CHRISTIE YANT, Author - Interview

This week, I sit down to chat with author and blogger Christie Yant.

Christie Yant

Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer, Assistant Editor for Lightspeed Magazine, occasional narrator for StarShipSofa, and co-blogger at Inkpunks.com, a website for new, nearly new, and newly-pro writers. Her fiction can be found in the magazine Crossed Genres and the anthologies The Way of the Wizard and Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011, both from Prime Books. She lives on the central coast of California with her two amazing daughters, her husband, and assorted four-legged nuisances.

ANTHONY: Hi, Christie! Thanks for dropping by!

CHRISTIE: Thank you for having me!

ANTHONY: So your short story “The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories” has appeared in two major anthologies, THE WAY OF THE WIZARD and YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY 2011, and it was honorably mentioned in YEAR’S BEST SCIENCE FICTION: TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL COLLECTION. When you were writing it, did you envision such a fantastic year for the story?

CHRISTIE: Never. The thing about that story that still blows my mind is that it was my first sale ever. I mean, to even sell something to an editor of JJA’s caliber (he was just an editor to me then, albeit one I minioned for—now he’s also my husband!) was more than I ever expected. I thought it would sit in the slush pile for a month and then get a nice rejection back, and then figure out who to send it to next—the same thing I’d been doing for seven straight years at that point. Instead I clicked “send,” went to sleep, and found the acceptance in my inbox when I woke up. For it to be picked up for Horton’s Year’s Best later in the year was unbelievable, and that Dozois even noticed it–and for extra geek cred, it was even run on io9! No, I couldn’t possibly have even hoped for any of that.

ANTHONY: You’ve talked in other interviews about the origins of the story concept. Talk to me a bit about story execution — how long did it take to go from concept to a draft you were ready to submit to an editor?

CHRISTIE: I started it in July of 2009. I wrote that opening scene, not really knowing where it was going, but I liked the voice of it a lot. Over the next few months I pushed myself to get it done as part of an application for Clarion, but it was a very difficult story for me to write. Initially I only wrote the part of the story set in our world in the present day; it just wasn’t coming together, so as an exercise I decided to write the fairy tale part as back story. It took a while for me to realize that the fairy tale actually belonged in the story itself. Then it took even longer for me to figure out how to combine the two pieces into an effective whole.

I sent it both to Clarion and to JJA’s slush pile at the same time, the moment it was done, on February 21, 2010. So from concept to submission, it was seven months! It was time well spent, though. I learned so much while writing that story about voice, structure, and tension. (P.S.—I didn’t get into Clarion! Its success since has taken the sting out of that particular rejection.)

ANTHONY: I recently had an early-draft reader point out my tendency to digress within a short story, introducing little bits that don’t advance the plot and often slow the pace. Since short stories usually rely on fast and steady progression, did you ever feel with “The Magician” that you were moving down the wrong track or that you were introducing tangents that were diluting the story?

CHRISTIE: In this particular case it was a story that I needed to grow, rather than prune. The big breakthrough for me was in writing that back story and realizing that it needed to be part of the whole. Also the warehouse scene, which brings the Magic Mirror more fully into place, didn’t exist until the final draft. I think in recent years I’ve ended up underwriting rather than overwriting—this particular story would have been totally hollow if I hadn’t expanded it, and it wouldn’t have succeeded.

ANTHONY: Jay Lake often talks about an author’s “sphere of control” in terms of story length. Where would you say your “sphere” lies? Do you feel more comfortable in short story length, or are they a stepping stone to novels?

CHRISTIE: You have asked the question I have been wrestling with for a couple of years now. I have concluded that I am not—at least right now—a novelist. I love the short form. I have novels written, I have others plotted, but when it comes down to it I don’t feel that I can do the same thing with novels that I can do with short stories. I just don’t get excited about my novel-length tales as I do about my shorts. That may change as I grow as a writer and (I hope) get more stories out there. But for right now, under 10,000 words is where it’s at for me.

ANTHONY: You recently wrote on the Inkpunks website about structure and how that affects the telling of a story. I don’t want you to repeat the whole theory when readers can follow the link to that post, but can you summarize it for us, and talk a bit about how that idea influenced “The Magician?”

CHRISTIE: I’m not entirely sure where I got the idea to apply structure the way that I do. I looked back at some of the books on my shelf and I can’t find examples of anyone doing it quite this way. I may have picked it up in a workshop or something in years past, or possibly it came from my own brain. The approach that I take is to visualize the shape of the story, and establish the patterns in it. I apply a visualized shape/pattern to both the narrative structure (length of story and scenes, for instance) and the thematic structure (what the story is about).

Where that really came into play in the “Magician and the Maid” was in making the two parts of the story work together. I had to alternate them, but I had to find the natural beats to leave one and go to the other, and I had to balance them in a particular way. I created a pattern or rhythm that kept the reader in our world longer than in the fairy tale. You can see the visual example I gave over at the Inkpunks site. A lot of people seemed interested in this approach, so I’ll probably do a follow-up post soon.

ANTHONY: Who would you say are currently the biggest influences on your writing?

CHRISTIE: Gaiman–always and forever Gaiman. I like to credit Douglas Adams with making me a reader and Neil Gaiman with making me a writer. His work in comics and his short stories have spoken to me in ways that no other author’s work has—though at one point I nearly quit writing because of something he wrote!

Inspired by the work I was seeing come out of DC’s Vertigo line, I initially set out to write comics. I love the way that the comics medium merges storytelling and visual art, and combined they have the potential to have such a magnified impact on the reader. I wanted to be a part of that, so I put my time into learning to write comics scripts, with the goal of some day writing for DC.

That was my plan right up until I read Gaiman and McKean’s graphic novel Signal to Noise. I read the book, closed it, set it down, and thought, “Well, never mind, it’s already been done.” I decided that I would not write comics because the pinnacle had already been reached–there was nothing I could ever do that could even approach what they had done in that book.

My spectacularly irrational response to being confronted with great art was to spend a week feeling empty, directionless and sad, casting injured glances at the book and sniffling. At the end of that week, though, I knew I couldn’t really stop writing. So I picked myself up and started learning how to write short stories instead.

ANTHONY: You’re a part of the Inkpunks group. Can you tell me about the group’s genesis and goals?

CHRISTIE: Inkpunks was Sandra Wickham’s brain child. We were just a bunch of friends who had met at various conventions and on Twitter. When we first met we were all right on the cusp of making our first sale, going to Clarion, getting internships with editors, etc. Writing is such a tough gig—the rejections just go on for long, and there’s always more to learn. It can be really discouraging. Sandra pointed out to us that we were really lucky to have each other to get us through the rough spots and keep us going, and she suggested that we share that spirit with other writers in the form of a group blog.

I’ll admit that I was skeptical at first! I wasn’t sure that we, collectively, had the kind of experience and knowledge yet that we would need for such a project. Well, I’ve been eating crow since about the third month! The blog has really reached a lot of people, and many writers and editors more experienced than we are have contributed guest posts. It’s been an astonishing success, and I can’t express how grateful I am to be a part of such a thoughtful and good-spirited group of people.

ANTHONY: Will we be seeing any more of your fiction popping up in the near future?

CHRISTIE: I just sold a story to Daily Science Fiction called “This Rough Magic.” I’m not sure yet when it will be arriving in inboxes or appearing on their website, but I’ll let you know as soon as I hear!

