Bugger

Bloomsbury returned my manuscript today. Disappointing getting a form rejection after the positive response from Orion. Unfair of me really, can't expect publishers to take time out to critique every manuscript they receive.
Few more publishers to try though before I let Simian rest and see if I can interest someone in something new.

Final lot of Simian Smith artwork.... for now

All done at last. Storywise I'm going to incorporate some suggestions from INJ (cheers for them!) which shouldn't take too long as it's only for the first chapter and doesn't effect any of the others.
I had planned to send a couple of copies of the manuscript off today but I wanted to do some examples of incorporating the artwork into the text and other stuff (I'll spill those beans in the post after this) took over the day.

Another piccy

Here’s another Simian picture, the little shifty guy is Mr. Crankadder and the big fella is Augustus.

Animal crackers

Readjusted the previous artwork post, the images should fit a little better and still be big enough to see properly.
The picture below introduces the villains of the piece. No more Simian artwork to scan now.



Danny asked earlier where I'm up to with Simian so here's the update. The new final draft is all complete, it's shorter and tighter than the previous one but other than that there's nothing new about it, I haven't added any scenes or characters or taken any out, this was pretty tricky in places but it's always rewarding, hopefully it now reads smoother and is better paced.
Artwise I want to do another spot illo (all the ones shown are from chapter 1 BTW, apart from Simian jumping from his office, that's the start of Chapter 2 but I really wanted to draw it!) and a mock up of the cover. Don't know if it'll seem presumptuous to do a cover, it's just meant to be enticing. At the moment I haven't got a clue what to do for the cover, so I might end up not bothering including it with the manuscript.
And that's it.

Been drawin'

Only going to do a couple more pictures to chuck in with my manuscript. Might actually get it done by the end of the week after all!
This fellow is Lionel Cetera, fish fan.



Simian Smith primate detective prepares to interrogate a banana.



Here's a reminder of an older pic for those who've forgotten, or not seen it before



and another



There's another bit of artwork I'll post tomorrow, right now I'm off to bed.

Doing my homework

Looking at the websites of various publishers is a little deflating. Most publishers only look at manuscripts through agents or already published authors. I’ve been lucky to have a contact who can pass stuff direct to a publisher and I may be able to do it again but it’s probably best not to totally rely on that. My only attempt at interesting agents was a bit miserable. A few years ago I did a picture book proposal and phoned several agencies to see if they would look at it, most wouldn’t look at unestablished creators (there’s a pattern forming here!) and the few that did sent the work straight back saying they weren’t interested in taking on unpublished creators (a bit irritating considering I’d already contacted them to establish that they would look!) and one sent me a polite form letter rejecting the proposal with a little bit of supporting wording.
For someone with a shaky grip on confidence like myself it was a bit disheartening. Getting an agent is possible, as Garen can attest, but you need to have work as good as Garen’s!
Fortunately the encouraging letter from Orion is still working it’s magic on me so the plan is to tweak and improve Simian and work on other projects so I can follow up with proposals if I’m lucky enough to get a similar response to the one I got from Orion. It’s a nerve wracking but exciting time!

Saga of Simian

My Simian Smith manuscript arrived in the post today, which is a sure sign that it was rejected, however it was a hell of a nice rejection. The reason given was the old chestnut of not being for them, but when it's accompanied with phrases such as ‘I enjoyed it very much.... fast and funny.... terrifically clever use of repition and catch-phrases that establishes the character well.’ I can take it on the chin.
The letter also contained a few pointers and an invite to talk a little if I would find that helpful.
All in all I’m very heartened by this, I was expecting a form rejection. I’ll tinker a bit with the manuscript and try and address some of the issues mentioned and then send it on somewhere else.

