Issue 27: Holiday Unraveling
So, at which airport did YOU get stranded?
Hi friends!
We did it! We made it past the holidays! Unfortunately, it wasn’t without incident.
If you climbed aboard, were near, or even looked at an airplane over the holiday season, chances are that something went wrong with that airplane’s anticipated flight and it was grounded for an indeterminable amount of time. Take my holiday travels as an example…
Coming home from the holidays on New Year’s Eve, we flew from Cleveland to Newark and boarded our flight from Jersey to Wilmington, North Carolina. Nothing happened that whole leg of the journey. Things were smooth. Too smooth perhaps. I should have been more suspicious. For as the plane was backing away from the gate at Newark there was a loud BANG. The plane shuddered. The whole fuselage shook. A definitive metal-on-metal scraping sound echoed through the cabin. It came as no shock when the pilot flicked on the intercom to inform us that we’d encountered a problem.
The plane hit something. What it collided with was not revealed to us, but we were asked to be patient while maintenance checked things out to see if the craft was still sky-worthy. That process took two hours. The moon replaced the sun as we sat hostage. Worse, we were blocking six other planes from backing out. Everyone was a hostage. We weren’t subdued with zip-ties or duct tape over our mouths. Our restraints were phone chargers and headphones.
After an impossible wait—made more impossible by a bored four year old—the aircraft plane was deemed unworthy of liftoff. It was a “you don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here” type of situation. Before I knew it, we were back in the terminal.
Some 45 minutes later it was announced a plane had been found to deliver us to Wilmington. Not sure where that plane came from (maybe it was home sleeping and they woke it up and told it to report to the office?) but we were shuttled to a bus that drove out into the darkness of night. We were released onto the tarmac, climbed a rickety set of stairs, and reseated.
We managed to make it home with just hours to spare before 2023 gave way to 2024. On the bright side, during our series of hindrances, my fellow passengers remained respectful. No one was filmed doing something stupid that went viral online and ruined their lives. All things considered, it was a better experience than the time in 2013 when my wife and I flew out of Newark and police stormed the plane shortly before takeoff to arrest a man in a business suit.
Anyway, that’s a thing that happens now. Your airplane can get into traffic accidents. Have fun out there.
What Happened Last Issue?
In December’s newsletter I revisited my 2023 goals (if you can call them such) as well as detailing the things I hope to accomplish in 2024. It was a strange issue and I thank you for putting up with me.
Issue 26: 2023 Roundup
In This Issue:
Small Books!
January Reads!
Project Updates!
Small Books
I love reading, but free time is limited. If I dive into a fantasy epic, or the latests Stephen King tome, those 700-1,000 pages are going to take me months to get through. Maybe you relate. And if you do, I’ve found a winning solution, especially if you’re a nonfiction reader.
Get this… there are small books out there. Lots of them.
Publishers seem to have also realized that longer doesn’t equate to better. Of course, the price of paper has nearly doubled since 2020, so printing those giant doorstops doesn’t offer the best returns. In my search for small books, I’ve found several series that offer quality reads and quick experiences, with most titles clocking in at fewer than 200 pages.
Boss Fight Books
Founded in 2013, Gabe Durham’s Boss Fight Books set out publish “great books on classic video games.” There are 30+ books in the series and I’ve read ALMOST all of them. I’ve yet to be disappointed by the deliveries of any of the authors, even when I know little-to-nothing about the game being discussed.
Recommended titles include Spelunky, written by the game’s solo developer Derek Yu (I’ve never played the game, but after reading this book you’ll absolutely want to), Shovel Knight by David L. Craddock, and GoldenEye 007 by Alyse Knorr. If Boss Fight offers a title on a game you love, start there! (Each year, Boss Fight runs a Kickstarter to fund their yearly releases, and it is one of those things I always look forward to!)
Pop Classics
Canadian publisher ECW Press has spent the past few years putting out wonderful tiny books on pop culture subjects than spans the gamut of TV, films, musicians, and actors. I highly recommend the books on Calvin and Hobbes (Let’s Go Exploring) and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater (Right, Down, + Circle). Subjects are examined with both a critical and nostalgic eye.
33 1/3
The 33 1/3 series, published by Bloomsbury, sees a different author tackle a different record album. The titles available vary widely in subject matter/genre and quality, but if you love music, it’s fun to read a title dedicated to a record that may hold special meaning in your life.
I’ve not read nearly enough of the 33 1/3 titles (yet), but I can recommended the books exploring Wendy Carlos’s Switched on Bach, Hole’s Live Through This, and Nirvana’s In Utero.
Cultographies
Published by Columbia University Press, each book dedicates its pages to a specific “cult” film. Serenity. The Evil Dead. Blade Runner, and more. I’ve not read any of these, so I cannot vouch for the quality, but I have several on my to-read list. If you get there first, let me know how the experience was.
