Jeremy Rodden's Blog, page 8

#tbt My High School Yearbook Editorial About Gun Violence

To this day I have no idea what this tagline means.

During my senior year of high school (Class of 2000), three friends and I decided we were going to be the yearbook editors as one of our school activities. We didn’t realize when we signed up that we’d be doing 95% of the yearbook ourselves (as virtually none of the rest of the slackers we went to school with helped!) Of course, this gave us a lot of freedom to put whatever we wanted in the book, such as allowing our friend Nelson to write *every* caption (many of which were sarcastic or blatantly asinine). Or perhaps tweaking the voting on the Most Likely To Be categories (guess who got Most Likely To Be A Writer).

But I digress. The true Throwback Thursday element of this post is to share an editorial I wrote back then. Remember, we were the Class of 2000 so our senior year was in the shadow of the Columbine High School shooting in Colorado that occurred on April 20, 1999. Upon reading the editorial, I am amazed at two things: 1) I am more optimistic now than I was at age 18 and 2) essentially nothing has been done to change the state of our country to prevent these shootings in the last 15 years.

At least I followed through on padding the voting!

Below is reprinted verbatim my editorial (I resisted the urge to edit it with 15 years of writing experience under my belt). Feel free to share and/or comment. I’d love some other perspectives on this.

Reprinted From Monsignor Bonner High School Bon-Aire, Vol. 44 (2000):

Don’t bother reading this. I re-typed it for you.

“We live in a post-Columbine world boys.” I’ve heard this sentence countless times from countless people this year, and it can’t help but make me think; “Why did it take tragedy to provoke action?” It seems that this is how our world always works. We don’t realize nuclear weapons are bad until we destroy two cities. We don’t realize hydrogen is flammable until a zeppelin goes down. We don’t realize kids can kill until they do. High school was once a time of happy-go-lucky frolicking, leading to life in the “real world” where things became dangerous. Now, things are dangerous even in high school.

Many people try to blame television, radio, and movies for this sudden surge of teenage violence. What people fail to realize is that that type of media is a product of society, and not vice-versa. The journalists try to blame everyone and everything for kids strapping weapons to schools, and they fail analyze the fact that they glorify war and violence by running them as the top stories and headlines every to single night. When a kid is starved for attention, he’ll go to any lengths in order to obtain it. Extreme methods and making front page news is something that will make a deprived kid feel like a movie star, and the journalists of the world don’t realize it… or don’t want to.

In something of a conspiracy, the publishers and producers of the world know that society has become a sick and twisted place, where the masses yearn for news of death and destruction. Why change the stories to news of medical and technological advancement when the ratings say that violence sells? Unless the people of our society can change their blood-lusting ways, the de-evolution of our world will continue in a rapid spiral until it comes crashing to an end one day.

When our country comes to a point of such civil chaos that there is no return possible, then ratings won’t seem as important. Until then, we can only hope that people learn to have a mind of their own and not move into de-evolution in masses. We may appear to be at the apex of our history at this present time, but every dominant civilization comes to an end. The United States is just waiting for its time to fall, and at the root of our downfall will be violence at the hands of fellow Americans. Isn’t it great we’ve advanced so far?

A World Of Their Own – New Release – A Charity Short Story Anthology (GIVEAWAY)

Cover concept also by Lindsey Parsons.

Today marks the end of a long journey for myself and a slurry of fellow sci-fi and fantasy authors who became friends on the soon-to-be-defunct Authonomy website run by Harper-Collins. Back in 2010, the Alliance of Worldbuilders thread began to take off and became *the* go-to site for fantasy/sci-fi writers to share ideas, critique each other, offer tips, and (most importantly) encourage one another in our writing and publishing journeys! We broke the forum so much we had to start creating new threads because the old ones would lag and not load anymore.

In 2011, we began to discuss the idea of an anthology to be published in 2012, collecting short stories and flash fiction from our members and putting it together. As we have all been on our own individual journeys in the last few years (many of us are now published authors at this point), it took quite a while to finally put together and bring a real finalized product to the world. Today, A World of Their Own has been released, featuring stories and illustrations by many talented writers and artists who have been a part of the Alliance of Worldbuilders.

This anthology has become doubly special for those of us who have worked on it. First and foremost, it is compiled in honor of our dear friend and one of the original members of our Alliance, Lindsey Parsons, who passed away suddenly in January of 2014. Lindsey was always the most encouraging and supportive member of our Alliance and would always have time to read something new and offer her critique and support to any of us.