Back home

All change at the moment. Looks like I’ll be getting a new boss, and about time! It’s a pain going back to my old wage, but we shouldn’t feel the pinch from the drop in pay. New person should be starting soon which means someone new and better equipped (little things like training and experience, stuff I wasn’t given the chance to acquire) will be running the show and I won’t have to! Hurrah! The place where I work is bit on the odd side and it needs a bit more than me keeping things ticking over, I don’t mind working hard on it, but I don’t like bringing it home with me and carrying it around in my head. Now I don’t have to.
Got word back about my comic today too. It’s mixed news, but not bad. Basically the editor’s happy with the story and the story telling, but has a few issues with the degree of polish. It’s a fair cop, as I said on here already, I was a bit unhappy with some of it myself and it was all down to rushing it at the end. Fortunately I’ve been given a list of the bit’s that require some work (I agree with them all, which is interesting) and a little bit of extra time to fix them. There’s not that much time so it’s still going to be a bit of hard work getting it all done which is why I feel mixed about it. On the one hand it’s great to have the chance to sort stuff out I’m not happy with, but on the other I had hoped that it was all done with and I could get on with other stuff after a bit of a lazy week. But the end result’s the important thing, and I’d like to be as proud of it as possible.
Anyway, Windermere was lovely, I feel a hell of lot more relaxed already and I do feel ready to start some new stuff (I’ve got a zombie puppet I want to make) as well as getting back to some unfinished work. I’d also like to get involved in comics again. After doing this latest one I’ve decided that I’d like to do some more. The plan, such as it is, is to pretty much please myself. The comics I’ve done up to now have always been subservient to someone else, either to another writer or just to an imagined audience and I think that’s contributed to the final work not always being true to me. I think the closest I got was with my attempt to do Simian Smith as a comic, but it doesn’t tap into enough of my interests (not much opportunity for blood for a start!), and artwise it’s still not ‘personal’ enough.
Okay, better get some drawing done!

Busy busy busy

Ooh, I've got a banjo. It's a 5 string Bluegrass one, but I didn't really know that until the helpful music shop owner told me, I just liked the look of it, what can I say, I know nothing.
I bought a chord book and a how to play DVD thing, it's going to take me a while to learn how to play, but then, so what, that's part of the fun.
In other news I go an email from the editor of my comic project, he's read my script and mostly likes it but has problems with the ending, both versions. I agree with him, endings aren't my strong suit (Simian Smith was lucky as the ending was pretty much the first thing I came up with, which is probably the best way to plot). I've emailed another possible ending, but I'm still not sure about it. Fortunately the Ed's got an idea for one which he'll share after I've had a try.
The other issue with the script is it's length. I've been asked to change it from 15 pages to 20. This is good, less panels per page will improve the storytelling and I can also change some dense single panels into two panels (in some cases they were two panels which I edited down to one for the 15 page count anyway) But it means more work. More work on the script, and more pages to draw. With the deadline quite tight I'm going to be hard at it.
My plan is to complete the script by the end of the week and do the thumbnails in another week leaving me about 5 weeks to do the final art. If this seems like plenty of time then you haven't drawn a comic! You also have no idea how slow I am.
I'm slow because I don't draw very well. What I do is redrawing, and I'm not bad at doing it until the final thing looks passable. Thumbnails are not meant to be finished drawing and no one expects them to look as good as the final art but it's where my lack of drawing ability really stands out, and in the case of showing it to an editor, which is what I'll have to do here, I'll worry that if I don't make the thumbnails look pretty then I might as well hand in several pages saying "This man can't draw, get rid of him. Now!" So the week I'm giving myself to do the thumbs is pretty optimistic, but it's also what I'l have to do to allow myself enough time to do the final art. This is why I stopped doing comics, I'm just better at single illustrations. But comics are an early love and the chance to be published is just too strong.
So, self doubt, talent limitation or not, I want to finish the strip for me, I want to be in the book and want to get better so I'll just have to knuckle down.... and whine about the process on my blog of course.

It's that time of year..... Christmas.

