Author. Writer. Editor. Fool.
This was given to me by Stephen Segal of the awesome Weird Tales and I had to share it. If you’ve ever submitted a story or manuscript to a publisher or magazine, you want to read It Came From The Slush Pile. Trust me. Just read it. It’s funny as hell, but you’ll learn something, too. The only gimmick worth having is good writing.
Jim McDevitt, my co-author on A Year of Hitchcock, occasionally posts to the Hitchcock Wiki’s message board. One of the other posters there is now taking a journey through Hitchcock’s career just as we did. Even better, he is using our book as a guide. How great is that? It’s wonderfully gratifying to know that your work is being read, used and enjoyed by someone. It’s even BETTER to know that you’ve inspired them to take the same journey. Check out his viewing and reading experience in this thread.
The following is a rough layout for a story in my upcoming comic anthology. The story is called “Shackles” and it is set in London circa 1778. The art is incomplete, obviously, but gives you a sense for what we’re doing. Click here for a version large enough to read. We took an interesting approach on this one. I penned a conversation and provided the text to independent comic creator and musician Stanley Lieber, creator of Massive Fictions, among others. (Some of you might recall that I remixed some of his music.) No stage direction, no art direction, just some text based on a talk he and I had about the situation and themes we’d be dealing with. Stanley then took that conversation and gave…
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Even as I type this people are reading my first book. And the fact is, not everyone will like it. That’s okay. It’s not a big deal. (Besides, I can always blame Jim for the parts people don’t like, right Jim? Right?) As I continue to work and write, and as people continue to read what I’ve written, I hope I don’t fall prey to launching into defensive rants against my readers. It seems sort of counter-productive, no? Not only are you not changing anyone’s mind, you’re just coming across like a jerk. It would be like a best-selling author lashing out against Amazon reviewers. Why do this? Please, Eric, never do this. (That’s me talking to myself.)
In addition to being a zany, funny guy with a great sense of humor, Ian Sokoliwski is also a very good artist and colorist. Go see his blog. Dude has a great sense for the page. Having watched him draw for three years now, it’s amazing to see the great strides his artwork has taken. He gets better every day. Check ‘im out. While you’re at it, check out my interview with Ian. You’ll learn something about how comics are made, guaranteed.