MCM's Blog, page 53

Q&A With Craig Young

Craig Young works at Amberwood Productions, home of RollBots, where his primary function is to make me crazy.  Ha!  Just kidding!  I was already crazy.

I thought it would be fun to chat with him about the animation industry, what it's like doing what he does, and how many wild animals he eats for breakfast.  You should keep in mind that Craig tends to injure himself on a regular basis, so it's a miracle no blood was shed in the creation of this post.  Oh, and I've added commentary in the square b

The Update That Ate New York

I tend to forget to update blog readers on the goings-on around here, so this is it.

The Chaos Book

The first part of episode 1 is up, as it a schedule change.  I previous imagined it as a 3-parts-per-week schedule, but since each art is really bloody long, I'm going to make spread each episode across 3 weeks.  I'm looking at a 9-episode season under this system.  Here's a sample of the first part:

"So here's the plan," Finn continues, oblivious to Pinkerton. "If the citizens of this good town aren

Q&A With Brian Spaeth

Many of you already know Brian Spaeth, famed practitioner of actoring and writering… but for those who don't perhaps this little interview will shed some light.

Brian is the author of the reading book Prelude to a Super Airplane, which you should buy as soon as possible.  I spoke to him earlier this week via email, which is as close to being a journalist as I can get.

I know you're a writer, but what else do you do?  What is actoring, and does it involve duct tape?

What else do I do…that's a good q

Topic Tag Tuesday: The Cottage

Today is Topic Tag Tuesday, where someone on Twitter picks my topic and I have one hour to write a ~500 word story about it.  This week's story is based on heliosengine's topic: "a horror story written from the perspective of a literal fly.. on a wall."  Next Tuesday, heliosengine gets to invite people to suggest topics!  Yay!

The knife tap, tap, tapped against the glass window, making a horrible noise as it slid down like a snake.  The yellow-haired one turned slowly in the darkness, face lit b

Reader Question: Letting Things Die

I am going to try this thing called Reader Questions for a while, since I have some interesting ones that come up from time to time.  Today's is about letting things die.  Prepare your cleavers!

How do you decide what stories or characters you are going to write about, and which ones you have to let die without being written?  I  have been working on a book for four years, and I cannot figure out how to make it work.  Should I just give up?

This is from Josh, whose last name I will withhold becaus

Saturday Update

Due to my obsession with iPhone app creation, I neglected to post here for several days.  Happy August!

RollBots

Just a little over a month until RollBots starts airing on CW4Kids in the US, and I can't wait.  I will have to figure a way to re-post my recaps so everyone can see them again, now that they'll make sense.  I don't know when we start airing new eps on YTV, but I'm assuming it'll be around the same time.

The App

The App starts today and runs for the entirety of August.  It's about a progr

Testing Premium

I am writing the word gazerblaster here because it currently does not show up on any searches, and if it starts to over the next few days, I'll know there's a way past my paywall

Eventually, this area of the site will house all the can't-show-the-public stuff I do.  Right now, not so much.

Unintentional Racism in Fiction

Racism is a touchy subject, and not the kind I enjoy dissecting (for a variety of reasons), but over the last week, I've had a steady stream of criticism about The Vector and its apparently racist tendencies.

These aren't new for me.  I've been getting this kind of feedback throughout the revision process, most of it focussing on my treatment of the Chinese character called "the Healer".  Briefly: Healers are roving agents sent into eastern Europe to hunt down and neutralize synthetic pathogens b

Maintenance Tuesday

Some things to clear off the schedule for today:

The Calendar

You may have noticed the calendar module under the "do" link in the menu up top.  This shows you what my week is like.  It's about to get crowded (see below), so this is your handy-dandy key to everything fun.  Check back often!

The Vector

The Vector is far my most popular book in terms of email responses, I'm getting one "upgrade" every 1.5 hours now!  The cover art fundraiser is still ongoing ($120 raised!), so please consider dropping

I Can Help You Succeed at Publishing Online!

Actually, I can't.  Sorry.  It sucks, but it's true.

I get a few of these emails every week, asking me to sell people my software or expertise, and I have to give the same answer every time: I can't deliver what you're looking for.

Look: I can sell you my Reader software, give you a PDF with a 12-step plan for success, have a one-on-one chat session to boost your confidence… but honestly, there's too much voodoo in publishing for me to guarantee results.  I don't feel comfortable taking money unde