First of all, Happy Canada Day to all my fellow Canucks. I will be celebrating with the wife in the only way I know how: beer-battered fish and chips at the Ward Street Grill in Bridgenorth. I like that name for a town, Bridgenorth. It’s very Canadian-sounding. You know, because all we have up here in the north country are trees and bridges and moose and beaver and roaming camera crews filming beer commercials and “Hinterland Who’s Who” documentary segments. And the air is filled with the sound of The Tragically Hip, Anne Murray, 54-40, Blue Rodeo, and Rush. The smell of that air is donuts, beer, bacon, and maple syrup. You call it Canada. I call it… well, Canada, but I also call it home.

Speaking of trees, I will take this moment to tell you about today’s launch of a very unusual project I’ve been considering for a long time. Those of you who know me, or at least this website, will recall that I’m something of an artist, and that I have, in my time, published a few comic strips. The reason I’m not currently producing one is that I don’t have the time. Simple as that. I still write down the ideas, with the hope that one day, if I ever write full time, this would free up a few hours in which I could pursue some of these side projects.

Anyway, since I don’t have time to write and draw a comic strip, I’ve decided to try something a little different. Among my favourite comic strips over the years, I’ve always enjoyed the concept of the “constrained format” strip, which may be best known in David Lynch’s The Angriest Dog in the World. These are comics that use the same artwork for each strip, changing only the text. It’s perhaps not the most exciting type of strip, and it’s not for everyone, but right now it’s the only kind of comic I can produce on a regular basis. I also like the challenge of the format. I think it requires a bit more creativity than the other comics I’ve produced in the past.

The comic strip is called “Blackwood.” What’s it about? Well, that’s the hard part. The artsy answer would be: “Blackwood” is an existential constrained-format comic strip about trees. The not-so-artsy answer is that it’s a record of voices heard talking in a haunted forest called Blackwood. As I said, it’s not going to be for everyone. This isn’t Calvin & Hobbes or The Far Side. It’s dark, it’s weird, it’s experimental. And I would be remiss not to mention two Canadian strips that have inspired me, both kind of experimental in their own constrained, or at least semi-constrained, formats. Peter Darbyshire’s Shrapnel and Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics.

“Blackwood” will be updated weekly, sometimes bi-weekly, depending on my writing schedule.

Also, I’ve posted my video review of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which I think marks my first negative review, and BIFF BAM POP! has my review of Johnny Gruesome, by Gregory Lamberson, which is the polar opposite of Transformers in that it is quite excellent and I recommend it to everyone.

Okay, that’s it, folks. Read, watch, and be merry. I’m off to eat, drink, and be Canadian.

See you on the flip-flop.

• Currently reading: The Wheelman, by Duane Swierczynski

Video proof that my cat has been helping me write my novel. Also, a new photoblog and some new novel-revealing tweets.

• Currently reading: It's Only Temporary, by Eric Shapiro

If it’s good enough for Douglas Coupland and William Gibson, then it’s good enough for me. Ian Rogers is now on Twitter.

I am joining a league of writers who have said they would never join Twitter but who eventually signed up, much for the same reason I did. Namely that I like to use this blog to report news and publishing information and generally promote myself, but I also like to talk about movies, photography, and the latest adventures of my cat. The latter content seems more suited to Twitter, which means I can keep this website focused on my writing career.

You can follow my tweets via Twitter, or you can read them in the handy container to the right of this blog titled “Tweets from the Dark Side” (LJ and Facebook friends will have to visit my actual website at ian-rogers.com/journal to see what I’m talking about).

Monica Kuebler, editor-in-chief of Burning Effigy Press, which will be releasing my chapbook Temporary Monsters later this year, was interviewed on the eve of this year’s Bram Stoker Awards.

Also, Andrew Burns, my editor at BIFF BAM POP!, conducted an interview with comics legend Chris Claremont that has got me wanting to dig up my old issues of The Uncanny X-Men. Part 1 and Part 2 are already posted, and Part 3 should be online soon.

Some other quick news and thoughts:

The novel is coming along well. I cracked the 20,000-word mark a couple of weeks back. I’m not much into monitoring my metrics anymore, but I know that much. The work continues strong and steady. I feel this is going to be a really great book. By which I mean, the idea still amuses me, I’m still having fun writing it, and I still think I have a pretty good chance of selling it.

My new DVD pick is the 2-disc extended cut of Taken, starring Liam Neeson, which is as great as everyone says. Simple premise carried entirely by a great actor and some serious kick-ass action. Highly recommended.

My “classic” (used very loosely) DVD pick is The Revenge of the Teenage Vixens from Outer Space. Sex-starved alien vixens come down looking for hot jailbait action at the local high school. It’s kind of like Heathers crossed with Mars Needs Women. Special features include vixen commentary, a deleted scene, and much mocking by your highbrow cinema friends.

