It’s been an enjoyable couple of days off. I haven’t gotten a whole lot accomplished, I’ve just sorta been relaxing. I had lunch with Sarah today at Flavor’s (which isn’t nearly as good as it used to be), went to the mall with my mom to get some Christmas clothes, and redesigned Nate’s review blog (as noted in the most recent post).

I’m almost done with editing “Into the Abyss.” I’d planned on having it finished sooner, but I’ve been sidetracked with other stuff. Once this one’s finished, I’ve got another idea I want to work on, and then I’m going to finally finish editing “Thirty Well Spent,” which has been languishing in rewrite hell since the summer.

I work 7-4 the next three days, which translates to me being ass-tired and barely coherent for the next three mornings. After I get off work tomorrow, the family is going to Roland’s house to celebrate Lindsey’s 18th(!) birthday. That’s right, my little sis is turning the big one-eight, which just serves to make me feel even older.

Well, time to go pound away at “Into the Abyss” for an hour or so before retiring to the bed.

JAB

Except for the massively painful headache I’ve had for most of the day, today’s been pretty damn good. It started by me getting up early (not by choice, though) and putting the finishing touches on “Into the Abyss.” I just need to adjust the ending a little, and then it will be ready to be sent out. I’m excited.

I also saw the Legend of Zorro with Jason. While not as good as the original, it held its own pretty well. Plenty full of sweet sword fights, but a little too tame. There was very little killing done with swords, unlike Mask of Zorro, and the villains weren’t nearly as…well, villainous. On a whole, however, it was a fun movie. Afterward, we got lunch at Smoky Bones and then retired to Tim Horton’s, where Jason and I spent several hours launching our Next Big Idea. It’s a novel and funny — at least in our opinion — take on the horror movie genre. We outlined the general story, plotting the major points, and basically wrote the first twenty pages freehand of the script. I’m very, very excited. As of yet, it’s untitled.

I had to go home then, as at that point my head had gone from mildly aching to feeling as though a monkey were pounding on it with an iron mallet. I took a shower, took a two hour nap, forgot to tape a show for my parents, woke up with my head still pounding, and just finished watching three episodes of “Enterprise.” The head’s feeling better, but still hurts enough to be more than distracting, so I’m gonna sign off now. Maybe I’ll just lie on my bed for a while and stare at the ceiling.

I sense a fun night awaits me.

JAB

I posted a short story on Sam Walton’s myspace the other day — generously maintained by Brandon — and I thought I’d repost it here for your enjoyment.

Like seemingly every new horror movie coming out this year, the following is only loosely based on a “true story” and in no way should indicate that I maintain a friendship with Sam Walton.

(more…)

Sorry I’ve been neglecting the blog the past week. I’ve been busy with other writing projects. “Thirty Well Spent” is almost ready to be sent out for submission. By the end of the week, I hope to have it in the mail.

I’ve also been retouching the first issue of the “Destiny” comic and working on a web page for potential artists to read the script and a little bit about the project. I’ve been sitting on the script for several months now, and decided it was doing me no good just saved on my hard drive.

The third and final project, and the one I’m most excited about, is a new, as-of-yet untitled screenplay. I don’t want to go into any specifics yet, but I’ll just say that it’s a sci-fi story and a pretty neat concept. Jason’s been kind enough to help me discover the spine of the story, which reminds me a lot of the Destiny days, back when it was a screenplay (albeit one that went nowhere). He’s been a huge help in connecting all of the scenes I’ve had in my head into a coherent story. Plus we’ve had a lot of fun kicking ideas back and forth, and the story is coalescing nicely.

In the semi-near future, I want to turn the opening prologue into an actual short film. I have most of the players assembled already; all I would need would be some actors for one major role and two minor roles. Again, once I get a little further with the screenplay I’ll know better what this short film would entail. When I do, you can be sure to read about it here.

JAB

Finally, finally I have finished “Thirty Well Spent.”

It’s twice as long as I initially thought it would be, and the tone has changed substantially — not to mention the original ending — but it’s done! Once I do an edit of it in a week or so, I’ll post part of it for you all to read and tear to shreds love.

Oh man, there is no high I love more than being creatively fulfilled. Goddamn, I am never gonna be able to sleep tonight.

