SPECIAL REPORT (Evercast #16)

Apologies for the unexpected hiatus from the show, guys. Some personal work has kept me very busy over the last few weeks, but the Evercast is back, and I’ve got a very special announcement about what’s coming up next for the show!

SPECIAL REPORT (Evercast #16)

Theme music by Jeff Hendricks. Evercast logo by Heather Petit-Keller.

Send your e-mails to BlakeMPetit@gmail.com.

Blake M. Petit’s Evercast by Blake M. Petit is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://www.evertimerealms.com. Just don’t change the file and don’t sell it. Look at what happened to Photon Man.

A Friday quickie

It’s late Friday, friends, almost Saturday, and while I haven’t had time to post, I’ve had a very productive day. I spent most of it simply writing. I’ve been working on something I can’t wait to announce, a supplemental project to accompany Project Rebirth, and I got a full 3500 words completed today. I probably have less than 1000 to go to finish my part of it, assuming I’m doing it correctly. This is going to be one of the coolest things I’ve ever been involved in.

I would have finished tonight, but I had to jet off to the great city of Thibodaux to work the door for the Thibodaux Playhouse production of The Sanders Family Christmas. I know, Christmas in July, right? How cute can you get? Several good friends of mine are in the cast, and they all did a fine job. If you’re up for a little holiday spirit, there are still two performances left this weekend. Check out www.thibodauxplayhouse.org for more details.

Finally, in cast I forget to mention it, tomorrow is my brother’s birthday, and he and his wife are having a housewarming party as well, so I’ll be spending much of the day at their place in Gonzales. Happy birthday, bro. See you tomorrow.

As for those of you not related and not going to the party — sorry. I still love you, though.

No time to blog…

No time to blog today, guys. Tomorrow is the Petit family’s annual July 4 barbecue blowout, and that entails a heck of a lot of preparation, so I’m going to be busy. Why don’t you go back and look at the photos from last year’s bash? Those always make for good times.

Still rebirthing

And it’s not like the barbecue is the only thing eating up my time. I’ve been doing a lot of stuff lately on “Project Rebirth.” I found out a few days ago, sadly, that I wasn’t going to be able to do one phase of the project the way I’d intended — some legalese on another phase is actually preventing it — but that’s not going to stop it from getting done. In fact, it may wind up getting it done sooner. Once I finish my summer class next week, I’ll have the rest of July to work on recording things with an eye towards release in the fall. Did I say “recording”? Um… look, just ignore that. I don’t know why you’re reading this anyway, I’m far too busy to get any blogging done today.

Vinyl Fun

Oh, and I’m glad to announce my sister, Heather, has finished her first original Vinylmation project. I’ve mentioned the Disney Vinylmation toys in some of my Toy Story articles in the past, but if you missed those, they’re basically little collectible Mickey Mouse figures that are released in various designs and varieties, which my brother and sister are heavily into collecting (and I’m lightly into collecting). What’s really cool is that they also sell blank versions of the figures, allowing artists like Heather to create their own designs. Here’s her first, based on the very first Mickey Mouse cartoon, Steamboat Willy:

In progress...

Almost there...

Steamboat Willy!

Heather has two more of the three-inch figures and a blank nine-inch that she’s working on. This sort of thing makes me wish I had a little artistic talent. I’d love to do one of these, but I know I’d wind up making a big, blotchy mess. Better to share the pics with you guys and point out how cool they look than ruin one by attempting to touch it myself. When she’s done with the other figures, I’ll be sure to show you guys how they turned out.

NaBloPoMo

Hmm… interesting. According to the official WordPress blog, July is “National Blog Posting Month.” The only criteria is, evidently, that if you have a blog like this one, you post something every day. Nice idea. Wish I could participate. I’ve already blogged on the first two days of the month, after all. But like I’ve said, I just don’t have any time to blog today.

What do I write about?

What do I write about today?

Well, I could give you a review of TransFormers: Revenge of the Fallen, but I haven’t finished watching it yet. You see, on Wednesday I got together with Mike and Kenny to catch the movie in IMAX. With about 40 minutes to go, though, the theater lost power. The emergency lights came on and a managerial-type came in and told us the movie would start again shortly. Then the power came back, the lights went off, and the screen… turned purple. Then the lights came back on and the managerial-type came back in and announced that, due to the high-tech nature of the IMAX projection system, it would take an hour to get it back up and running, and they were giving us all two free passes to make up for our inconvenience. We went out afterwards to Izzo’s Illegal Burrito to eat and, periodically, shout out “DAMMIT!” to nobody in particular.

