An inspiration becomes a dream

"Carl Macek was a man of immense writing talent, skill, style, class and intelligence." - Rebecca Forstadt Olkowski, Voice actress (Lynn Minmei in Robotech)

On April 17, 2010, one of the original producers of Robotech passed away from a heart attack.


Robotech has been - and continues to be - a huge inspiration to me as a writer, as a storyteller and as a person.  What Carl Macek wrote was an amazing drama that is still relevant today, and appeals to adolescents and adults, males and females.

What makes Robotech an even more amazing work is that the animation is taken entirely from a Japanese anime series, Macross.  For as much as the two series have in common, they are also completely different.  The characters are new, the dialogue is new, and the story has a fresh twist to it.

As Robotech character Roy Fokker once commented, "Once you get this Robotech stuff in your blood, it's there to stay."

So, since I cannot attend his memorial service in California on Saturday, May 1, my tribute to the late, great Carl Macek and the spectacular series he fathered will have to come in the form of hosting a Robotech marathon on the same day.

In closing, as Grig (The Last Starfighter) said, "Death is a primitive concept; I prefer to think of them as battling evil in another dimension!"  Another dimension, that is, where the United Earth Government is in possession of a Super Dimensional Fortress.


You can read the original news article (as well as continuing coverage) at Robotech.com by clicking this link.

Homeward Bound

It's all too easy to get lost in your own troubles in this twisted game of life.

Despite primarily great things happening in my life, I've been feeling very overwhelmed lately.  A lot of hard choices have presented themselves, and I'm sure I'm over analyzing them, but being a married man automatically makes any decision making process more complicated.

Anyway, the fact of the matter is that I was really overwhelmed last night and was not in the mood for anyone's guff one way or another.  While walking through downtown Pittsburgh on my way to meet my wife, a little kid asks me if I've got any spare change.  I almost never carry cash on me, and last night was not an exception, so I very honestly told the kid that, "Sorry, I don't."

I didn't even lose my stride, but it only took a moment for everything to sink in.

The kid was only 8-10 years old, and his eyes and cheeks were flushed red from crying.  In spite of my horrible mood, I turned around and asked the kid what he needed the money for.  He explained to me he needed it to catch a bus and go home.  I didn't ask why he didn't have the money.  It wasn't important.  Besides, I remember being a scared kid in safer environments.


I told him to wait where he was - that I was going to meet my wife at her job, grab some spare change and be back in just a few minutes.  It was only a matter of a few blocks.  Everything went according to plan, and I handed the $2 to the young man, made sure he had a cell phone and made sure he was in contact with his mother.

It's possible the kid was playing me.  After all, there are beggars-by-night in the city who hold very prestigious day jobs.  But hey, why spend yours when you don't have to?  Still, this was a kid - not a grown man; and I'd rather be played for $2 than to give in to cynicism and risk reading about the kid's horrible fate in the next morning's newspaper.  A child's life is worth at least the cost of bus fare.

The whole experience helped me put the real world into a better perspective, and my bad mood gave way to a much better one.

Handwritten vs. Typed

I've always been a good typist. On average I do about 88 wpm (words per minute) with 0-1% error. Ever since I graduated from SUNY Fredonia, I almost exclusively write using a computer. It's easier and faster (and more coherent) for me to get my thoughts out before I lose them. It also makes the editing process approximately eight gigabillion times easier.

However, every once in a great while I'm in a situation where I don't have a computer handy. Let's say if I'm in a meeting or in a class or out at a bar. Napkins or a notepad will do just fine in those instances. Heck, it's what I used to use almost exclusively during high school and a good chunk of college.

I got to my class last night with close to two hours to spare before the professor got there to get things started. I'd come up with a great idea while parking the car, and jotted down the summary of the story in my notebook while waiting for a grande hot chocolate (that's right - Starbucks).

What started as a four sentence summary turned into a 300+ word short story (it really doesn't take that long, but yes, I had enough spare time to count each word by hand). Because of my mood and the tone of the story (mainly depressed/overwhelmed/troubled), I don't think using a computer would have permitted me to fully embrace my inspiration. There's something soothing, yet gritty, about writing by hand - especially when it's a hard boiled detective story.

UPDATE (04/19/2010)
 Since transcribing that story into a Word document, the word count has more than doubled because I've been able to fill in some gaps, produce better transitions, reduce confusing plot points, and generally improve the story.  There's still more to do, of course, but, as is stated by Egg Shen in Big Trouble In Little China, "See? That was nothing. But that's how it always begins. Very small."

Guilty Pleasure

BACKGROUND TO MY GUILTY PLEASURE
I'm a pretty big fan of The Soup (with Joel McHale). I've actually been watching the show so long I sometimes have a senior moment and refer to it as 'Talk Soup', for which my younger friends mock me.

[insert sad face here]

One early evening, my wife demands I stop doing dishes to watch The Soup (how dare she watch it without me?). I can't complain, but it's got to be something outrageously hilarious for her to ask me to stop washing dishes.

My mind was blown when I saw James Franco of all people on some random soap opera.

I happen to also be a fan of James Franco (I find his intermittent lisp endearing) and all of his shenanigans (such as the all too brief video series, "Acting with James Franco").