Two new writers I’ve discovered and am enjoying immensely. Duane Swierczynski and Victor Gischler. To say that they write only crime fiction is like saying Twin Peaks was only a small town murder mystery. There is so much more going on below the surface with these two writers. Go out and buy all of their books. I did.

Also, having been a fan of Jeff Strand’s short fiction for years, I finally picked up a bunch of his novels. I started off with Mandibles, because I love a good giant bug story, and I wasn’t disappointed. The ending was so freaky I had to actually stop eating my lunch.

In music, I’m listening to the new Tragically Hip CD, “We Are The Same,” and I’ve also got Lady Gaga’s “The Fame,” in high rotation because she is just so freakin’ weird and fun. Imagine a space alien that has to come down to earth and taken the form of a blonde disco-pop singer, but she isn’t quite pulling off the masquerade, there’s something just a little bit off about her. That’s Lady Gaga.

And finally, congrats to all the winners and nominees of this year’s Stoker Awards. I hear it was a great time, and I wish I was there.

So that’s the report from The Quill station here at the Dharma Initiative. Take care, and namaste.

• Currently reading: Winterlong, by Elizabeth Hand

Caitlin R. Kiernan wrote an interesting post about the number of comments going down on her blog lately, something I’ve noticed on my own blog, even though site traffic hasn’t dropped off. She suggests current interest in Twitter and Facebook might be the cause, which does make some sense. Either way it feels like I’m quacking into the wind more than ever these days. Not that I’m complaining. It’s not as if I have much to report these days.

Kiernan also makes a point of saying that she doesn’t argue online, which is something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I figure this is one of the reasons why I stay away from message boards, not just because I feel they’re a huge time-suck, but because I can’t be bothered to argue for why I like certain books/movies/tv shows against people who are so adamant that they suck.

It’s one thing to have a differing opinion, but I’ve noticed some people will couch their distaste in such a way that it makes those who like the book/movie/tv show in question sound like morons. It’s not to say that the things I like are perfect, but then again, what is? I’m sure I could find a flaw in every single book/movie/tv show out there, but it’s just not my style.

I have torn into stuff on occasion, but I try to do it in a comical way, and I don’t do it very often (I think the last time I did it was last summer after I saw the horrendous X-Files: I Want To Believe). A blog or a YouTube channel full of snark might be more amusing, at least to some visitors, but it wouldn’t be much fun for me. I’d much rather recommend the stuff I like than tear down the stuff I don’t.

• Currently reading: Mandibles, by Jeff Strand

Check out the new pic on my photoblog, my video review of Drag Me to Hell on my YouTube channel, and my review of John Rector’s The Grove at BIFF BAM POP!

• Currently reading: Secret Dead Men, by Duane Swierczynski

Monogamy sucks. At least in terms of writing.

For the past year, I’ve devoted myself to writing one novel and nothing else. With the exception of a couple of anthology deadlines and rewrite requests, I’ve been pretty good about sticking to my guns. I’ve put down some good words, but I’ve also put down some bad ones. This is par for the course with any book, but the problem in my case is that I haven’t enjoyed writing hardly any of them.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. There have been some good times, but they’ve been greatly outweighed by the bad. My mistake was that if I wasn’t working on the novel, then I wasn’t working on anything. That was my one rule, the discipline that I thought would keep me from getting distracted with other projects. The idea being that if focused all of my time and energy on this one book, I would actually end up finishing it.

Unfortunately things didn’t work out that way.

The problem was when I wasn’t working on the novel I’d get frustrated that I wasn’t working on the novel, and then I’d get angry with myself for not working on the novel, which in turn led to my feeling guilty for not working on the novel. Sometimes I’d forced myself to work on it, which is not always a bad thing to do, sometimes it’s even necessary, but eventually I became so frustrated with the entire process that I began to loathe the book. I’m sure every writer feels this way about his/her work-in-progress to some degree, because it can’t be smooth sailing all the time, but I really, really hated this thing. It got to the point where I began to dread even opening the Word document on my computer. That’s when I knew it was time to stop and regroup.

The solution turned out be simple: I started working on another novel. Sounds crazy, I know. Shouldn’t a second novel only double my frustration, double my guilt? You’d think so, but as it turned out, I actually found it helped. Having another project to work on when the first one wasn’t coming along is just what I needed. The fact that this other novel is so different from the first probably also helps. Strangely enough, I have a feeling I’ll end up finishing the second book before the first one.

This isn’t the process I thought would ever work for me, and although I can’t shake the feeling that writing two novels at the same time is spreading myself thin, I have to go with what works for me right now. The important thing is that I’m back to writing on a regular basis, and I’m enjoying it. These days I only get angry when I don’t have time to write, and for me that’s business as usual.

Also, in case you didn’t notice, I’ve been playing with XML slideshows and put one on my homepage showcasing my various projects and publications. I hope you dig it.

Part 2 of my “Lost” article, “Swan Song,” is now online at BIFF BAM POP!

I’ve also posted my video review of Terminator Salvation on my YouTube channel.

• Currently reading: Road Dogs, by Elmore Leonard