ANTHONY: Back to that “structure idea” for a moment — have you ever started to write a story to a specific structure and then realized it wasn’t working? If so, did you abandon the idea of structure completely, pick out a different structure, or abandon the story?

CHRISTIE: I haven’t abandoned a story in a long time—I would much rather just try to find a new approach and make it work. The story I’m working on right now has gone through a couple of different permutations, and I like the structure I’m working in now, but the story itself still isn’t quite coming together. I’ll have to find some other exercise to make it work.

ANTHONY: How do your stories most often start? Do you start with an image, a piece of dialogue, a character?

CHRISTIE: For the past couple of years I’ve started with a vague idea (a story about a person forced out of her fairy tale and into our world, for instance) and then a line or two of inner monologue from the POV character.

ANTHONY: My usual final question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who hasn’t read it to convince them that they should?

CHRISTIE: I only get one? Oh man, that’s hard. I’d say probably “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency,” by Douglas Adams. Adams is of course known for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, which is a totally absurd romp. Dirk Gently is just as funny, just as good-natured, but much more cohesive. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve read it.

However I’m also going to chime in with a non-fiction book as well, also by Adams, and that’s “Last Chance to See.” Because it’s a big, absurd world, and we need to remember that it doesn’t belong only to us.

You can follow Christie on Twitter as Inkhaven, find her on her own website, and check out the Inkpunks website as well.

3 COMMENTS

NEAL BAILEY and DEXTER WEE, Webcomics - Interview

This weekend, instead of blogging about my inexorably slow NaNoWriMo progress (and aren’t you all glad I’m skipping thattopic!), I’m welcoming back my buddy Neal Bailey to talk more about the wonderful webcomic Cura Te Ipsum. This time, he’s brought along artist Dexter Wee, too!

Neal Bailey

CURA TE IPSUM is the story of Charlie Everett. Well, several Charlies, as it turns out. In most universes, Charlie Everett gets sick of his life (where he’s most often a guidance counselor who tells other people how to live their lives, while not knowing how to live his own). After a certain point, he’s fired, and he goes home and sticks a pistol in his mouth and blows his brains out. Charlie Prime, our hero, is stopped by another character, Leo, who introduces him to the concept of the multiverse, and tells him that there’s a whole team of Charlies, Cura Te Ipsum, fighting to stop him from committing suicide across multiple universes. The story has grown and deepened, new Charlies (both good and evil) have been introduced, and a world has been destroyed. Let’s see if Neal and Dexter will tell us what’s in store for Volume Two and beyond….

Cura Te Ipsum volume 1

ANTHONY: I know there’s a synopsis of Cura Te Ipsum as a whole leading off this interview, but give us an idea of what Volume 2 is all about, and how it is different from volume one.

DEXTER: Volume two opens with a bang, introduces new characters to the team and ends with a killer cliffhanger.

NEAL: Volume one was definitely much more about laying the ground rules for the story, and volume two is all about running with that world, now that it’s established. Charlie tries to come to terms with the first (of many) things that drove him toward suicide in the first place, and the Dark Everett moves to take the advantage by kidnapping Hank, Charlie’s childhood best friend. Charlie’s role as a leader starts to come into more prominence, and the Dark Everett solidifies his place as Charlie’s nemesis, where before he was more of a mystery to the team.

ANTHONY: Last time I interviewed Neal, we talked a little about the collaborative process between the two of you. Several months later, has that process changed at all? Have you guys settled into a comfortable rhythm or are there still surprises that pop up in the partnership?

DEXTER: The process is still the same. I read the script then send Neal the draft layouts for approval. Then once it is approved I tighten the pencils, scan, then email the pages to Neal for lettering. It’s been a smooth partnership. Neal is very easy to work with and the communication is great. It’s been a fun and enjoyable ride so far and will continue to do so.

NEAL: I would say the process itself hasn’t changed too much, but I do see a definite comfortable rhythm that has developed, at least with me. Dex has become very much a friend over the months that we’ve grinded away at this thing, and there’s a kind of sixth sense I feel now, where he’ll see something missing in the script or something that’s too much, and he’ll add a panel, remove a panel, or give something a little touch that it was missing in a way that makes me feel like I haven’t before… like I have a back up editor for one of my own stories. With a novel, it’s very much EVERYTHING I screw up, I see later and regret (even if it’s small). In a collaboration, I’ve learned that Dex has my back, that two minds are better than one, and it just keeps getting better and better for me.

ANTHONY: Neal, has your scripting style changed as you’ve developed a better feel for Dexter’s strengths as an artist?

NEAL: Absolutely. As I got to know Dex and learn what he liked to draw, and where his strengths lie, I started tailoring the broader script toward his work. Now, to be fair, I had the first year in the can before we got through the first trade, so much of that adaptation occurs in year two, which is an even higher compliment to Dex, because the first year is not directly tailored, and yet he’s still, consistently, CONSTANTLY knocking it out of the park.

ANTHONY: Dexter, what is your process like once you receive a script from Neal? Do you charge right in, or do you read it over and let it soak in for a while?

DEXTER: I read it over then soak it for a while. Just visualizing the story and getting the feel of it. But sometimes I just draw right in, read one or two pages then draw, but most of the time it’s reading a chapter first, and then I get one printed page and place it on the drawing table and read it again while drawing the page.

ANTHONY: Have you ever read over a script, started to draw, and then thought there might be a better camera angle or page layout for what Neal’s words are trying to convey? And if it happens, how do you guys work through disagreements like that?

DEXTER: Yeah. Sometimes scenes sounds good or easy in the script but looks different visually. So If I encounter something like that I usually draw a sample first then send it to Neal. Glad to say there isn’t much of a disagreement. Sometimes I just miss the point and once Neal explains it to me, I’m all good. There are times also when I completely mess up by forgetting to draw some characters in certain scenes. Good thing I don’t ink the pencil pages, so it’s much easier to correct once Neal will inform me about it.

NEAL: I should pop in and, in Dex’s defense, say that most miscommunications are mine. Like when I put Squirt in a bar! Duh! But yeah, usually the thumbnails catch anything that might be funky… and Dex is always, ALWAYS improving my pacing with his awesome layouts.

ANTHONY: Dexter has an interesting challenge with this series: even though each main character has an overall unique visual, they are still all variations on Charlie Everett. So what do you do to make sure they look like the same person while making sure they stand apart?

DEXTER: I have a picture of my head of what Charlie looks like from the eyes to the chin so that when I draw the Charlies they will look the same but still have those unique look.

ANTHONY: Cura has a distinct look. How do you create it? What tools do you use as you move from initial roughs to the final uploaded pages?

DEXTER: My tools are just pencils 3H, 2B and 4B. After scanning the pencilled page I just adjust the contrast in Photoshop. I don’t ink my work due to time constrain but hopefully in the future we’ll do one.

NEAL: I use an ancient version of Adobe Illustrator to letter. I take Dex’s final pages, place them, do my layers and all, and then I save a version for the site, which is typically much less detailed so it doesn’t take forever to load, but it’s still clear on the screen. Illustrator seems to leave less blur on a file than Photoshop, so I use Illustrator for most everything I can.

ANTHONY: Are there pages you are particularly proud of?

DEXTER: Ah, let met me think. I like the recent pages of volume three. The first page of Cura is also memorable to me. I also like the first time I drew Dark Everett in page 35 splash and Undertaker Charlie in page 49. The massacre splash of page 47. The doomsday scenes from page 76 to 78 as well as pages 89-91 where Hank slide down from the exterior of the building. I also like the Titanic scenes, it might look easy but it took me time to check the Titanic ship design and copy it. I also like the cameo scenes of pages 118, 119 and 149.

