It’s been almost a month since I’ve talked about writing on this blog. But before I get into that, I should talk about this week’s comic reviews.
I’m not sure when I’ll get my full reviews for Tomorrow’s comics, but they will most likely be late. I work in the afternoon, and then it’s straight for whatever New Year’s party I’m going to this year. After that, I’ll just write the reviews whenever I can. I’m only picking up two or three comics, so there’s no reason to write a first impressions post this week. Comic releases on Tuesdays really throw off my schedule.
As for the writing, there’s not a whole lot to talk about for the past month. I usually spend a month or so writing, and then I take a month off to take a break and allow ideas to flow through my mind. I still write, just not fiction. Otherwise, I spend much of the month consuming fiction in various forms and otherwise working and relaxing.
I plan on writing in January, but I haven‘t fully decided what I’m going to write. I’m leaning toward taking a break from novels and spending a month working on a bunch of short story ideas. If I do that, I’ll probably write short stories for the first half of the month. I’ll write a story or two a day, and spend the second half of the month editing them plus the ones I’ve written this year.
My other options need a bit of an explanation. In the middle of Nanowrimo, I started a second novel. For the rest of this post, I’ll refer to that as N1. N2 was another book I was considering writing instead. N3 is the third novel I wrote this year, and might be my next second draft. My other options for next month are either writing N2 or doing the second draft for N3. As much as I’m mostly ready to do N3’s second draft though, I haven’t been thinking about it too much lately, and it’s better not to force it. It’ll also probably be the 6th book chronologically, so even if I do manage to get this series published, N3 will be way down the road. As for N2, the first act isn’t fully planned out. That could make for a frustrating month … and it’s chronologically the 7th book.
In the meantime, I’ve been watching so many movies in the last few weeks. I finally finished the second season of Game of Thrones (yeah, I’m kind of behind on the series), and I’ve been watching a lot of 90’s comedies. I’ve also been watching a number of horror movies lately, a genre I’ve never really been a huge fan of. I recently watched the original “Carrie”, the original “Halloween” and an independent movie about the Jewish legend of Lilith called “Evil Angel”. The first two movies were good, the third was … alright. I’ve watched other movies too, such as “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (A very good movie about interracial relationships from 1967), “Spirited Away” (brilliant animated movie about childhood imagination) and yesterday I watched “The Goonies” for the first time. It’s weird; out of all the movies I’ve watched in the last few weeks, Home Alone 5 was the only Christmas movie.
I’ve also been re-reading John Byrne’s Fantastic Four run, which is … fantastic. I’m taking my time with it to savor every individual issue. In just over a week, I just finished the second Visionaries paperback, which ended with the 250th issue pitting the family against Gladiator and a bunch of Skrulls. Great issue, highlighting Gladiator’s power, the deceptive nature of the skrulls, and just how brilliant the Fantastic Four can be under pressure. It’s amazing how many legendary moments are within John Byrne’s run – every Visionaries paperback has at least one major moment in the franchise’s history. The Skrull Homeworld is destroyed. The fantastic Four team up with Doctor Doom for the first time. The trial of Mister Fantastic. There’s the issue where She Hulk joins them as a long-term replacement member for The Thing. And of course, Invisible Girl renames herself as Invisible Woman toward the end of his run. If you’re a Fantastic Four fan who hasn’t read John Byrne’s run yet, you really should.
That’s it for this update. Since I probably won’t have any posts until then, Happy New Year.
