RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE: NICE THINGS FAMOUS PEOPLE HAVE SAID #1

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE: NICE THINGS FAMOUS PEOPLE HAVE SAID #1

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I'm going to direct you to Rain's page on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Rain-Ghosts-Greg-Weisman/dp/1250029791

You may notice that they've posted a brief tease of the book there, which I may as well reprint here:

First in a series about of an adventurous young girl, Rain Cacique, who discovers she has a mystery to solve, a mission to complete and, oh, yes, the ability to see ghosts.

Welcome to the Prospero Keys (or as the locals call them: the Ghost Keys), a beautiful chain of tropical islands on the edge of the Bermuda Triangle. Rain Cacique is water-skiing with her two best friends Charlie and Miranda when Rain sees her father waiting for her at the dock. Sebastian Bohique, her maternal grandfather, has passed away. He was the only person who ever made Rain feel special. The only one who believed she could do something important with her life. The only thing she has left to remember him by is the armband he used to wear: two gold snakes intertwined, clasping each other's tails in their mouths. Only the armband . . . and the gift it brings: Rain can see dead people. Starting with the Dark Man: a ghost determined to reveal the Ghost Keys' hidden world of mystery and mysticism, intrigue and adventure.

They've also posted some quotations from a handful of folks, who have already read the book. More often than not, these are merely partial quotes, so I'm going to post the full quotation here over the next few days, starting with:

"From his work on DC's cartoon Young Justice to his first novel, Rain of the Ghosts, he hits it out of the park every time!" -Danica McKellar, actress and New York Times bestselling author Math Doesn't Suck

Danica, of course, is the voice of "Miss Martian/M'gann M'orzz/Megan Morse, Marie Logan/Megan Wheeler and Tuppence Terror on Young Justice, which is how I met her.

Here's Danica's full quotation:

"Greg Weisman really 'gets' the deep-seated emotional angst of teenagers, and he's an expert at creating complex stories filled with intrigue, mystery, drama, fantasy, adventure, you name it - always with just enough comedy peppered throughout. From his work on DC's cartoon 'Young Justice' to his first novel, 'Rain of the Ghosts,' he hits it out of the park every time!"

Pretty cool, huh?

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Ten

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Ten:

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I've decided to countdown my progress on writing the SECOND book in the Rain franchise.

I just finished writing Chapter Ten. Rain's asleep throughout most of the chapter, but that doesn't mean there isn't a LOT going on. Especially among the more nefarious members of our cast. This chapter was very wide-ranging. But it was fun to write - especially the last couple pages.

Intrigued yet?

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE, EARLY GALLEYS

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE, EARLY GALLEYS

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I'm keeping you updated on the book's progress.

Today, I received a couple copies of what my editor at St. Martin's Press calls "Some early galleys. Close to a book!"

And, in fact, it looks pretty much like a book to me!

I don't know about you guys, but I'm pretty darn excited!

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Nine

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Nine

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I've decided to countdown my progress on writing the SECOND book in the Rain franchise.

I just finished writing Chapter Nine. It's the longest chapter in the book so far. There was a LOT of expository information to cover, but I hope I did it in an entertaining way.

Hopefully, you guys'll be the judge of that soon enough.

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Eight

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Eight

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I've decided to countdown my progress on writing the SECOND book in the Rain franchise.

I just finished writing Chapter Eight. I think it turned out to be a fairly authentic conversation over dinner between a thirteen-year-old and her parents. I hope so, anyway. Need to ground my magical fantasy in some truly human reality.

Hopefully, you guys'll be the judge of that soon enough.

ASK GREG LIVE - Correcting the web

So, I still maintain that ASK GREG LIVE was a great success, but I've seen a few posts on the interwebs that... undercut that success a bit.

With the best intentions, I'm sure, people have attempted to relate what I said, and although they got a lot right, they also got a bunch of stuff wrong. They either misheard me or mistyped or related the information second-hand or whatever, but I'm going to try to set some of the misconceptions straight.

