upcoming

As Seen on TV

As Seen On TV, Musings

I’ve decided to start blogging again.  Posts may initially be short and somewhat irregular, but I’ll be working up to what is hopefully a more reliable schedule. My goal is also to write more posts that are informative to a wider audience and not strictly personal.

I just graduated from California College of the Arts with my MFA in Writing this past May, and in the weeks since then I’ve had a lot of time to think about where I want to go next, both in terms of my writing and my overall career.  I’ve always wanted to work a TV-related job, but I think what held me back in the past was not knowing how to make that happen.  Now that I’m living near L.A. and have some more experience with screenwriting under my belt, I finally have a chance to start making this happen.  In the coming weeks I’ll be reading a teleplay from a current or past show that I admire on Sunday and spending the rest of the week analyzing its parts, (re)watching the final episode it spawned (if at all possible), and figuring out why it works well and what could be better.  I hope to blog about this weekly.  For the first week, I’ve chosen an early draft of the pilot episode of Supernatural, written by Eric Kripke, which was first included in the season 1 DVD set.  The first five seasons make up one of my favorite television shows and I’m looking forward to exploring it on a deeper level.

What is it about writing for television, particularly cable television, that appeals to me?  Strangely, although I’ve always loved television and dreamed of having a job in the industry, I didn’t think I would enjoy a job behind the scenes in the writers’ room.  Why?  Because as a fan and active participant in various fandoms over the years, I’ve seen how crazy the rabid fans can get.  It’s impossible to please everyone, and the ruts that happen every once in a while are often blamed solely on the writers, who get all sorts of hate on various modes of social media.  Not only are these writers trying to please the fans, but they are trying to please the network and keep the ratings up.  Not only that, but they are trying to create an organic and continuous story that appears in that magic little light box for a short time once a week, never knowing when the plug might get pulled before they have a chance to end the narrative on their own terms. Not only that, but they must compromise and work well with a large group of other writers.  And yet, I find that these seemingly negative points are challenges that I can learn from.  Not to mention that I love to work collaboratively with other people; writing fiction is far too solitary.  Ultimately, there is something fragile about writing in a serialized format that you can’t get with writing films or novels, something special about viewing the ever-fluid and unfinished product as it plays out on screen.

A lot has happened since my last post and I intend to write about those things as well: the projects I’ve completed, the ones I’ve only started, and the ones that are planned for the near future.  Until then.

Hallelujah

News

front endpages of "Hallelujah"

Last month,  I finally finished a collaborative book project I’ve been working on and off (mostly off) for an entire year.  I’m glad I finally completed it as I can now focus on other projects.  Current and upcoming projects include: re-binding a flipbook about a hard-working giraffe who just wants to be a gymnast, a thin volume of collected quotes from Kent Boyd of SYTYCD, a tin full of Edward Gorey-inspired blank books, and hopefully participation in the 2011 Sketchbook Tour, among other things.

In terms of writing, I’m sending out a few more things this week.  Hope something will come of it.

What Happens Behind Boarded Windows…

News

I forgot to mention this earlier (probably because I haven’t been posting) but right now the best place to read excerpts of my novella The Butterfly Collector and view other images of the corresponding art books is here at the UH Honors College website.

Onto the real news: I got official word yesterday that two of my poems will be appearing in the upcoming Fall/Winter issue of Poet Lore.  The two poems are “House of Cards EP” (which I wrote in 2007 about my sister being carjacked at gunpoint) and “What Happens Behind Boarded Windows” (which I wrote earlier this year about Hurricane Ike).  This will be my first major publication, so I’m fairly excited.  Frankly, I never in my wildest dreams thought that my poetry would be published before my fiction, but I suppose stranger things have happened. 

I made a deal with myself that for every poem or short-short that gets accepted by a publication, I have to write two more (strong) poems/shorts by the time it actually appears in print.  I might have to come up with a different rule for electronic publications and longer stories, but for now that’s what stands.  I hope to send out more poems and get some shorts out by the end of the month.

A Desire for Mastery

Inspiration, Musings, News

Welcome to my new blog!  For the longest time, I’ve had a hard time organizing my thoughts about my work in a consistent manner, and it’ll still probably take a while before blogging becomes a habit, but now that I’m no longer in school, I’ll try.

Last weekend, I finally finished reading Annie Tremmel Wilcox’s A Degree of Mastery, her memoir about her apprenticeship in Book Arts and restoration at the University of Iowa.  While I don’t think it was the most compelling narrative and wouldn’t really recommend it to people who are not Book Arts practicioners or at least interested in the craft, I was definitely pulled in by her description of process and long hours in the studio.  Jealous, even.  I’ve always been the kind of person who can never figure out what I want–because it changes from year to year or month to month, sometimes even day to day.  I really think I’m ready to dedicate myself to this for the next few years though.  I would love to at least try. 

One thing about the book that I found annoying however: Wilcox hardly talks about her life outside of the studio.  Sure, she mentions teaching rhetoric and pursuing a PhD at the same time as her apprenticeship, but never goes much deeper than that.  And I understand that that’s not what the book is about, that Book Arts in all-consuming in many ways.  But the way I see and approach art, all kinds of art, is with its constant marriage to life.  I don’t understand how one can repair books all day and not have that process bleed into their personal life and vice versa.

As for me, I just finished up designing the jackets for my last thesis art book.  It involves a layering of different book jackets, each representing a different part of the manuscript and a different year.  Right now I’m still going back and forth on what the whole piece should be called.  Thick Skin or Onion or simply, Skin?  I don’t know but I have a lot of time to decide.  I’ll actually get the jackets printed and cut in the next few weeks. 

Projects that are coming up:  After reading about clam-shell boxes, I feel like I should make one for I’m Sorry But We’re Closed, maybe one that allows for it to stand up on display.  I’m also starting a some-what secret project, pictures of which will hopefully be posted once it is finished.  I am excited…  Also, I am still trying to decide whether to apply to graduate programs for Fall 2010 admission.  Classes began again at UH today.  In some ways, I still don’t feel like I’ve graduated.