Christmas is almost here and I can’t believe how quickly it’s come round and how unfestive it all feels. Wish that wasn’t the case but I’ve been so busy I haven’t had time to get into the Christmas spirit. Also knowing that I get to spend a couple of hours on Christmas Eve and only the morning and a bit of Christmas day afternoon with Rebecca sort of takes the shine off things.
We’ve done half of our family visiting now by spending a couple of days in the North East, visiting the place of my birth and seeing how much of it has been bulldozed to make way for new houses that the people from the area can’t afford. Actually some of the regeneration is nice and long over due, but it’s still feels strange seeing it all looking so different and knowing that the people who live there are not necessarily the ones who’ll benefit.
In a weeks time we’ll be doing the over half of the visiting and then maybe we can spend some time together.
I’ve emailed my comic script to the editor of the Manga-ish project, so I’ll find out how that goes down soon. Kind words from Danny have made me feel a bit more confident about it and I’m looking forward to drawing it knowing how much it’ll change when it’s drawn - at the moment I don’t think it shows the manic edge I hope my artwork’ll bring. Anyway, it’s a quirky throwaway little story that features a preocupation I finally get to exorcise as my other attempts to do so didn’t seem to go anywhere.
As well as my comic strip I also plan to finish all my writing projects throughout the coming year. They all seem to have all stalled for one reason or another and I’d really like to get some, gulp, *closure* on them as I think they could be good and I want to move on. So with a bit of work and luck you might all get to read samples of, ‘Indian Ink’ (or ‘Ink on Paper’ - an ‘no-prize’ for anyone who get’s the reference, and another one if you know what a ‘no-prize’ is), ‘Green and Pleasant Land’ (or ‘A Green World’), ‘Runt’s Tale’ and an untitled kid’s book about punk and zombies. I wouldn’t mind writing another Simian Smith story either, but it’s early days and I’ve only got a vague idea that involves a big family of high class pampered rich scum - hopefully Chandler would approve!

post number 197!!!

Posted my manuscript for Simian Smith today, everything going to plan someone from Orion should be holding it in their trembling hands by Wednesday. First thing that I’ve submitted in a long time, and the last thing didn’t even get looked at because unlike Simian it didn’t go through a ‘known source’. Scary scary.
Danny’s got a new blog, pressumably because three just wasn’t enough eh Danny? :) It’s for film/tv reviews and I’ve become part of it with my review for Saw2 (there really is limited choice at the local cinema) How could I miss an opportunity to spout opinionated nonsense?

Some more Simian

Simian Smith illustration

Not sure if this'll turn our right, if not I'll resize it in a bit.

Special stuff

This will be a special moment in your lives, for you will be about to read an excerpt of Simian Smith! Unless you decide to look at another site, in which case I never liked you anyway.
Simian's now in the hands of people who might actually make things happen (unless they think it sucks) so who knows what'll happen with that.
BTW for anyone not aware, Simian Smith is aimed at somewhere around the 9 year old market but hopefully can be enjoyed by older folk.

SIMIAN SMITH PRIMATE DETECTIVE
in
SOME FISHY
by
PAUL HARRISON-DAVIES (and totally copyrighted to him, okay!)

