Counting down to the French Revelution and a Homecoming!

LES MISERABLES

A publicity still for Les Miserables.

Tomorrow night, Les Miserables opens to the public by  Theatre Bristol at The Paramount Center for the Arts in Bristol, TN. Xander (pictured at right holding the flag) has been putting in a lot of late nights getting ready for his role as Gavroche. He is sharing the role with another actor. Xander gets Friday night and Sunday matinee performances while Zaiah Gray performs the role for tonight's Gala Fundraising event and Saturday night shows. My wife has the soundtrack on CD and once he heard a kid performing a solo he declared, "If there is ever a performance nearby, I have to try out." He did and he got it. I knew he was serious when he found out taking the role would mean taking his name out of consideration for baseball All-Stars. He made the team last year and this year he not only improved his batting average by over 200 points but emerged as the most accurate pitcher on the team registering the lowest percentage of walks among our pitchers. It was a big shock that my little catcher spent more time on the mound than behind the plate. Xander has been involved with troupe at his school and performed last year at Lamplight Theatre's production of "G.L.O.W.: Go Light Our World" so he is no novice to the stage but Theatre Bristol is really stepping up to put on such an ambitious show. Even when he is not there he is constantly singing tunes from the Boublil & Schonberg epic. It's good that it came around when it did, since his first chance to play the role will likely be his last as I have noticed his voice starting to deepen. I hope anyone who comes enjoys the performance as much as he has been enjoying the preparation. He really loves the role, and he should. How many roles are there for kids where they get a solo and (warning: spoiler ahead) a death scene? If you are in the area and have an itch that only a three hour epic musical about the French Revolution can scratch, you can find out more about the showtimes and purchase tickets at www.theparamountcenter.com.


ROB-CON

I'll be making my third appearance at Rob-Con this year August 1st and 2nd at Viking Hall in Bristol, TN. Rob-Con is like a homecoming for me. I made my first personal appearance there and debuted my Convention Exclusive of Jigsaw World (the black and while mature readers edition) as well as the first print copy of Adventures in Pulp #1 (featuring Dick Ruby and the Case of the Little Green Men and Hawk and A Handsaw). This year my illustrator, Matthew Childers, and I were hoping to have the collected edition of Adventures in Pulp available but alas we are still a couple of weeks away from wrapping our final short story Ashes of the Immortals, and have not even started the Kickstarter funding. With a month to go we MIGHT be able to get Adventures in Pulp #2 back from the printers in time to have it available (it will feature The Four Horsemen and Ashes of the Immortals) as well as a full color final-edit edition of Jigsaw World #1. It will be close but I REALLY hope we can get it done. I'll probably be sitting in on several panels. I have been invited to attend a writers panel and possibly a self publishing panel as well as Matt Shaffer's Comic Book Movie panel. Robert Pilk puts on a great show and this year it will be expanding to two days. I'm glad it's going well for him. He is the owner of one of the first comic shops in the area (Mountain Empire Comics) and I got most of my books there as a kid and still get pay a visit every week picking up books for myself and my son. So he really is a multi-generational dealer in the arts and family entertainment. I hope I can make a few announcements by then, but we will see.  Nothing is for sure in the entertainment business until you put a signature on a page. If you are at the show, please come by and say "hi," especially if you are an artist. While Matt is a talented guy, he has a full plate and I am always looking for other artists to partner with on submissions to the major and minor publishers. In fact, don't feel you have to wait until the convention e-mail me or contact me via twitter @BrettTHarris.

Phoenix from the Ashes (or Collected Edition from the Web Series)

A mock up of our collected edition by AIP Illustrator Matthew Childers.

We just have a few more pages of Ashes of the Immortals before that short story wraps at Adventures in Pulp. It will be the fourth and final short story that was originally planned for the site. Once it wraps, we will be launching a Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of a collected edition. We are still working out the details but if you go to the homepage for www.adventuresinpulp.com you can sign up for e-mail notification for an advance viewing of our extras and goals. As writer and creator of the stories, I have loved doing these tales. I would love to continue. I have both a short story as well as a full length tale set in the Hawk and a Handsaw universe that I would love to tell, three more chapters to Jigsaw World to complete that series' initial story arc, and about 22 story ideas to continue the case files of Dick Ruby. (I would love to spin Dick Ruby off into his own ongoing series). But truthfully things are up in the air in terms of the future. You can make the difference. Go vote in our favorite character poll.  Leave comments on the site and follow Adventures in Pulp on twitter@adventureinpulp (no s in adventure) or you can follow me @BrettTHarris.I always love hearing from fans so please reach out. I won't bite (unless I haven't been feed).