NEAL: I echo Dex for favorite pages. I remember seeing that first page and going “Holy crap, this is actually going to work.” I realized in Dex I was working with real talent, someone who could make this comic soar. My personal favorite page is when Charlie throws the gun into the water, the no copy page. I also like little things, mainly. Panels really make me smile on their own, as part of a whole. When Hank is being called Lucky in caption in the middle of the falling ash from the nuclear weaponry. There’s a page coming up that has the pyramids again (I won’t spoil it), and that page really makes me smile in a ghoulish, moribund kinda way.

I really, really love the pages with Henry V. Dex really killed those pages.

ANTHONY: Certain pages still jump immediately to mind for me with very little bidding. For instance, the buildings collapsing during the nuclear attack, where we first meet Hank. Did you intentionally draw on September 11th imagery for those pages? It resonated that way for me.

DEXTER: No. Neal wrote the script clearly for me to visualize it. Actually the picture that I think went into my mind while doing the page is the apocalyptic scene in Terminator two movie.

NEAL: I actually overloaded Dex with references for those pages, doing the math, seeing how high and how far you’d have to be to survive a nuke placed right behind the Eiffel Tower, seeing what you’d have to do to survive. That building is actually the Tour Gan, which I believe is a government building, across the water, but at just the right height and distance to survive that kind of nuclear explosion. And for all that reference, all that thinking, Dex still outdid me in that page. It was so awesome. I think the only thing we changed, if I recall, was added that waterfall in the building. Oh! I also (like a dunce) added a redundant panel at the top, so we deleted that, because that page on its own… oh man. Can you imagine it with a small panel at the top? I have learned to let Dex do his thing, because he does it so well, and stop cluttering.

ANTHONY: Neal’s starting to feel left out by now, I’m sure. So, a plot question: As you know, I’ve really come to like the character of Billy, the version of Charlie who has cancer and has obviously been through chemo. Was he a planned part of the story all along? He seems to really be merging well with the main crew, although I notice he hasn’t been added to the cast page or the team picture…

NEAL: I would feel left out if I didn’t keep jumping in on Dex’s questions! Heh. Apologies, Dex.

Billie is an interesting story, actually. He’ll be added to the cast page and team picture shortly, actually, and he’s around for the long haul. He was planned to be around, but the cancer element I added as I was writing. When I’m creating a story, there are fixed things which can change, but often don’t. For example, the destruction of the Anchor Universe was ALWAYS the end of issue four, back when this was planned out as a monthly. The intro of Headquarters was the end of the first issue. The destruction the end of the second. Charlie’s second survival was the end of three, and then the death of the world. Explosion, implosion, life, death.

Once that settled into the regular story, the longform tale, Charlie would have to explore who he was in the past, and he’s not done with that at all. We still have to meet Cindy, we still have to learn about what happened in Paris, and on and on… I won’t spoil, but Charlie has a lot of life to unpack. The first thing, however, the thing which ate him up and spat him back out, was the fact that he believed if he had just had the courage of his convictions to go to New York, he’d not have been sad. He would have succeeded. He was weak, and selfish (in his head, not to me), and so he had to go and talk to his younger self and see if he actually was these things he believed he was.

And so the scene where Billie is brought in (it shall be explained how, toward the middle of year two you’ll understand) was important as hell, because of his naivety in comparison to Prime. I was writing this scene I’d had in my head forever, where Billie says something about having no future that sets Charlie off, and instead of realizing it’s a teenager being a teenager, he shakes the kid. The initial construction was that Charlie would think about what his dad did to him, then we’d meet Billie, and then Charlie would shake Billie and realize he was like his father. A real Luke looking at the glove moment. But then I realized that if Charlie thought he was like his father, like, ever, he’d blow his own brains out right after doing such a thing. I couldn’t shake the scene, though, I knew it had to play like that no matter what (fixed point), and so I wrote it anyway thinking I’d delete it or take a break if I had to, but then, as Charlie’s shaking Billie, the wig came off, and I realized… ah. Billie has cancer. That’s what my mind was trying to tell me.

Charlie is trying to confront death, and it’s VOLUNTARY death. My subconscious was telling me that I needed a character to help him confront inevitable death, because he’s looking at all the facets of why he should live or die, and the inevitability (or avoidance) of death, too.

That’s not to say Billie is doomed to fail with his chemo, or that he’s going to survive, note. Just that his character is an important part of the larger picture, and is, beautifully, not a fixed point. I will let Billie’s story tell itself to me, and given what’s coming, I think he’ll have a great potentiality in several worlds.

ANTHONY: By the time the print version of volume 2 hits, the webcomic will have moved on. So what teasers can you share with us about where the story is headed in the next few months?

DEXTER: Oh, it will be big year. Lots of exciting stuff happening. I already did some visual teasers for the next chapter. It will be posted soon so I hope you’ll dig it. I’ll give the floor to Neal to share his thoughts on whats coming next.

N: Well, like Dex said, we have some teasers. We’re going to release them in our first week after the trade (in five straight days of pics!), and here’s two of the six:

The Charlene pic is a hint at a little bit of what’s going to happen in the first few months. The peril of Central Park is… well, I can’t spoil it, but it’s pretty damned crazy. It’s a scene I’ve had since early in year one, and it’ll shake out over a few months.

Then there are other promos you’ll see, starting on the 11th of November, celebrating our one year anniversary. For a hint, you’ll get a look at the terror lightning, a familiar face will return, an origin will be hinted at, and a new Charlie will debut.

Year two is going to be CRAZY. Flat out nuts. There’s all kinds of great stuff going on now that the core team is in place. They have to rebuild Cura. They have to find a new source of cash. They have to cope with Billie’s health. We learn more about the Dark Everett and his creepy buddies. We see what happens when you open a portal to a place you shouldn’t, really. Plus, as promised, a return to the dystopian Anchor Universe! Stick with us! I promise a great time.

ANTHONY: Thanks for the hints and teases! I’m honored to be debuting some of Dex’s artwork here for the first time. Neal, any final words to add?

NEAL: On a more nuts and bolts level, buy a trade if you can, folks. It’ll help keep the lights on, and they flicker sometimes around here. I’ll gladly operate at a loss until my brain explodes (that’s one of the great curses of being a writer, you love what you do even if it’s eating at your pocketbook), and it’s totally worth it even if we never turn a profit. However, if you can, we’d love any help you can provide in this down economy to help alleviate production costs. And if you have already bought one, MANY THANKS! You’re a saint, and you give us the faith we need to do this thing.

More important than any of that, however, is if you can tell a friend. I may be being shameless here, but I want this comic to succeed, and if you can get one more reader for us, that’s one more person who can tell one more person, and we won’t need the apparatus to make this book work, we’ll just have a great, DIY, dedicated crowd of folks supporting independent art.

Either way, you all rock and have made Cura the best artistic experience of my life so far. Thank you. Thanks, Anthony, as ever, for this place to yak about what we love to do!

ANTHONY: You’re welcome, guys. I plan on inviting you back as long as there’s new CURA to talk about!

Don’t forget, folks, you can follow Neal on Twitter as NealBailey, and of course you can find the comic by clicking this link: CURA TE IPSUM.

