chris . word

I don’t know about you, but many times when I’m writing a story, a script or something else that calls for a particular character to have a name (which happens frequently — characters need names after all), I sometimes get stuck on what name to use. Fortunately, through the miracle of modern technology, this problem is now a thing of the past.

Behold, the random name generator. Refresh a few times to get the name you want and then use it for all its worth. While we’re on the subject of writing, here’s a few other cool writing-related sites (and sites maintained by writers I like) that I sometimes use for inspiration, knowledge and/or to steal ideas from (No, not actual story ideas. More ‘how’ rather than ‘what’).

In fact, I actually ‘borrowed’ some of these links from fellow writer and all-around-nice-guy (aka ‘non-dick’) Wil Wheaton. Turns out we have similar tastes in writing resources. Who knew?

Jane Espenson

Mark Verheiden

Mark Millar

Garth Ennis

Warren Ellis

4 Must-Read Books for Aspiring Writers

Some Very Helpful Grammar Lessons

And, seeing as we happen to still be on the subject of writing, one of my comic books is inching dangerously close to actually getting art to go along with its wonderfully realized prose — which also means its inching closer to publication too. For now, that’s all I can say. Still, this is very good time for me and may lead to an even better time soon. But as they say in the news biz “More on that story as it develops.”

In other words, I’ll let you know as soon as I know.

When sitting down to write a blog post, sometimes its kinda difficult to think of something to write about. As most of my writing these days is about things I really like, that leaves fewer of those things to talk about here at my own blog.

So, rather than bore you with a lot of nonsense and try to fill, vamp or otherwise make stuff up, I’m just going to plug some of the articles I’ve done recently at other sites to which I contrbute. So, without further to do, here goes:

Dark Horse Comics Editor Scott Allie talks about Serenity, Buffy, Joss Whedon, Mike Mignola and potential new Serenity comics (pitched by yours truly).

Writer Brandon Jerwa talks about his comic book: Battlestar Galactica: Season Zero

Also, here’s a couple photo galleries from the recent Wizard World show in Los Angeles:

People, Places, Events

Costumes

Speaking of conventions, I’ll be heading to New York mid-April for the New York Comic Con, which takes place April 18-20 at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC. If you happen to be attending, be sure to say hello if you see me. And, if you happen to be a comics pro looking to plug any of your upcoming projects, feel free to contact me as I am in the process of scheduling interviews during the show.

Last, but not least, the search for an artist to collaborate on my two comic book projects is almost over. I’ve narrowed it down to the final ten and will be doing some interviews next week in LA and perhaps one or two in NYC following.

Then, I’ll make the selection and that lucky person will be able to get to work helping me create some very cool comics. More on that as it develops. Meantime, have fun watching these New York Comic Con videos.

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Sometimes in my travels I come across cool things and want to share them. Here’s an example of that:

These panels were part of the ‘Mondo Marvel’ presentation at Wizard World LA this weekend — which even though it was pretty small was still a great time. I attended the panel for ComicMix and was pretty impressed with this Thor artwork by Patrick Zircher. This guy rocks and I think will have along career in comics.

I also got a chance to interview a bunch of other cool people at WWLA including another artist whose work I like very much: Jacen Burrows. That interview is already up over at ComicMix. Here’s a couple of things from him including a page from 303, which he did with Garth Ennis, and a Blackgas cover, a book he did with Warren Ellis:

I also had a chance to talk with X-Force and Dark Tower writer Peter David, Battlestar Galactica Co-Executive Producer Mark Verheiden and superstar screenwriter Zak Penn. Look for those articles soon.

You know, its pretty cool to work in the business I work in. This writing thing is pretty darn fun.

I’ll be at Wizard World LA this weekend checking thing out, doing interviews with some cool people and generally getting into trouble. So, if you happen to be going yourself, feel free to say “hello” if you see me. Or, look for me on Twitter @chrisu.

I’ll be hitting the show floor and visiting a few panels in particular. Among the panels I’m most interested in are the Marvel Ultimates panel, Mondo Marvel, DC Nation, X-Men, anything Indiana Jones and Star Wars related, the Screenwriters panel on Saturday and anything else that seems interesting, unusual or worth a look.

Also, during the show I’ll be interviewing some cool writers, artists and other creatives, mostly for Comicmix, so stay tuned for those to show up during and after the show. Its gonna be pretty fun.

In other news, I recently went back home to Encinitas for a few days to help Mom look through some stuff. Mostly boxes that were stored in the various places my father used to keep things that I asked him to hold onto for me.

While going through some of this stuff, I was thrilled to discover some of my old comics that I thought were gone long ago. It was great to see them again and think back to a simpler time when I was a kid and first started reading the adventures of Captain America, Green Lantern, Superman and Spider-Man.

Finding these comics was also great because some of them featured the work of one of my favorite artists of all time: Jack “King” Kirby. The ones I liked the most were for Kirby’s Captain America “Mad Bomb” story, starting with issue #193 and leading up to Caps’ 200th issue.

I’ve since brought all those recovered gems back with me to LA and they are currently enjoying a place of honor, complete with new bags and boards, in my current collection. Seeing the old and new comics together really shows how far comics have come in terms of print quality and presentation.

However, that doesn’t take away anything from my older “classic” comics at all. In spite of their age and less-advanced printing and presentation, they’re still a great read and the art still packs as much of a punch as it ever did.

Why says newer is always better?

Even though its not practical at all, I really want one of these. Why? ‘Cause its cool. Anyone care to order one for me as a gift? I don’t mind, really. I like gifts.

On another note, I’ve been working quite a bit at ComicMix this week trying to help raise the page views by having more regular content. So, if you get a minute (or ten) be sure to click on over and browse as many of the articles as you can.

