A few years ago I wrote a web column about, well, everything. But mainly it was about writing. I go through the process from coming up with your ideas to the final dialog. I also have interviews with other writers about their craft and how they see writing. Although it's light and breezy to read it's actually quite good. Those columns been posted here since the beginning of this site, but they're under the column name "What Th--?" so many people may miss it. Since I get endless emails asking me to tell the sender everything I know about writing I thought I'd set up a separate contents page that will take you directly to the helpful columns. You can look at Writing Tips in the contents section to your right or you can CLICK HERE!

Labels: Writing Tips

I've decided to take down the ads that have been appearing on my website for the past few months. They were supposed to help pay for the website part of this site (the blog is free but the hundreds of website pages and their corresponding bandwidth costs cold, hard cash) but I've come to feel they are cluttering up the page and they frankly don't pay enough to make that worthwhile. So as of today the only ads you'll see are related directly to me, such as the Amazon.com links which will take you to books and videos I've written or worked on. I encourage you to buy everything, but especially those books published by DC since they actually give royalties to their creators.

Of course, if you would like to donate some money directly to me and this site, you can always click on the PAYPAL button to the upper right of this page. And if you don't have Paypal, just email me. I'll gladly give an address you can send all your hard-earned cash to. Any and all bribes... I mean donations, are gratefully accepted. I promise the money will go to paying the Earthlink bills and not buying yet another video game (Although I am interested in God of War 2 (loved the first one), Orange Box, Assassins Creed, Mass Effect and a few others. I have an X-Box 360, a PS2 and will at some point get a Wii as I already have several games still in their plastic wrap sitting on my shelf waiting for the console so I can play them). Ahem!

Labels: No Ads, Paypal, Video games

I've mentioned before that in my copious spare time I make robotic Venetian-style masks. I have a slew of them all over the house and though many people have suggested that I display and sell them I never have... or never had. I decided to bring a few of my "Venusian" masks to the art show at Loscon, the annual SF convention held the Friday through Sunday after Thanksgiving at the Airport Marriott hotel. I did sell one, but was astonished to learn that my Gold Mask, seen below, actually won the "Best 3D" ribbon. And because I was at a friend's house on Sunday helping set up a Christmas tree, I didn't know about it until this morning. Thanks to all the judges and everyone else. Also, thanks to Loscon for another fun time.

Labels: Venusian Masks

I just got back from the big WGA Hollywood parade where I, along with thousands of writers, actors, musicians, teamsters, nurses, teachers, politicians and more marched along Hollywood Blvd. from Ivar to Highland just in front of the world-famous Grauman's Chinese Theater. The parade began at about 1PM with several songs from Alicia Keys and came to an end a few hours later with an impassioned speech by actress Sandra Oh. In between we heard from several others in the WGA as well as other Unions such as the Teamsters and the Steel Union. I've never seen such solidarity before.

I think every union member knows that Government and big business has been trying to break unions for the past few decades and that this fight may be a make or break, not only for writers, actors and others working in Hollywood above and below the line, but for many other unions across the country as well. In a world where a single CEO is given an 80-million dollar severance packages when they're fired, giving an increase of 4-cents a DVD sold to writers, and another few cents, give or take, to the actors, musicians, etc., is not asking for much. It's hard to plead poverty when you are also admitting to billions of dollars of new revenue.

There are certain moments that one tends to remember. Those of us who attended today's parade are going to long remember the feeling of solidarity that was in the air. This was a good day to fight.

Labels: WGA strike

I've mentioned that my book HOMELAND, THE ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, has already won several awards. Here's a nice article on Homeland from the people who gave us the Moonbeam Award.

Speaking of Homeland, I happened to click on the ad for it to the right of this page which leads you to Amazon.com. For the very first time I scrolled down to read some of the reviews we've gotten, none of which I'd seen before. Even as my head swells with pride, I thought I'd share those reviews with you. And at the risk of totally blowing all attempts at modesty, I really, really love the one from the comics oriented site, Broken Frontier.com because ever since I was a Junior High School teacher (way back in 1971) I've felt that doing history books in this fashion would be great for schools.