NATHAN SCHILZ, Singers - Interview

This week’s interview is a few days late, through no fault of our gracious guest. The blame is all on yours truly, your host. Regardless, this week we sit down to ramble on with writer-composer-musician Nathan Schilz, the creator of “Nightmare Man: A Musical.”

Nathan Schilz

Nathan M. Schilz is a film and theatre composer located in Minneapolis, MN (originally from Pekin, IL). He has worked on three feature films and more than two-dozen short films in his limited career; he has also worked on two relaxation CDs, an album of children’s music, some commercial work, and numerous songwriting projects. Nathan is a multi-instrumentalist with an extensive background in music theory, composition, and arranging.

Making its world premiere in August 2011 as part of the Minnesota Fringe Festival, “Nightmare Man” is a new musical adaptation of bizarro fiction writer (and Bram Stoker nominated author) Jeremy C. Shipp’s short story of the same name. It is part of his collection of stories entitled Sheep and Wolves “Nightmare Man” will premiere on August 5th, 2011 at the Gremlin Theatre in St. Paul (http://www.gremlin-theatre.org) starring Derek Meyer, under the direction of Paul von Stoetzel of Killing Joke Productions.

ANTHONY: Hi, Nathan, thanks for agreeing to sit and ramble with us for a little while.

NATHAN: Oh, thank you for agreeing to interview me!

A: Your current project, “Nightmare Man: A Musical,” is based on a Jeremy C. Shipp short story. How did you initially approach Jeremy about the project?

N: Well, I met Jeremy sometime in 2010 via Twitter. I think our interactions were pretty limited, if non-existent, before the Fall when I simply sent him a direct message asking if I could adapt one of his short stories. I didn’t actually know what story I wanted to adapt when I first contacted him. I picked Jeremy because he seemed like a genuine guy that I would be able to work with easily. He had suggested three stories: “Camp,” “Those Below,” and “Nightmare Man,” so I focused most of my time on those after receiving my copy of SHEEP AND WOLVES from Amazon. I really, really liked “Camp” but the difficulty of finding children for the stage would have been a nightmare (no pun intended). I requested that I adapt “Nightmare Man” and after some exchange of legalese between us and Mark, his agent, I got the rights I needed!

A: Give us a quick summary of the plot and main characters of “Nightmare Man.”

N: “Nightmare Man” follows Thomas as he struggles to come to terms with his past. At the beginning of the story we learn that Thomas suffers from terrible, debilitating nightmares. Jade, who comes to Thomas in one of those nightmares, becomes his guide to a promised salvation.

A: When adapting a short story to musical form, how did you decide which moments would become songs and which moments would stay pure dialogue? Did Jeremy have any input into the process?

N: It was actually very foolish of me to choose a story like this for my first foray into the theatre world. Shipp’s prose is beautiful; it has moments of poetics and moments of starkness. In addition his characters are very internal. So, my process initially was to keep all dialogue intact and “songify” the internalizations. This changed a little in order to incorporate other characters into the realm of song, but it was my general framework. And Jeremy didn’t have any say in that. He sort of let me do my thing with it and has just been really supportive every step of the way, which I appreciate greatly.

A: For the songs, what has the creative process been like, in terms of crafting lyrics and music?

N: The first song I wrote was “I Call it Hell” and that just came together in the course of an hour or two. It’s the second line in Jeremy’s story, and I had decided pretty quickly that it set the tone of the forthcoming tale perfectly. I wrote the melody line away from the piano and added the chords later. I came up with that song sometime in September. Other songs, like “More than You,” I wrote sitting at the piano, banged out some chords that I liked, and worked in a melody above them. When writing the script, I didn’t have all of the songs written (to be honest, I still don’t!) so, I had to leave markers in there so I knew what work was still left to be done. I mostly just put some of the first emotions, feelings, and lines that came to mind down so I would remember what to write later. Nearly none of those lyrics remain because my songwriting is very organic: sometimes lyrics come first, other times melody, other times chord structure. It’s really whatever serves the song best. There’s one song that was written strictly from a rhythm that I thought was interesting. Most of the songs have little to no direct correlation to the original story, actually; they are extrapolations on the feelings, context, and meaning of the story. The only exceptions are the few instances when I turned dialogue directly into song.

A: Many short stories are expanded, filled out if you will, when adapted to some other format (movie, stage, etc). Did you find yourself adding plot or characterizational points in your creative process, or is this a pretty faithful morphing of story onto stage?

N: The musical expands on the original 12-page story considerably, since the final runtime of the show needs to be just shy of an hour. In the play’s evolution I added and subtracted dialogue and created additional moments of tension that would lend themselves to heightening the conflict in song. In this process, I added a character, “The Presence,” who is mentioned in the source material but doesn’t physically manifest himself. Whether physically or not, in the musical Thomas and he have an altercation which leads to the tipping point of the story and allows the denouement of the play to flow naturally.

One of the main reasons to choose something from the obscurata catalogue is that it’s not widely known. It allows a little more freedom to interpret than a best-selling novel or a literary classic. I would say, and would hope Jeremy would agree, that I stayed very true to the spirit of the piece and that the few moments with which I took liberty only served the plot of his initial story.

A: You’re crowd-sourcing the musical’s first production through Kickstarter. How’s that going, and what do people get if they donate?

N: I am! It’s been very successful so far, but that doesn’t keep me from stressing out about it. With only 7 days left at the time of writing this, we are 52% funded. Kickstarter, being an all-or-nothing format, means that we need to secure that other 48% or none of the 50 backers that have already generously pledged their support will be charged. The primary rewards are the official “Nightmare Man: A Musical” t-shirt and a signed, limited edition copy of SHEEP AND WOLVES by Jeremy Shipp. For locals we are also offering tickets to the show, and anyone who donates over $5 also gets the official sticker.

If we meet, or come close to, our secondary tier goal of $5,000, we’ll have enough funds to produce a studio recording and will give that away for free to ALL backers. But, let’s just focus on the $2,750 goal first!

A: If NIGHTMARE MAN doesn’t get full funding through Kickstarter, what lies in store?

N: Ha ha! Well, we’ve already started rehearsals, so we’re making this show no matter what! Most of the money is already allocated to actor stipends, producer fees, and our director. The only room for movement would be the orchestra. Currently we have plans for a cellist, violinist, pianist, two percussionists, an electric bassist and a guitarist. There is also hope for a small chorus on stage. The musicians are one of the only places that we can still adjust for lack of funding. I can definitely pull a loan from the bank, if necessary, but I really wanted this to be a project that people could be proud of saying they were a part of. I wanted to raise an army as much as I wanted to raise funds.

A: Okay, now on to my usual last question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to recommend it to someone who has never read it?

N: My favorite book is THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV, as it is pretty much the story of my life. I, too, was going to be in the clergy and left in search of who I really was. Dostoevsky is a genius (duh), and I’ve read almost all of the major novels. Read it if you like real, existential literature with a tinge of humor and lots of Russian vibrato. Also, I’m working on a musical adaptation that I will stage when I am old enough to do it justice.

A: Thanks for joining us, Nathan. I hope this interview brings a few more donators to the “Nightmare Man Army.”

To join the list of donors supporting “Nightmare Man: A Musical,” go to the Nightmare Man Kickstarter page.

Follow Nathan on Twitter for updates on the creative process as the show gets closer to performance date!

And don’t forget to visit Studio Alethea for more on Nathan Schilz, “Nightmare Man” and Nathan’s other projects.

