Read the real life stories and experiences of freelance writer Mike Gagnon.

Penance Blog...(Wednesday)

one of the worst days ever...

Today was horrible -

The Virus - I got a very very veyr bad computer virus today. It took well over 5 hours to fix. It was sent by someone who I told that their art wasn't good enough for one of my upcoming projects. The sender's e-mail address is wolverinessite@aol.com and they are send the SKYNET virus. It attaches to your copmuter, send itself to all your e-mail contacts and buggers up your copmuter. If I knew where this guy lived he be in some serious danger.

The Screw-up - SO everything's flustered, I'm trying to fix the computer, put the dog in the bathroom, and go pick up Pam at work, and the head of a big company calls me, about a BIG character they own that I'm trying ot get the license to. The friggin' machine keeps picking up on one ring too. SO Everything combined left me sounding like a flustered idiot and I think gave a bad impression. Not good.

The Asshole - Today while I was waiting for Pam to finish work, I went into the washroom and some asshole kept trying to get in. I had to fight with him over the doorknob to keep the door closed with my pants half way down. If that ever happens again there will be police needed.

That is jusy a few of the highlights of my great day...

Tonight - We're goin' to see Punisher

Tommorow - New format! Untill further notice each blog will consist of a blurb about my day and an entry about the comic industry or a how-tohelp segment for small publishers.

BYE

Mike 

Posted by: lightning at 18:56 | link | comments

Today was whirlwind...

Everything was out of control and way off schedule today. It was expected though. Pam had the day off of work and a doctors appointment this afternoon.

I did manage to get a huge amount of e-mail done, I've written and posted the new submission guidelines for SMASH!, and I'm almost done the new FAQ section. Tommorow I'll post that, get some GLimpse updates finished, and more! I've pretty much hashed out all of the new changes involving the administation of SMASH!. Anyone interested should keep an eye on te site at www.lightningstrike.ca/smashcomics for new pages as aI load them, and keep eyes open for when I make the big announcement of the new changes.

Pam had her class tonight and should be home any minute, so I gotta go...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 20:14 | link | comments

Holy Hiatus Batman...

It has been quite awhile since my duties to my family and business forced me to neglect this blog. Rest assured everything is back to normal, I'm re0instating the penance blog for any days missed until further notice.

A lot happens in a week. The whole of motime frickin' changed! I wrote about my whole week and must have hit the wrong button because I lost the whole damn thing. now I'm pissed and I don't want to re-write it. However, it's my first entry in ahwile so lets make the best of it.

I'll try to get as caught up as possible. I spent last week at mom & dad's. I helped dad & Jeremy deconstruct the shop and move the materials to dad's bush property for future rebuilding. We spent the rest of the time mostly moving mom dad into their new house.

People can amass a ton of crap over the decades. It makes me want to throw away half of what I own, and yet I still came home with more stuff and had mom and dad hold a few things for me.

I still haven't seen the Punisher. It seems I'm fated to miss out on it. I also want to see Man on Fire, hopefully I'll figure out a way to see them this week.

Pam came on Friday night and on Saturday we went out to the Bush after I packed up all of my stuff in the Van. When we got out to the Bush property the driveway was too muddy for the van so we had to walk the mile-long driveway back to the cabin. It was a nice walk. Scooter was with us and he had a hayday runnning all over. Dad and grandpa put a new steel roof on the cabin. I would have helped, but they were finishing by the time Pam and I walked back there. I took Pam on a tour of some of our trails. We all took Friday off and spent the day in the bush. I spent most of the day taking out old junk that the old owners left and putting it in the dump.

Jeremy cut a trail through the bush way down to the river, which is pretty far. Every now and then he had to come up to the camp and get me to go and help him. The four wheelrs got their fair share of use that day.

Dad demolished the couple of rooms that were left in the cabin.

Wayne the landlord that owns the place that mom & dad moved from is a weasely dishonest prick. He's been trying to steal my dad's property (the shop we tore down) In the end we gave up going any further. We got the roof and the walls, but left that weasel the foundation when he decided to just happen to dump a few loads of fire wood on top of it. That's the kind of prick he is. He has to do these things to people in order to make himself feel better about being short, bald, blind, ugly, and having a very tiny penis.

