Steven D. Forbes

Yeah, I’m crazy.  It’s not like I don’t have enough going on, right?

Then why do new stories keep popping up?  Those, and old stories.

So tomorrow, I’ll be carving out some time and then getting some writing done.  Well, MORE writing done.  I have to finish the chapter on Group, and then I have to start on Stones, as well as another story.  With that other story, I’m going to need at least 18 pages written before I can start looking for artists.  Yes, I said artists.  Plural.  Who knows, this project may even be colored.    That doesn’t even take into account the strip I may be doing with that other artist.

Nope.  I’m not trying to stay busy.

Chris has started work on My Life.  He’s sent over some character designs, and I really like them.  The story should be good, once it’s said and done.  I just need to find a colorist.  I’ll be doing the letters myself.  So it should be good.  It should be really good.  This story is going to be updated twice a week, though.  Once a week is killing me.  

But that’s not the best news.  The best news is that I’ll be mailing a contract out tomorrow.  I’ve been teasing a big project for months now, and I finally got the contract for it.  The contract means there’s a publisher that’s interested in it, which I’m very happy, grateful, and proud of.  That interest, however, doesn’t automatically mean I’ll be writing the book.  I hope I do.  Not only because I want to write the book, but I’ll also be paid an advance against royalties.  That advance, if it comes soon, will pay for the SDCC trip, hosting for another year, and a good portion of webcomics that I would want to do.  And that’s before taking bills into account!  Royalty checks would come in handy, too.  

I should probably start outlining everything I want to work on.  That would help me a lot.

However, with all of this work I’ll be doing, something will need to give.  That something, more than likely, will be The Proving Grounds.  I don’t see how I can continue to do everything that I do and not go crazy.  Not without something giving first.  

Besides, I’d definitely give up The Proving Grounds before I give up doing Bolts & Nuts.  However, with my decision to turn it into a book, I might be better served in taking that down, producing the book, and moving a small section of it over here, to my own domain.  I think that might be best.  It’s definitely something to think about.  

That may even be a plan, to tell the truth.  If I get this project I have the contract for off the ground, it’s a writing credit for me on a national level.  It should make B&N as a book a much easier sell.  Take it down, send the collection over to a publisher, and have tips and tricks on my own site.  That may be a 2010 plan.  Getting this book done is part of my 2009 plan.  This book, as well as getting at least one of my webcomics finished and collected.  That will more than likely be My Life.  Get it all done and collected is the goal.  Well, maybe, maybe not.  Let’s look at it.

I know that it’s a 44 page story.  I plan to update it twice a week.  That’s 22 weeks of content.  That’s 5 months, and it’s April right now.  That puts us into September, if we were to start right at this very moment.  So that’s more realistically finishing in October, giving the team 2 months for the pages.  Probably do pre-orders to offset the print run some.  Also make some t-shirts.  Maybe some stickers.  But t-shirts are a definite.  Some of them will be of the characters, some will be of scenes from the book.  We’ll see how it all shakes down.  But it’s a plan, right?

That plan more than likely means I won’t be able to sell anything until next year.  But you know what?  That’s okay.  I’ll have a completed project, and I’ll have other projects in production.  And when I go to shows, I’ll have things to sell.  I’m looking forward to going to a show as a professional.  It will more than likely be a small show here, the Phoenix convention, but still, small is good.  I’m going to be nervous enough as it is.  I just won’t let them see me sweat.

I doubt I’ll be able to stop working my day job anytime soon.  I’d LOVE to be able to work from home, just writing comics and such, but the income is too good right now, and the insurance can’t be beat.  I’ve got a damned good plan.  Besides, I can get things done while there, so it’s not like going to work means I can’t work on comics.  Where do you think I’m getting the lettering of Group done?  But I’ll tell you what, I’m looking forward to being able to turn my garage into a storage unit.  Books and t-shirts and stickers…and maybe even some plush toys.  We’ll see.  This is all down the road, anyway.  I still have to deal with today and tomorrow, while I lay plans for a year from now.

I think I’m in a pretty decent place.  I have plans and things are moving.  No real complaints.  Well, the one I have, I’m still making moves on.  Once that gets squared away, Lord and Lady!  Yep.  Looking forward to that.  But like I said, I’m in a good place.  I wake up, and I’m looking forward to the day (or night).  I’m gainfully employed at a job that I love–a job that allows me to create comics while there.  I have a special lady in my life who gives me the space to do what I need, my kids…hell, I even have a decent time talking to my ex-wife.  How many of us can say that?  I have things going for me in private and professional lives.  That can’t be beat.

