Just a heads up that I'll be a guest on the Ebling and You radio show tonight at 6PM on 1320 AM here in Lansing to talk about The Magic of Eyri.  Make sure to tune in if ya can. I'll hoping they'll have it on their website at some point so I can send people a link to the interview (or put it on my websites).

www.1320wils.com
www.jackebling.com

If you live outside of Lansing, well then you'll just have to use your imagination.  Hopefully I'll be just as witty and charming on the radio as I am in person and won't keep saying "umm...yeah...umm."  I did radio shows for 4 years at GVSU, so I should do OK.

I attended the Oscar Party at the swanky Cadillac Club in downtown Lansing last night. It was a fun time. The event was hosted by everyone's favorite entertainment reporter, Jim Fordyce. I had a blast, I love going to the Cadillac Club because it is a very unique place (and good food too).

While watching the Oscars on the big screen, I had the pleasure of sharing a table with WILS' Jack Ebling as well as local musician Mike Skory and his wife.

Mike told me about this new event he'll be having at the Exchange starting next month, Skory-Oke. The premise is that you contact Mike early in the week and let him know what song you want to sing to and on Skory-Oke night you get to sing along with a live band. I think this is a great concept. I'm for sure going to check this out once it starts up in March.

Jack and I discussed me being on his radio show, which would great. I told him I'll send him a copy of The Magic of Eyri to look over. And the best part - he's doing a show from Everybody Reads Bookstore on March 21st, the day before my signing at Bestseller Books in Mason along with jimhines. Scott, owner of Everybody Reads, pitched that idea to me and I of course said yes. Being able to promote the signing on the radio the day before the signing is a great stroke of luck.

I was actually happy with how (most) of the  Oscar  awards turned out, which is a rare thing.  I loved No Country For  Old Men, so I'm glad it won Best Picture. The one thing that bothered me is that this year it seemed there were more than a few people going up at once, and too many of those groups didn't get to say anything - yet they'll show a bunch of time-wasting video segments. C'mon people, at least let them say Thank You.

Last part is here. Other sketchblog posts can be viewed here.

Here is a sample (a joke I thought of last week and kind of inspired this week's sketch set up).

I had fun with this one.



I censored panel seven mainly because I find implied/covered up swearing funnier than actual swearing. The next sketch will continue the story, promise. 

In other news, I sent out my copies of The Magic of Eyri to the City Pulse, Larry Elmore and Jeff Smith today. I'm very nervous about seeing what comes from this, but I'm glad I did it (mentioned here if you want to be brought up to speed). I also played Rock Band for the first time on Saturday. Oh my, was that a fun time. I played the drums mostly and had a blast. I was getting pretty good at it by the end of the night (although on the Easy setting). It was one of the best multiplayer games I've ever played - lots of fun.

This is the good news I alluded to yesterday.

A few days ago, I wrote that I was going to mail copies of The Magic of Eyri to newspapers and people who inspired me. I said that I emailed Bone creator Jeff Smith's website asking for an address to send him a copy of the book (Bone was a big influence on me, it is a great mix of fantasy and cartoony comedy).

Well - I got a response!

One of Jeff's people emailed me back and said that she was sure Jeff would be happy to look at my work, thanked me for offering to send him a copy and gave me an address to send the book to. Bully!

I wrote up my letter this morning, which was fun. I tried not to sound too fan-boyish, but pointed out how I've been a fan of Bone since I was fourteen and how big of an influence it was on me as a writer. I also wrote up a letter for fantasy artist Larry Elmore. His comic SnarfQuest was a big influence too. I have a big reference to SnarfQuest in Magic of Eyri: Zeroth has a magical pack of holding just like Snarf does.

I have no idea what I'm going to write in the copies I'm sending these guys. I'll think of something I'm sure, but the idea of signing a copy of your book to send to some of your heroes is rather surreal.

This actually isn't my first time doing this: I contacted Frazz artist Jef Mallet over the summer to thank him for the words of advice he gave me before I started writing The Magic of Eyri. I attended a discussion on comics he gave back in 2005 and chatted with him afterwards (even got a neato sketch). I asked  him for advice about writing a book and he told me to "Just do it. You don't want to be 80 years old and still wondering 'What If?', if nothing happens - oh well, at least you wrote it." I contacted him and said I wanted to give him a copy as a sign of thanks and we ended up having lunch together, it was great.

I'm eager to see how this plays out.

I made some important contacts tonight at a 'young professional' mixer downtown tonight. I chatted with two news anchors from the local CBS station and gave them my biz card/contact info. I was actually very proud of myself for doing that, I'm getting a little better at talking to random people. I'm seriously gonna have to bone up on that skill in the next few weeks.

I ordered my latest proof copy this morning around 730 and it has already shipped! I guess paying extra for that fast processing and shipping was worth it. After that, all I have to do is approve it and then the book will FINALLY be ready for sale. Phew.