Saturday

so, i was kind of talking about this to my wife, who is a great writer and at this present time studying writing – how i often tried to translate into my work, meaning my fiction – the impetus of a song or an album or the energy and stylistic push of a comic, and i kind of left the thought hanging there. and then i am sitting there reading casanova by matt fraction and he starts talking about how when he sat down to write casanova the tunes of phil spector and his wall of sound were a driving force behind his thinking.

i have seen people talk about one medium in terms of another – comics get the label filmic; films get labelled as comic-like. and out of the intersecting interests of various artists we get weird hybrids that are already up and running before some of those little mainstream bastards even learn to string a couple of words together.

when i sit there and i look at certain stories i know that they are my pixies albums; pushed through the trash compactor that is my mind. it is a wonderful way of making sausages and art. we consume so much shit these days that our turds are beautiful mutant peacocks. it made me smile – that thought of mr fraction’s; it really chimed. aren’t a whole load of us trying to pay tribute to what we loved in whatever way we can? and don’t we feed the appetites of future artists who will turn to our works and decide they want to do something that distils the essence of this and mashes it up with that? sure, i hope so.

Friday

Today is kind of a strange day because an integral part of Fridays for the last four years has come to an end – Warren Ellis’ comic Freakangels concluded today. It has been an interesting journey with Ellis managing to sidestep a lot of the more obvious paths one might have expected him to tread given the initial premise. I am definitely going to have re-read the series to fully judge exactly what it is all about because it has changed and the subtleties at play from the outset are something one might miss with a casual lazy read.

The beginning, and certain parts of the story, promised an escalating violence that would resolve itself in an equally violent manner – it seemed like the Freakangels were being pushed into a corner and were going to have to bite back really hard to resolve their issues. Then things started to shift gear as the most peaceful members of the group evolved themselves and became the driving force. What is the answer when you are pretty much omnipotent and cannot die? How long can you go on beating the crap out of each other? How long is that answer going to work for you? So, we get to see the Freakangels grow up, and the maturation they undergo becomes the most important thing that happens to them – a change of perspective and a realisation of responsibility.

It was a fairly muted ending – one that managed to offer hope and not be one of those facile happy endings that can stick in the craw. Was it the ending that everyone was expecting? No, I’m sure it wasn’t. Freakangels offers something different to what might be considered its contemporaries though – its science fiction is gentle, its superhumans experience growth, its solution to problems isn’t fist fights.

Since joining the Whitechapel community, which was set up to run alongside and compliment Freakangels, I have been involved in a number of creative projects. People have been inspired by both the webcomic itself and the ideas about creativity that Mr Ellis has shared with his fans, and it has been nice to see those people evolve and shed layers in the same way as the Freakangels. It will be interesting to see how things move along from here.

Monday

It’s so cool that Doctor Who can have been a lasting though changing influence throughout my entire life. Regeneration is one of those wonderful narrative devices which allows continuation of a long running series and allows the writers to avoid the pitfalls of that whole “son of”, “next generation of” approach. Is there an idea that hasn’t been explored in Doctor Who? Well, of course there is. Because they keep coming up with new ones.

Different flavours on the same menu – I have liked each of the Doctors since the reboot; before the reboot my favourite of the older series was Tom Baker, then William Hartnell, Peter Davison, Patrick Troughton, Colin Davison, John Pertwee, Sylvester McCoy. Peter Cushing and Paul McGann were good but don’t really count in the running because they didn’t get much of a run – at least that’s my thinking. A lot of people have a similar relationship to the Doctor as others have to James Bond – the first actor you see in the role is the one who becomes somehow quintessential.

It retains something that is uniquely British about it – Quatermass and the Pit, and John Wyndham, H G Wells, all those great British sci-fi writers are echoed in it; but it also has started to mesh with newer science fiction tropes quite admirably.

To make something so influential, so adaptable, and so long-lasting and trans-generational – that would really be something.