CHAPTER 1

There was nothing on my desk that day, other than a pair of feet, my feet. I was taking it easy. I’m a Private Detective, people come to me when they want something or someone found, but lately no one was coming to me for anything. Which was fine by me, there was money in my bank account from my last case, there was food in my fridge and I like the easy life. Although more money would mean better surroundings to relax in. My office is not what anyone would call fancy, hovel is a much better description. It was in a building called ‘The Cahuenga’ on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. The building was in better condition than my office, but that’s not really a compliment. Wallpaper peeled off the walls here and there, little bare patches showed through the carpet and the office furniture had been second hand before I’d even bought it. But the couch in the corner was more comfortable than it looked and you could maybe get three people in here as long as everyone breathed in and no one moved around too much. But I’ve put up with worse and I like being my own boss.
I reached into the top drawer of my desk where I keep my bananas. Anytime is a right time for a banana, but somehow they taste better when you’ve got absolutely nothing to do. I’m crazy for bananas, but then most apes are. That’s right, I’m an ape, a talking one. Trust me there’s stranger things, maybe I’ll tell you about them sometime. It says Simian Smith Private Detective on my office door, ‘Simian’ means ‘ape’ and some folk call me ‘Primate Detective’ which I kind of like. Occasionally people have a problem with me being an ape, I always tell them same thing, ‘Tough!’ I like to growl and show some teeth when I do it just to show them I mean business. Back to my bananas. I took one out of the big drawer, which wasn’t quite as full as I’d like it be, and slowly peeled it - a good banana should never, ever, be rushed. As the banana peel came away revealing the beautiful pale yellow fruit inside the smell hit me, I can’t get enough of that smell. I closed my eyes, opened my mouth and was about to take a bite when there was a knock at the door. Through the frosted glass window section with my name on it I could make out a peculiar silhouette. Most decent offices have receptions and receptionists who say things like, “I’m sorry Mr. Smith is seeing an important client at the moment and cannot be disturbed. He’s not eating a banana or anything like that, please come back later.” But I can’t afford all that so clients get to come straight to me. Maybe more money would be helpful. The silhouette knocked again, whoever wanted me wasn’t giving up. With a deep sigh I carefully put the banana down on my desk and covered it with a newspaper. Then I fished around in the desk drawers and found a small mirror to see if I was presentable. My hair was sticking up in tufts, I had a bit of banana inspired drool on my chin and my clothes looked like I’d slept in them - I had, but it was only a nap. I tucked my shirt in, rolled down the sleeves, wiped my chin, flattened my hair and straightened my tie. “Looking good,” I said giving myself a little wink.
The silhouette had no patience, it was knocking again, “The door’s open, come in,” I called.
Kind of funny looking is the best way to describe the man who stepped cautiously into my office. He looked like a clown, with his big curly hair and silly clothes. His shoes were brown suede and his feet were long and flat. Dark green baggy corduroy trousers, a brown waistcoat with a pattern made up of lighter and darker brown diamonds, a reddish jacket and a deep purple shirt with yellow spots made me think my visitor was colour blind. But the best bit was the tie, which instead of being in the shape of a tie was in the shape of a fish. This turned out to be important, it also made me think my visitor wasn’t colour blind, just tasteless. Wearing this carefully selected outfit was a short skinny man with a long chin, large ears, big eyes and a big nose. All together the result was a little amusing, you could even say he had a certain goofy charm, if you wanted to be generous.
“Good afternoon Mr. Smith. My name is Cetera, Lionel Cetera and I desperately need your, er... help.”
I assumed Cetera didn’t mean help with his wardrobe, which I would have gladly given him, free of charge.
“Typical,” I said, “people only ever come to see me when they want something.”
Cetera’s prominent brow wrinkled in alarm making his fuzzy mousey hair wobble. He blushed and stuttered, “M.... Mr. S... Sm... Smith I assure y.... y.... you I... I.... I....”
Deciding not to wait for him to finish his sentence, I raised my hand in a calming gesture, “Don’t worry Mr. Cetera, it was a joke. Please take a seat.”
“Oh, ha, a joke. Yes, yes I see. Oh. Ha ha!”
Cetera pulled a chair up to my desk and sat down, he was still giggling with relief. My banana still sat patiently waiting for me, wanting me to eat it. I tried my best to ignore it, “Tell me, Mr Cetera, what can I do for you?”
“Yes, um, well,” said Cetera, “my passion…. or, ha…. poisson, if you prefer, ha ha, is fish.”
There wasn’t much to say to that, so I didn’t bother. Cetera carried on chuckling to himself until he realised I wasn’t laughing with him.
“Ahem,” said Cetera clearing his throat, “It was a joke. Poisson, it’s, um, French. For fish.”
“Is it?” I said. We sat in silence for a few uncomfortable seconds as I wondered if I should have let Cetera into my office.
“Please Mr. Cetera,” I said figuring it couldn’t hurt to hear him out, “continue.”
“Oh, well, um, I am a collector of rare fish. Fish, the most beautiful of God’s creatures, sublime in their elegance,” Cetera was on his favourite subject now, and it showed, he was all beaming smiles and gesticulating hands. “Oh beautiful lovely fish, God’s gift to the sea and mankind. Fish, Mr. Smith, fish are very much my passion. Now, once a year my fellow fish enthusiasts and I meet at the Annual Fish Enthusiasts Convention where we attend talks, look at the latest in fish collecting equipment and memorabilia. But the highlight of the day is the Fish Show where, from a shortlist of ten, one fish is judged Fish of the Year. It’s a great honour, and can be quite, ah, lucrative, if I may be so vulgar to bring up money. But it really isn’t about the money Mr. Smith, it is about man and fish taking part in the show in perfect harmony”
“I see,” I said, which was a little bit of an exaggeration. I was wrong, it had hurt to hear him out, “and why is it you need me? Worried the fish are taking bribes or on steroids?”
“Oh no Mr. Smith, no, no of course not,” replied Mr. Cetera, oblivious to the sarcasm, “I believe someone is trying to kidnap my fish!”
“Shouldn’t that be fish-nap?”
Jumping out of the chair Cetera slammed his hands on the table and shouted, “Mr. Smith I don’t think you fully appreciate the seriousness of the situation!”
He was wrong, I appreciated it fully. There was a lunatic in my office.
“Well,” I said, slowly getting up from his chair so not to excite the possible psychotic opposite me, “that certainly is a problem.”
“Yes, it is Mr....”
“A very serious problem,” I interrupted, walking over to Cetera and putting an arm around his shoulder.
“Very serious Mr. Smith, which is why…”
Gently guiding Cetera out of the chair and towards the door I talked over him again, “Kidnapping is very serious. Very serious indeed. Hope things work out for you. Sorry I can’t help. Too busy you see. Very busy. Busy busy.” I said, and with a quick push Cetera was out of the door.
Putting all my weight against the door I waited for Cetera to stop knocking on it and leave the building and my life.
Feet back on the table and back side once again on my chair I put Mr. Lionel Cetera and his crazy talk out of my head and picked up the banana that had been patiently waiting to be eaten. I didn’t even get to open my mouth when I was interrupted by another knock at the door.

