All Quiet on the NoHo Front

Here we are in August now with no favorable outlooks still. Coronavirus is still spreading, now with children going back to school in some states, the USPS is getting gutted from the inside just before the upcoming election, and my wife Amanda will be losing her job in November thanks to AT&T cutting 600+ employees. Can the giant asteroid come down and just finish us off already? Thanks.

I have to focus on good news, otherwise all of you will question why you’re bothering reading this entry in the first place. “I know the world sucks right now. Tell me something I don’t know, clown boy.” Well for starters, I’ve been writing a lot more. I checked in with my amazingly talented friend Shenoa Carroll-Bradd to see how her writing schedule has been during the pandemic, and she challenged me to write more short stories to submit to places. So, I did!

I’m not going to lie; I enjoy writing things that publications don’t want to print. My satire can come across as a little heavy handed, and my other stories I’m currently shopping might be a little too tongue-in-cheek. That’s just how I am, convinced they’ll all read better when printed together in another short story collection of mine (Morsels of Delight 2: More Treatz, More Delightz). The two new pieces I’ve since written are a little different from what I’m used to writing, as in, they might actually sell somewhere. “Candy Caper” focuses on two boys trying to get free candy at their local mall, and “Please Like Me” is a horror piece about social media and vanity. On top of those, I've been diligently typing away on another science-fiction piece taking place on Mars.

The Patch has been making big strides this past month as well. I’ve almost written 200-pages, and the old adage of “the first 100-pages are the hardest” definitely rings true. Of course, this will just be the first draft, and I plan on hiring a few editors to help me along the way. Already I have things I want to fix or expand upon in the first few chapters to make sure everything stays consistent.

I also just finalized the synopsis for the first season (6-episodes) of Abroad, the show I thought up while getting married in France last year. With every episode exquisitely detailed, now comes the fun part of adding dialogue and writing the scripts, something I need to brush-up on. It has been a few years since I’ve written in that format, but I read scripts on a consistent basis for my job, so I know already the do’s and don’ts. Phoebe Waller-Bridge is my inspiration, mentor, and goddess in this department.

Clusterfux Comix #1 just added a tenth contributor, and I’ve been busy editing my own scans as well. I feel like I’m on track so far, but things could always change. If I get to go back to work, or get another job, that will obviously be the priority, and then I’ll have to go back to editing on the weekends. But as of now, I’m incredibly excited by the pages I’ve received from people so far, and look forward to sharing this group of talented individuals with the world come 2021 (if the world doesn’t end by then). I also illustrated a new 2-page piece, “Grublins in Love,” that I’m currently shopping to a comic zine I admire. If rejected, I can always shop it elsewhere or include it in the second issue of Clusterfux Comix.

That’s a decent enough update for now. Dinah’s tooth needs extracting, so next month she’ll be down a fang. Poor baby. The vet suggests it might be her genes, and our bank account isn’t thrilled about it. So make like Peter Pan and think happy thoughts about our hideous gremlin when she goes in for dental surgery next month. In the meantime, here she is in all her goofy glory.