The Sum of David

My mother works at a women’s prison facility on the west coast, and asked me to make a couple posters of a painting I did in high school. There’s plenty of online resources for this service, so I snapped a questionable quality digital picture of it, uploaded it to zazzle.com and it shipped to my parent’s home.

She had planned on hanging one in the main area and one in her office, but in order to do so she must get the design approved. The painting’s initial reaction was positive, but she’s apparently having problems getting it past the boss, who has deemed the artwork too gloomy:

Okay, it’s not warm and fuzzy. But there is an interpretive value in conquering obstacles, right? At least, that’s how I meant it my junior year… We’ll see if it is allowed in. Personally, it doesn’t matter to me: I certainly wouldn’t want any real negative effects to take place from a painting I made ten years ago.

In happier news, The Creative Treehouse hosted a toy drive for Big Brothers Big Sisters last Saturday. Professional photographers took holiday portraits for everyone that brought toys out. I hope everyone that came out had as much fun as we did setting it up.

Me, Jesse and Bodnar testing out the set and props. One of those gifts is a Wii, the other is a two pound cheese dinosaur. Does it really matter who go which? (photo courtesy John Bodnar)

Josh and I looking festive in our official portrait. Don’t worry, we’re not really cold. It’s fake snow. (photo courtesy Tom Darby)

We had a blast working the event, and in addition to families and couples, we got a few pets too. So we spent much of our time hyper from cookies, hot cocoa, puppies and holiday cheer. If you missed the portraits, the Treehouse is still holding on to the toys until Dec. 13, and would be happy to take donations up to that time.

David meets those that are willing to fight at his side, and they make preparations to march on the Lurk and his army of Soulless.

Special Announcement:
Next week, October 15th, I will post the remainder of The Sum of David online. It will be available in its entirety until November 1st, at which point I will take all but the first three chapters down.

My plan to send query letters in September took a back seat to my obligations to the 24 Hour Creative Marathon. I don’t have any regrets about that - since the only time constraints at the moment are my own - but I would very much like to begin the journey of seeking representation. I think having a site for the novel is a good thing, and could conceivably be an added boon to a potential agent. However, I doubt it is in my favor that a complete manuscript is available, even if it is simply a working draft.

Nevertheless, there is a readership that returns each week to read the new chapter, and I don’t think it would be right to pull it all from the web without giving those readers the opportunity to find out how it all ends. In fact, I believe the lump resolution will ultimately compliment the ending. Hopefully, the two week window will catch everyone that has any desire to read it.

More on this next week.

Bricolage Theatre Company and Pittsburgh Filmmakers combined forces to produce In Service, a documentary/stage production that featured footage, still images and live performances from some of the people featured in the film.

It was excellent. The show was a mash-up of candid interviews, poetry and written word from Pittsburgh soldiers who have served in Iraq - what they did, what they saw and how they felt about all of it. I was somewhat concerned that there might be some kind of political spin about whether the war was right or wrong, but the production did a beautiful job of not preaching in one direction or another, choosing instead to focus on the effect the war had on its fighters. In fact, I particularly enjoyed the end, when the final speaker asked for the audience to participate in an army cadence. It would be easy for that kind of audience participation to be cheesy or silly - I assure you it wasn’t.

In Service runs Oct. 4-7 & Oct. 11-14. Go: it’s well worth it.

In other moving pictures news, I was interviewed last weekend while at the 24HCM2 by the talented Alex Landefield, who was gracious enough to ask all sorts of good questions in the middle of the night. I trail off about calling my mom at some point, I think, but other than that I do better than I typically do in on-camera situations. Enjoy!

A deeper look at Calemadestes, the world she inhabits and her neighbors.

I love strong female characters in stories, and Clam is one of my favorites. My main character is a boy, I know, but it’s the women characters that really drive a tale home for me as a reader. The most prehistoric form of tSoD began with index cards listing emotional/personality attributes and the animals/characters I associate them with — “Courage” was my word for what eventually became Clam. Some of the other ancient concepts are sprinkled through the crowd as she wanders through, along with symbols of David’s home (Pittsburgh) and past.

