The evolution of blog...

This isn't so much a blog post as a test of a mobile blogging app.

I leave with this thought.

"Inspiration is getting to our studies at 9 am." Delacroix

Peter

Survival

I thought to give you a taster I would post the first few pages of the story I have in the anthology.

It is a nine page story called

The Wages of Sin: The Rising

It is set in a world where vampires exist and don't glitter and the first vampire has been trapped on the floor of the ocean for the last seven centuries.

The story itself comes from a larger story universe generally going under the banner The Wages of Sin which I have been developing in various formats for a few years.

This story is a sort of tester and may be the beginning of a larger tale if people respond to it.

The art was created by Kev Crossley.

Anyway check out the pages and if you like them follow the link and pledge to get your own copy.

Toodles.

Peter

Think it's cool?

Go pledge.

Insomnia needs to be put to sleep.

It's been a while.

Sorry for the absence but darkness has fallen over the land of Oz in terms of publishing.

As you can see from the post's title I have chosen to go with a play on the word Insomnia. There are a lot of blogs doing this right now.

Here's why.

The MD of the publisher, a Mr Crawford Coutts seems to have disappeared along with the publishing rights for Oz: Fall of the Scarecrow King.

Now while we are a long way off being able to go to print, the point is until the rights are fully returned to me I can't.

Effectively my book is being held hostage but no ransom has been asked.

I won't go into the details of why what has happened has happened but Mr Coutts has informed no one of his intentions and so myself and about fifty other writers and artists find their work in limbo.

I would say however that this is an issue of his creating and everyone else I had the pleasure or working with at Insomnia were a delight and their names and reputations should go without tarnish.

To try and get our rights back the creators, and ex-staff, are releasing an anthology that was to be published by Insomnia this year. No contracts were signed however so all this work belongs to us.

We need to raise finance to get this done though so please follow the link and if you fancy the book please pledge. All donations welcome.

Click the link to hear my silky smooth voice explain the situation.

For now all the best.

Peter

BICS 09 took my viginity

It's true. Up until a few weeks ago I was a Comic Con virgin. No more however. I have been deflowered. I am damaged goods, never to be innocent again.

The Hotel:

I had to give you this pic as I love it so much. Below is the starkly beautiful view from my hotel room. Admittedly not the greatest panorama but acceptable for the £s per night I paid.



The Launch Party:

Sadly the music was too damn loud and made conversing difficult. Only stayed an hour and a half.

Venue: The Birmingham Thinktank

A great venue for a comic con if somewhat light on catering facilities either in the venue or close to the venue. It also had a strange Escher like escalator system. No matter what direction you wanted them going in they were always going in the opposite. Most of the time the only way down seemed to be in the elevators.

Other than those tiny little gripes it was a great venue, the stall area itself was pretty toasty at times but that is unavoidable with that many bodies.

The Panels:

Varied and interesting but in truth I skipped many of the panels. Watchmen and Transformers 2 were showing on the IMAX and having never been to an IMAX it was an opportunity I couldn't pass up.



And speaking of Transformers one of the stalls set up was by http://www.robosteel.com/ and featured a 2.5m tall Optimus Prime made entirely from recycled steel. Apparently Google have one in the lobby of their HQ.

Optimus Prime from Peter Forbes on Vimeo.

The People:

The true value I received from attending BICS though came from all the fabulous people I met. In particular all my fellow insomniacs.

Speaking of which I was lucky enough to get a sketch of Judge Dredd done by the immensely talented Simon Wyatt who was doing sketches for charity. Please check out his blog for more info on his work. http://simonwyatt.blogspot.com/

Here is a video of the fabulous work taking place.

Ttfn

Peter

Simon Wyatt Sketches Dredd BICS 09 from Peter Forbes on Vimeo.

My Screenwriting Library

In addition to writing Oz: Fall of the Scarecrow King and teaching two and a half days a week I am also currently studying for my MA in Screenwriting at The Scottish Screen Academy.

As doing anything for any of those activities would be far too sensible and productive I decided instead to do an inventory of my screenwriting library.

Any title's missing that you would recommend?