From Grappling on the Mats to Diamond Thief to Treading the Boards

The pace of life never really slows down. Especially if you have kids. The older Xander gets, the busier he he seems to get. Wrestling. Baseball. Theater. Some days I feel like I need an assistant to keep HIS schedule straight.

Yup, that's me going for my second District title waaaaay back in '91.

Xander ended his first season of wrestling last month. He alternated between 70lbs. and 75lbs. weight classes, and did okay for a rookie. When he stepped on the the mat he alternated from looking impressive to looking lost. He ended the season with an 11-20 record. As a hard core wrestler myself I was proud to see him out there. I don't think there is anything to compare with it in terms of pressure, physicality and toughness. No matter what you do, if you walk into a wrestling room at the beginning of the season and walk out at the end, regardless of your record, you are better. Not just better athletically, but emotionally. Taking an ass kicking daily, will toughen you up inside and out. It's a sport where you are constantly pushing yourself beyond what you thought you could do. I think the only thing that could be harder would be military training. I'm the first to admit I'm tough on Xander when he messes up, and I hold very high expectations of him. Conversely, I cheer the loudest when he does well and am first to step up for him when he is getting the shaft. Too many kids today are coddled, but conversely too many kids have zero support systems. As typical Americans we seem to swing from one extreme to the other. But I digress...

Xander going for 3rd at the Bristol Brawl Jan. 4th.

Xander. Wrestling. He started the duel meet part of the season with a rough 1-6 record but then went into tournament part season earning one 4th place, four 3rd place wins, two 2nd place finishes, and took the Gold in two tournaments. Considering some kids are starting in kindergarten these days. I was impressed with how hard he wanted to work and how well he ended up. One of the dads at the first practice was, ironically, the Varsity team captain of my high school team the first year I wrestled back in middle school. He gave me good advice: "Relax when they lose. Any kid who wins more than he loses his first year, is wrestling the wrong kids." He was right,  but sometimes it was just hard to watch.

After wrestling, Xander went straight into Baseball, returning to last year's team. I helped out as an assistant coach last year but was asked to take over as the manager this year because the previous manager had one of those work schedules that just made it too difficult for him to be there. I jumped at it because I had gotten so frustrated with seeing kids who struggled get left behind to play only in the outfield and/or sit the bench. Everybody plays and everybody sits out on our team. Every kid rotates into the infield. Sure the more advanced kids will play regularly at the more difficult positions. Everyone will play or learn at least 3-5 positions by the end of the season. Sure, it will make us less competitive but in the long run, the kids will learn more and have more fun. But again, I digress...

Xander just before his CF RBI double in the April 11th season opener.

Xander. Baseball. He is off to a fantastic start. Four games in and he has 1 double, 3 singles and 3 walks with his only non-hit being a ground out to first in game 3. He is already 16 for 17 in stolen bases. He played the season opener behind the plate where he got one third of our outs nailing runners attempting to steal. Game 2 he got his very first start as pitcher. I was stunned at how well he did. I have always said he is a far superior catcher than a pitcher. He has accuracy but not power. It can very easily become batting practice for the other team when he's on the mound. He pitched 3 2/3 innings before hitting the pitch limit of 75 pitches. He got a no-decision because it was 5-5 when he came off the mound. In that time he only walked 3 batters, struck out 7 batters and only gave up 5 hits. It was an amazing start. In Game 3 he played first base where it seemed the opposition were all hitting the ball (lefties and late swings) right at him allowing him to get 4 outs on his own including a double play where he caught a pop-up and nailed a runner before they could get back to 2B. Game 4 he started at Short Stop but ended up pitching 2 and 2/3 of relief. Unfortunately it was not as strong as his first outing to say the least. He gave up 12 hits, walked 7 and struck out 2, which is closer to what I expected. Sadly, we are pretty weak in the pitching department so my little catcher may be one of our main pitchers much to the delight of several other team managers I am sure.

Sadly he is going to miss Game 5. Practice starts on Theatre Bristol's production of Les Miserables. which bring us to...

The first cast meeting of Les Miserables. (Xander is in black on the left).

Xander. Theatre. Ever since he first saw Les Miserables, he has wanted to play the role of Gavroche. What kid wouldn't, he gets a solo and (spoiler alert!) a death scene. When we heard Theatre Bristol was going to have a performance right in our own backyard, we knew we could not stand in his way. Considering his voice is starting to deepen, we knew it would in fact be his first chance to play the character would be his last chance. Even now we are starting to worry since he is occasionally sounding like Peter on that episode of Brady Bunch when he tries to hit the high notes. He will be sharing the role with another child (common practice to double cast kids roles). He's excited. right now it appears he will have the opening night performance. We have OUR tickets.

