Slowly but surely, I’m getting back into the groove of things. The trip to and from Utah was in many ways exhausting — mentally at first, but then physically. I’m feeling now like I’m picking up a wee bit of speed, gathering a head of steam. Steam I will vent upon my foes, blistering their flesh, leaving them popping and splitting like hot dogs too long in the microwave.

Or something like that.

What I’m saying is, boom.

It’s time to paint with shotguns.

Worky, Jerky

Figure it’s a good time for a work update. Haven’t done one of those in a while, have I? We can do that.

Whilst at the Sundance Screenwriters Lab, Super-Secret-Literary-Agent Stacia Decker sent me line edits on the novel. Lots of little edits, but blessedly no really big ones. She did most of the heavy lifting, and so the edit was a fairly fast pass through. The draft is now back in her hands, and from here, she has the unenviable task of writing a pitch letter. (This is one of the reasons you should be sympathetic toward literary agents — you write them a pitch letter, but they have to write one for the publisher. They know your pain. They know the pain of the process, the pain of the rejection.) She has a list of publishers she’ll go-to, and… well. Cross your fingers.

On the film front, things are going swimmingly. We’re back. We’re recharged. We’ve got a new pair of glasses and thus, a fresh clarity to bring to the table. Transcribed the many, many notes from our six excellent advisors, and now it’s onto formulating the character bible (which will get a blog post all its precious own) and an attack plan via outline. (I also think we may have ourselves some financing.) The Lab and festival also threw us into some meetings and connected us with very interesting people, so we’ll see if anything develops out of that.

On the TV front, well, we continue to move forward, milestone by milestone.

I did some work for Eddy Webb of El Lupo Blanco recently — and it is easily the most fucked up thing I’ve written for White Wolf. So, look for that… I think in the coming months?

I submitted some pitches for The Escapist.

I am also on the hunt for fresh work if anybody has anything they need a-doing. The Freelance Penmonkey is swinging from branch to branch, shaking the trees, dropping bananas. You got something for me, feel free to bounce me a comment here, or toss me an email at chuckwendig[at]terribleminds[dot]com.

Lab Pimpage

I met awesome people at the Lab, and was among some truly spectacular talent, and I believe in shoving awesome people toward other awesome people. Then they form some kind of awesome Voltron and save the day with their laser-honed talent.

The Lab fellows I met were all of enormous ability, and many of them have things worth pimping — I was certainly proud to stand among them. So, for a quick primer, in no particular order:

Craig Zobel: Go, find Great World of Sound and watch it. Hilarious. Filmed in Charlotte, NC, if you care. Craig’s great. Craig is also apparently the infamous Coach Z, and is partly responsible for the ever-awesome Homestar Runner.

Myna Joseph: All I need to do is point you toward her short film, MAN, found riiiiiight here. (Curiously, she’s the only other person I’ve met whose family raised whitetail deer.)

Cherien Dabis: There’s a good chance you’ve seen — or at least heard of — her film, Amreeka. May I note that it is available on Netflix’s watch instantly program?

Sean Durkin: I wish right now I could point you to Sean’s short film, Mary Last Seen, because it’s perfect. Instead, I can say, “Hey, go watch the trailer.”

Dash Shaw: Dash is an animator and artist, and worth checking out. Check out his The Unclothes Man In The 35th Century AD shorts.

Samantha McIntyre: Samantha, I think, was the only other “pure” writer out there — everybody else was that hybrid breed, the mystical “writer-director.” She’s written for TV (Bored to Death), and her script is about a girl who buys a unicorn from a unicorn store, which is pretty much the most awesome logline ever.

Sydney Freeland: Great short, Rez Runner. Check it here.  There’s also Osama Likes Fry Bread. Random sidenote: her script, Drunktown’s Finest, was a big search term for this site in the two weeks after the Lab announcement.

Lance Edmands: His website gives a pretty good, clean run-down of his myriad talents. I can’t seem to find his short, Vacationland, online — but here’s an interview with him regarding that project.

Cao Baoping: We screened his film, The Equation Of Love And Death (not his title, apparently). It was, mmmm, let’s go with “fucking excellent.” Great stuff, great performance, strong female lead, speaks to personal interests about fate and free will and identity. Neat stuff. First 11 minutes, right over yonder.