"Explains and illustrates the reasons for the existence of [Israel] in terms that Jews and non-Jews can easily understand." Cleveland Jewish News
"An unprecedented depiction of Israel’s history." JUF News

"For those with little or no knowledge of Mideast history, Homeland is a wonderful introduction." South Mississippi Sun Herald
"I've never been able to understand the conflict in Israel/Palestine. This book turned out to be something different." Sabrina's Reviews
"Puts Israel into its proper historical context . . . it can serve as a supplemental or introductory text for high school students." VOYA
"Homeland is graphic nonfiction of the very highest quality." Association of Jewish Libraries Magazine

Labels: Moonbeam Award

Last week was insane. I had all-day meetings every day which means most of this coming week will be spent writing what should have been written last week. Still, the meetings were all beneficial, although since most had food brought in - so we wouldn't all vanish into the hinterlands - I ate far, far too much. Riddle me this: why do meetings have to have those really good and soft chocolate chip cookies that I love but should never eat?

Because some of those attending the meetings were in town from all other parts of the world, Friday night was spent having one of our semi-regular Games Nights. It was a smaller-than-usual gathering, with only about 15 people present and fewer than usual games being played, but it was fun since those not playing games were talking. I gave a few tours of the house to the newcomers. We had sandwiches and chicken and cakes and lots of other stuff, and once again I ate far too much.

Friday was also Noel and my 16th Anniversary. Noel is an Associate Producer at Disneytoon Studios and I had sent her the FTD anniversary bouquet which was supposed to be roses, but the local florist delivered a tulip display instead. Lovely but not what I had ordered. I called FTD, and they quickly and without complaint refunded the money. Nice to do business with people who understand they made a mistake and remedy it without argument.

Saturday was spent driving down to the wine country of Temecula, one of Noel and my favorite places in southern California. Temecula is about an hour and a half (assuming no traffic) south and east of Los Angeles and is a beautiful area of rolling hills, vineyards and temperate climate. We had a wonderful Anniversary lunch at South Coast Wineries, which is our favorite place down there. Their food is always great and their wines are perfect. But once more I ate far too much and I was actually in some pain for much of the day. We taste-tested some wines, bought a few bottles then went antiquing in Old Town Temecula. On our way home we happened to notice an interesting-looking outdoor mall off the freeway in, I think, the town of Corona. We decided to stop and look around just in time for their Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Maybe this is just me, but I really believe there should be no Christmas ceremonies at malls at least until AFTER Thanksgiving. One holiday at a time, folk.

This coming week is pretty busy, so I'm going to relax most of today, Sunday. I've got work to do as well as preparation for Thanksgiving dinner as well as the upcoming Loscon next weekend.

Labels: Anniversary doings

Labels: WGA strike

Labels: L.D.

Yesterday was pretty packed. Besides attending and speaking at a wonderful Stan Lee tribute at the CAPS, the Comic Arts Professional Society banquet, our morning was spent in the quiet southern California town of Santa Ana with our dog, LD, at the annual keeshond picnic. Kees are Dutch barge dogs bred to be companions to sailors. They are friendly, loyal, sweet, and gorgeous. LD is all of that, but she is also terrified of other dogs. Probably our mistake; we rarely get her together with others, and one time, when we did, at agility training, a German Shepherd broke free of his master and attacked her. No harm was done as the leash was grabbed and the shepherd was pulled away quickly, but LD's pretty much avoided playing with other dogs ever since.

So, trying to get her to a bit more socialized, we went to Santa Ana and had her run around with dozens upon dozens of other kees. All of them are gorgeous and even tempered but LD kept her distance and hung around us. Still, it was incredible to see all those fuzzy butts prancing here and there.

An hour or so in, the breeder we got LD from as a 9-week old pup, told us LD's mom was there, too. So we rushed for this family reunion. Not quite the hugs and kisses we were hoping for, but even if LD backed away in fear, I thought I'd still share this short 17 second video with you. By the way, I notice that once again when I send a movie to my blog through Blogger it sends two images as you can see below. I don't know why or how to fix it. If any Blogger experts are out there and can offer advice, please let me know. Thanks and enjoy.

Labels: Keeshond Picnic

It would probably come as a shock to many who know me only from Tomb of Dracula, Teen Titans, Crisis on Infinite Earths and other adventure work to realize that my absolute first love in writing has always been humor. Back in my fan days my very first fanzine was something called The Foob which was a funny animal zine. Later on I also published Super Adventures which was about super-heroes, and Stories of Suspense which was my horror book, but my humor work came first and, indeed, my first award in comics was for a humor story I wrote in Crazy Magazine which I also served as editor for more than a year. The questionable story in question was the "secret" origin of a certain comic book ghost and was called Kaspar The Dead Baby. If you're interested, you can find scans of it on the web HERE. As I say, I've always loved writing humor, which brings me to...

