The New 52 – Part One

In the next few days I’m going to be putting up some thoughts on what’s going on with DC Comics.

What’s going on with DC Comics? Not much. They cancelled every one of their comics and started everything from scratch. That’s all. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Legion of Super-Heroes (shut up, I like the Legion).

I will also be going into event comics, which are the Hollywood blockbusters of the comic world. They’re where big things happen and there’s a reason both event comics and the “New 52” comics need to be discussed in the same sitting.

Here’s the first part.

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The Last Flatmate

A tiny Faked Tale today, part of Chuck Wendig’s latest flash fiction contest, this time the topic is “Revenge” and the limit is 100 words. One hundred words? Ha, I’ve done that before. So here’s a drabble about one bad flatmate from another.

The Last Flatmate

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The Secret Origin of Charlie and the X-Men

I’m a huge X-Men fan. I always have been. Recently I was thinking that I wanted to re-read the classic Uncanny X-Men run from Giant Size onwards, to see if it held up. I wanted to find things to overanalyse, to write articles about when I’m not making fiction.

The perfect thing to do was combine them. I want to make the articles short, as that’s something which leads to my endless, unfinished essays. I’ll be writing them in batches of a story at a time, rather than an issue.

I wrote a first draft of a ‘prelude’ essay, explaining a bit of the history of the X-Men. It was okay, but in writing a few words on X-Men #94 & 95, I scrapped it and rewrote it. I then realised that something I should get out of the way was my own history with the X-Men. I went deeper than I thought into my own background, and hopefully it ended up as an interesting article.

Here is my History with the X-Men. I hope you enjoy it whether you’re a fan or not.

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I’m the best! (man)

Wow, I’ve been a neglectful author lately. After finishing the edit of Lightning, I’ve half-started way too many things and finished none of them.

I’m going to get my act together and finish these things, not least of which are the second teacher article (which may go into three, I’m not sure), and a couple of essays about parts of geek culture I’m a fan of. I’m thinking I’ll have a seperate section for that, so people know what to avoid.

I have yet another comic script to do now. Ideas keep appearing faster than I can write them down. I have two short stories which need titles and different acts (middle for one, first for another).

I’ll try and get something up later this week, but until then, here’s the best man speech I gave at the wedding of Steve One. Steve has been one of my best friends for about a decade, a proofreader, editor and the person behind this website looking pretty. Apparently this speech went down well, which I should not have reacted to with shock. I’m working on that.

Wow, this has been a while since I’ve done this. I’ve posted this article, only to get notified that it’s not got a link to the actual speech, so behold: The Speech!

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Of Dead Poets and Dangerous Minds

I’m a teacher!

Okay, that’s a lie, but I have taught a creative writing workshop four times over at the wonderful and very literary Shoreham Academy.

I was very impressed with the students, and will go into detail about my experiences, but first an article to explain what I actually taught there. Either later this week or early next week I’ll go into the details of what actually happened, how different it went from my original plan and how awesome both I, the teachers, and (mainly) the students, were.

On a side note, it was on this very day in 1987 that I started writing. Lightning struck, and I’ve not been able to stop since. It feels apt that on this anniversary I’m fighting the last 167 pages of editing the novel which features very different versions of my first ever characters. One day I want to write a biographical piece about how I, and they, grew up together. That’s for another day, though, once I’ve edited the novel itself and can afford such vanity.

 

Until then, here’s the adventures of Charlie the Teacher: Part One!

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Drabbling

It’s time for a third drabble. I have things on the way, oh yes, I do.

Apparently I’ve deleted the short story I was working on, which isn’t the smartest most. Oh well, the new draft will probably be better.

In the meantime, here’s My Friend, The Mosquito.

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Another Drabble

Interesting times.

I have business cards now, which is awesome, I’m working on a few articles, which I’ll try and narrow down and actually finish in the near future. My attention does tend to wander.

Until then, here’s another drabble, for SCIENCE!

One-Millimetre Journal

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A Drabble, you say?

A drabble… I’m not exactly sure where it comes from, is a format for fiction which is exactly 100 words (not including the title). It can’t be any more or less than one hundred.

When I was younger, I used to hate deadlines and restrictions. As silly as it sounds, the hypothetical comic company my best friend Adam and I had (Awesome Comics, later El Queso Diablo Comics) had a certain level of deadlines. I’d try and finish a script by a certain time. We wanted to be a proper publisher one day, like Marvel and DC. We were 13 years old, so that wasn’t likely to happen. Still, I made 30+ scripts. I was on fire, even though the second I had a deadline I did something else. Even through college I was allergic to deadlines. All those scripts are gone now, all that college work. Everything of my writing which I’d types up before I was 20 vanished when a laptop so damaged by its exposure to me, was rendered completely worthless, was burgled from my home.

Instead of being a sad occasion, this became a changing point. I started again from scratch. I didn’t look back. Over the next few years I grew to love deadlines. I relished them. These restrictions and rules. If I am going to write for one of the big comic companies then I’ll need to learn to write what other people want, I’ll need to write to a deadline.

Exercises like a drabble, writing to exactly a hundred words, are good to play with. I liken this to writing a comic script to make what is effectively an act break at the end of each issue. To making a dramatic beat preferrable at each turn of the page.

These preceeding statements are to explain that I am going to be posting a couple of drabbles for a couple of weeks. My plan is to have some bigger fiction up here before I run out of drabbles, but I have things to write, things to edit.

I hope you enjoy the first of these drabbles, short though they are.

Undone

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Tiny Broken Doll Face Man

I want to say, “Blame Chuck Wendig”. I really do.
Chuck Wendig is a writer, someone I’m a big fan of and whose advice on editing, “Welcome to Editordome” I’ve been returning to again and again while pouring through the proofreading copy of my novel.

He’s been doing contests on his webite, the aptly-named, Terrible Minds, for flash fiction. I’ve seen a couple where an idea didn’t come to me in time. The latest contest was this one, where the inspiration had to be a photo of doll’s heads. I started pondering ideas and had nothing.

Then yesterday this appeared to me at work, out of the blue. My proofreaders, Alex and Steve were great at rushing through it and now it’s ready to be viewed by the public. As much as it can be.

I want to say “Blame Chuck Wendig“, but this is my fault, really.

My latest Faked Tale, Tiny Broken Doll Face Man.

Enjoy.

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The Magical Laundrette

A bit of a swift one this week. The Magical Laundrette, or it might end up called “Where all the socks go”. I’m not sure yet. It’s kind of rough, so any constructive criticism is welcome.
As I’m running a little low on existing fiction, I’m thinking I’ll spend the next few weeks putting up something tiny in the form of drabbles I have done. I’ll use this time to hopefully build up a little more work, edit a few more pieces.
The weekly deadline’s been good, but I’ve also got a novel to edit, comic scripts to write the pitches for. It’s been a fun, busy time.

Charlie E/N

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