A stranger walks into the bar where you’re hiding out before confronting the rest of your life. The stranger sits three stools down from you and orders a double whiskey, neat. You return your attention to your drink but the stranger is so out of place you can’t help but glance at them again. They’ve turned toward you, one elbow on the bar, fingers interlaced. “How’s it going?”

Hi. I’m Jason. I know it’s been a while but I’ve written things you might like if you’re into indie science fiction. Thank you for tuning in. If you like what you see here, there’s a link at the bottom of this post where you can subscribe and get these very infrequent updates sent right to your inbox. No pressure.

I don’t know who made this but it’s brilliant and will happily give credit where it’s due.WONDERMENT

It’s October and for the first time in nine years my Kansas City Royals were in the postseason by virtue of winning a wildcard playoff series. If there’s a surprise this season it was that the Royals were there. A small-market baseball team with a payroll that would barely cover only the infield of the New York Yankees should only be a punching bag for the big boys during the regular season. Maybe they serve as a farm team, developing talent that the rich teams will cherry pick when they become free agents. 

The small-market sports teams across America are kind of like indie authors, don’t you think? I mean, yeah, it’s a bit of a stretch, but when you’re in the trenches of writing, revising, editing, and promoting your work it sure feels like you’re a kind of punching bag. (Maybe it’s just me.) 

You know how it is. A lot of us work full-time jobs, have families or family obligations, and we spend free moments trying to pull the stories in our heads out to relieve the pressure. Stealing time on the bus or at lunch, after the spouse and/or kids go to bed, literally any time we can find to put pen to paper or fingers to keys. And that time comes and goes, ebbs and flows, with the tides of our lives, too. 

Which brings me to the update on Masque. Time is a commodity that’s in short supply of late so it’s taking longer to build this draft. If you’re a creative person you know that sometimes things take longer than the last thing you made. It’s really because each project (song, book, film, etc…) is unique and demands different things of the person creating them. Masque is pulling stuff from deep inside me and making this book a bit too personal at times. The first few drafts had too much me in them so I’m pulling all that out and leaving the story bits. 

It’s a process. But things are moving forward if only a thousand words at a time.

When someone asks a creative how long creating takes, there’s no answer that satisfies them. Right? People think everything they consume for entertainment must be easy to make. It’s not, though. Take my Royals, for instance. Nine years to get back to just the postseason. Masque won’t take that long, though. I promise.

ASSERTION

I’m going to try out something here and see if it works for me and those who read. A little bit of encouragement that I found useful on social media. Sometimes we get too deep in our heads and we forget why we started. One of the things I encourage in writers I meet is to not give up. Maybe the thing you’re working on isn’t the thing that’s going to make you famous or even sort-of well-known but that’s not its purpose. The purpose of creating things is to learn from them and apply the lessons on the next thing. 

So, that in mind, here are a couple of affirmations I came across recently:

drsheenahoward on Threads: Don’t stop creating just because the world doesn’t understand you yet.

purplee.skye on Threads: Dear Authors: You’re currently writing someone’s favorite book. Please don’t give up Authors of Threads

CONSOMMÉ 

 The only current show that’s really got my attention is The Penguin on max. While I’ve never been a huge fan of the character in the comics but Colin Farrell disappearing so completely into the part in The Batman intrigued me. Farrell’s performances of late (Banshees of Inisherin as well as Sugar) have been terrific and so far he’s not disappointed here. The thing I really like about the series is that it feels like a Jeph Loeb/Tim Sale comic from back in the day. It’s Gotham City the way it should be, the way it needs to be for a Batman to exist. 

Plus, everyone is justifiably talking about how great Cristin Milioti is. “Cent’Anni” is a kind of coming out party for her, but it works so well because of her performance leading up to it. Villains get the best stories, and Sofia Falcone here is getting excellent treatment in a top-notch show. Plus now we get Theo Rossi, whose work I’ve always enjoyed.

Matt Wagner’s latest Grendel arc just concluded and there’s a massive twist at the end of Devil’s Crucible – Defiance #4 that pays off decades of Grendel stories. It’s too bad the tv show didn’t take off but the comics have been consistent and provocative in the best ways. If you’ve never read them, I recommend checking if you library has copies of the Grendel Archives. The only thing missing from them is the crossovers with Batman. Hopefully there’ll be a reprint of those books in the near future.

AT CAPACITY

I’ve met some strangers in my time. Haven’t we all, though? Some of them turn out to be really interesting people and if you’re lucky, they become friends. Now I do love to mix with people from time to time, especially in my day job, but it’s exhausting. I can appear to be extroverted but that’s not my nature. 

A good day at a show and a good day at my day job* – for me – are pretty much the same thing. I’ve enjoyed talking with people I know and with people I’ve just met. We’ve connected in various ways and there’s a lot of positive charge in the air. I’m pumped and want to enjoy the feeling. And when the high recedes, as it always does, I’m left needing to recenter myself. So doing some mindfulness exercises helps, and spending time being grounded again by my everyday relationships with my wife and close friends. It’s all about perspective. 

So recognize what works for you, good and bad. Know that the highs go away and hopefully the lows do, too. This extrovert needs to introvert after each big day. Your mileage may vary.

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*I’m very, very lucky that I enjoy my day job and I’m pretty good at it.