In fact, if you really want to help out, try reading and then commenting on a few. That would be nice. If you do that, you don’t have to get me a Han Solo desk.

Sounds fair, right?

I remember not too long ago when I was complaining (at least a tiny bit and mostly to myself) that I was doing something I really didn’t love rather than something I do love. The thing I love is, of course, writing. I wasn’t doing enough of it to make me very happy.

Of course, other events have transpired to interrupt the flow of words from my somewhat feeble brain, through my fingers, out to the keyboard and then up to WordPress and this blog. But even with all the interruptions, I wanted to write more — and, if possible, get paid for it in the process.

Cut to (as they say in “the biz”) today and I pretty much have the exact opposite problem I used to have. Now I have too much writing work. At the moment, there are several sites to which I currently contribute, used to contribute and they want me back or are about to contribute. There’s even one I can’t even talk about yet which looks to be even bigger than the rest.

Of course, this is also the time when I’m doing a lot more Mac consulting than I was before so that kinda gets in the way of writing too. Although, consulting pays way better (at least for the moment) then writing does. I’m trying to limit my consulting to mostly worthy causes like favorite non-profits or schools but still, that takes time and that’s time away from writing.

Really, I think something has got to give and at the moment I’m leaning towards the Mac stuff being the time consuming item that may get the “Spanish Archer” as my friend used to say. In other words, it might have to go. Or, at the very least, be far more limited. After all, I really think that in this life, given the pretty much unknown duration of it we have, you should try to do things you love rather than things you don’t.

Really, I feel like I shouldn’t complain too hard at this situation as it could be far worse and is for many people. I’m lucky that people have decided that I’m good at a couple new things. In the past, I’ve pretty much only been good at making movies, producing other shows and getting into trouble.

But now, I can add writing to the list of things I can do. I’m not saying I’m great at it but I think I can string a sentence together without too much trouble. Who knows, maybe this new writing gig (once it starts) will end up being the one that takes me to the next level — whatever that might be? I guess anything is possible but to have the possiblity is a great feeling and one I would like to have more often.

I’ll see what I can do about that.

No, I’m not really that important — although I would like to think so. I do, however, have a bit of new news. As of this week I will now be writing for yet another highly regarded and popular tech-related website. In addition to the usual place my words show up (TUAW, CBR, Cinematical) I will also now be contributing to the site Download Squad as well.

This new site covers all thing software and related and should prove a very interesting and rewarding time for me. After all, I love me some tech so it seems only natural I would start contributing to yet another site devoted to it. Fortunately, the bosses at Weblogs/AOL (particularly Victor Agreda, Jr. and Grant Robertson) saw fit to throw me a bone and let me join up. I wonder what took them so long?

I’ll be going up to San Francisco on Sunday to cover the big Macworld Expo gathering of the faithful all week for TUAW (thank you TUAW parent company AOL for sending me). Consequently, I’ll be posting here less next week.

However, if you just can’t get enough of me, check out the multiple ways in which you can keep up with my adventures, and those of my TUAW colleges, at Macworld as we bring you all the exciting news and info this year.

Here’s some of the best ways:

The Unofficial Apple Weblog Website

Posts Tagged with the Macworld Tag at the TUAW Website

Our TUAW Twitter Feed (you do Twitter, don’t you?)

Our TUAW Macworld RSS Feed

My TUAW Articles – Stuff just from me (the best part, of course)

And, my Twitter feed is right there to the right so I will be posting to it as much as I can.

That a pretty good start. If you can’t get enough Macworld info using these various methods, you’re not trying hard enough. Also, be sure to check out our predictions of what Steve Jobs will announce at this year’s keynote. There’s some good ones there and if even half of them come true, it should make for an exciting keynote not to be missed.

And, if you are attending Macworld this year, be sure to say hello. We’ll be the ones running around shooting video, taking photos, interviewing celebs and booth babes and loving every minute of the Macworld experience.

See you in San Francisco.

Man, what a week. Going to the Comic-Con is like running a marathon. I’m pretty beat (and beat-up) but I did manage to get quite a bit of stuff written while at the Con, meet some great people and have a good time during those rare moments when I wasn’t running around or pushing my way into this panel or that one. If you’ve got some time on your hands, head on over to Cinematical or Comic Book Resources and check out the Comic-Con coverage. There’s a crap load of it.

One of the best things about the Con for me was getting to spend more time with people that I only talk to on the phone or via email. I also get to meet a couple people in person that I’ve never met before. That was very cool and may lead to other opportunities for me, which is always a good thing. Another major highlight for me was getting the chance to meet and interview one of the head honchos of one of my favorite TV shows of all time: Battlestar Galactica.

I spent some time speaking to Mr. Mark Verheiden, Co-Exec. Producer of Battlestar, about the show, his movie projects and a bunch of other stuff. He was a very nice guy and talked as openly as he could about things. All and all a pleasant experience and one that I would like to repeat again sometime. It was that fun. That interview is up over at CBR now. Right here.

Other than that, there were the obligatory celebrity sightings like Jessica Alba, Robert Downey, Jr. and Ali Larter from the TV show Heroes (who looked smashing, btw). Although, as I live and work in LA and see celebs pretty regularly at my local Starbucks, walking their dogs in the park or eating at local restaurants, that part was less interesting to me than some other things.

If I lived in Minnesota or somewhere like that I would probably be much more excited. Although, seeing Ali Larter and shaking Stan Lee’s hand was pretty darn cool. I’ll come back later with some more info, but in the meantime go to the other sites cause we need the hits. Thanks.

While I was looking for something else I found this picture. That’s all. You can go about your business now. Happy Sunday.