Spilled Ink #9

INTRO

Hi again.

This week hasn’t been an easy one. I know I’ve been saying how hyped I’ve been these last few weeks but that doesn’t mean that everything has been smooth sailing.

I’ll be honest, I’ve been a bit disheartened about some projects that are not quite going as I had hoped, mostly because of money-related issues. I’ll keep working on them but maybe I’ll have to adjust the way that I was planning on doing them.

This brings me to another focal point of the last weeks.

I’ve been hyped but I also had a lot of thoughts about quitting all this. At least the publication aspect of writing, the part where I send my works into the wild in whatever form, might it be submission calls or mini-books or even Nightmare Ink Presents. I’ve been thinking of quitting but not writing, just the sharing of what I write part.

The reasons for this are varied. I never had hopes of becoming a household name, especially with only a mini-book and some random short stories to my name. Still, even with some good reviews (and some by people I truly admire) and having some people looking for more stuff written by me, everything was lukewarm. Add to that the fact that the last events I went to weren’t that great in terms of turnout, one kind of gets in the dumps. But, then there’s that voice that keeps telling you not to give up, that things will be better, and that, above all else, you are doing what you love. Forget about your real work, forget about sleeping four to five hours a day and being grumpy and anti-social. Forget all that. I, as the voice keeps telling me. I’m doing what I love.

There was something else that helped to turn this turmoil into a maelstrom.

In a conversation about my looking out for artists for a project and how those rates are too much for my budget, my mother said something that hit my dark little heart like a bomb. She said something in the likes of, and this was out of pure innocence, “If your father was alive he would draw them for you”. And that’s true, my father would have made amazing illustrations for my works and I have no doubt he would be my biggest supporter. What this comment did do was make me sad and guilty for not sharing this passion with him before his passing. Something that might have made his last days a bit better. And maybe, who truly knows, that voice I hear telling me not to quit? Maybe it’s his.

I’m going to leave you with some drawings he made, they are copies he made in A4 size of small drawings from my sister’s The Chronicles of Narnia books. And let me tell you those illustrations are really small. The last two drawings are hung in the wall of my room so the pictures are not as good as they should be. I really need to scan them.

Sorry for this moment and let’s move on…

WRITING UPDATES

As you probably know I’ve been doing a serialized story parallel to this newsletter, called The Haunting of Blackwood Manor. It’s four chapters in and I getting surprised about the way it’s going.
A little background first. I planned it, and if you read the latest issue of the newsletter you now hold in your hands (hope you’re reading this on your tablet or phone, if not please pick up your laptop or monitor)you know how my plans go, to be comprised of thirteen chapters (more on this later) of around 500 words each, making the story 6500 words long. Now as I said before I’m four chapters in. The first one was 596 words, a bit off the mark but nothing that “problematic”. For the second one, I wrote 1238 words, more than double the first chapter and almost triple the planned. In the third one, I barely passed the 1k barrier and left it at 1004 words, and that was already more than double. With the fourth chapter, I threw plans to the wind and went full-speed, and it ended with 2055 words, passing the quadruple mark of the original chapter length and coming to almost a third of the whole story all by itself. This makes the story up until now 4893 words and if I meant to keep the planned length, which I don’t, I would have little more than 1100 words left. What does this mean? That the plans I had for this story when finished will have to be scratched and new ones will have to be made. But I don’t mind I am enjoying writing this world so much that I will just keep on going…

I have also been working on some stuff that I had on hold, including a project that may have won a new life as I changed the media I was doing it in a bit. That’s not to say that you won’t see it in its original form one day but for now, I think I’ll keep redoing the pages I had into this new format. It’ll also be the first time I work with an IP that is not originally mine and I’m really hyped for that. Of course, I’ll put some of my “vision” in it but I’ll do my best to keep loyal to the source material.

Another project that might have to suffer some alterations is one of my secret projects, one of the ones I talked about in the intro. The budget is too short for my original idea and I might have to accommodate to make it work. But I can say that part of that is going well and that I hope to have news about it for you soon.

BOOK REPORT

I just made my way through two more stories on Malerman’s Spin a Black Yarn and I already got the Alexander Michael book that I didn’t have so I can start reading Vignettes whenever I want. I’ll reread the first book, Everything Is Summer, too so I can be on the lookout for every connection that’s given to us.

PULL LIST

This week was good on comic reading. I finally made my way through some back issues I had accumulated over the last few months so the list is quite big. I will not ramble too much about what I read. You’ll see a common thread, mostly it being the name of two of the writers. But enough of this, let’s go.

I read A Legacy of Violence #8, by Cullen Bunn and Andrea Mutti, in advance of issue 9, that should be in my hands in a few weeks (I’ll explain this when this section is shorter). I’m really into the mystery that makes up this story. Not only who the masked man is and why he does what he does, but mostly what Unit 731 was and what was their end goal.