So it was a busy winter that turned into a busy spring and will undoubtedly morph into a busy summer, I'm not even touching on all his school related activities like safety patrol, troupe performances, and the school news/weather broadcasts. At least in the summer he won't have to worry about keeping that straight "A" average he manages. That's the really impressive part. But he is an impressive kid.

He just needs a personal assistant to keep up with it all.

RIP Leonard Nimoy: The Humanity Behind Our Favorite Alien

Leonard plays a death scene over three decades before his actual passing.

It's been almost two months since the passing of Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy and I've been contemplative. I have thought a lot about what is so appealing about the actor beyond the character that made him famous: Mr. Spock. I'll confess much like the character of Mr. Spock himself, I'm conflicted. My emotional side and my logical side are having a tug of war. My emotional side is very bummed that Leonard is gone. I was only in the same room with him a single time (along with a throng of giddy Trekkers) so do I have the right to be so familiar as to call him Leonard? You betcha, I invited that man into my home hundreds of times every time I fired up my TV, VCR or DVD player, so I'm going with Leonard. Anyhow, watching the multitudes morn seems kind of silly. Illogical if you will. Leonard lived a long life, passing less than a month before his 84th birthday. He was healthy enough to work and make personal appearances through 2014. He had a successful career both in front and behind the camera, and created a character that is so iconic that he will be remembered generations from now even when other aspects of 20th century pop culture have long been forgotten. He was wealthy, loved, respected and by all accounts happy in his later years. Life was pretty good to Leonard.

But...

I miss him. The idea that he will not be in the next Star Trek film due out for the 50th anniversary in 2016... makes me... illogically sad. The idea that he will never make the movie about conjoined twins Chang and Ing Bunker makes me sad. The idea that he won't again challenge traditional views as he did with his photography makes me sad.

The man behind the ears: Actor, director, photographer & poet.

 There is probably a little placing of the actor on a pedestal because of the devotion and love his character inspired. Leonard was not perfect. There were reports that he fought with producers of Star Trek, even being so narcissistic as to think that Mr. Spock was the central character. Spock was clearly the break out character because he was so identified with by fans. His character along with Dr. McCoy served as emotional and intellectual counterbalances. Ying and Yang. Logic and emotion. The two characters illustrated the conflict within the main character (Kirk). He was important, instrumental and necessary, but not the main character. He initially shunned his fans, because of typecasting going so far as to write a book condescendingly called I'm Not Spock. He clearly resented the character and felt it hurt his career, and only returned for a big payday (Star Trek: The Motion Picture) and again later for the opportunity to put the character away by killing him off (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn). He would allow the resurrection of the character only for the opportunity to direct (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock). By all rights he should be hated by Trekkers.

Except...

When the Star Trek animated series was on he refused to participate unless George Takei and Nichelle Nichols participated. He realized the ethnic diversity was important to the show and the ideals of Star Trek. He was ready to let a payday slide by if the project didn't live up to it's own ideals. He ensured his co-stars who didn't get big paydays in the early movies got equal pay in the latter films. He would again push the ideals of Star Trek when he directed his second feature by promoting an ecological message (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) and pushed a allegorical tale for the final film of the original franchise when executive produced Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. It wasn't until Star Trek star William Shatner published his autobiography Up Till Now was anyone aware of how much Leonard tried to help Shatner's late wife deal with her alcoholism. His philanthropy is now well known but was not overtly advertised for public relations purposes.  Only years after the fact did it trickle out that he gave to charity, provided grants, and contributed to restoration projects. Who could hate a man like that?

So, I guess what I'm saying is that Leonard wasn't perfect; he was self centered one day and self sacrificing the next.  In other words, he was a perfect example of a human being: flawed. To his credit he never stopped striving to improve and do better. In the process, he left a legacy steeped in the arts and humanitarianism and that's more than most of us get to do.

It's illogical to be sad, yet I am, because part of the appeal of Leonard Nimoy was that we identified with his personal flaws and admired his striving to overcome them.