BRYAN THOMAS SCHMIDT, Author - Interview

Tonight, we’re joined by author, editor, and #sffwrtcht (that’s Science Fiction/Fantasy Writers Chat) moderator on Twitter Bryan Thomas Schmidt. This is the first of two interviews with Bryan. He’ll be back in October as part of the “blog tour” promoting THE WORKER PRINCE.

Bryan Thomas Schmidt

Born and raised in Central Kansas, Bryan Thomas Schmidt received a Bachelor of Arts in Communications-Radio-TV-Film in 1992 from California State University at Fullerton. He then spent five years working in the television and film industry on such shows as Biography, The Real West, Civil War Journal, and Brute Force: The History of Weapons At War as well as the Emmy award winning Discovery Channel documentary Titanic: The Legend Lives On.

Bryan released his first CD of original music, “Stand,” on his own label in 1998 and spent the next two years touring in support of that album.

Desiring to be more informed about theology and other topics which might help infuse his music with more depth, Bryan enrolled in seminary for the Fall of 1999. He graduated in 2002 with a Master of Arts in Theological Studies from Covenant Theological Seminary in Saint Louis, Missouri.

During his time in seminary, Bryan continued to write songs, stories and articles, releasing his second CD, “Glorious: Worship,” in 2003. He also founded Anchored Music Ministries, Inc. , a 501(-c) 3 non-profit organization devoted to providing leadership development training in worship arts around the world. Since the year 2000, they have worked in 6 countries on 4 continents, including Ghana, Brazil and Mexico.

Bryan’s first devotionals were published in Secret Place magazine in 2009. His first devotions for Upper Room magazine appeared in 2010. His first published science fiction story, “Mars Base Alpha,” was published at www.sffstories.com in January 2010. His first science fiction novel, The Worker Prince, is forthcoming in October 2011. The first novel in an epic fantasy, Sandman, is currently undergoing revisions, while Bryan works on a novella and sequels to The Worker Prince.

Bryan currently resides in El Paso, Texas, with a cat, Doce, and two dogs, Louie and Amélie. His third CD, “Love Like No Other,” was released in May 2009.

The North Star Serial, Part One

ANTHONY: Hi Bryan! Thanks for agreeing to ramble with us for a little while.

BRIAN : My pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.

A: Your first book, THE NORTH STAR SERIAL PART ONE, is a compilation of the short stories you’ve written for Digital Dragon magazine. Tell us a little about the history of that project and how it moved from web to print.

B: It was suggested that my space opera style might be a good fit for Digital Dragon, which is family friendly, and hearing they were open to submissions, I decided to try and write them something. I had never written anything that short but Jay Lake advised me one of the best ways to improve your writing was to set word limits and try to meet them so I thought this was a good opportunity to put that into practice. I want a form that would be familiar to audiences, so I chose a star ship and her crew. However, wanting to avoid cliches and my own tendencies being a Star Trek fan, I made the Captain a woman, named her after my friend Mike Resnick, and decided to have her be just joining the crew so as to create a setting ripe with conflict. I also decided her crew would be international and that that would play into the story if possible. The first story was really a one off thing, but the editors liked it so much they asked me to write more. That’s how it became a serial.

A: What do you think the challenges are in writing serialized fiction of such short lengths? What did you do to deal with those challenges/restrictions?

B: Well, for one thing, I didn’t get into as much description and detail as I might in most of the NSS stories. Some were exceptions but since this was space opera, I focused instead on action and pacing, created with short descriptive bursts mixed with tense dialogue. Telling a story this short you really don’t have time to create a lot of twists and turns or subplots. You pretty much have to say this is what it is and here’s the core events and stick to that. But I challenged myself by still trying to add character development to grow and develop and even introduce characters over the series. That’s why you’ll find that in the first 13, all but two of the main crew get their subplot-like moments where they shine and we learn about their past, who they are and why they are there. In addition, I did a lot of trimming after getting the basic story down to keep it tight and fit to word length. The editors weren’t overly strict so some were slightly longer, some slightly shorter. The other challenge in writing a serial was figuring out how to make the pieces contain enough backstory but not too much that new readers could pick up what’s going on without feeling like they had to go back and reread everything that came before. You hope the story’s good enough they’d want to do that, but I wanted them to connect immediately. It helped that the first story I wrote ended up becoming episode 11, I think. I later went back and revised it though to add new stuff to tie it in closer with the other stories, including a couple crew members.

A: How much of the North Star universe do you have mapped out, and how do you work those details into the short pieces you’re writing?

B: None of it. I made it up as I went. So now, as I prepare to go back and write 12 more stories to finish the cycle, I have to reread all that and remember what I did. It was really an off the cuff thing, not at all how I’d do a novel, but I had never done a serial story before, and my typical method is let the story unfold as it comes, so that’s how the worldbuilding for this world came about.

A: What’s in store for the crew of The North Star?

B: We’re going to get to know the crew members we haven’t met yet and more about the others. Someone important will be killed and that will motivate the others as they continue the fight to its conclusion. The new crew member replacement will also have a hard time being accepted. Kryk will take over the Koreleans and bring a new ruthlessness to their tactics as well.

A: Your next book is THE WORKER PRINCE. Tell us what it’s about, and when we can expect to see it available for purchase.

B: The Worker Prince is my debut novel and book one of the Saga Of Davi Rhii, a story I dreamed up in my teens. I wanted to do the Moses story in the vein of Star Wars, essentially, with the big space opera, battles, interpersonal conflict, etc. all plaid out on a galactic stage. I dreamed up a planet with two suns and one group enslaving the other. I knew the hero’s father would be called Sol and the bad guy was his uncle, named Xalivar. I knew there would be some sort of Exodus but I also knew I wanted to vary from the biblical story as well, because I’m not trying to sell religion here. Ironically, when I finally sat down to write it 25 years later, the cultural context had made conflict about religion an important part of daily life in the U.S. and all of a sudden Christians found themselves being looked at with new scrutiny, often biased and assumptive in ways which I thought lent themselves to make the story’s milieu interesting and dynamic so I incorporated all that.

The book debuts at Conclave in Detroit in early October, street date Tuesday October 4, 2011. I should have preorders up on my website in mid-August though. It will be available in all ebook formats as well as trade paperback.

A: You’ve posted bits of THE WORKER PRINCE on your website. Speaking for myself, I’m intrigued by what I’ve read. From a marketing standpoint, do you think it’s been effective in building interest in the book?

B: Well, thanks, I am glad you’re intrigued. I have not gotten a lot of feedback so it’s been hard to assess the impact except that each of the excerpts got over 100 hits in less time than the previous excerpt and they continue to get hits every week. The first excerpt took a few months to reach 100. The second took a month. The third took less than two weeks. And they have all surpassed 100 now. I think that shows people like what they see and are coming back for more. And I think it also shows word of mouth. So I believe it’s been quite effective. I’ll be releasing a new excerpt this coming week introducing Xalivar finally. We’ve just seen the hero Davi, his father Sol, and a few others in previous excerpts. We’ll introduce Xalivar, then Davi’s love interest Tela as well in future excerpts. Hopefully people will enjoy those as well.

A: You also run the weekly #sffwrtcht (Science Fiction / Fantasy Writers Chat) thread on Twitter. How did that get started?