Secondly, 100% of proceeds of this book will be donated (again, in honor of Lindsey) to the World Literacy Foundation by our publisher, Kristell Ink. So please support us and support literacy by picking up your copy and sharing it with friends!

In order to encourage you, I am offering two (2) signed paperback copies of my first novel Toonopolis: Gemini through a Rafflecopter giveaway below. I do have two Toonopolis-related stories in the anthology (one short story and one flash fiction), so if you want more Toonopolis, that is an extra incentive to pick up your copy! Don’t forget to earn bonus entries by commenting on this blog post below and answer a simple question in honor of literacy: What was the first book that you read that truly made you fall in love with reading? Aaand. GO!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

My Kindergartner Brings A Book Home And It Makes Me Angry (With Pictures!)

My five year old came home from his first week of kindergarten last week ecstatic. Amongst all the new changes and new excitements in his life, he could not wait to tell me about the big room with lots of books. “And I got to take books home with me!”

You lied to me Cat in the Hat. I TRUSTED YOU!!!

Now, having a fifth grader in the same school, I was already familiar with the school’s library and have always been quite pleased with the selection of books and how well my sons’ school utilizes the library as a resource class (and not just a room where you can get books if you want). One of the books my five year old brought home, though, set me off in several ways. I shall enumerate them shortly (with pictures!). I plan on talking to the school librarian (who is a wonderful woman) about the lack of positive reasons to keep this book on the shelf, but I digress.

The book in question is an adaptation of Hugh Lofting’s Travels of Doctor Dolittle which was done by Al Perkins and illustrated by Philip Wende and is part of Random House’s Beginner Books series (you’ll note the happy Cat in the Hat branding on the cover). For any who are unaware of Doctor Dolittle through either the books, the 1967 Rex Harrison film adaptation, or (more likely for younger Americans) the Eddie Murphy “adaptations” (I use quotes because aside from “he can talk to animals” the adaptation is quite loose), it is a children’s book series about a physician who is taught how to talk to animals and thus becomes a world-traveling veterinarian.

The mask must chafe when he sleeps.

Let it not be said that the original book is not without controversy in the modern age. The depiction of Africans is very much representative of early 20th century racism. This book attempts to correct and avoid this problem by making the Africans… into… voodoo priests? I guess. They look like something out of a Crash Bandicoot video game. This edition was published in 1967 so clearly they updated it in an attempt reflect the times but they kind of missed the boat on that one (also, they are orange instead of black or brown, suggesting the king may be John Boehner).

I will give them credit for ignoring the sub-plot of the African king’s son helping them escape home in exchange for bleaching his face white, however. One major problem with the handling of the Africans, though, comes in the form of motivation for why the king detained Doctor Dolittle and his animals in the first place (they were just there to go help heal some sick monkeys). In the original, King Jollinginki hated white people because of European exploitation of Africa. In this adaptation, he’s just kind of a prick for no reason.

Every time you say “vaccinating,” Jenny McCarthy feels pain.

Then, we get to the monkeys themselves. Clearly they are very sick because the illustrator decided to draw them as lanky brown aliens instead of monkeys. (Side note: the illustrations are horrendous in this book. I am no artist but of course no one pays me to draw things in books. Take a look again at the cover. See that owl. It is never drawn in profile in the entire book and most of the times has its wings outstretched for no reason. Further, it looks like it is on LSD.) So Doctor Dolittle, being a trained physician, begins to treat the already-sick monkeys with… vaccinations. Now look, I know this is 1967 we’re talking about, but vaccines weren’t entirely new (Polio vaccine invented in 1952). And I understand the marketing aspect of encouraging kids to see that “vaccination equals not being sick” but it is medically and scientifically inaccurate. Even my ten year old looked at it and said, “Um, aren’t you supposed to get the vaccine BEFORE you get sick?” Maybe this is nit-picky (and again, I know it was published in 1967) but it goes to the broader theme I am building towards if you bear with me.

And I knew immediately that this book was going to talk down to my child like he were simple.

Some may say to me, “but it’s an adapted book for beginner readers, they have to make it so little kids can understand it.” To which I say, “KIDS ARE NOT IDIOTS!” Adapting a story for young readers like pre-schoolers and kindergartners does not mean you have to dumb it down as though they are incapable of understanding simple things like character motivation and that someone being a doctor means they know a lot of things (seriously, that is the FIRST page of the book right there). A well-written story still has a coherent plot with a beginning, middle, and end. Sure, you may have to simplify your language some (but you don’t need to eliminate all multi-syllabic words!) but the STORY should still be a proper STORY.