Anyway, Saturday was quite an adventure, Scooter went for his first swim in one of the ponds in the bush and we hiked down Jeremy's new trail down to the river. Our day was quite an adventure, and we went shopping in the after noon.

Sunday we slept in, got some groceries and did a lot of cleaning etc.

Today was back to the grind stone. I did a lot of business stuff and mailing. Talked to Canada Post about sending flyers and all kinds of stuff.

This week will have 2 focuses, getting web updates done, and getting more advertisers/sponsors.

Untill Tommorow...

Mike  

Posted by: lightning at 20:39 | link | comments

Holy Crap!

I Can't believe my last entry was Monday! I've never gone this long. I've been stupid busy though. I've been doing contracts, and phone calls, talking to ad agencies, sending off scripts, making marketing and promo PDF's, Putting together Advertising packages and PDF's, making the marketing plan and more solicitations for Dreams in Texture. OY!

Hyped for Punisher...

I'm going to see it. I don't know when, but this weekend we'll be going to see the Punisher. IT IS GOING TO ROCK!

Geek moment...

Wow! I just read on digitalwebbing.com that Erik Larsen is the new publisher at Image! What the hell happened to Jim Valentino?

 

 

Going away again...

I've been called in again. Me and Pam head to Meaford tonight and I'll be there a week. We have to demo a storage building, disassemble and move the pieces for future reassembly, move the stuff from my parent's house into the new one, and finish building the house my pareents are moving into. So. I'm brining some work to do with me, and I'll get done what I can there. I managed to finish most of my stuff I needed to this week. The week when I get back shouldn't be too hectic, lot's of phone calling and web/marketiing work scheduled for that week.

Taxes...

Even with all those nifty tips I listed the other day about self-employment income taxes, they are still a real bitch! I finally finished mine and sent them off today, and way early! Plus, I'm getting a return! BOOYA!

Websites...

Oh boy howdy are you folks in for a treat the week when I get back. Besides finishing the updates to glimpse (they were put off for more important things), There are some awesome, and I hope impressive, new updates coming in that week for the SMASH! Comics site. I guess there's no point in me creating an LSP main page for April, I haven't done it yet and the Month is half over.

Boom shalakalaka...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 16:38 | link | comments

PENANCES...

As you'll notice in the following blog I am very busy this week. That may take time away from the blog. If so I won't be doing penance blogs. If I don't have time to blog where do I find the time to do penance ones? You see my dilema. Anyways, so instead of playing catch-up I'll have to make up for it with really good blogs later this week.

Hardcore week...

Today kicked off a hard core week of heavy duty moving and shaking. This week I'm tying up an loose ends regarding contracted work, Working on two scripts, planning marketing and advertising campaigns, raising funding dollars, trying to finish new press kits and promotional kits, putting together a 2004 show schedule, putting together a 2004 store appearance campaign, website updates.  And more. So, I'm buckling down and getting into haul ass mode. That being said I have no idea if this is going to become the status quo for the time being, permanently, or if I'll be able to relax a little next week.

Today's Sponsor:

 

 

Advertise Here - e-mail me!

Hulkamania lives...

Today I watched an OTR (Off The Record) special on TSN. It was a full episode interview with Hulk Hogan. No BS, no holds barred. Real questions about the real backstage and secret happenings in the hulksters life and in wrestling in general. I think I love this guy even more. He was my idol as a kid and he's my idol now. He's a business and media genius. Say whatever you want about him, but if it's bad you're probably jealous!

Top 10...

Here is my unofficial top 10 list of celebrities I will try to meet before I die, all in no particular order.

Billy Bob Thorton

Hulk Hogan

Tom Hanks

Kevin Smith

Mike Meyers

Stan Lee

Beyonce Knowles

Eliza Dushku

Clint Eastwood

Hugh Jackman

As stated this one is unofficial. That's because there are a few I'm not sure on, this is mostly because I also want to meet:

Ed Norton, Bradd Pitt, Brittany Spears, Shannon Elizabeth, Chritina Aguilera, James Gandolfini, and Steve Buccemi.

