Office 3.0

I put a pic of the new office on facebook a week or so ago but I thought I'd give you a little tour here on the blog. I've worked on a lot of offices in my residences in the past and sadly, most of them were short lived as I moved and moved and moved again. Hopefully that moving thing is done with.

So finally at the Washington house here in beautiful Gig Harbor, I began working on an office in our massive basement. It was going to be quite the scary place. No windows, concrete red walls with black trim and black door... A nifty place to make scary books right? Well, yeah but an upstairs room seemed a little more productive, and social. So after painting the dungeon I moved upstairs where I currently am writing this.

Here's the downstairs office before I abandoned it.

 

 Next, I got a lovely room upstairs where I could be with everyone and have some natural light. While I dig the idea of having a dungeon, I yield to the idea that I can perform better with the people I love around me.

Here's the new office! Complete with character bios (I'm putting more up today!), Asian Miyazaki posters, the original Voltron (Lionbot), Espresso-Gone Crazy calendar and of course Hellraiser's Lament Configuration. (I have to call on the Cinebites from time to time ya know...)

Here's another view desk with more Miyazaki posters and my North American map detailing all my travels.

And the back view. (Sorry about the blurry lights.) Yes, my office is covered in Miyazaki posters...

Post Editing Decompression

I spent three weeks including eight hour days on the weekends making the first edits to Thomas Riley. It was crazy. It's astounding how much I need to learn and grow as an author and I can't tell you how grateful I am for Rochelle Bailey and Karen Syed for their contributions to this book. I've learned more in that three weeks than I can can ever remember learning in a semester of college. I'm being totally serious. So I sacrificed everything. Going out with friends, concerts, time with my wife and family. I just bore down and plowed through the edits as best I could.

When I finished the edits I felt a bit odd. The self doubt is endless. Had I done a good job? Was it going to be up to snuff for Echelon Press? Did I do anything wrong? I surely missed a bunch of little things. Was it too descriptive? How were the action scenes? I'm still plagued with these questions, but I'm confident that this is part of the learning process.

Being trapped in the house for three weeks makes one a bit weird. Well, it made me a bit weird. When you send your finished round one of edits in, there isn't much to do other than plan and execute some marketing and promotion ideas. So I ordered some postcards, planned out some jolly rogers (later to be used for buttons/postcards/custom flags/banners etc...) and I've gathered some info on all types of fun marketing and promotion materials which will be focused on the steampunk-esque Dragon*Con in Atlanta GA in September. I received over a thousand postcards which I'll be taking to the San Diego Comic Con this week!

With some degree of freedom at night, I needed to get out. What better way of blowing of steam than attending some crazy shows and having some good times with friends? First order of business was off to my favorite sushi place with my dad the night I sent the edits in.

Next up was a trivia night at a local pub with some friends where no crap, we got 2nd place only because we were two numbers off in a tie breaker question. Wow.


From there Stacey, (my wife) and I made a spontaneous choice to go see some friends of ours play at a local dive bar. Besides hanging with our friends in the band we were treated to a surprisingly talented band from Austin Texas called Bankrupt And The Borrowers. These guys blew me away. They were kind of a mix between blues and post hardcore. So... Screamy, singy, dirty south rock and roll. Awesome. If you get the chance, check them out and check out the song "I Love You Baby".


A few nights later we made some pretty big plans. We were off to see a legendary band called The Jesus Lizard (Touch and Go Records) perform their first show in the US in 10 years. These guys are known for being one of noise rock's pioneers not only musically, but in their insane stage antics. So we get there and within five seconds of the music starting the singer, David Yow is on top of the crowd with his shirt off somehow doing his vocal parts perfectly as he gets passed around the the top of the crowd. It's difficult to sum up what this was like. Picture guys in or close to their fifties absolutely going wild. This wasn't a bunch of old dudes trying to reclaim their youth, in fact it was a comeback like the world of underground music had never seen before. Keep in mind everything went at this show... and I mean everything.

(Thanks to Brian Batey for the photo)

After our sweaty no holds barred concert Stacey and I were off and going to watch Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince for a midnight showing on opening day. We were pooped, but wow was it worth it. There's nothing quite like being in a movie like Harry Potter or Star Wars when the tension in the room builds so much that the crowd explodes with cheers when the Warner Bros logo appears before the movie. The setting is electric and rare. I have to say, it was awesome. For those that are into Harry Potter, you can't miss this. It really is one of the best movies out of the series. Moody, dark, and funny, this film (yes I used the word film) is simply great. Two big thumbs up.


So I anxiously await round 2 of my edits and in the mean time, I'm off to San Diego on Wednesday morning for the ultimate mayhem that is the San Diego Comic Con. This wonderful year I plan on seeing Clive Barker, Kevin Smith, Neil Gaiman, Mythbusters, Lost, Hayao Miyazaki, and I even get to attend a benefit show by one of my favorite musicians in the world, Amanda Palmer. Wow. So off I go, surely to return to some hardcore time back in front of the ole computer to hopefully re-edit Thomas Riley in time for it's October release.