But The Boy and his craziness is not the only reason for my lack of writing these past seven months, there is also that itch to try new things that I think a lot of artists seem to suffer from.  Last year, I wrote and produced a couple short films, and out of that, came an urge to tell different kinds of stories in different ways and through different media.  I became aware that I want to be a storyteller more than a writer, by which I mean I am less caught up in the idea that the book is the only way I can get my stories out in the world.

I still hold to that idea.  But the vagueness of the term, “storyteller,” though liberating, can be confusing.  And thanks to the lack of sleep I mentioned above coupled with this new found freedom, I spent the last few months, a little adrift.  Some positive things have come out of this time: the children’s book project with GE Gallas, which we will be sending to agents and publishers next month has been a fruitful experience.  And those couple short films taught me quite a bit, as well.  But I’ve been uneasy through it all.

Now I know why:  I wasn’t writing.  I mean, I was blogging.  I was writing copy for this or that project.  BUT I was NOT writing.

There’s a lot of talk, I know, about this crazy time of Twitter and Facebook that is making us all dumb and destroying out ability to focus in on anything for any extended amount of time, but the solution–at least my solution–is to sit down and come up with characters and scenarios for those people who live in my mind.  The act of writing, if it does nothing else, grounds me.  It makes me feel whole.  To put in the words of Renee Zellweger in Jerry Macguire, it “completes me.”

What I realize now is that even if I am a storyteller, the starting point is always the story, and that begins with tapping out words on a screen.  So, that’s what I’m going to do right now.  Time to start writing!

the very cool and talented GE Gallas–I get to call her Geri.

This week, I met with the AMAZING G.E. Gallas.   We were discussing the final art on our children’s book, Elias and the City of Cats, which we will be sending out to publishers in February.  Here are some of her sketches (before inking).  Enjoy!

cover art for Elias and the City of Cats

scene from Elias and the City of Cats

On other news, this week I will be putting up the last panels of Ostenspieler & the Book of Faces. In February, Zac Finger, indy comic book guru, will finish the art for the last issue. Stay tuned!!

If you are new to the site and have not seen all the strips for Ostenspieler, click here,

As for the non-film writing, I am adding more pages from my graphic novel, Ostenspieler & the Book of Faces.  So get on that train.  The newest issue–issue #3 (even though it is the 4th installment) is due out early in 2013.  Too cool, I think.  And you will, too, if you check out the stuff.  And if you like the art, check out my buddy, Zac Finger, the other creative spirit behind Ostenpieler.

This week, I will also start posting art from my children’s book.  I’m looking forward to getting feedback on that.  You can see some mock-up art in the portfolio.

This week’s last bit of history is more of a proclamation, which works, if you think about it.  Isn’t history chock-full of proclamations?  So here’s mine:

I will finish my 52nd story for the year before the year is out.

I’m not promising it will be good.  It’ll just be done.

That said, the most important thing about this week is that it is the holiday.  I hope it is a happy time for all!

Whatever it is, it is a great program that funds Transmedia projects.  I will write more about the process of writing the application on my blog this Wednesday, but for now, it’s enough to say that I am proud of the fact that I didn’t just let the deadline come and go, which is easy to do when you’re trying to be creative and at the same time get your career up and running.  You’d think that the two would be related, but sometimes, all the stuff you have to do to get people to notice you takes you away from producing the stuff that will keep their attention.

Speaking of putting things off, this week, my plan is to send some stories off.  Last week, I posted something about a recent rejection letter I got that really made my day–which sounds odd, except that it came from a lit journal that I truly love, and it seemed heartfelt.  I feel inspired to submit again, which I should do, considering that I haven’t really submitted anything in quite some time.  How am I going to get stuff published if I don’t submit, you ask?  Good question.

Enough said.

To that end, I also have to write the elusive 52nd story.  Long story about this project I started in 2011, but to put it simply, I wanted to write 52 stories in 52 weeks.  I wrote 48, my son was born, and I managed to squeeze another three out before my brain went to mush.  (Read before my child decided sleep was unnecessary.)  You can check out more about my writing travails since fatherhood right here. OR, you can read some of my 52 lovelies over there.

In any case, I’m dragging out the process, and I need to get back to my fiction writing roots, ASAP.  LAST THING: as always, new pages from my graphic novel are up!!  Please go to the portfolio site and catch up on your reading.  I have two full issues up and the third, which for some reason, Zac Finger, the artist, calls Issue 2, is halfway there, but every week, I add a handful of pages.  Check it out over yonder.

On other writerly news, I recently received the best rejection letter a writer could hope for from the editor of The Fairy Tale Review.  FTR is one of the few truly great mags that is not only open to but actually encourages fiction of the fantastical sort that I like to write. (Think Twilight Zone with a heart.) I have a lot of of stories of this variety on this site, so peruse the portfolio if you haven’t already.  There are a number of micro fiction pieces, which I put under the heading 52 Stories in 52 Weeks.  I have yet to write the 52nd.  But that’s on my list of things to do before the end of the year.

