Books, baby!

So last year I read a sum total of, as it turns out, 17 books. Pathetic, right? So this year of course I want to beat that. Here's the books I have on my list so far:

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
Unfinished Tales by J.R.R. Tolkien
The Children of Hurin by J.R.R. Talkies
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
The Education of an Illustrator by Heller/Arisman
The Fiction of H.P. Lovecraft

Six so far and more to be added! I'm currently still on my first book and loving it. So much history and curious tales. Its fantastic and I'm having a great time.

Any suggestions from you guys on what I should read?

The return of 'Chet and Amanda'

That's right! The prodigal comedy duo returns this year coming soon! What used to be called, 'Commercials Extras' will now be called, 'Chet and Amanda' named after the title characters. This series stars myself, alongside my wife and various friends of ours. It's going to be great. I have seven scripts done already this year and intend to do at least twenty. Filming will begin next weekend. I myself am a professional actor, having acted and been paid for acting in various commercials as well as having performed on the stage as well. My wife has been acting alongside myself for years now as well as my friends.
All in all it is a fun great series that will be filled with comedy and sanity. I'll keep you posted and in on the fun to come!

So here is my New Year's list this year 2016

New Year's List:

1. Shoot more films (40): 'Chet and Amanda', comedy sketches, action, drama, fantasy, commercials.
2. Trips
3. More photo shoots
4. More essay, short stories, scripts
5. One post a week on blog and page (of which I'm failing at so far, lol)
6. Say, 'yes' more
7. Complete portfolio for comic cons
8. Get way fitter
9. Get published

Let's do this.

On Writing an Essay

Man I have to tell you, I have been struggling for twenty-one days now since the New Year with trying to write an essay. Why, you ask? Look, so, I like reading books like the Philosophy and  Pop Culture books you know, on like philosophy and Doctor Who, or Sherlock Holmes, Supernatural, all of that. Of course all of that type of writing is essentially essay type writing, and man, I really enjoy that writing, so of course I want to try and write like that.
For a week or so at first I struggled with just coming up with a subject to write about. At first I liked one and then I changed it to another. Then of course I started another idea and went all in practically, writing a title page and an introductory paragraph and even a thesis sentence. Then that all went to shit.
How do they do it, you know? The great essayists of our time. Granted they've been all studying it for forever now and writing in such a style for a long time and stuff but I figure any type of writer should be able to get into that style. I love, love, love the fact that Neil Garman, one of my favorite writers, constantly writes essay which are fascinating and structured interestingly. Even my other favorite author, Christopher Moore wrote an essay I found on the love of vampires in fiction, he may have written others too but that's the one I came across, and it was fantastic.
All in all, I'm going to keep trying.

Polyproject Making a comeback?

So along time ago I created this idea of the "Polyproject". Which was this idea to do a multitude of projects at one time. It worked for a bit. Actually no, to be honest, it didn't. I was too young or too unorganized and distracted, I don't know what. So I stopped and did a sort of sporadic working on of projects for a bit which didn't work out so well as well. Then finally these past few months I said, "No more!" and decided to focus all my attention on one project: my novel, "A Little Valentinus in your Samahain". This worked amazingly! I actually completed the damn thing and am now in the process of sending out queries to get an agent for publication. Yet now after I've finished the novel I am starting to do multiple things at once again, but more organized than before. Now for the past year and two months I've been hardcore keeping track of my ideas and need for multiple creative endeavors to get done and this has helped tremendously. So I'm almost starting to think I can introduce the "Polyproject" back into my mind-flow. I'll let you know how this goes.

Literary Agencies

One thing I am noticing is that many different agencies have different submission proposal requirements. So before you go to send out your query make sure you have these things. Of course this is all after you have finished your novel. I have of course, myself, yet I am in the way of editing still and making sure its all up to snuff. Anyway here's the stuff:

1. Synopsis
2. Outline
3. Short Author Bio
4. Publishing History

Query-ing Away

So I've been writing out my query letters recently and am loving it. I wrote quite a few queries back in the day but none at the right time. You see, I've never actually had my novel completed before writing a query out. Big mistake. Lesson number one: Write your damn book before sending out any queries! So any way I am writing out my queries and wanted to share some things I've learned.

So here we go:

                                                                         First write your name
                                                                        Address line one
                                                                        Address line two
                                                                        Phone number
                                                                        Email address

Agency's name
Address line one
Address line two
Phone number
Email address


Dear (Whoever is the agent you're contacting),

Then say something very small about yourself. Then tell them a bit about your book. After that jump right into your book synopsis.

Second paragraph tell them how grateful you are for their time. Then let them know you have the whole book done and that you'd be glad to send it.

:)

Again, this is just a theory one so far. I still must send them out but all this information is supported by many articles on the internet. Especially ones by successful Literary Agents on Writer's Digest's website.