My Goal Right Now…

Is to make it an entire night's worth of sleep.  The most I've gotten since the cold started is from 1:30am to 4:06am. On the upside, uh...

I got nothing.

Someone Got Me A Subscription to Maxim

Just cause I'm single doesn't mean I'm desperate, y'know. Thanks, though. Whoever you are.

Happy Father’s Day

Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey

"Get down and give me... INIFINITY." "Dude, there's no way I can do infinity push-ups."

"Maybe he'll let us do them girly style..."

I don't know why, but it remains one of my favorite movies of all time.  Viva la Wyld Stallyns.

Oh

And the trip was good. Got a bit of a sinus infection thanks to all that fresh air and pollen, found out my stomach ulcer wasn't quite at the ulcer stage yet, and picked up some kickass movies.  Plus I got to spend time with my folks, brother and sister in law, and my niece and nephews. And I got a bunch of work done.  You really can't ask for anything more.

I’m Off

I'm going on a bit of a personal retreat for the next 9 days or so.  So, I'm doing my best to stay offline.  I'll be in Des Moines, Iowa, visiting my folks, and trying to bang out these last few scripts that've been hanging on longer than they should. So, play nice, and I'll be back soon.

So, the big life changing stuff

I've been wrestling with how to say this stuff all week. So I figured short and sweet.

For five years, I've been dating Dina. On Tuesday night, completely out of the blue, she walked out on me. There was no real warning (although she claims that there was) and it really, really hurt me quite a bit.

For the first few days, it was a feeling of shock and abandonment, because right now, things are really tough, money's tight, and the two of us have been fighting through the rocky waters of life for so long, it just seemed impossible.

But, now that the first week of it has wrapped up, I honestly think I'm better off. I loved Dina a lot, but, she'd become a big obstacle in my life. I mean, look, within a week of her leaving, I'm already back to putting together my music which I more or less abandoned when we started dating cause it irritated her.  This has given me a laser-point focus on what's really important in life.

Plus being able to come home when I like, watch what I like, not have to race around the city to take her hither and thou... It's kind of nice. I still miss having someone warm next to me in bed, and there's pangs whenever I walk out of a movie or finish watching a tv show that we both loved and all I want to do is talk to her about it.

But, it's not to be. And, well, I'm actually okay with that.

Back in the Days of Old

Back before I was a criminally ignored comic book writer, I was a criminally ignored musician. I had a couple of moderately successful bands all the way back to high school, but, as I grew up, I chose other things over music, and honestly, I've regretted it ever since. Music was a huge part of my life from the time I was a kid. Hell, even the bulk of my writing is inspired by music. So, part of those big life changes I mentioned earlier are I'm going back to it. I'm going to start slow, and the whole idea for me, anyways, is to do something purely for love. There's not enough of that in this world. I'm goin to set up a page here on the blog for my musical history etc. In the meantime tho, I set up a myspace page with some tracks from my last recording. So, go here: www.myspace.com/joshuahalefialkov and listen away.

Eesh

It's been a tremendously fucked up couple of days, and I'm running around today for a combination of meetings and Free Comic Book Day events. I'm not actually signing anywhere, just swinging by my usual haunts and saying "Hullo." Had some pretty awful personal stuff happen last week, and I'll fill everyone in (those of you who read this and don't already know, which is probably like two of you) later this weekend. I also got reviews for Hard Candy and M:I3 on the way. (The long and short of which is, if you have a choice go see Hard Candy, M:I3'll still be there next week, Hard Candy might not, and it's phenomenal.)

Alright, so, check back later this week and there'll be a couple of longish posts, in theory.

Oh, and I'll be at Earth2 around 1:30pm, if anyone wants to see me that badly. Which. I. Know. You. Do.

As the humming bird churns

I've been clocking in full time hours at the day job and fuller time hours at the writing desk, so I've been a bit absent, save for the quick posts here and there. So, here's your mega-crazy-fantastic-crazy-monkey-update.

The "WHERE THE FUCK IS ELK'S RUN?" Fan E-Mails continue, and, I, unfortunately, still can't talk about it.  We're getting everything in order now, and the announcement, as I've said repeatedly, is pending.  Keep coming here, and you'll be the first to know.

World's End is on a temporary hold, as Keating finishes up the coloring chores on Elk's Run 7 and 8 (I should have some art to show off in the next few days... maybe even something special for FCBD.)

Punks has many wheels in motion, including some pretty groovy merchandise manufacturer types expressing interest.  Kody and I are on the phone plotting and scheming literally every day, so, there ya go.

The script for what is shaping up to be the next Fialkov/Tuazon book is getting underway still, and I'm just about through with my preliminary research, so I'm sure I'll be talking about it more and more in the coming weeks.

I'm wrapping up a screenplay I've been working on for far too long already in the next week or so, that might just end up in comic book form sometime in the near future.  That's what these were for.

The Miller is being reworked a bit before I finish it up.  I've read something like 3 or 4 dozen pulps since I started it, and came to terms with some realities of structure etc. that need to be worked in before I can go any further.

Both Red Mob and The 8th (nee Ritual Homicide nee Vodou) are on hold.  Datsun Tran, artist on Red Mob, had to drop out because he just didn't have the time, and Chris Burnham, artist on the 8th had to drop out because the son of a bitch has some REALLY cool projects coming out.  The 8th, you'll remember was my mini-series about a super-natural serial killer in New Orleans that causes the city to get swallowed up by a hurricane that causes the levees to break, and the government to abandon the city.   We'd actually come up with a way to salvage the book and it's art, and take advantage of Chris and my mutual childhood years in Pittsburgh, but alas, the man is destined for bigger things.  For now. Working on a new thing with Screenwriter Gary that's been percolating for a while, and pays tribute to our mutual adoration for Coast to Coast AM.