And I'm Spent...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 20:09 | link | comments (4)

PENANCE BLOG...

Yesterday Jon called because he was back in town, he came home from his apprenticeship school for Easter. So Pam and I went out to Meaford and visited him. Then we visited mom & Dad & came home last night.

My internet is really starting to piss me off. It's not connecting to webpages properly or my e-mail server. I have to log on 3 or 4 times before it works properly.

To relax or not to relax...

Yesterday moring I busted my ass to get some more work done on the Cap comic before we lwft. I wanna get some work done today too. I don't know if I should take it easy for the holiday weekend, or push to get as much done as possible. There are defenite pros and cons to both. However if I don't get some work done I'll feel guilty and like I wasted valuable time.

AAAAAAARRRR

Be back later...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 09:52 | link | comments

My accountant is dishonest and my lawyer is retiring...

Last time I met with my accountant she had me start getting all this stuff together to file ammendments to my previous years taxes. When finished I was supposed to bring this amendment material over to her to check and verify at a rate of $50 per hour. Then it dawned on me that "hey, can't I carry these deductions over to this years taxes?" SO I just happened to run into ther on the street and asked her about it. She didn't wanna answer. SO When I finally got her to answer she admitted that I could carry them over. Know what this menas? I don't need to use her at all! I can do my damn taxes myself, file one return, and get her to file for a hell of a lot less than $50 per hour, or just do it myself. Guess What else? I just found out the self-employment rules have changed! If you are filing as a self-employed person your deadline is extended to June 15th instead of April 30th...But more on that later...

I went for the second meeting ever with my lawyer today. He informed me that he's retiring and that his office will be gone by September. What is he doing? Getting into publishing! Well he was, but now that he found a publisher in New Jersey he's just gotta write and edit an annual publication, and get his royalties. He thinks I should make a trip to Diamond's offiices in person. Ha! Anyway, he's the only guy who handles TM & Copyright in this enitire area. There's literally no-one else. So, he's referred me to HIS TM & copyright lawyer. Guess where? Toronto!

More on taxes...

ALL SMALL PRESS COMICS AND INDIE FOLK PAY ATTENTION! SOME GOOD TAX INFO!

This may not apply exactly the same in the US, so check your local tax rep. Canadians however can pretty much follow this to the letter.

1. For any of this info to work you have to get yourself the "SELF-EMPLOYEMENT" tax forms, not the regular ones!

2. Your taxes aren't due until June 15th!

3. Your spouse or partner gets an automatic extension too!

4. However, if you or your spouse OWE money it still has to be paid by Apr. 30th or you'll be charged interest (weird eh?)

5. YOU can write of the cost of literally anything you use to produce your income as a business expense.

6. You can also write off a percentage of your rent & utilities as a business expense. (if you use 10% of your apartment for business you can write off 10% of your rent)

7. If you own a home you can write-off the mortgage interest that you pay!

8. You can still have another outside income or only be self-employed part-time, and you still only have to fill out the one tax return.

9. If you are doing business under your own name you don't need to have a registered business, even if you have a business name you can file as long as you register the name soon.

10. You can write off legal, government, licensing, and other expenses too!

11. You can write off a percentage of ALL your expenses related to owning a vehicle. (licensing, fuel, repairs, depretiation, maintenance)

12. You can write off supplies, art implements, computer equipment, trimming & binding equipment.

13. Instead of 7 years if you start filing as a business NOW the government can only go back and investigate for 3 years. That means if they think you owe more than you paid 4 years ago, tough titty for them, whereas Joe average tax filer gets slapped with a bill including interest!

14. There are many more tips. Some I've forgotten, some I don't even know myself, but I hope you can see that it would be well worth it for anyone in our business, think of the returns you could get back, or at least lower your tax payment. Look into this for your self!

Today's Sponsor:

 

 

Advertise Here - e-mail me!

Captain Canuck...

Tommorow morning I'll be sending off an e-mail with some files that should help boost the speed and move the process of getting this series going.

Monkeys, not Monkies...

