From Zine to Bestseller: In Aug. 1, 2010, I cut out this article form the Edmonton
Journal. I like this article because
it’s about a writer named Jeff Miller who has been writing since he was a
teenager and he gets published. I have
been writing TV scripts since I was 14 yrs old, and I had 2 short stories and a
poem published in the Canadian Poetry Institute. Miller is truly successful. Read the first paragraph of the article:
From zine to bestseller
Julie Fortier, Postmedia News
Published: Sunday,
August 01 2010
1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, Stieg Larsson.
2. Ghost Pine: All Stories True, Jeff Miller.
3. The Girl Who Played with Fire, Stieg Larsson.
4. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson.
"Yeah I know, it's kind of funny how it turned out," Miller said from his current home of Montreal.
Even Miller's publisher, Robbie MacGregor at Invisible Publishing, said he was "a little surprised" the collection of true, hilarious, and at times extremely touching stories Miller has been working on since he was 16 years old in a zine by the same name would be able to edge out the Swedish murder mystery powerhouse of Stieg Larsson.
Ghost Pine was also on the Montreal Gazette's top 10 bestsellers list for three consecutive weeks in May and is on track to have a reprint by early fall.
"We realize he's no Stieg Larsson, but for a Canadian indie title -- and especially a zine anthology -- we think that's pretty decent," MacGregor said.
"Jeff Miller's book, his stories, his style -- they're personal. He's been carving out a space for himself, and readers have been responding."
In his collection, Miller recounts the time he moved to Japan to be with his morose girlfriend only to be dumped the day after arriving, the time he disappointed some "Ottawa Valley crackheads" who forced him to clean out his meagre bank account at an ATM in Ottawa's financial district, the dishevelled tours across Canada as a band roadie and many other tales; some big, some small. Just as the title indicates, all the stories are in fact true, a style he said is rooted in the do-it-yourself zine subculture.
He started writing in his parents' Ottawa home while a high school student in the mid-1990s, when the punk DIY approach to music, as well as publishing, was in full swing. "It was something I could do alone in my room, and at that time in my life I spent a lot of time in my room, like most teenagers do," he said laughing.
Miller said several of his zines are still in print, and he estimates he has sold somewhere around 10,000 copies over the years. Most of his fans are in North America, but he has sent copies as far as Australia and Malaysia.
Stories are not in chronological order, and many take place in Montreal, which he has called home since 1999. He attended Concordia University as an English literature major and is going back for his master's degree in the fall.
Miller is also working on a novel, but he has no plans to stop writing his zine.
"Once you get started on it, it becomes a lifelong obsession. ... There's this production mode that becomes such a nice antidote to going crazy with editing. You get to take out some clip art and get out the glue stick and scissors, bike down to the coffee shop and figure it out."
To purchase a copy of Ghost Pine: All Stories True, go to ghostpine. ghostpine.wordpress.com.
Touch: Back in Jan. 2012, I wrote about the pilot Touch. Here’s an excerpt:
Jan. 25 Touch: Today I finally saw the
pilot to Touch. It's by Tim Kring, the guy who created Heroes.
He's really creative and a great writer. On Heroes, it was about a
group of people all around the world who had superpowers. They were all
connected to one another. If you watch Touch, it's about a group of people
who are all connected with one another.
I was very inspired by it. Tim Kring had said in this article I read in 24: "This is really a chance to continue what you would call social-benefit storytelling, the idea of using archetypal narrative to create and promote a positive energy in the world."
I was very inspired by it. Tim Kring had said in this article I read in 24: "This is really a chance to continue what you would call social-benefit storytelling, the idea of using archetypal narrative to create and promote a positive energy in the world."
My opinion: I didn’t watch this show after the
pilot. I was really busy with work, and
I was cutting down on TV. I didn’t pick
up a lot of TV shows. I went on Wikipedia
and the show got cancelled after 2 seasons.
I like that above quote by Kring. In the 24 article, there is another good
quote by him: “As storytellers, we want to reserve the right to say there is
some other idea floating above it, something spiritual or supernatural.”
I’m going to put it in my inspirational quotes collection.
Nov. 26 Stan Lee: I cut out this article called “Spider-Man
co-creator offers lesson in superhero history” by Russ Bynum. It was published back in Nov. 2, 2012.
It’s how he got started in the comic book business. I only copy and pasted a few excerpts from
the article. He’s really nice and paid a
visit to the Savannah College of Art and Design to meet the students and see
their work.
"They gave me a big eraser and I had to go over the pages to make sure the pencil marks didn't show," after artists finished their drawings in black ink, Lee said Wednesday as he revealed this to an awestruck classroom of art students on the Georgia coast. "You guys are actually drawing. I never got past erasing."
"It's not a throne?" Lee quipped as he sat in a plastic chair at the head of a table surrounded by 11 students, each one with broadsheet pages of their works-in-progress, bottles of ink and an iPad.
If Lee himself possessed a superpower, it would be his ability to conquer the generation gap. The young artists he met seem as familiar with Lee as they are with his costumed heroes.
"You see Stan Lee and everyone knows who he is," said art student Dan Glasl. "Every kid has this part of their life where they're this awkward, geeky sort of kid. And Spider-Man is the character every kid can put themselves into."
"We just hoped that a book we were drawing would sell so we could keep our jobs and pay the rent," he said. "We never for one minute thought there would be schools where they teach this."-Stan Lee
http://www2.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=73785f9c-86a2-4b5d-9859-24dde719a9c8
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