Writing and Breathing / Waves of Mercury / LOOM!
WRITING AND BREATHING
This week I launched a brand new podcast called WRITING AND BREATHING. It’s a show where I chat with fellow authors of all kinds about why, how, and what we write. We talk process, method, motivation, dealing with a writing career, and more.
The first two episodes are now live; the first is a short introduction to the show, while #2 features bestselling novelist Maya Rodale. Episode #3, with journalist and novelist Dan Moren, will follow two weeks later… and so on, with another episode every fortnight. Future guests include Vaseem Khan, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Paul Cornell, Cherie Priest, Kieron Gillen, Amal El-Mohtar, Bryan Edward Hill, and many more to come.
You can support the show via Patreon, with a few different pledge levels. Regular supporters get exclusive access to episodes a week before they’re published, while premium supporters also get to take part in Patron-only Q&A episodes, where myself and a guest will answer their burning questions about writing (and maybe other things…! 😲) Sign up at http://patreon.com/writingandbreathing
WRITING AND BREATHING is available on the web, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Spotify… just about anywhere you normally go to hear podcasts. The show website, with links to all the episodes, is at WritingAndBreathing.com
I’m really excited about W&B — I’ve already recorded a bunch of episodes, and they’re even more fascinating than I hoped. I hope you’ll find them just as interesting.
IN PROGRESS
So that was PROJECT IRON FIST, a surprisingly short-lived codename (you may recall I’ve decided this year to name all my WIPs after Motörhead songs, a decision about which I have zero regrets). PROJECT BOMBER, the adapted screenplay project, went through second outline draft last week and that’s probably where it’ll stay for now — whether I write the actual screenplay comes down to financing. PROJECT DAMAGE CASE, a new crime/noir thing, got my agent’s attention and is now vying for priority with PROJECT OVERKILL, the third Brigitte Sharp book (yes, dammit, it still gets a codename because I say so). Last but far from least, PROJECT GOJIRA rumbles on; the latest mocap sessions in LA are done, and in theory from here it should all be downhill, but now we apparently have a global epidemic to deal with, which is going to make international travel all sorts of fun…
NEW MUSIC: ‘DARK SHORES’ BY WAVES OF MERCURY
You may recall a few years back I worked with the rock/doom band Waves of Mercury on an EP, writing lyrics and helping out with vocal arrangements. Well, it's taken a while to come together, but we've done another one :)
DARK SHORES is a concept suite, moving from semi-acoustic to electrified, with a meditation on loss and redemption through selfless love. Give it a listen 🤘
https://wavesofmercury.bandcamp.com/album/dark-shores
FQ, ATOMIC BLONDE
Fundación Arquia is a Spanish non-profit foundation promoting awareness and culture around architecture. One of their programs produces architectural documentaries, all produced by different directors around the globe.
Sam Hart and I were approached some time ago by the organiser of this “arquia/documental” track, asking for his permission to reproduce panels from the ATOMIC BLONDE/COLDEST CITY graphic novel — documentary #40 is the recording of an architectural conference called “Anyway”, held in Barcelona, at the CCCB (Centro de Cultura Contemporánea de Barcelona), in 1993.
How ATOMIC BLONDE comes to be related to such a conference isn’t entirely clear to me, and there’s no English translation of the text — which was apparently written by the architect José Juan Barba, director of Spanish digital architectural magazine METALOCUS — but still, look at that lovely booklet. What a wonderfully weird world.
https://fundacion.arquia.com/
ASK ME ABOUT LOOM. NO, REALLY
Regular readers/followers will know of my love for LOOM, the much-overlooked videogame masterpiece from Brian Moriarty and LucasArts. A couple of weeks back it was LOOM’s 30th birthday, and my friend Clara Fernandez-Vara, games writer and NYU professor, wrote a great piece about it for Vice.
LOOM is the game that made me want to write games, and Clara is one of the smartest people I know when it comes to game narrative. A must-read:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/v747g9/loom-lucasarts-adventure-30-year-retrospective
PODCAST: DOCTOR WHO, “PRAXEUS”
I was a recent guest on the Incomparable’s Doctor Who ‘Flashcast’ to talk about this season’s episode PRAXEUS. Mainly, we were both relieved that after the previous week’s momentous events, it wasn’t a horrible letdown 😅
https://www.theincomparable.com/teevee/615/
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