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NEWS AND VIEWS - SEPTEMBER 2019
WRITING NEWS I've got The Demon in the Metal up to 94,000 words now. I've still got a ways to go, but this is already one of the longest novels I've ever written. The two Jack and Miracle Girl novels, taken together, are about 138,000 words, and back in high school I wrote an absolutely awful 100,000-word fantasy novel called The Last of the High-Born, but most of my books tend to run pretty short, usually around 40,000-60,000 words. So this is a big one, for me anyway. I don't know what I'm going to do with it, though. I usually just release my books to Amazon, without a lot of fanfare, but I've put quite a lot of effort into this one and I think it might be worth trying to sell it to a publisher. (I had these same thoughts about Sam Fortune, but Sam Fortune was an old-fashioned pulp adventure, whereas this is an epic fantasy. I understand there's actually a market for this stuff.) Probably nothing will come of it, but we'll see how it goes. I haven't really thought much about what my next project might be. I've got a sequel to The Demon in the Metal figured out (this is actually set to be a trilogy), but I don't know, maybe I should write another Signalverse novel or something, just for a change of pace. Here's what I've got: Signal Intelligence. A direct sequel to Disreputable Persons. This one takes place in 2018, at about the same time as Champions Weekly. Max becomes suspicious of a slick new hero called Arc Seven and decides to start investigating him, which leads to all kinds of trouble. Orchid Returns. Title is tentative. In this one Orchid has to contend with a seemingly immature new superheroine, Kitsune, who may or may not be a 1,000-year-old Japanese goddess in disguise. This book also takes place in 2018. Signal City Adventures, Volume One. An anthology of Signalverse stories: 1) A geeky history professor stumbles into an adventure with Shieldmaiden, Lumberjack, Lumberjill, and the villainous Northmen. 2) The Paranormals get into a comic misadventure with Ankhara, the ancient Egyptian princess turned modern-day supermodel. 3) Superhero fanatic Race Berbling (one of Kaden's acquaintances, from The White Ribbon) learns that a dour, humorless, 400-year-old exiled Externian princess has just transferred to his class. 4) A hard-boiled noir story starring the Silver Shot (taking place in the mid-60's and featuring the superheroes/supervillains of that era). Written in a hard-boiled style. Signal City Adventures, Volume Two. Another anthology: 1) Short story featuring Roy Greenfield, aka Soldier Boy, and taking place during WWII. Lodestar, Epee, the Boilermaker, and other heroes of the era appear. 2) A humorous story (a day-in-the-life) about Insomniak, who is constantly falling asleep in strange places (and in the midst of the superheroic battles). 3) A young girl is upset that her favorite superhero, the sewer-dwelling Eyeball, is retiring, and sets out to meet him, in an attempt to convince him to keep fighting crime. 4) A story about Lucy Wright and the Time League, starring Blake Hunter and Mr. D (and maybe Jack and Miracle Girl). The White Ribbon and the Heart of the Night. A sequel to The White Ribbon Runs the Red Lights. The original owner of the White Ribbon appears in Signal City, and she wants it back; meanwhile, Kaden enters an underground martial arts tournament while looking for information about his mentor Quarterstaff, who has mysteriously gone missing. Takes place in 2019. Sneak. Alan is a bitter, sarcastic office drone who just wants to be left alone. His life is turned upside down when an old friend from high school, who also happens to be a (not very successful) female supervillain, decides to use his apartment as a hideout. I really like the characters in this one, but I'm worried it might come across as a little too similar to Jack and Miracle Girl (because it's basically another story about an ordinary guy getting swept up into the superhero/supervillain life, largely against his will). Shrug. That's all for Signalverse novels. Here's some other potential projects: Sam Fortune and the Secrets of Alchemy. A new Sam Fortune novel, set in 1926. Sam gets into another adventure when his old friend, a hard-bitten detective named Boswell, asks him to help recover a stolen safe deposit box belonging to an elderly Civil War veteran. Griff and Nellie and Miss Mansfield all return. Grim's Company. The first in a series of darker, more medieval fantasy novels, following the adventures of a group of troubleshooting mercenaries (and a disguised prince). I really, really like this novel's setting, which I've been working on for years, but I've never been able to plug a good plot into it. Very frustrating. And those are all the major projects. If any of these sound interesting to you, let me know! * * * * * * * * DRAGON'S LAIR ON A TI-99/4A This is absolutely astonishing. * * * * * * * * ON CLEANING NES GAMES I bought a stack of NES games on eBay this month (I started putting together a little collection recently; I've got almost thirty games now). There were ten games in this lot, five of which were on my to-buy list: Contra, Mega Man 4, Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project. The others were meh (Jaws, Bases Loaded, Bo Jackson Baseball, Dick Tracy, and the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt pack-in, which I already had), but the price was right, so I didn't mind these so much. Unfortunately, nine of the ten games failed to work when I plugged them into my NES. Since my NES is in pretty decent shape -- I took it apart and cleaned the pins a few months ago, and I disabled the lockout chip as well -- I was pretty sure it was the games that were the problem (despite the fact that the eBay seller claimed to have CLEANED AND TESTED! the cartridges before putting them up for sale). So I took the games apart (I have a security bit) and cleaned them up. Here's my method: 1) Using a q-tip, apply a couple of wads of Brasso to the contacts, then use a soft cloth to wipe them down. 2) After removing the Brasso, take an eraser and scour the contacts slightly. 3) Finally, polish the contacts up with some isopropyl alcohol and let them dry a while. This method can get to be kind of time-consuming, but it's never failed me: all ten of the games came back to life after I cleaned them up in this way. So now I've finally got my own working copy of Contra. Nice. (Not to brag, but I'm insanely good at Contra. I can beat the game without losing a life.)  * * * * * * * * WHAT I'M READING I finished Machiavelli's The Prince this month. I also started in on a new biography of Joe Frazier (Smokin' Joe: The Life of Joe Frazier by Mark Kram, Jr., which I've been enjoying so far. Joe Frazier is one of my favorite boxers, so I was already familiar with his career, but this book is full of interesting little facts and really succeeds at bringing Joe's personality to life. (It's definitely not hagiography. Frazier's partying and horndoggery are discussed in some detail.) Haven't really been doing much reading this month, though, overall; I've been much more focused on writing.
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