folklore
My Favorite Kind of Vampires
Happy Halloween, everyone! As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I used to draw one-panel gag cartoons. Like, professionally. Only for a handful of magazines, and really just at the beginning of my writing career. These days I mostly work as a writer, and I don’t draw that much, unless you count the rough thumbnail sketches I draw for nearly every project I work on. Which definitely counts as drawing. But I don’t often show those sketches to the people I’m working with (although sometimes, I do).
Anyway, since it’s Halloween, I thought I’d post one of the gag cartoons I drew back in the day. It’s called “Vampire Nerds,” and it was originally published in the October 2006 issue of Nickelodeon Magazine. (That was the Halloween issue, as if you couldn’t tell by the cover date.) Check it out:
Obviously, vampire nerds are my favorite kind of bloodsuckers, because I myself am a massive geek. (Which you could probably tell by the fact that I write graphic novels about mythical creatures, children’s book adaptations of famous sci-fi movies, TV scripts about fairy tale characters, and scripts for uber-nerdy video games. But I digress…)
I may begin drawing cartoons again (like, professionally), because I really miss it. If that does indeed happen, I’ll definitely mention it on this blog. So keep checking this space!
Grandpa’s Deep-Space Diner
Recently, I wrote a short story called “It’s Hard To Be A Food Critic Who’s Also A Sin-Eater!”
It was published in an anthology called Grandpa’s Deep-Space Diner, which is out now!
The book was edited by Jessica Augustsson and published by the folks at JayHenge Publishing.
As you might be able to tell from the title, “It’s Hard to Be…” is about a food critic who’s also a sin-eater. The story is written as a restaurant review.
Hope you enjoy it!
Grandpa’s Deep-Space Diner is a collection of food-related sci-fi and speculative fiction.
Here’s how Jessica describes the book:
“My grandpa had a drive-in diner in Rupert, Idaho in the 60s called Chuck’s In-and-Out. It was well known and all the kids went there. My aunt served the burgers (sans roller-skates—Grandma put a stop to that notion!) and Grandma made the best french fry sauce in the galaxy. Grandpa taught me that food, from the production to the preparation to the partaking, could be a simple personal pleasure or a means of bringing groups together in a shared meal. From growing produce in a magical garden, to serving up an exotic burger in an interstellar mall, join us in the delightful, delectable, and sometimes dismal flavors of these speculative fiction food stories!”
Find out more HERE.
Never Seen Before Lodestar Lore!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I wrote the scripts for a mobile game called eQuoo: The Next Generation: Lodestar. The game is available now on Google Play and the iOs App Store.
Each story in eQuoo: TNG takes place in a different historical era. When you play the game, you jump from century to century thanks to a portable time travel device called the Dial. And your mentor and guide in the game is a mysterious woman named Joy, who’s a member of the Lodestars, the secret order of time-jumping adventurers whose ranks you join when you first enter the game.
But who is Joy, really? What’s her origin story? And what’s the origin story behind the Dial? When was it first created? Who invented it?
Recently, I wrote a blog post for the eQuoo website which answers all of those questions. It’s titled “Lodestar Lore: The Story Behind eQuoo,” and you can check it out HERE.
Written as a letter from Joy to one of her fellow Lodestars, the “Lodestar Lore” blog post is a small slice of in-world fiction.
Hope you enjoy it!
Oh, and one more thing: the “Lodestar Lore” blog post and THIS blog post you’re currently reading were both illustrated by the game’s super-talented lead artist, Celia Rodriguez.