I’m a week or so away from completing the young adult non-fiction book on the Bataan Death March and I’m taking a hard look at my schedule to see what will take its place.Right now, I have several book proposals out and keep hoping one of them gets approved. One, a media tie-in pitch with a collaborator, got turned down finally by the publisher. My partner and I spent a weekend up turning it into something new and now it’s ours to pitch wherever we want. An editor at one house is already looking at it and if he passes, an editor at a second house has expressed interest.A different media tie-in pitch got turned down by one publisher last week so I need to figure out where to try next and fortunately, I have some options with this one.Meantime, I keep lobbying an editor for a project he has to assign and just hasn’t made up his mind. I keep crossing my fingers for this to come through since it’ll be fun but it’s entirely out of my hands.On the other hand, there’s a long-gestating project with two pals that keeps not getting finished. The friend who promised to finish the pitch should be done soon and then we can see who might be interested and fortunately, it’s original so our options are many.Fortunately, while all of this stuff churns about, I have enough to keep busy for now. The daily web comics strip Heroes Happen Here continue at a frenetic pace. The challenge here is the constant need for new artists to satisfy Microsoft’s request that we set the story in different countries using native talent. Know any artists in Russia, China, or India?The web writing also keeps me going including a project I hope to speak about soon. All in all, I am filling my hours with paying work while beating the bushes for the elusive Next Great Assignment.
I’ve got the book to work on before I get back to you-know-what…
“The challenge here is the constant need for new artists to satisfy Microsoft’s request that we set the story in different countries using native talent. Know any artists in Russia, China, or India?”That’s the single most outrageous spec I have ever heard for a comic strip.See if you can rassel up a few artists from the Sixth Dimension while you are at it. Or from another species, would be good. Or you might consider reversing the polarity of the proton flow, in order to dig up a few artists who travel backwards in time. Those guys are about to become hot (or already were, depending on your viewpoint).On the other hand, Axel used to have that stable of eastern European artists. I wonder if he could fix you up, or point you to a resource, anyway.
I would expect that it would be very difficult to set the correct tone in a young adult book on the Bataan Death March – probably even more so than verifying the historic details. A very close friend’s brother was one of the POWs on the march, and it permanently ruined his health. Apparently the tallest prisoners were singled out for additional beatings along the initial march, and he stood more than 6’3″. I would have treasured being able to talk about his experiences, but he died in the late 1960s. He was a really nice man.
My son is 12 and he’s a world war two buff alreay. Hard to find him suitable material for that age for this subject. Hope I can find you on a book tour, I’ll look forward to reading your book.