So I can’t write about that.

I could write about my car. The air conditioner went out about a month ago, right before school ended for the summer. Then Erin came to visit and I had a class beginning so I couldn’t bring it in to get fixed. Then yesterday, I was told our class today would be cancelled (ironically, because they needed to repair the air conditioner in the school building), so I decided to try to get it fixed. I brought it in and, a little while ago, got the call with estimate: $900, parts and labor. And I thought. I thought hard. I thought about just sweating it out for a while. Then I thought about the newspaper headline which reported that Wednesday’s temperature of 104 degrees was an all-time high for New Orleans, and that we were in a drought. And I sighed and said “fix it.”

But I don’t want to write about that.

I could write about Project Rebirth. I had two very interesting calls regarding that mystery project of mine this week, and both were productive. One really got me fired up. The second left me mildly disappointed, because I found out I wasn’t going to be able to do something I wanted to do. But both of them were good, because it means the project is moving foward and — perhaps more importantly — picking up speed. And who knows, soon I may even be able to tell you just what that project is instead of referring to it by its mysterious code-name.

So I can’t really elaborate about that.

The only other thing I’ve got is to tell you about the podcast I recorded last night. Chase is out working and we still haven’t quite forgiven Mike “I Like My Vampires Shiny” Bellamy for taking off to Philly without us last weekend. Plus, I wanted to talk about books without pictures, which leaves him out. Instead, I rounded up a first-time podcaster to guest-host with me: my sister Heather. Together we talked about the recently-concluded Percy Jackson novels, which I’ve finished, she’s just beginning, and we both love. Then I did something I really wanted to do — I showed her my copy of the new novel Personal Effects: Dark Art by J.C. Hutchins. Being a huge fan of J.C.’s work as I am, I knew that this book was going to come with a pouch full of papers, cards, and artifacts that you could use to play along with the book, along with URLs for websites and phone numbers you could call that would enhance the experience. I was psyched. But I thought it would be fun to show these things to someone who isn’t familiar with the concept and get her reaction. It turned out to be a pretty good little podcast. You can listen to it here: Week in Geek #24: Percy Jackson and Personal Effects.

Beware Your Fears Made Into Light

Reviews ‘n Stuff

Tomorrow, my girlfriend Erin comes in for one of our visits, and I can’t wait. We’re actually going to have a lot going on, beginning tomorrow with going to see The Floating Palace at the Bayou Playhouse (reportedly an excellent play that my sister, Heather, happens to be in). Next weekend, we’re travelling to Florida with my family for my cousin Lauren’s wedding. In-between… well, we’re gonna do stuff with my friends, stuff with just us… we’re gonna do stuff. In other words, I’ve got no idea what we’ll be doing all week. But it doesn’t matter, because we’ll be together.

Writing Life

Yesterday I finished a new short story for the eMuse Summer Madness contest. I’ve been telling you guys for some time now how awesome the work of J.C. Hutchins is, so I had to get involved when I heard about a writing contest centering on his upcoming novel Personal Effects: Dark Art. It’s just a quickie, really, something that popped into my head and I worked out really fast, but it was fun to take on a different story. I’ve also been hard at work on two things connected to Project Rebirth, and I’m getting more and more excited about it. Yeah. Still cryptic. Yeah, I know.

Reviews

I’ve also been firing away on the reviews over at Comixtreme.com. Here are some recent ones I’ve turned out:

• Astro City: The Dark Age Book Three #2 – Charles Williams seeks his lost brother
• Final Crisis Aftermath: Ink #1 – Can the Tattooed Man become a hero?
• Hack/Slash #22 – Mind Killer Part Two
• Jack of Fables #34 – The Great Fables Crossover Part Five
• The Literals #2 – The Great Fables Crossover Part Six
• The Muppet Show #3 – Gonzo’s story
• Secret Six #10 – Depths Part One
• Superman #688 – Mon-El’s power loss explained
• Superman/Batman #60 – Mash-Up Part One
• Trinity #52 – The year-long epic comes to a close!
• Done-in-One Reviews for May 30, 2009 – In which I review Batman: The Brave and the Bold #5; Ender’s Shadow: Battle School #5; Futurama Comics #43; The Last Days of Animal Man #1; Muppet Robin Hood #1; The Spirit #28; The Stand: American Nightmares #3 and Star Wars: Legacy #36
• Done-in-One Reviews for June 6, 2009 – In which I review Archie #596; Atomic Robo: Shadow From Beyond Time #2; Batman in Barcelona: Dragon’s Knight #1; Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires #1; Chew #1; House of Mystery #14; Jonah Hex #44; The Mighty #5 and PS238 #39