B: I was sitting around bemoaning the fact that I’ve had employment issues and, thus, money issues, and missed out on workshops and cons with authors I respect and admire. But then I noticed many of those people were on Twitter, and I was like ‘how can people like me get the chance to learn from these talented people if we can’t get to cons?’ And the idea of a 1 hour craft-focused interview thing came up and it went from there. I started with friends I knew like Sam Sykes, Blake Charlton and Mike Resnick. John Joseph Adams was dating a friend of mine (they’re now engaged) so I also asked him. Everyone I asked said yes and it just took off. It took a couple times to get the format and build up regulars but now it consistently gets a lot of hits and we get ARCS from publishers, people contact us to be on, etc. It’s a real blessing how accepted and successful it’s been and I really love doing it.

A: Dare I ask who has been your favorite guest on #sffwrtcht so far?

B: That’s probably not wise to answer. I have enjoyed all the guests for different reasons. But in particular, I will say, the chats with Lou Anders, Blake Charlton, Mike Resnick, Paul Kemp and Kevin J. Anderson were highlights for me because they are so easy to talk to and we just really relaxed and had a lot of fun.

A: Who are the upcoming guests?

B: Well the list is on the website. We’ve recently had Maurice Broaddus, Jennifer Brozek, Ken Scholes, Peter Orullian, Tim Akers, Howard Andrew Jones and John Pitts. Upcoming are Patty Jansen (8/17), Dayton Ward (8/24), Kat Richardson (8/31), Greg Van Eehouk (9/7), Daniel Polansky (0/14), Moses Siregar (9/21), Shaun Farrell of the AISFP Podcast (9/28) and Are Marmell (10/5). I’ve also discussed with Beth Meacham of TOR, who said she’d love to do it and some others like her whom I need to get scheduled.

A: And finally on that subject, where can people who missed previous chats go to read the threads?

B: Transcripts can be found via the #sffwrtcht website at: http://bryanthomasschmidt.net/sffwrtcht/ or you can read them in my column at www.graspingforthewind.com. Links to those cleaned up interviews are on the Column tab on the #sffwrtcht website.

A: Now for my usual last question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to recommend it to someone who hasn’t read it yet?

B: It’s hard to pick one but “Lord Valentine’s Castle” is one I’ll mention. It’s Robert Silverberg’s 80s come back novel. My sister bought it for me and I’d never heard of it or Silverberg. I was like “What is this? This wasn’t on my gift list.” She said: “Just read it. The bookstore raved about it. I think you’ll like it.” That book blew me away. Silverberg’s world building continues to be a model for me. Other than Tolkein, I’d never seen world building like that. He got into horticulture, geography, etc. and really created every aspect of his world in depth. And he used it in the story. It was really influential on me. It carried me away. The book also has a theme that comes out in my own work a lot of characters finding out who they are and where they belong in the world through quests. “The Worker Prince” has that as a theme and so does my epic fantasy “Sandman” which even borrows the amnesia element from “LVC.” I have read all the Majipoor books and stories I can get ahold of, and was impressed with them all, but “LVC” is a true masterpiece, not to be missed.

A: Thanks again, Bryan, for sitting down to chat with us! I’m looking forward to our second interview, when THE WORKER PRINCE hits the stands in October.

* * * * * *

Don’t forget, you can find Bryan and #sffwrtcht on Facebook, Twitter, and Bryan’s own website.

BIRTHDAYS - Anthony R Cardno

announcing it weeks before hand. It’s my birthday month, let’s go out to dinner to celebrate! My birthday is twelve days away, let’s go to movie to celebrate! My birthday is tomorrow, what are you getting me?

Some people hate their birthdays so much you feel the urge to start avoiding them once you realize the event is coming. Happy Birthday? A pox on Happy Birthday! Bah, Humbug! Just let me take the day off and don’t talk to me.

Most years, I fall somewhere in the middle. I’ll mention it a day or two ahead of time, happily accept emails and cards and Facebook wall messages and Twitter messages and the odd gift, but I don’t typically go overboard with excitement or with denial.

Of course, there are years at one extreme or the other.

2005 was a bad year. Not because I was turning thirty-nine, but because my mother had passed away due to lung cancer in February and I’d spent the summer not feeling up to my usual self and wondering what was wrong with me – we discovered a few weeks later that I had cancer myself. 2007 wasn’t so hot either, learning of the unexpected passing of my father just two days before I turned forty-one (and learning of it while I was on the road for work and still having to teach for the day).

2006, on the other hand … a great one! My first trip to California, spent with my good friends Karen and Eric and Michelle: experiencing Disneyland and Universal Studios and the Warner Brothers Studio Tour for the first time, dinner at Medieval Times, the LaBrea Tar Pits. Great way to celebrate turning forty.

This year? Turning forty-five turned out pretty well. I’ve picked up the habit (since the year Dad passed away) of taking my birthday week off. In years like this one, where I’m feeling pretty content with life and getting a year older, I’ll usually start talking about my “birthday week plans” around August 1st. I’m sure people were a little sick of the tweets and comments by the time the 15th actually rolled around. But I had some good plans, and they pretty much all panned out: seeing Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette in HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING; visiting The Mysterious Bookshop in NYC and meeting legendary editor Otto Penzler; vanilla egg cream at the Film Forum; visits to two other independent bookshops in NYC (all of the preceding with Dave and Roxy); dinner out with cousins; GLEE in 3-D with Margaret and Kat; a birthday cake made by niece Morgyn and eaten with Scott and nephew Jared; finally resolving a long-standing alleged traffic violation issue in court ON my birthday; phone calls with my sister and niece Renee and nephew Vinny from their new apartment; and of course all those birthday Tweets, Emails and Facebook wall messages. I’m sure I could have squeezed some more in there, but I enjoyed all of it and enjoyed all of those who shared any part of it with me.

This “getting old” thing isn’t so bad. At least, not this year! And what a year it is starting out to be: my first SF short story being published in the SPACE BATTLES anthology; interviews with some of my favorite authors (Jay Lake, Bryan Thomas Schmidt, Neil Ostroff, Joseph Pittman) and performers (The Dalliance, Sister Gin, Burnham); and now that the alleged traffic violation is taken care of, perhaps I’ll have a car on the road soon and will actually be able to visit my sister’s new apartment and see my other NY, NJ, CT, MA and VT friends. It’s been a bit odd seeing more of the friends and family in the midwest and west coast than I have of the friends and family who live only an hour or two away!

I’m looking forward more than I can say to this year of being forty-five. Share the journey with me, won’t you?

TIS THE SEASON 2011 - POEM

Okay, I admit, this is killing me just a little bit. I’ve been writing, printing, addressing, stamping, and mailing physical copies of my annual holiday poem since 1996. This year, the poems did not go out in the mail because of my insane travel schedule. In the next week, I will be sending it to the older relatives I have who don’t have email and who don’t regularly visit the internet. For everyone else, here it is:

‘TIS THE SEASON 2011

Well here’s another fine hotel room:
Another tv and king-sized bed,
Another six a.m. wake-up call,
Another bright white shower stall,
Another place to lay my head.

In my apartment there’s no tree decorated,
No twinkling lights strung outside,
No shiny ornaments have been hung,
Not a carol is being sung,
Santa and angels in boxes abide.

But it doesn’t matter if I’m home for the holidays
Because “home is where the heart is” it’s said
And my heart is always with my family and friends,
Not the places where I lay my head.

So I don’t need Christmas Eve snow,
I don’t need characters on the mantle
Or candles in the window or angels on the tree.
I don’t even need to be under the mistletoe.
In my heart, you’re always here with me.

Friends and family, May light of the season bring you joy, health, happiness, peace and prosperity.

