed a comic store briefly after graduating college).

It all started when I, as Production Manager, decided to change the paper stocks on some of our medical publications. I asked the printer to send me some samples of different stocks with different bindings so I could get a look and feel before making a decision. He complied, and sent over several blank books for me to choose from.

The decision was quickly made, but those blank books kept calling to me, begging to be filled with SOMEthing, ANYthing. As a creative type, there is nothing I hate more than a blank page. What use is paper, unless you put something on it? Was it right for me to deny those books the very thing they existed for?

Of course not.

So I mentioned to Matt that it would be fun to play a game that Jeremy and I used to play in High School (during class). We would take turns drawing panels in the book. The panels could be whatever we wanted, so long as we followed the rules:

1. The panel could not contradict something that happened in a panel before it.
2. The panel had to in some way continue the story formed by the panels before it.
3. We weren’t allowed to talk about the content, or what we hoped to have happen in the book.

Jeremy immediately signed on as well, and we began to fill those books, one by one. It took a little while to get a rhythm going, but eventually, a large cast of repeating characters grew out of our fecund imaginations, taking on lives of their own. We didn’t set out for it to happen, we were just trying to make each other laugh.

And we did. Oh, boy, did we laugh. And draw. And pass the book around to co-workers. All on company time.

It a wonder we didn’t all get fired.

Jeremy was clearly about a thousand times better an artist than Matt or I, and decided he wanted to take a whirl at making a “real” comic out of our little jam session, and Matt quickly signed on to write. Since I was working hard on The Painted Man at the time, I bowed out, but gave them my blessing, encouragement, and when solicited, opinions on the resulting books. They got picked up by indie publisher Silent Devil almost instantly, and the legend began.

As a comic lover all my life, it is immensely fulfiulling to see a book on the shelves with my name on it (even if only as a co-creator), and containing characters whose development I touched in some ways. I’m sure that feeling is multiplied a hundred-fold for Matt and Jeremy, who have been workign tirelessly for months to bring it to life. I think Jeremy literally chained himself to the drawing table.

So go out there and buy a copy. Shit, buy ten. I’ll get ’em signed for you.

Posted on November 8, 2007 at 2:09 am by PeatB
Filed under Events
1 Comment »

I wrote and posted this entry from the car, speeding down I-87.

Ain’t technology grand?

Posted on November 1, 2007 at 8:13 pm by PeatB
Filed under Musings, World Traveler
Comments Off on Mobile Test From the Road

Oooh. My first official blog entry since the new site is up. How exciting! Of course, it will be ridiculously short, because I am leaving in an hour for the World Fantasy Convention and still haven’t showered or finished packing. Luckily, we have a ton of leftover Halloween candy for the drive up to Saratoga Springs.

Very excited about the convention; my first as an author and not a fanboy. I wonder if it will feel any different? Probably not, while I am geeking out as George RR Martin reads excerpts from A Dance With Dragons, and probably so, when I am sitting at the Del Rey table at the banquet with Naomi Novik and whatnot.

 Today is also a big day because it is my first official day of freedom! Yesterday was my last day of work in medical publishing, and I don’t expect I will miss it much, seeing as how I will be doing my dream job instead. I should be turning in the final draft of my novel (in US stores March 2009!) immediately upon returning from the con, and then will be focusing 100% of my time on finishing the sequel, which is about 25% written, with copious notes on the rest.

Oh, and I can’t forget that today is the big launch of this site! Thanks to my webmaster, David Wenk, for all his tireless hours on it! If you’re in London or plan to be, let him show you the sites you don’t see from the tour bus. Visit him at www.englishcountrywalks.com and check out his fantastic photography and schedule a walking tour.

 If anyone will be at WFC, say hi!

Posted on November 1, 2007 at 2:14 pm by PeatB
Filed under Events, World Traveler
1 Comment »