My father had a plaque on the wall of his bedroom.  It was a poem, That Man Is A Success.  I don’t know who wrote it, but here it is:

That Man Is A Success

Who has lived well

laughed often and loved much;

Who has gained the respect

of intelligent men

and the love of children;

Who has filled his niche

and accomplished his task;

Who leaves the world

better than he found it,

whether by an improved poppy

or a perfect poem

or a rescued soul;

Who never lacked appreciation

of earth’s beauty

or failed to express it;

Who looked for the best in others

and gave the best he had.

_______________________

I love this poem, and would often read it when I went into my parents’ bedroom.  The plaque is at least 25 years old, and has a dark, weathered look to it.  I want it.  I read it, and I want to be that man.  It speaks to both the simple and the not so simple.  It speaks about my father, and really, I want to be like him.

That’s it.  Go get Prince’s Lotusflow3r set.  

-Steven

You ever wake up one day and are like “how’d that happen?”  That happened to me a couple of days ago.  Strange.

Last Thursday, I went in, fully prepared to put my contracts for the big project I keep hinting about in the mail.  It was all wrapped up in also taking my wife to work, because we’re a one car family (which is interesting in itself).  So then I go check my e-mail, and there’s a new one from someone I’ve worked with in the past, asking me if I would be interested in writing one of their properties, which will be very character driven.  I personally think that character driven is my specialty, and when I finished reading the e-mail, seeing the bare bones plan, I jumped at the chance.

The basic plan is to do a cyberpunk webcomic, and submit it to Zuda.  If it wins, great.  If it doesn’t, then we’ll still continue it on the web.  If it wins the competition, then there’s the choice of either continuing it or not with Zuda.  Either way you put it, I’ll be writing a webcomic that’s going to be going on for a LONG time.  All I have to do is write it–the creator is taking care of everything else: finding/paying the rest of the creative team, web space, sales of books and merchandise.  Yes, I’ll be getting a cut of that.

So I wrote a preliminary plot, and it got tweaked.  I wrote the script, and got back changes to it.  I wasn’t totally happy with the proposed changes–some of the ideas clash directly with my writing/editorial sense–but I incorporated them and continued to march.  Why?  Because I may be wrong.  Totally wrong?  Nope.  But I totally understand that I may be wrong.  Besides, most of it is just dialogue, and that can be fixed when it gets lettered.  

I’m also taking the editorial direction as a learning experience.  I generally self-edit, or let someone I trust read the script for their take on it.  The large project is going to have an editor, and when I finally make it to the big leagues, I’ll have an editor there.  I’m just taking this as preparation for that.  And like I said, I may be wrong.  I’m definitely open to looking at things from a different point of view.

With that script finished, I also started writing another script.  I have what I think is a pretty unique idea, and I have to play it pretty carefully, if I can do it at all.  This is yet another story that plays with the 9-panel grid, and I’m pretty sure that if I’m careful enough with it, it will garner a decent amount of attention.  I have some research to do on it, such as watching all of the Child’s Play movies (and I just bought them all today), but it should be good.

The plan I have for it is to have five or six characters for this idea, each the focus of their own arc.  No, that’s wrong.  I can’t call it an arc.  The stories are going to be 9 pages long, and I’m doing three stories per character.  When I eventually get it all written and have some money in the bank, I’ll be contacting artists to see if they’ll commit to 18 pages of story, but hopefully, it’ll be all 27.  I’d love to just assign them a character, and then have them draw from the scripts I’ll be providing.

Once I have at least a 9 page story done from two or three artists, I’ll then start up the webcomic, updating it three times a week.  Do some promo of it and such beforehand.  But I want to publish it at least three times a week, and rotate the character’s stories.  So one three week spread will be one character, and the next three week spread will be another.  It’ll be REALLY cool.

I also want to get the artists a contract and pay them a small page rate.  This will save me a LOT of math later when I collect and sell the book.  Evil?  I don’t think so.  I think it’s win-win for everyone.  We’ll see how it works out.

And yes, this story is different than the OTHER story I want to do that also plays with the 9-panel grid.  Actually, that story is going to be even bigger than the one I was just talking about.  It started out as an ongoing that had a definite end, but now I’m thinking about putting it up on the web and just seeing where it takes me.  It’s going to take me a lot of time and it will go through a LOT of artists, but we’ll see what happens to it.  We’ll see what kind of time I have to work on it?

