Hold My Beer: The Musical??

INT. LIVING ROOM - DAY

Two people are here, sitting on a couch and playing a PvP (Player vs. Player) video game. One is FELICITY, late teens to early 20s. The other is JOEL, same age range.

Felicity: Ha! Got you again, dude.

Joel: How do you always do that?

Felicity: That's actually a good question. You're the one with the Sight. You should be able to see me coming a mile away.

Joel: I don't think that's how the Sight works.

Felicity: I thought that's exactly how the Sight works.

Joel: Um...

Felicity: Whatever. Hold on, I need a drink.

Felicity pauses the game and picks up a can of diet soda from the coffee table in front of her. As she takes a sip, a middle-aged man enters the room. This is BRIAN.

Brian: Hey guys, I have this totally wild idea.

Felicity (putting the can down): Seriously? Like, another one?

Joel: What is it?
Brian: I want to produce a stage play version of Hold My Beer. A musical.

Joel: Hold My Beer? You mean, that short film you made?

Brian: Yeah.

Felicity: You're right, that is a bat-sh- (exchanges glances with Joel; remembers that Joel hates swearing) -poop wild idea. Do you have any experience in theater?

Brian: I've seen The Book of Mormon. And that Behind the Curtain documentary about the Stranger Things play on Netflix. Also, I played the lead role in a sixth grade Christmas play. So yeah, lots of experience.

Joel: Um...

Felicity (shaking her head): Dude, that's a terrible joke.

Brian: No, I'm not joking. I really want to do this.

Joel: Why?

Felicity: Because he enjoys causing trouble for himself.

Brian: There are a lot of reasons. One is that some of our original actors from the film have backgrounds in theater. Also, I know a few people who are involved in the theater scene, so I can try to get them involved or at least ask for their advice.

Felicity: Not sure either of those are reason enough to do something so far out of your wheelhouse.

Brian: There's more.

Joel: Like what?

Brian: Live theater is basically the origin of show business. Plus, I feel like it's the future as well. I mean, not that it's not relevant right now, but I think it just might be one of the last forms of entertainment that won't involve AI.

Joel: What about robots or holograms?

Felicity: Ugh, let's hope not.

Brian: Even if that happens, I don't think it'll be for a long time.

Joel (as if he knows something we don't): Well, maybe.

Brian: Huh?

Joel: Um, any other reasons?

Brian: Vancouver's arts and culture scene is growing. Venue-wise, we already have Magenta Theater, and the city wants to build not just one, but two performing arts centers, one downtown and one on the east side. I could even try applying for one of the city's new grants. 

Joel: I've heard of those.

Brian: Plus, you know, if Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and Green Day can do it...

Felicity: Dude, those guys are legends. You're, well...

Brian: I know, I know. But either way, I'm always up for a new challenge. I didn't know a whole lot about filmmaking before I made Hold My Beer, the film.

Joel: True.

Felicity: Well, good luck, man. You'll need it. Can we get back to our game now?

Brian: Sure. Just wanted to let you two know.

Joel: Keep us posted.

Felicity (slapping Joel on the arm): Dude, why'd you say that?
Joel: Aren't you kind of interested?

Felicity: What do you think?

To be continued...

Volumes Eight And Nine Status Update

This is still bonkers to me every time I think or talk about it: I continue to make steady progress on Volumes Eight and Nine of the Joel Suzuki series.

As I mentioned in this post, I actually finished a first draft of Volume Eight a few weeks ago. I was originally going to put it aside for a while, but instead, after a three-day cooling-off period, I dove right back in and started doing first-pass edits. Mind you, these are just to check for minor issues like missing words, punctuation, and such (I'm saving the heavy-lifting story revisions for later), but still, it's something. So as of right now, I've reviewed up through Chapter 15, which leaves 14 more chapters to go. And as for Volume Nine, I am now up to 17,500 words, or about 70 pages.

Will this continue? We shall see!

A Show? Yes, A Show!

Remember in this Band Update post from March when I said that Second Player Score, my now-mostly-a-multimedia-production-team-but-still-sometimes-a-band, had shows booked for May and June? Well, the time has arrived!

If you're in the Vancouver, WA/Portland, OR area (or happen to be passing through, or have frequent flyer miles to burn), you can check us out THIS SATURDAY, May 16th, at The Snug in NE Portland. We'll be playing with Six Sundays and Craig James & The Hawthorns, so you know it'll be a rockin' good time. There's no cover charge, and as a bonus for old people like me, the show starts relatively early at 8pm and should end by around 11:30pm at the latest (it actually does kind of have to end by then, since The Snug is in a residential neighborhood). We'll also be debuting our brand-new song "Edge Back," along with a new-old song (written in 2018 but never officially recorded or performed live until now) called "Think About Baseball."

