Vancouver

I missed this city. It's good to be back.

Hitchhiking Up Coastlines

Unfortunate family circumstances have brought me back to Canada. While I won’t go into a lot of detail about this, suffice to say, I have returned to the homeland, at least for the time being.

Freelance has been keeping me fairly busy, and that’s nice, but I would like to find something more permanent. So I’m keeping my ear to the ground and sending out stuff here and there.

However, one great thing about freelance is the mobility it affords me. I can work from just about anywhere. A couple of days ago I hitchhiked up the coastline of Vancouver Island to visit an old friend. In the process I was able to work on assignments and brainstorm between rides on the wide open road.

I’ve hitched across Canada, Mexico, Poland, West Africa and the States, so I’m familiar with the game, and I forgot how exciting it is. You’re out on the road with everything you own on your back and the sun in the sky and the universe is there to play dice with your soul and you never quite know where you’ll go.

I caught rides with logging truck drivers and fishermen and scientists and punks from Montreal. And that was just this trip alone. I can keep anyone talking and that’s what they want: to share their adventures of the road.

And there are some great stories out there.

Everyone I met had hitchhiked before and everyone I met wanted to read my book. So I need to get going and start on Plan B: contacting literary agents en force.

Progress

An interesting week.

I met with a publisher last night and he seemed somewhat interested.

I met another writer who has just been published by Penguin, she told me she could put me in touch with her literary agent in New York, same company that worked with Dan Brown, so that's promising.

I also found out that you are supposed to double-space. So, suddenly my 300 page novel has become a 600 page tome. It looks like I may have a trilogy on my hands. Hmm.

In other, other news. I've found an illustrator for a children's book I wrote: The Leaf Boat. The incredible Rachel Smith has almost finished, so I'll be sending that to publishers soon as well.

I'm still doing freelance at the moment, as well as teaching a writers' workshop. If you want to sign up, talk to Sukin Lee at 9344 5855 (don't forget to mention Mike's blog).

Feline Feedback

From my cranky editor, the marvelous S. Cat:

Here are your book-editing instructions:

Play this song, on repeat. Go through each chapter and look for words that don't need to be there. Assume the
reader understands the ferociously determined character through the story — the adventures — not necessarily the words. If you have to think about whether to delete a word or phrase more than three times, keep it in.

Good luck.

S.Cat



This video is super cool.

Agents

I've been mulling over the best way to reach a publisher.

I'm sure a literary agent could help, so I'll contact a few. However, I'm also planning to contact publishers directly. The way I see it, I'll approach this task in the same way I got into advertising in the first place, with lots of phone calls, and a lot of hustle.

And Out Come the Wolves

I am now gathering feedback. My girlfriend, my mom, my friends, my ex-girlfriend. They all love it.

What I need are critics.

The best website for nasty but often true, tough-love feedback is ihavanidea.org. Copywriters are precise people. At IHAI, you can find some of the best creatives from around the world. And their advice is invaluable, if not a little ruthless.

Either way, we're in the improving stage, so feedback is cool.

Fin

The book is finished!

Black Rain

Coming from Vancouver, I know rain. Nothing like this though.

Right now, we're on a Black Rain warning, again. This means everything is shut down and the roads are all flooded. Madness.
It's like a snow day, but with knee-deep water.

Status Update #5

Hmm, I think I pushed myself a bit too hard. I've been working nonstop every day and every night. I didn't sleep for four days and now I'm sick. Ugh.

So, I'm in recovery mode. The last chapter isn't finished yet. That's fine. I'm going to relax and recover for the next three days and rest my mind, then I'll attack this beast one more time.

I need to get a job. Being locked up in this apartment is driving me bananas.

Also, I'm way past deadline. I'm lucky I have a supportive mouse to help me out, but I suspect I am driving her a bit crazy as well.

My Favourite Ad from 2007

Last Chapter Blues

I'm stuck.

I don't know how to finish this book.

My back is sore. My body is sore. I'm sick. I'm broke. This book has been the end of me. And it's not even finished yet. I need to go back to work.