I've got stories in about four upcoming anthologies, two westerns, one horror comedy, and one anti-romance drama.

And that's it.  Just makin' my way, the only way I know how

MIA

I've been MIA because this weeks been apeshit insane. I did a quick update over at Creator Direct about what all I'm working on currently, and I didn't add that I'm also powering through hours of day job, and contracty type stuff during most of the days. Oh, and the very specific bus line that Dina takes to work and school is on strike, so I get to spend a couple hours a day racing around town trying to get from here to there in order to get where I need to be and get her where she needs to be. And to top it all off, I had to suffer through American Idol positively butchering Queen. They deserve to be punished severely for their sins.

Creator Direct

I forgot to mention this (or mentioned it and forgot, one of the two). Anyways, Kody Chamberlain (of ye olde Punks fame) started Creator Direct, a blog featuring a bunch of us young creator types. It's lots of fun and info, though still in its embryonic stages, go and check it out.

http://creatordirect.blogspot.com/

Fucking Hell

My car has been randomly dying in the midst of my scuttling around town, so, with the week off from my day job I decided to get it fixed. I figured "A couple hours, couple hundred bucks, and it'll be right as rain." That was at 10:30 this morning. Took them 3 hours to look at the fucking thing, and then they handed me a quote for 1400 bucks to made the car 'road worthy.' My favorite note was "Well, you don't have to replace the axle, but, you hit a big enough pot hole and it's 'Goodbye Tires!'"

So, to make the most of this zombifying dead time, I've been trying to work through the second script for Punks. The highlight thus far being the coining of a new non-swear swear, "HOLY ANAL BEADS UP A MONKEY'S BUM!" It's a particularly angry script, I suppose mostly due to sitting in a cramped hard metal chair at Pep Boys for over 4 hours without internet to distract and pacify me.

Hopefully, I'll be done in 3 or 4 hours, and will return to a slightly less homicidal state of mind.

Here's a page of Punks #1 that Kody's showing off. To make this post something other than piss and vinegar with a heaping helping of bile.

Got a new cellphone…

One of those dope ass new Razr phones. And, it was free, thanks to Verizon's new phones every two years. So, I'm celebrating and getting it all updated etc. etc. 032206_17211.jpg Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.

Heh.

Just realized how embarassing my Last.fm play list in the corner must be. I'm working on this little spec in my spare time that's essentially an 80's action movie, so I have the bad 80's arena rock blaring day and night.

The Los Angeles Vintage Paperback Collector’s Show

How fucking cool is this? In case you guys don't know, I'm positively obsessed with pulp crime novels. I'm reading about one or two a week (and for dirt ass cheap thank to the Hard Case Crime Book Club.)

So, anyways, I know where I'll be the weekend of the 26th.

Oh, and if you're looking for kickass old paperbacks, I'd also highly recommend: The Bookhouse, I literally crapped my pants when I went in.

My pants. Not the store. The stores INCREDIBLE.

It was messy.

My Week Swallowed Me Up

From getting back from San Fran on Sunday night, I was literally running non-stop from place to place. Gary and I were on a game show on Tuesday and squarely got our asses kicked. It was thoroughly embarassing. Been plugging away at both the day job, the writing assignments, and a bit of transcribing every day. I also finally settled down and watched the original BBC version of The Office. I don't know if it's a problem with my BBC America or DirecTV or what, but whenever I'd watch it on TV, I'd go nuts because I couldn't hear what the fuck they were saying, to the point of utter irritation. So, now, armed with the DVD's, I'm almost the whole way through and pretty well in love. I still prefer the American version (Steve Carrel is less irritating and considerably less 'mean' than Ricky Gervais's version of the character which goes a long way.)

The biggest pleasure of the show, which is also the highlight of the American version, is the relationship between Tim/Jim and Dawn/Pam. It's the most honest and natural thing about the show, and it helps smooth over the more forced stuff that surrounds it.

Aside from that, getting the last of the stuff ready to send out for World's End, which'll be going to publishers this week-ish, getting the business plan together on Punks, doing takes for two different properties (a tv show and a comic), and getting ready to pitch for a gig writing a low-budg feature. In other words... busy fucking week.

WonderCon

So, I'll be attending Wondercon in San Francisco next weekend. I'm going to be hanging out at the Boom! Studios booth signing copies of Fused! Tales, and I should have Elk's Run and Western Tales for anybody missing anything. Also, I'm moderating Boom's panel on Friday. It's at 4pm in Room 2020. There'll be all kinds of exciting stuff talked about, and you get my unerring charm and wit. Who could ask for anything more?

Come by and say "Hullo."

Well, I’m Pooped

I started a part time job to go with my other part time job. Plus, I'm writing more or less full time (three comic series, a screenplay, and a novel, all with deadlines), so I haven't had much time for... well... anything. It's nice to be busy, but for the first time in a while, I'm actually looking forward to the weekend as an actual 'time off'.... at least for a few hours. Sympathy Cards can be sent to "StopComplainingFuckwad@joshuahalefialkov.com"

See?

See? Originally uploaded by Joshua Hale Fialkov.