HAHAHAHA!

I finished it! Yes! The final draft of Simian Smith is finished. I am sooooo happy. Got a fair bit of artwork done too, I might even post some up if I can kick my scanner into touch.

Back again

Oh man, a few posts and a couple of weeks ago I promised I was going to list my 'influences', as a far wiser man than I once said, "Wha' happen?" Well, it'd just be tedious wouldn't it. I did start writing something, then I stopped because it was full of justiciations, caveats, asides and general nonsense. So I tried to do a list, but part way through it I realised I wasn't telling myself anything I didn't know and couldn't for the life of me think why anyone else would care. Talking about your influences is what you do when you're famous and being interviewed. So I just kept quiet for a bit.
But now I'm back.
With nothing to say.
Bugger.
Okay, how about I tell you that Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things has got a R2 release and it's a hell of a lot of fun. After suffering a few really bad big budget slick movies I'm getting really fed up with them. There was an article in the Guardian about a week ago talking about the latest death of the blockbuster and I'm inclined to agree. Of course there's a scare in Hollywoodland every few years and it usually works out, but this summer has been pretty sucky for decent popcorn fodder, which is saying something considering some of the naff stuff we've had before. Thank heavens then for films like CSPWDT (hate to anachronym-ise such a great title) reminding me why I like films. Smart, dumb, fun and just a delight to watch folk make a film for the love of it and not for the money or out of habit or just cos they can. Of course horror movies are suffering lately thanks to them becoming popular due to the likes of Scream. I miss the days when horror was rated 18 or just turned up on video unannounced outside of Fangoria. I guess that stuff's still out there but like so many things it's harder to find because it's buried under the uninspiring hack churned out by hack directors with too much money and the left over cast of the last not so popular anymore teen TV show. I don't like these new hacks, give me the old ones anyday.
The only other thing worth reporting is that Simian Smith is almost finished (again!) and I've decided to write a zombie book. Amazingly there's not many zombie novels out there (although there's some pretty good Zombie comics, 'Walking Dead' being a fine example), and the ones that are seem to be pretty poor affairs cobbled together by writers who've overdosed on bad 80's metal. Actually far too many modern horror novels read like that, it's amazing Garth Marenghi was ever recognised as a comedy creation when he was barely any different from far to many real life authors. Anyway, will my zombie tale be any different from the others? Will I actually complete it? Ah dunno!

