tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-50518393637978699232024-03-17T15:10:27.334-07:00Tony LaplumeTony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.comBlogger305125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-20599429038483246192024-03-17T13:46:00.000-07:002024-03-17T13:46:14.702-07:00Having finished Children’s Crusade…<p>Just finished writing <i>The</i> <i>Children’s</i> <i>Crusade</i>. Still in shock.</p><p>The story clocked out at roughly 55,000 words. Got the first 50,000 words in at the old NaNoWriMo pace, not even intending to, just trying to get the story done during Lent, but the writing just flowing, the urgency of getting it done…</p><p>I hadn’t written something this long in about a decade. Recently I’ve tackled a lot of projects just getting the instinct back to par, and I guess it worked. Everything else I wrote, it culminated here. It was a story I outlined in the spur of the moment last year, and intended to write this year, and last month I started and this month it’s actually done. A lot of what I’ve written recently, there were significant breaks, even if at times I “caught up.” This time every time I “caught up,” I just got further and further ahead.</p><p>Until I reached this point. I hadn’t written since Tuesday, since hitting the NaNo mark, and I honestly didn’t know when I was going to write again. Lent still has two weeks, after all. I didn’t write yesterday, or this morning, and until I was actually writing I thought it would be the same this afternoon. And then it just happened. </p><p>So all that feels good.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-42086706393342709792024-02-17T07:13:00.000-08:002024-02-17T07:13:23.217-08:00Having begun Children’s Crusade…<p>Having begun writing <i>The Children’s Crusade</i>, it reminds me all over again the rush of writing, of really writing, of the ideas coming fast and furious, how to write the story, how it’s different from when you’re only planning, how the story seems to write itself…</p><p>This is how I define being a writer. It’s not just writing or even selling actual books (although that would certainly be nice, too), but the thrill of the experience, of tackling the project, of knowing there’s a long way to go, but I can get there because I know how to get there, and I know it’ll be worth it, even if no one reads it ever, because the story is the thing, and it takes on a life of its own…</p><p>So anyway, it’s early yet, three chapters in and hopefully two more later today, and only forty-five after that…But I’ve got this. These days I’m tackling shorter chapters. The last time I was really in novel-length mode I’d gotten into the rhythm of much longer chapters, and that worked then and this works now, they make sense in context, and it would be nice to write long chapters again but for now shorter is better…</p><p>Anyway, this is to say I feel happy about this, and since this one is a long one and it’s a completely original idea and I already know the whole thing but little things will keep popping up as necessary, and I want this done in forty days or so…I am locked into a zone. This isn’t always how these things play out or even need to or should, but when it happens and it looks very clear and true and doable…</p><p>So I’ve begun writing. And I will, once again, continue.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-64673949180365250212024-02-07T13:07:00.000-08:002024-02-07T13:13:05.452-08:00Not-the-Tonys 2024<p>Gosh, I’m not very good at keeping these up, but let’s go ahead and have a brief look at what my favorite things from 2023 were…</p><p><b>Movies</b></p><p>This one’s pretty easy. Like a lot of critics (for a change!), my pick is <i>Oppenheimer</i>. I’ve been a huge fan of Christopher Nolan since <i>Memento</i>, and so have followed his career eagerly ever since. This is clearly a career high (and as a big fan this is an amazing statement).</p><p>Before seeing <i>Oppenheimer</i> last summer my answer would’ve been <i>Guy</i> <i>Ritchie’s</i> <i>The</i> <i>Covenant</i>, which I still highly recommend. Other highlights from the year include <i>Napoleon</i>, <i>Asteroid</i> <i>City</i>, <i>The</i> <i>Creator</i>. It was a good year for movies.</p><p><b>Books</b></p><p>My favorite new book of the year was J.K. Rowling’s seventh Robert Galbraith Strike/Ellacott mystery <i>The</i> <i>Running</i> <i>Grave</i>. Favorite read in general was Milton’s <i>Paradise</i> <i>Lost</i>, favorite graphic novel Lemire, Kindt & Rubin’s <i>Cosmic</i> <i>Detective</i>, and taking a stab at a monthly comic probably Tom King’s <i>Human</i> <i>Target</i>, which finished last spring.</p><p><b>Music</b> </p><p>Gosh, I’m gonna give this one to The National, who I finally got into last year after discovering them at the end of <i>Warrior</i> back in 2011. The Beatles released “Now and Then” at the end of the year, Darius Rucker dropped a new album.</p><p><b>TV</b></p><p>I haven’t been exploring a lot of new things since the streaming era took over, so it was a lot of just continuing favorites like various Star Treks, <i>Yellowstone</i>, <i>Ghosts</i>, <i>Survivor</i>, even a revival of <i>Frasier</i>. Did get to see <i>The</i> <i>Mandalorian</i> and <i>Sandman</i> at the very end of the year thanks to physical releases.</p><p><b>Writing</b> <b>Projects</b></p><p>I tackled exactly two projects last year, <i>In</i> <i>the</i> <i>Leviathan</i> and <i>Liz</i> <i>&</i> <i>Pepe</i>. Both were well worth the efforts. Did a lot of prep work for other things, and I’m really, really close to starting up again. </p><p><b>Favorite</b> <b>Family</b> <b>Time</b></p><p>The two visits with my niece and the rest of her clan! Obviously! The highlights of the year!</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-80490641551076518252024-01-01T12:46:00.000-08:002024-01-01T12:46:46.706-08:00Closing in on The Children’s Crusade<p>You may be aware that the subtitle of Kurt Vonnegut’s <i>Slaughterhouse-Five</i> is “The Children’s Crusade,” and you may also know that during the Crusades there was an <i>actual </i>children’s crusade, which is the point at which people tend to agree they officially went off the rails.</p><p>My version is a little different. I first conceived of and sketched it out last year after finishing <i>In the Leviathan</i>, flush in the accomplishment and wanting something similarly meaningful (but for different reasons) to tackle next. Then I sat on it for the rest of the year.</p><p>Today I revisited the outline and revised it with a few key tweaks (including a timeline), so that the multiple character arcs play out in context to each other. This will be a tapestry of a story, tackling themes of responsibility, faith, and existential crisis, a commentary on the modern age that looks backward and still looks hopefully into the future.</p><p>I figure I will probably begin writing the thing soon. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-38694408917020399422023-11-26T14:38:00.000-08:002023-11-26T14:38:40.956-08:00A monster of a tale…<p>This morning I finished writing a short story I’ve been plucking away at since 2015 but haven’t touched since 2017. I think at one point I submitted a clearly unfinished version to a friend for one of his anthologies, which he rightly pointed out. It’s something I realized I had to do to get back in the writing groove, last month, so it was good to get it done. It’s another story that is from various vantage points, which is something I’ve realized works very well for my style of fiction. I especially like the idea that different people know different things, and so assembling such stories is like putting together a puzzle. Sometimes this can work in macro, and sometimes micro, which is what this one was. It also allows me to juggle the scope of the story, where I can pull out dramatically as a kind of commentary, or dial in closely. </p><p>Naturally I began thinking I could definitely put together another short collection with it and various other works, although first it’ll finish out its run at my writing blog. I’ve still got a lot of interesting things just sitting there waiting for a permanent home. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-13750889809962577772023-11-18T10:10:00.000-08:002023-11-18T10:10:38.345-08:00Dzanc you very much...