October 20, 2011: Commissioning a masterpiece! A Stargate: Universe screening! My near future plans: a novel idea! Trevor's fine. Really.

A Tara Yelland original

A masterpiece, no?  I commissioned it from my Toronto pal, Tara Yelland, who sent me the following email the day after my birthday:

"I had no idea it was your birthday yesterday! Happy Birthday! You don't look a day over 52. Hope it was a good one! As a gift, I will draw you a picture of anything you request."

Anything?  Well, I thought it would be obvious but, just in case, I was very specific:

"I'd like you to draw me a picture of a snowman marrying a bear in outer space.  There should be a stunning space battle going on somewhere in the background."

Well, this morning I finally received my birthday gift.  And, I have to say, I'm pretty damn impressed.  No half-ass sketch for me.  Instead, check out the glorious colors, the fiery combat in the BG and, best of all, the added bonus cameo of yours truly (Spaceman Joe) presiding over the cosmic nuptials.  The pic was accompanied by the following heartfelt message:

"Here, as requested, is a drawing of a bear marrying a snowman in space with a fantastical battle happening in the background. You'll notice I bothered to include you in the scenario–officiating the wedding, of course. I figure this is ultimately how you'll end up anyway.  I would be happy to sell the original print to you for a reasonable price."

How I'll end up anyway?  What the hell is that supposed to mean?

Above is a clip of some cast members (Brian, Jamil, and David) watching the finished version of my favorite Stargate: Universe episode, Time, for the first time.  Love the reactions.

See, these are the moments I miss – the camaraderie, the excitement, the pride for a job well done. Hopefully, there'll be plenty more of that in the not too distant future – but, for the near future, I'm considering a couple of alternate pursuits.  There's the Dark Matter comic book series that launches January 11, 2012 (Joe Mallozzi And Paul Mullie Release Dark Matter In January) but, before I head out and start pitching and taking meetings ahead of my next t.v. gig, I thought it might be nice to do something different like, say, write a novel.  I know, I know.  My last foray into prose fiction, the short story "Downfall" I wrote for the superhero-themed anthology, Masked (edited by Lou Anders) took me the better part of nine months to write.  But I feel that with that experience under my belt, I could write a novel a lot quicker and with a lot less agonizing over the details.  Ideally.  But maybe not.  Regardless, the more I think about it, the more I'm liking the idea of a challenge – specifically, the challenge of sitting down and dedicating 2-3 hours a day, starting November, to writing my first novel.  That's the plan anyway.  Just outlining right now. The real work begins in 11 days!

Oh, and to those of you asking, I was not eulogizing Trevor in yesterday's blog entry.  I was just wishing him all the best as he has parted ways with the production ahead of the birth of his first child, Euphemia (see past blog entries for the Name Trevor's Baby Contest details).  Apparently, he received quite the send off.  Alexander sent me a candid pic of Trevor's last day…

[image error]The pic made me all nostalgic for earlier times when I too had an assistant to verbally berate, paper cut, and pummel with rolled up rewrites of rewrites of rewritten scripts.

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