Canines - Available now!

https://supposedcrimes.com/products/canines-a-supposed-crimes-anthology

Last year after Gun Control for Polar Bears had gotten the go-ahead I went ahead and checked out more of my new publisher's website to which I found submissions for Anthologies and a Novel. I first wrote the short stories and then did the novel submission (the upcoming Last Rites of the Capacitance). There were two anthologies they were looking for stories for and I've talked about one of them, which is "Almost" - a sexual tension anthology. As I've stated before I wrote the story "Dream of Me" and it was accepted but then the book fell through. You can find Dream of Me on this blog. Now, the other was a vampire one called "Canines". I went through my story bank - if you know me then you understand then I have a plethora of stories, ideas, and unfinished work built up throughout the years - and I found just a beginning to a story called "The Diary of Anne Salt" which was already set up to be a vampire story. I rewrote the opener that I had and then the rest went from there. I'm happy with it and I'm proud of it.  "Canines" is a free e-book featuring not only The Diary of Anne Salt but several more fantastic vampire stories. Check it out!

Sleep, Death, and Experimental Film

I've often had friends who've told me that my taste in things is a little odd.  I've always had a thing for more arthouse experimental things, be it film, writing, or music.  I've watched films of David Lynch, Guy Maddin, and the early works of George Lucas and thought "Damn, I wanna do THAT."  Of course when you voice that you want to make experimental (and even silent) film, you get those people who are going to say two things: 1, Who are you making it for?  Who's the audience? and 2, I don't know why you'd want to do that; it's not going to go anywhere - it's too weird. 

Over the years I've attempted to make some of the weird little films in my head but something would always get in the way.  I had a movie I was working on during my last relationship and it was sabotaged and during the divorce process I had lost all my footage.  Interestingly enough, I saw a trailer for a small movie coming out (or IS out) with the same story and setup to some degree.  I had tried to work with a good friend of mine on some stuff but nothing came to fruition.  He, my sister and myself did shoot stuff for a short that was supposed to go to an indie anthology but nothing came of the footage shot - actually my sister and I never saw the footage afterwards.  I've been asked by family and friends "Whatever happened to *insert project here*?"  It's hard to explain to people a lot of times what gets in the way of things.  It's always different. 

This past year and a half I've had a lot of a "Fuck it, why not?" attitude with things.  Last year I submitted a poetry book expecting to hear nothing but "No" and it got published.  From that book I saw some submission requests on the publisher's website and said "Why not?"  Did two stories for them and saw the novel submission.  I didn't think I'd ever do that or even be able to do that but said sure and wrote a novel.  Since I've been doing that, my art's gotten better.  I've animated something by hand and worked on an art series you'll see soon called Coma's End.  So with a comic book, a play, a novel, a poetry book, and an art series, I figured it was time to just jump into something else I wanted.

Digging around at my dad's while helping him throw stuff away I came across an old digital camera (a Vivitar to be exact) and I remembered using it at a time.  I noticed it had an SD card in it and took it home (he said anything I found and wanted, I could have).  I plugged the card up into the laptop to see what was on it - sure enough it was the things I had recorded.  It was just my tooling around trying to learn the camera.  I had set it in black and white because I just love B&W photography and cinematography.  The actual video setting on the camera is terrible; something I actually enjoyed.  If you're wanting to do something tattered or rough looking, there's no need for the added aged film FX.  So B&W AND rough looking?  It looked JUST like the films that I love and inspire me.  Looking through the footage there was me and my ex.  On a side/personal note: it was strange to see us on film after we're well over.  It was like I could see on the film that there was really nothing there between the two people; something I didn't see at that time as one of those people.  But I digress... 

I saw little angles of ceilings and walls that I liked and so I went through and cut everything else and kept those odd angles.  I then took the same camera and went to shoot random stuff in my house to fill it out.  All just experimenting.  The more I shot and the more I was experimenting, the less of the original footage stayed.  There were no plans, I was doing simply that - experimenting.  The finished result is very obviously a film about suicide, however, again, there were no plans - it just kind of happened.  Now that I shot this short and I'm happy with it, I'm definitely going to do more.

Let this all be a lesson - if there's something you want to do but feel you don't have the means and not even sure how to go about it, just jump in and do it.  Even if you don't like the results the first time - just do it.  I'm going to keep going with all my projects and you should too.

The Tourniquet Serials

Now that I've found some time in my busy schedule, I've finally began work on the Tourniquet serials that Dennis & I will be posting online soon before the comic's release.

As I've stated before, the book changes from script to comic, so I'll be using the original scripts for the five issues as outlines for the serials. Readers will get the Tourniquet world that Mr. Magnant and I have created before the comic book hits shelves and different experiences between the serials and the comics. It's essentially two different takes on the five issue story arc that's been toyed with and developed.

The way we work is Dennis and I will brainstorm and come up with everything that we like and want in it, I'll write the script, he'll throw in his two cents and I'll change anything that needs changing, and then he draws and inks it. The original plan for this addition to the comic was to do a book but then it had hit me that we could do it in serial form; rewriting each of the five issues into five serials or episodes.

