Life has been exceedingly busy and I had no idea how much of it would kick off over the last 48 hours.On Monday, I reported for the first of my four days of curriculum writing. I’m part of the English elective team, paired with an experienced teacher to draft the framework, overview, and performance based assessments for Creative Writing. There are some 500 teachers from Baltimore County across all disciplines stuffing Towson High School’s classrooms and it’s nice to see a few familiar faces, meeting even more. My partner and I have found common ground and have been zipping through the work.Also on Monday my first two grad classes have begun. One is far more rigorous than the other and is making me work hard. Thankfully, the other one is more of what I expected and can help balance out the overall workload. With the readings done on advance I can focus on the online discussions and the papers. In fact, last night, I sent in my first two papers, working ahead considering my schedule the next few weeks.The other side of my life has also seen an uptick in activity. No sooner did I submit “Making a Difference” on Sunday, than the Kickstarter campaign for eSpec Books’ The Side of Good/The Side of Evil was launched. What makes this project fun is that my editor, Danielle Ackley-McPhail is making this an old-fashioned flipbook so you have good on one side and evil on the other. I am being joined in this entertaining endeavor by fellow Crazy 8 Press cofounders Aaron Rosenberg and Peter. Also in the book will be Kathleen David, James M. Ward, Bryan J.L. Glass, James Chambers, John L. French, Gail Z. Martin, Walt Ciechanowski, Janine Spendlove, Neal Levin, and last, but far from least, Keith DeCandido.
Late in 2014, Norm Breyfogle suffered a stroke and like so many freelancers, did not have adequate medical insurance so is facing monumental bills. There has been on GoFundMe campaign to help offset those costs, but as Norm rehabs, the medical bills continue to arrive. In January, Mike Gold, Martha Thomases, and Glenn Hauman, the force behind ComicMix, began thinking we should do a benefit book for Norm. I was asked to help coordinate the effort as well as contribute a story. After several false starts and technical difficulties, the Indiegogo campaign also launched this week. The book will contain the first ever reprints of Norm’s Whisper stories, created back in the 1980s for First Comics with writer Steven Grant. A number of original works are being created for this book including stories from Thomases & Richard Case, Mike Friedrich & Lee Marrs, Alan Grant & NAME, and my tale, my first collaboration with Tom Lyle since we worked together on Starman and Total Recall.I’ll be chatting more about the above in the coming weeks, using this space as a creative breather from the academic workload.