I find it offensive when children’s book writers (or adaptors in this case) “dumb down” material thinking that means they are making it accessible to children. Children are not dumb. They are more than capable of understanding character development, plot progression, and context clues to figure out words they may not know. To presume that they are not is to be doing them a disservice with the literature in the first place. If it isn’t challenging them and making them question things (“Why is the king putting Doctor Dolittle in prison?” “How did the Doctor cure monkeys by injecting them with weakened form of the disease they already had?” “The monkeys need to learn a lesson on consent and leave that poor pushmi-pullyu alone.” “Also, how does a pushmi-pullyu poop?”) then what is the point of reading the story in the first place?

Maybe I’m just being pedantic but I don’t think so. As I’ve said a few times, I know this book was written in 1967 and Doctor Dolittle is a classic series, but this particular adaptation of the story rubbed me the wrong way. I know it is not the only one like this and I think it’s important to point them out when we see them and encourage even beginning readers to have access to better written (and better illustrated) books. Am I wrong or am I just being pretentious?

Write Something Today – Even If It Sucks

 

My friend Nelson used to post this image onto my Facebook wall very frequently. It was meant to motivate me to get off my butt and get some words down. Not only was he a fan of my work, but he knew how happy it made me to be writing and telling my stories. I am using the past tense because I tragically lost my best friend in a car accident on July 3 and he will no longer be there to give me that extra motivation to do what I love to do.

In the aftermath of the news, I felt lost. Nearly immediately, I went back to our shared conversations in text messages and Facebook and email to re-read them and hold onto whatever memories of my friend that I could. This image kept popping up as he would not-so-subtly remind me to get back to work and stop allowing life’s distractions to keep me from writing. That day, I saved this image to my phone and set it as my locked phone wallpaper so he could still remind me every day from beyond. Shortly thereafter, his family asked me to write his obituary and it was the hardest thing I had written in my life… yet also the first meaningful piece of writing I had completed in months.

To me, this is more than just a reminder of my friend’s way of motivating me… but also a reminder that life is so short and we only have time to do so much before it is gone. Nelson lived a life full of activity and he was always accomplishing new things in his 33 years here (an Eagle Scout, a Mason, a writer, an artist, an entertainer, a loving partner to his fiancee, an amazing father to his son, and so much more). Yet there were still things he left unfinished. Not from a lack of motivation, mind you, but just from his clock running out before he could complete them. Planet Plunder, his amazing card game that several of us plan to complete for him posthumously, is one of them.

In the face of my own mortality, I realize that Nelson was not just encouraging me to write for the sake of writing. I realized that he was encouraging me to continue my grasp at immortality. As a non-believer in any sort of afterlife, all I feel I have after death are the memories and stories and legacy that I leave behind in this tangible world. Listening to the numerous stories of my friend at his funeral and subsequent gatherings honoring his life, I turned introspective to see if I would like the stories told about me. If I would be satisfied with my own legacy were I to die today.

The truth is, much like the ghosts in Casper, I feel I’ve got unfinished business. When Nelson was around, he poked and prodded and harangued me to finish my business. To write my stories. To control the narrative of what I leave behind when I am gone.

I wish I had heard his cries more forcefully before he passed and I will always feel sad about that. But I also know that my friend, the one who never held a serious grudge with anyone in his life (despite plenty of good reasons to), would just tell me to shut up… and write something today, even if it sucks. So that’s what I’m going to do.

So long, my friend, and thanks for all the fish.

Blowing the dust off my writer hat.

My blog has been neglected. My Facebook fan page has gone fallow. My twitter feed is mostly about my stay-at-home dad and geek hats. My writer hat has been sitting in a closet collecting dust since the whirlwind of 2010-2011 when I was more productive as a writer than I have ever been in my life.

But something happened by 2012. At first I thought it was burnout. In 2011, I completed my first novel (Toonopolis: Gemini), I started my own company to publish it (Portmanteau Press), I published an additional novella in the Toonopolis universe (Anchihiiro: Origin of an Antihero), and I also contributed to, edited, and published a collection of non-fiction essays by stay-at-home dads (Myth of Mr. Mom). Some burnout after a year like that could be expected, right?