<p>This week I found out Dzanc Books was not going to be honoring <i>In the Leviathan</i> in its longlist, shortlist, or distinction of actually winning its 2023 novel contest. And that's okay. I'm going to keep looking for publishers. I may revisit the utter lack of self-publishing I've done this year (except for <i>Liz & Pepe</i>, the 2023 Christmas collection for family I just pushed through a moment ago), or who knows? I have some poetry collections I will probably definitely continue releasing, now that I think of it (and this reminds me that what I should be doing in the minutes ahead is write more of that)...</p><p>I of course also want to get back into the actual business of writing, which of course occurred recently with <i>Liz & Pepe</i> (a short work, but the lead was, like its predecessors, generously of novella length), which I kept procrastinating as more of the relevant details surfaced in the thought process. While I found it easy in recent years to meander through writing projects, or barrel through some or parts of them, I've been in a different mode for much of this year. I was happy, most of all, to have written <i>Leviathan</i>, which was satisfying on a number of levels, and while I quickly came up with new projects, knew there were older ones, and how I could <i>improve</i> those older ones, I didn't feel the urge to jump on them as I thought I might. </p><p>Sometimes being rejected by a publisher or a contest will plunge me into some form of obvious depression, but that didn't happen this time, which was also an encouraging sign. It would have been awesome to have a different result, but it was also nice how quickly Dzanc made its deliberations and announcements, and actually quicker than I was expecting. I would've loved to have been able to write in the pages of <i>Liz</i> that I have a publishing contract for the first time ever, but it was also nice to <i>not</i> be able to, if that makes sense. </p><p><br /></p><p>The journey continues.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-30430415610477127162023-10-28T11:37:00.000-07:002023-10-28T11:37:03.552-07:00I’m just gonna reiterate this…<p>Writing is not always writing.</p><p>Sometimes it doesn’t look like writing at all. When I’m deep into a project and actively writing and it’s going well, I absolutely believe writing every day is a reasonable axiom. But it’s not always like that, especially if you haven’t started writing yet, or even sometimes in the middle of a project.</p><p>Because sometimes you’re not going to be writing because your subconscious knows you have more thinking to do. Because writing is mostly thinking. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-68860603339848621112023-09-02T11:35:00.001-07:002023-09-02T11:35:28.644-07:00A Journal of the Pandemic #35<p>Somehow, since the last time I wrote an entry in this series, the pandemic has kind of begun to rear its ugly head again. As expected, its place in common conversation has vastly diminished, even as there are efforts to bring back things like mask mandates. Hey! I've literally been walking around every day with a mask in my back pocket since the original mandates were lifted last year. It remains common for those who <i>are</i> infected to put masks back on at least for a little while, and I still have one coworker who never stopped wearing hers at all.</p><p>COVID still makes its periodic rounds. Infections happen, and they ripple along, and there's still the newer urge to <i>hide</i> them as best as possible, and it's becoming ordinary to not even know if you <i>do</i> have it, since testing has greatly diminished as a response. It does seem, if anything, this latest round is marked by a relatively brief lifespan, if that makes it seem any better.</p><p>This year I've gotten to spend time with my niece, the Burrito, and family, not once but <i>twice</i>, the first (and second!) time since the pandemic began, and neither time came with any infection entanglements (I was a tad under the weather the first one, but even <i>that</i> posed no difficulties). The first was a trip to see them and the second my second-ever trip to DisneyWorld, and second trip to Hollywood Studios, which given the five year gap between visits gave the park ample opportunity to settle nicely into its Star Wars environment (there <i>are</i> other features, including the classic Tower of Terror, which I rode before they arrived, and is officially the <i>only</i> drop ride I will probably ever enjoy). I snapped about a million pictures of the Millennium Falcon alone. I cannot believe this thing exists in the real world (but flies in reality about as well as it did just before the events of <i>The Force Awakens</i>, although the flight <i>simulator</i> is somehow even better than Star Tours, which of course I enjoyed again). It seemed like there were ordinary levels of park attendance. </p><p>It's been a month since the second visit, and I can't believe it's already happened, much less that <i>both</i> visits happened, within a span of <i>months</i>. I'm beyond grateful. I opted to pause an opportunity that came up last year, even though I visited my <i>other</i> sister, my <i>first</i> post-pandemic adventure, so to have gotten both scheduled and to have already <i>occurred</i> is a huge relief and a significant step back forward. I never want to take for granted having experienced so much of this relatively unscathed, since many, many people can't say the same, but I felt a considerable resentment about how it played out, initially, how it disrupted things, and while it's only been a few years, just back in March I was still disgruntled over it, and now I've had a few experiences that for really only a brief moment were impossible. Sometimes you have to let a little perspective sink in. Forget everything else. The important things, as long as you hold onto them, aren't so easy to shake loose. </p><p>For three years I've wondered when these little entries were going to stop, and I guess now they're a part of my story. Originally I would try to include my writing journey, since this is a writing blog, and yet, now, I've begun to integrate this time into the regular workings of my life. It's not quite background yet. But it's getting there.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-68382702649110090912023-09-02T11:03:00.004-07:002023-09-02T11:03:34.598-07:00Did not throw baby out with the bathwater, thank you...<p>I had my observation for the CDA process a few weeks back, and as such turned in <i>Don't Throw Baby Out with the Bathwater</i>, the professional portfolio I had to put together and previously considered compiling as an actual book (with inserts). It probably wouldn't have mattered a whole lot <i>how</i> I did it, since the observer (it was a good experience, all considering, don't get me wrong) didn't spend <i>too</i> much time looking at it. I ended up putting the portfolio in the same fashion as I did the collection I submitted as my thesis for college, a three-holepunch-folder. Anyway, it was certainly interesting to work on the thing, and I have the CDA test coming up in two weeks, and that will conclude the process, and I will be a slightly more official caregiver as a result.</p><p>I have a bunch of projects I am definitely going to probably tackle in the near future. Before we dig into <i>that</i> let's just acknowledge the pause I've entered in self-publishing. This is because I submitted <i>In the Leviathan</i> for publication and it feels weird having that floating around at the moment and continuing the slightly less legitimate business that has sold single digits of copies of all the books I've put out in the past decade. This means a pause for the poetry collections I don't tend to advertise here, and republication of <i>Cloak of Shrouded Men</i> as <i>The Man Comes Around</i>, and <i>A Guide to 52</i>, a project I tackled and abandoned previously but dug back into earlier this summer. </p><p>Not included in that embargo would be the Christmas collections I've been doing for family. This year's is entitled <i>Liz & Pepe</i>, and I've got all the elements sketched out and will probably begin writing it either in the next few days or when I'm on vacation in another week's time. Actually, I've more or less been on vacation for most of the past week with Idalia having made its way through town. I once again got lucky with the hurricane business, although the uncertainty of the experience this time as compared to Ian last year apparently settled my nerves only a little without having to be evacuated this time. So I sat around waiting to see how things would turn out without really spending the time overly wisely. Got some reading done. That's the extent of my achievements, there.