There's no good reason for James Franco to be on a soap opera; and he's practically laughing as he delivers his lines. Marie and I have no choice but to agree with Joel McHale and assume that he lost a bet.

MY GUILTY PLEASURE
Soap operas. That's right, I said it. I enjoy watching soap operas, and I blame James Franco. My curiosity was piqued after seeing that clip on The Soup.

I'll admit that I used to watch soap operas with one of my (three!) older sisters, but that was mainly to mock her (love ya, sis!). So I do have some background on which to judge the new generation of soap opera writers, actors and crew.

The CHARACTERS are just as archetypal, trite and carnal as ever, motivated by a gross exaggeration of the seven deadly sins, of course. The quality of the ACTORS has somehow gone down as many of them habitually stumble over their lines and stutter. If it were only one actor doing this, I could let it slide as him/her just plain old acting.  But trust me, this is not the case.  The WRITING is, as much as I hate to admit it, quite entertaining.  The plot arcs are just as over the top as ever.  The dialogue is still mostly exposition, but often sultry (sorry - I'm a sucker for sultry dialogue).

Considering I'm known as a "*story snob," it might strike you as odd that I would watch something so horrible. Indeed, indeed. But it's like watching a train wreck. You just can't pull yourself away from it! And eventually you get sucked in and it becomes an amusement.

I don't go out of my way to watch soaps, and because I'm only a casual watcher the story arcs are more twisted and ridiculous, and they'd be even more confusing if it wasn't for all that exposition they throw in there.

So, in conclusion, "Damn you, James Franco, and damn whoever you lost that bet to that put you on whatever that soap opera was that piqued my curiosity into soap operas! But, guiltily, thank you as well, because I do enjoy them, but I don't want to! Damn you!"

*Interchangeable with: literary or writing.

O Muse, Impoverish Me With Your Beautiful Art

This post is primarily for Aaron and Vinnie, my oldest and bestest friends, who will immediately get the joke. If anyone else gets a chuckle out of it, then that's just gravy on the cake. (Who puts gravy on cake??)

After work today, I had the opportunity to correspond with a psychologist - a friend and fellow alumnus. Don't worry, he wasn't diagnosing me (I hope). He was explaining some disorders to me for material in a short story I'm working on, which has a tentative yellow light for being published (will have a more definitive answer about that after June).

Anyway, the funny punchline is that the character in question is a homeless man, and I - like a homeless man - was scribbling notes on an empty brown bag (Bruegger's Bagels, if you must know).

:D

COMING SOON: New Blog Service

In the very near future I'll be changing from Google Blogger to Word Press.

In general, I'm not all that satisfied with Blogger, but also, they're doing away with their FTP service, which will make my life even more complicated.

I like Word Press better. It's more streamlined, easier to manage, and it's never taken more than one attempt to successfully publish a post. Also, Word Press's slogan is, "Code is Poetry," the truth of which melts my heart.

Chew Toy

It's been quite some time since I've made an entry on my blog. I've been so busy with so many different projects that even if I did have spare time that wasn't spent recovering from my overload, I'm not sure I'd even know what to talk about.

So let me just give you some updates on my projects:

GODS, DEVILS & OBJECTS OF INTRIGUE
Save for a few minor and non-urgent details, I'm finished with my graphic novel/limited comic series script. Right now I'm waiting on my illustrator to finish enough pages so that I can post them online and pitch them to publishing companies and literary agents. I'm no artist, so I'm not really sure how long that will take.

RELICS: DARK AGES
I've entered into the alpha testing phase of the game development process. Feedback from players and my own insights from the process itself have opened my eyes and allowed me to make an even better game than before. I anticipate the alpha test to take a few months to complete, at the end of which I will enter it into the beta testing phase.

ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES AND OTHER MOUNTAIN TALES
Although our book signing tour has slowed down significantly, we're still hitting up stores to host us. Although it's not set in stone, I'll likely have one during the first week of May.

ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES AND OTHER MOUNTAIN TALES, VOLUME 2
The book has only been out for about a half a year, but sales have been better than anticipated, and we've gotten the *tentative* green light to do a sequel. The plan is to have the novellas done by May sometime. I've already got the introduction and outline squared away. There's still plenty left to go, but I think this one is going to be as much fun to write as it will be to read!

RED TIE PRODUCTS, LLC (aka Grammar Matters!)
Now that I'm attending Point Park University for my MBA, I'm putting all this new insight to immediate use to improve the organization and management of Red Tie Products. This, of course, will always be an ongoing process, but it has definitely boosted my level of confidence.

LYRICAL ADAPTATIONS
I'm also collaborating with long time friend Michael Winkler to adapt the poems in Twombly McGreen vs. The Mean Steam Machine into lyrics. Winkler is a pretty busy kid, playing gigs, working the 9-5 grind, and everything else, so I'm not sure when I'll have mp3s to share, but I'm positive they'll be awesome.

Singer/songwriter Cathie Russo (www.CathieRusso.com) has also adapted my poems into something more musical, but unfortunately all of those recordings were lost in a horrible technological accident.

I've been described as an over ambitious person, so let me leave you with this quote about ambition:

"Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in." - Bill Bradley