This is also the first time in my career I’m actually concerned about time.  Right now, I run two columns, and I’m writing a webcomic, as well as writing a story that will either be a regularly published limited series, or another webcomic.  The first webcomic, Group, I’m also lettering.  Then there’s the large project I sent the contracts out for.  If that comes to fruition, then I’m going to be a very busy llama in a short amount of time.  There’s also another webcomic that I have an artist working on presently (My Life), and possibly lettering it as well…  Add to that the webcomic I was contacted to write, and there’s a lot of writing being done by yours truly.  Not only that, but I’m also sending out Bullet Time to a couple of places to see if they’re interested in publishing it.  If that also comes to fruition, my name is going to be everywhere in short order.  And none of that takes into account the freelance editing I do.

What does that mean for everything else?  Well, one of the columns will go on hiatus.  The Proving Grounds would be first.  It’s based on reader participation, anyway, and its run longer than I thought it would.  I’m pleasantly surprised at that.  

I’m really loathe to put Bolts & Nuts on hiatus.  I don’t want to do it.  I honestly believe it’s the impetus that started it all.  It’s been just over eight months, and in that time, I have three webcomics coming out very soon, a possible book deal, another column, freelance editing, and am making enough of a name for myself to start pulling artists and saying “this is what I want to do, and I’d like you to help me do it,” with them taking a real look at the proposal.

The Proving Grounds isn’t the only casualty, though.  I was teaming up with an artist to do a humor strip.  It would have been a first for both of us, but with things the way they are and me getting more and more busy, I could no longer commit to it.  Not a fourth (or fifth, depending) webcomic where I’d be writing it on an almost daily basis.  There just isn’t enough time in the day for it.

I also just paid for my cards, so I’ll be expecting those sometime late next week.  I’ll also be doing something else with the card image, right before the San Diego con.  That, and an image from Group.  It should hopefully land me decent looks from people, if not a writing or editing gig.

So, yes, we have ignition.  

In other news, I’ll be going to pick up my stepdaughter in a few minutes.  She’s just about 30, and she’s coming to stay for a visit.  How long will that visit be?  No clue.  We’ll see how it goes.

The new Prince album, Lotusflow3r, is HOT!  It’s a 3 cd set, and while the 3rd cd is his newest protege, Bria Valente, the cd set is great!  Hers is the weakest of the three.  Lotusflow3r is really good, and Mplsound is the party album.  It has no record company label, so it’s labeled as an independent.  It has no outrageous distribution deal.  You can only buy it at Target.  

Let me say that again, so you can understand the proper context here.  

Prince is now considered an independent; it has no distribution; you can only buy it at Target.

He’s done no real promotion of it.  A single commercial, 3 nights of Leno, and 3 concerts in one night.  With ONLY that going for him, he managed to be #2 (possibly #1) on the charts in terms of sales.  

Prince is #2, with only a single outlet to buy the physical cd’s.  He’s #1 on the R&B charts.    With only a single outlet.

That, my friends, is outstanding.

So, I urge you all to go show your support for the little purple man, and go to your local Target to get the latest album.  It’s called Lotusflow3r, and you won’t be disappointed.

-Steven

The cards, I mean.  They’re here, and they’re gorgeous!

Take a peek!

See?  Toldja!

The colors are off just a little bit here.  It’s much more tan than it is blue, but still, it’s beautiful, no?

No, I didn’t design it all myself.  I had some help from Lee Nordling.  The caricature of me is from the project I’m trying to get done.  Except for the black background, it’s taken straight from artwork that was done for it.  My original thoughts on the design was to have a pic of me (different pic than what you see here) on the left side of the card, with my info on the right.  It just wasn’t coming together much, though.  It looked kinda plain.  Lee’s design works MUCH better.

I wrote about having a business card in my column Bolts & Nuts.  In the column, I said to make sure that your name was on it, along with your contact info, and what it is you do.  I also said to make sure you have an e-mail address that will never go away, so people can always reach you.  I also said to make srue that the back wasn’t glossy, and that it was plain white, which increases the chances of people using it longer to write on, which will then increase the chances of people keeping the card even longer.  

Yes, I followed all of my own advice.  The card looks great, don’t you think?

Yes, I’m still waiting to hear about the large project.  Hopefully soon.

In other news, work is going well.  Still loving my job.

My oldest stepdaughter is living with us now.  Her name’s Sandy, and we’re going to do our best to give her a fresh start.  She loves to cook, she likes to clean, she’s quiet, she talks to me, which means she acknoledges my existence.  All pretty good attributes in my book.  Especially that last.  I think we’re going to get along fine.  She also has a habit of screwing people over.  I’m only a little concerned about that.  I look at it this way: if she wants to change, then we’re here to help.  If she doesn’t, she’s going to screw us anyway, and she’s done.  Lesson learned.  It would break Lenora’s heart if she did, but I try to let things play out naturally.  I’m hoping she won’t.  I generally believe she won’t.  If she does, then we’ll talk about that then.

