I’m not dead yet! Frankly a lot of shazbot has happened over the past 12 months, and every new little thing has forced me to revise my Chapter 7 plans yet again. Frankly if I started Chapter 7 immediately after Chapter 6, it wouldn’t have been nearly as good as it will ultimately be.

Of course when I actually start Chapter 7 (past what I’ve already got)… that’s for Allah to will.

In any case, here’s some bits about Chapter 7 I tossed together while waiting for my food at Denny’s. … I didn’t realize how much emphasis I put on hair in those notes.

FANIMECON:
Motherfracker! I thought FanimeCon was gonna be this upcoming weekend, but it turned out to be this last weekend! I totally missed it alltogether, and I lost the $40 I spent on a table! Fracknuts! … Well, I was kinda getting tired and burnt out of doing cons anyways, so I’m not too pissed off about it. Frankly I’m more pissed about losing that $40. I’m probably not gonna do any other cons this year anyways. MAYBE I’ll do APE, just because. And then there’s also the SF Zine Fest, which is a one day event more in line with what I make, so maybe I’ll do that too.

SOME OTHER THINGS….

RADICAL CHANGES DUE:
Last month I took a trip to the Isotope and bought a few new books:
• Cecil and Jordan in New York, by Gabrielle Bell
• Funny Misshapen Body, by Jeffrey Brown
• The Color of Earth, by Dong Hwa Kim
• Likewise, by Arlel Schrag
• A Drifting Life, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Good-Bye, by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

While I was there I had a chat with the owner, James, about what I can do to increase interest in Moose River. He gave me a few good tips, which I plan on sharing with you as soon as I can find the list. There was a LOT of good tips and shazbot; one of his suggestions included creating minis for ALL chapters of Moose River… so that’s something I’m probably gonna do very soon.

In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I’m gonna skip out on conventions and shows all together until I can get my shazbot together again and implement the changes and suggestions James gave me.

And for those of you who say I never can take constructive criticism, I say FRACK YOU because all I do with Moose River is take constructive criticism! If you think I never take constructive criticism, you’re not looking hard enough, or you’re choosing to see what you want to see and ignoring the rest. Well FRACK YOU if you’re doing that, and OPEN your GODDAMN EYES, MOTHER FRACKER.

…[slight pause]… Yeah.

SHEA MARERRA’S HEROIN DIARIES:
I’ve got a new side story I’m working on: Shea Marerra’s Heroin Diaries. Well, that’s just a temporary name, just because there are too many “Heroin Diaries” out there. The downtime involving new pages gives me the perfect opportunity to share what I’ve written in Shea’s heroin addiction saga, for whenever I DON’T post a new page, I’ll have some other writing to fall back on. Plus since it’s all writing (and it’s already written), it takes no effort to post. Here’s an example entry:

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part of me is kicking my ass for not bringing my jopes. another part of me is kicking my ass for smoking as much as i did. i dont remember at all of what i did to get to that point. i usually dont smoke that much. and yet another part of me is kicking my ass for taking out what cash that i did to buy jopes like i did.

i can tell that the effects of joping are short lived. i can feel some harshness of the post jope. and even though ill smoke some shazbot between work and school, im gonna end up killing it. the happiness i had today after meeting up with jane was totally short lived. and if i didnt have access to that coke of navy’s, i definitely would have killed my jopes. i hate having my happiness revolve around a drug like this.

oh but i love doing it so much!!

——————–

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jopes just hide my life and pains. i get to run away from them and not deal with them. but in not dealing with my life, problems build up.

when will i resolve my problems? i dunno. i never feel like doing them. im never in the mood.

i have fallen from my old position. i am not who i was before i started joping. well, in certain ways i am not. in other ways i still am. i got excellent grades in skool all whilst on jopes.

it’s a cycle i get myself into. i postpone things because i focus on acquiring jopes. i acquire jopes because i get depressed. i get depressed because i postpone shazbot.

There’s plenty more where this came from… you can watch her struggle, learn new things, and actually eventually take the steps on maybe even getting help!

I’m still in the middle of writing this, but it’s almost over. If anything I might throw this together into a minicomic, or as a part of Moose River book three (with chapters seven through nine) or maybe in the final, completed and collected Moose River graphic novel (chapters one through nine). I haven’t make up my mind quite yet…

Two lines from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy seemed quite appropriate here.

I haven’t forgotten about this site, and this time it’s not a case of writer’s block. Life just keeps getting in the way. Between my shed and part of my house catching on FIRE and destroying between 75-95% of my personal effects (notes, drawing pads, etc.) collected over the last decade, finals week at school, car problems, less hours at work and getting in a fight with my brother…. working on Moose River just isn’t something that was highest on my priorities. I haven’t even approved your comments either, that’s how much I haven’t been around.

The upside is that I’ve gotten over the loss of my shed (the silver lining to that dark cloud is that after every devistating moment of my life–something of mine is stolen, computer deletion, idiotically breaking up with the only girl I ever loved–I do everything to prevent it from happening again, and it works), school is almost over, I’ll be working more, my car’s fixed, and I’m finally cool with my brother again… so things are looking up, at least enough to let me start working on Moose River again soon. The script for Chapter 7 has been completed a long time ago, it’s just that I’ve been so preoccupied with the aforementioned bullshazbot.

I need to become the ubermench I used to be. I must admit that I’ve slipped over the last few years, but it’s only a matter of time before I get back to the ubermench I used to be, maybe even stronger than I’ve ever been.

I think first off I need to do is take a break from conventions. I’m getting sick of doing them. One issue though is FanimeCon is coming up and I’m hardly prepared for it. I’m also not sure if I will be prepared for it in tme either. Hmmmm…

Beh, anyways, that’s where I am now.

Ok, so the three pages that sort of establish some other parts within the chapter have been taken care of. I think all that needs to be said about Betty and Jorge’s current relationship has been said.

The next part of the story will involve Emo. I’m really really REALLY excited about working on this part of the story. However…. I still owe a lot of homework to my teachers, and it’s being worked on on borrowed time. So until I can chip away at my homework to give me enough breathing room like a torch can push back a hoard of zombies far enough to make a daring escape, it just means that much longer until I can start with some new pages again. Don’t worry though, this isn’t a case of writer’s block like it was before, so don’t think you’ll have to wait another few months until I’m inspired again!

I’m still alive! I just finished studying for a midterm, which was today. With that out of the way, and because I have spring break coming up, I think I can finally start cracking on new pages. I finally attained some of the freedom I require to work on new pages.

But best of all, I just experienced something today that ignited the writing flame inside me. I can’t explain it, but suddenly the part of me that writes which has laid dormant inside me for the last four to five months has suddenly came back to life and is burning brighter than it ever has! I know how to tell the upcoming story with Jorge and Betty! I’ve been given some brand new material for Emo and Claire! Oh GOD my heart is a flutter with new ideas! Praise the Lord!!!

…So yeah, I found the spark that I needed. Expect new pages very soon!