But it’s 2015. I am 2 months away from the four-year anniversary of the publication of my first book and have yet to complete any significant writing since. Sure, I’ve had some short works published in other venues since. In 2012, my thriller short “What A Tiny World” appeared in an anthology by the now-defunct Indie Book Collective’s Bullets, Brass, & Babes (and, coincidentally, the anthology was unpublished later, leaving that story with no published home). A Toonopolis short story appeared in another anthology in 2013 (Wild Cards).

So I suppose I shouldn’t be kicking myself too hard. Sure, I haven’t been as productive as I was in 2011, but I haven’t sat completely back and done nothing, right? I don’t know. I completed the outline for the sequel to Toonopolis: Gemini in January of 2014 but the manuscript sits at a paltry 2400 words. In 2010 I could write 2400 words in a single sitting. I’ve had numerous false starts… staring at a blank page for years and wondering where the motivation went.

My personal history aside, this is the first time I even started on the blog in years. I am not sure what I am hoping to accomplish. Perhaps it was just an exercise in getting fingers to keys and spilling out my words for the first time in a long time as Author Jeremy Rodden instead of the other hats I have and love wearing. Maybe I can overcome the excuses and get back to doing something that I legitimately enjoy and am proud of. I blamed burnout. I blamed a dead laptop that lost all my formatting and other publishing-side information and data. I blamed the business of life with my children and responsibilities.

But maybe these are all just excuses. Maybe I fear I won’t be as “successful” (I use that word loosely, in that people I don’t know have purchased and read my work and told me they liked it) with additional works. I wrote a blog post in 2011 about having Second Novel Doubts, and maybe that still carries over to this day. Maybe I look at the work involved in publishing, marketing, and selling books and wish I could just focus on writing instead. The life of an author-publisher (as Chuck Wendig puts it) is a tough one.

Or maybe I should just shut up, not worry about all that comes later, and write my stories. I am not sure what this blog post represents. Perhaps just a public acknowledgement of the internal struggle of getting back on the horse. I would love some feedback from other writers who have gone through similar stretches… or even ones that have not and how they’ve avoided it.

All in all. I think this blog post was mostly just for me. To remind myself that I still have this other hat that I love to wear and that there is no reason I can’t put it back on. I like this hat.  It fits me. I think I’ll wear it again. Who’s with me?

Free eBooks, Paperback Goodreads Giveaway, & A Special Anniversary

I have lots to celebrate here at Toonopolis, The Blog today. I have three awesome events running at the same time. Let’s get to the meat of it!

Today is the one-year anniversary of the publication of my very first title Toonopolis: Gemini. Released on 5/30/11, Gemini serves as my flagship fiction title and the introduction into my extensive Toonopolis world that has had one novella spin-off so far and numerous other pieces in the works. In celebration of the one-year anniversary, I have dropped Gemini‘s eBook to FREE on Amazon Kindle. This is the last foreseeable time that Gemini will be free, as it will be removed from KDP Select on June 4th. Get it for free while you can!

Also, in addition to Gemini‘s last free run, my other two eBooks, Anchihiiroo – Origin of an Antihero (Toonopolis Shorts, #1) and The Myth of Mr. Mom – Real Stories by Real Stay-At-Home Dads are also free through tomorrow (5/31)! It is also important to note that The Myth of Mr. Mom‘s paperback edition has had a permanent price reduction to $9.99, just in time for Father’s Day!

Also, in honor of Father’s Day, I are giving away five (5) copies of The Myth of Mr. Mom on paperback through Goodreads. Content ends on 6/8 and books will be shipped immediately, ensuring that you have them in time to give it as a gift to your father on 6/17! Click here for details on the Goodreads giveaway.

Last, but not least, I wanted to direct you to Bullets, Brass, & Babes – A Thriller Anthology, which is another free eBook today. This title is not published by Portmanteau Press, but by my friends at the Indie Book Collective. Inside you can find many great thriller short stories, including one by me entitled “What A Tiny World,” inspired by a certain popular theme park and the men that police it.

Thank you all and have a great time reading free books!

Because Who Wants To Create A NEW Market? (Self-Published By Choice)

Yesterday evening, I received an email from my friend and fellow indie author Terri Giuliano Long. She asked in support helping spread the word of her new Huffington Post piece entitled “Sticks and Stones: The Changing Politics of the Self-Publishing Stigma” (link TBA when post is up). It is cross-posted to IndieReader.com, though, so can be read here.

In her post, she discusses some of the harsh words that have been thrown back and forth in this changing landscape of the publishing industry. Some of them have not been so nice, on both sides of the aisle. I am not one to start or participate in verbal wars and try to remain a neutral party. As I posted on Terri’s blog a month ago, I believe that the joy in the new way of doing thing’s is that we now have more options. And by we, I mean both readers and authors. How can this be a bad thing?

