Post Con Season Update

On By D.A. CampisiIn Life in generalLeave a comment

I always have considered July to be my convention season here in SoCal. That the start of the month you get Anime Expo, which is usually a lot of fun. Though this year it did seem a bit more… boobie that previous years.  As in there were large animated breasts most everywhere.  One or two booths were straight-up porn-a-fied, closed off to prying eyes and where you had to show identification just to get inside.  While some other booths had no qualms about just handing out hentai pamphlets and samples to whomever walked by as long as you were obviously an adult. I don’t recall either of those things being the case in prior years, but maybe I’m wrong. Aside form that, this year’s show was pretty standard.  I attended a panel or two, and did an interview you may see over on Anime Diet at some point.

I also checked out the new game, Superfight. This is the best new party game I have played in a very long time. Where else can you have a dolphin with a venomous bite and tiny t-rex arms battle to the death with a legless Mike Tyson who spits acid?  Nowhere, that’s where.  If you get a chance head over to their site and check it out.  Gonna be doing an article on them for Anime Diet in the near future as well.

After Anime Expo, one to two weeks later comes San Diego, the granddaddy of nerd gatherings. This year, instead of stressed-out fun the entire time, I went with my day job and peddled our wares.  So most of the show was work, but I still got to do some fun things while down there.  Collected a few sketches, shook some hands, bought some cool stuff, shared an elevator with Stan Lee – you know, the usual stuff.

Anyone else do the con thing this year?  If so, what did you see?  Even if you did not go, what was your favorite thing  that came out of the show this year (cool announcement or trailer or whatever)?

Till next time,

DC

Writing Prompt – The Museum 

On By D.A. CampisiIn WritingLeave a comment

Your character decides to go to the art museum on a whim.  While inside, they see one exhibit that fascinates them.  On a closer look, this particular item seems very different than the others around it, maybe familiar, maybe out of place.  The museum curator sees them taking such a keen interest and…

What happens?  

Hope this stimulates some ideas.  I know it did for me.

– DC

What’s in a name?

On By D.A. CampisiIn Life in general, Writing1 Comment

Recently, I’ve been having an internal debate with myself on a very particular question.  One that is somewhat important when it comes to my writing, and with that my public/social network persona.  It has to be a question many writers ask themselves at some point when preparing for their career.

Should I write under a pseudonym?

It’s a valid question, and deciding whether or not to use a nom de plume is not as easy a decision as you might think.  You have to take a lot of factors into account.  First off is, how much do you like your real name?  Is it easy to pronounce and/or spell?  Does your name fit the genre you write?  Do you share a name with someone who is already published? Do you want your real name bouncing around out there in the social cyberspace?

These are just a few of the things I’ve thought about in the time before the book is picked up by a publisher. There are a slew of other questions to take into account when you finally do reach the stage of being published.  Where will your book be shelved at the local bookstore?  Toward the top shelf?  At the bottom shelf?  What other authors will be surrounding your book?  Do you plan on writing in multiple genres?

Personally, I’ve never much cared for my last name. Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be part of the family I’m in, and I am proud of my heritage.  But after going through years of butchering mispronunciations from nearly everyone I meet (Cam-pez… Cam-pasi… Cam-pies…etc.) it becomes a little grating.

So would I be better suited using a name that rolls off the tongue easily?  Maybe one that is more memorable?  Or shorter?

No decisions yet, but something to think about.

– DC

Writing Prompt – The Cancer Man 

On By D.A. CampisiIn WritingLeave a comment

Let me paint a picture for you.

Around the corner from your home, there is a man who sits in a lawn chair next to the side of the road, tanning himself.  He’s a large man with skin the color of a charred orange peel, and curly white hair that covers every inch of his body but the top of his head.  A pair of expensive sunglasses shade his eyes, and the sparse amount of clothing he wears covers little else. In one hand he holds a lit cigarette, and in the other a comically large cigar.  He takes intermittent puffs of each as he leans back and lets the sun continue to fry his skin into the equivalent of a pork rind. You can only guess what type of music is playing through the ear buds crammed into his sweaty ears.

You see him relaxing there in the hot sun for about an hour every day.  He’s been maliciously dubbed The Cancer Man by your best friend in some bizarre nod to The X-files character.  However, the man seems friendly enough whenever you walk by, giving a cordial smile of stained teeth and a raspy “Good afternoon.”

Your writing prompt, should you choose to accept it, is to tell a story about this man and why he does this daily ritual.

I look forward to seeing any ideas or stories below.

– DC

Story Ideas

On By D.A. CampisiIn WritingLeave a comment

When I was younger, I used to think that I had a finite number of stories I would be able to tell in my life.  As if there was a limit on novel ideas or inspirations for short stories that my brain would allow itself to spit out.  The reason for this was I could go weeks or months without a single idea spark.  You know, that moment where the muse hits you and you say “Hey I could expand on that” or “What if this had happened instead?”  They were few and far between for me.