Way back in the early 90s I spent a good deal of time not writing stories about heroes in spandex, but about Mice and Ducks wearing short pants and waistcoats. For nearly a year I wrote Mickey Mouse and DuckTales for Disney Comics. Most folk think these are easy stories to write, but let me say you couldn't be more wrong. They are the absolute hardest stuff I've ever done. The stories are extremely tightly plotted and they take longer to do than anything else I've ever worked on. At the same time, the stories I did are among my absolute favorites. Which brings me to...
Gemstone has just collected and reprinted my DuckTales stories. I always remembered liking what I had done but after re-reading them I became a fan of them all over again. I really like these stories and if you've ever liked Uncle Scrooge and company, I urge you to give this collection a try. I don't receive a penny for their reprinting so I'm recommending them only because I really do like them.

Speaking of Disney, back in the late 1980s to early 1990s I worked at Disney publishing as one of the founding editors of Disney Adventures magazine. Founded by current Sony Pictures chief Michael Lynton, D.A. was a great experiment, composed of comics and articles, the magazine consistently sold more than one million copies a month, more than any other comic oriented magazine published anywhere in this country. I stayed with Disney for 4 1/2 years until they moved the publishing unit back East. Our publisher at the time, a very nice man named John Skipper, asked me to move east with the magazine, but I wasn't willing to leave sunny LA for anything. My assistant at the time, Heidi MacDonald, had previously expressed interest in leaving LA at some point so I suggested to John that she take over the job. Heidi remained with D.A. for many years before moving over to DC and then finally starting The Beat, her daily comics-oriented blog for Publisher's Weekly.

Those 4 1/2 years are among my absolute favorite times in comics. I loved working on the magazine, loved editing and writing humor. Loved working with most of the people there, walking on the Disney lot, coming up with ad campaigns and immersing myself in the entire Disney Way. At the beginning of my tenure the comics were all Disney characters, reflecting what was then being shown on the Disney Afternoon block of TV cartoons. We did Talespin, DuckTales, Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers and more. With time we began to publish original material created by others, including reprinting Bone and having the always incredible Jeff Smith do an original Bone story just for us. It was a great time and we experimented as much as we could on expanding the parameters of kids' comics. Because Disney conducted focus group testing we learned that 90% of the readers bought the magazine for the comics. If this doesn't prove how much kids love comics, nothing does.

Disney Adventures is finally coming to an end this month. From what I can tell it is still selling over a million copies a month, and though I don't know why Disney is canceling it I'd bet it has something to do with an overall change in publishing philosophy at the company. I've picked up D.A. occasionally over the years and it looked to me that the magazine was still fun. The magazine was great to create and I'm truly sorry to see it go.

Labels: Disney Adventures, DuckTales

Just got back from the WGA picket line around CBS in the San Fernando Valley. There were a couple hundred other writers, lots of donated donuts and water, a cool strike t-shirt and total solidarity among the writers as well as the passersby who honked their horns in support. Most gratifying were the teamsters honking their horns many with WGA support stickers in their windows as well as the number of Screen Actor Guild members who joined as well. The Hollywood Unions are together on this. If you're a WGA member who is reading this, you've probably gotten an email from your Strike Captain. Even if you can't show up every day, show up when you can. Many of us make most of our living doing non TV work. I primarily write comics, novels, video games and more and I have major, major deadlines right now, but time needs to be spent even if, like me, your WGA work is minimal.

Labels: WGA strike

My non-fiction book, Homeland, The Illustrated History of the State of Israel, has won yet another award. This time given out by USAbooknews.com under the category of History:Political. This has been an incredible year for awards, with Homeland so far receiving two first prize awards and my novelization of Superman Returns winning the first Scribe Award. If you're interested in buying the book, you can click on the Amazon.com ad to the right. I am truly amazed by this and once again have to thank everyone involved.

In the category of non-award but truly fun, much of yesterday was spent being interviewed by the Independent Film Channel for their upcoming series on comic book creators. We talked for hours, about everything from Tomb of Dracula to Titans to Crisis and more. I'll let you know when it airs sometime next year.

This has to be short. In a little bit I have to join the Writers Guild picket line in Studio City. Others can fill you in on the reasons why the strike is taking place, but as someone who in the past has fought for financial participation on characters I've created, let me assure you this strike is very important.

Labels: Homeland Award, IFC interview, WGA strike