Blog Posts

Gotta Get Myself A Pipe

6/12/2013

The I'll be ready for the test. (I hope.)

Change of pace last week. Spoke to an 8th grade class of St. John Vianney Regional School at the Tolerance Program hosted by the Institute for Jewish Christian Understanding at Muhlenberg College. Also went down memory lane– showed work and spoke at Kutztown Elementary School and Greenwich Elementary School. Great kids– interested and motivated. Enjoyed being a teacher for that little bit. Now back to my keypad and hopefully some drawing soon!

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The Final Cover for the Polish Edition of Mendel's Daughter

4/25/2013

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Elmore Leonard's 10 Tips For Writing

4/15/2013

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Here are some tips by a writer with a spare clean style. I like his work but know I've broken at least 4 of his rules. Must be that I'm reading John Steinbeck's East of Eden– a great book! (Oops, an exclamation mark!)

Never open a book with the weather.
Avoid prologues.
Never use a verb other than “said” to carry dialogue.
Never use an adverb to modify the verb “said.”
Keep your exclamation points under control!
Never use the words “suddenly” or “all hell broke loose.”
Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
Same for places and things.
Leave out the parts readers tend to skip.

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Polish Cover

3/29/2013

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A nice present when I opened my mail today– the Polish cover of Mendel's Daughter. The book launch is in 2 months at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. Quicker than I imagined.
http://www.sklep.gildia.pl/komiksy/194931-corka-mendla-wspomnienia
This is the address for info on the Polish edition (in Polish.)

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Some Good Advice to Writers

3/21/2013

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Some Great advice from Kurt Vonnegut

Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.
Start as close to the end as possible.
Be a Sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To hell with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.

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Rewriting

3/4/2013

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I've halted work on coloring my pages ( shucks, I was having such a good time) and have begun to rewrite. I'm cutting a lot of the first part of the book and taking it in a different direction– developing characters and plot.
Many of the images I'm posting won't all be into the final book...
Hope you like 'em anyway.

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Drawing Hiatus

2/13/2013

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It has been over a year since I put paintbrush to paper (and Photoshop pen to tablet) and am really enjoying it.

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Another Before & After

1/30/2013

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This is the opening page of the second section (of 3) of my book. (As with most of the work posted, I need to add color.)
Drawing will halt for a bit as I review the text of this part. I haven't reviewed the writing in 8 months so I expect it will look new to me. I hope it isn't too awful.