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oh! *sniffle*!
Oh!
A month or so ago, Ardian Syaf asked me to do a foreword for his sketchbook for the Singapore Toy Game & Comic Convention, because, as he said, “Considering you’re one of the person who discovered me before Marvel or DC comics did, I think it’s just perfect ” So of course I was delighted to, and I’ve just received a copy of the sketchbook in the mail. It’s beautiful, which I expected.
What I didn’t expect is that the last page was left blank so he could do drawings for people who picked up the sketchbook, and he’s done a head shot of Chance for me there, with a little note that says, “Thanks, Catie!”
I’m actually sitting here crying with surprise and delight over that. (And oh, god, the electrician just showed up so I’ve answered the door with a red face and teary eyes, *laughs*)
I’m posting the foreword I did for him behind the cut, just in case anyone wants to read it, but mostly, I have to show off the sketch. *beams foolishly*
Chance, by Ardian Syaf -
whew.
DEMON HUNTS is revised and delivered unto my editor. The copped-out storyline is much improved and hopefully everything else that needed explaining has been explained satisfactorily. And now I have no more revisions to do until the next TRUTHSEEKER revision letter. However, lest you think that means I’m caught up, I say BAHAHAHA. O.O Next up is writing “Hot Time”, upon which I’ve done some 1800 words already and, er, I seriously doubt this is going to come in as short as 7500 words. I’m sort of hoping I can keep it to 10K. There’s probably only very little chance, if that, that I can finish it this week, but I’ll probably try, because it’d be nice to get the Walker Papers 6 proposal done by August 7.
I also seem to have picked up a Sekrit Project, which was not at all part of my plan. But it’s going to be flipping *awesome* when it comes together, and given that three of the four pieces are already in alignment, I see very little reason why it should not come together. :)
I’ve caught up on the major X-Men storylines now, and one of these days will maybe write something meaningful about them. Short form: taken together, X-Men HOUSE OF M, DECIMATION, DEADLY GENESIS, ENDANGERED SPECIES, and MESSIAH COMPLEX…make a pretty good story, actually. And wherever I inferred it from was correct: MANIFEST DESTINY is pretty much completely useless in terms of story-driving plot, but it does have Ardian’s Marve debut with the Nightcrawler one-shot in it, so it was worth buying. :)
A lady came today to take away our extra bed, so the enormous upstairs back bedroom is finally ready to have something done with it. This pleases me very much.
Somehow I walked over six miles today. No wonder I’m exhausted.
July Thinks To Do:
–finish TRUTHSEEKER revisions
–revisions for DEMON HUNTS
– proposal for Walker Papers #6
– write “Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight”
–Chance graphic novel proposal
– an essay or two for the Chance GN
– getting together all the materials for that GN
–proposal for WAYFINDER
–(rough) WORLDBREAKER pitchmiles to Minas Tirith: 516
ytd wordcount: 196,000 -
I need…
…to live someplace where there are enough people I know around that I can throw Dessert Parties. I have all these great dessert cookbooks (Mrs Fields’ I LOVE CHOCOLATE Cookbook, a cheesecake cookbook, an ice cream recipe book…) and no reason to make any of the desserts in them. There are a hundred recipes in the Mrs Fields book. It could take years to go through just /that/ one. But the desserts are mostly too extravagant to make just for two people, and they’re *all* too *large* for just a couple people, so I never make any of them. But it’d be kind of fun to make, like, five different kinds of things for a party so everybody could get a taste and nobody would be too bloated. But I would need, you know. People around.
Ardian (and Mark Powers, the guy adapting the Dresden Files novels to comic form) has an interview with the Comics Waiting Room.
I’m very tired of doing revisions. The DEMON HUNTS revisions aren’t at all difficult, but I’ve been working on mostly revisions for the past six weeks, and I’m tired of them. I want to write something new. Or possibly take six months off, but I have gone to some effort to make sure *that* won’t happen. Which reminds me that I had a discussion with comics artist Matthew Dow Smith the other day which went something like this:
Matt: I’m trying to get all my side projects sorted out. Somehow I ended up with way more side projects than I intended to this year.
Kit: Me too. How does that happen?
Matt: Freelancers can’t say no.
Kit: Oh yearh.
Matt: Also we overflow with creative genius.
Matt: But mostly, freelancers can’t say no.miles to Minas Tirith: 460
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Take A Chance
I left the house to go on a walk this morning and a few doors down the postman said to me, “I’ve two packages for ye, is anyone there to collect them?”, so I turned around and came back home to collect them.
One was full of enough Pop Tarts and macaroni and cheese to last us the rest of the year. Lisa is the best human *ever*, and I owe her something spectacular (like postage, at the very least).
The other was full of issues 1-4 of Take A Chance.
Holy crap, guys. This is the first time I’ve seen most of these (I saw #1 at Forbidden Planet, bought it, and ended up signing it for Neil Gaiman at his own signing at Chapters in Dublin), and I’m completely stunned. The production quality is gorgeous, and…
…when I saw #1, I’d been looking at it for so many years online and in printouts that the impact was kind of lessened. But seeing four issues all together? That’s impacty. I’m honestly stunned. It looks like a comic book. I mean yes, of course, that was the idea, but I’m just…wow.
I have to admit that I mostly see two things when I look at these. One: I see the *incredible* talent of my team. Ardian Syaf‘s art is consistently gorgeous, Jason Embury‘s colors are just fricking phenomenal, and Melissa S. Kaercher‘s letters bring the book together for me in a way that–you all know by now I’m not a visual person. I go over the pages and the colors, but they come alive for me when the words go in, so when I get the lettered pages it’s like seeing everything for the first time. I very, very literally couldn’t do this without these guys, and I am just blown away to see all their work gathered into comic form at once. Wow. *Wow*.
…the second thing I see, of course, is how I could have done better as the writer. Where I’ve screwed up. But honestly, I’m not really coming down on myself with that. The important thing is I /can/ see where I need to improve, so I won’t make these same mistakes again. (I will possibly make all-new exciting mistakes, but that’s inevitable. :))
Wow. Just, wow. This is pretty cool, guys. God, I’m going to be *beside* myself when the graphic novel comes out! Speaking of which, sort of, with any kind of luck the fifth issue will be in the stores by mid-July. It’s in Melissa’s hands now for lettering, and hopefully it’ll be to the Dabels by Monday to head into production. Sorry about the delay there. I blame the economic crisis. :)
Also, did I mention Ardian is now NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING ARTIST Ardian Syaf? As he said, “That’ll look good on my CV.” *laughs out loud* YAY ARDIAN!!!!
God. *Wow*. I feel like some things that have been idling have just kicked back into high gear. That’s a very exciting feeling. It feels *good*.
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holy CRAP
Ardian’s on Batman: BLACKEST NIGHT blankets Gotham City in this 3-issue miniseries from writer Peter J. Tomasi (GREEN LANTERN CORPS, THE MIGHTY) and hot new talent Adrian Syaf!
Holy crap holy crap HOLY CRAP
*dances and dances and DANCES*
I knew it, I knew it, I *knew* it. I *knew* he’d hit the big leagues when I opened up the very first email with a portfolio piece for Take A Chance, what, four years ago now? And now he’s a HUGO NOMINATED ARTIST and has worked on the X-Men now, and Captain Britain, and now BATMAN. OH. MY. GOD. I am happy enough to *cry*. Oh my GOD.
*DANCES*!!!!!!!!!