O Valencia!

Ladies and Gentlebeans,

Here, now, for your viewing pleasure, a few updates on the Life and Times of Benjamin George Wilkins, Esq. First off, I really love my new program. It has been harder work than I thought it would, but it has completely fulfilled my expectations. I knew it would be difficult and I am glad that it is because it is not hard in the same way that my last program was hard. In a way, Communication was so hard because it was so easy. I could easily get away with doing the bare minimum, because I didn't care really if I was learning anything or not. Somehow though, whenever I do not give my full self to something, I find that even the little that it demands becomes much harder to give. But now, finally, in a creative writing program, I am doing what I love and working hard at it. I've never read so many books so quickly in my life (really I should be reading now - it never stops). Really, though, how many people can say that at least half of their job is reading? Not that I get paid very much for it. Still, being paid at all is pretty amazing. Say what you want about the educational system in this country - I'm getting paid to perfect my particular art. Of course I'm also being paid to tutor and eventually teach. And I still have to take out loans in order to survive, which I'll likely be paying until I'm 85. Still.

In other news - the YA book that I was working on has...well, not exactly died so much as it has been buried alive. School is too much, and it was already feeling like I digging trenches in a downpour trying to get it down on paper. I think that I will turn it into a comic, though when I'll have the time, I can't say. Maybe Christmas, maybe next summer. The whole idea started visually for me, so maybe it should stay that way. For whatever reason writing comics is never quite as daunting as writing a book. I think it honestly has to do with my lack of abilities in formal description. When I write nonfiction, description is certainly an element, but I usually tackle that sort of thing in my own voice, rather in an omniscient narrator's. And in a graphic novel script, one just has to write for the artist, not for the eventual audience. As long as I can get the image across to him/her then that is enough. There's no pressure to actually paint the picture myself. Does that mean that comic writing requires less craft and I'm just coping out? Possibly, but I don't think so. I think it requires a different skill set that I have more practice using.

Speaking of comics - Jack and I have taken up "Pilgrim" again. After the summer before last, when we really sat down and wrote it, we haven't made much progress. Partly this is because we were busy and partly it was because our Illustrator was busier still. We had to part ways, eventually. I think we parted amicably, and I hope that he feels the same. Anyway, Jack and I are meeting regularly (online) to edit the script we have. It's taking a little longer than I thought it would, but I think after one more session we'll have it done. Then we plan on sending it off to anyone who will consider a script without art. When that fails we'll try very hard to find an artist. I have one in mind, but I know she's very busy. We'll see. I still like the script though, and that's a very positive sign.

Oh, here's something for you geeks in the audience. At the National Book Festival a few weeks ago I was able to hear Neil Gaiman read, and get him to sign three of his books for me. It was...pretty freaking awesome. The most amazing person I know (J) held my place in the signing line while I sat comfy in the reading tent and listened to the man read from The Graveyard Book. Because of this we were in the first 50 or so people to get books signed and were able to get 3 signed apiece. He seemed very nice and I told him about Pilgrim. His assistant liked the title and when I mentioned that we only needed an Artist, he suggested that I "go where artists hang out." That looks like a sort of snotty, dismissive thing to say in print, but I assure you, he said it politely and with a smile on his face, and I have no doubt that he meant it as casual good advice. Of course, as J said afterwards, "Now [I] have to get it published." If only so I can send him a copy.

Well, I think that's all for now. I need to get back to my reading. On the top of the list is The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, for my Recent American Nonfiction class. It seems good so far, though so far isn't very much. But then again, I tend to like everything. Some more, some less, but there really are few things that I've read that I could honestly say that I didn't like. O Pioneers comes to mind. Although I might not have finished it. I can't remember. Also, still reading The Graveyard Book when I can. And I'm listening to the 11th of the Wheel of Time series. I have found that I enjoy that kind of fantasy much more when I listen. Robert Jordan may have been one of the better writers in the genre, but frankly, that says bad things about the genre. He was, of course, no Tolkien. Whatever the Wheel of Time is though, it has gotten me back in a Fantasy kind of mood. I might tackle some more fantastical writing again - though I think it, too, will be in comic form.

Yours,

Benjamin George Wilkins

PS O Valencia! is from The Decemberists' song of course. I hope to see them in November and so have been listening more and more.