1. Poetics by Aristotle
2. The Tools of Screenwriting by David Howard and Edward Mabley
3. Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee
4. The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler
5. Art and Science of Screenwriting by Philip Parker
6. Screenplay: The Foundations of Screenwriting by Syd Field
7. Save the Cat!: The Only Book on Screenwriting You'll Ever Need by Blake Snyder
8. On Directing Film by David Mamet
9. The Screenwriter's Problem Solver by Syd Field
10. The Screenwriter's Workbook by Syd Field
11. Four Screenplays: Studies in the American Screenplay by Syd Field
12. Selling a Screenplay by Syd Field
13. Aristotle in Hollywood: Visual Stories That Work by Ari Hiltunen
14. Writing Screenplays That Sell by Michael Hauge
15. Writing Great Screenplays for Film and TV (AFI) by Dona Cooper
16. How to Build a Great Screenplay: A Master Class in Storytelling for Film by David Howard
17. Teach Yourself Screenwriting by Ray Frensham
18. Save the Cat! Goes to the Movies by Blake Snyder
19. How to Write a Movie in 21 Days: The Inner Movie Method by Viki King
20. 500 Ways to Beat the Hollywood Scriptreader by Jennifer M. Lerch
21. Raindance Writers' Lab: Write and Sell the Hot Screenplay by Elliot Grove
22. Lew Hunter's Screenwriting 434 by Lew Hunter
23. On Writing by Stephen King
24. The Art of Dramatic Writing by Lajos Egri
25. Your Screenplay Sucks!: 100 Ways to Make It Great by William M Akers

Phew. Not bad.

I didn't know there were five books by Syd Field let alone that I owned five of his books.

Peter.

Oz to appear on the PSP

The press embargo has been lifted so I can finally post this rather exciting news. What follows is the official press release.


Insomnia On Demand: Catch the RedEye on PSP™
(PlayStation®Portable)



In the blackest hours before dawn, when all good comic readers were tucked up in bed, the Insomniacs crawled into their dreams.

What were they whispering into the darkness? What did they wish for, lost in the sleep of the innocent?

No less than:

· To be able read Insomnia comics anywhere, at any time
· Take their entire comics collections wherever they went
· To listen to their own music while reading
· To navigate pages their own way
· To find and buy comics easily and access content instantly from the PlayStation®Store

All this will be on offer for PSP owners in December 2009, with the opening of the Digital Comics Store on the PlayStation®Network.

Red Eyed and bushy tailed, Insomnia Publications will be standing proud on launch day as our critically acclaimed books take their place on the virtual shelves, next to world famous names in comic book publishing.

Insomnia Publications’ graphic novels will be presented in the store as single-issue length chapters, following the publication of the book. The first chapter of every book will be offered free to readers as a “taster” of the story.

Crawford Coutts, Managing Director of Insomnia Publications, says:

“We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Sony in the launch of the Digital Comics Service.

Insomnia is committed to nurturing the very best new art, new writing and new concepts in its original graphic novels and the unprecedented scope of this Comics Store will connect independent publishers and readers around the globe.

The help and guidance we have received from Sony throughout truly demonstrates their commitment to support the medium, the publishers, the readers and the comics industry itself.

Many of our creators are gamers themselves and so were delighted to hear that their work will be offered through PlayStation Network.”

With the first Insomnia titles available right from the December launch, you will be able to:

· Unlock Cages (http://www.insomniapublications.com/cages)
· Fall into Cancertown (http://www.insomniapublications.com/cancertown/)
· Dissect the bloody history of the notorious Burke and Hare
(http://www.insomniapublications.com/burke-and-hare/)

With a growing range of titles to choose from and the phenomenal scope of the Digital Comics Store, this is just the beginning..

Notes:

1. The Comics Store will launch on the PlayStation Network for PSP in December 2009

2. Official Sony Press Release http://uk.playstation.com/games-media/news/articles/detail/item229628/Take-comics-everywhere-you-go/

3. For further information, interviews and comments please contact Crawford Coutts, MD, at info@insomniapublications.com

4. Insomnia Publications can be found online at:
Website: http://www.insomniapublications.com/
Blog: http://www.theredeye.co.uk/