In other news, I helped Josh put on this weekend’s creative marathon. It was a long, sleep-deprived process, but it was a blast:

Oh yeah, that’s my handwriting.

Blackthir13en, me and Victoria. I was recanting the epic adventure of the turtle.

As you can see from the face of my companions, it was a rivetting tale - full of both tragedy and comedy. (photo by creative treehouse)

My piece in progress. (photo by Blackthir13en)

Mr. Baconpants making some… (surprise!) bacon on Saturday morning. (photo by creativetreehouse)

The gallery show on Saturday night after it got into full swing. (photo by mbfulk)

Josh (with the unseen Nathan and Shawn as the Jim Dandies) rocking out on the, ahem, keytar. (photo by luvsilk)

My finished piece. (photo by johnny treehouse)

It was so much fun. Every now and then you need to stay up until 5 am and do artwork. It’s imperative to the creative process. Josh and I learned a lot from taking the reins to plan this too, and we’ll be full-steam ahead in a couple months to set up the next one, probably in Feb. 2008. If you want to see more, check out the very extensive flickr stream.

Memories help explain the past, but sometimes they have a life of their own. David begins to recognize himself and what he’s there to do.Marley was one of those characters that lodge themselves into your brain and won’t let go. If I had never written The Sum of David, I still would have done something that showcased the Memory Dragon. I believe strongly that the past helps shape people, so a creature made of the junk of the past seems appropriate.

Pittsburgh’s second 24 Hour Creative Marathon is taking place on Friday and Saturday, and we’ve been hard at work getting things ready for everyone that might come down.

Basically, you show up at the Creative Treehouse beginning at 8pm on Friday, Sept 28. Sign up, find a spot to settle in, and get to work creating some art according to this marathon’s theme: “Lost and Found”. Everyone’s welcome, whether you’re an amateur or professional, regardless of medium. Artists have until 6 o’clock on Saturday to finish up, when we’ll begin set up for the gallery show starting at 8 pm. The gallery show will feature the freshly squeezed art, four bands, food, drinks (BYOB if you’re so inclined); all for $2 at the door.

It’s going to be a blast. Even if you aren’t interested in the “making art” portion of the event, the gallery is going to be really fun. Who doesn’t like music, art and food? If you’re in the Pittsburgh area, I hope I’ll see you there!

David finally has access to his memories, and the real contents of the shack reveal themselves in vivid fashion.
These chapters were my carrots for writing this entire story; I loved every feverish minute of it. You should see my notes for this scene: pages after pages of various objects that would communicate my own memories of childhood… not to mention the memories that might hold relative to my brother’s adolescence,since this whole shebang is for him in the first place. I had to omit a lot to keep it from being just too much, and I’m still not sure I deleted enough.
There some obvious liberties taken, of course. Our dad is thankfully still very much alive and kicking, and although we grew up with dogs, none were technically killed by car accidents. The attitude and feelings of David’s mother are more me than our mom: since Seth’s so much younger than I am, I’ve always felt responsible for him, even if it’s not in the he-came-from-my-womb kind of way.
Some things are lifted directly from our childhood. The goose-shaped cookie jar, for instance, was always full of mom’s NutriGrain bars, which were off-limits to us kids (we stole them anyway). We always had TONS of National Geographics lying around. The inspiration for The Batman tee was a set of PJs Seth had when he was a toddler that he wore until the pants turned into shorts and the shirt showed most of his belly. I’m sure he’d be happy to know I’m sharing that they had a teddy bear police officer on the front. We also really painted a giant fantasy-themed mural on the back of our house - I painted the dragon.
Although I don’t have quite the affection for dragons that Emily does, all of my stories so far have featured the creature, and I did think it an appropriate theme to continue throughout this one. Also, one of the coolest tattoos I’ve ever seen was a huge dragon on a beautiful woman’s back. So there you go.
On a more sober note, Wheel of Time’s Robert Jordan passed away yesterday of a rare blood disease. I read the WoT series in high school and college and enjoyed it immensely. His plots are complicated and epic, and I really loved the main characters (all 37 of them). My thoughts go out to his family and my fellow fans.