Edwin: Edwin screened for us his film, Blind Pig Who Wants To Fly, and it was… a head-trip. You will never forget the song, “I Just Called (To Say I Love You)” again. You will also never forget the scene where two dudes gangbang an old blind man. Yes, seriously. It’s a non-narrative experience. Interesting stuff. His next film, co-written with Daud Sumolang (Postcards from the Zoo) looks and sounds great — more narrative (girl grows up in zoo, leaves comfort of zoo to become… prostitute?).

Saodat Ismailova: We screened her documentary (Aral), about the receding Aral Sea, and the generations of fisherman who live there. Weird side bonus of that documentary is that it gives you the look of a real Apocalyptic wasteland — really eerie stuff.

I’ll take a moment, too, to pimp out six brilliant advisors: Scott Frank, Richard Lagravenese, Bill Wheeler, Dana Stevens, Erik Jendresen, and Sebastian Cordero.

The Madmen Have Spoken…

…and were gassed and then put back in their cells. Whew.

Just in case you were avoiding this space while I was gone so you didn’t have to be reminded of my non-presence (lest you wail and gibber and pull at your hair), a bunch of lunatic motherfuckers took over this space (okay, okay, I maybe gave them a key) and posted their ramblings.

If you care, the three most popular posts were the most profane:

Eddy’s “Penis” post and Julie and Laura’s profanity posts (this one, that one) constantly jostle against one another for dominance. Well done, you nutters. You embraced the spirit of this site, which is to say, you mouthed off and embraced vulgarity from behind, and you cornholed it into prominence. The spirit of Terribleminds is alive and well in all of you.

The rest of you will be executed.

… okay, no. Actually, everybody garnered a lot of views, if you’re concerned about that sort of thing, and didn’t drop the site average at all. Nice work. Remember, you’re free to call on me to guest blog at your space at any time. Thanks for the bloggery!

“Cheap Sells. Free Sells Even More.”

So says JA “Joe” Konrath over at his bloggeryspace.

It’s a great post about publishing in this age of piracy. You hear a lot of people tell you that piracy is wrong, that it’s stealing food from mouths, that it kills babies. Well, fine. Tsunamis are also terrible things, but me talking about how bad they are does little to stop them. With piracy, you might find a better time going with the flow (lie back, think of England) and finding a way to utilize that increasing audience and give them a personal investment in your work. Further, monetize that. Free doesn’t mean you can’t pay your mortgage. To go back to an earlier reference, Homestar Runner is a place where all the content is free, free, free. And yet the Chapmans are (reportedly) millionaires.

So, check that Konrath linky.

(It actually has relevance to something like Sundance, too — I see all these great movies, and I have this head of steam about them and want to show people. But the films are out in the void. They may get picked up, they may not. It may be the only time anybody sees these movies. Even if they do get picked up — it may be six months or a year before I can tell people to check them out. That’s a long time in this world of uber-fast media release and consumption. Seems to be the opportunity for day-and-date release — or even a one day Internet “pass” like you get at the festival itself — has value. They’re doing this to a small degree this year, as I can now watch a handful of releases online or On-Demand, but it’s limited to five or so out of the 150 releases. Be interesting to take the festival to a digital space for these 10 days. I bet it’d be a great revenue stream for both festival runners and the filmmakers. Then again, maybe not. I’m just a humble writer, after all.)

Sassage Links

Mmm. Sassage.

Did I mention I had a Mo’s Bacon Bar? I did. It was sublime.

Anyway.

Real quick:

Will wants to tell you about writing fighting. This is a great post, and Will must do more of these. If he does not, he will be karate chopped in the soul again and again until he acquiesces.

Justin has this whole thing about “presenting information in games,” and it’s pretty fackin’ great information if you’re… y’know, into games (the playing and design thereof). His latest talks about informed decisions.

The Oatmeal gives you some pro-tips on How To Suck At Facebook.

Josh is far too nice to me.

(EDIT: And I also like the new cover to Maschine Zeit, by Machine Age Productions.)

(EDIT x2: Somehow, I forgot the Crime Factory link. Crime fiction. Steve Weddle. Hilary Davidson. And much more.)

And that’s all she wrote.

We’ll reload again next week. Ch-chak.