Here I thought I was being pro-active and spellies the plural "Monkies", but my computer is telling me that that in fact is wrong and that the plural form is "Monkeys" Weird.

American Idol is a farce...

Sure, I knew Camille would go eventually, but I mean come on! How in the hell can those no talent hacks be on there still! You know who I mean! John Peter Lewis and John Stevens. God's sake I could do better than them. Who's dick are they sucking?

Well I'm outta here...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 21:20 | link | comments (2)

Stuck in creative limbo...

URG... I did some more work on the glimpse update, made some calls, sent some e-mails, worked on the Cap book, planned other website updates. The stuff I really want to work on, comics, is all in limbo. As of today I am waiting on someone else to respond or send info on every single project that I am working on. Frustrating. Very frustrating. But nothing I can do. I have enough other stuff to keep busy, but only because I am going and finding stuff to take my mind off of the comics.

Blah...

Mike

Today's Sponsor:

 

 

Advertise Here - CHEAP! - e-mail me!

Posted by: lightning at 18:38 | link | comments

Financing...

Well folks, the CFDC Loan moved one step forward today and the Government funding moved one step back, so essentially I am no further or ahead yet today.

It's happening, right now!...

RIght now as we speak the folks at Wizard and Top Cow are sifting through thousands of submissions, all are offeres to sell characters to Top Cow for them to produce into series. 3 of those submissions are mine. I've already sent my request for a list of the entries that are chosen. I will soon find out if any of the ideas chosen are mine!

Today's Sponsor:

 

 

 

Advertise Here - e-mail me!

Monkies & Midgets...

Here's a sample of some of the great artwork by Nelson Danielson for my upcoming book, Monkies & Midgets. Pictured Below: Main Characters Davey Goliath, El Macambre, and supporting character Bubba.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monkies and Midgets is about a midget wrestling league who's unscrupulous owners force their wrestlers to battle primates in the ring to rake in profits. Look for it this summer!

Movie Review

Hellboy - Up front I should let you know that I'm one of those comics fans who has always meant to read Hellboy, but never find room in my budget to add it to my regular titles. SO I have no comic reading experience to base the movie on. All in all it was pretty good, and had some great FX. I'd have to saw it was very well done. Abe Sapien stole the limelight sometimes.

This was a decent introduction to Hellboy, although I have no idea how true it is to Mike Mignola's original work. One thing I can say is that although the movie was good I fealt that many of the plot points were stretched out to make the movie unnecessarily long. Certain points in the movie had me saying "Okay, okay..is it done yet?" Anywho to counter balance that I found the villain who runs on wind-up clock-work really cool. I'd have to say it's worth a try.

As an aside I just want to mention that I really don't understand why some religious groups are protesting this movie. There is really nothing that bad in it. It's like Men In Black with a Demon. Big deal. Some people need to quit crying over everything that they don't agree with and quit tring to impose their beliefs on others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Doug Jones as Abe Sapien and Ron Perlman as Hellboy.

Untill tommorow I'll just keep movin' on..doot,doot,doot,doot....

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 18:47 | link | comments (4)

10,000 hits! Woohoo!...

Today at around 2 pm this here very weblog reached 10,000 hits! Woohoo! I started this blog on September 2nd 2003, so that means that we've reache dthis number in just over 7 months! Wow! Thanks to everyone who reads this!

Today's Sponsor:

 

 

 

 

Advertise Here - e-mail me!

Cool blog...

Another cool blog on motime can be found here at: http://biteme.motime.com Just some kinda cool stuff. For somereason the comment function isn't working, but that's OK!

Internet Junk...

Through this that previously mentioned blog I found a site called www.internetjunk.org They have a bajillion personality tests there. I'll share with you fine folks the results that I recieved form a few of them:

The past life test:
Your Results:

You were male in your last earthly incarnation.

You were born somewhere around the territory of which we now know as modern East Australia, approximately in the year 1775.

Your main profession was: leader of a powerful and feared army.

A brief psychological profile of you in that past life:
Timid, constrained, quiet person. You had creative talents, that waited until later in that life to be liberated. Sometimes others considered you strange.

