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i thought the time away would help me to form a plan for my lj ~ make some decisions about what to use it for, etc. but alas, i am no more clear on this point than when i left off of it back in december.
i've been writing for a month now. wrote a (long) Christmas story called To all a Good Night (not sure that title is quite right for it though). it was inspired by an episode of Dream On (anybody remember that Showtime series?). there was this great Christmas episode where the character Eddie, in a particularly grinchy, chip-on-his-shoulder mood winds up in a bar with a drunk in a santa suit. it was brilliant. one of the best tv moments of all time. anyway, i couldn't possibly hope to top that, but it gave me an idea for a story about a formerly popular minstrel hired to play Saint Nick for the asylum Christmas party who turns out to be a bitter drunk who resents working for "the people I ran away from forty years ago" (i.e. slave holders ~ fie on the copperheads and scalawags who infest my stories). of course it all works out in proper Victorian fashion, complete with bright-eyed ogling children, a deliriously lit-up tree, and enough sugarplums to kill a diabetic or two. i'm generally satisfied with it (that's saying a lot!). there are details in the last ten pages to iron out and the end note is kinda sketchy. overall it's a little heavy on the exposition and light on action, i think, but maybe a good change of pace from the last full Christmas story I wrote (Let Nothing You Dismay) in which there were Indians and a shootout that left at least one person dead. they can't all be gunfights!
i had started working on this one as a sequential. then changed my mind (because nothing's changed since 2007, obviously). anyway, here's the original opening set of panels. i liked the sign and the sleigh.
i'm working on another short story (trying to work in short form more this year if i can make it work), while i let the Christmas one settle for a few weeks. then i guess my intention is to illustrate the Christmas story (just straight up illustrations rather than graphic novel style) and post it (egads!).
everything else is up in the air. i am working on In Pursuance of Said Conspiracy, thinking more seriously of treating that one as a sequential since the text is coming largely from the trial and i fear anything i add to it becomes editorial and speculative (and so tainted with my own prejudices). sometimes, where history is concerned, their own words are the best ones after all. i am considering doing it in a simpler, slightly more cartoony style ~ black and white ink, very eddie campbell-ish. doodling recently, i found that Poppet is easy to draw. he has such a particular face (easy to caricature). i had less success with Burnett and Chammy and some of the others, but i was drawing from memory, so prolly if i had a picture i could do a better job. some of the characters have no existing pictures, so that's a bit of a challenge, but i still think i could do it. i made a final cut on Poppet's closing argument and i think i will actually start with that scene and then work my way backwards (beginnings are always such a struggle).
so that's the update on the projects. sorry for the long post.
i am job-hunting. i am content.
winter makes me happy.
: D
i've been writing for a month now. wrote a (long) Christmas story called To all a Good Night (not sure that title is quite right for it though). it was inspired by an episode of Dream On (anybody remember that Showtime series?). there was this great Christmas episode where the character Eddie, in a particularly grinchy, chip-on-his-shoulder mood winds up in a bar with a drunk in a santa suit. it was brilliant. one of the best tv moments of all time. anyway, i couldn't possibly hope to top that, but it gave me an idea for a story about a formerly popular minstrel hired to play Saint Nick for the asylum Christmas party who turns out to be a bitter drunk who resents working for "the people I ran away from forty years ago" (i.e. slave holders ~ fie on the copperheads and scalawags who infest my stories). of course it all works out in proper Victorian fashion, complete with bright-eyed ogling children, a deliriously lit-up tree, and enough sugarplums to kill a diabetic or two. i'm generally satisfied with it (that's saying a lot!). there are details in the last ten pages to iron out and the end note is kinda sketchy. overall it's a little heavy on the exposition and light on action, i think, but maybe a good change of pace from the last full Christmas story I wrote (Let Nothing You Dismay) in which there were Indians and a shootout that left at least one person dead. they can't all be gunfights!
i had started working on this one as a sequential. then changed my mind (because nothing's changed since 2007, obviously). anyway, here's the original opening set of panels. i liked the sign and the sleigh.
i'm working on another short story (trying to work in short form more this year if i can make it work), while i let the Christmas one settle for a few weeks. then i guess my intention is to illustrate the Christmas story (just straight up illustrations rather than graphic novel style) and post it (egads!).
everything else is up in the air. i am working on In Pursuance of Said Conspiracy, thinking more seriously of treating that one as a sequential since the text is coming largely from the trial and i fear anything i add to it becomes editorial and speculative (and so tainted with my own prejudices). sometimes, where history is concerned, their own words are the best ones after all. i am considering doing it in a simpler, slightly more cartoony style ~ black and white ink, very eddie campbell-ish. doodling recently, i found that Poppet is easy to draw. he has such a particular face (easy to caricature). i had less success with Burnett and Chammy and some of the others, but i was drawing from memory, so prolly if i had a picture i could do a better job. some of the characters have no existing pictures, so that's a bit of a challenge, but i still think i could do it. i made a final cut on Poppet's closing argument and i think i will actually start with that scene and then work my way backwards (beginnings are always such a struggle).
so that's the update on the projects. sorry for the long post.
i am job-hunting. i am content.
winter makes me happy.
: D
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