And that’s it.  Short one today.  A little tired, so I’m going to take a nap, and then jump into getting on top of these projects.

Go watch The Blair Witch Project.  It’s good for you.

-Steven

Things are settling down into something of a routine.  I kinda like it.  Hopefully, it’ll be upset soon enough.

I’m still waiting to hear back from my editor about the book I want to do.  That would be pretty nice to go in to, and the advance would help out a lot.  There are a LOT of things I want to do.  I just need money to do them.

The big thing, though, is something I’ve been trying to do with Bolts & Nuts.  I’ve been thinking of collecting it into a book, and selling it that way.  I’ve had some encouragement with this, and asked about it.  I got a response from an acquaintance of mine, giving me a lead.  Well, I followed up on that lead with an inquiry letter, and received a response back telling me it would be something the publisher would be interested in, and asked for a few sample columns.  So I sent that, and am now waiting to hear back on it.

There’s a part of me that says “who the hell am I to publish a book about helping writers become better creators?”  It’s almost absurd.  And then I look at the books on comics writing that I own, and see that not one of them approaches the subject with some humor, with some hard truths, and with anything but the basics of being a “how to.”  I look at Denny O’Neil’s book, and I’m flabbergasted that he didn’t give any real information about how to construct a script.  It honestly hurts me, but this is the book I point new writers to all the time.

And that’s why I think a book like Bolts & Nuts is needed.  It takes that “next step” when it comes not only to writing, but to creating comics as a whole.  It truly is there to help writers become better creators.  I just think the website that hosts it is a little small.  This is information that deserves a wider audience.

I hope that this publisher will be able to provide it.  Being paid for my efforts helps, as well.  

I sent over three of the articles.  We’ll see what the publisher says.

I’ve decided to send another pitch over to my editor.  I just need to hammer on it some more, to make sure it is both the story I want to tell, and that the story is worth telling.  I might send two of them.  I don’t know.  I like them both.  We’ll see what happens.  I know my sister would be very happy if one of them sells.

I’ve also been doing research on a few characters for the webcomic I want to do.  Because I have a finite amount of characters that I want to use, I want to use a few different artists for them.  I let a couple of people read the first story I wrote, and they both had really strong positive reactions to it.  One is part of the writer’s group I started, and the other is a submissions editor for a publishing company.  If I get a strong enough artist, he may be interested in acquiring it.  I dunno.  That last is just speculation on my part.

Shifting gears just a little, I was very pleasantly surprised recently with a submission I got in for The Proving Grounds.  One of the writers sent in a VERY strong script–at least, the story was strong and interesting.  So much so that I offered to edit it.  He took me up on it, and now, it’s looking like things are moving forward with that project.

I’m a whore, I know.  But I believe in this project.  It’ll come together, by hook or by crook.

I don’t recall if I mentioned that my stepdaughter is here.  The oldest.  She’ll be 30 this summer.  My 21 year old is also here for a visit.  She’s retarded, literally.  It’s disconcerting seeing a grown woman act like a ten year old (or somewhere thereabouts).  You see it in the movies, and that’s all well and good, but to deal with it in person on a daily basis is something else altogether.  It’s not something I can’t handle, it’s just a little disconcerting to see.  We have fun, though.  She laughs at my jokes and thinks I’m hysterical.  She’s pretty easy to keep entertained.

I’m also reconnecting with an elementary school classmate.  Facebook is a wonderful thing.  In school, we didn’t really run in the same crowds.  Hell, I can honestly say that I didn’t have many friends in elementary or high school.  Not people that I was really close to.  I was cool with a lot of people–I was good in their book–but to hang out with, it wasn’t really in the cards for me.  I’m a nerd and a loner, but I’m rarely lonely.  But talking to Melonie is by turns funny and elightening.  Not that we have to see eye-to-eye on anything, but we have a good laugh talking, and reminiscing gives me things from her perspective.  Interesting, to say the least.

Lenora and I are in the process of changing banks.  The Bank of America has screwed with us for the last time, so we’re done.  We’ve opened the account, and we’ve ordered some checks.  We’ll take those to our jobs in order to get the direct deposits started on the new account, and once that’s done, presto-change-0, we’ll close the BoA account and never look back.  Who are we banking with now?  USAA.  Looking forward to using them, too.  

Now if I can get this damned car payment under control…

And that’s the swing of things!  Go watch The Five Deadly Venoms.  You’ll be glad you did.

-Steven