Issue 23: Kill Your Doppelgängers
And murdering my to-do's!
Hi friends!
Quick question… What do you do when you encounter someone who shares your first name? Does it endear you to them? Do you feel the need to prove yourself more “worthy” of the name? What does it spark within you?
The reason I ask is because my first name, Weston (that’s right! I’m so much more than a Wes!) has been seeing something of a resurgence in recent years. My best friend’s sister named her kid Weston. There was a Weston in my daughter’s previous pre-K, and as someone who uses baby name websites quite often to name fictional characters (or learn the meaning behind the names), I’ve watched the moniker drag itself higher on popularity lists.
Here’s the latest on the name according to NameBerry.com…
Weston is rising in popularity, and is now more popular than ever. Weston also has a glimmer of creative appeal via its connection to the great photographer Edward Weston. Nicolas Cage chose Weston for his son back in 1990, when it was much more unusual; The Office's Jenna Fischer used it for her baby more recently.
While I’m not Nicolas Cage’s kid, I have known several other Wes’s over the years (abbreviated from Wesley), but I’ve only ever known one other Weston. He started at my school in the seventh grade, and while I didn’t have any opinions on the subject, everyone around us basically pushed us to be mortal enemies.
My classmates knew I loved to read, and suddenly the other Weston was bragging about his reading abilities. Soon, our peers had pitted us against one another in a competition to see who could read the most books in a month. A week. A day. A single class period. Seeing as I don’t have a competitive bone in my body, I didn’t care to participate. Everything was fine until the other Weston claimed to have read two Goosebumps books in a single class period (which was a straight up lie), and thus he was celebrated at the reading champion of the galaxy and got to be friends with all the cool kids, and I got to be the “Loser Weston.”
I still don’t fully understand why we had to hate each other. He liked to read. I liked to read. He was skinny with a large head. I was skinny with a large head. If anything, we should have been friends. Instead, it turned into some weird Highlander-ish There Can Only Be One! type of scenario.
But you know what happened?
After a week of him being the “Cool Weston,” those same cool kids remembered that reading was dumb and he went back to sitting quietly by himself. Then, after eighth grade, he disappeared entirely and I stayed the “Loser Weston” for pretty much the rest of my school years.
The side effect of that experience is that now I have a hard time trusting other Westons when I meet them. I don’t want to compete against them. I have nothing to prove. Just let me read in peace. And to that other Weston, wherever he may be… you suck.
What Happened Last Issue?
In the last issue, I shrugged my way out of the spotlight for the most part, in order to turn put it on my writerly friends and some of the cool projects they have going on. I hope you saw something you liked and supported them!
Issue 22: Lost and Found
In This Issue:
Something Brewing!
Project Updates!
Something Brewing
My to-do’s have been dwindling. This was by design. I cut off a bunch of freelance projects this year so I’d have more time to work on the things I wanted to work on. I wanted to spend more time writing for me.
Though I’ve been writing professionally for a decade, most of that work has been for someone else. To make money for someone else. To aid someone else in getting closer to whatever financial goals they had set for themselves. Bringing their dreams to life.
But the truth is, as much as I love writing stuff, I also am nearing mid-life crisis mode. I’ll turn 40 in 2024. I realize that 40 is the new 30 and all that, but it’s had me considering what I want the next phase of my writing career to look like.
Writing comics? I don’t think I’ll ever stop doing that, but they don’t make much money, even if you’re writing them at a professional level for a publisher such as Marvel or DC. I self-published a couple books across 2018 and 2020 that have gone on to sell thousands of copies and provide consistent royalties. The book I did for Penguin Random House? Yes, that was for someone else, but it hit a sweet spot for me: encouraging young readers to actually read.
I want do write more things that can pay off in the long term. I want that longevity. I want royalties. Mailbox money. But I also want to please my own creative needs and wants in the process.
I’ve always known that I’m not going to write that thing that changes the world. I don’t have a classic in me. I don’t even consider the things I write to be literature. But what I do have is voice. I’ve spent the past 10-plus years honing and perfecting the types of stories and characters that only I can write.
When I do comics, that voice comes out. When I do journalism, that voice comes out. When I write games, that voice comes out (provided the creative director allows it). However, when I do any other sort of long form fiction, that voice tends to get lost in the shuffle of technique and grammar and rules and “the way it’s always been done.”
So, I have this story. A story I wrote an outline for a couple of years back. Like many of my ideas, it sits in a notebook just waiting for me to pull it of the shelf and tackle it. Except recently, it’s gotten back into my mind. I think about it during the day. When I’m waiting to fall asleep at night. On the toilet. (Hey, you asked!)
