• Carve out more DEDICATED time to write
• Wrap my current writing project by January 31
• Exercise and get into better shape
• Spend less time wasting time
• Spend more quality time with my family
• Win my fantasy baseball league —  Well, how about ‘Place in the top 3′
• Carve out some true ‘me’ down time for rest & recharge

OK, so there they are.  Not all of them.  I wonder how many I’ll stick to.  Let’s look back in three months and see.  That said, Happy New Year!

Anyway.

Things were crazy for me in September and October.  The first annual Long Beach Comic Con was a huge success and we’ve already begun work on year two.  It’s a great show and it has so much potential to grow.  Can’t wait to dig in deep on next years stuff.  We’ve gotten so many commitments for 2010 already.

My graphic novel is progressing well.  The artist, Jeff Stokely is a young phenom.  He’ll be a house hold name in a few years.  Well in comics anyways.  But that said, I am working on incorporating some great notes from a potential publisher.  I’d love to be with these guys.  A-1 crew with top notch product.  Be great to have the book on the shelves next summer.  Its our goal.  We’ll see how we do!

Freelance is going well.  Just a few days away form the Woodbury Sports soft launch.  I’m very excited as it has been a ton of work thus far.  It’s going to be a great online shop.  Keep your eyes peeled for it.  Web development projects are starting to trickle in for Jeff, Keith and myself.  Which is cool.  Both of the recent ones are fun gigs and hopefully they will lead to bigger projects.  I picked up an interesting inquiry about some marketing work that I am kicking around.  Not sure if it is right for me but the potential client is a very nice guy.  I’ll see what shakes out.

Spent much of the early part of the night fashioning my son’s robot costume for Halloween.  He has his first “party” with his nursery school classmates this Thursday so I need to deliver one kick ass costume for him.  Next up he has Halloween itself and the trick r treating mayhem that is sure ensue (and the sugar rush) followed by a costume birthday party on Sunday.

Time to hit the sack.  The last three hours of freelance work has tired me the hell out.  Gotta be up in about four hours to do Daddy duty.  Could be worse, right?  =)

It’s been a busy summer.  I feel like yesterday was Memorial Day when in fact, Labor Day was two weeks back.  It’s crazy.  So much has gotten done and happened since my last post in early August.

I’ve completed a treatment for a graphic novel and snagged a great artist, Jeff Stokely, to illustrate it.  Scripting currently and getting ready to shop it.  I have a certain publisher in mind that would be a dream to work with.  We shall see.

My freelance work is coming along.  The sports store website is getting very close.  Details, details now.

My son started Nursery School last week, too.  Even tho has had shed his fair share of tears thus far, I am not sure who it is harder on.

Long Beach Comic Con is only two weeks plus away.  Once it wraps I’ll be back to posting much more frequently.  Including teaser pages and art form the graphic novel.  It’s going to be a race to the finish for 2009 and quite frankly, I can’t wait til it’s over.  It’s really been one hell of a year…

Between dealing with a business implosion, one of my ex employers having “lay off-ers remorse” and being upset that I work for a rival company, my son being attached at my hip, and so on it’s been a trip.  I am looking forward to having a nice relaxing Father’s Day Weekend (which needs to include both SUN and BBQ) followed by getting on track for a very productive last week of June.

I’ve got a few great projects I am working one.  I’ll break them down by type…

WEB DEVELOPMENT:  One’s getting closer to completion of the development phase, which is sweet.  The last key piece will be a database system being developed by one my partners.  Two others have proposals out as well.

WRITING:  I’ve wrapped a mini series treatment that’s already got an artist.  Once he is ready to roll, we’ll see some pages show up here.  The other major comic project had been a bit stalled the last few  months due to time and health.  It should be back on track next week.  I’ve also got a number of different projects at different stages of development that need some attention to incubate a little bit.

That should cover it all for now.  I should be back to regular posts on this site as well.  Stay tuned.

Flash foward to today.  This was my son’s third parade, having been born in January of 2007, he really only got into this year, at 2 1/2.  He was waving his flag and poppy flower (for those of you who don’t know what that is, it is a little handmade flower that veterans make and then give as gifts for donations).  It makes me happy and proud.   Both of my grandfathers were WWII vets.  My dad’s dad in the Pacific and my Mom’s dad in Europe.  I was too young or uninterested to be able to hear any of their stories and I am regretful & saddened by that.  It is such an important time in our share global history and every day we lose another link to that true past.

So while you are all digesting your BBQ and thinking about how sweet this summer is going to be, do yourself a favor and just take a few minutes and think about all the men and women who put themselves in harms way and ultimately may have given their lives so that we can enjoy our freedoms.