“You mean like ‘Garden State meets 500 Days of Summer?” Connie asked, aware she had pitched WINTER TOWN this same way. I probably wouldn’t have pitched it that way, but that’s an age-old way to quickly describe something in terms of tone. It’s not like I actually took all of the events that happened in either movie and just inserted my characters.

I’ll take some flack for this, but what initially started the conversation was THE HUNGER GAMES. Of course Connie and I are both excited for the movie and have read the book, I still can’t help but shake the Battle Royale connections. I won’t say where Connie stood on the subject, but for me, my mind just goes, “wait, I can just pull any movie or book and just do it over, with my own characters and names?” I’ve heard the “it’s the timeless gladiator story” angle, but yeah, it is, with all of the stuff Battle Royale added. I don’t think Hunger Games is bad at all, I really like it, it just kinda bothers me that it’s gotten so much acclaim but really isn’t as original as a lot of people probably think it is.

I’m sure I have some sour grapes because I’ve had pitches of my own turned down because they were too similar to things in production, and I think any of us in this field have said “Hey, I had this great idea–” to someone only to be met with “Oh! That’s just like that movie ____!” Dreams, crushed!

Somehow Woody Allen came up. We decided to rebrand me as the Young Adult Woody Allen. My next book could be the Young Adult “What’s New, Pussycat?” Something teens have been clamoring for too long now. We tossed out the Young Adult Sons of Anarchy, and the Young Adult Hustle and Flow. I kinda want to write that last one.

This was only my second speaking engagement for WINTER TOWN, and as I mentioned in my talk, the first one was 80% family and friends (but they said I did a good job.)

I love doing these panels, it’s a lot of fun to meet other authors and hear stories about how they came up with their books and their writing processes. I always walk away with a bunch of new author friends. I still talk to Sarah Ockler online after meeting her at a panel, and I had dinner with Matthew Quick once and still check in with him too. What did we do before the internet?!

I sat next to Barry and we talked a lot about comics and upcoming projects. He is a busy and productive fellow, and I’m jealous of his easy-going nature. He’s a great people person, I’m a shy hermit. That said, he was jealous that I could draw, so it evens out.

I’m also jealous of Alexander Gordon Smith, who mentioned he can write a full book in 3 weeks. It takes me a year at least! I do a lot of outlining and plotting beforehand though, and still work full time so I suppose it’s not a fair comparison.

Everyone was hilarious and nice and informative, it was a great panel. One of the questions we got was for what the high point and low point of the book writing process was. I had a pessimistic but kinda honest answer for the high point – I agree there are many high points, and Barry’s was very good, that point where you have one new idea that impacts every other story idea in a meaningful way. That’s a definite high. My answer was the initial moment you think of an idea – it’s untarnished – it can be ANYTHING still, you just know it’s a good concept and this can be a book. Your mind starts racing with ideas and you can see the whole thing floating in front of you. Eventually you add characters and story notes and scenes and words and it becomes concrete – this is what the book is. It’s never as wide open and awe-inspiring as that first moment. Pessimistic because of course that means you start at the highest point, and it’s all downhill from there.

My low point, is that period I’m in now, where you have an idea, some sample writing, it’s started, but you haven’t gotten approval or a contract or anything – it’s not an official book yet. Once it’s approved and it IS your next book, it’s a full on rush to the end, but right now there’s a lull where you’re just messing around trying to get it right and adding polish and changing things around. Padma was after me and scolded me. She insisted there ARE no lulls and no low points in writing and that it’s all fun. That’s true, too. Jesse backed me up with his tales of first envisioning a story and how the dogs can have teeth outside of their heads and have 6 legs or something, I’m not sure what that was but man, that guy is funny. He read from his book and had the whole room cracking up, too.

Anyway the event was a blast and every one of the books there sound great so I suggest picking them all up!

People tend to think you need a lot of connections and know the right people in comics or in writing or in hollywood to get any kind of career, but SLG are one of the very few people that a guy like me can come up with a clever but goofy little comic book and they’ll take a chance on. Frankly I wasn’t even that good when I sent them Emo Boy, but they felt there was something there that we could develop and when a lot of companies would have slammed the door in my face, they printed up my comic and did their best to get it seen. Even now that I’m writing books and working on video games, Dan is still pushing on the Emo Boy digital stuff and giving thought to the movie (that thing still exists, promise!) I know most of us “SLG people” feel a lot of loyalty to them. I wish I could donate more.

Anyway we’re down to about a week left and they really need a big push to get where they want to be, so please help at least pass the word – it’s up to each individual if they want to contribute anything, but at the least I’d like people to take a look and really give it some thought, these guys really deserve it.

I think I’ve finally spent enough money on prints, and I still have all those video game paintings hanging too. Anyway, I’ll provide links to the prints should you feel inclined to get one – I have no intentions of getting rich off them, but I did the work to make them so I may as well open it up for anyone else who wants some art to hang!

THE FOUR HATS

Happyface 1

Happyface 2

Emo Boy 1

Emo Boy 2

Emo Boy 3

Emo Boy 4

AND OF COURSE, the FOUR HATS game for iPhone and iPad is OUT NOW, please buy and spread the word, it is MUCH APPRECIATED.

Hopefully having a dedicated space for writing will help me be more productive with my time. I’ve been working, but it’s been hard to finish any one project because I’m juggling so many! I had made progress on Book 3 but that stopped when the FOUR HATS game came along, and the goal was to finish a full game in about a month. That took up most of my time for a while. In addition to that, writing the occasional blog, and sslloowwllyy working on Book 3 pitch revisions, I wrote a short GRETCHEN story that I still need to tinker with, but it’s a low priority currently. More on that soon. Also working on another WINTER TOWN related piece and there’s a few other potentially large projects on the horizon I can’t talk about.

