I mentioned this in passing on my Twitter account the other day, but as it was officially announced today, I thought I'd post a few more details.



WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit
by Alan J. Porter

Looking for a way to increase team collaboration, manage your company’s knowledge? Do you need a way to manage projects with customers or suppliers outside your company firewall? Would you like your customers to provide feedback on the information you publish? Then a wiki might be just what you are looking for.

Perhaps you have already decided that you should use a wiki, but are not sure how to go about it. Maybe you have a wiki but would like to encourage more people to use it. Or you would just like to learn more about the practical applications for this fast growing technology.

Then this is the book for you.

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit will introduce the concept of wikis, and show why they are becoming the must-have communications and collaboration technology for businesses of any size.

The book will also include several case studies highlighting the ways that various companies are using wikis to solve differing business and communications issues, and the resulting benefits in terms of both efficiency and customer satisfaction.

WIKI: Grow Your Own for Fun and Profit will be available early next year, but we will keep you informed with excerpts and news along the way.

The official web site for the project is HERE, and it will be updated as the project progresses.

Last Saturday I did a signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore in Round Rock to promote JAMES BOND: The history of the illustrated 007. I've done a handful of signings before, but this one was just that little bit special.

Firstly it was my "local" bookstore, which meant that several friends who don't normally make the signings I've done elsewhere in the Austin area turned up. In fact one of them mentioned that now I had done a signing at the local store, they realized I was actually a writer. (I guess "seeing is believing.")

Secondly, my parents are in town, and this was the first time they had attended any of my book signings.

Thirdly, this was the store where I worked during my brief, three week career as a book seller back at the end of 2006. I got to chat with a few of the people who I'd worked with, and to be brutally honest knowing that I'd gone from behind the register to the "guest author" table added a little extra something to the occasion.

The signing itself went well, and I was pleasantly surprised that we almost sold out.


At B&N chatting with comics writing buddy Matthew Sturges.

I've mentioned before that I've pretty much actively stopped pitching to the magazine market due to the reduced number of opportunities.

I still pitch the occasional article idea to magazines I have done work for in the past, for instance I have an article in an upcoming Back Issue, but the main focus of my writing these days is comics, the web, and book projects.

When I see figures like these I think I made the right decision.

Magazine Closures in the US
2007 - 591 titles ceased publication
2008 - 525 titles ceased publication,

The number of titles that have disappeared so far in 2009 - 40

Even though I've been lucky enough to have articles published in over twenty different magazines, it's not a market I actively pursue anymore.

Why?

This is why...

Many of you may have already received this from me in email, but I thought it might also be fun to post it up here in case I've missed anyone who would like to contribute.

******

As part of Hermes Press' upcoming volume of Time Tunnel comic reprints I am working on an accompanying feature article on "Time Travel TV," and wondered if some of you may have a few minutes to answer some quick questions.

1. Do you enjoy TV shows that have a strong Time Travel theme or premise.

2. What is it about time-travel stories that you find appealing?

3. Do you prefer stories that visit historical events from the past, or those that make speculative predictions about the future?

4. What makes a good time travel story work?

5. What makes a bad time travel story fail?

6. Which TV are your favorite time travel TV show/s and why?

7. Do you have any particular memories of Irwin Allen’s TV show “Time Tunnel”

8. Did you like it? Why (or even why not)?

Apparently I'm a "Featured Author" on the excellent Library Thing site today.

OK, a challenge to my fellow geeks - For an upcoming book proposal I need to compile a list of comics super-heroes who are either based in Texas, or were from Texas originally.

Any suggestions folks?

Yesterday I received my advance author's copy of JAMES BOND: The history of the illustrated 007. I'm very happy with the look of the final product - so thought I'd share a sneak peek of what to expect when the book starts shipping on November 11th.

My first interview about the upcoming release of JAMES BOND: The history of the illustrated 007 is now online at the excellent PULSE website.

Catch me chatting Bond with Jen Contino by clicking HERE.

Covers from various translated reprints of the comics adaptation of the first original James Bond newspaper strip, The Harpies, written by Jim Lawrence.

Denmark


Original UK Newspaper Strip title


Find out more on the history of James Bond in comics, check out JAMES BOND: A history of the illustrated 007, due in bookstores in November.

The most excellent specialist book store, Murder By The Book, has posted it on their website, so I guess this is now official...



So if you are in the Houston, TX area around Thanksgiving, make sure to stop by and chat 007.

I mentioned this on Twitter last night. There seems to be a stark contrast between the way I keep my desks at the office and home organized.

Check this out..
At the day job


In my home office.


gr8noise suggested the difference was down to "passion." In that "the day job is for pay and the home office is a whirlwind of activity that you would do for free."

I think he has a point. I also think it has to do with different mind sets. At the day job I need to be the analytical, clear thinking guy in control.

The office space at home is where I let the creative side have full reign. Here my mind is in a more chaotic state and I often have multiple creative projects going on at once.

Well that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

One of those illuminating, yet in retrospect obvious, pearls of advice from last night's comics writers group get together...

Every panel should contain action.

..in other words something should happen in each panel to make it visually interesting. Even if you have two people sat chatting in a coffee shop, have one of them reach for his cup.

As the two regular readers of this blog know, when I'm on a business related road trip I usually post a little something about the city I'm visiting, sometimes it's detailed thoughts and observations, other time it's just the odd observational comment. But I've now been in Santa Fe, New Mexico for two days now and haven't posted anything. Why is that you may ask? (And if you didn't - shame on you!)

Well it's all Gill's fault.

On the drive up from Albuquerque to Santa Fe we decided to take the scenic back road known as the Turquoise Trail. About half way along we stopped in the old mining town of Madrid, where my amazing wife persuaded me to do something I've been contemplating for a couple of years now.