</p><p>Anyway, as I pretend I'm going to be writing <i>Collider</i> any minute, it occurred to me that I really ought to have the <i>next</i> book in the Danab Cycle in fighting shape, only to discover <i>it absolutely wasn't</i>, and so some of my recent writing escapades was spent revising the outline for <i>The Fateful Lightning</i>. Surprisingly, I not only figured out how to do so, but a <i>better</i> way to do so not very long later.</p><p>All that and <i>The Children's Crusade</i>, which part of me really wants to tackle sooner rather than later, and maybe I really will. Maybe I'll tackle <i>Liz & Pepe</i>, <i>Collider</i>, and <i>Crusade</i> all before the end of the year. I've certainly worked on multiple projects simultaneously before!</p><p>Sometimes I've dumped a lot of projects into blog posts like this and I Grant Morrisoned them later, but it is absolutely not the intention for any of these. Writing the <i>Bathwater</i> portfolio was a small but notable task in itself, after <i>Leviathan</i> in the early months of the year, and usually I <i>haven't</i> just launched directly into continuous projects (although I <i>have</i> on occasion, with shorter works, which is what was consuming me the last few years). I've been pushing upward with wordcounts, getting back into full-length shape, and while there was certainly a period where I tackled <i>that</i> on a yearly basis, the last one remains the messiest thing I've ever written, and even the lost manuscript from the midsection I wouldn't really be happy with today. So it's good to be at a pause. I'm okay with it. <i>Wanting</i> to plunge back in. But this is not a writer who believes writing <i>regularly</i> means what some think. Just knowing I have these major projects imminently in the pipeline is exhilarating.</p><p>Then there's the business of actually being <i>read</i>...</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-48446463967098875582023-07-01T14:05:00.002-07:002023-07-01T14:05:31.986-07:00Well, technically started writing again...<p> When last I wrote, I was in the midst of gridlock. I've begun clearing space.</p><p>I just finished the bulk of <i>Don't Throw Baby Out with the Bathwater</i>, the professional credentials project, so I have the mental space to tackle further fiction. I needed the space between projects. I'd been hard-traveling, one project after another, for a year and a half, and I had planned to keep going, but I knew I needed a pause. I always have those. It was easier to tell when I was writing novel-length manuscripts a decade ago, but I had started doing shorter projects, and only recently started building back up the bulk. </p><p>Now I quibble with myself: <i>this</i> one or <i>that</i> one? I don't want to make the decision immediately. It's okay. It's fine. I actually just submitted <i>In the Leviathan</i> somewhere. I even had pay (it's a contest, not a vanity publisher). I'm currently telling myself I'm not going to lose my mind when I find out I didn't make the cut. It is what it is. I know this one was worth writing. I'll see how it goes. I don't want to publish this one myself. But you never know.</p><p>I'm trying to relax more, as a writer. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-46105180379916304932023-05-27T11:23:00.003-07:002023-05-27T13:04:16.350-07:00Still haven't started writing again, but that's okay.<p>A few weeks back I finally spent time with the Burrito (my niece) again, and the whole experience was wonderful. I ended up with material for the next Christmas chapbook, just not as I wildly imagined it (actively collaborating with the Burrito, who recently won an award for a poem she wrote, by the way). The Burrito has a younger brother and sister these days. <i>Liz & Pepe</i>, as I'm currently imagining the title (and see no reason to consider changing it), is named after my youngest niece (and goddaughter!) and her grandfather, my dad (<i>Pepe</i> is French for grandfather). </p><p>I also cooked up <i>another</i> potential novel-length concept, <i>Whitman</i>. Haven't yet started writing again, but I keep reminding myself that only a few months ago I finished <i>In the Leviathan</i>, and until the Vella era I typically took much longer breaks between long projects. I also have <i>Don't Throw Baby Out with the Bathwater</i>, technically a professional development project, that I'll be writing, hoping to publish it via Kindle for a particularly professional result (these tend to end up being three-ring binders when they're done by others). </p><p>I kept telling myself, before the trip, wait on the trip to begin working on <i>Children's Crusade</i>. And here we are weeks later and I still haven't. Yesterday was the start of a four-day weekend for Memorial Day, so I certainly have plenty of time to work on writing (which I count these trips to the library, when I do the bulk of my blogging efforts these days, as part of, hoping next, as in right after this, to tackle a sequel to <i>Dead Butlers</i>, the scripting exercise that led to <i>Nine Panel Grid</i>). (As I write <i>this</i>, I'm seriously considering making it a prose effort and not another script.) (Anyway, just a relatively minor writing effort, keeping the juices flowing.)</p><p>All this and gamely plugging <i>Event Fatigue</i> on Twitter occasionally, hoping some schmo will help spark interest in it. When I think about how far I am from even a figment of someone's imagination of the traditional publishing life, I sometimes regret that. But getting to write exactly what I want ain't so bad, either. It led to <i>Leviathan</i>, which could conceivably change all this. Who knows? Stranger things have happened.</p><p><br /></p><p>EDIT: Wrote the "Man in the Box" thing, in comic book script format. You can read it <a href="https://sigildv.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-man-in-box-pages-1-8.html" target="_blank">here</a>. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-68731911189169077172023-04-21T17:49:00.003-07:002023-04-21T17:51:59.668-07:00So I cooked up TWO new novel(ish)-length projects…<p>After finishing up <i>In</i> <i>the</i> <i>Leviathan</i>, I certainly didn’t expect I would quickly come up with new projects that weren’t <i>Collider</i>. But I did anyway.</p><p><i>The</i> <i>Children’s</i> <i>Crusade</i> is something I sketched out pretty rapidly once I came up with the idea, tracking a cast of twelve characters across ten sections (two are linked pairs). Using much the track I’ve been riding since first tackling Kindle Vella, I’m pretty confident I can do this. Despite the title, this is not related to the Middle Ages (umm…not technically!), nor Kurt Vonnegut’s <i>Slaughterhouse</i>-<i>Five</i>, but rather that old American chestnut the Fountain of Youth.</p><p>And then even more recently I conjured <i>A</i> <i>Centaur</i> <i>Died</i>., another vision of the modern world. These are both very much literary fiction, which I figured was probably a good thing to have in case anyone is interested in publishing <i>Leviathan</i>.</p><p>I envision about ten weeks writing <i>Crusade</i>, but I haven’t yet worked out the details in that regard with <i>Centaur</i>. It’ll keep me busy writing in 2023, anyway. <i>Crusade</i> will hit at least 50,000 words (we’ll see how many!), and draws from work experiences both past (as in a decade ago) and present, among other things. By this point I’m pretty clear on how I best approach my fiction, especially long-form. So I would be foolish to back off while the going (at least the writing!) is good. That’s why this is happening.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-11160214220052480602023-03-25T13:37:00.000-07:002023-03-25T13:37:24.465-07:00A Journal of the Pandemic #34<p>This month marks three years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, as it was widely experienced, that swept the entire globe and triggered a series of lockdowns and other measures that severely impacted normal life. It's the first anniversary where those restrictions are all but completely over. People still get sick. People are no doubt still dying. Some people are still wearing masks.</p><p>The mask thing really gets me. It's become normal for some people, just an instinct they have when someone gets sick near them. Or maybe it's when they've become aware of a specific, COVID-related infection. I don't know. I'm not really asking anymore. Some people <i>still drive in their cars, by themselves, with masks on</i>. Which never made sense in the first place, but that's humanity for you.