Personal Appearance: Marble City ComiCon in Knoxville, TN

My Adventures In Pulp partner Matthew Childers, has been burning up the comic book convention circuit of late. I'll confess it's a little harder for me. Xander is older and therefore and I'm trying to be as involved as I can before he gets too old for me and moves on to middle and high school, which means my weekends are packed with wrestling matches, baseball games, play performances, etc. There are other considerations as well. As a writer, when we sell issues of Adventures in Pulp, those are a break even situation where we hope we can recoup the cost of printing and hopefully have some copies left over to give away to editors and publishers. I'm not a Grant Morrison or Mark Waid. The super stars may get paid to appear or at the least get accommodations and travel taken care of. I'm no where near that level, so any appearance I make comes out of pocket. On the flip side Matt can do commissions, sell prints, or sketches and he can break even on his hotel, food and gas. In fact, if the show goes real well, he might even have a little extra for his pocket.

I shoulda learned to draw. But it is what it is. Sometimes self promotion costs a little.

Matt asked if I wanted to join him for Marble City ComiCon in Knoxville, TN.  The timing is right in the heart of baseball season, so I told him that I probably would not be able to make it. I never gave it another thought until one day I was on twitter and saw the con mentioned. Ironically, I was going to ask Matt if he was free for dinner. We used to go out pretty regularly, but it was such a busy winter with Xander's wrestling, we never seemed to be able to work out a definite time. With the exception of ETSUCon back in February, Matt and I have not been in the same room since before the holidays. So I asked if he was going to the Con over the weekend and he told me that it was the following weekend on April 25 & 26th.

My heart skipped a beat. It's rare when things work out. April 25th was the ONLY Saturday for the 3 months of baseball season that Xander didn't have practice or a game. Serendipity steal my heart. So it looks like I will join Matt in Knoxville on the 25th. Please come by and say "hi." We will be at table #701.

To find out details on the convention go to: www.marblecitycomicon.com

Don't forget to check Adventures In Pulp. We are up to Page 8 on our current short story ASHES OF THE IMMORTALS over at www.adventuresinpulp.com.

You know, now that I think about it, I got distracted by the confusion over the dates and never did ask Matt about dinner...

Opening Up a New Venue...

Just a few quick notes. 

My comic book work over at www.adventuresinpulp.com is going to expand over to www.comixology.com. Starting today you can purchase a digital copy of our story, HAWK AND A HANDSAW, as the first issue of ADVENTURES IN PULP PRESENTS at this link: http://bit.ly/1MADC8C. Since it is only a 13 page story, the cost is really low (only $0.99). We still have a few first printings of our hard copy flip book (which also features DICK RUBY AND THE CASE OF THE LITTLE GREEN MEN) available at our site store.

Also, we have a poll up on the site. This time we are voting for favorite ADVENTURES IN PULP character. In our last poll for favorite story, JIGSAW WORLD won with a staggering 40% of the vote, which shows that readers either like more traditional long form stories or like most "Doctor Who" polls the current doctor always gets an unfair bump.

We may do it again after the current story, ASHES OF THE IMMORTALS, wraps.

Mother Nature is a Harsh Mistress (aka The Saturday Schedule that would Never Stabilize)

Xander wrestling for 3rd place 1/4/2015.

This time last week, we were planning on spending Saturday in Johnson City, TN attending Xander's Regional Wrestling Tournament. Sadly, it conflicted with ETSU-Con, ironically also in Johnson City. Illustrator extraordinaire and my www.adventuresinpulp.com partner in crime, Matthew Childers, found out about the convention at ETSU fairly late but managed to get us a table but, alas, seeing my beginner wrestler get clobbered took priority over a little shameless self promotion. 

So the schedule was set. Finito. Stone. Until...

Immovable object, meet unstoppable force. Mother Nature struck. Hard.

Xander outside today.

Schools were out all week, wrestling practices were altered, and finally on Thursday the Regional Tournament was cancelled. Hello ETSU-Con, welcome to the world of shameless self promotion. I became giddy at the idea of inflicting, er, I mean introducing Adventures in Pulp to Johnson City, particularly the college kids. So last night Matt and I had our plan set but apparently, Mother Nature has keen hearing and decided that we cannot have a schedule set, not this weekend. "Not on my watch," she laughed as she dumped more snow in the already frozen, ice covered roads.

When I saw how much it had snowed and how hard it was coming down, I was ready to toss in the towel. Matt was on the fence, we decided to play it by ear. The forecast looked good. Maybe we can just be late?

So the con is underway and I am sitting here pounding out a blog entry. Matt just called and is going to try to brave it. The snow has tapered off and is just about to let up. It looks like the temperature is rising. I might be able to make it as well. Better late than never.

Just don't tell Mother Nature, I think she has it in for me today.