Starving Artist(writer)

My internet service will be down for a little while(hopefully not more than a week) due to financial reasons. I'll try to post by using my friend's computers but I don't want to impose.

Write to you soon!

Just saw: Superman Returns (I bought my ticket before they shut off my internet and it was not refundable)

GET TESTED!

Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 27 is National HIV Testing Day. A day organized to remind everyone to get tested, even if it's not on Tuesday.

An estimated 2.8 million people died last year HIV/AIDS related causes. That's nearly 8,000 people a day.

Think of how many of those people thought it could happen to them, that they could be infected.

Please get tested!

If not for yourself, do it to know that you are not putting those you love at risk.

You can help the fight against AIDS!

Get tested.
Encourage others to get tested.
Stay informed.
Pass on this message.

For testing sights go to www.hivtest.org to find local, free, anonymous, needle-free testing. This sight also provides information on how to know if you're at risk and answers questions about testing procedures.

Lansing Area AIDS Network

www.aids.org
www.aegis.org

SAVE LIVES! GET TESTED! PASS ON THIS MESSAGE!

No comic book store, unfinished comic story, reading a few comics

This week has been crazy. At the top of the list my favorite comic book store closed it's doors this week. It's a crazy situation that might end in them just moving but still it's been sad.

I've been working on my realistic hero comic. I should name it so it's easier to refer to. Hopefully that will be done soon.

With Friday's paycheck comes more stamps for more submissions.

Today, for the first time in a long time, I was just inspired to write about how something made me feel. Not really in a prose story, just lines of thought. Almost poetry, I dare say.

Currently listening to: Tiny Dancer-Elton John
I've been reading: All-Star Superman #4, Astonishing X-Men #15, Superman/Batman #27, Robin #151, Flash #1, Daredevil #86, 52 #7, Superman Returns Prequel #3
Went to see: The Da Vinci Code

Not my friends

Despite the return of hot weather I have been working on my writing. Currently I'm working on the comic I think I mentioned before that's about a realistic superhero story.

Using MySpace I found a comic publishing company right here in Lansing that takes script submissions without art. And it's run by a woman! So I plan on pulling a submission together and sending it out. The company she runs does a lot of comicons. They'll be at Motor City Comicon and Wizard World Chicago. Between those two shows and a friendly mySpace message that mentions I bought some of their comics(I'll be ordering it when I get paid on Friday), perhaps I can make a business connection and get a comic published.

Speaking of myspace. I joined for networking and have added a few college and high school friends, but in the past few weeks I have gotten quite a few friend request from random guys. I check their profiles to see if I know them. They all seem to have hundreds of friends that are all girls in bikinis and those girls have thousands of friends. Then the guys will actually e-mail me saying things like "are you gonna friend me or what?". No, I'm not gonna friend you. I am not a myspace whore. If you want to be my friend and I don't know you, tell me why you want to be my friend and then I'll decide.
I'm not sure if myspace is worth it sometimes. Yikes!

Currently listening to: Kelly Clarkson-Breakaway(album)
Just finished reading: Ms. Marvel Issues #2-4
Just started reading: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown

Al?

I just read an article about J.K. Rowling and found out that the reason she goes by J.K. instead of JoAnne is because her editor thought boys wouldn't read her book if they thought a woman wrote it.
Is this the start of A.L. Shaffier, comic book writer? Hmm...

After taking a few notes from Jenni, I spiced up my flash fiction story and submitted it. We shall see.

Current music: Shakira
Just read: 52-week 6, Nightwing #121, Superman Returns Prequel #2, Ultimate X-Men #71.

Query Letters

Hopefully Jenni doesn't care if I share this but we have started sending out query letters for our novel. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

I think I'm going to start putting notes at the bottom of entries with things like current music, what I'm reading or the last movie I saw. That way everyone can see what things interest and inspire me.

Currently reading: Superman/Batman#26, Human Target(TPB)-Living in Amerika
Current music: Nickelback, Green Day

Entry fee?

A while back in one of my writing classes we were given these cards to write random ideas on. Then we all drew and we had to write a story using the two cards we picked. I had chosen bubble gum and door-to-door salesperson. So I wrote my crazy story. My teacher put a note on it, saying that it was funny and I should submit it to a short-short contest.
Personally, I wouldn't normally submit a story of this nature. I'm sure it's a decent story (my professor never really held back when work wasn't good) but it's the kind of thing that you might find in a middle-aged, housewife kind of magazine. I'm fine with having a story published just about anywhere, so that doesn't bother me. The thing is that the magazines I can find that would fall into that category are all 'agented only' submissions. Did my professor realize this and that's what inspired the contest comment rather than a submit comment? I'm not sure but the biggest question is whether the story is worthy of a $10 entry fee?

Over a year!

I started thinking the other day that my one year blogger anniversary must be coming up around August. I thought it would be really cool to go back and read a few things. So I checked and I actually started in May. Okay, so I was a little off. I still went back and read a few things, of course finding a few mistypes along the way. I went ahead and edited them.

Breaking the rule

Submissions. I've been churning out submissions for every finished short story I have. May I say that I hate companies that won't except simultaneous submissions(the same story sent to more than one company at a time). I have to sit and wait three months for them to tell me my story sucks before I can send it to someone else. Fabulous. I often think I should just send it to other companies anyway. It's not like anyone's going to publish it, and it's even less likely two companies would, but I know the one time I do it I'll get screwed over for it because that, my friends, is how it works. So when a story is ready to go, I send it to all companies that accept simultaneous submissions, once they've all rejected it, I send it out to the non-accepters one-by-one.

I'm trying to put the finishing touches on another story so that I can start shipping that one out. I have to say I'm thinking of breaking a rule. Generally, in stories told in first person, the person telling the story shouldn't die because then who's telling the story. I, however want the character to die at the end. The last line of the story will be the line they have while they are about to die, their last thought. Is that even technically breaking the rule? I don't really think so. Besides even if they did die in the middle couldn't they be telling the story from the after-life. Wouldn't that be qualified as experimental, not wrong? If no one breaks the rules then aren't we just going to find the same old stuff over again?
My former writing professor told me I couldn't do it when I wrote the story for class. Now that I'm revising it I think it works better the way I had it, but what if every publisher/editor thinks the same way he does?