As I don’t want to rehash Terri’s amazingly well-researched and cited article, I will simply share my own personal experience as to why I decided to self-publish and am extremely happy that I did.

When I first completed the manuscript of Toonopolis: Gemini in 2010 (the ‘final’ draft prior to professional editing), I started the process of querying agents and publishing houses. At the time, I knew the self-publishing market was opening quickly but I told myself I would try to go through the traditional route. After all, I had a very unique idea (a novel set in a cartoon universe) that, still to my knowledge, is the only story of its kind. Why wouldn’t someone want to jump on this concept?

I got a response from nearly every agent I queried. This, to me, was a good sign that the initial concept at least intrigued people to read my queries. However, every response came back with the same responses: “I don’t see a market for it”, “I don’t think I’m the agent for you”, and various speak which I have come to learn is very common in responses. I had an exchange with one New York agent that was promising but ultimately led to a polite rejection.

While I waited for this process to happen, I began researching self-publishing options. After reading JA Konrath’s blog, A Newbie’s Guide for Publishing, I knew that self-publishing would be my path. At this point, I had spent 3 months querying (not long at all by most standards). I decided to wait 3 more months for my last “if we don’t reply in 90 days” queries to expire and I started the process.  By now, it was March of 2011.

Toonopolis: Gemini did not publish until May 30th, 2011. Why? Because I wasn’t going to let my debut novel be another greasy patch hurting the reputation of self-published authors. I paid for a professional editor (http://www.alphaediting.com/). I hired an illustrator to do custom cover art and internal chapter header illustrations. I researched like mad to understand formatting, printing, distribution, social marketing, and anything else I needed to understand. I formed a publishing company (http://portmanteaupress.com/). Then I published.

I understand that many people get leery of self-published books. I mean, any yahoo can upload a .doc file to Amazon now-a-days, but I didn’t want to be that yahoo. I have met a very large number of fellow indie/self-published authors who have put in just as much energy, if not more, than I have to being as professional as possible throughout this process.

It frustrates me and pains me that people lump all indie authors together based on a few bad experiences. I understand why, especially when traditional authors like Jodi Picault are going out of their way to badmouth us lowly upstarts, but it still pains me nonetheless.

Almost a year after Gemini first published, I have a much better understanding as to why it wouldn’t get picked up by an agent or a traditional publisher. It is far too unique of a concept. It can’t be pigeonholed into a marketing platform that already exists in traditional houses. I have had to create a platform for the Toonopolis books over the last year, including trying to create viral images to explain my world. It has been a lot of work. I have spent a lot of time creating this market, but it is very rewarding.

But in the end, I’ve sold over 300 copies of the book so far (not to mention about 5000 free downloads through KDP Select free days). Am I breaking records and making the NYT bestseller list? Absolutely not. But have hundreds and thousands of readers been exposed to a genuinely original concept thanks to the doors opened by self-publishers? Yeah.

And I’m proud to be one of them.

Felicia Day & The Guild give Geeks A New Anti-Bullying Anthem!

So yesterday, a new song (I'm The One That's Cool) was released yesterday by the awesome crew over at The Guild. This is their third song/music video release (the first being a pop-dance song by Felicia Day, the second a bollywood-style Indian number by Sandeep Parikh).

Both of their first songs were in line with their roots working on The Guild webshow, a self-deprecating jab at themselves and other MMO gamers. This most recent song is different, though, and has a lot more to say about culture. It's amazing how much a simple song by a group of actors/comedians can shine light on interesting trends in popular culture.

Here's the video. Watch and listen. More of my thoughts afterward:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFhgupR565Q

At first, I was just enjoying the song (it has a Foster The People/OK Go type of new-indie rock sound), but listening to the lyrics made me think about what it really says. I spend a lot of time on Twitter and Facebook and whatnots, and I see a lot of people putting "geek" into their bios. It is becoming a type of badge of honor and something that people WANT to be.

As a lifelong geek, I am happy to see this. It's great that "geek's becoming chic" as Felicia Day says in the lyrics, but I do feel a bit hipster in that I was geek way before it was cool. I know plenty of people were treated the way The Guild cast were treated in the video for being geeks.

Reading the YouTube comments section led me to look at the aspects of bullying that are shown in the video. I was never bullied myself (I had two older brothers who were the opposite of geeks), but it happened a lot in school. I think this video is awesome and can serve as the Geek version of the It Gets Better project aimed at letting gay and lesbian teens know that they can make it through the bullying and become the cool ones.