Hope to see you there!

Momtistic

Recently, I was fortunate enough to receive an advance reader copy of Momtistic, a forthcoming memoir by my friend and fellow author, Laura Donovan.

It's her story about becoming a mother, having two sons on the autism spectrum, and discovering as an adult that she might be neurodivergent herself. And I have to say, I absolutely loved it. Here's a review I wrote for Goodreads:

"This was the first "unputdownable" book I've read in a while. It was funny, touching, and I could relate to it in so many ways. The tone reminded me of Jenny Lawson while the style and voice were uniquely the author's own. Highly recommended for parents, anyone with a connection to the autism community, and/or fans of memoirs (or just good books) in general."

I was introduced to Laura by Shamim Dana aka The Autograph King, who you might remember from this post from last year. Both Laura's book and a documentary film featuring Shamim are scheduled to come out this September, and I'll be interviewing Laura for the Fall issue of Spectrum Life Magazine (I previously interviewed Shamim last summer).

In the meantime, you can pre-order Momtistic from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, Walmart, Target, or the publisher, Cynren Press. All the links are here. Do it now, you know you want to!

Volume Eight Status Update

Loyal blog readers (and those just passing through), I have an exciting announcement: I have FINISHED THE FIRST DRAFT OF JOEL SUZUKI, VOLUME EIGHT!

If you recall the last Volume Eight Status Update post from March 5, at that time I was at 25,000 words. Since then, I've added another 50,000 words, reaching my target of 75,000 total, roughly equivalent to 300 pages. This means that I've completed a full draft in three months, which breaks my previous record of four months that I set with Volume One. I also set a single-day word count record of 2,500, breaking the previous record of 2,000.

As I mentioned in the last update post, a lot of the credit goes to a certain social media platform that shall remain unnamed, which gave me an incentive to write every day (including weekends, which I had never done before) and to write more each day than I thought I would (or that I was in the mood for). Also, I pantsed (i.e., wrote from the top of my head without using an outline) my way through the entire thing, which was also new for me.

So, now what? Well, I will probably take a break (or possibly move on to writing something else since I've been enjoying writing every day) and let the draft cool off for a bit, and then return to it later. I already know that large parts of it need tons of revising, editing, and rewriting, which is always the next step in the process. In other words, we're a long way off from launching a new installment of the Joel Suzuki series into the world, but who knows? Maybe the process, like the writing of the first draft, will take less time than usual.

Stay tuned!

StoryverseStream

I'm super happy and excited to announce that StoryverseStream has officially launched!

What is StoryverseStream, you ask?

It's an online platform founded by my friend and fellow author Athena (she played a homebrewer in Hold My Beer) that provides an outlet for creators to share their work with others. Although you can sign up with just a standalone piece of intellectual property, it's especially suited for those who have whole franchises that encompass multiple forms of media, which - as you know if you've been following along - just so happens to include me and Second Player Score!

You can learn more about StoryverseStream here. And if you're interested, the Glorified and Hold My Beer Storyverses are now live on the site, where subscribers (just $5/month) can gain access to just about everything related to each franchise, including all four published issues of the Glorified manga-style comic and other exclusive content (like the recipe for Second Player Score's "Hooked" maple pecan porter).

Please check it out, we'd love to have your support!

Wavemaker Lineup Photo

Loyal blog readers, I can't believe I haven't shared this with you yet! I apologize for the oversight.

This is another artistic rendition (or possible concept art for an animated adaptation, if you want to be optimistic) of the main characters from Joel Suzuki, Volume One: Secret of the Songshell. From left to right: Sammy the silvertail, Felicity Smith, Joel Suzuki, Marshall Byle, and Fireflower. It comes courtesy of artist extraordinaire Kaiyou, who has worked on many other SPS-Verse projects including 4-D and Hold My Beer.

Speaking of Hold My Beer, I know I haven't written about it much for some time now, but I assure you I have not given up trying to develop it into a series. Even my computer will not let me forget about it, as every time I boot it up or unlock it, the Hold My Beer file folder will have opened itself for some mysterious, universe-related reason. There's nothing imminent, but there are some things in the works that could bear fruit given time. I'll keep you posted!