CAMP CLOSED FOR THE SUMMER! (WIP Wednesday)

I've wrapped two of the three stories for the summer Camp NaNoWriMo and have surpassed my goal with the third while not quite finishing it up. My hope is to get it finished by the end of the week and go right into edit mode for the next few tales I've got on the docket for August.

From there, I've got one last chapter of Quadrant to wrap up to bring the second volume of that series to an end and the last remaining chapters of Shockwave are up after that. Once I've completed those, I will be set with most of my writing into the first couple months of 2019. My plans for the next month is to finish most of that catching up so I can rebuild the six month buffer on the Patreon tales. (No worries for patrons though. I'm still about three months ahead.)

My hope still is to make sure I'm publishing twenty-six stories a year starting in 2020. I'm not quite ready for that yet, but as I keep pushing myself to write faster I'm hoping I can make that doable.

And if you're wondering about updates on the next volume of Lightweight, I can say with certainty it is in the works. I've started the outline for volume five, which will clock in as the longest volume of the series to date, somewhere in the seven to nine issue range. It will also serve as this year's NaNoWriMo project in November, where I hope to finish at least the first two-thirds of it.

Things are moving right along in the Quadrant Universe. Next month, I'm looking to debut a few new ideas for you and hopefully get the ball rolling on an exciting new way to share my stories with my fans. Stay tuned for news on that in the next couple weeks.

Today's image is the cover for Lightweight 21: Secret of the Stars, the end of the Ragnarok saga. It's now available for pre-order at Smashwords or readable right now on Patreon.

Cosplay Friday: Batgirl

It's a bit surprising that Batgirl doesn't get nearly as many costumes as some of her peers in DC's superhero community. Admittedly her costume is more detailed than a Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy or even Supergirl, but when she's done right, she just looks iconic. Take as an example, Astelvert's amazing work on her cosplay of the Burnside Batgirl here.

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

Coming Continuing Comics 6: the 80s edition!

Every month I peruse the comic solicits to see what I want to add to my subscription list. Triple C takes a look at the superhero books that most stand out to me or I think are well worth a wider look by everyone. This time around I got my own order in a bit late, but here's the new stuff that I think looks pretty solid. And this new stuff... has some creative teams and settings that harken back to my earliest days as a comic reader!

It's not too often that two comic legends get back together for an amazing too issue. But as part of Marvel's 80th anniversary initiative to bring back classic creative teams for new tales, Marvel has reunited long time mutant mastermind Chris Claremont with the always amazing Bill Sienkiewicz (whose name I can impressively spell from memory) to bring the world New Mutants: War Children.

This one looks like it is set during their classic run which gave us stories like the Demon Bear and the origin of Warlock. The new story has a description that is fairly vague outside of a mention of Darkchylde, Magik's evil alter ego. But with a creative team this legendary, I expect a great read in a couple months.

Great Art: Rocketeer by Tom Grummett!

Since Diamond just debuted a huge array of merchandise for Cliff Secord at San Diego this year, it felt like a fitting time to share some truly great Rocketeer art. I still feel like the sky's the limit for this character's future if a publisher and a creative team really set out to write an entire series of grand adventures for him. Here's hoping someone makes that a reality. And when they do, it might be great to get Tom Grummett to draw the dang thing. Because as you see here, the man draws Dave Stevens's character with finesse and panache.

As always, you can check out a lot more Great Art in the Super Powered Fiction Facebook group!. And after you're done admiring some great art here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

An important life lesson...

I shared this recently on Facebook and thought it best to share it more widely here. This is an important point for any consumer of art, from novels to comics to paintings to movies to whatever.

Life, writing and Camp NaNoWriMo

Sometimes things more important than steady writing schedules occur. Worse, sometimes they occur dead in the center of NaNoWriMo or Camp NaNoWriMo. Thanksgiving is the prime example of this, but this July in came in the form of a wedding.

I'm the first to admit that the wedding of a family member takes precedence over any work. So I took some vacation jobs from the day job, worked ahead as best I could on the second of the three stories I'm working though for this month and disappeared off the grid for a few days.

Seriously though, I did get little work done as I went on the road to southern Iowa, saw my older brother marry a wonderful woman, and came back home with two beautiful step-nieces along for the ride.

And while I still have several days of adventures planned with them around my work week, I'm furiously working to also play catch up on my writing. My goal is three stories at around 25,000 words for the month, just above my usual 20,000 I average on a given month. I would like it to be the start of a push towards more writing month in and month out as I seek to expand the Quadrant Universe into the next few years.

So onward and upward and a reminder that even when the ups and downs of daily life derail yo for a few days, you cannot let them derail you forever. See you soon and keep reading!

Gallur-y: Mars Attacks!

Over the last few years, Mexican artist Rafael Gallur has become a go to painter for action. A regular painter of amazing lucha libre magazine covers, he channels the energy of Frazetta into modern cover art, something very lacking on this side of the border. And since his art doesn't quite fit into the usual comic-oriented Great Art feature, I thought it was time to give him his own feature here at Super Powered Fiction. Few painters can match the power he brings.

The classic Topps card line Mars Attacks has become an icon of weird alien invasion stories, and has transitioned into comics, novels, games and a hilarious Tim Burton film. But when Topps decided they wanted to produce an updated line of cards, Rafael Gallur was one of the talents they tapped for the new cards. Here's an example of his work on a better known licensed property, and it is clear he brings the same craftsmanship he does to his lucha work to the Martian invaders and the human resistance!

Be sure to head over to Gallur's DeviantArt to check out more work by him and order some of his amazing work as prints. After you're done admiring his work, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from me this week!

Cosplay Friday: Mary Jane

Spider-Man: Far From Home is hitting theaters on this long holiday weekend, so it seemed an apt time to pull out an MJ cosplay. But in the spirit of Zendaya playing a very different take on that character (complete with new name), I thought it would be a perfect time to pull out one of my favorite looks at the character. This one is from one of the most beautiful cosplayers out there, Lua Stardust, and is maybe my favorite take on Mary Jane Watson anywhere!

You can check out a lot more great Cosplay pictures over on my Twitter. And while you are admiring some great cosplay here, don’t forget to check out some of the other great stuff from yours truly this week!

It's Camp NaNoWriMo time again!

The fine folks at Camp NaNoWriMo hold their event twice a year, in April and again in July. With that in mind, I've decided to focus myself on pushing out more words of fiction this month. I'm not changing up any of my writing plans however. These next few weeks will be spent building towards more chapters of Quadrant, Shockwave and Doctor Cosmic Presents. I've started towards a solid buffer on my release schedule, but I'm still not up to the 6 months to a year ahead I would like to be. This month will be spent building closer towards that as I head forward into the second half of 2019 and 2020.

As usual with Camp NaNoWriMo, I'll try to keep updates coming your way as I work my way through the month, but no guarantees, as if I fall behind on my daily writing goals, this blog is usually the first thing to fall by the wayside.

Wish me luck and keep watching this space for more updates!