MERRY CHRISTMAS,
HAPPY HANNUKAH,
BLESSED SOLSTICE,
And a WONDERFUL NEW YEAR.

MATT LANDE, Singer - Interview

Tonight’s guest is singer/songwriter/ghosthunter Matt Lande from the band Heaven Is Where.

Matt Lande

“Heaven Is Where” has caused quite the stir since bursting onto the Los Angeles music scene in early 2009. Whether performing an epic, full production band show or a dramatically touching acoustic concert, this band is quickly growing their roots around the globe, gaining recognition and praise from industry, media and fans alike. With a texture of paint splattered musical influences all the way from Annie Lennox and Savage Garden to The Killers, Skillet, HIM, Muse and 30 Seconds To Mars, Heaven Is Where’s audience is quite diverse. Blending the trials of life into his songwriting, front man Matt Lande bleeds for the song and never takes for granted the impact a single line or musical movement can have on a person’s emotions. Partnering intimate, personal lyrics and passionate melodies along with guitar and keyboard driven music causes an interaction between happiness and sadness, love and hate, gain and loss…heaven and hell. The meaning behind the name of the band is simple. It’s about finding your own heaven…taking hold of the moments in life that evoke happiness and living in them. We want to get to heaven when its all said and done but what’s this life worth without finding your heaven on earth? (from Matt’s website)

ANTHONY: Hi, Matt! Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions. You’re in the process of putting together an acoustic solo album. So what does that mean for the future of the band?

MATT: The future of the band is actually unknown right now. I’m not sure if I will record another album as “Heaven Is Where” or not. I had put the band together after recording “Stories From Yesterday” to play live since it was a full production album. We’ve all kinda gone our separate ways at this point. We’ll see how the acoustic record goes and if I tour off of it. After that though, I’ve also started writing for another full production and it’s got some exciting, artistic, edgy tunes that I can’t wait to get recorded.

ANTHONY: How does the music on the solo album differ from the band’s music? Are there stylistic or thematic differences? Production differences?

MATT: The solo acoustic album will be more raw and of course scaled down. The style is still similar because I actually did the writing, arrangement, and co-produced the band album.

ANTHONY: What is your song-writing process like? How do you take a song from concept to completion? And how does that process differ when you’re working on music for Heaven Is Where rather than solo?

MATT: It all starts in the same place. I sit on my acoustic guitar and hash out musical ideas that are running through my head. It magically comes together to form some form of coherent arrangement somehow.  I write what comes to me and then sort it out later as to if it will be full production or stay as an acoustic song. Some work well as both and some get tossed out or forgotten.

ANTHONY: You’re fundraising/crowdsourcing for the new album. What’s the goal and where can people help out? Is there anything they can do to help other than financial?

MATT: Always by word of mouth…Telling family and friends in person and online through social networks. There isn’t really a set goal. It takes a lot of money to record, distribute, market and tour off of a record so I just continue to have different campaigns for people to get involved in if they’d like. The best way to keep up is by my personal twitter at www.twitter.com/mattlande or www.mattlande.com

ANTHONY: I have to ask at least one question about your ghost-hunting activities. Tell me a bit about how you got into it and what you do. (I’ve had a few interesting experiences myself, so I am not a skeptic!)

MATT: It’s something that has interested me since I was a child. I experienced a few things then and decided to get into exploring the paranormal in depth a few years ago. Conducting an investigation basically consists of hearing the claims on a location, researching the history, going in there with equipment such as EMF detectors, digital recorders, various cameras and whatever interesting gear I can get my hands on. It’s a thrill sometimes. Ya never know what your gonna get.

ANTHONY: And my usual last question: What is your favorite book, and what would you say to someone who has not read it to convince them that they should?

MATT: I’m not a big reader but I’ll tell you that right now I’m halfway through a great novel called “DarkStar” by Carol J. Hansen. It incorporates love, magic, fantasy, mystery, suspense, life and death, good and evil. Definitely pick it up on Amazon. You’ll be happy you did.

Thanks again Anthony.

ANTHONY: You’re welcome, Matt. Let’s do this again when the solo album comes out!

You can follow Matt on Twitter as MattLande, find him on Facebook, and of course check out his own website.

You can help Matt fundraise for his solo project by going to his IndieGoGo page. Any amount will help!

And here’s “Walking With Ghosts” by Heaven Is Where:

WRITERS, ADVICE PLEASE! - Anthony R Cardno

Yesterday during my Daye Jobbe, I tossed in my usual off-handed mention that I met my cousin who works for the Coast Guard when she came to a book-signing I did two years ago. Occasionally, students will pick up on that and ask me during a break or after class what the book-signing was all about, and I get a chance to advertise my book THE FIRFLAKE without feeling like it’s a conflict of interest (advertising my book while doing my Daye Jobbe). No one mentioned it yesterday (which is what usually happens, honestly), so I assumed no one had picked up on it, or if they had they were not interested in hearing more. Today towards the end of lunch, I was back in the meeting room checking email and one of the participants said, “I enjoyed reading your short stories last night.” My immediate answer was, “oh, thanks!” And then I looked at her and said, “Wait. Short stories? Which ones? Where did you find them?” I know I’ve posted one or two here on LJ over the years, but I’m pretty sure I locked those posts. She said, “there were three of them on a website. One of them was about a bank robber.” I’m pretty sure the issue of Willard & Maple magazine that includes my story “Invisible Me” is not available online. “I found them just by googling your name.”

So of course, I immediately googled myself. Sure enough, there’s a link … to the “test run” of the website page my friend EJ Flynn was designing for me. I had given her an author bio and three of my stories (“Invisible Me,” “Navarre,” and “That Happy Kid,” the latter of which has been revised since I sent it to her) to see what the site might look like in final form. I had thought that test page was locked off for only she and I to see, and the project sort of fell through the cracks as she went on to other work and has spent less time designing websites (especially for free as she was doing for me). A month or so ago, my buddy Darrell and I got the actual www.anthonycardno.com finally up and running, with the intention that I’d probably eventually add a Story tab to the site once things were tweaked to where we want them.

So, the question is: should I leave these stories posted / open to being found on her site? Two of the three are unpublished in any kind of print form, and one of those is fairly substantially revised while the other I’m considering revising. I’ve heard that many editors (of print and online mags) will not look at stories once they’ve been on a website of any kind (be it a personal site or a blog like Livejournal or Blogspot). If that’s true, can it hurt to leave these three on the web since they’ve been out here for over a year without my knowledge that they were visible to the general public? Should I move them to my website, leave them in both places, or take them all down? I’m genuinely unsure of the best route to take.

Thoughts are appreciated.

RELAY FOR LIFE - Anthony R Cardno

I’m taking a break from the weekly Wednesday interviews to talk about something that’s important to me. Everyone has their Cause — the charity or event they put above all others. I have four that I support actively — the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (because of my young cousin Frank John LaPinta and his father); Multiple Sclerosis (because of several friends fighting it); and the Muscular Dystrophy Association (because Jerry Lewis is a hero of mine, and Tom Bergeron, Nancy O’Dell, Alison Sweeney and Billy Gilman are favorite folks of mine carrying on that good work). But My Cause is cancer research, and specifically the American Cancer Society.

A few weeks back I talked about losing yet another friend to cancer and mentioned my annual ACS Relay For Life event.

