Getting up to date

This weekend has been pretty boring. I finally stepped into this century and bought a USB flash drive. My disk drive doesn't work so I haven't been able to type any of my writing up while I'm at work. And I also bought an ink jet so that I can get back to printing out submissions. Of course, I guess now I could just use the flash drive to take it to work and print it out.

Speaking of submissions, I'm happy to report that I am still receiving rejection notices despite the postage rate change. All the literary magazines have been graciously adding a $.02 stamp just to let me know that my writing stinks.

On a happy note, Jenni is now officially done with her first school year of teaching. YAY! So when she gets back from her vacation in the Smokies, I'm hoping we can get back to work on Behind the Naugahyde and maybe finish before her summer break is over.

Also, I'm thinking of taking a few days off of work at the beginning of August and going to Wizard World Chicago since it doesn't look like I'll be able to vacation in NYC like I had hoped. Chicago is much closer and if I go to the convention I can take some time to chat with independent publishers and maybe talk to some artist or fellow writers. Plus it would be nice to spend some time at the Art Institute and lots of other places. Mostly I just want to get away.

And since I spent all my money on flash drives and ink jets I still haven't gotten around to buying any comic books in over a month. So I have no idea what's going on.
I thought selling shoes for a living would provide me with enough money to make all my wildest dreams come true but I guess not.

I think that's enough random thoughts for now. I need to get some work done.

Tough decisions

Okay, I lied. I got another rejection today and it only had a $.39 stamp on it. That made me wonder why it is that the old stamps can't be "forever stamps" if the new ones are going to be. Maybe it's something to do with processing them.

Anyway, I'm super bummed because I had to work today so that meant no Motor City Comicon for me.

On a whole other boring topic, lately, I've been thinking a lot about how in some books and movies it's so easy to make the right choice. Everything is obvious. This person is completely good or completely bad. Good beats evil, happiness wins over money. It just always seems so easy. Everyone knows what's going to happen because there is only one choice that makes sense. I know not all book and movies are like that and I really know life isn't like that.
I think most often I write characters that are completely good or bad. It's easy for me to decide their fate. I need to learn how to break away from that and make the characters more complex. But if I never know what to do about those tough situations in my own life how will I know how to deal with them in my writing?

Reading, movies, and more

Just an update on what's going on in my little world. Not much. I've been reading a lot at work, books that I thought would be good research for my upcoming novel but they are really not answering the questions that I have. Maybe I'll do some Internet research when I get some time.

I went to see Spider-man 3 last night. It was good but not great. It had action and humor but sometimes was a little cheesy and there was too much going on. Three villains, two love interests. Sometimes this person's bad, now he's good but the other guy's bad, and now they're both bad. I don't want to say too much because I'd hate to spoil it.

Don't forget tomorrow is free comic book day. So go to your local comic book store and see what comics have to offer.

Also plans for the month of May: I guess I better think of something special because my blog two year anniversary is on May 10th.
And the Motor City Comic Con is coming up in a few weeks. I'd like to go now that I actually get weekends off but I'm not sure if it will fit into the budget.

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