I got an email recently that TCAF, the Toronto Comic Arts Festival, is happening this year… online! The physical version of TCAF has been one of the highlights of my year, but of course recent events have forced changes. After it was cancelled in 2020, TCAF will be online in 2021.
The deadline to apply was Wednesday March the 3rd.
I applied. It’s a long shot, but what the hey.
Jackie Brown interviews me about my story in the compilation Nineteen Tales of COVID-19.
This is a listing of various works I have done.
The grade nine sketch. The stories: How Yukon Picket Obtained Salt (grade 10), The Thirteenth Upheaval (grade 11), Virnalian Ranger (comic in co-op newsletter, grade 12 or 13). The Map (detail; grade 10).
First sketchbooks.
Toasterman. Electronic Monsters. (I was the only guy in electronics school with a sketchbook.)
Random sketchbook work. Large drawings as gifts until 1990.
Evelyn’s Story (the World of the Woolly Mountain Incident). I discover Esperanto (for real this time). The Devilbunnies newsgroup and shared fiction. In summer 2000 I go to the Kultura Esperanto Festivalo in Helsinki (music video segment– cut short when I ran out of tape (yes, tape)).
Scaffoldworld (the beginning). Plotting problems extending it. Start learning about story design. Start going to LIFT, the Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto, to attend its screenwriting group. French lessons. Japanese lessons (really regret leaving Toronto and quitting these).
The layoff. Go to Bancroft to work on solar-powered houses. Doesn’t work out. Look for work in Sutton. Meet Shawn Shepheard when he led a job search group at Yorkworks. I draw Shawn’s Sugarfree Shawn comic.
Cara Coulson’s children’s literature class. Mary-Rose Thaler’s graphic design class. Linda Cheng’s graphics programming class. The rabbit video. The BUNIX login. French immersion in Jonquière summer 2013. Exploration of Kickstarter.
Sketchbooks and attempts at programming. The ATM Fee Finder. Second attempt at Time Warrior (website, video, and shirt this time). Visits to LIFT.
Parts: An Industrial Fantasy. Meet Jackie and the DRWG. The compilation Nineteen Tales of COVID-19 and the story The Rabbit Hole.
I recently stumbled across a group on Reddit. This particular group is called Writing Prompts, and the topics are story suggestions, meant as practice for writers. People reply with story segments in comments.
I was alerted to one topic by a text announcement on my phone. The topic was:
"People gain superpowers the day after meeting their soulmate. When a hot young celebrity does so the day after a meet-and-greet, they're desperate to find every person who they even just shook hands with that day."
As I got ready for work, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. As I worked on the assembly line, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. At lunch, I read some of the story segments others had posted in response, and I plotted a continuation and thought of all sorts of details.
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