David and gang reach the center of the Lake and its mysterious shack… and within? Secrets!

A few weeks back, I recollected a conversation that Josh and I had regarding how a person spends their time; the why’s and how’s of what people do, specifically surrounding the subject of writing a novel. I’m a naturally patient person anyhow, so the whittling away of page after page and scene after scene isn’t torture — it isn’t always awesome, but its doable.

When things do get tough, I usually have a carrot. There’s some kind of reward at the end of the tunnel — and this scene was it. The “Memory Shack”, as I refered to it in my mind (and on the outline) was what I worked towards for the first 150 pages of the story. When we did brainstorming sessions, this was the scene that lit up my colleagues’ faces, and the turning point that Josh kept asking about when he read the nth draft.

Things begin to really come together over the next two chapters… Years ago, when I was sitting in awe at a Cirque du Soleil performance and inspiration struck — this was the imagery that sparked David’s tale.

David and gang head out to the Lake, the key to unlocking David’s mysterious past. Interesting questions arise, and help comes in an unexpected form. We also get our first shot of the Lurk.

The Labor Day weekend was comprised of three beautiful packed-but-relaxin’ days. I went rollerblading twice (and wiped out only once, yay!), gave myself a ballet class, went to Lake Morraine for hanging, went to and hosted a bbq, saw “License to Wed” (ew), and attended a meeting about the 24-hour Creative Marathon in a few weeks. There was more, but it was so much fun I can’t remember it all. Madness!

The weekend was to be my official last hurrah before beginning my next novel. My start date of Sept 1st has been adjusted a little because of some unforseeable circumstances, but I’m still feeling very excited about the whole thing. Or, I would be if I wasn’t presently feeling over-worked and over-caffeinated. It’s all for good reason, though, I promise.

After the drama of the tundra, David and crew find themselves in relative safety. Calemadestes’ horn gets another try, and they set off to retrieve his memories.
Last weekend Josh and I took part in Doughnuts and Art 2, and I’ve posted the art I showed there below:

I’m afraid I really can’t offer much explanation on these. I think the sheriff is a little weak, but Josh liked him a lot, so I kept him. The ladies were very fun, and I think I might do some pin-up style illustrations in the same round and simplified style.

I will say these made me wonder about doing some “western” style fantasy… I’ve never considered it before, but I’m sure the genre exists somewhere. I’ll have to see what’s out there.

The Child loses his will with the appearance of Susan and the Matecai… and everything descends into chaos. Wonderful, dangerous chaos, especially if you’re the Child.

Podcamp Pittsburgh 2 was this weekend, and I hope I saw you there. We had an even bigger turnout this year than last (or at the halfway mark “Bootcamp” that was hosted at April. Everyone has had a positive reviews about the unConference, and our attendees were a wide range of age and expertise — I find getting positive feelings about an event from such a various demographic impressive. If you weren’t there, please visit their site for more information about the sessions covered (I think presenters are still posting their outlines), and for crying out loud: register for Podcamp 3, tentatively schedule for sometime in Sept ‘08.

This weekend’s Podcamp also saw the creation of the word “bacn”, which is loosely defined as “email you want, just not right now”. Basically, it’s all those notifications you get from myspace/twitter/Borders/etc that you did technically ask for, but don’t really need to attend to immediately. But it’s not spam, which is never wanted or voluntarily asked for.

The funny thing about “bacn” is how quickly it swept across the web, and how immediate the response — whether love or hate — to the spanking new web word. The boys set up a site to help define it, but it’s a topic of discussion all over. Let’s talk about it: lots and lots and lots of other places have.
I’m also participating in this weekend’s Doughnuts and Art2. There’s three bands playing that I’ve heard a lot of good things about, and there will of course be doughnuts and coffee. It’s also BYOB if you’re inclined (and of the appropriate age). Maybe I’ll see you there!