Hullo.

I have been considering how “French” is deployed as an aesthetic tactic to elevate things. Like “French Kissing” sounds classy when it means “Putting spit and tongue in the face hole.”

I’ll miss you

My Big Mouth

My Bad Writing

Links

Byyyyeeee!!!

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It says a lot about last week that when writing the newsletter I forgot a little thing.

The last issue of The Wicked + the Divine went to press.

It should be out on September 4th.

Which means the final trade has been pulled together, and also rushing off to the printers.

It should be out on October 2nd.

This is the week of New York Comic Con.

We are hoping to be there.

We are also hoping to celebrate, so be aware that we are trying to find a place for a WicDiv wake and dance party.

How does it feel to be finished?

It’s complicated, but good complicated. Jamie’s done incredible work. Matt’s done incredible work. Clayton’s done incredible work. I’m happy with the final issue. It’s incredibly strange to see the final beat which I first explained to Chrissy way back in 2014 actually there, on the page.

The strangest, most natural thing is how it’s creeping into the world. Friends who are close readers now have the full picture. I’ve had a friend at Comixology message me that she has the pages, and has read it. It’ll be with others soon. This idea which was just ours becoming everyone is magical and humbling.

I really can’t wait for you to read it.

It’s also made me think of ending rituals. I did say I was going to do writer notes on the whole of the WicDiv Playlist, but I suspect I won’t, at least in any detailed way. Partially as I haven’t the time, and partially as I don’t think it’ll be useful.

If WicDiv has managed to purge my desire to use ritual in ways that trap me implies that it actually worked. That’s the scariest thing of all.

Christ. It’ll be with you all in two weeks. I can’t believe that.

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There’s been a lot of people saying how much they enjoyed this interview about my current place in the world. It was done about an hour after finishing scripting WicDiv, so some of the berserk energy of the time leaked into it. I’m certainly more honest than I suspect is advisable. Here’s something I’ve basically been saying to people in terms of why I’m doing what I’ve been doing for the last few years…

“ I mean, it's very high-faluting, but if you're in a position to make something genuinely new, you should grab that chance, if you've got something to say. If not, great. But if you genuinely think you can make a useful myth ... because it's one of situations like yeah, I've really liked writing Star Wars, but imagine if George Lucas, instead of doing Star Wars, he did Buck Rogers. You know, he took Buck Rogers and remade it. Yeah, it would have been great. But we wouldn't have Star Wars.”

… and lots more in the interview.

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I tweeted a bit of Once & Future Script.

I am very smart writer. Also, as Greg Pak pointed out, I don’t even stick to my nonsense. I’m incompetent at being ironically incompetent.

In passing, when you see the panel, Dan nailed it.

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The week has mainly been off at World Con Dublin, which left my inbox a hell. It’s mostly tamed now.

It was my first World Con. I’ve done the last two Easter Cons, which were my first experience of the (primarily) literary fantasy cons. I say Primarily – there’s lost of other fan action in there, but this at its heart about the novels. They also work entirely unlike the rhythm of a comic con. It normally leaves comic creators confused.

At a comic con, ideally, you will leave with more money than you arrived with. At World Con, you will almost certainly leave with less money than you arrived.

There was the lovely moment at a Dinner when a comic friend of mine realised that everyone around the table had paid to be here.

I tend to use the “this is a space where ‘fan’ and ‘creator’ is less delineated than a comic con.” As someone who always liked the relative egalitarianism of comic cons, I’m attracted to this. Still – it also feels more like an industry event, just an industry event where fans are also more part of the industry than comics. You go to a comic con to connect to your readers and find new ones. It seems much more that you go to a World Con to speak to and with your peers (or would-be peers)

It was a lot of fun. It’s entirely not my world (so I am constantly learning new stuff and meeting new people) while being just about notorious in my own field enough to be viewed as exotic by folks in that world (so probably worth talking to).

I also need to work out who actually did write Scorpion Swamp, which is another story.

(Five votes short of being on the short list for the Graphic Story at the hugos too, which made me smile.)

Oh – I started a new project idly on Saturday night which may just be for my own amusement. Let’s call it PROJECT BRIGHTER SHADE OF BLUE. This is very much experimental stuff, but I’m lucky enough that I had space to have a little play. Trying to create space to have a little play was basically one of my goals for this year. It’s easy as a freelance writer to just cascade from one job to the next in a panic. Taking a step back to survey the terrain is something I’ve planned hard for.

That said, I also just threw something else on my plate, as a fool and his spare time are easily parted.

What’s up in terms of work for the next week?

I really, genuinely, honestly will finish Ludocrats 3, stop looking at me like that Chrissy.