Friday

Build a language, build a world, people it, and then see how hard it is to let the thing go. I had planned for Ortoematic to be a short story collection and then a series of three novels, but for a few days now I have been planning out a further four volumes of flash / short fictions that expand the stories of characters already introduced and introducing new ones.

I have planned for a series of spin-offs featuring the other members of Otto Matic’s family, but I am not seeing that there are other interesting characters that I have introduced who also might offer another angle of entrance into Otto’s world

So, by the time I get to writing the novels for this series the world that I am going to be drawing from and the main character I will be using, namely Otto Matic, will be a really rounded creation. The world has its own logic, and the breaks in logic manifest in a certain way, and I am really excited about the plans for the fifth volume because it represents a real widening of the scope and canvas of the story.

I have planned out a lot of work for myself in the short term which I see as paying off in the long term – each story and its release model designed to gather up a following by putting out the serialised story in regular instalments that will take us through the next four years for Ortoematic, and at least a year for the other stories.

Working up these stories so they can have a regular release pattern will allow me to finish those unfinished projects which have lingered too long and to focus on working out how to complete those longer works which as yet have not been concluded. A very exciting time, for me at least, and hopefully for any readers out there.

Thursday

it’s interesting, i read a lot of other writer’s blogs and i see how they are only working on one project and it amazes me that they can do that – perhaps these uber-focused guys are the only ones who write the huge fucking doorstopper novels, but i am sure they must have just as many unwritten things that come to them as ideas when they are writing which they stow away as notes for a later day. sure, it could be a problem that every time an idea bites with me i try and knock something out; like taking a snapshot of every new face you meet. a problem? or just my working practice?

some people advise against trying to cut open the golden goose to work out exactly what it is that factilitates the creation of your work, but the only way you can win a game is to understand the rules so that you are able to bend them, and what is creation but a game?

this last couple of days i have been rewatching “twin peaks”, reading “deadman”, “86′d” by dan fante, and “zen and the art of writing” by ray bradbury. i like to feed my inspiration lots. “the last airbender” was a disappointment but nowhere near as bad as “the happening”. “dead like me” the series was great, but the follow up movie should have been kept on ice until they could get all the original cast members on board because the new ones just didn’t cut it – sometimes as you watch it you know that the idea-well has run dry.

my souundtrack for the last few days has been the church, radiohead and bjork.

all of this stuff mashes together in my head, steeps like brewing tea, and comes out the other end … sometimes i’m using the nutrients and sometimes i am using the waste. it is all about picking the harmony and the dissonance, getting the right balance … knowing when to fuck with it and when to leave it alone.

Monday

So, today I decided to finish off introducing Rex Tete (Doghead) and release him into the wild. I like waking up with these guys popping into my skull and demanding attention and that I give voice to their stories. There is a strange carnival that moves through my mind and I like to tell everyone about it – and that does not make me in any way nuts – ask all the other writers out there and i am sure they will back me up.

I have been finishing off “Dead Like Me” on netflix and it is one of those series that has definitely stuck with me – it is so nice to be able to have watched it completely. I like seeing a series from start to finish, I like watching as a character grows, I like to see story arcs pose themselves as problems and then work to solve themselves.

Sure, single self-contained stories are great and sometimes they do capture and lay out the passage of someone through their life, but a huge multi-volume tome has so much scope and can be so rich and it is big and you can really sink your teeth into it and you get to come back for more. sure, like movies, there are lots of books that you read and you don’t want to ever see a sequel see the light of day, but there are just as many you look at and want more and more of them.

beginning, middle, and end make a very satisfying step by step, but it is very nice to step past endings into new beginnings too.