Maybe I'm just reading too much into it, but bullying anyone for any reason is not cool. A lot of national attention is being brought to the bullying of gays and lesbians, but maybe this video can help to extend it to other fringe cultures as well (Geeks being one of them).

So don't worry, geeks. Don't let the asshat jocks and prom queen b**ches keep you down. You're the one that's cool. Anyone agree with me?

Of Remakes, Reboots, and Retcons. TMNT = TANT?

It's been a while since I properly did a blog post. I was overwhelmed by maintaining the cartoon reviews, although I still intend to get that going again. If anyone wants to guest review something (either current or classic) please give me a holler through the Contact Form!

click image for source

A few days ago, I was reading information about the new Michael Bay TMNT project and was hardly surprised that there was a huge backlash of Ninja Turtle fandom against the rebooting of the origin story to eliminate the radioactive ooze and instead make the turtles part of an alien race. I decided to try a Twitter-xperiment and see what type of reaction I'd get from my followers.

I tweeted: "People upset cause Michael Bay TMNT project makes them aliens. #YUMad? Magical evolution ooze too realistic a backstory?"

A Few Responses:

@ERMcKeon: @toonopolis Because they're no longer Teenage MUTANT Ninja Turtles. :-p

@smurfwreck: @toonopolis I would consider myself mad, but then again why bother changing the origin when the original is still relevant?

@SheenahFreitas: @toonopolis That ooze is the epitome of realism. XD But, it's a classic. Don't mess with a classic. Don't turn turtles into aliens.

My friend Chris from GeekScholars Movie News gave me my favorite response over on Facebook: "This wouldn't be a problem if the source material was TANT…but it's not."

Personally, I was only trying to incite a little nerd rage amongst people, but there is some truth in my ambivalence towards the idea. I have stated before that I am not scared of remakes and reboots, my take on the new Thundercats remake covers that. Some remakes end up better than the originals (The Karate Kid, the Ed Norton Incredible Hulk). Some don't and the world still spins.

I guess the whole point of this little rant is to just tell people to chill out, the same way Michael Bay is asking them to do. (Granted, the confidence level of a Michael Bay project is already pretty low for most people, so that's not helping things.)

I know it doesn't look good. A retcon of this magnitude is usually reserved for the comic book industry (of course, that's where our beloved turtles got their starts anyway), when a new creator decides they dislike the history and want to write their own. I, for one, like to try to remain optimistic. Hey, even co-creator Peter Laird offers us the following words of encouragement: "It's possible that with enough truly creative brainpower applied to this idea, it might actually work. I'm not saying it's probable, or even somewhat likely… but it IS possible."

Oh… *fingers crossed*

Thoughts?

Toonopolis, The Blog – Relaunch & New Format

Hello there!

To those of you that were sad at Toonopolis, The Blog going on hiatus in November (yes, both of you!), fear not! I promised an update in the new year and have a plan to allow this site to build great content while not stretching myself too thin!

First, you will notice that I have moved any and all mention (aside from the Amazon links to the right) of my books and reviews and such over to my publishing company's new site (http://www.portmanteaupress.com/).  This will allow this site to focus more specifically on being my personal author/cartoon blog site.  Anything related to the publishing side of my business will now be found at the other site and this one will be more personal.

I felt it was important to separate my personal and business sites with their own blogs, to make it easier for people to enjoy this site without feeling like it only exists to sell my books (which is only partially true ;P).

That being said, the change in format to the site is thus: there will no longer be regular weekly updates on Wednesday or Saturday.  Instead, I will set up an open-forum policy for anyone who wants to review cartoons to send me guest posts and I will post my own whenever I have time or am inspired to do so.  This lack of regular schedule will allow me to not strain myself too much trying to keep up the content like I did last year.

I also previously tried to limit people so that I could have different authors do different posts.  No more!  If you want to post a review every week, you can do so.  Just contact me and let me know what you want to do.

It is important that anyone who wants to follow the blog sign up to the email list (Subscribe to Toonopolis, The Blog by Email) so you get the updates when they happen instead of just coming back and checking every week.

Thanks for the patience and I look forward to a fun 2012 of continuing to post high quality reviews of old school and current cartoons as well as update people on my progress with writing my Toonopolis books, my forthcoming War of the Forgotten (adult urban fantasy) series, and any other writing projects throughout the year.  Huzzah to a new year!