A lesson that your last past life wishes you to learn in your present life is:
It always seemed to you, that you perceptions of the world are somewhat different. Your lesson is to trust your intuition as the best guide in this present life.

The Creativity test:

 

The eccentric test:

You Are 46% Eccentric!

You have your share of quirks and funny habits, but if you don't voice those thoughts your 'other side' is putting in your head, you can usually pass yourself off as a normal person. You tend to be an average person, but that doesn't mean you have to follow what the majority of the people think all the time.

The warning label test:

And finally, my personal favorite;

The pornstar name generator:

lightning, from this day forward, your Porn Star name shall be....

Skip  Windsor

Well, that's enough fun for now, be back tommorow with...a review of Hellboy!

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 14:08 | link | comments (2)

Yesterday...

Yesterday Pam and I slept in, she came to mom & dad's Friday night to pick me up, but we decided to stay over. Scooter stayed with us too! So we left around 11:30 we made a short stop at Pam's parents. Then came home. We vegged and cleaned in turns. Then I made Pam sit in the bedroon for over a half hour while I set up some sneaky plans. I shaved and did my hair and stocke dup the van.

We went for a drive and I surprised her with an early supper in the form a surprise picnic! Then we sat around and talked. Then I took her on another surprise drive to Port Elgin to the theatre. We decided to catch the early show of Hellboy. By the time we got out the weather was horrible, but we made time to stop at Pizza Delight and pick up a Pizza.

Then we watched MAD TV and SNL.

Be back tommorow...

Mike

Today's Sponsor...

 

 

 

Advertise Here - e-mail me!

Posted by: lightning at 20:20 | link | comments (2)

PENANCE BLOG

Holy crap have things busy!

As promised here is the stuff I've been wanting to talk about.

(Thurday doesn't count as a penance blog because Motime was down)

Today's Sponsor:

 

 

Advertise Here - e-mail me!

Plugs...

Comics pal Jay Marcy has a great offering right now. He's reprinted his classic Marcy Musings mini-comic series into one collected edition. It's only 3 bucks and has a full color cover. For more info head on over to his site at: http://www.geocities.com/dayswithjay/

Sweet Justice! My new concept with Makma Comics is now officially titled Sweet Justice. I've accepted the help and talent of Makma's Seb Hombel as Co-creator. Seb is a well known creator in France and is the mind behind a popular manga-esque comic strip in France called PLOUF! Seb will be handling the art. The project is being produced as a co-venture with Makma Comics. The original script is being turned into a 5 page entry for Digital Webbing Presents. We have now spun the short story into a series pitch for Image, which would be produced by Makma Comics. The series centres around a group of homeless kids. Thier protector and mother figure is a young homeless girl named Marie Sweet. Marie and her rag-tag band of misfits will have to encounter the ravages of homelessness, crooked police, psychos, and angry mobsters. That's all I'm tellin' fer now!

That Andrew Foster is one sexy biyatch - Well okay, maybe not to ME, but maybe to you? I gotta get back on the forum there soon! His new trade of his series is available now too! A good investment for 10 bucks, check it out at: http://www.geocities.com/dayswithjay/

I know that I had other plugs.......

Captain Canuck - Things are running smoothly. The cover will be by indie sensation Kevin Clorey, 8 page story by self-publisher Tom Muzzell, 5 pager by indie vet Nelson Danielson, and more details to come soon! (PS. I'm writting the feature and several other stories)

Monkies & Midgets - I have some sweet art samples by Nelson Danielson! I'll post them tommorow time willing!

Doteasy...

Ripped by those crooked bastards again. Now I have to renew my services every 6 months instead of annually. And now they only give 5 days notice. Plus you have to pay an additional $15 US as a processing fee if you want to pay by check or money order. How ridiculous is that? So I got my notice on the Friday before I left. The short notice gave me no time to find a new hosting server, so I basically had to have Pam send them payment after I left so that I'd still have a website when I got back. Mark my words, in 6 months I WILL get a new web server.

Well Anyway BRB...

Mike

Posted by: lightning at 20:14 | link | comments