Sunday, July 30, 2006

Another blog.

After the teaser of my last post, and a comment from Mr Bling on his blog, I unveil the new improved Jackanory
Now that I'm moving all my review type stuff to HappennyWorth I've decided Jackanory is where I'll put examples of what I'm writing. The first chapter of 'Simian Smith' is still there (it doesn't have the changes in it I made after fine suggestions from INJ, but that only counts for a few lines here and there) and I've also decided to post the first chapter of 'The Tale of The Turnip'. TTOTT is in fairly early stages at the moment with only four chapters written and this is very much in first draft stages, but for anyone who wants to read a warts an' all (ie spelling mistakes and grammatical gaffs and an' all) work in progress you might find it interesting. All comments are, as always, greatly appreciated.

8 comments:

Faff said...

Whatever else you may feel about your work you're definitely developing writers habits, Green World, is that the thing you batted around a bit a few years back and put on the back boiler? Does this mean you've found a hook to hang it on now?

paulhd said...

Procrastination and self-loathing are writerly habits aren't they? :)
Gosh, don't know what I told you about Green World, but yes it's been on the go for years now. I had a go at writing it a while back but scrapped it. About a year or two back I started again only to get stuck. At the moment I've got a vague idea of the overall 'shape' of the story and have written two chapters. The plan is to do a bit of actually research and see where that takes me, figure out the plot a bit more and then start writing.
the annoying thing about Green World (which may end up being called Green and Pleasant land, anyone got a preference?) is that the commissioning children's book editor at Orion's happy to have a look at it and willing to read the first few chapters but my fear at not knowing what really happens next and the fact that it's very different from Simian Smith (which is what he liked in the first place) is holding it up. Anyway, whilst I figure GW I'll carry on working on Turnip.
You got much on?

paul said...

blimey, i don't think you can be claiming procrastination now... moving house, new chapters of new things aplenty, drawing... it's all sounding like a lot of work to me!

sounds promising with the orion ed., what's the current position with simian?

paulhd said...

Simian is ready to be sent off, I decided to hang on until we moved to save messing with forwarding addresses.
Oh there's lots of procrastination going on, Paul. Mind you, when I do work I can get a fair bit done. The self loathing bit comes when I stop working even though I really want to do stuff, thankfully I'm beating myself up about that a lot less as it's not helpful and not an acceptable alternative to just getting on with things!

I. N. J. Culbard said...

So, when are we going to see your New Recruits review? Don't be shy now.

paulhd said...

There y'go, it's over on HappennyWorth now. Sorry for the toadying!

Faff said...

Hey Paul, I was thinking more of the way you've revisited good ideas until you find a workable format, style etc to go with them rather than trying to jam them into whatever you want to do at the time, comics, novels, slam poetry etc.

Anyway, did you see this from Mr Warrren Ellis. I represent it whole from his email.

Who wants to be a Rocket Pirate?

Joey Manley talked me into curating a mass webcomics site. I've known
Joey for getting on for six years now. It's partly my fault that he
got involved with comics at all. I suspect this is his revenge.


People who want to make webcomics are invited to submit their ideas
to me for membership in the Rocket Pirates, a webcomics collective
which will be housed at http://www.rocketpirates.com.

Rocket Pirates will be the first site to launch with the new Webcomics
Nation Collective Edition technology, which will be available as a
commercial product for people wanting to quickly and cheaply launch their own
multi-creator webcomics portals sometime in the next few months. Because
we're all about being quick and cheap, believe me.

Rocket Pirates will be free to all readers, all the time. This means,
of course, that there is no cut of subscription fees to offer to
creators. Instead, the system allows each creator the freedom to
install Google Ads, Amazon Associates ads, ads for their own products,
rate cards for prostitution services or any other damn thing on
their comic's Rocket Pirates page. Also, since we're not paying, all
Rocket Pirates engagements are on a non-exclusive basis, allowing
the creators to run their comics on their own websites or any other
place that'll have them.

The non-subscription approach means that I'm also doing this for free,
so anyone who wants to send food and clothing c/o Joey Manley at
Modern Tales is welcome to do so. I also offer inexpensive adult services.

The submissions system is simply this: email your materials to me
at warrenellis@gmail.com. I want to see at least three completed
pages and an overview of what you intend to do. No need to be
formal -- rambly emails talking about the central concepts and what
you want to achieve are fine.

I'm open to anything -- series, serialised graphic novels, single
panels, self-contained shorts, newspaper-style strips -- in any
style, from manga to clipart to whatever the hell you just invented
in your basement. No limits.

I'm open to any kind of content. You're going to have to work pretty
hard to get me to accept a superhero project for the site, but if you've
got something that knocks me flat, I'll take it. But, seriously, I
want to eventually curate something that takes in a wide breadth of
what comics can achieve. Surprise me. Give me something straight out
of literary mainstream fiction, give me a warped genre, give me something
I've never seen before. That's the "theme" of the site, the glue that
holds it together. It is quite simply "stuff Warren really likes."

The submissions process is open to everybody. I don't care if you
only decided you wanted to try and make a comic ten minutes ago --
I'll look at it. I'll warn you in advance that the chances of my
being able to provide detailed and constructive rejections are slight,
but I'll do my best.

(Also, if the site turns out to be all-male because only guys
submitted, I'm going to be very pissed off, and will infect you all
with this lung disease my girlfriend seems to have passed to me
over the weekend.)

I'd like to be up and running by the end of the month, but I won't
kick the site live until I have enough work of quality. The submissions
process will remain permanently open. Unless, you know, I change my
mind. I am unpredictable and I drink a lot.

That's all I've got. Please feel free to pass this unedited post on
anywhere you like.

-- Warren Ellis

Apologies for the length but I figure you're bound to have something that would fit the bill and during those nights when the baby keeps Becs awake she could sort out advertising etc so you can make some money out of it. (Just kidding BEcs, If you have nights like that I hope you'll wake Paul up so he can get the full parental experience)

paulhd said...

Cheers Peter, I'm sure it'll come in handy for when I get something sorted - although to be fair comics are playing eigth fiddle to my writing, it is a fddle that is playing continuously in my ear mind you.