Saturday

there are certain works that you read and certain movies that you watch which, by the end of them, uplift you and give you something to think about; they can actually change your life if you are open to it. i know that i have had more than several moments where a book i have read has caused an axis shift in my life … this has happened with both fiction books and non-fiction books.

what is my ambition as i sit down and write something? i should be thinking about that, right? about having something that i wish to communicate to the people that read the word i put out there in the world. well, i usually do – sometimes it is something as simple as telling the flash fiction or poetic equivalent of a joke, or sometimes i am satirising some situation that is out there in the world. what would i really like to write though? something that touches people and effects them in a way that, while not necessarily profound, is at least a way that helps them in their life.

might seem a strange thought for someone who writes primarily science fiction or crime novels but it is a thought i have nonetheless. i have read some things lately by ray bradbury and jean giraud (moebius) which express the joy in the craft that they are practicing, and that is what i want to exemplify – even when i am writing about something that on the surface is not that cheery, i would like to state that i am having real fun writing it. i wouldn’t do it otherwise – i think i have said that before; i am not a suffering artist and i don’t write therapy poetry.

in a totally unrelated aside i note today that amy winehouse died – what a fucking shame; all the naysayers and backstabbers can fuck themselves – she was a kickass singer with a great voice, who cares about all the other shit?

Friday

So, it has been a pretty thin week around here, but I have been working away at different projects – formulating a framework and pattern of release for things. There has been so much brainstorming going on that you might say my mind has been a fairly turbulent weather system.

I have had ideas for stories that link into existing story universes that I have already created, and new ones which will expand my creations. I am enjoying the complexity and the fun in creating that complexity in which my characters can live.

I have spent the week watching ‘Persons Unknown’ and sensing that it got axed before the person writing it got a chance to tell the whole story, and having read on wikipedia (something I probably shouldn’t have done) that the ending was unsatisfactory, I am wondering what loose ends will be left flapping. It’s an interesting show and it built its characters into interesting people pretty rapidly. It must be hard to have to curtail something you saw as having legs and being able to run a lot longer – one of the benfits of beiong an independent artist I suppose.

The submissions are starting to stack up for “the magazine magazine” and I am looking forward to being able to put a magazine together.

I have also been checking out the brilliant Brandon Graham’s blog again and reading an interview with him that gives a wonderful insight into the thinking behind his work.

Fiction of all genres; poetry of all genres – this is where I want to make myself felt; where I would like to my mark creatively. I am planning to bring that to fruition.

Monday

Yesterday was a cool day. My wife put together an open mic which had music and spoken word poetry. I really enjoyed it. Now I knew I was going the work that I was listening to but I was dreading actually having to read anything myself. I have been sitting in a shit pit of self pity and stage fright for a while – I had got myself convinced that people were only listening to my stupid English accent and not tp what I was actually saying. Well. It may be true I suppose. What does it boil down to though really? I don’t particularly like the sound of my own voice so labouring under the impression that other people were only hearing that and not the things I wrote.

Everyone was interested in hearing everyone else and sat there listening to everyone read and speak and sing I felt a kindling of the old desire to get up and read. It was good and apparently my reading has improved – I was clearer and communicated more effectively.

Why do I not like my own voice? Well, I think, like a lot of people – I have an idea of what I sound like, or rather I had an idea, and then I heard my voice recorded for the first time and all my illusions were shattered (hmm, sounds a little melodramatic, no?). But anyway, I didn’t like it. I also do not overly identify with the idea of being English – an I am not saying that I have a problem with being English; just that for me it is in no way a defining characteristic of who or what I am. As far as I am concerned my Englishness is a distorted lens through which people view and try to understand me. But the only reason it ever becomes a problem is if I let it.

What does it mean if someone is trying to understand you through one facet of who you are? It just means that they are trying to establish some kind of common reality, I do it all the time. Shorthand ways of knowing people are essential in the short term – they are not obviously great ways to continue knowing someone, but they are open doorways into knowledge.

Anyway, I busted throught the stagefright, and I enjoyed myself – I am looking forward to further nights of spoken word and open mic, and seeing the creative side of people. Everyone had fun and got to see a new side of certain people.

Friday

So, today I decided to launch an online magazine, which may eventually become a print magazine, or rather I put out the call for submissions the magazine magazine all submissions should go to ortoematic@gmail.com. I am looking for all kinds of creative work and it will be published under a creative commons license.

Watching ‘Weeds’. Reading essays by various people.