Post-Traumatic Tech Disorder

Well, I’ve been trying to catch up on some coding at various websites, and I’ve hit that stage where all the code is starting to blur together. But I’m making progress… here’s what you have to look forward to:

• A new Scryptic Studios website. I’ve rebuilt it from scratch to fix a bunch of stuff and make it easier to navigate and maintain. It took me a little longer to work all my customizations back into the site after I had to upgrade the software (to deal with security issues), but I should be ready to launch the new version of Scryptic by month’s end (just need to finish testing my migration code to get the articles and resource database links into the new site).
• A new blog site for me. I’m gonna be switching over from Blogger to WordPress. Once the new blogging software (and my custom code) is in place and working well, it’ll be much easier for me to get updates out here.
• Comic Book Headlines will be breaking off onto its own site (with its own spiffy domain name… feel free to guess what it is). I’m working on a few extras for that as well when I move it over.
• Many of you already know about the Brat-halla move over to Graphic Smash. With the move, I’m also reworking the main Brat-halla site (also looking at migrating it to WordPress for the blog, redoing some of the character pages and adding some extras in).
• For those that were reading along with the Random Encounters storyline… well, there will be more. I have something in the works that people might enjoy, but I have to finish prepping and getting it rolling. As soon as that project gets underway, I’ll be ready to start throwing more of the short prose chapters out there.

And for some additional quick updates:

• NaNoWriMo kicks off in under a week. I’m giving it a shot this year… and I plan on having lots of fun with it. I’ll keep everyone updated as I go.
• Got word on a few interesting sites out there for writers while I was chatting with people at the Austin Film Festival this year. A couple are already active and the other is getting ready to launch soon… I’m looking over the sites, so if they look helpful, I’ll post about them here and at Scryptic.

… began this week, and that’s where I’ll be today and tomorrow. Oddly enough, it’s my first two-day weekend in the past six weeks, and although the writing life can be considered work, this aspect of it is fun for me. If you’re a writer or filmmaker in the Austin area and haven’t been to the Austin Film Festival, I highly recommend it. It’s like a little bit of Hollywood in Austin (but without most of the stress… unless you’re competing in the Pitch competition).

Tags: screenwriting, writing, filmmaking, Austin Film Festival

… hops onto the shelves today. This issue concludes the story arc, so if you’ve been holding out in order to read the entire storyline, now’s your chance. If you haven’t heard of Task Force 1 before, it’s a military science fiction book created by Image founder Jim Valentino (and written by me) that takes place a generation after 9/11 where elite military soldiers get wired up with advanced tech to become living weapons with one mission… bring terror to the terrorists. You can check out previews, a trailer, and links to interviews here.

It’s available at good comic retail shops near you. Not sure where that is? Check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (or just call 1-888-COMIC-BOOK).

Tags: military, science fiction, Task Force 1, Image Comics, Shadowline, Jim Valentino

Been buried with projects lately–a high profile project at the day job, working on recoding a few websites (including this one… look for a new site here by the end of the year or earlier depending on my schedule and with that, lots of content will get updated and be easier for me to update overall), and well, read below.

• Brat-halla is moving over to Graphic Smash this week. We’ll still post over at Quick Stop Entertainment for the next few weeks to allow people to transition over, but after that, we’ll be primarily posting over at Graphic Smash. The move is mostly for the convenience of the readers… a bit easier to navigate the archives (and one less click to get to the larger, easier to read version of the comic). You can still follow the Brat-halla blog to keep track of updates to the comic. This week also marks our 150th episode of the comic… that’s 150 straight weeks without missing an update. I’m still wrapping up some of the aesthetics of the Brat-halla comic section over at Graphic Smash, but it’s all functional (with all 149 of the previous episodes already loaded into their archives).

You can check out the new site here.

• NaNoWriMo! What’s that? It’s the National Novel Writing Month, which kicks off November 1st. Why am I mentioning it? Because I’ve decided to take one of these hundreds of plots sitting in my “thought bucket” and turn it into a novel next month. And I’m challenging any writers out there that have been sitting on some good ideas to jump in and join the fun. Even if you’re nervous about it, check out the NaNoWriMo website… you’ll see you’re not alone (and that helps a lot). So, next week’s motto… “Get it done.”

• My day job requires a lot of travel (about 75-100%), so I tend to be away from home (and often in a new city) every week. Well, thanks to Dethroner (via Lifehacker), one aspect of travel just got a lot easier. This should help with my upcoming trip to New Jersey (and maybe Phoenix after that).

• Castlevania animated film? Having played the game a lot when I was younger, that definitely sounds like it has potential. Written by Warren Ellis? It definitely goes on my “keep an eye out for” list.

• Jim Valentino’s Task Force 1 #4 hits shelves tomorrow (if the shipping list is correct). This issue wraps up the first story arc.

Tags: Brat-halla, NaNoWriMo, novel, writing, webcomic, happy hour, Castlevania, Warren Ellis, Task Force 1