Hot Labor Summer

Making space, Comic Con and walking the lines

Since we last spoke, I went to an incredible workshop called Making Space, spearheaded by Dr. Jamie Molaro which was three days of scientists talking about the Europa Clipper mission and using that to inspire science inspired art. It was amazing. As many of you know, I really like outer space. A lot of the workshop was visually art based, but I wrote a little short story that I’m going to revise and send out based on a picture of Europa and I did manage a cool little music box song based on the miles that four of the Mars Rovers have clocked on that planet. That music box piece kind of feeds in one of the things that I am trying to do as a long term project. Write an aria, a duet or a micro opera about (all) the exploratory space missions. It’s a project that I love because it will never be finished, but it gives kind of a cool focus to making opera in a new and exciting way. I’ve mentioned before how composer Rose Hall and I were commissioned this past January for a piece called ‘Touching the Sun’ about the Parker Solar Probe which is currently orbiting the sun and “touching” it.

Then it was off to San Diego Comic Con where I was on NINE panels! San Diego was great, as always. It was weird to not see people lined up and sleeping outside of Hall H but also it was kind of nice and relaxing to not see that. This year it was so much about the books because Hollywood wasn’t there due to the strikes. Panels were packed. The show floor was hopping. And it all put the comics back in the con. It was great to see folks, meet fans, reconnect with friends. It definitely felt like it had that pre-world stopping energy. I was there talking about SHIFTING EARTH and also STAR WARS HYPERSPACE Volume 1 which just came out. Right after the con, my Star Wars Hyperspace GREEDO AND JABBA issue hit the stands and I love it so much because it’s got a film noir Gilda kind of vibe to it. I hope you’ll check it out!

As soon as I got back, it was time to start hitting the streets to join the WGA/SAG strike. I’m a SAG-AFTRA union member. I’ve kept my union membership up since I joined when I was doing background work to make ends meet while writing my first novels. Los Angeles is a union town.

It’s powerful to walk the strike line. I feel that everyone out there is really fighting for the future of making arts a career. What the writers and actors are asking for is fair compensation. Creative arts careers are all interconnected and I feel it as a comic book writer. The future and AI are here and a clear path to how to deal with and be fairly considered and paid when AI comes up is vital. (I can’t even get into it. It’s such a terrible thing AI. Stop using it for your fun things!)

Here’s what I had to say about background work in a Huffington Post article at the start of the strike when it came out that studios are wanting to scan background and use their images forever. Pay once and use always. Unconscionable.

While I haven’t done background in a few years, it was an essential part of my becoming a writer for novels, comics and operas. The AI news has me spitting mad and I’ll be out on the lines. 

While writing my first novels I worked background to support myself. I keep my SAG card active for many reasons, one of them being that cobbling an art life is hard and I knew it was something that I could do should I need a bag of groceries during lean times. But another reason is because I learned so much about storytelling on sets. It’s a crash course / in person training about the craft of acting, writing, directing. I feel that it is an apprenticeship to film and television making in a way that school can’t teach you. You learn to observe and know what makes a great set or a terrible one. What it an actor at the top of their game, or just starting out does to bring a character alive by watching them do take after take and how they work their craft. And you see first hand how a great director tries to weave a story and steer the ship. It’s a masterclass for anyone in the field and vital to making the magic.

The best thing that you can do right now is to support and shout enthusiastically about the books, songs, films, movies, theater, visual artists that you love.

So a reminder, you can find my books online, here’s a handy bookshop.org link and there is also an online Ko-Fi store to buy stuff I’d have at a comic con table.

What I’m enjoying!

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Barbie (but I could have used less Ken!), Scott Thompson (from Kids in the Hall) Buddy Cole show KING which I saw at Lyric Hyperion Theatre, playing Diablo IV and am about to dive into Edan Lepucki’s Time’s Mouth.

What are you into this summer? Send news!

Cecil

PS. Thank you to those who have supported by subscribing and upgrading to paid! It is very helpful and means the world to me!

PPS. If you are interested in sending your name to Europa you can send it in the NASA message in a bottle initiative. It will go there with a poem by the poet laureate.