</p><p>The state of the world's economy is still attempting to process all of this. In the news recently are banking institutions running into considerable problems. Are we seeing the end or only the very beginning of all that? I would assume the latter.</p><p>I still consider the panic at the start of this to have been wildly misjudged. But then, panic always is. It's kind of the definition. There will be the diehards who will never even consider reconsidering the initial response, the call for dire panic. For three years I've watched this play out around me like everyone else. No one in my immediate community of experience died from COVID-19. That's three years. Not one death. No one from the workplace, not one direct family member. There were a few very older members of the extended family. </p><p>Of course it still infects people. Because of the panic, there was an equally strong push, eventually, not to give in to the same measures. The measures curtailed. And then there were really no measures at all. </p><p>Three years ago, things were disrupted that began a chain of events that cannot be undone. In a little over a month, I'll see my niece in person for the first time since before the pandemic. I'll meet her brother and sister for the first time, both born since the pandemic began. Three years is a long time, even longer for a young child. I've now basically missed half her life. Phone conversations ended up not being nearly good enough. I'm not a real part of her life. There are other factors involved, sure, but for three years, I was not free to make decisions as I liked. There were plenty of people who took to traveling as they pleased almost immediately. As long as they said the right things, wore the right headgear, took the right medicine, no one batted an eye. Tell me how that squares with the <i>urgency</i>, the <i>panic</i> that so many people pushed as the narrative we were supposed to accept three years ago? </p><p>Some people are quick to pick up the thread left by others. They're quick to condemn, to judge, to <i>convict</i>, and they call this justice. They're perfectly happy to suffer the consequences, and the next minute they'll complain and say it's really the fault of <i>the other guy</i>, because <i>they</i> didn't do something, they didn't do <i>enough</i>. Listen, the panic was a right and proper panic button. It did what it was supposed to do. Three years later we're really only beginning to pick up the pieces. We still have no idea what this unprecedented event in human history hath wrought. Never before has humanity united in such fashion. Never before have we agreed to such measures.</p><p>Well, I'm sure there are people happy with all this. And a very good day to them, too.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-7743463680908788492023-03-19T11:49:00.002-07:002023-03-19T11:49:34.081-07:00Finished writing In the Leviathan<p>Yesterday I finished writing <i>In</i> <i>the</i> <i>Leviathan</i>. It clocked in at 42,000 words or so, following the bulk of its narrative squarely on Canadian transplant Montague and then most of the rest on his grandson Tim and finally an epilogue on a woman named Kerry. That last chapter wasn’t in the notes, but as I was writing I found I needed/wanted to revise the outline. I started writing mid-January, and circumstances allowed me to finish in about two months, so that was nice, and I can say I’m done a story I planned writing for about the past five years, which is even nicer. The whole experience is another milestone of my recent writing career, and a good way to begin the year, carrying the momentum of what I’ve accomplished the last few years.</p><p>The question, of course is, what comes next? I want to make a push at traditional publication for this one, although it’s also such a personal story I’m not at all averages to putting it out myself and sharing it around the family, where it will resonate deepest. Of everything I’ve ever written, it has the greatest chance of eliciting notice and comment from loved ones, which is something most writers secretly crave.</p><p><br /></p><p>Well, we’ll see.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-26572627083584844952023-02-04T08:03:00.000-08:002023-02-04T08:03:37.935-08:00Writing In the Leviathan<p>About five years in the making, I'm finally tackling <i>In the Leviathan</i>.</p><p>This is the book based on my grandfather's life. I've been working on research for it, and if I were a different writer, that's exactly what I would still be doing now, but one of the things I've realized over the past twenty years is that I am not a different writer, and I've been developing a style and viewpoint that I've grown comfortable utilizing. </p><p>Most of what I've written has fallen into sci-fi/space opera, or some other subgenre. I've tackled literary fiction (notably the Americana Trilogy, otherwise known as the Miss Simon books, which will still be revisited once I have the courage to tackle an even <i>more</i> ambitious book I've been developing for the same twenty-year span, which has gone by a number of titles, but the one listed as a label on this blog is <i>Miss Simon's Doom</i>, which seems to still work for me), but never like this, never so personally.</p><p>I pushed past the first six of twenty-one chapters last month, and now we'll just have to see how the rest goes. With any luck I will write another one (or two!) later today. The holdup is that this is a crucial chapter, the crux on which the narrative pivots, in which a full understanding of the main character, Montague, stands revealed, which is particularly important since this is also why I wanted to write this in the first place.</p><p>No pressure!</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-49093395070671591812023-01-07T10:14:00.001-08:002023-01-08T11:13:27.850-08:00Not-the-Tonys 2022<p>Ha! So obviously this isn't quite yet an annual tradition (the first and only previous edition was in 2020), but I figured it was worth revisiting, since everyone loves an end of the year wrap-up.</p><p><b>Favorite Writing Project:</b></p><p>Obviously this would be <i>Event Fatigue</i>, which I've chronicled here as extensively as anything else on the blog in the past decade (and hey! 2022 was also the decade anniversary of the blog!), tackled over at Kindle Vella throughout the year and eventually my final self-published book of the year (there were many!). Basically it was my <i>only</i> project in the past year, but it was quite an interesting one, and as I've stated, the longest work I've written in about the same timespan as this blog's existence.</p><p><b>Favorite Family Memory:</b></p><p>This one actually has a few options. My niece, the Burrito, although our conversations via FaceTime have dwindled in the past year (she's just so busy!!!), we had some good ones, including at the start of the year (the inspiration for key elements in <i>Uncle Toby</i>), and on her birthday (in which she confessed a vulnerability). But I made a trip to Alabama to attend my oldest nephew's high school graduation, and that was not only my first trip since the start of the pandemic, but also a rare trip to that particular leg of the family. Lots of good food was had, and a lot more interesting things happened than I am going to get into here (but not in any of the ways you're probably currently imagining!), so with apologies to the Burrito, it has to take the spot here.</p><p><b>Favorite Work Memory:</b></p><p>I finally got to switch room assignments (not really going to get into <i>that</i>, either), which led to a whole odyssey of my second real miracle at this job, the second time I have definitely helped a child in my care. Nothing can possibly top that! Also notable was the time off due to Hurricane Ian, and then the day off due to Hurricane Nicole! Sometimes work memories don't necessarily involve work. Everything worked out both times, at least in my neck of the woods, thankfully.</p><p><b>Favorite Book (New):</b></p><p><i>The Ink Black Heart</i>, the latest Robert Galbraith mystery featuring Strike & Ellacott. I know the author has become controversial, but any rational person wouldn't possibly let that get in the way of a great book.</p><p><b>Favorite Book (Old):</b></p><p><i>Where the Crawdads Sing</i> by Delia Owens, which I finally got around to reading, and thank goodness, because I obviously loved it. Kya is the American Lisbeth Salander. The movie adaptation is great, one of the best movies of the year, too.