Quick Takes
Dedicated to examining film genres from Superhero movies to British Horror to Zombie Cinema, Rutgers University Press Quick Takes cover the important info on your favorite things in under 200 pages. Like Cultographies above, I haven’t cracked open any of these titles yet, but I look forward to doing so in 2024.
Want short books? There are a whole bunch of options for you! I hope you’ll check them out and reach your reading goal for the new year.
January Reads!
I made it through a couple of GREAT books in January and both are highly recommended if you fancy books about writing or narrative nonfiction:
1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round
By Jami Attenberg
In 2018, novelist Jami Attenberg, faced with a looming deadline, needed writing inspiration. Using a bootcamp model, she and a friend set out to write one thousand words daily for two weeks straight. They opened this practice to Attenberg’s online community and soon hundreds then thousands of people started using the #1000WordsofSummer hashtag to track their work and support one another. What began as a simple challenge between two friends has become a literary movement—write 1,000 words per day without judgment, or bias, or concerns about writer’s block, and see what comes of it.
I am game for any book that provides advice and encouragement to writers. This is a wonderful, inspirational resource that not only provides insight from a best-selling author, but also 50 of her writerly friends!
MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios
By Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards
Marvel Entertainment was a moribund toymaker not even twenty years ago. Today, Marvel Studios is the dominant player both in Hollywood and in global pop culture. How did an upstart studio conquer the world? In MCU, beloved culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards draw on more than a hundred interviews with actors, producers, directors, and writers to present the definitive chronicle of Marvel Studios and its sole, ongoing production, the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As a huge fan of the MCU, it was awesome learning about how the movie sausage is made. Also fascinating: these films are made in a pipeline not completely dissimilar to the game industry. Lots of super cool behind-the-scenes info about the business aspects of bringing Marvel to the silver screen. I couldn’t put it down.
Project Updates!
Unit 44 [Comic Book]
Unit 44 issues #9 and #10 are available for preorder RIGHT NOW from Alterna Comics. Series artist Aleks Jovic and I finished up these issues in early 2023, so it’ll be great to get them out to readers! They are essentially Season 3, Part I, setting up some fun story beats that will pay off in issues #11 and #12 (which are written!).
Preorders close on February 20, so order soon to guarantee your copies (and thank you in advance for the support)!
The Lowlanders Project [Novel]
Having now added more than 40,000 words to this manuscript, I’ve crossed the theoretical halfway mark. December was a wash for adding to words, but I snuck in 4-5 writing sessions in January that were wonderful. I’m hoping for a quiet February where I can hit it hard!
Molly’s Oddities [Graphic Novel]
Molly is still fighting for the attention of literary agents. I did get a slew of responses to my queries as agents worked to clear their inboxes over the holidays, but unfortunately, those responses contained no good news. I’ve retooled my query a bit for my most recent submissions, but I keep finding myself hitting the same roadblock—agents seem most interested in representing graphic novels where the writer and artist are the same person. This has been the reason provided for several rejections, and in my research I’m discovering that many agents will only accept queries from writer/illustrators. If the next round of submissions bring back the same news, I may have to return to the drawing board a bit.
2023 SUBMISSION STATS
Total Submissions: 12
Manuscript Requests: 1
Formal Rejections: 9
No Answer (Assumed Rejections based on posted response time): 3
In 2024, I’ve started with a “fresh batch” of queries.
2024 SUBMISSION STATS
Total Submissions: 7
Manuscript Requests: 0
Rejections: 0
No Answer (Assumed Rejections based on posted response time): 0
If you’ve never been told “No” by a literary agent before, I invite you to live vicariously through me with the following rejection letters.
Now, just imagine getting those several days a week for months on end. It’s a wonder that any books ever get published! But just like with anything else in life, it only takes one “Yes” to change everything!
The Incoming Storm [Young Readers Nonfiction] - Releasing 1/7/2025
This manuscript arrived back in my inbox just before Christmas! The copy editors had their way with it and had questions for me. Tough questions. There were a couple facts to confirm, double-checking of a few dates, and a rather large change in verbiage that needed made. I had about four days to get the notes patched up and returned. Perhaps most interesting, I was able to review the notes/ideas for the illustrations that will be included in this book. (That’s right! Illustrations!) Everything is still on target for a January 2025 release.
The Weirdness [Young Readers Nonfiction]
The outline for this book is complete will go off to the editor once all paperwork is complete! [Cue raucous applause]
The Space Case [Young Readers Nonfiction]
The first draft of this manuscript has been delivered to the editor! [Cue cheering and the stomping of feet.]
Hey, are you ready for February?
I’m Wes Locher. I’ve been writing professionally for more than a decade. I write comic books, video games, fiction, and nonfiction. I write whatever seems fun, cool, and inspiring. I also love helping other writers to demystify the process of making a living through words. This is my newsletter.