>Alas, Poor Sweeney, I knew him well...

>Yep, good ol' Sweeney Todd didn't make the Villainology cut. He won't be standing side by side along with Attila the Hun and Emperor Nero. What does a villain have to do to make it?


Sweeney Todd: A fictional barber who lived on Fleet Street in London. Anyone who bumbled in looking for a shave and a haircut, ended up getting a deep throat cut. Sweeney then chopped up their bodies and put them in pies. People pies is what they were called and they sold well. Sweeney first appeared in a penny dreadful (a really cheap story that sold for a penny) called "The String of Pearls: A Romance" (1846) that was likely written by Thomas Prest. Next came a play then musical after musical after Musical. Ah, there’s nothing more musical that cutting people up and stuffing them in pies. Kinda makes you wonder what everyone was eating in Oliver Twist. Sweeney Todd may be based on someone real, but no one has ever proved it. I guess somebody ate the evidence.


Poor, poor Sweeney. Well, at least he keeps people singing. Which reminds me. There was a Heavy Metal band called Fist back in the '80's who had a cool song called Fleet Street. The lyrics were something like:

"Follow the baker,
The people pie maker,
Makin' people pies,
Evil in his eyes!"

Hey, it was a cool song. Still is. It's somewhere on my iPod right now.

Speaking of eyes, here's a villainous eye...any guesses who it belongs to?

Tune in next time when you'll find out why Lizzie Borden didn't make the cut. Get it, the cut? Maybe that should be the whack.

Art

>A Nice Review for Megiddo

>Well, a nice review for Megiddo's Shadow from Ventura Country Star. I'm always happy to see a good review. It's a real pick-me-up first thing in the morning (although it's evening as I write this, I'm a slow blogger). It's always an odd feeling to think that my book is being read so far away (Ventura is in California, I'm in Saskatchewan, Canada). My books have a more exciting life than I do.

Which is fine. I'm just here to write them.

The real trick of this writing biz is to not read the bad reviews first thing in the morning, tho. That's a buzz kill!

Art

>More Villains on the Cutting Room Floor

>Ah, the scythe of the editor's mind. Oh, and that whole page limitation thing. Here's another villain who ended up on the cutting room floor.

Svengali: a hypnotist who stars in George Du Maurier's 1894 novel, Trilby. Ok, it’s a boring title, but it’s all about Svengali, a crappy musician who hypnotized Trilby (a girl) and turns her into a famous singer. He lives in luxury off of her concert performances. Then in the middle of a show Svengali has a heart attack and dies. Tribly wakes up, with no memory of being able to sing. The audience shouts at her and she has a nervous attack and dies later that night. Can’t anyone write a happy ending anymore?

Alas, goodbye Svengali.

Oh, hey speaking of Villains who are in the book, here's a body part from one. Can you guess who?



And it's not Scarface.

Have a gleefully villainous day!

Art

>Monsterology is scarier than Poutine!

>Just received the French version of Monsterology, published by Bayard. Look's great, eh?

Interesting that it becomes Monstrologie! I like it. And boy, it's ten times funnier in French. Here's an example:

L'ogre
Occupations: Etre gros et manger.
Il deteste: Se cogner la tete, Jacques, tomber de haut, quand les nuages sont bas.

Ha! Etre gros et manger! Etre gros et manger! If that doesn't tickle your funny bone I don't now what will. French really is the language of love. Uh, and laughter. Grosse Le Laughter!*

Monsterology's World Conquest is just beginning.

Adios, uh, I mean, Au revoir,

Art

*this is where I admit I did take French up to Grade Twelve but it was taught to me by a woman with a Scottish accent. "Ach, Monsieur Slade, you make the French sound like 3 day old haggis." Very sad. I was almost cultured once.

>Villains--on the cutting floor!

>Well, nigh over a month until Villainology comes out. Oct. 9th is "V" day!
Sadly not every piece of purple prose I wrote will be appearing in the book. Apparently they have page lengths to these things! Yes, I was as surprised as you. Which does make one wonder, are editors ruthless villains? Or are they ruthless taskmasters? (uh, this doesn't apply to any editor who's bought me lunch)

So here's a section on "Other Victorian Villains" that was left on the floor...

Other Victorian Era Villains:
The Victorian Era was the years in England when Queen Victoria ruled (1837-1901). Everyone was stodgy back then, practicing their stiff upper lips and drinking tea. Oh, and they also worked on their villainy. And not just in England.

Jack the Ripper: Ah, good ol’ Jack the Ripper. Back in 1888 he scared London and all the surrounding Brits by attacking and killing several women. He then wrote a letter to the paper, calling himself Jack the Ripper. Newspapers wrote story after story about him. Where is he? Who is he? When will he strike again? It sold a lot of newspapers. And later on books and then movies. No one ever found out who Jack the Ripper was. That’s not funny. In fact, that’s a little scary.

Tune in for more Villains from the cutting floor...someday...soon.

Art

>Cabin Redux

>Well, I’m 3 1/2 weeks into my 5 week stint at the cabin along with the family. It has been a time for us to relax. To go for walks down by the lake. To go to the fine dining establishment just down the road (It’s called The Hole in the Wall, built in an old Texaco station in a Spanish/Mexican style building and listed in the top 200 restaurants in Canada, I’m not kidding--we only could afford to go once, but it is soooo worth it). Oh, and we’re there to work, too.
Yep, work. I usually get my most work done in August because there are no interruptions. And my multi-project schedule seems to really be helping. Here’s my Monday-Saturday routine.
1st hour--write at least 1 page on my project for adults and work on a book that I’m writing with another author (it’s a secret project so I can’t tell you any more than that).
2nd & 3rd hour--work on the rewrite of Worse Than Starkers, a book about a boy who is struck by lightning.
4th & 5th hour--work on the 1st book in The Hunchback Chronicles, which is retelling of The Hunchback story set in Victorian times.
Lunch
1 more hour on one of the above projects, sometimes 2 hours.

The rest of the day I read, go for a walk with my family, listen to an audiobook or do odd jobs around the cabin (I’m listening to The Amber Spyglass by Pullman and reading Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay).
The whole process of switching from project to project has really given me energy and focus. When I know I only have two hours I tend to work harder. And I find myself at a higher level of excitement than what I would have if I spent the whole 4 hours on 1 project. Many fresh ideas for all the projects have been sprouting, so switching back and forth actually seems to help in the “brainstorming” process.
The other big change is I started using a writing program called Scrivener. It’s brilliant and, uh, it’s only for Mac (there may be a similar program for PC’s, I don’t know). But this program enables you to write in a word-processor, but there is also a window that lists all your chapters, a HUD (heads up display) that has all the keywords like characters and place names. And another section that keeps all your files or websites right alongside the page they are referring to. That info appears in a split screen view. So for instance if you’re describing a certain street in London and you have a jpg of it, you can open it up in the split screen with a click of a button and write about it, then close it. All your research is right there, easily clickable. Anyway, if you’re interested (and on a Mac) check out the website. The final version of any novel will have to be written in Word or Pages or something like that because Scrivener doesn’t do all the page numbering and other stuff, this is just for the first ten or so drafts.

Oh, and watched Firefly, the series. It rocks. Such a shame it was cancelled.

There, that’s about it.
Cheers,
Art