Purchase a journal.

Not just a standard blank journal that you might find in any old book store, but a hand crafted one with a hand stitched leather cover encasing several hundred pages of hand-made pulp paper. The sort of thing those Victorian adventurers who made intrepid trips across dark continents would have used to log their travels.

Over the years I've seen journals like this I've always loved the pure feel and smell of these type of books. They seem to exude a promise of journeys to come, and discoveries to be made.

But I've always wondered what I'd use one for - until Gill stated the obvious - "Use it to keep your own travel journal - a written one for a change."

Wow - what a concept - paper-blogging using a pen instead of a keyboard - can I actually do that?

Who knows, but I intend to try. So during this trip, and hopefully trips to come, I'll be attempting to capture my thoughts and observations in a more traditional style.

I'll still post the occasional electronic blog note, and may even include a few extracts from the note book as I go.

So what I need now is a good title for the travel journal. - Any ideas?

Been a busy week on the comics production front...

(1) Last weekend I wrote my first pass at blocking out the story page breakdown for CARS #1 - on Tuesday presented to the comics writers group I belong to - and they promptly tore it to shreds. And it was the right thing to do - every comment they made was valid. Since then I've been thinking over a couple of different approaches for the story, and think I have a good fix. The plan is to spend this evening reworking the breakdown.

(2) Mid-week I finished and submitted an article on the phenomenon that was James Bond Jr. for BACK ISSUE magazine. The editor liked it and it's scheduled for issue #33 - which should be in stores early next year

(3) Sitting on my desk is the printers proof for the new Q-MAN flip book that will combine the two Q-MAN online promotional comics that I produced for the "day-job" into a print book to be given away at trade shows over the next 12 months.

(4) Talking of the "day-job" I've been spending a fair amount of time in various online and email discussions about Google's Chrome comic and Instructional Comics in general. I blogged about it here and here.

I had an e-mail this afternoon from my editor saying I could announce this on my blog... so guess what? I'm announcing it...

I will be writing the new Disney-Pixar CARS comic book series for BOOM! Studios.

Yes, this is the work-for-hire gig I alluded to a few days ago. No official launch date yet, but it is most likely some time in early 2009.

The announcement that BOOM would be producing books based on the Disney-Pixar movies was made at San Diego back in July. The evening it became official I attached myself to the editor at the Hyatt Bar, sobbed in to his beer, and begged to be given a chance to write CARS. The following morning I trailed him around the convention floor pitching ideas, until, in order to shut me up, he suggested that I put these insane babblings about anthropomorphic motor vehicles down on paper and send them in.

Amazingly, both he, and the kind, wonderful, folks at Disney liked them enough to actually ask me to write a few scripts.

This is the first time that Disney-Pixar has allowed anyone outside the studio to create original stories using their characters, and I'm looking forward to playing in their toy box.

Radiator Springs - here I come...

Last night's "Beyond The Strip" comics writing event at the Spiderhouse Cafe was "interesting" from a variety of different viewpoints.

I'd never been to the Spiderhouse before and wasn't exactly sure where it was. It turned out to be right on the edge of the University of Texas campus, which meant there'd be as much chance of finding a nearby open parking space as there would be of finding snow on the sidewalks. Sure enough I ended up parking on the far side of an adjacent park and walking back to the coffee house. I should have left my truck at the diner where I'd eaten dinner an hour before as I would have had less distance to walk.

On my trek to the Spiderhouse I caught sight of fellow panelist Tony Salvaggio who was also circling looking for some where to park. (I had a couple of emails this morning from people who had driven over to the event but gave up after looking for a non-existent parking spot.)

The Spiderhouse turned out to be a typical funky eclectic type of Austin hangout with the coffee house part being outdoors spread around a courtyard, while off to the side was a small wooden building that held the bar area.

There seemed to be some confusion when I got there as the venue had been double booked and the shaded side patio area we had intended to use was occupied. We left the Writers League organizers to sort things out and retired to the bar to try and keep cool. In fact I think it was hotter in the bar than it was outside. Gradually the rest of the panel arrived, Matt Sturges, Paul Benjamin, Scott Kollins and moderator Rick Klaw. Unfortunately the heat was getting to Rick and he started to feel unwell and had to head home. Paul volunteered to step into the moderators role. Also on site was Brad Bankston, Dave Justus and the crew from Austin Books & Comics who set up a table to try and move copies of various books with our names on the covers.


Fellow panelists: Scott Kollins, Matt Sturges, Paul Benjamin, Tony Salvaggio.

At the appointed start time we headed out to find out that the panel had been set up on the main stage facing the large courtyard area. People who had come for the panel set up in the first couple of rows of tables. We didn't have a microphone so had to try an project our voices into the large open space in front of us, over the background noise of the busy cafe and bar. As a result only the people at the front could really hear us clearly - we tried our best but from what I was told afterward the people at the back could only catch about half of what we were saying - I just hope it was the good half.


The crowd gathers.

From my perspective the panel seemed to go very well with a free flowing conversation during which we emphasized the diversity of comics, gave a few pointers on the differences between writing comics and prose, and answered the inevitable "how do you break in" question.

I guess we talked and answered questions for about two hours, and could have kept going a lot longer.

The general consensus afterward from panelists and attendees alike was that we'd love to repeat the exercise, but at a venue that has parking, air conditioning, and where people can hear us. Maybe at a book store - like Austin Books for example - or even Book People or a local B&N.

Someone suggested trying to do something during the upcoming Texas Book Festival - that would be perfect if it can be arranged.



Scott Kollins listens as I do my usual trick of talking by waving my hands around.