Realmscapes

Introducing Grail Quest Books

So it happened kind of by accident. Kas and I have always wanted our own book publishing company, but we didn't expect to have one as of last week. And based on comic books no less (comics were the one entertainment medium I was convinced I'd never be involved in, and for several good reasons).

But here we are: Grail Quest Books. We expect to have the first issue (of a limited series) out this Summer; it is the adaptation of Kas's "prologue" to her self-published book (itself in the middle of a rewrite). Some of you have already seen the artwork for the comic. The art team that we assembled for it is a blessing of incredible talent, and we hope this project will give all three of them the attention they fully deserve.

In Case You Were Wondering

Yes, we're around--it just doesn't look like it ;-) 

...Kas has finished rewriting her first book (in long hand). She has started transcribing it to the laptop, which means no internet during those periods.

...I am working on two seperate screenplays while we are waiting for a comic book publisher to decide to pick up the comic book adaptation of Kas's book. If they pick that up, I'll be working on the scripts for those. The screenplay adaptation of her first book is also in the pipeline.

...I'm also posting our local church's sermons to their new weblog/website, so some of my time goes there.

...As it concerns this weblog: I am doing most of my posting in the Film Reviews section as I go through each year (starting with 1938!) and talk about my favourite films right up through the present day. You just won't see these posting on the weblog's front page because the posts are all archived. I'm alternating between the decades, which is why you'll see film years 1998-2006 and 1938-50 being worked on "randomly". It's a much bigger project than I anticipated, but it's a heck of a lot of fun (AND educational for this screenwriter). Feel free to drop your agree/disagree/"hey you forgot..." comments! That's what I'm partly doing this project for.

Screenplay No2 Requested

The presence of my second completed screenplay has been requested. The fact that this script will not determine my status as a represented writer does not lessen my apprehensiveness of it being accepted by my agent.

Stitched Crosses is a very personal story for me and it's main character, a 12th Century English knight who wrestles deeply with God, is my favourite of all the characters I have created. I wrote this character in the midst of my own spiritual turmoil last year. I would personally pay someone to make this story if I had the means. This story represents everything that made me want to be a professional writer. Not that other stories I write won't be as important, but this is the first piece of writing that showed me what I could do as a Writer and that is the reason it will always be my personal favourite (whether it gets made or not).

A version of this screenplay is also being considered by a local theatre group to be performed as a stage play here in Bangor this coming Autumn. If this becomes official I'll be sure to post that here.

Agent Correspondance

AGENT: By Wen I should be able to send you current list of wre and who wants to see your material.  Looking good so far.

---

Exciting. Cryptic. And now the next few days are guarenteed to drag like those few days before Christmas morning.

Agent Update

There really is no update per se.

Over the years I have learned much on etiquette in the film and publishing industries. When you're a rookie you are afraid of stepping on toes. When you're a rookie that's been given a break, you're afraid of stepping on toes and egg shells.

I haven't "heard" from my new agent yet. I chalk this up mostly to the holiday. But the silence naturally makes me wonder if there is something I should be doing. I am sure he would tell me--he cashed my check so I know he knows that I exist. Another part of me wonders if this silence is related to the writer's strike that's going on..  Understand that the last "agent" I had required me to do 80% of the legwork, which may be adding to me belief that I need to be doing something.

In the meantime I continue to write. I have finished my second screenplay and am in the process of proofing it while I start work on a third (co-conceived with my "bro" Ken). This latter one brings me out of the 12th century (where the second screenplay took place) and into the intelligent comic book-fantasy world. I'm tres excited about it--we're talking Unbreakable kind of quality here IF it is executed properly. (The nitroglycerine projects are always the fun/maddening ones.)

I need these projects while I wait. I will have to contact him eventually (and soon) if I don't hear anything. I remember being apprehensive when needing to do a similar thing with LucasFilm's people when I wrote for their publications. It was a bit nerve-wracking but turned out just fine. This will to.

UPDATE: Yep, it's the writer's strike. It'll work out soon enough. In the meantime I consider this an oppurtunity to write and polish.

Agent: Check

So yeah, I got the agent.

I really am ecstatic, you just can't tell because this is the internet 8-D

But the bummer is that this writers strike is going forward. So my writing career is resembling a first-day student driver who hits the brakes the moment the car moves forward.

Being Read

I got a response from an agent with interest in one of my scripts. I don't feel a lot one way or the other--not that I'm not excited. Let's just say that more than once my talent has gotten me through the door of success, only to have it slammed shut again by forces out of my control; I've watched my wife in a similar situation as she tries to find someone to give her story a chance (if they could just get past her minor ESL). It's the way of the creative industry.

Writing Comics = Really Really Hard

I remember reading a comment from Mike Stackpole that writing the Star Wars: X-Wing comics was the first time he ever considered writing a "job". Eventually he even needed to get outside help from a writer at Dark Horse because he was having so many issues. And he's right.

I am the writer on a comic book project. Now I have written all kinds of things in my career so far: magazine articles, press releases, web content, screenplays, prose, this blog.. none of those are like a comic book script. I remember first thinking that writing a comic was going to be a perfect blend of screenwriting and prose writing. Yeah, in theory. By the time I was halfway done with the script for the first issue, I was numb. Because by then I realised that unlike screenplays, you have to imagine X number of scenes per page. And it can't be a random X number because you have to have enough panels to explain the story, while at the same time you only have between twenty and twenty-four pages (depending on the publisher) so you can't have too few panels either or the story won't progress.

I have a difficult time writing prose because often I have a kick-ass story in my head and I want to get it down usually faster than my pencil can write (or my fingers can type). Mastering prose is not at all necessary for a comic book script, but you still have to know how to be descriptive (yuck!) and write straight on a line--meaning you can't go off on tangents like you can in prose. If you don't have enough description then there is a good chance that the penciler is going to return something that you will not be happy with. And if you don't pace and progress the story, then you will have a comic that is either rushed or laggy, and both of those are bad.

There is not much room for failure when writing a comic book script. If this is a path you intend to walk, be VERY prepared. And read a ton of comic books before you start.

And oh yeah: writing comic books rocks!