Life and Times
It’s been interesting lately, to say the least. (It’s been over a month already?!)
I’ve gotten a few more clients for editing., and that’s always a good thing. One project is winding down, unless it gets picked up by a publisher–and even then, I’m not guaranteed to stay on the job. That’s how freelance editing goes. There’s a second job that’s also gearing up to wind down, and replacing those two would be nice.
One writer is new, and I’ll basically be teaching him how to write. The other writer has been through the new Proving Grounds, and has learned some lessons there, but still needs a lot of help from what I’ve seen. There’s one who’s been sending me his scripts, and is an absolute joy to work with. He gets the notes I send him, and makes the corrections. He has a good story (which is always helpful), and as long as he gets a good artist, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t get the story picked up somewhere. There’s another writer whom I’m basically teaching how to write, as well. That’s four different writers. That should do me for a bit.
I finally got the Ungoodwise script written. It now just needs to be edited. Waiting on Jamal for that one. We still need to talk about the first chapter of it, but other than that, it’s done.
I sent in another pitch to Lee, and he seems to really be into it. I’m excited about it. He liked the initial pitch, and asked me to revise it. That second one went to his partners, and they generally liked it. Then he asked me to write an outline for it, which I did, because I’d been thinking of the outline for a while. I haven’t heard back on it as yet. I’m thinking there will be some changes needed, but I’m looking ahead somewhat and am thinking about the three page introduction that he’s eventually going to ask me to do. A quick summary with an overview of what needs to be done for the book…and I think I have it. It’ll be good. (This is what happens when you write to a specific ending vision. Everything else in the middle kinda falls into place.)
I should be getting the contracts for Bullet Time soon from Markosia. As soon as that happens, I’ll sign them, get them out, and continue to march. I just have to find the hi-res inked pages. I think I have them around here somewhere. If not, I’ll have to ask Cary for them. Or maybe Jeff still has a copy of them. That would be nice, and easier. Then it’s re-lettering, and then moving on from there.
That’s about it for comics. Real life was something of a pain, as well.
My desktop has risen from the grave, just in time for my laptop to seemingly go down into it. Hopefully, my co-worker can fix it. We’ll see what happens. (Having a laptop at work means that I up my productivity. Lettering while at work is a great thing, let me tell you.)
My step-children.
The good news is that the house is finally empty. After three years of living with these adult people, the nest is finally empty. The bad part is that we were almost evicted from the apartment in order for it to happen.
I’ll try to make this long story short.
A couple of weeks after Lenora’s brother died, I’m at work, and get a text message from a co-worker, asking me about my address. (She works for the police here as a dispatcher.) It seems my stepson found someone breaking into the downstairs neighbor’s apartment. He was punched in the face, someone pulled a gun on him, and then the guys fled. What was stolen? A gun. The police were at the apartment for hours. I was at work while all of this was going on.
My stepdaughter comes to visit with her boyfriend. She’s emotionally retarded, and he as Aspergers. (I think he just asked her to marry him…) Anyway, this is right at the start of the Australian Open. (I LOVE tennis.) I come home from work, they’re sleeping on the floor in the living room. I get in bed with my wife. I watch tennis. She gets up and goes to work. I fall asleep watching tennis. Those are the events, as they happened. I’m nodding in and out as the matches are basically watching me, and then am woken up by someone knocking on my door. It’s my landlord. She’s asking me about the events of last night, and if I want to talk inside or come down to the office. I have NO idea what she’s talking about. She keeps harping on last night, and that she’s more than likely going to have to evict us because of those events.
I’m now fully awake (the word “evict” will do that), and go down to her office to talk.
No, I don’t have the full story. Here’s what I got from her: Isaiah probably owed/stole some money to some guys, who came around that night to get it back. They pulled my stepdaughter’s boyfriend, thinking it was him, and one guy had a gun to his head, and cocked it, about to blow him away. Then there’s something about a scuffle, and then Isaiah comes running into the apartment, where the guys are banging on the door, wanting to be let in, and saying that they’re going to come back and shoot the place up.
Yep. That’s cause for eviction right there.
No. Lenora said nothing about this to me when I saw her. Remember, I didn’t go to sleep until after she went to work.
I walk to Lenora’s job (it’s right across the street) to talk about what the hell is going on. I got a different story from her. Nobody saw a guy (from her story), and the police were there and only helped her to find my stepdaughter and her boyfriend, who had run off. No other report had been made.
We talk to the landlord the next day, and she talks to Isaiah and the other kids. For some reason, Angie’s in it, and Lenora kicked her out of the house that night. Isaiah goes, too. He was basically already on his way back to San Diego with his sister and her boyfriend.
So, the boy’s in San Diego. He (finally) gets a job. He’s working, and seemingly doing what he needs to do. He’s riding around in a car with a friend of his last week, when the cops come up behind them, lights flashing. Instead of pulling over, the driver tries to flee. They’re eventually stopped. What do the police find on Isaiah when he’s frisked?
A gun.
No, wait. Not “a” gun. “THE” gun. The gun that was stolen from the downstairs neighbor.
The boy is 19. He’s now got a weapons charge, and should at the very least, have a breaking and entering charge, burglary (which is different from robbery), and transporting a weapon across state lines. Nice, right?
No, I don’t feel bad. He made his decisions, and has never had to learn any consequences. He’s now going to learn the consequences of his actions the hard way. It sucks, but that’s what happens when you play the game.
So, yeah. It’s been interesting around here. Empty nest, kid in jail, finally getting caught up on bills, and a plan to bring to fruition. Things around here are about to be on an even keel and more. I’m looking forward to it. By this time next month, it shouldn’t be so damned difficult and tight around here. We’ll see how it goes.
Go listen to Naughty By Nature. Their first album, not the crappy second one.
-Steven
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