JAB

Okay, I’m soooo very near the end of “Thirty Well Spent,” but I have a question that I’m sure someone who comes here will have an answer to:

When a person dies in the operating room of a hospital, where exactly is the body taken to and approximately how long after death is he or she taken there? I know it’s a little weird, but I’d appreciate any help.

Thanks,

JAB

Christ, where has the year gone? It’s May already (though of course I still need a jacket to go out and mow the lawn, or at least for the first twenty minutes or so). Seems like just yesterday it was April 1st and I was dumbly wondering why I didn’t do some sort of April Fool’s prank on this site, like this guy.

I just sent Nate the script for a little web comic featuring Grape of Wrath that he and I might start doing. We first talked about the idea of doing one a few weeks ago and both seemed to be excited. So just a little while ago I came up with a funny name and a decent idea and wrote the entire one-page script. The comic itself would porbably not be a very regular one, maybe once a week or so, since Nate works a whole bunch of hours and I’m lazy. I think it’d be fun to do, though. Nate’s a really good artist who can be great when he actually puts effort into something.

Well, I just got off the phone with Nate. Despite some strange going-ons in his personal life, he still seems excited to do this comic. He said he might try to work on it some tonight, and that he’s even gonna draw the strip well, i.e. there will be no stick figures. Sweet!

JAB

The web page I’m creating specifically for “Destiny” is almost done, and should hopefully be posted tomorrow or Wednesday night at the latest.

It’s a page for artists to visit and get a feel for what the comic (“Destiny”) is about. A few script pages from the first issue will be posted, along with Jason and mine’s expectations for the book and what we’re looking for in an artist. I also plan on putting up some character and location samples.

My hope is that an artist would read what I’ve got posted, be interested, and then email me or leave a comment (which I should also have set up). We could arrange for Jason and I to see some of his or her art samples, I could fill the person in on everything else related to the story, and then proceed from there.

Once I get the page on JBdB up, I’m going to post my interest in an artist in the form of a “classified ad” on Penciljack.com. PJ is a fairly large comic artist community where I know several popular comic books — such as Robert Kirkman’s “Invincible” — have come together. That’s gonna by my primary method of artist-seeking, though I have some more…creative methods in the works. Stay tuned.

JAB

I’ve spent all morning finishing up my taxes and watching some very old reruns of “The Twilight Zone” on Sci-Fi. I’m talking about the really old episodes, the black and white ones. It’s pretty good stuff, even if it feels a little dated.

I received a letter back from Weird Tales over the weekend in regards to the story — “The Sinner’s Box” — I sent them a few months ago.

They declined to publish it, which didn’t surprise me too much. However, most of the bigger magazine publications usually just send out a basic form letter telling one to go to hell. What doesn’t disappoint me too much, hat makes this okay, is that one of the editor’s wrote this:

“Scary and well-written — but not for our magazine, more for a horror pub. However please send whatever other sci-fi or fantasy that you do have.”

Basically, they were telling me that the story didn’t suck, it just wasn’t right for their magazine. That’s extremely cool and gives a boost to the ol’ self-esteem.

I’m almost finished with another sci-fi story (today hopefully), which I might send to them. It’s almost too much sci-fi, I think, for their magazine, so it might be better suited for a straight-up science fiction mag. “Sinner’s Box” will be sent out again soon, once I find another publisher.

This is shaping up to be a pretty good day off.

JAB

I am currently in the midst of prepping my story, “The Sinner’s Box,” for submission to the guys at Weird Tales. I sent them “An Era Reborn” last year. They liked it, but didn’t accept it because it had too much sci-fi content and not enough fantasy. I don’t think that it had too much sci-fi content, but whatever. “The Sinner’s Box,” however, has a bit more fantasy in it, as well as some horror, and zero sci-fi. I’m hoping that the editors of WT will like it enough to buy it.

I think I’m going to have to get away from the computer for a bit soon. I went to the YMCA for the first time today and messed around with something called a “Lat Pulldown Bar.” Anyway, my shoulders ache a little, and this constant hunching in front of the keyboard isn’t helping any. I’m sure my legs are going to be sore tomorrow, too; I ran on the treadmill for about twenty-five minutes, something I haven’t done since last fall.

JAB