Yaaawn

No posts for a while as I've been tired. Really tired. Atempting narcolepsy tired. Whether it's work, the heat, the alergy pills (not for hayfever, just to calm down the large itchy welts many insects thought I should have) or something else I've had trouble staying awake and concentrating over the last two weeks. This sleepy state has not helped my productivity any, my blog is not the only thing to have suffered. The ‘regular’ comic has faltered, although I do have 2 single page strips to scan in, and I’ve not written much more of Runt’s Tale (apart from a fairly meaningless but fun slug sequence that I quite like), my anthropromorphic ideas haven’t amounted to anything just yet and Simian still needs completing. The third draft of Simian was intended to be the last but prompting from a friend made me take a more objective look. I’m glad I did. I’m working on the fourth draft and the fourth chapter at the moment, and am beginning to understand the expression ‘kill your children’, what was about 8200 words is now 7000. It’s not just removing words either, whole paragraphs and sentences were repeated several times and I've had to cut paste and reduce accordingly. How had I not noticed? This has been the real lesson of Simian, be objective, and don't fake the rewrites. Looking at it now I can see that my earlier rewrites were simply taking a word out here and there, replacing a few, adding a couple but rarely (ever?) taking the hard looks neccessary to see what's working. So Simian’s first adventure is going to be a little shorter than originally intended but I think it’ll be all the better for it.
Inbetween writing and struggling through my sombulent daze I’ve started sketching some of the artwork to accompany the book, it’s difficult but exciting, which is how I’ve always felt about drawing.

Update! Wuxtry! Read allaboutit!

It's been a while since I've updated on Simain Smith, now is as good a time as any. Just incase you recently stumbled onto this site (the previous post about my fears for the Hellblazer adaptation seems to prove that it's possible - although I'm beginning to suspect that I just got a comment from someone trawling the net looking for people who don't like Keanu reeves and putting them in their place) Simian Smith is the main character in a book I've been writing aimed at kids around about the 8 years old mark. It's been a rough ride for me and I've learned a lot, but the main thing that I've learned is that I've got a lot to learn. Since I decided that writing might be something I'd like to do I've managed to spend time with other people who'd like to be published. At times it's been inspiring but mainly depressing as they've all been very good and I've just sort of hung around looking up at them with wet puppy dog eyes basking in their glow. Oddly it's only since I was cut off from these people (although happily still in touch with them) that I actually wrote an amount worth a damn. Gone are the ideas for a book never started or never finished to be replaced by Simian Smith Primate Detective. If there's a lesson to be learned from this experience it's to just do it and stop waiting for others to provide the vital spark.
So anyway, a couple of weeks before Christmas I finished the 1st draft. As I said it was a struggle and the sense of pride I got from having completed the book was huge, far bigger than I'd anticipated, so much so that I couldn't wait to get started on the 2nd draft. Real life and common sense slowed me down a little, but as I write this I'm approaching the end of the 2nd draft, it should be finished by the end of the week. One more draft and then it's finished. I intend to do some artwork to go with the book which I'm looking forward to doing, but I'm already wondering what to do next. I've got a few unfinished projects that I'd like to do and after the buzz I got from finishing Simian that first time round I'd really like to do right by them and finish them all up.
Reading through Simian as I've been redoing it I'm not sure what to make of it all, I'm sure it's the same for writers everywhere, but I imagine no one's as unsure as the writer who's hardly written anything. It's not how I imagined it to be but that's as much to do with my original ideas being fairly vague as it is to do with my writing ability. I find myself thinking the next story will be better but instead of making me think the present one isn't worth bothering with it's making me feel that the present one's been invaluable.
And that's where I'm up to, Simian's flawed and imperfect but I'm happy positive and proud, can't say fairer than that.