As for the Scarlet PI Remix comic, I have some news on that.  While I may, if everything works out all right, to finish the penciling and inking stages of all those pages by this weekend, the comic might not be available utnil May.  That’s because I’ve just ordered the latest version of Draw Plus (X2, to be exact.)  Something this important is going to have to be used with what I feel to be the best program out there, and in my book, it’s Serif’s Award Winning Illustration Program.  (And what can I say, it’s at $40 with all the loyalty discounts.  I can’t complain.)

With the hard part of the comic book out of the way, I’ll be able to get back to the books, which involves the second draft of Blood and Metal, a major revision of Lost Boy Found (and quite possibily a minor one for Mim Su Sa).  And it is possible that me and a friend of mine could get to the editing stage of what could be the second book in the Scarlet PI series, something that I was hoping would happen with my projects.

Coming in April 2008:  Scarlet PI Remix #1

Long before I started on Murder in Main Street USA, I wanted to go through the web comic from Strip #1 and give it a proper redo.  Go through the story and improve on it, get over the bumps and hazards I ran into the first time around, and actually put out some decent artwork.  My Resolution was, of course, to get the fire back in my belly when it comes to drawing comics and artwork, and this is a good enough excuse as any to get it.

SPIR #1 takes care of the introduction of Jim Goodlow and the arrival of Scarlet.  They’ll be a scene with Toni, as well as a discussion of the primary situation (the HFL case) in Scarlet’s own words.  (And since she hasn’t been installed yet, there’s no accent to get in the way.)

My primary goal in SPIR is to take the CSI/Law and Order feel that readers got from Murder in Main Street and continue it into the origin story and beyond.  It will be published in Lulu while I continue the story in the Web Comic at the usual places (including DeviantART) Wish me luck.

Topic:  Blood and Metal Name Suggestion

This bit got solved with just a IM with one of my friends.  I needed to get an alternative name to the location where most of the story takes place.  Since BAM was originally a Sonic fan fiction–my primary goal is to put it in an all-original world that became Maatla–I used “Knothole Kingdom” as a placeholder.  Of course, I needed a new name for the Open Door (Second) Draft:

I’ve got my answer while chatting with Drew Rhine, my online friend and the creator of the Scarlet character from the previous item, while we were discussing a newer idea from his head, about a race of Foxes called the Vintanii.  It was originally made for the Planeswalker series, my Magic: the Gathering themed series.  Since that is currently in the Salvage Yard–the metaphysical place where I keep the ideas that don’t fit now for the time when eventually they do–I suggested that he move the Vintanii to Maatla and make it part of the BAM world.

Hence the name “Knothole Village” became “Vintanii Village” and eventually by the time Eric showed up, the “Kingdom of Vinatos.”  And I hope by the time I get to the beta stages that there will be a decent history of Vinatos for Eric to review.

As for Acorn and Sarah Knothole?  I think it would be safe to keep them in remembrance of BAM’s not so humble origins and not catch heat by Archie.  The reason is the placement of the names:

In Archie Sonic, Knothole was the name of the Village, while in BAM it’s a family name.  Acorn is the family name of the Royal Family in Archie Sonic, while it’s relegated into the surname of King Acorn Knothole.  This jumbling should be more than enough to keep the lawyers at bay.

I only hope I can do better lawsuit proofing with the other inspiration behind the BAM remake.  Let’s just say that if I ever meet Stan Lee, I’m kicking him in the nuts.  Hard.  I don’t care if he never even touch the creation of Captain America #25 and my prescriptions keep the anger off, I’m still castrating that SOB.

I’m giving the interviewer props because he showed the one thing that would be missing in most people dropping out of nowhere and talking to me: Civility. As he said at the end of the page, I’m not that hard to talk to. Just don’t be an asshole. You don’t even have to be a butt-kisser, and I strongly suggest that you don’t; I’d rather have be constantly trolled than have someone stick their noses up my butt, thank you so much. I just want people to be honest, and yes civil. That’s the best way for you to get your point across to me.

Now I’m back from the holidays and that I’m less than 30 days to go, I can put the nose to that grindstone:

79 cards left in the deck, 50.9K Length in the file, and 30 days remaining.