TACO GRAVEYARD and BOOK 3 are my main priorities. TG has quite a few game ideas in various states of completion and I really want to get a bunch of them out this year and hope something takes. I think they’re all really cool but it’s very hard to get noticed and sometimes cool things slip through the cracks. And of course BOOK 3 I’m just trying to get a pitch approved at this point – I have a good idea I really like and want to do, but nailing the tone and pieces is proving difficult. I’m hoping once the flow and tone and overall outline is approved it’ll be a faster process than it’s been.

As for THE FOUR HATS, it’s OUT NOW, only 99 cents, try the lite version if you’d like, and if you dig it, buy and pass the word – I will consider it a personal favor and be forever in your debt!

Remember, if I’m not posting here you can always find me on facebook, twitter, or occasionally posting on the TACO GRAVEYARD blog about my video game projects.

Here’s the first page in my sketchbook the day we hatched the idea for a band on the run from it’s crazed fans.

Here’s a pencil/ink of Parker done in Flash.

Some background assets from the first level.

Here’s a sprite sheet of the character animations all tidied up.

Some notes on how we could do the psychedelic level…

Thumbnail art of the promo image.

Drawing the promo image…

Background put in…

Flat colors…

And the final promo image on my monitor!

The game is AVAILABLE NOW, for only .99! Buy it if you feel inclined and spreading the word would be very appreciated!

A little bit of pleading: Taco Graveyard is mostly myself and my friend Sal, he’s a programmer and I’m the artist and we collaborate on game ideas. Our friend Chris Negrini is an awesome musician and is doing the music for our games. This is a small operation, I don’t have a big company doing press and putting my games out there for everyone, this is basically two of us sending out emails and tweeting into the void, so we really need your help in getting the word out there. You have a small window of time to make an impact with an app game before it’s drowned in the flood of competitors, so if you’re thinking “I’ve gotta try that game out eventually,” or “I’ll help out steve when I find the time” – the time is now, the sooner the better!

I wouldn’t even ask if I didn’t think this was a fun game. We’re putting gameplay footage out, there’s a FREE lite version if you want to play a few levels and try it out, the entire soundtrack is up on bandcamp to listen to. All I ask is if you like it, buy it, it’s 99 cents. If you want to help me out, tell your friends, let them play it, show them the footage, play the songs, share the video. I have no delusions of getting rich off this, but we have a lot of really cool game ideas and I just want to make a statement with this game – the statement is “We’re here, we’re going to be putting out a lot of games, please look forward to them.” It’s a hard market to break, and we could be tossing a lot of great ideas into a black hole, so we need to shine light them! That’s YOU! You are the flashlight. Please make this damaged metaphor work.

As promised: STUFF.

Gameplay trailer!

The soundtrack on Bandcamp:
http://thefourhats.bandcamp.com/

And THE GAME on itunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/four-hats/id493969910?ls=1&mt=8

Thank you for reading this far! Let’s hope for an exciting week!

The Four Hats preview from fanzine.com!

Also check out the TACO GRAVEYARD blog which i post frequently to.

This is a painting I did for my friend Briana, who requested a fairy painting involving honey bees.

I made my editor Connie a HAPPYFACE painting for Christmas when we’d finished up that book so I had to do a new one for WINTER TOWN! Connie is on the left, giggling at Evan’s misfortune.

Here’s a promotional piece of art I did for the FOUR HATS game. It’s an iOS/app store game but it’s still good to have “box art” for any articles or reviews that may want more than a screenshot to show. I designed it so I could have it go length-wise or across.

Speaking of FOUR HATS, it’s nice to finally be doing a project I can actually openly talk about and share art and experiences from! Make sure to check out/ bookmark/ RSS the Taco Graveyard site, which we’ve been updating frequently. Taco Graveyard is a game development company comprised of myself, and my friend Sal, an awesome programmer. We plan to release a bunch of games this year and have some big ideas in mind!

Fri

Intended: Day: Go to the mall to write – Blogs.
Night- write out, Gretchen short story edits and finish blogs.

DID: Did write a series of blogs, my iPod broke. Ended up getting new iPod and spent a lot of time organizing music files and rebuilding playlists.
Did write out at night, ended up cleaning up Book 3 notes, did not get to Gretchen Edits.

Sat

Intended: Four Hats Press materials

DID: Did write Four Hats press materials. Had evening plans and then spent more time organizing music.

Sun

Intended: Edit Book 3 character bios, chapter summaries, mission statement

DID: Worked on the Gretchen edits. Did not get to any of the book 3 stuff. Watched Golden Globes.

Mon (off from work)

Intended: Finish up Gretchen, Blogs, Four Hats Press, Book 3 character bios, chapter summaries and mission statement. Basically I had the day free, just make sure I did what I meant to do Fri-Sun.

DID: Gretchen, Blogs and Press were done. Did chores, went on a hike, evening got away from me, BUT – iPod ready to go! Sorry Book 3.

NEW LIST – back to work, reorganized, made a new list.

Tues

Intended: Needed assets for Four Hats, title screen, end screen

DID: New assets finished. Did title screen and drew pretty cool end screen. Success!

Wed

Intended: Edit Book 3 character bios, chapter summaries, mission statement. Let’s get Book 3 moving already!

DID: Cooked, cleaned, played around with photoshop brushes. Evening escaped me.

Thurs

Intended: Work on new game concept art at friend’s house.

DID: Decided Four Hats needed promo art, and penciled image for that instead.

Fri

Intended: Write out, Book 3 stuff

DID: Normal writing place was packed full of teenagers!! Went home and worked on promo Four Hats art instead.

What we learned: Book 3 is the easiest thing to put off. Things do get done eventually, but rarely as fast as I intend or in the right order