</p><p><b>Favorite Book (Comic):</b></p><p><i>Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow</i> by Tom King & Bilquis Evely, a combination of King explaining as no creator before him has what makes Supergirl great (and distinct from her cousin), and an original story that he weaves around her, the first time he's told an almost wholly original story since his debut novel, <i>The Once Crowded Sky</i>.</p><p><b>Favorite TV Show (New):</b></p><p>For a Star Trek fan, it's kind of impossible to go with any other answer than <i>Strange New Worlds</i>, which reimagines Pike's Enterprise, and in the brilliant season finale revisit the classic "Balance of Terror" (while simultaneously introducing the third-ever actor to play Kirk).</p><p><b>Favorite TV Show (Old): </b></p><p>I'm enjoying <i>Ghosts</i> (the American version) more than ever as it plunges into its second season. It's such a little miracle of a show, an ensemble with a rich cast it rotates through but is at its best when playing everyone off each other (as all the best shows do). I've been trying to watch the original British version, too, and recently realized one of my favorite episodes was from it (there's only so much actual overlap between them).</p><p><b>Favorite Music:</b></p><p>I finally, finally got a copy of Brian Wilson's <i>Smile</i>, an album he originally set out to make with the Beach Boys, but a project that eventually led to his departure from the group and hibernation as a creator for some thirty years, until he completed and released it in 2004. It's so good! It's such a complete pop composition, the sessions "Good Vibrations" came from, so in the same creative vein, an extension of his vision for <i>Pet Sounds</i> (all of this pushing the Beatles to their own creative heights at the time).</p><p><b>Writing Projects 2023:</b></p><p>The big one, and what I intend to begin literally after wrapping <i>this</i> up, is tackling <i>In the Leviathan</i>, which I've been talking about here for a number of years at this point. This will be purely literary fiction, an interpretation of my grandfather's life. And should I succeed and in good time, I'll then finally tackle <i>Collider</i>, the second full-length Danab Cycle adventure.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-52548396777167536392022-11-26T10:48:00.004-08:002022-11-26T10:48:56.518-08:00Event Fatigue published<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTiFiD9bldDnqEr5p9LB4lvzYI5QGWHUAsYQ5pZ_OL9qjtlyNfpYevnWdU7Vgnb90MDH2FkUHl54DBOV9rRBY5PxMWRA75gU_xUL6xwmv1KAwTn_ns538M1OsImHGWNBwCpxDLleH3dxUolMEJt-2FOXOM6UwpbvE7T4lBIykCs5xxPU51ptmcfZS8Bg/s2000/Front%20Cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1545" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTiFiD9bldDnqEr5p9LB4lvzYI5QGWHUAsYQ5pZ_OL9qjtlyNfpYevnWdU7Vgnb90MDH2FkUHl54DBOV9rRBY5PxMWRA75gU_xUL6xwmv1KAwTn_ns538M1OsImHGWNBwCpxDLleH3dxUolMEJt-2FOXOM6UwpbvE7T4lBIykCs5xxPU51ptmcfZS8Bg/s320/Front%20Cover.jpg" width="247" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You see that? I tried doing an actual cover again, using, as I had the last time I did, Canva, and I think it's a decent one, but I'm not particularly objective about it, now am I?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">This is of course <i>Event Fatigue</i>, the third and most recent of my Kindle Vella projects, a superhero story, but more specifically about mutants. Watching the X-Men movies over the years, especially the ones featuring the soft reboot starting <i>First Class</i> in which we follow the younger Professor X and Magneto as they start out being friends and watching the relationship evolve from that point (everyone says <i>Apocalypse</i> was a terrible failure, but I don't agree), and even feature far more cooperation between them than standard continuity suggests possible, I began to wonder what it would be like to totally reexamine all that, what it would be like to explore a mutant team and community where there develops a split in the ranks. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">I had come up with a list of mutants for an otherwise unrelated project, and the idea for this story seemed like a perfect opportunity to finally use them. As usually happens when I develop an idea, the simplistic setup I started with didn't work out when I actually started writing it, and so that cover image, not quite the one I had for the Kindle Vella site but very close, becomes a joke you'll really just have to read the book to find out. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Since it was already the longest story I've written in about a decade, it's also the longest book I've published in the smallest format (5" by 8") Kindle has, which I've used for all the material I've published since 2016 (and the same as what I used for all the Mouldwarp Press Presents anthologies, dating back to 2013).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">You can buy <i>Event Fatigue</i> on Amazon at <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Event-Fatigue-Tony-Laplume/dp/B0BMZDXW9T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BUD63DTPIV1&keywords=event+fatigue+tony+laplume&qid=1669488066&sprefix=event+fatigue+tony+la%2Caps%2C554&sr=8-1&asin=B0BMZDXW9T&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1" target="_blank">this link</a>.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">With the three other works of fiction I've announced previously, two volumes of poetry, and this year's Christmas collection, that's seven books I've published this year thanks to Kindle. </div><br /><p></p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-19812006538863336952022-11-11T07:36:00.001-08:002022-11-11T07:36:50.775-08:00My Sherlock Year<p>A little over a decade ago I had what I called my Trojan Year. I’m an amateur enthusiast of the Trojan War. That year I read a number of books that revolve around it. A few years ago I had my Quixote Year, in which I read and watched a number of works concerning Don Quixote. This year ended up being my Sherlock Year, in which I ended up experiencing a number of works featuring Sherlock Holmes.</p><p>The first was the complete stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I had bought a two-volume box set some years back and it took time to reach it in my reading adventures. Years ago this was because I would set up a reading list, but eventually it was because of how books fell on my bookshelves. I’ve got a lot of books, folks, and am always adding to them.</p><p>My only previous experience with Doyle’s material was the best-known Holmes story, <i>The</i> <i>Hound</i> <i>of</i> <i>the</i> <i>Baskervilles</i>, which I read for a class in high school. That was, at this point, a relative long time ago, and by 2022 I had only vague memories of it, as I discovered when I reached it. </p><p>Holmes casts a large shadow in modern fiction, not the least because he’s one of the most frequently adapted characters in film and television. The most recent high profile films featuring Holmes are the ones directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey, Jr. I had never seen the second one. By coincidence I ended up buying the set of them and of course watching them this year. The second, <i>Game</i> <i>of</i> <i>Shadows</i>, depicts Doyle’s famous attempt to kill off his own creation in the hopes of being able to move on to other material. Reading Doyle’s work, it is very evident how Holmes, and Doyle’s relationship to writing him, evolves, where it’s not merely the case of a brilliant detective solving mysteries, but Doyle constantly struggling to keep things interesting <i>for</i> <i>himself</i>. In the beginning he clearly was using Holmes as an excuse to tell stories, so that Holmes was basically a featured element rather than the sole purpose of the stories, and later it’s clearly very much Doyle trying to prove he definitely has plenty of material to fill out a career worthy of Holmes, even though most of it is clearly being made up on the spot (you can see the exact point he realizes a character’s name can be adopted for Holmes’ brother, Mycroft, who shows up in fact and practice soon after).</p><p>I had picked up a volume of the Benedict Cumberbatch TV series at a library sale, and put it aside very much in the manner of my reading habits, but of course now was as good a time as any to finally get around to it. This was of course the role that thrust Cumberbatch to prominence (previously he’d been laboring at a career of no distinction; after he was always a featured if not star actor), so I had always meant to watch at least some of it.