So back to the rejection letter.  The editor wrote a very encouraging note, and considering the importance of the journal, I am heartened to start submitting shorts again in earnest not only to Fairy Tale Review, but to other mags,too.

Need to put that on my list of things to do.

You can read more about this letter and the importance of good rejection notes on Running in Circles.

One that note, very soon, Running in Circles is going to be moving to a new home.  I’m working on a new look, and a new direction.  I finally bought a theme I like and am trying to set it up.  It should be set by the start of the new year.  Suffice to say that the new blog will be less about running round and round and more about running somewhere–like to a place where I can get paid for writing/telling stories.

Here’s hoping.

ps. as always, new posts of my graphic novel are going up this week.

I am prolonging this metaphor beyond what is reasonable, I know.

So here are the nuts I am chomping on this week (odd as that sounds):

1. my children’s story, Elias & the City of Cats is well on its way.  The great G.E. Gallas is on the job, and I am excited to say, this is amazing.
2. I am putting up pages from Issue #2 of my first graphic novel, Ostenspieler & the Book of Faces.  Ostenspieler is set in a dystopian future in which images are banned by the government after the discovery of the Book of Faces, a supposedly sinister project in which the souls of individuals were captured in the book.  The last issue comes out in 2013.
3.  I just finished a draft of a screenplay for commercial we are filming in December.  Check out the marvelous real for more details.

Going forward, I am looking to re-start a new blog, using the amazing Corbett Barr’s methods, and I am looking to re-creating my daily blog, which is going to be something of a re-make.  I’m calling the blog, re-do or die, which is how I feel, honestly.  I’m re-doing myself, especially, my writing life.  But the blog will also be a type of resource for people who are looking to re-do themselves in some way.  I’ll keep you posted going forward.

This morning, I’m riding on a commuter train that is basically empty, which is an odd experience.  I am used to the morning hustle of the East Coast, specifically the trains in New York, which can be strange social exercises in that there are no other places in which you can be that close to someone without it being sexual.  But here in LA, people don’t seem to like that kind of morning intimacy; hence, the ghost train.

I almost don’t want to say this, but as I’m moving forward through the metropolitan Los Angeles area, it’s a good thing that this town is Democratic leaning.  I could just see someone like Paul Ryan grimacing if he saw all the open seats around me.  Of course, the dismay wouldn’t just be coming from the Right.  I could see a bunch of Left-leaning types getting up in arms about the waste of energy this empty train represents, a sign of the times: we just can’t keep going on like this, we just can’t keep raping the Earth.

I will table these concerns for a moment.  I’m actually experimenting right now.  I want to see if I can visit LA and not drive on the freeways, not drive at all.  I’m taking up this challenge in response to Alissa Walker.  If you’re from LA and you don’t know her blog, GelatoBaby, get yourself there.  And if you aren’t from LA, I’d still tell you to get over there.  It’s a must because she loves LA, and she certainly does love LA because she tries to see it for herself without falling back on clichés and stereotypes.  LA, I really think, can often be misunderstood.

she loves her gelatto, her Los Angeles, and walking while enjoying both

For the purposes of this post, the issue that I am most interested in has to do with Ms. Walker’s need to walk.  She does not drive, even though she lives in the heart of Los Angeles.  She takes buses, trains, and true to to her name, she walks a lot.  She makes the claim that this is possible.  And I’m going to use these next few days to see if she’s right.

I’ve managed to write another three stories in the last 5 months, but that final one is evading me.  It’s not just the writing time I’m missing, it’s also the quiet time needed before writing happens.  I need time to imagine, to dream.  And as anyone knows, dreaming requires sleep.

Ah well, sleep.

Until more of that happens, I will keep plugging away.  On that note, next week, I’m going to be at Story World in Los Angeles, a convention for storytellers. I’m hoping the experience will give me some time/inspiration for more creative writing.  I’ll keep you posted next week when I arrive.  If you want briefer/up-to-date gabe-reports from storyteller-central, please check out the tweets.  I’m @marvelousreal.

LA, here I come!!

at a clown school in SF–telling

It’s been a long time coming.  But finally, I got my social media butt together.  I’m not sure I’ve organized myself as well as I could have.  Do I really need one site for a writer’s portfolio and another for creative/video/social media?  Yeah, I think I do.  Or at least, I will.

In any case, if you’re here, then check out the new stuff that’s going up this week.  Ostenspieler is back for the third issue, which for some off comic book reason, the arrtist, Zac Finger, is calling it Issue 3.  Check it out.  I’m also still working on completing this year’s goal of writing 52 stories in 52 weeks.  I’m almost there, though in truth, I didn’t make the 52 weeks.  But hey, it’s the first 52 that really matters.

Hopefully, I’ll finally finish that last story sometime in the next week or two.  We will have to see.  In the meantime, keep coming back.  For the next few weeks, I’ll be putting up pages from Ostenspieler.

Enjoy!