The Atomic adventures of Lightweight! (WIP Wednesday)

Most of my first week of my 30,000 word September was actually spent building upcoming posts for this blog. As part of my commitment to regular writing, I also plan to do some regular blog posting as well, although perhaps a bit more esoteric than in the past. I will add a few more personal anecdotes here and there or sometimes just talk about something I'm really enjoying. But I want to have this blog and Newer Gods with a regular recurring number of posts, while The Wrestling Deep End will continue to show new posts two or three times a month.

While I'm also looking at a few long form non-fiction ideas, my focus outside of many, many blogs has been on the two projects I've been working on for several weeks now: the eighteenth chapter of the ongoing Lightweight saga and my new Atomic Werewolf tale. I'm nearing the wrap on this chapter of Lightweight which will continue to alternate with the local hero concept I'm currently developing the first years worth of stories on.

If I can continue at my increased pace, I hope to have both near completion by November. That will leave time in that month for my focus to be on NaNoWriMo and one of several new projects I'm developing. I still haven't decided which project I will focus on in November, but I've been doing research on all three, waiting to see how the muse strikes.

The new Atomic Werewolf tale is a jumble of ideas all flowing out right now. It started as a conglomeration of a couple ideas and I expect to weave in a half dozen more before the book ends. While I originally thought of this one as a novella, I have a sneaking suspicion it will be much larger than that when I finish.

Alright, enough blogging. I have more words to write and more wolves to were!

The late report with WIP Wednesday

Image by Paul Pope. Characters owned by
Glen Brunswick & Dan McDaid.

It seems like the only time I find to get these WIP posts up is late in the evening on Wednesdays. It's been a busy couple of months at the day job and that's really eaten up my time for blogging on top of the regular writing.

Of course, I did get the next installment of Newer Gods up earlier to day. It's yet another strange journey into the Earth-Haney and Brave and the Bold.

I've got two projects floating right now, both still under codenames: INDEPENDENCE and JUGGERNAUT. INDEPENDENCE was previously mentioned by yours truly as a superhero tale for the fine folks at Pro Se Press based on an existing comic property.

This is the first time I've mentioned JUGGERNAUT on the blog (though newsletter subscribers already heard about it.) My plan for next year is a relaunch of Lightweight, Quadrant and this new project as alternating month-by-month narratives. The new book will be my first work heavily set in a real world city, my own city of Cedar Rapids. I wanted to play around with the idea of cosmic forces converging on a smaller scale city in Iowa and what that might mean as a new hero emerges. I think this should prove an interesting experiment for the months ahead.

The new project will again take the shared Quadrant Universe in a different direction than the other books, one I hope will be both familiar and unique. But that's one to talk more about in the future!

Today's image is a Paul Pope cover to the gone far too soon Image book Jersey Gods, created by Glen Brunswick and Dan McDaid. That book was in my research list for JUGGERNAUT, and I rarely seem to have an excuse to share Pope's art here on the blog. If you like it, I highly recommend checking out the series in trade paperback.

And if you're interested in more tidbits from my world of writing, be sure to subscribe to the aforementioned newsletter. A new edition will be shipping out in the next 48 hours or so!

The Newer Gods have arrived!

I promised it a few weeks back. Now my newest blog endeavor has arrived!

Newer Gods covers the history of the New Gods after the 18th issue of Mister Miracle, Jack Kirby's final comic in his original run with the characters. It will cover every appearance by the characters from random team-ups to all the many revival attempts over the years!

Things kick off with the characters above as they crossover into Batman's side of the DCU in Brave and the Bold 112 by Bob Haney and Jim Aparo! Check it out and make sure you bookmark Newer Gods as it brings two more entries this week and a new weekly entry after that!

The Newer Gods are coming!

Inspired by far too many listens of various shows on the Fire & Water Podcast Network, I came to the realization that the world does not have nearly enough coverage of the Fourth World. And while Kirby's work has been covered in various amounts of detail, I thought it would be a worthy endeavor to look at the works featuring the stars of New Gods, Mister Miracle and The Forever People after their initial runs by Kirby himself came to an end.

The blog kicks off on June 4th with its first three updates! From there, it will continue on with a new comic every week! In the meantime, be sure to bookmark NewerGods.blogspot.com so you don't miss a single update!