Over the past few years, I have come to realize that these sparks have always been there and I just wasn’t looking hard enough to find them.  They hide in strange and simple places.  You have to realize that even something like a remembered childhood experience or a unique fortune cookie can open new worlds.

What are some sparks you have had?  What kind of gateways have they opened?

Till next time,

DC

Quick Update

On By D.A. CampisiIn Life in generalLeave a comment

Long ago in a blogosphere not so far away, there were rumors circulating about a weekly blog post.  Let’s bring that back, shall we?   Doesn’t have to be anything substantial, but something is better than nothing.  Quick updates, news, reactions, recommendations, etc.

So let’s see how that goes.

– DC

November has come.

On By D.A. CampisiIn UpdatesLeave a comment

And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.

– William Shakespeare (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)

As I worked on this new blog today, the first thing I noticed as I picked my title and chose my theme, was the above quote.  No accident, as it was no doubt specifically chosen by the theme’s designer or WordPress to entice the blogger to using this particular theme.  Well, it immediately caught my eye, so mission accomplished. I have a weakness for the idea of imagination. It’s been a driving force in my life since my brain could grasp the very concept.

I’m no stranger to starting blogs. In fact, I’ve made enough of them to start my own personal blogosphere.  A web of multiple blogs, each unique in it’s own universe drastically different than the previous one, all awaiting the inevitable crisis looming to condense them into one all encompassing web journal.

That crisis happened at the start of the year when I created a new account on the Ghost blogging platform.  I liked Ghost, I really did.  However, I could not justify cost of using Ghost when there were free options available. So I wandered the world wide web for a few months after my trial account lapsed, periodically checking back to blogger, blog, and LiveJournal to see which would be the best substitute.  None made the cut.

So here we are at WordPress and the fantastic quote above.  This will be the new, and final blog.  I have included a few of the Ghost blogs posts here as well, including the first ones with my goals for this year.  Let’s revisit that, since 2014 is finally wrapping up.  (Thank God, by the way for that.  It’s been a terrible year overall.)

  • Goal #1 – Editing Book #1. This was more or less accomplished.  The 2nd draft was completed before April and sent to Beta Readers.  Most of the feedback has been generally very good, with good critique on things that need some fixing.  Still waiting for a few more people to finish reading and feedback.  After Nanowrimo this year, December will be dedicated to correcting and changing the third draft, and then submissions
  • Goal #2 – Finishing Book #2 prior to November. This did not happen. No one to blame but myself.  I could say the reason was I was so focused on getting book #1 done and out, but that’s more an excuse than anything, and not a very good one.  I’m currently working to complete this project for this years NANOWRIMO (which started yesterday).
  • Goal #3 – Short Stories.  I’ve had lots of ideas, but no submissions yet.  Two stories are ready to be submitted, and someone pointed me to a website called The Submission Grinder, which looks to be an amazing new resource.
  • Goal #4 – Read More. I’ve definitely been reading more, but I have not finished any new novels this year, I’m sad to say.  But the year ain’t over yet.
  • Goal #5 – Blogging.  See above.

So here we are again, at another NANOWRIMO.  The goal this year is get book #2 done.  After that, we can get back on some of these other goals.  In fact, I better get cracking.

Till next week,

DC

Soundtrack today was November Has Come by Gorillaz.

Terror at 762 Millimeters

On By D.A. CampisiIn ArchiveLeave a comment

Just a quick update as I promised I would do this every week, however I’m late because I wasn’t sure what to write about. It was just more of the same this week. Editing the novel, and pulling out the excess words bit by bit. Other than that, I didn’t have much to talk about. That is… until last night.

Yesterday had been fun and productive. After a long day at Starbucks editing and making good progress on my second draft, I headed home. Little did I know, I had forgotten to buckle my laptop bag. So once I got home and took the bag out of the back seat of my car, out tumbled my laptop, falling at least two and half feet and crashing to the hard concrete driveway. My heart sank into my feet. Oh no…

Now I am meticulous about backing up my files, because you never know when catastrophe will strike. However, I had not yet backed up yesterday’s hours of toil and work. I quickly bent down, wishing that what just had happened was all just a bad hallucination, grabbed the computer and ran inside the house.

I took it out of its zipper case, opened the clam shell and hit the power button. Oh my god, please work… please work. A shot of relief came over me when the Windows logo popped on the screen. It still worked, and I immediately grabbed my usb drive to back up everything I could. It was at this point I noticed the gaping hole in the casing on the lower right corner, by the usb port. Shit!

A whole chunk had broken off. It looked pretty bad, but it didn’t seem to be affecting how my laptop ran, and it began backing up everything without issue. Sigh… Lucky. After it finished backing up, I found the missing chunk of casing inside the zipper case and did my best to tape it back into place. Thank you, Gorilla Tape.

So the moral of the story, folks? Backup often, and be sure to buckle your damn laptop bag.

(Originally posted on Ghost – January 28th, 2014.)