Another Cullen Bunn this time with Leomacs. Ghostlore is another one that leaves us with the sense that things are not as they seem. And that’s fairly easy to see when following Lucas’s part of the story in these issues. I can’t wait to find out what will happen at the end of this one.

It’s Bunn again! Invasive brings us back to the “medical field”, more specifically plastic surgery, this time with Jesus Hervás. A detective and the mother of a comatose and mutilated girl look into what happened to the girl. Three strange men(?) and a dubious Doctor move in the background taking people to an undergroung operating theatre. A person draws all of these things. This one is going to be twisted. I can tell it. And I love it!

The last of Cullen Bunn’s titles, at least for this week. What can I say, I really like the stuff he writes. This time, with Brian Hurtt he delivers a story about horror film classics and a long-lost and now-found cursed movie “God of Monsters” that ends up being shown. I really enjoyed this one and if are a fan of horror classics, this is for you.

I also picked up the two last released issues of The Bone Orchard Mythos: Tenement, by Jeff Lemire and Andrea Sorrentino, and I couldn’t be more satisfied. What started with The Passageway and Ten Thousand Black Feathers is now in full swing and we are truly seeing the first ramifications of the universe they share. Issue 7 was an amazing “origin” issue and this series, and I mean the whole Bone Orchard Mythos, can only get bigger and better.

Something is Killing the Children and House of Slaughter are two of my favorite things at the moment. Two titles that share the same universe and whose stories end up touching each other. SIKTC is just incredible James Tynion IV and Werther Dell’Edera do an incredible job telling this story about monster hunting and it’s not just action and monsters, it’s the politics behind the scenes, the power that members of said monster hunting organization have and vie for. We had 35 issues following Erica Slaughter and her involvement with the Order of St. George, but who can tell where the road will take us? House of Slaughter on the other hand always focused on more self-contained stories that are used to expand the universe and supporting characters a bit further, but that doesn’t change the importance of the stories. I also read Book of Butcher also set in this universe but that has the particular aspect, like Book of Slaughter before it, of having text pages in between the story depicting a book that exists in the world of the story. In this one, we are shown the different types of monsters that exist and their origins and evolution throughout time. This is very interesting even for people who usually don’t follow the story itself, just like its predecessor was.

I should have probably already talked about this, and if I have, sorry, just bear with me. Universal Monsters: Dracula by James Tynion IV and Martin Simonds is both a great retelling of one of the classics and the art is just amazing. One of the things that struck me most was in the first issue when explaining how he got to write this comic, Tynion says that he doesn’t really remember when he first heard of Dracula (when he was a kid), it just seemed he kind of knew who the character was. Like it was genetically encoded. And I got to think about it and I can’t remember either. Do any of you have any recollection of it?

ON-SCREEN

Unfortunately, this week has been so full and chaotic that I hadn’t the time to watch anything new… I watched one episode of Supernatural when having lunch (or dinner) on three separate days, so you can see how the week went.

I was thinking of adding a new section to the newsletter but I really don’t think people want to hear me talk about this every week so I’ll talk about it here. I haven’t watched it yet but as soon as I hit publish on this one I’m going to put WWE Royal Rumble 2024 PPV from yesterday playing and I won’t leave the couch until I see a certain man with oxygenated hair point at the Wrestlemania sign and challenging the Tribal Chief for a match. And yes I know who won the Rumble already and I couldn’t be more happy. Oh, and the name for the wrestling section and I was thinking about? Over the Ropes, it may be a little Rumble influenced but I like it.

PLAYLIST

I’ve been listening to Nu Metal while working, except for Wednesday when my downstairs neighbor decided he would play guitar and sing Portuguese and Brazilian songs with a friend… That made me realize I need to buy some noise-canceling headphones…

And also Lore, of course. And one of the episodes I heard gave me some ideas for new projects. Just what I needed.

THINGS I’M HYPED ABOUT

Some events that are coming soon and all the things I’m working about.

Even with all I said I can’t help but feel that this will be a good year. I just can’t let me go down. And this newsletter helps me with it (even if I sometimes stress over writing it on time…).

LAST WORDS

So this is it for today.

I hope you enjoyed reading the newsletter as I did writing it. What I said above is true, writing this makes me not lose my faith in what I do.

Comment on whatever you want, I can’t wait to hear what every one of you has to say. Do you like or watch wrestling? What did you like the most in this issue of the newsletter? Go crazy in the comments.

Don’t forget that on Wednesday there’ll be a new issue of Nightmare Ink Presents, hope you have a wonderful week, and see you next Sunday.

Until then, let the ink of nightmares flow.

Thanks for reading Nightmare Ink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.