Hello from out here on the Thames Delta, where I am very, very tired. Two weeks behind on everything thanks to The Medieval Bug From Some Fucking Plague Pit In London.

I need to change up my approach to this newsletter a bit - see below. It's fine when it's a regular week, but when I'm coughing up my lungs and then rinsing them under the tap to get the snot and cat hair off them, not so much.

So this is, I'm afraid, another half-an-edition. Bear with me.

FEBRUARY 15. The first issue of THE WILD STORM by myself and Jon Davis-Hunt.

There was a drop-in promotional pamphlet in DC comics last week.

As Jon powers through the first six issues of THE WILD STORM, I've been developing the second book in the line, MICHAEL CRAY. I start writing the next six issues of THE WILD STORM in about six weeks.

I believe there's going to be an interview with me about WILD STORM on Vulture sometime next week.

CASTLEVANIA

Inspired by the classic video game series, Castlevania is a dark medieval fantasy following the last surviving member of the disgraced Belmont clan, trying to save Eastern Europe from extinction at the hand of Vlad Dracula Tepes himself. The animated series is from Frederator Studios, a Wow! Unlimited Media company, written by best-selling author and comic book icon Warren Ellis and executive produced by Warren Ellis, Kevin Kolde, Fred Seibert and Adi Shankar.

(link)

That is the official Netflix press release. it is incomplete, but that's all there is for now, and I've been asked not to say more. So I can't say more about structure, tone, or the amazing voice cast we somehow managed to gather.

But my co-producer and diamond geezer Adi Shankar has said some more about it at this link here, giving additional details.

So... yeah. That's a thing that is happening. And by "happening" I mean we've been working on it for over a year so far.

It was codename PROJECT KRONSTADT.

I shared a train ride with a guy from the band Kronstadt Uprising once, years and years ago. They were from Southend too. I've only just remembered that. Huh.

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Me at North London Literary Festival, 16 March. They haven't updated the website with details yet, but if you're around that area at that time, it'd be great to see you.

Currently waiting on the announcement for one more thing in London.

I'm actually on the road a lot in March. I may miss the March 12 edition for that reason - I'm out of the country for a private conference. It may even be time to draft in some help.

I really like The Set Up and Lifehacker's How I Work sites, but I have questions that aren't always completely asked or addressed. I'm thinking of expanding the "three questions" section I asked of writers here. Ways to think about and produce work seems to me like an interesting thing to pursue, this year.

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I got rid of my Facebook account. I wanted to get rid of my Tumblr account, too, but the existence of a secondary shared blog seems to depend on it not being gotten rid of. Which is a pain. So I guess I'm still there, which I'm not thrilled about, even if the network seems about as vital and important as Ello these days. So if you're aware of anyone actually doing anything interesting on Tumblr, while I erase my archive there, let me know.

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"Art knows no borders. This site is building a collection of accounts by and of artists who have been stopped, questioned, harassed, or turned back at borders worldwide, or whose immigration or citizenship status has been used to threaten, intimidate, or curtail their practice."

http://www.artbordersproject.com

Natural-born US citizen, NASA scientist, detained at US airport and forced to give up (NASA JPL) phone.

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DREAM ARCHITECTURE by Crown of Eternity - bells, tones, fields of harmonic drone, beautiful backdrop work that also rewards deep listening.
A PINK SUNSET FOR NO ONE - wonderful new album by longtime favourite Noveller.

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I bought an Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet and a Sidecar clip and so now I have a tiny screen sticking out of the right of my laptop screen that is streaming Bloomberg News and this is probably very bad.

It's been a terrible week in technology because my little Tassimo machine died. And I'm afraid that, if you're me, a Tassimo is mission critical technology. Because this is how I wake up:

I read some of a book before sleep. If I'm lucky, I got eight hours sleep. If I'm very lucky, I got closer to nine, because I'm not a genius and I need my sleep. I've gone to sleep while dealing with memory load and probably still processing an idea or a work problem. I don't look at a phone screen within an hour of sleeping, but the phone is next to the bed, on airplane mode, with all notifications killed and the sound off.

I don't wake up gently. I stir a bit, and then the brain starts. I have no coordination and I'm practically blind but the brain has spun up. flying in all directions. I pick up the phone to first skim the overnight headlines, email headers and the tops of DMs, iMessages and app messages, to make sure everyone's still alive and that there's no immediate emergencies.

The phone gets taken off airplane mode as I shamble downstairs, grab the notebook, grab a laptop if it's summer (because I sit outside with my coffee but if it's 8C or less I'm not typing out there), and set Downcast to grab the overnight podcasts. Everything is already moving, but, remember, I'm still blurry-eyed and I have the coordination of a drunken chimp. It is a struggle for the ages just to get my earbuds in without injuring myself. Only coffee will right me.

Can you imagine me using a grinder, a kettle and an Aeropress in this condition? Or an espresso machine? Or anything? No.

I have a Tassimo machine for mornings. I put a ristretto disc in the thing and press a button and it makes me a drinkable ristretto. That's all I've got, first thing in the morning. And without it, I would just be found dead in the hallway. Those stories about people who own 12 copies of the same outfit so they don't have to waste braincycles on what to wear in the morning? The Tassimo is my version of that. Machine give coffee.

(If you are one of those people disposed to bitching at me for using a Tassimo machine for any of several good reasons - fuck you, come here and make my coffee for me.)

MORNING COMPUTER

I find I weirdly miss taking and posting daily weather photos. They felt like an archive of moments in-the-moment, as it were. Tempted to start posting them to morning.computer.

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Out of time! I have to finish a comics script and do a rewrite on an episode of season 2 of CASTLEVANIA (so much easier when you know who the actors are and you've worked with them before) and do an hour or two on a film treatment (unannounced, and it may stay that way!) and who knows maybe even get something to eat, so I'm rolling this up until next week, which will hopefully be a far more complete edition. Stick with me until then?

Hold on tight. Wild at heart and weird on top, but we know how to deal with that. Hold fast.

-- W