More things of intense concern

A couple of weeks ago, I asked the question: why do high school seniors get out two weeks earlier than the rest of the students? Today I found out the answer. Apparently, in the pre-computer age, records had to be sent to the state department of education and processed before diplomas could be issues, a process that took about two weeks. So in order to synch graduation with the end of school, grades had to be sent in two weeks before the end of the school year. And once there are no more grades to be given, there isn’t much point in keeping the kids here.

In this day and age, with most grades computerized and with the diplomas issues by the local district, letting the kids out early is an anachronism. But technically, so is summer vacation, and I’m not about to argue with that one.

Speaking of summer vacation…

Today was the last day of school for the rest of my students, the ones who are gonna be back next year, as they haven’t graduated yet. The teachers still have one day — we’ll be back Monday — but for all intents and purposes, the school year is over. And not a moment too soon, really. I’ve got some great kids. I love what I do. But there’s only so long you can be around a person in as intense a situation as school is before you start to grate on each other’s nerves. There are a lot of kids in my classes that I’m going to miss next year, but I know i’ll have another batch of great kids coming in. I’m glad, though, that I’ll have two months before I have to start that.

What will I be going in the meantime? Well, Erin is coming to town for a visit next week, and I can’t wait. Other than that, the biggest thing I’ll be working on is the initiative I’ve been talking about, clandestinely, as “Project Rebirth.” I’m still not quite ready to say exactly what that is, although I think I’ve said enough in various places that someone has probably figured it out by now, but it’s been moving along at quite a pace lately. I’ve got a major push that is going to need a lot of work out of me to make happen, and that’s what summer is going to be for.

Random Question

Has there ever been a decent zombie movie made that didn’t use the “I got bit but I don’t want to turn into a zombie, please kill me” scene?

Agent Orange

MINE.

Back to work

A lot of folks who had off for Christmas are back to work today. Although I’ve still got another week of freedom before school starts again, I’ve been busy today. This is the most intensive day I’ve put in on Project Rebirth in quite a long time. It’s been an editing day, mostly. Like I said at the conclusion of National Novel Writing Month, I really believe that you need some distance after finishing a project before doing the revisions. Well, I’ve certainly got distance behind me here. I’m working on something that I thought was finished quite some time ago, but I may have the chance to breathe new life into it in the coming year. So I’m going back to the source, cleaning up dialogue, fixing errors, changing dated references (to something that hopefully won’t be dated any time soon) and basically trying to make an old favorite into a project that will last.

Perhaps most importantly, I’m working on something that really matters to me, and that’s always where a person does his best work, don’t you think?

I’m not finished — didn’t even get as far as I wanted today — but I did enough to believe I can finish this revision by the end of the week, which is my goal.

So those of you who spent a first day back at work today, how’d it go?

NaNoWriMo 2008: The End?

Well, friends, it’s been a solid month now that I’ve been working on Cross-Purposes, my 2008 National Novel Writing Month project. And did I finish the book?

In a word… no.

BUT — the story in-progress currently stands at a handsome 51,683 words long, which means that I have officially crossed the 50,000-word mark and can consider myself a winner in NaNoWriMo 2008.

So what happens next? Well, first of all, I’m going to finish the first draft of Cross-Purposes. I’m not finished, but I am very close to the end, working on the climactic battle scene, in fact. After that, I’ve got several “epilogue” sequences to write (if you’ll recall, the point of this book was to follow several intertwined plots at once), and then the first draft will be done. After that, I’ll let it sit a while, because I am a firm believer that you should let some time pass (three months MINIMUM) after finishing a first draft before you start revising. That distance gives you a much clearer perspective than you would have if you started right away.

