Just joining in all of the excerpt fun goodness. So, for everyone's amusement who dares to read the frenzied half awake writings, an excerpt from my novel:

---

He made his way into observation, the room littered with images on the screens covering three walls and panels all over to help him navigate. He went to one and started hunting through them, looking for something to make sense of. A few buttons later, he had turned on voice command and was leaning in close to try and see the picture.

"Glados, show only exterior cameras," he said. The computer shut down any of the interior cameras watching specified corridors and the screens enlarged to fill in the extra space. With a decent resolution now, he could start checking.

"Glados, run all exterior scans for life forms. Start in the direction of the city and seep clockwise."

The computer panels glowed pleasantly, a face appearing in keyboard characters. A period, an underscore, then a period. The face lit up into a smile and appeared to speak. "This scan will take several minutes. Is this all right?"

"Yes."

"Please wait." The computer's voice was pleasant enough, a woman's who seemed about as ambivalent as Snow when she was around. But this next part, the programmers of the system had some strange sense of humour about. As always, when waiting for a system to start working or a scan to be completed, the computer would sing.

"This was a triumph," it began, sounding quite pleased with itself despite Maverick looking utterly annoyed. "I'm making a note here, huge success! It's hard to overstate my satisfaction. Apeture science. We do what we must because we can." Maverick, as always, wondered what kind of a place Apeture Science was if they were making a robot that sang a song about them. "For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead."

Wait, did it just say, "Except the ones who are dead?"

"But there's no sense crying over every mistake. You just keep on trying until you run out of cake! And the science gets done and you make a neat gun for the people who are still alive."

This song was a little disturbing.

"I'm not even angry. I being so sincere right now. Even though you broke my heart and killed me."

Wait, what?

"And tore me to pieces. And threw every piece into a fire."

This song was a little more disturbing than a moment ago.


"As they burned it hurt because I was so happy for you. And now these points of data make a beautiful line."

On screen here, a heart appeared. He wasn't sure if that had ever happened before, but the only time he was ever in here was to get a walk through of how the system worked. And he'd never actually listened to all of this. What was wrong with these people?

"And we're out of beta, we're releasing on time! So I'm glad I got burned, think of all the things we learned for the people who are still alive."

Again with the implication of death. The makers of this thing were disturbed.

"Go ahead and leave me. I think I prefer to stay inside. Maybe you'll find someone else to help you. Maybe black mesa. That was a joke, ha ha, fat chance. Anyway this cake is great. It's so delicious and moist."

And what was with the cake?

"Look at me still talking when there's science to do. When I look up there it makes me glad I'm not you. I've experiments to run; there is research to be done for the people who are still alive. And believe me I am still alive. I'm doing science and I'm still alive. I feel fantastic and I'm still alive. By your dying I'll still be alive. And when you're dead I'll be still alive. Still alive. Still alive."

Well. He wasn't going to trust this computer anymore. Or, in any event, he wasn't going to listen to that song ever again.

Still, it wasn't done yet. The scans were still running and the song was already starting to repeat. "This was a-"

And then it stopped, interrupted by a strange drum beat and a mediocre sounding tune. And another voice began to sing. "We're no stranger to love," it started, Maverick staring at it in complete and utter confusion. It wasn't going to repeat the infernally disturbing song? "You know the rules and so do I. A full commitment's what I?m thinking of. You wouldn't get this from any other guy."

Okay. They used to have very good narcotics, clearly. Because this was completely insane.

"I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling. Gotta make you underst- Scan complete," the regular computer voice began again. On second thought, perhaps that other song was better. Now he was a little perturbed by the computer speaking to him. It might want to roast his flesh.

---

Oh, and I have a pitch up, that's actually been there for a few months. I should probably see what's written it. Also, it needs a better title.

I've been gone for a month or so. New job, same old existence.

Blessing Avenue got rejected by a comic publisher. I was a little butthurt about that, but then I heard that the Direct 2 Development II has started. Coincidence? Maybe not. Maybe you guys can help me make Blessing Avenue into a pitch that won't be rejected. There is ALWAYS room for improvement.

So thus, I've uploaded new scripts for your perusal.  I might even post the pages and letter them so ya'll can have fun reading the gorgeous pages pencilled by my cohort in crime.

EDIT: On second thought, I decided to post the pages anyway!

As some posts before this one, I want to say that NANOWRIMO is finally over. November came and went rather quickly for my taste. I got near 12,000 words before I succumbed to the writing gods and have up on the whole thing. But I don't see it as failure, I got to write interesting characters until that time I decided to stop. Like Geko, I too will use my Nano as a comic pitch.

Hey all,

Sorry I've been out of touch. After the fun and stress of the Greenberg fund, I decided to take a little break, to try and recuperate. Incidentally, I also had a few things to answer for at work, since I focused maybe a *bit* too much on promo work and not enough on those evaluations that are my job to do monthly.

Oups.