</p><p>Created by a producer of the modern <i>Doctor</i> <i>Who</i>, upon seeing this Holmes it was no surprise, since creatively it was approached in the very same manner. Like <i>Game</i> <i>of</i> <i>Shadows</i> the material I reviewed features the showdown with Moriarty, whom Doyle and apparently everyone else since (<i>Shadows</i> seems to be an exception) failed to identify basically as a precursor to the modern gangster, to finally put him in some proper context, rather than simply as Holmes’ natural rival.</p><p>I also revisited some vintage screen material, including a lucky find I had previously experienced where an actor playing Watson sounds like Darth Vader, decades before Vader, for one brief expository moment. It took some doing to identify the exact material where this happens, as I had no intention to watch all of the material (although I did try and cover the adapting work), but the results are spelled out in a post elsewhere concerning much of the stuff George Lucas likely drew on to come up with Star Wars in its final form that seems to have eluded visible fan notice (somehow!!!).</p><p>Anyway, none of this is ever planned. That’s three theme years now. I have no plans to write detective fiction of my own, although I’ve touched on it now and then, more in the manner of Roberto Bolaño than Doyle. </p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-1213694062015233572022-10-08T10:21:00.002-07:002022-10-08T10:21:27.736-07:00Done writing Event Fatigue!<p>I finally finished <a href="https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09QZ76QKZ" target="_blank">Event Fatigue</a> over at Kindle Vella!</p><p>I've been slogging away at this sucker since January, originally a slow and sporadic pace, much as I'd done with the two previous stories I wrote for the platform, but started to realize, a few months ago, at that pace it was probably going to take forever, so I just settled into some daily writing for the first time in a while, and am pleased to have reached the end.</p><p>It's not <i>very</i> long, but it's the longest story I've written in about a decade, although ironically it's only about as long as what I had successfully done on a number of occasions previously by completing NaNoWriMo, fifty thousand words written in the month of November. </p><p>As with most of what I write, it didn't turn out as I imagined when I started in, but definitely as someone might expect who's ever read me before, although in a lot of respects, it's the most complete version of what I've done several times in the past, which is to track the perspectives of a large cast of characters, in this instance a group of mutant superheroes who experience a shocking death, and the story explains their reactions, how things got to that point, and how things turn out. </p><p>The term "event fatigue" will be familiar to comic book fans, who in recent decades have generally gotten tired of "event books," massive crossovers that always promise "everything will be different!" until, well, the <i>next</i> massive crossover. I use it to mean a number of things, including as a commentary on modern times, though never to exactly bludgeon the reader (there's plenty of <i>that</i> on social media, thank you very much).</p><p>A funny thing happened along the way, formatting-wise. I started out writing directly on the platform, but when I got into daily writing, I wrote into the Word document I was compiling chapters into, and pasting <i>that</i> into the platform messed up formatting on the platform itself, and I am not savvy enough to correct such things. As far as I can tell, no one is reading it there anyway, and the long-term goal is to get another paperback out of it (which, again, will be the longest I've released in a long time, and the longest in the format size I've been using for half a decade), which I plan to expend a little more marketing energy on than I usually do.</p><p>I've got other things to tackle. I've got the next Christmas collection (<i>Uncle Toby</i>), a story I meant to be writing all year (<i>Death Is Wearing Me Out</i>), and of course, as always, recently, <i>Collider</i>.</p><p>But it feels really, really good to have finished this!</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-36730662355487474052022-09-24T14:18:00.001-07:002022-09-24T14:18:27.998-07:00A Journal of the (Epidemic) #33<p> Hey, so from what I understand, it's not a pandemic anymore. </p><p>After more than two years, very close to three, maybe there will be slightly less quibbling when the statement can be suggested, we're just about done with this thing.</p><p>I know, I know, it's not gone. It'll never be gone. Calling it epidemic means it'll be with us for a while yet, like the flu. I'd like to think we learned a few things from all of this. Maybe that when you're sick, take it seriously, for one. I don't know what else. Take your own lessons. </p><p>I can't get over that on the whole I've made it through the experience in a fairly privileged position, and that will have to be the dominant takeaway for me. I had a job, I kept the job, got extra money for continuing to work that job, never had a diagnosis (even if somehow I caught it without knowing it, never in any kind of debilitating way), didn't lose any immediate family members or friends. In fact, circling back around to the job itself, except for a few months, and one month sitting home, most of the time was business as usual. I don't have a job where it was ever feasible to do it remotely. I wore masks at work. I got used to it. I know this was difficult for a lot of people. A lot of people who <i>did</i> wear them never figured out <i>how</i> to wear them. Actually, I started out the pandemic wearing masks while also wearing glasses, and even figured <i>that</i> out without being driven insane. I had this great set of masks that had different mustaches on them. They became a part of my identity. I didn't imagine that possibility when I bought my first masks in May 2020. I'll actually miss wearing them, assuming the mandates don't somehow recur. As it is, I haven't put one on again since the mandates dropped again, the second time this year, a few weeks ago.</p><p>This is to say, this might be the last time I update this journal. Maybe just go back to, y'know, regular blogging about <i>writing</i> life, rather than life as it's been transformed over the past few years. This blog was launched specifically as a writers record, but I thought it would be irresponsible to omit such a monumental and prolonged experience from that record. I started it accidentally, and then I realized I had started a series, so I started numbering them, and then periodically updating as I thought I had something new to say. Thirty-three entries is a decent number. I've slowed my blogging dramatically since a decade ago, when I launched this blog, and the pace reduced even more during the pandemic, although probably writing about the pandemic here probably motivated me to write more than I might have otherwise.</p><p>It's been interesting.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-57853638906435502672022-07-09T12:08:00.004-07:002022-07-09T12:10:57.472-07:00"Bartender" at Twenty<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y_xPrweIlzw" width="320" youtube-src-id="y_xPrweIlzw"></iframe></div><br /><p></p><p>Released as part of Dave Matthews Band's 2002 album <i>Busted Stuff</i>, "Bartender" is an epic jam song that, as far as I'm concerned, is the best song the band will likely ever produce. </p><p>It isn't one of their released singles. Unless you know the band, have attended or listened to one of their concerts, you probably have no idea it even exists. The funny thing is, <i>Busted Stuff</i> itself is, among the band's fans, a notable album insofar as it was material that was almost scrapped in favor of <i>Everday</i>, which was recorded later but released earlier, until it was decided to pursue what was becoming known as "The Lillywhite Sessions" again.</p><p>"Bartender" features some of Dave's most impassioned singing, and overt religious references, and the kind of concentrated lyrics you might not otherwise associate with the band's output (aside from all that pop aesthetic present on the <i>Everyday</i> album, and even in the rest of <i>Busted Stuff</i>, although at a more somber key), ultimately culminating in an extended although highly focused jam, a cathartic expression of the song's desperate mortal yearning.