On a brighter note: I do have three leads for publishers.

Fresh Eyes

It's written. It's edited. The book is almost done. Everything but the final chapter that is.

Now, I plan to set it aside for two days and not think about it. I'll look at it again on the weekend and hopefully it will be a wrap by Sunday night.

One Nocturnal Son of a Gun

My hours have become ridiculous. I do my best work between 9 to 5. The other 9 to 5.

Intro

The wind was tearing through his hat, rustling the straw and biting his face. The snow was falling sideways. And there he was freezing: A battered leather briefcase, crummy leather gloves, and a black jacket that he’d scored in Sweden for twenty bucks.

He squared his scaly shoulders and looked around.

He was in France, on a bridge that was covered in snow. To his left was a cavernous drop of hundreds of feet to a frozen river, to the right: same thing. He was in the middle of the road, in the middle of December, at midnight and no one was around. Behind him, the Swiss border was closed.

Jimmy had a briefcase and a bottle of gin. He gnashed his pointed teeth in the chill. He was so tired he was delusional. He had been on the road for over twenty-four hours. Hitchhiking. Blitzing Europe. Trying to migrate from Sweden to Spain in one shot.

They’d dropped him off at the border about an hour earlier, and he started walking across this bridge for a place to catch a ride out of sight of the guards. No cars were coming through, so he turned back, and by the time he got there, the border was locked down.

He was stuck.

This is what you get when you drop all attachments. You never know where you’ll end up. This is what you get when you surrender to the fates, like a sailor at sea. You get adventures. You get a taste of the universe. And sometimes, you get stranded.

He stood there for about an hour. He turned blue. His fingers were freezing. This was no place for our lizard. When, suddenly, a brown delivery truck pulled up. This dude jumped out, in grey trousers, with his urchin hat in his hands, like something out of David Copperfield. He ran sprite-like to the guardhouse and picked something up. He punched in a code on a keypad and the gates slowly opened. Jimmy chased him down in the sleet.

Back to the Front

It's all down on paper: Just under one hundred chapters (about 350 pages at this point). I've done a once-over edit.

Now I need to go to back to the beginning and really sift through it for the real gems.

More Sea Monsters

How's It Coming?

I know, I know, it's been a while since a post. I've been busy, but this thing is taking forever. It's soul-wrenching work.

Either way, I'm hoping I can have a first draft ready by the end of the month.

I ran into someone the other day who can put me in touch with a publisher, which is sweet. Also, I'm looking to print a couple hundred of my own to start. If anyone knows a cheap printer in China, let me know.

Status Update #4

Yes. I realize that I am now 11 days into extended time.

The first draft is still not done.

I am editing Chapter 53 as we speak.

All the chapters are written, it's the editing that's tough.
Either way, I'm at 53. I'll work my way up to 100 and then back through the whole thing.

She's coming together nicely.

Spidey Senses

W+K are onto something and I want to know what it is.

There is something about their Nike ads that strikes a primal chord.

Every time, around 10 to 15 seconds before they show the logo at the end, you can feel it. Something. They create a physiological reaction through sound and image alone.

They create emotion.

Sometimes it’s a chill up the spine. Sometimes it’s that lump in the stomach, reverberating heartstrings, the sinking crest.

But you feel it. You feel something, every time, in exactly the same spots.

I want to know how they do this. I am dying to know. Hungry. I want to capture the smell of glass.


This one it's the 50-second mark. If you watch it from the beginning with complete focus, you get a cold chill at exactly the same point, every time.



Same deal. If you lose yourself in the character: Chills. Guy Ritchie directed this one, so maybe that's part of it. I love the music.



I always show this one, but it's fantastic. This one you get the tug around 0:23.



0:42. Love this music too.




What's the secret? Our empathy to raw, real human emotion? The choice of music? The editing?

I have to get back to writing. But this is what my writing needs.

Freelance English Copywriter in Hong Kong

Life's not all beer and skittles, sometimes we have to work too.

So if you are looking for a freelance English copywriter click this link.

In the meantime, it's been a while since I've posted some ads: