Ideas

I’m designing/co-editing Spellbound, Volume II: Modern Magic

Boston Comics Roundtable, Comics, Projects, Spellbound, Volume II
legalizemagic

Legalize Magic by Oliver Tacke // cc 2.0

Not content with one project of a literary bent, I’ve somehow found myself roped into working on an anthology with the Boston Comics Roundtable, the Boston-area indie comics creator group.

Spellbound II is “Modern Magic.” Where tech meets hex, touch screen Ouija boards exist, and the WiFi fairy is the godmother we all need.

My role will be selecting the comics with my co-editors, and designing/laying out the book itself. I’m very excited to be part of this project. The BCR releases excellent anthologies. The aim is to have the book in hand by early June, just in time for the convention season.

Specifications:

Dimensions: Trim 7” x 8.5”, image safe area 6.5” x 8” — no bleeds
Color: Black & White or Grey scale
Page count: 1 – 6 pages

Submission information:

Please send a complete script and at least the first page in tight pencils to spellbound.anthology@gmail.com.

Important dates:

3/3 – Script deadline.

3/31 – Final art deadline. Expect us to bug for updates before this deadline.

Pine, Crab, Tree

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

The third and final piece of advice from the Lehrer lecture was simple: Learn to relax. Simple, right?

This ties in pretty well with daydreaming. As a whole, some of my best ideas occur when my mind is blank. I’m not searching for answers at all; they just appear. Like doing insight problems. Take the word association type games. Three words, and only one connects with all three. Pine, crab, tree. What is it?

The answer makes itself apparent not when over thinking, but when the mind is perfectly and totally relaxed.

As I’m not a neuroscience-y person, I’m not even going to attempt to explain how a relaxed mind produces better results. Something about alpha waves being present in a relaxed state of mind.

But when calm, we can direct our thoughts inward and come up with less obvious answers. Maybe a character or scene is being particularly obnoxious. By not forcing oneself to think about it, a creative solution may make itself obvious. It won’t happen right away, but maybe it’ll hit. That divine thunderbolt.

While I haven’t had any of those moments in terms of writing fiction, I’ve had my ‘a-ha!’ moments while writing papers for school. My favorite? A paper on the benefits of crime.

Libraries: What wonderful way to jumpstart the imagination!

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

I love libraries. Books spread as far as the eye can see, the quiet, the hiding amongst the stacks while perusing through an art book…ah! What joy!
To the library I went today, grabbing some fiction (Alexander McCall Smith, of course, along with some classic sci fi) and stumbled through the reference section.
Countless scores of topics live in the reference section, and from them millions of ideas conceived.
Research for The Continent commenced. I picked up a book on The Resistance during WWII, which I’ll attempt to read in the near future.

Recycling: Not just good for the environment

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

In my attempts to jump start short story writing after a long drought, I find myself going back to stories I’ve written before. Not just for inspiration, but for structure. In one case, I rewrote the story with different characters, setting and outcome, but kept the structure (and some key points) the same.

I wonder if this is a “bad thing.” It got me thinking about plotting short stories again. Heck, it got me to write the first draft of a story. But by taking the plot of a story and throwing in new characters, is this self plagerism?

Wander here, wander there, I will wander everywhere

The Twirl and Swirl of Letters

 

CC/Dan4th

CC/Dan4th

Take grey, rainy Sundays where the sky will either break into blue or descend as powerful drops.

 

Add one day off, a pair of Sperry Topsiders, the city of Boston and a bored writer.

What is the result?

Wandering through areas I know well, and neighborhoods with interesting buildings is a perfect way to spend the afternoon. I’ve wanted to see the Rose Garden for a while now, having sprinted passed it a couple of months ago, so I figured today would be as good a day as any. The same goes with the Fenway Victory Gardens. Feeling bold, I walked amongst the gardens, peering into them and snapping a few pictures.

The creativity of others is inspiring. A few lines for poetry snuck into my head as I viewed hidden garden after hidden garden.