In the interim, what will I work on? Well, Project Rebirth will continue to be my main creative outlet. Except for Erin, it’s probably the single most important thing in my life right now, and it needs the attention. I’ve also started work on my annual Christmas short story, which (this year) will be entitled Return to Sender. I hope you guys enjoy that.

And what about Summer Love? As you guys have no doubt noticed, it’s sort of gone off the rails in the last couple of months. I deeply apologize for that to the three or four of you whom i know were reading it on a regular basis. I’m going to try to use December to build a new stockpile, then I’ll bring it back in January with the intent of resuming a regular schedule. I don’t know if it’s the ideal solution, but I think it’s the best I can do.

At any rate, thanks to everyone who offered words of support during NaNoWriMo, and please come back tomorrow as we begin our Christmas Party in earnest.

Holy Crap! I Won!

Last night was the annual Thibodaux Playhouse Awards gala celebration. We produce four shows each year, and a panel of super-secret judges attend each show and they vote on the performances. This year, I won Best Supporting Actor for my performance in Rumors! I am humbled and flattered, and I have a little silver bowl now, which is just awesome.

Pictured with me here are Daphne Hebert and her daughter Marcel, who won best actress and supporting actress (respectively) for The Bad Seed, which also won for best play. My old friend Troy Plaisance, who was not in attendance, won Best Actor for The Seven-Year Itch. Ah, Troy, we miss you buddy.

Congratulations to all the winners!

Other Updates…

I’ve had quite a week. aside from my continuing work on my NaNoWriMo novel, Cross-Purposes. I had a meeting and a phone call regarding my top-secret Project: Rebirth, which I mentioned here a while back. It’s a project that has two distinct but related stages, and I’m hard at work on the common area in-between. Boy, that’s super-vague, isn’t it? You guys just have no idea how badly I want to tell you what this is. But I can’t. Not yet. Just wish me luck.

Summer Love Skip Week

Hey, friends — those of you who popped in here looking for this week’s chapter of Summer Love, I really appreciate that. I only have a few people who comment regularly (and I love you all, ladies), but I know I’ve got more people reading who don’t comment. Please, feel free to do so more often.

So why am I taking the week off? (And I promise, it will be just one week.) Several reasons. First, when I started this project, I had several chapters written ahead as a buffer. I hoped to keep that buffer strong, but real life slowed down my writing input, so the buffer is kaputsville. I’ve written the last several chapters in the week before they were posted, finishing some just minutes before I threw them up here on the site. This week, I just plain didn’t have time to even do it that way.

Here’s the good news: the reasons my buffer has gotten whittled down so much. First of all, I’m directing a play at the Thibodaux Playhouse, Bless Me Father. I’ve mentioned it here before, I know. Well, it’s finally starting this week. Friday, to be specific. We’re in our dress rehearsals now. If you’d like to see the show, check out the Thibodaux Playhouse website for info, including prices, the number to call for reservations, and even Yahoo maps to get you to the theater. My sister, heather, built the new website, and I’m quite proud of the job she did.

Second, and of more far-reaching consequence, I’ve got two really big writing projects occupying a lot of my time. As Chase and I announced on an episode of the podcast a few weeks ago, we’ve become associated with the good folks at Lightning Age Studios, a New Orleans-based studio planning to pull together creative folks to put together comic books and other projects. I’ve been working closely with these guys for several weeks now and we’ve got a couple of projects in the pipeline. I’m hoping I can announce something specific soon.

The other project, I can’t even tell you THAT much about… but it’s big. Enormous. Potentially — and no hyperbole here, friends — the biggest thing ever to happen to me. The sort of thing that I’m afraid to tell people about because I think it’ll jinx it. So suffice it to say this new thing… let’s call it Project: Rebirth (and double geek points to the first person who can tell me where I got that name from)… it’s taking up a LOT of my creative energy at the moment. Oh, man, I’m itching to make an announcement about this, but I’m not gonna go mouthing off here and then feel like an idiot if it doesn’t happen. Just keep your fingers crossed, keep me in your prayers, keep me in your pocket… whatever it is you happen to do to people you wish good luck.

Anyway, I’ve got to leave. I have a rehearsal to attend to. But I promise, Summer Love will be back next Monday. In the meantime, please enjoy the various Halloween Party articles I’ve posted here, let me know what you think about them all — and help me come up with a better title. Summer Love is still mega-weak.