I’ve been working on transcription recently, i.e. the task of getting a stack of typed pages converted into a digital format for future editing. It’s an important albeit somewhat mindless task. I’ve transcribed approximately 33 pages of material so far. I have a tendency to start new stories, shape them until I understand where they are going, then lay them aside and completely forget about them. That’s how I ended up with a stack of 150+ pages of unfinished first drafts.

So far in my transcription I’ve rediscovered stories about: a man whose business is wreaking vengeance in the classical Greek style; a family of misfits with the unfortunate surname of Heaven; a group of goblins going on an epic fantasy quest to get those damn, dirty humans out of their hair once and for all; an aging vampire failing to fit in at these new-fangled vampire raves; a humorous piece of metafiction starring a self-aware protagonist who finds himself stranded in a low-budget Alien knockoff; a brothel staffed by legendary monsters offering all manner of strange sexual services; a ghost story in the style of a hard-boiled detective tale; an amnesiac soldier who finds himself trapped in a luxurious castle prison; another satirical adventure tale starring turn-of-the-century amateur adventurer Harry Hominid; and various odds and ends already mentioned in previous posts.

I guess you could say I’ve been busy.

I’m also in the market for a new set of business cards. I think I’m going to include this image on them:

It’s a killer gnome from my upcoming contribution to Skin Crawling Comics. His name is Ernie.