Ice is Nice

I recently showed my youngest the fabulously funny 80s flick, REAL GENIUS. If you haven’t seen it, you should. It’s the 80s in a nutshell – lovable nerds, up-and-coming science-y stuff, arrogant snobs who get their comeuppances, silly humor, quotable lines, a montage, I and Val Kilmer.

My youngest said he loved it…although he may have been humoring.

• Mitch: You know, um, something strange happened to me this morning…
• Chris Knight: Was it a dream where you see yourself standing in sort of sun-god robes on a pyramid with a thousand naked women screaming and throwing little pickles at you?
• Mitch: No…
• Chris Knight: Why am I the only one who has that dream?

Moles and trolls, moles and trolls, amiright?

But this unblog post isn’t about quotable 80s movies (or why no other decade has as many quotable movies…I will die on this hill). Nope, it’s an update…that will surely contain 80s quotes…because don’t call me Shirley.

ANYway, the New Project is in the hands of an amazing cover design artist! I came across her art doing a random search on the intrawebs. It was density at first sight. Her color schemes and designs called to me. So now I get to wait because she has a huge log-jam of other projects ahead of me. In the meantime, my illustrator is working diligently on his panels. I’ve seen Panel #1 and it was *cool*. Not sure how many panels he’ll draw, and I’m not sure how many panels I can afford, but if Panel #1 is any indication, I’m going to want them all.

Which brings me to the answer to your burning question – when will The New Project get released?

I’m thinking August or September. The cover artist has a completion date of no later than early July. So I figure it’ll take about a month or so to get this bad boy up and out there.

“So, you aren’t querying?”

(Because it’s far more fun to answer questions in quotations than rhetorical questions on an unblog.)

Nope…well…probably nope. There is one literary agent I found who is currently closed to submissions, but will reopen sometime in March. I may reach out to her just to get yet another rejection under my belt. Beyond her, though, I’m going with the self-pub plan (SPP for short…that I should trademark because trademarking is what the cool kids do). The SPP will include me hitting up book bloggers for a book-tour, sending out ARCs to a trusted few, maybe actually show up on social media for more than a hot minute and pimp the New Project, that sort of thing.

It’s exciting, to be honest. The New Project is not some transformative piece of literature that will influence millions. But it is a story with a lot of Heart (you’ll get the reference after you read it). I hope it will inspire both young and old to seek out the good, rather than focus on the bad. It’s heroic fantasy, through-and-through, the kind of story I wish I had written for my boys when they were younger.

“In your previous unblog post, you mentioned going back to THE DEVIL’S SHARE. What’s up with that?”

Sadly, nothing. I’ve been empty on that front. Haven’t felt a desire to write more of it. I haven’t felt a desire to write much of anything these days. Could be residual burnout from completing a project, something that happens to me whenever I finish a story or a D&D campaign. Could be a lack of creative energy from working as hard as I do. Could be a combination of that and more. Regardless, I’m not dumping the story. It’s shelved until I’m in a better creative space to get back to it.

I’ve also tried to start New Project #2, aka The Sequel to the New Project. So far, not much. A couple of ideas. A drawing. Some discussions with She-Who-Must-Always-Be-Obeyed (and don’t think I won’t ever have a character with that name in a future story, because I really should). Beyond that, not much else. Which is fine. I try to fill the precious free-time I have with reading (currently THE LIGHTNING THIEF), playing Diablo IV (because mindless video game destruction IS therapeutic to simple minds like me), watching Bruins hockey, making lots of soup (last week was broccoli cheese and chicken; tomorrow I might make a pot of chicken and vegetable), my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder and Guilder to frame for it; I’m swamped.

I’ll get there. Writing is a process, one that can’t be rushed. Or in my case, one that falls down the stairs and eventually stumbles back up after a few bumps and bruises and the occasional concussion.

OH! Something wonderful happened this week. My youngest son said he was tired of reading THE HUNGER GAMES, and wanted a paperback copy of BLOODLINES so he could bring that to school and re-read it. Yes, RE-read it. Because he wants it fresh in his mind when he reads PIECES OF EIGHT.

(Yes, I know that’s not 80s, but it fits, so sue me.)

Be kind to each other, my fellow humans. Until next time!