</p><p>Today, the band is a phenomenon mostly among its own fans, although twenty years ago it was one of the biggest bands in the world, a part of the last major wave of pop rock to enjoy significant mainstream success. "Ants Marching," "What Would You Say," these are songs you'd definitely know if you heard them. As rock's profile has sunk, so too has the band's. Where there was once a visible market for aging rockers, including the kind of push Prince got late in his life, all the way to the Super Bowl (which had become a kind of old rocker's home at that point) half-time show, now Dave is as invisible as modern rock itself. "Rock is dead." Well, it isn't, but as far as a lot of people are concerned, it might as well be.</p><p>But put "Bartender" on and you will feel it all over again, the primal, visceral effect rock at its best always delivers. There are no real comparisons to anything else in the band's catalog, and you have to look among the very best, most treasured of anyone else's to find them.</p><p>Simply put, in a hundred years, if anyone remembers the Dave Matthews Band, "Bartender" is likely to be the reason. This, for me, is the only real selling point for pop culture, if it will mean something to generations long removed from its original release. Anything can be popular in the moment. A lot of things can be enjoyable. But what next? What happens when everyone else isn't telling you to like it? What happens when it's just another artifact? </p><p>At their best, songs, whether in the rock genre or otherwise, are just waiting to be sung. In our era we think the whole composition is key, and as such we treat it like we do classical music. The old Stephen Foster folk songs are lyrics people know. Even if there were original recordings possible, would they, at this point, replace singing "Oh! Susanna" or "Camptown Races" yourself? Everything, eventually, becomes a folk song.</p><p>"Bartender," as glorious as it is as Dave sings it, as it's played around him, it was already one of those songs that I just had to sing, knowing that half of it that I loved so much was missing, would never be there except in my head as I sang. I had stopped playing the violin years before the song was ever composed, but it's the one song I always wish I were still playing that violin to help fill out. I knew how I would do it. There's this neat trick where you can have two strings hitting the same note, and it's one of the things I've always wanted to do, play "Bartender," because of that, because it would be so interesting to hear it coming from an instrument in my own hands.</p><p>So many critics knocked the film <i>Yesterday</i> because, they claimed, the Beatles songs couldn't possibly be popular today, <i>released</i> today, and maybe because I know the songs so well I just couldn't fathom it, loved so much, even as sung by Jack Malik, but I think the critics were idiots. Good songs will continue in the popular consciousness the way good poems have. It's the reason Bob Dylan has always been so celebrated, because at heart he has always been a poet, and a song is just a poem that sometimes has someone singing it brilliantly (and I'm sorry, but Dolly Parton lost all claim to "I Will Always Love You" when Whitney Houston chose to record it, make it truly immortal).</p><p>No one knows how things end up lasting. Shakespeare got salvaged from the scrapheap of history not because everyone remembered his plays so warmly, but because of the folios that reprinted the scripts, after his death. We still don't know who Homer was, or if he even existed. Melville ruined his career by publishing <i>Moby-Dick</i>. Eventually, critical appreciation recognizes genius. Students in classrooms bemoan having to learn about all the old things, but that's the culture, that's the sum of human greatness, whether it's fun or not. </p><p>Someday, "Bartender," in someone's recording, will be described, in its origin, as a traditional, no creator credited. It will still be a treasure. Twenty years is just a drop in the bucket for this one.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-34110598541409733802022-06-11T11:35:00.000-07:002022-06-11T11:35:25.530-07:00A Journal of the Pandemic #32<p>Such are the times we live in (and maybe they all are, and sometimes it's just easier to tell) where the way we interpret those times ends up inherently polarized. We're in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and a little earlier in the year it seemed as if we had finally begun to emerge from it, at least in some sense, drifting back into previous versions of "normal." The pandemic itself isn't over, and whatever progress we make back to "normal" can always suffer setbacks.</p><p>Which is to say, at work the pandemic has certainly been reasserting itself.</p><p>My job has been one of the rare experiences in this thing where "normal" was all but mandated to reassert itself as early as two years ago, which is also to say, the first year of the pandemic, 2020. To quickly recap, I experienced the initial quarantine phase in the month of April that year, but as of May I was headed back to work, and while it was a slow restart, it was otherwise work as usual. There's no such thing as teleworking my job, I assure you. So for the past two years I have very much been existing in a weird world of knowing things are different but also a certain amount of extreme continuity with as they were before the pandemic.</p><p>When the virus strikes we shut directly affected rooms down. For two years I was never actively in a room that faced this. That streak ended on Wednesday. I tested that same day, as I was admittedly sick, but the results came back negative; the same ol' sinus infection I always battle.</p><p>So I continued working.</p><p>A couple of weeks ago I was traveling for the first time during the pandemic. I headed to Alabama to attend my nephew's high school graduation. I will spare the details for those who feel particularly polarized, but suffice to say there were kids who were obviously sick I encountered along the way, and that's only what was obvious. If I held my head because a situation was frustrating, people immediately suspected it was for some other reason (you can guess).</p><p>Among the books I packed for the trip, which I didn't end up reading <i>during</i> it but soon after, was the first one I've read to be written during and thus reflective of pandemic life. As I've been saying, I fully expect this to be a regular feature of cultural life for many years to come. It will be inescapable, and I actually look forward to it; out of the news, into the literature. We've grown a little too comfortable looking at symptoms rather than the disease, as it were, so it'll be nice to see life reflected a little more directly, so in that way I'm actually thankful for getting to experience all of this.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-61595457264240443032022-06-11T11:11:00.003-07:002022-06-11T11:11:47.313-07:00Aronnax released<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SJt9jqxK2pAV3UJuajP3GzxS5o7_A1PhA6WfzJMYY8l6JWhApD4zJo2zVr5wioi-VW1qxQQO7dGDBtUCWDZsZ-gRTcIJ_NryucCVSBMvy4nA_bz8zY7o1BD48Tve8chM9Z4S_oHWjRkOL_AK705riqRVsFgo-vrfVaDei-hJwg6qLLD7UbIHF0JGiA/s1600/aronnax%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SJt9jqxK2pAV3UJuajP3GzxS5o7_A1PhA6WfzJMYY8l6JWhApD4zJo2zVr5wioi-VW1qxQQO7dGDBtUCWDZsZ-gRTcIJ_NryucCVSBMvy4nA_bz8zY7o1BD48Tve8chM9Z4S_oHWjRkOL_AK705riqRVsFgo-vrfVaDei-hJwg6qLLD7UbIHF0JGiA/s320/aronnax%20cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p>I know a guy named Herb who liked this when it was serialized on Kindle Vella, so that's at least one satisfied reader.</p><p>Which is to say, I have released <i>Aronnax</i> as <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Aronnax-Tale-Twenty-Thousand-Leagues/dp/B0B31K37TH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3V0V9OKX5ZGN7&keywords=aronnax+tony+la+plume&qid=1654970083&sprefix=aronnax+tony+laplume%2Caps%2C407&sr=8-1" target="_blank">a paperback book</a>. </p><p>For those who might be reading this but are unfamiliar with the story, this is, as the subtitle suggests, "a tale of twenty thousand leagues," <i>the</i> twenty thousand leagues, as in <i>Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea</i>, by Jules Verne, also known as the Captain Nemo story.