Happy Holidays, aka One Step Closer To The End Times

It’s Christmas and I’m feverishly editing Sandman Slim 3, Aloha From Hell. By editing I mean I’m beating the first act to death with a claw hammer. Trust me, it deserves it. Funny, but I thought this would be the least painful book in the series to write. Turns out it’s the hardest because it has to encompass both of the previous books and twist them around in new ways.

I have some book projects brewing for the new year. Nothing solid yet because these things take a while to work their way through the system. The good news is that the book biz is a lot faster than movies. If it wasn’t we’d still waiting for the first printing of The Shadow Over Innsmouth. I’m also working on an original screenplay, another project that has to be swallowed, digested and shit out by the beast so it can decide if it was tasty enough.

Between bouts of writing I’ve been taking photos. I’m shooting a lot of film these days, something I haven’t done in years. Mostly I’m working with Fuji instant because I’m using some odd shooting techniques and I like getting immediate feedback on whether the process is working. Plus, this line of Fuji instant gives me a negative. About half the time I’ll toss the photo and use the negative for scanning. For any camera geeks out there for digital I’m working with a Nikon D700, for film I’m using an ancient Holgaroid (A Holga body with a Polaroid back held in the place with big rubber bands) and an old instant camera mainly used by photojournalists in the 80s, a Polaroid Propack.

I promise to update here more often in the coming year. It’s so easy to get bogged down in other projects and feel your brain vaporlock when it comes to talking about simple work and life issues in a forum like this. I have to remind myself that writing these entries is, in fact, a good way to auger out the inside of my skull.

On that note, happy holidays to everyone. And remember, when you're on Santa’s lap at the mall that’s not whiskey on his breath. It’s Santa’s special medicine that keeps from getting a boner every time a stranger sits on him and begs for treats.