Big announcement time!

Over the weekend I signed a contract with a Boston-based indie comic company, Underdog Comics, to write a mini-comic for them. It’s a steampunk adventure called Freedom Winds and features a crew of women pirates fighting the so-called “triangle trade” during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Underdog Comics’ overarching mission is to increase diversity in media, and that’s a mission I can get behind.

I met the company’s founder, Tessa, at Arisia 2018, and after talking about Action Figures and what I try to do with that series in terms of representation, she asked if I’d be interested in writing a script for her. She had a couple of concepts in need of a writer, one of which was “steampunk pirate women.” By the end of the day I’d come up with some characters and a basic concept, and I spent the following week fleshing it out. I finished the script this past weekend and submitted it on Sunday.

Tessa herself will be the artist on the mini-comic, and I’ve already seen some of her character sketches. They’re looking pretty damn cool.

Freedom Winds is scheduled for a March release. I’ll keep you all updated as things progress.

WRITING PROJECTS

Well Behaved Women: Got some more work done but, for time constraint reasons, not as much as I’d hoped. My day gig is back in full swing, though so hopefully I’ll return to pounding out more than a page a day. In the meantime, I managed to finish work on one of the costumes for the March photo shoot, and I think it looks pretty damn good.

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – book four: First draft in progress.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: Edited and formatted, waiting on cover art.

Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling from the Wreckage: Third draft written.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Rough plotting in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins (audiobook): Review completed, final editing in progress.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

• Saturday, February 17, 5 PM to 9 PM: Connecticut Renaissance Faire/Robin Hood’s Faire Meet the Directors Mixer. The producers of the Connecticut Renaissance Faire in Lebanon, CT and Robin Hood’s Faire, which has relocated this year to Lancaster, MA, are hosting a special promotional event at their Southbridge, MA headquarters to drum up interest in this year’s auditions for the two shows. If you’re interested, stop on by to meet with the directors — including me! I’ll be returning to the spring show as fight director.

MISC.

I’m taking part in a month-long cross-promotion with several other superhero fiction authors, and until January 31 you can grab Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins along with 32 other titles for free!

It’s the final countdown for the New England Speculative Writers group’s open call for its first anthology. If you’re a New England-based writer, you’re eligible to submit a story. The deadline for submission is January 31, so get cracking! Go here to get the full details.

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