Now I'm neck-deep in NaNoWriMo, writing away with the material I created for a Lovecraftian comic pitch I never made public here. I needed a subject with which I could write 50 000 words in 30 days more or less easily, and Steampunk definitely would have been way too complex to pull that off.

Ergo, with that self-imposed vacation, I'm also behind on my pinups AND on updating my pitches. Frankly, I don't really know what to focus on except my novel-writing and my own penchant for rejuvenating my poor carcass, something which I'm getting quite good at.

Oh, and my hair's now black. Jet black, as in even Barack Obama doesn't have hair as black as I do right now. It feels odd, but people seem to like it. I'm sure my mom will hate it. But whatever.

So with that being said, I'm ready to come up with my own fan page for Tenzil! Bring it ON!!!!

Cheers,

- Christian 

I know we are on the indie thing here, patting ourselves on our backs and having fun but speaking for myself, I need an editor for my stuff.

Okay Z2H, I want you to give me something of a smallish challenge (more or less), and I want to please whoever wants to be pleased.

Before Saturday, I want to add 3 entries to one of my pitches.
But I don't know which one.

So it's up to you. 

Christian will add a minimum of 3 entries to ONE (1) of the following pitch:
A Serendipitous Cacophony (UT2)
The Rites of Vitae (UT3)
His Name is Blank
The Virgin Babylon

By midnight Eastern time tomorrow night whatever pitch has the most answers will be the one I'll work on. And if I don't feel like it,. I'll whip myself into it!

Because even though we're into a creative media, we also have to train ourselves to work on stuff even if we don't feel like it :)

- Christian

Now that the promo rush is done, I have another problem that just reared its ugly head right above me. And as always, in involves writing.

I feel the appeal of NaNoWriMo.

Now, if Deutschmaschine is selected for the HGF obviously I'll have plenty of pleasurable writing to do and so, NaNoWriMo will not be an option, not by a long stretch. But if not...

I've always been interesting in novel-length writing, but never could bring myself to do it. I always lost focus at some point. But in a single month? Write, write, write, and not mind what happens? Heck, maybe, just maybe, I could deal with that?

Anyone here thinking about attempting to complete this insanity? It could be an enjoyable break from comic pitches and scripts. Elder Gods know a novel about Blank titillates the back of my mind right now...
(I think I've been reading Wlliam Gibson's Wikipedia entry too closely. But you have to admit the guy's story is mightily inspirational...!)

So all day long I've been beating myself up, wondering why I didn't get picked to get shortlisted to Greenberg.  I cried.  I stormed around the house.  I threw a hissy fit.  I nearly kicked the cat.  What is it that Yen, Crackwalker, Fetternity and Lord Maim have that I don't have?  How is it that they were able to accomplish what the rest of us could not?
Are they better writers than us?  I don't think so.  They're good, don't get me wrong.  But so are all the other CCCN winners and Beta books, so it's not that.
Is it because they are so good looking?  Well, they are a splendid looking group, but again, I don't think they have anything on the rest of us.  I mean, better looking than Mekikas, IanG and Will Gibson?  I don't think so.
Maybe they're smarter?  But no, we have mariathedreamer, MrIrony, Jayls and genrewriter so it's not that.
Their stories are somehow superior?  To those of Lotus, MorganJ, Ruroshen and DoctorNaberius?  Not on your life.
So what is it?
And suddenly, as I was taking the garbage out it hit me (the answer, not the garbage though the smell may have helped).  It's the one thing they all have in common that the rest of us do not.  The Gutter.
That is the missing ingredient in my recipe!
I wrote, I blogged, I had some fan art made up, I tried to find fans, but nothing worked.
And all I had to do was get down into The Gutter!

At least I'll know for next time!

I've recently hired a writer to my creative team for my future pitches here. His name is Stephanos Williams. And he's helping me with the script for my Blackbird Bluegrass script.

Expect the script to maybe be a bunch of story beats without dialogue. Hope that may change in the near future.

I'm hiring him to write a script story to my upcoming pitch "Johnny Rush. So look for the new pitch is the next few days.

For more on Stephanos, check out his DeviantART page.

I'll be working on my fantasy novel, trying to get that first draft actually finished this year.

Some of you might remember that I've been writing for a monthly magazine since March, and some of you might have never known, but you do now!  It's nothing cool or special - just a magazine about interesting older adults called "Seniors Living".  I've actually had nine interviews I've written published in the seven issues to date (they don't publish one in August) and I am currently submitting two for the November edition, and I've also had photos published with each of the articles.  Best thing about the experience is it is a professional writing credit, because they actually pay you with real money!  It's not great money, but it's better than not being paid, believe me!
Anyway, in October's edition, they actually put one of the pictures I took on the cover of the magazine!  Do you have any idea how cool that is, to walk by the rack and see a picture you took staring back at you?  I couldn't believe it when I first saw it!  And cover photo gets a nice credit, AND they pay for that as well! 
Now if only I could get a few more of you to check out my comic   . . . .