Wikio:  http://www.wikio.com/news/Megan+Meier

…and you wonder why I’m writing “So not the Draema?”

It would be more than just an Anti-ED book.  This will be a book on Cyber Bullying in general and how to combat it, from someone who should know who he’s talking about, being one of the top ten most flamed people on the Internet.  “There’s George W Bush, there’s Chris Crocker, and then there’s Daveykins FoxFire.

And as you can expect, there’s a new meme running around thanks to their latest ‘Hero: ‘

“Bullying is Rabbit?”

Who writes this shit?  I wouldn’t even think up crap like that even if I was stoned and drunk.

This is the first in my Scarlet PI novels that center around Lt. Scarlet FoxFire, a cop in Orange County Police’s Amusement Park Division. It’s a special branch of the local law enforcement that specializes in cases involving the many vacation venues in the Central Florida area, including Disney World, Universal Studios, and Sea World.
With Scarlet, there is a special reason why she’s there: Scarlet is a living symbiotic–and very realistic–vixen fursuit that her host found one day and was coaxed into wearing her. Her existence has to do with a shadowy corporation that specializes in amusement park technology, which may not be very ethical.
While on the trail of the kind of company that would make Michael Eisner (and even Dick Cheney) look like a Boy Scout, she has to contend with keeping peace and order in the various amusement parks, and that includes crimes that nobody expects to happen but do. In the first book, it involves a homicide in the Main Street Bakery!
Who would want to kill someone in one of the Happiest Places on Earth?
And is it connected in some way to the company Scarlet escaped from?

The book is now available over at LuLu dot com, and is available for both paper and downloaded E-Book formats.
For an additional fee to cover additional postage, you can have the book signed by me. Inquire Within.

As for Blood and Metal, I’ve been taking on the plot deck and am typing away at that book in earnest now.  I’m at 165 cards to go and counting down as I speak.  It’ll probably go through November (So no NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) projects for me) and December and with luck make it to the end of January of 2008 with the Closed Door Draft.  (I think I’ll wait til next year to do a NaNoWriMo book.  With the election in that month, I’ll probably need the distraction.)  As I did before, I’ll update you all on the cards to go, both on my web site and elsewhere.

Also, I’ll still be working on Writer’s Circle challenges to help jump over writer’s blocks in B&M.  My latest challenge was the combat scene challenge which was Eric and Spectre’s first round.  People were getting interested more in the book with each passing submission which might be a big help in getting publicity with my works.  Now, if Gaia Online can release their Battle game, things will be perfect.

I won’t say that all that’s needed to do is hunt for those stray spelling and grammar errors; the jot and tittle work as I call them.  There’s still one more chapter to put in here, and then it’s to decide whatever or not to add in a serialized origin story at the end of each main story:  I have a young Dexter-like mad scientist named Joseph who has dreams of being an Imagineer, and he lives in Aria’s castle (I’ll tell you more about it, but that would be telling) and I need a part where he’s introduced better than he currently is.  Fortunately, the Writer’s Circle has given me a perfect way to get the ball rolling on this one.

Once that is out of the way, as well as the other minor details, this book is all but ready to be released to the public.  I’m planning “Murder in Main Street USA,” the first book in my Scarlet PI novel series, to be released on lulu at November 18, 2007.  Watch for it then.

While I was allowing the Emo Storm to pass I managed to go through the rest of my initial edits
to ‘Murder in Main Street USA,’ the first Scarlet book, as I returned to the Scarlet PI strip (this
chapter will focus more on Melody, and would end up with a grand adventure as . . . well, heh
heh heh, that would be _telling_.) While there may be some areas I need to add and rewrite, but I
think I can go through it all within a couple weeks, then it’ll be in a presentable form as a beta.
At that point, I’ll be looking for proof and test readers.

As I do so, I’ll be starting the lion’s share of the closed door draft of Blood and Metal while I put
Mim Su Sa through the group edit gauntlet. Until then, I’ll have some parts of B&M written as
Writing Circle challenges. My entry of Challenge #27 consists of a compromising scene with
Eric and Sarah, while Challenge #28 will have one of the earlier scenes I’m still working on.