That event was this past weekend, June 4-5, at Mahopac High School in Mahopac, NY. Mahopac is my hometown. I was born in Astoria, but moved full-time to Mahopac the summer before second grade. For better or worse, that town (and the smaller community of Lake Secor where we lived) shaped who I am now. After my mother lost her fight with lung cancer in February 0f 2005 and I was diagnosed with my own colon cancer in September of that year, I started taking a more active role in the Relay For Life team my cousins Crissy and Jimmy Hajkowski (both cancer survivors themselves) had been running for a couple of years. Since 2006, our team has grown (exponentially, it seems). Even with all of my crazy work travel I have only missed one Relay, and it bothered me so much I vowed never to miss another.

This year, for the first time in a while, the weather held out. We had warm but not hot temperatures during the day under a slightly cloudy sky — perfect for lapping the MHS track. I did the Opening Survivor Lap, and then the Caregiver Recognition Lap, the Survivor Recognition Lap, and the Remembrance Lap in the later afternoon. All of those were emotional for me and for those around me. In between, I manned our booth selling copies of my book and donating the proceeds to Relay.

As sun set, the temperatures cooled a bit. A slight wind kicked up for a little while. The bleachers were packed for the Luminaria ceremony. The track lined with candle-lit bags in memory of those lost and in honor of those surviving and still fighting. The wind caused a few bags to ignite and it was sad to see them put out by the firemen on hand (but we all understood the safety factor). After the Luminaria ceremony, laps resumed — but much quieter, more reflective laps than earlier in the day.

My Mother's Luminaria

Over night, the temps dropped more and a few hardy souls (myself included) kept the laps going. At 4am, I was exhausted and so was my 13 year old nephew Vincent. We headed home. But between midnight and 4am I put a lot of time on that track, thinking of everyone I know who has suffered through this horrible disease.

I walked in memory of my mother and father, Rosemary and Raymond Cardno; of my maternal grandparents Vicky and Anthony Bukowski; of my cousins Matthew Cardno, Ginger Cardno, Eileen Callaghan and Lester Bishop Jr; of my aunts Terry Cornelia and Connie Callaghan; of Uncles Charlie Cornue, Frank LaPinta Sr and Ed Frey Sr.; of my dear friends M. Denise Barnoski, Karen Irene Jenkins, and Kristina Meyer; of my old neighbors Rita Paterno, Frank Cunningham, Alma and Rick Yarrobino and Meg Pennebaker; of George and Marion Hajkowski, Lou Miliambro, Charlie Commito, Patty Odegar, Bob Hagan, Seanie Nieves, Charlie Bondatti, Justin Salandra, Barbara Dorman, Bernie Castronovo, Henning Suerig, Prof. Randy Pausch, Jean Marie “Jorie” Scott, Juanita “Benny” Dyer, Gerald Edgerton, Frances Ng, Franklin and Janice Heiny, Debbie and Carol Stephens, Grace Uppstrom, Albert Ragozzine, Pamela Stuart Blakely, Heide Koch, Donald Cole, Wander Witter, Kathy Peterson, Patricia Sisco, Richard “Pop” Schlerf, John Schartner, M. Mulligan, Henry Cermak, Denis Fedorov, and Joe Connors. So many lost just to my family and the families of my friends.

I walked in honor of, and spiritually alongside, my Uncles Charlie Bukowski and Lester Bishop Sr.; Aunt Gloria Schneider; cousins Chris Tanner and Crissy and Jimmy Hajkowski; friends Ellen Przymylski, Christine Doyle, Denny Doyle, Liam Ollive, Christina Hagan, Jennifer Griffin, Janice Arnold, Teri Breen, Sheldon Pincus, Robin Deal, Kathleen Rankine, Jim McCleave, Jay Lake, Dean Sizemore, Chris Saunders, Lee Bloom, Carol Essig, Carol Little, Jeff Wentworth, Barbara Kocourek, Debbie Williamson, B. Burkhardt, Ursula Vucci and my mentor for so many years Nancy Bruno. And of course the hundred or so other survivors that were at Relay with me, most of whom I don’t know by name.

A few days before Relay, I came across a song on Youtube. Matt Johnson is a young performer out of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. He was a contestant on Disney’s Next Big Thing last year, and lately he’s taken to performing with just a guitar in front of a camera to share music with his fans. One of his new songs, “Not A Moment,” struck me as a fitting homage to those we’ve lost, and a reminder that Cancer (or Diabetes, or MS, or Cystic Fibrosis, or heart disease, or any of the Muscular Dystrophies) can hit anyone at any time. So we should take every chance to remember those we love, and to tell them we love them, until cures are found. Hopefully, I can get Matt’s video to embed. If not, please follow the link and listen to this wonderful song … and take a moment to remember the loved ones who are no longer here in person but are always with us in spirit and memory.

NYC COMIC-CON 2010 - Anthony R Cardno

I usually only attend one day of NYC Comic-Con. Nothing against the Con itself, but I think I left my “go crazy in a hotel for three days” mojo behind in the early 90s, and if not then I’ve definitely lost that thrill since taking my current job where I’m in hotels a good third of the year.  I also usually go to the Con on Sunday, because as my friend Pat O’Connor constantly reminds me — that’s the day you get the best deals in the dealer room because they don’t want to take the stock home with them.

This year I had tickets with friends to see Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch in A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC on Sunday (an overall great show, and those two ladies were at top form). So I went to Con on Saturday. Since I really wasn’t looking to buy many comics, I wasn’t worried about getting “the best deals.” It really was all about meeting writers and artists this time around. (Although, for the record, I did finally acquire the four-issue TARZAN/JOHN CARTER: WARLORDS OF MARS mini-series Dark Horse put out a few years ago.)

I got to meet and talk to actor James Marsters and author Jim Butcher briefly, and they both signed my copy of CHANGES, the latest Harry Dresden book. Butcher’s Dresden series is perhaps my favorite of all time, and Marsters does a masterful job as Harry in the audiobooks. Now if I can track down actor Paul Blackthorne and get him to sign the same edition, it’d be a Dresden hat trick!

I also got to meet and get a picture with Joyce DeWitt, Richard Kline, and Priscilla Barnes of THREE’S COMPANY. Ask me for the whole story some time if we meet in person — it’s a funny story but needs vocal inflection and facial expressions to really work.

Other than the Butcher autograph, my main reason for going to Con was to meet up with three writer-artists.

First stop was my old acquaintance Tim Fish, creator of the graphic novels CAVALCADE OF BOYS, STRUGGLERS and the new TRUST/TRUTH. Tim is a wildly talented artist and very friendly and funny man who deserves a much wider audience than he has, and I always look forward to seeing him at Con.

Second stop was new acquaintance Gordon McAlpin, creator of the very funny workplace/relationship/entertainment comedy webcomic MULTIPLEX, the first portion of which has recently been collected into book form. It was great to finally meet Gordon and chat geekily with him in person. He is as personable in real life as he seems in print.

Last stop was Tom Siddell, the creator of the young adult fantasy webcomic GUNNERKRIGG COURT, to which I do a dis-service by saying most people call it “a female Harry Potter.” It is definitely so much more than just that. There are two print volumes of the webcomic now in print. Tom was also friendly, but by the time I got to him there was a large line and I was starting to feel the effects of 7 hours with only a diet coke and a buttered roll in terms of food intake. I’m sure I struck him as rather mono-syllabic.

I always have a great time, but this year it was great to go in with an agenda and fulfill it rather than get distracted. I look forward to seeing all three of these great writer-artists and hopefully others, at Comic-Con 2011.