I want to show you how I'm going about it as the writer of the original scripts and these rewrites into a different format. 
Side note: I've talked about writing comics before and how I tend to write my panels fairly simple and bare bones to give the artist a chance to do what they do and you'll see just about every panel Dennis just BRINGS it, adding fantastic detail. You'll notice a lot of other changes in the finished comic book as well.

Today I'll just be showing you the rewrite/reformat/etc of Page 1 as an example.
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Original First Page to "Tourniquet" Comic Book Script

Page 1
Panel 1: A man in a chair with a sack over his head.
          Man: Hello? What’s going on?
Panel 2: A man holding a camera, facing forward (us, the reader).
Panel 3: The bound man in the center of what looks to be a dank underground shelter and around him are gun-toting terrorists. The “leader” stands behind the chaired man wielding a machete.
          Man: Who are you? What do you want?
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Now, you see, just as I talked about, the visual explanation is very minimalistic. I just explain the situation. It's just a skeleton and Dennis comes in and he adds flesh and detail. With the serial version I just went by the three panels. I didn't want to add a bunch in, take anything out, but just stay true to the page. 
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First Page to New "Tourniquet" Serial

Somewhere in the middle east; an undisclosed location.

The sounds of water dripping is nearing loud in its volume as outside commotion is constant. The room is dank and dim with shoplights hanging overhead; some broken with the rest covered in dust and grime blocking much of the light. Rats scurry across the damp, filthy, and broken floor. Tied to a chair in the center of this room is a battered, bruised, and bleeding man in his boxers and undershirt with a dirty burlap sack over his head. Around this man, unbeknownst to him, are men equally as dirty as the sack over their hostage’s head, strapped with machine guns and sporting wicked grins. Heroes and soldiers to themselves, but terrorists to most.

The man’s slumped head jolts as he wakes. His body tries to move in its restraints and his head turns side to side hoping to get a glimpse of where he is and what’s happened only to see the dark inside of the sack. Realizing he’s strapped to the chair, he begins to flail about frantically, the best he can anyway, before he stops. His body shivers with fear as he tries to regulate his breathing.

“H-Hello? What’s going on?” The scared man asks the darkness with a voice trembling as bad as the rest of his body.

One of the devious fiends in this bunker-like room holds up his phone to record such a demonstration of terror. The others watch the man in the chair squirm restlessly and share stifled chuckles. The leader of this bunch walks past his men, approaching their centerpiece while twirling a large machete in his hand. Shirtless, scraggly, and undoubtedly evil, the man walks behind the bound hostage.

“Who are you? What do you want?” He continues to ask through the lump in his throat in search of answers. Through the burlap over his ears is the combination of footsteps, rats, murmuring, and the incessant dripping, along with the breathing just above and behind him. The bag moves in and out with his anxious huffing breaths. His hands clench tightly and his body shakes as he awaits his fate.
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So there you go, gang. I'm excited for you guys to see both the serials AND the comics. Both coming soon!

Doomsday Think Tank

I've always loved plays. In high school I went from reading them for assignment to reading them for fun and always wanted to write them, along with my other projects.

A couple of years ago Dennis Magnant and myself were digging deep into our comic book Tourniquet. There's a scene in the first or second issue when a man our monsters save reveals he was holding a chip of information. I wrote a 3-5 page scene of the four monsters sitting around a table in headquarters trading theories of what it might contain. I loved the scene but it wasn't a good fit for our book. Tourniquet is a team of monsters killing the likes of pedophiles, terrorists, and such, not sitting around musing about conspiracies. I separated it into another tab as I liked it too much to throw it away. I would frequently return to this little trading of dialogue when something would strike me. When it had hit 8 pages I thought it was done - a nice little short: the pentagon announces the return of a disc with important information but no details have been given; four conspiracy theorists are invited to sit down and share their thoughts.

Then it grew and continued to grow. For a long time I felt it was done at 32 pages. I had printed it off and gave it to my dad, who showed it to his friends and they all loved it and freaked out about it. Ideas and thoughts kept hitting me recently so I dusted it off and worked some more on it. It grew to 72 pages. It's not long, I know, but for what it is, I suppose it can be rather lengthy. I didn't expect it to get to 32 pages let alone 72 pages. Thought I was done. Nope. It kept calling to me to say more and I did and, after several times of thinking I was finished, I stopped at 88 pages. My wonderful Aunt Wanda is going to edit it for me. I don't know if she'll like it but I at least hope she doesn't hate it haha.

I titled it early on "Doomsday Think Tank". The characters are nameless and simply color coded (Blue, Black, Green, & Red). Financially speaking, it'd be a cheap show to put on. 4 people (2 men, 2 women) sitting at a table trading theories and discussing world issues. There's actually a lot of humor in it as well, balancing out the serious issues talked about. I'm hoping once the final draft is done, I can start holding readings. This play that's been kind of therapeutic for me grew out of a deleted scene for a comic book. You never know when something will hit and where it'll come from, so always be open.

I hope you all check it out when it finds its way to you.