I can tell when it’s getting close to time to write a story as it begins to take over every waking moment. I originally envisioned this story as a comic (as I do 99 percent of my projects) but I’m starting to see it take shape as a novel. It’s a medium I haven’t done a lot of work in, but a market I’d like to try and crack (who doesn’t?).
I wrote a couple of books years back… a 75k word novel and a 40k word novella. They haven’t been published, so don’t run off to Google them. Instead these manuscripts sit in a drawer and mock me for writing weird, offbeat stuff that’s nigh impossible to market… as if I can help it. Those projects were tough. They were challenging. But I like a challenge. There’s no reason to continue playing things safe.
The more I think about this project, the more I start to see how it’s more marketable than my past attempts. I see exactly what I want it to be. How I want it to read. And how I want the experience to feel. But… It’s all in the execution.
Can I execute what I’m seeing in my mind’s eye? Who knows. But that’s always half the fun of making something. I’ll be tinkering with that outline in the coming days to freshen it up and see if it’s something I really, truly want to throw myself into.
And if it’s not? Good thing I have a million ideas just sitting around.
Project Updates!
Molly’s Oddities
My middle grade graphic novel, Molly’s Oddities: Dimension of Danger, (drawn with love by Aleks Jovic) is making its way out to literary agents in a slow, but steady stream. Things at the day job got busy, so it hasn’t been submitted as much as I’d like, but I plan to make up for lost time next week.
The project is currently sitting in the inboxes of six agents, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed there is good news in my future somewhere in the next 3-6 months. You’ll hear something when I do.
THE STATS AS THEY STAND:
Submissions: 6
Rejections: 0
The Incoming Storm
I received notes back from my editor at Penguin Random House regarding the young readers nonfiction manuscript I wrote back in May.
The notes were wonderful to dive into, offering ideas I hadn’t considered, or removing large swathes of passages I had never thought to cut. While I was conscious of the fact that I was writing for kids in or around the third grade, it was interesting to be shown how by the end of the book, I got too heady with ideas and some of my chosen words didn’t fit the vocabulary level. Simple fixes, but a good reminder to never forget who your readers are.
Due to word counts for the manuscript, everything that hit the cutting room floor had to be replaced. Chapter 7 was removed, so bits and pieces of pertinent info found their way into other chapters. A new chapter one was written from scratch. Missing dates were installed. Tough words and concepts were defined for the reader in black and white.
After two weeks of (re)writing, the second draft went back to the editor late last week. I’ll be excited to see how the new iteration is received! Once the manuscript is accepted, the editors will go to work deciding what sort of illustrations will be accompany the pages. There’s a lot to work with in the book, so I’ll be excited to see how the people, places, and things are realized by the artist they hire to bring them to life.
The book is on the schedule for 2025 (so don’t go hassling your local book seller for the title just yet), but it’s fascinating to watch the production pipeline at a large publishing house. Thrilling, even!
The Obsoletes
I checked in with The Obsoletes team to see if we had a timeline for launching production on issue 3. Silverline Comics is an interesting publisher because talent is shared between titles, much like Marvel or DC Comics functioned back in the 90s and before. This choice is actually by design, as Silverline EIC Roland Mann actually worked as an editor at Marvel (And Malibu!) back in the 90s and before! But since inkers, artists, and colorists are jumping from title to title, it means some titles take a bit of time for the creative team’s stars to align. I’m totally cool with that. I love the team we have on The Obsoletes, and I’m happy to be patient with the process.
I did learn that series inker Jose Fuentes is working through some of the pages for issue 3 as time permits, but maybe don’t expect to see another crowdfunding campaign before 2024.
However! This week I was able to knock out the fist draft of issue 4 (the final issue of the series). I’d written a super tight outline for the issue months back, and I knew the ending of the story as I was writing Page One / Panel One, so it just took me sitting down and bringing the story in my mind to the page.
I’m pleased with how the script emerged (endings are HARD!), but I also look forward to rereading it with fresh eyes in a few weeks and making it the best it can be. A story about old, outdated intergalactic prospectors shouldn’t be as poignant or as touching as it turned out to be! It was nice to move this draft off my to-do list where it has sat pending for far, far, far, far too long.
If you haven’t jumped aboard with this fun sci-fi/adventure series, I have issues 1 & 2 available in my webstore!
I suppose there’s only one thing left to do…
Yep! 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.
You must let me read some of this novel... even a little snippet! :)