Month: August 2003

Here you go. Doubling as the “Whad’ja think?” and potentially (unless indicated otherwise) for publication in a future issue of “Captain Marvel.”

PAD

Read for yourself. Here are the first five pages of FALLEN ANGEL #3. Yes, it’s “For Mature Readers”, which means that you probably shouldn’t be reading if you are upset by drawings of pretty females in schoolgirl uniforms, women with bindings on their feet, or possibly inappropriate touching of a young schoolgirl’s knee…

(What? Me using lurid and overwrought descriptions to tittilate and get more people to read Peter’s book than otherwise might? Perish the thought!)

Continue Reading “FALLEN ANGEL #3 Preview, or, “What’s all this “Mature Reader” fuss about, anyway?”” →

Catching up on my e-mail, I just got finished reading an e-mail from my editor informing me that, beginning with issue #3, “Fallen Angel” would carry a “Mature Readers” label, and I wrote back to her and asked if I can publicize this on my blog.

Then what do I find out? That it’s already been announced on Newsarama.com.

Personally I’ve never been a big fan of labels because, as the Jesus Castillo cased proved, they provide as much protection against persecution as a sieve against a rainstorm. But I do believe that retailers should be informed at the time of solicitation as to specific adult material so they can order accordingly. However, ultimately DC’s the publisher, and if their comfort level dictates it should carry a label, that’s their call to make.

Interestingly, it frees me up language wise. I can pretty much have the characters say anything I want now, something I was originally told I could do, but then told I couldn’t because the book *didn’t* carry a Mature Readers label. Nevertheless, I can’t help but feel that profanity is becoming overused in comics to the point where it’s lost its shock value. Profanity is like any other tool: It should be used at the right time to accomplish the right effect. If the story is filled with explicit language from the get-go, it loses whatever power it might have to indicate stress or anger. So although certain words may come creeping into the conversation–words like “swell” and “So’s your old man!”–they’ll be used judiciously.

PAD

No, she didn’t knock 70 dingers out of the ballpark. No, she didn’t plow over 70 people while driving a tractor trailer. We were down in Pennsylvania, visiting my mother for her 70th birthday. My brother, Wally, and his family were there as well for the celebration.

PAD

Although I don’t generally reprint e-mails, I hear about this often enough that I thought I’d take the opportunity to answer it generally. I doubt the letter writer will mind:

Yesterday, I went to the Sunrise Mall in Massapequa to look for Tong Lashing. When I asked in Waldenbooks about it, the clerk said, “Oh, we only order it on special order.” When I asked why, he replied “Well, they don’t sell as well as his Star Trek books.” I went upstairs to the B. Dalton and got a similar spiel about only ordering it on special order. So my question is… is it better to encourage one of these places to stock your books in the future by placing a special order with them…. or is it better to “punish” them by giving my business to a store that did bother to stock it?

Yes, welcome to the glamorous life of a successful author, where branch buyers and clerks create self-fulfilling prophecies by not ordering or stocking your books and then saying they don’t sell.

As annoying as it may be, the truth is that yes, the only way to encourage stores to carry my books is to special order them, because they keep track of what people order and adjust accordingly. They can’t keep track of it when you get annoyed and just order it off Amazon.

Understand, it’s not your job to try and reeducate bookstores. You don’t want to wait for the week or two it’ll take for a special order, I understand. But if folks are asking me what’s “better” (meaning, presumably, what benefits my career) then yes, special ordering the book is preferable.

PAD

We went to the Renaissance Fair up in Tuxedo, New York this weekend. We always make it up there, and this one was naturally Caroline’s first Renfair experience ex utero.

The day started off on a shaky note. Ariel had brought her friend Alyssa along (both in costume) and when we got there the human chess game was in progress. So was some suffocating heat, and we all promptly began to wilt. We trekked over from there to the first joust of the day, trying to stay hydrated. The major concern was Caroline; shielded as she was from the sun (carried in a backpack with a sun guard and also wearing sunblock), she was still starting to look a little glassy eyed. The real killer was the humidity which you could have sliced with a broadsword. So we stake out some ground watching the joust. In the shade, we hoped things would be more bearable. I was holding Caroline, and she had just polished off a bottle of formula…and then bam. Caroline’s first experience with vomiting. We’d brought a change of outfit for her. Unfortuately we hadn’t brought one for me: She got my shirt, my pants, and some on the cloak I’d been wearing. In my 22 years of child rearing, I’ve been hit with pretty much everything the human body can excrete or secrete, so there’s more of a “*Sigh* Not again,” reaction rather than an “Eccchhh! Look what she did to me!” Still, I wasn’t thrilled.

But then cloud cover came rolling in, cooling the day. Caroline, having heaved, promptly fell asleep in my arms and I just stayed there with her for 45 minutes or so. When she woke up she was in a much better mood, a light rain had erased the humidity and brought the temperature down by about ten degrees, and the cloud cover kept the day much more temperate and even enjoyable. Much fun was had at the Renfair, as it usually is when kids aren’t upchucking. And if I were to be philosophical about it, I should be glad that she didn’t puke while she was riding behind me in the backpack.

PAD

Blah3 has compiled a list of about 800 other “Fair and Balanced” websites here. Dive in.