Broken laptop

So, yeah, my laptop died. Fortunately everything is backed up. I just need it to scan in comics and upload them. Bah, hopefully it will be done soon.

I'm going to just go on doing the commentaries as I feel like. I'll remark here whenever a new one goes up.

Most of my energy now is going into school projects and my novel.

Speaking of my novel, I'll ramble on about that for a few moments. Now I know there are quite a few people online who'll say, "Yep, I'm writing a novel," just for people to go, "Oooh," when most people are really going, "peh, he'll never get it published." But I'm serious on this. I've been working on this novel longer than my comic strips, and like comic strips, its not going to stop fighting for existence.

I started on it in the fall of '03 by just writing by hand. I just wrote the story out going by whatever I felt should happen next. That took me about two months to do. Then I started typing out the story again, just going from memory, hoping to refine it. That was a mistake.

I quickly became frutstrated with it and gave up on it. It came back into focus every once in a while, but died every time. Finally, last fall I came up with a revising strategy I liked. I just wrote the whole plot out as if I was describing it rather than actually trying to write the story. Two more months of that and I was pretty happy with the story.

So then I went to try writing again. And again my pace became sluggish, because I still wasn't liking the way it was written. I liked the story, but was having trouble actually writing it. Fortunately, I found this website that helped me with a great deal of my problems (mostly by putting into words some things my mind was thinking, you'd be surprised how much that helps). Anyway, now I'm writing and my novel actually reads like it was written by someone who knows what they're doing.

So, I hope to spend two to three weeks typing it up, another few days revising it. Another two weeks typing up the revised version. And maybe another week or two reading through it and making minor adjustments. Then I'll start hunting down an agent (While continuing work on the other two novels I've recently begun (and Our Odd World, of course)).

Anyway, for those of you patient enough to read through all of that, here's what the novel is actually about. A young man named Shawn, 17, suddenly finds himself in a strange fantasy world (I know that much is pretty cliche) who soon finds he must defeat an evil wizard (also cliche) or the entire world is doomed.

Okay, you ask, with such a cliche plotline how can it be interesting? Well, first of all I did say "strange fantasy land." You read OOW. You know when I say strange I mean it. More so, one of my writing goals with this novel was to take such a cliche concept and tell it in a different way. You should know by now I have quite a few different ideas and am not afraid to use them.

So, yeah, you want some specific good reasons to read the novel? As much as I try to bring in some OOW style strangeness there is quite a lot drama. Its a novel that mixes humor and tragedy. I have created a cast of characters which are interesting because of their faults.
Bah, I could go on for hours describing what I like about the novel, but I would prefer to remain modest. These are things I've strived for in writing it, and I hope those who read it will say I suceeded.

The novel is named Of Blood and Ice. I expect every one of you to buy a copy. Maybe two. (I'm joking, but that would be nice). And tell your family. Tell your friends. Heck, tell your enemies.

Bah, I've rambled on long enough. I've got actual novel writing to do.