Myth #1: "Greg categorically stated that Wally West is dead and will never come back."

I did not. Surprisingly, I was not even asked this question and thus never responded to it at all. Now, let me be clear. I also have not stated categorically that Wally West is not dead will definitely come back. And I'm not going to do either. Let me illustrate why with an example:

You've seen memorial holograms for Jason Todd/Robin and Tula/Aquagirl. There are four potential scenarios for those two characters coming back:

Scenario A) Both are going to come back.

Scenario B) Jason is going to come back, but Tula is staying dead.

Scenario C) Tula is going to come back, but Jason is staying dead.

Scenario D) Both are staying dead.

Break it down like this, and it becomes clear why I won't answer any questions about either character in this regard. Assume, just as a hypothetical example, our plan was Scenario C. Then someone asks me about Jason. They say, the show is over; if he's really dead, why not tell us. This sounds logical (in the moment), so I state that Jason is staying dead. No harm, no foul. I've only confirmed something that the show itself already stated. No big deal. That is, until someone else asked me about Tula. I don't want to answer this one, of course, because I want her resurrection to be a surprise. But I also don't want to lie. So I go for my standard "SPOILER REQUEST. NO COMMENT." But then someone realizes that I was willing to be clear about Jason, but not about Tula. Ipso facto, Tula must be coming back. And I've just spoiled my own show. Which, as I'm sure you know, I am quite LOATHE to do. Clear?

Myth #2: "Greg stated that they killed off Wally instead of Barry because Barry's death would be too telegraphed."

That's almost exactly the OPPOSITE of what I said. Rather, in response to comments I've seen that Wally's death was out of the blue, I said I found those comments to be ironic, because Brandon and I spent the whole season afraid we were telegraphing WALLY's death too much. We cut lines of dialogue from and about Wally because we thought it would send too obvious a signal that Wally was going to buy it at the end. (And this is NOT meant as a statement with regards to Myth #1 above. As far as Season Two is concerned, Wally is considered dead. What that may bode for the future, is something that I won't respond to for the reasons outlined above.)

We did - at the very beginning of the season's development - briefly consider taking out Barry instead of Wally. But we decided that Barry was too much of a minor character, and that his death would have no resonance for our audience, would exact no cost. I suppose, as some have argued, we could have spent the entire season bulking up Barry's part to make sure his end had resonance, but we didn't have either the screen time or, frankly, the desire to do that. Wally mattered to our audience. Even with relatively little screen time in Season Two, he MATTERED. And I think the proof that we made the correct choice is obvious in how it's torn fans apart over his demise. It hurts. It hurt us too. I still well up watching that scene - and I've seen it dozens of times by now. It is sad. It's supposed to be sad when a hero that we love dies. Given that, I don't have any regrets.

Myth #3: "Greg stated that Ocean-Master will have a huge roll in Young Justice: Legacy."

No, I didn't say anything of the sort. You guys have seen the villains who are participating in Legacy. You already KNOW he's not in there.

Myth #4: "Greg stated that Troia will have a huge roll in Legacy."

No, I did not. You already know the heroes participating in Legacy - except for the these-are-just-for-fun-and-don't-count-toward-the-canon-story characters. You already KNOW she's not participating in the story.

Myth #5: "Greg stated that Mary Batson is Lieutenant Marvel."

No, I did not. First off, I've never once mentioned anyone named Mary Batson. I have mentioned Mary Bromfield. But she is NOT Lieutenant Marvel. I did give a small spoiler about the Marvel Family at ASK GREG LIVE, but I'm going to leave it as a prize for those who attended in person.

Myth #6: "Greg stated that the plan from day one was to use Donna in Season One and Cassie in Season Two."