</p><p>Although <i>my</i> version doesn't lean on <i>Nemo</i> so much as the French biologist Pierre Aronnax, whose discovery of Nemo is the impetus for the original story. In the present, Pierre's descendants Sylvio and his son Julian embark on an improbable journey of resubmerging Nemo's ship, the Nautilus, which in recent decades has become a forgotten neighborhood landmark, the "yellow submarine" (several chapter titles are indeed drawn from the Beatles song), a journey of discovery and <i>self</i>-discovery.</p><p>It's another novella, but it was a project that started out much differently and ended up becoming a personal favorite, not the least because it drew on my own family ancestry, and family in general.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-16441353397386892112022-04-10T14:51:00.073-07:002022-04-10T14:51:00.186-07:00A Journal of the Pandemic #31<p>I originally began composing this back in February. Part of why I paused it was because I've been getting back into the swing of things, going out a lot more, and that's in large part because the pandemic is receding ever more gradually into the past. I think there's little doubt about that at this point. There are new surges happening, of course, and time will only tell how those develop, but the pandemic as it was for its first two years is effectively over.</p><p>Yeah!</p><p>At work, as of a few weeks ago, masks are no longer mandatory. When the pandemic began I ended up working at a new building with a lot of new people who didn't know what my face looked like under the mask (I had a bunch I cycled through, although I had a whole set of ones with various fancy mustaches on them; I don't remember if I mentioned them here previously), and so it has been a different kind of introduction. As it turns out, it's not easy to interpret what people actually look like just by their eyes! I think all those superheroes have it backwards. Keep the eyes! Hide the mouth! And I think everyone is getting used to this now. Probably! </p><p>I'm booking trips! I've already booked one to attend my oldest nephew's high school graduation. His birth back in 2004 was kind of the beginning of a whole journey for me, the first major event to occur post-<i>college</i> graduation for me, the first time I flew on a plane, the first time I visited the South (the first time I had Krispy Kreme! White Castle!), sort of the beginning of an extended new association with my <i>other</i> sister. Whom I intend to visit a little later, after she's given birth to her third child. And I will get to meet her second one, in person, for the first time! And reunite with the Burrito. Just waiting for approval of the days off, then book the flights...</p><p>It's still astonishing that the pandemic swallowed two whole years. Two years! And of course there are people who will continue to argue that we shouldn't believe it's over, and it's not, but it is. I'm plotting out what will probably be the last of the pandemic money, in conjunction with these trips. Some people have talked about money for the high gas prices, but that's not gonna happen. Yeah, Russia is busy trying desperately to start another world war, just as everyone else is trying desperately to avoid it, and that's caused gas prices to soar. When I began this in February the invasion of Ukraine had just begun, and I worried about how it would proceed, and of course that's yet another thing to monitor, and nobody can really guess about that.</p><p>Two years ago I had a month off of work, was greatly irritated that my <i>previous</i> plans to visit family had been cancelled, and here on the other side, during two years of watching other people continue to travel, and enduring a previous surge at the end of 2021 that made it look like 2022 would be exactly like the previous two years, and now this, booking trips, and these are definitely going to happen, I really believe that. I mean, <i>Spider-Man: No Way Home</i> made crazy money at the box office. It's still making money, and here it's April, and movies are being blockbusters again, not just in China, but around the world, and right here in the US. Those pesky gas prices have been making packages take longer than usual, but on the whole, things're lookin' pretty gooood.</p><p>I want to believe this is the last time I write about the pandemic while it's an active thing here. Is that reasonable? I think it's reasonable. I hope things are looking good for you, too.</p>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5051839363797869923.post-39836924879754194092022-04-09T12:49:00.003-07:002022-04-09T12:49:58.827-07:00Nine Panel Grid, World Famous released, Event Fatigue<p> I've added <i>Event Fatigue</i> to the list of my Kindle Vella projects on the right. Apparently I skipped a month between chapters, but will be digging back in. Two additional will be populating today, and, well, there are plenty more to come. </p><p>Happily I can announce the release of a book from the second Kindle Vella project, <i>Nine Panel</i><i> Grid</i>!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUATLpUcm770yfkI09Fe222r3a3c5Xxg3apOxzxCUyuHElwrV-tq5kju1ksPwUpAc0kS4Jh2gyX5PEg5VU0YFw3we1md1Je9UhRr_B_JkMgHlW33InhXJQdx6uh2q5Wg3mMWuoIHKL7b7WsIrQlQil6H7vHHuxJqliW31KridUqy8A6QVT5-JNCegog/s1600/nine%20panel%20grid%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUATLpUcm770yfkI09Fe222r3a3c5Xxg3apOxzxCUyuHElwrV-tq5kju1ksPwUpAc0kS4Jh2gyX5PEg5VU0YFw3we1md1Je9UhRr_B_JkMgHlW33InhXJQdx6uh2q5Wg3mMWuoIHKL7b7WsIrQlQil6H7vHHuxJqliW31KridUqy8A6QVT5-JNCegog/s320/nine%20panel%20grid%20cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Keeping my present preferences, there is only a paperback release, which you can find <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Nine-Panel-Grid-Comic-Book/dp/B09W171GCR/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36VA1X7VSNUF9&keywords=%22tony+laplume%22+%22nine+panel+grid%22&qid=1649532854&sprefix=tony+laplume+nine+panel+grid+%2Caps%2C92&sr=8-1" target="_blank">here</a>. This is something of a metafiction, a story about a comic book that doesn't exist, detailing what happens in its final issue, including descriptions of art that does not exist, and a history that is equally fictional. It involves characters I began working on nearly two decades ago, including one I created nearly <i>three</i> decades ago. So it's got a lot of <i>real</i> history behind it, too, plus a bonus comic book script that's a version of Batman relevant to the story. It's very much a project that's very interesting to <i>me</i>, and I will be peddling copies to a comic book shop that recently opened down the road from me, and I will keep you informed about that as things develope.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">A few weeks before this one I also released <i>World Famous</i>, a story I worked on occasionally throughout 2021 (and finished earlier this year).</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZHfB4z9hxHLwi8arM73WEhHZN0j-s6CPcH42f19AgO46XzWRwm6uQS-U1vkSKqAz-Bl6XmzLYUW6IfCzy5fGDjlZ1-d2EnZIvpsbXxnzGJnnqG53vm14h1RoJ905ToO0d4KJRwgvwj56t9A3T1nu8_el0okyz8h1oABas5kJnJlNgTK3LvlGU_sqdw/s1600/world%20famous%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitZHfB4z9hxHLwi8arM73WEhHZN0j-s6CPcH42f19AgO46XzWRwm6uQS-U1vkSKqAz-Bl6XmzLYUW6IfCzy5fGDjlZ1-d2EnZIvpsbXxnzGJnnqG53vm14h1RoJ905ToO0d4KJRwgvwj56t9A3T1nu8_el0okyz8h1oABas5kJnJlNgTK3LvlGU_sqdw/s320/world%20famous%20cover.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Likewise this is only a paperback release, which you can find <a href="https://www.amazon.com/World-Famous-Wrestlers-Tony-Laplume/dp/B09SDCQ9RQ/ref=sr_1_1?crid=6OY0DL11V9W8&keywords=%22tony+laplume%22+%22world+famous%22&qid=1649532833&sprefix=tony+laplume+world+famous+%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-1" target="_blank">here</a>. As the cover heavily implies, this one is about professional wrestling, and draws on stuff I've been dabbling with for the same general three decade period, so this has certainly been a good time to be writing stories on old material for me. <div><br /></div><div>Later I will be releasing my first Kindle Vella project, <i>Aronnax</i>, when I decide what (if anything) to add in order to bulk up the page count a little. I have a timeline I put together for the abortive project that led to <i>Aronnax</i>, and I could certainly include the associated essay as well. Who knows what else. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p></div>Tony Laplumehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07854455859399339169noreply@blogger.com0