Hello there, Friends and Enemies,
It has been awhile since I’ve posted a Midnite Gazette. I’ve been busy with writing and preparing for ThoughtBubble so I somewhat ignored this future Pulitzer Prize winning publication. I do have an important and exciting update though so lets jump into it.
Updates:
So, what have I been up to since the last Gazette? Well, I’ve been working on two projects; Emerald Fearscape and Osaka S.P.D.
For Emerald Fearscape I have written two short stories so far, and I have been planning out others. I have around eight stories that I will be writing and a total list of fifteen possible stories (that could still grow) with the seven I’ve not yet confirmed if I’ll keep in the book but I’ll be writing all of them and once finished I’ll read them through and cut out whichever stories I don’t want to use - and I’ll post them on here instead for free! I’m approaching this book with a different plan than usual where I’ll be writing the first draft of every story then going back and doing the edits once they are all done instead of writing one story then editing that over and over then moving onto the next. I feel and hope that if all the stories are done it will make the editing easier and it will make writing the stories easier too as my productivity will hopefully stay throughout. Leaving a gap between the raw story and the editing will allow me to come at the stories with fresh eyes and a different take - one of the finished stories I’ve already been thinking of big edits for and changing a lot of the story.
The update for Osaka S.P.D. is the aforementioned exciting update. I finished the script for the final issue last week. It took a lot of planning and a lot of work but what I ended up with was something I was really happy with and I’m hoping readers will feel the same way. The script still needs to be edited and sent to the editor Clare for further editing notes but I’m confident with what is on the page and I’m confident in it being a great ending for a series I’m proud of. Finishing a project is always a bittersweet moment, it feels nice of course but also feels like an end to an era in your life, as silly as that sounds. As a writer, I write because I love writing and my love of writing is the process of actually writing once, that’s done then there is less enjoyment, a good reason why so many writers just keep on writing until they no longer can. I’ve loved writing Osaka S.P.D. just as I loved writing Osaka Mime but as my girlfriend Pam can attest to, on the day Osaka Mime came out I wasn’t as excited about it as people might think, I was happy of course and seeing the book on the shelves at stores gave me a feeling I can’t explain but also I feel other people were more excited for me than maybe I was myself. Some of that is probably the ol’ Irish self-deprecation at hand, when we cannot be openly proud of things we’ve done in case it makes us look cocky and stuck up, but the other part of it was that when the story is finished and released then it is gone, it’s no longer your story, it’s the end and all roads lead to the end.
I hope that section made sense and didn’t make me sound like an ol’ grump who isn’t happy about having their work published because I really am so proud and so happy to be a published author, I understand that is a dream for a lot of people - including myself - and to have achieved that is a privilege. But if I’m never published again then my life will go on and so will my writing, I’ll publish it myself and if nobody but family, friends and a handful of random people read it then it won’t make a difference, I’ll keep writing. My favourite part about Osaka Mime’s release day - apart from the celebration Pam organised for me including a cake, card, cans of beer and two presents; a golden necklace I wear daily and a beautiful fountain pen with Osaka Mime and the release date engraved on it - was reading all the reactions from readers, the reviews were nice to read but seeing regular fans of comic books and horror posting about it online was a humbling moment and one I’ll never forget or take for granted. Thank you to anyone who did post it about, I hope you’ll enjoy Osaka S.P.D.
As for what else I’ve been up to I’ve been reading books and watching movies. I’ve been delving into Irish writing more, including Irish mythology and folklore but also just regular Irish books in hopes to help my own writing and maybe get some inspiration. I read Ireland’s Immortals earlier this year and will be reading Mark Williams’ other book Celtic Myths. I just finished W.B. Yeat’s Fairy Tales of Ireland which was a nice read and I’m currently reading Blindboy Boatclub’s short story collection Boulevard Wren which has been brilliant so far, the titular short story Boulevard Wren has quickly become one of my favourite short stories ever. A non-Irish book I finished reading was The City & The City, a high concept detective novel with a bizarre but utterly unique premise. I loved it.
I’ve been watching lots of movies too. Too many to give some reviews for here so you can check out my Letterboxd if you’d like (@midniteauth0r). I’m taking part in HoopTober this year which is an annual viewing challenge, the creator gives a list of certain attributes a movie has to have and you make a list of 31 movies that cover each attribute. You are supposed to do it all in October but I don’t have time for that so started in September and I’ll just keep at the list until it is done. Probably next year…
Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading as always and make sure to keep warm she’s a cold one these days. I’ll leave you with a picture of the present I got myself for finishing Osaka S.P.D., an R/C car replica of a McLaren F1 car. Yes, I’m 28 years old.
Keep hydrated, keep warm and keep it sexy x
- Andy