This is more of a half-truth. EARLY, early on, Donna was one of our leading candidates for Season One. This was before we had even narrowed things down very much. And BEFORE any true decisions were made, we were informed by our DC Liasons that both Wonder Girls were off-limits for legal reasons that were never explained to us. (So don't ask me.) So neither Wonder Girl was seriously considered. Then Geoff Johns came aboard and made both Wonder Girls available. Unfortunately, by that time, it was flat out too late to include Donna. So we decided we'd put Cassie in Season Two. And have Donna be one of the characters who joined and left the Team during the timeskip, and cameo her in Season Two. Unfortunately, for reasons reported fairly accurately from ASK GREG LIVE, we were unable to cameo either Troia or Mary at Rocket's bridal shower because there just wasn't time for Phil Bourassa to design FOUR new characters, i.e. the two girls in both their civilian and super-hero costumes. Had they appeared in "Satisfaction", then they would have also had cameos in "Endgame", since their designs would already have been completed. But since they didn't appear in the earlier episode, we weren't able to get them at all. This is a sadness to me. But there are realities of production that we're all subject to.

Myth #7: "Greg stated that rumors about DC wanting Wally killed off were 'complete horses#!t.'"

I NEVER used the term "Horses#!t" and never would. I clearly said "complete bulls#!t."

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE, Chapters Sixteen - Nineteen

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE, Chapters Sixteen - Nineteen

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I'm updating you on my progress proofreading the proofs of the book. (Yes, it's ridiculous, but I did use the word 'shameless' now, didn't I?)

This is a painstaking process. I'm going through each chapter sentence by sentence, trying to be careful with each word, each punctuation point.

Tonight, I finished proofing Chapters Sixteen through Nineteen, which means I finished, since the book has nineteen chapters.

Here are all the changes I've indicated in these last four chapters:

P. 169
In third paragraph, remove comma after "right waist gunner".

P. 170
In second full paragraph, change "Belle's" to "Belles". All italics. Plural, not possessive.

P. 176
In sixth full paragraph, change "Belle's" to "Belle's", taking the italics off the "'s".

P. 181
In first paragraph, change "Sam" to Sam's".

P. 201
In chapter title, change "Bontemps Rouler" to "bontemps rouler".

Admit it. You're intrigued.

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Seven

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK TWO COUNTDOWN, Chapter Seven

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I've decided to countdown my progress on writing the SECOND book in the Rain franchise.

I just finished writing Chapter Seven. It's kind of sweet in its way, and represents an important - if subtle - turning point for Rain. Of course, now that I've posted about it - so much for subtle, right?

Man, I hate spoilers.

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE, Chapters Thirteen - Fifteen

RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, BOOK ONE UPDATE, Chapters Thirteen - Fifteen

In my on-going shameless attempt to maintain buzz about my new novel, RAIN OF THE GHOSTS, due out in stores and on-line on December 3rd, 2013 (but available for pre-order NOW on Amazon, etc.), I'm updating you on my progress proofreading the proofs of the book. (Yes, it's ridiculous, but I did use the word 'shameless' now, didn't I?)

This is a painstaking process. I'm going through each chapter sentence by sentence, trying to be careful with each word, each punctuation point.

Tonight, I finished proofing Chapters Thirteen through Fifteen.
Here are all the changes I've indicated in these three chapters:

P. 146
In first paragraph, change "when you dad" to "when your dad".
Also in first paragraph, change "Sams' beaches" to "Sam's beaches".

P. 159
In the second full paragraph, change "a frightened squeal" to "frightened squeals".

Admit it. You're intrigued.

LOVE AND CAPES

I should have posted this days ago, but I just want to strongly recommend Volume 4 of LOVE AND CAPES (subtitled "What to Expect") by Thomas F. Zahler.

I'm a huge fan of Thom's work, and this book is just great.

I wrote the introduction to the volume, so I won't repeat it here, but I will say that this saga of super-heroes and romance just keeps getting better and better. Other fans include Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek, two of the best writers in comics.

You should really check it out.