Resolutions

Not really.  That sounds way too formal, and more than a little binding.  In short, not feline.  But it is a new year, and there is nothing like a round number and days getting longer to give us all a nudge.  Time to turn over a new leaf and start doing all those things we should be doing.

Psychologically, it seems right.  Ironically, it probably isn’t a very good time.  Statistically, January is a month of depression setting in, and there’s a point in about 3 weeks where suicides spike.  I vaguely remember an analysis of it:  holiday bills come in, the high of new year hopes we feel now settles back into routine, tax documents start coming in the mail, and it’s still COLD.  The days are still short, the wind chill is still -3 degrees, and we know that it’s not going to be any better tomorrow.  Add it all together: moods plummet.  No wonder everybody goes off their resolution diet in a sugar-burning frenzy.  January sucks. 

Mr. Joker had some “unrealistic expectations” about Silly Putty.

Maybe the key is not to expect so much.  It’s still winter, those bills are going to come in, and we do all have to pay our taxes.   It’s not a NEW WORLD.  But it is a new year, and maybe we do approach our resolutions with a little more rationality and a little less emotion, we’ll have a better chance of sticking with them after the chain starts to pull. 

So, my Resolutions-aren’t-feline-but-if-there’s-time-I’ll-try for the online world:  this blog.  Writing the actual stories are still the first priority for my CT time, but  will make every effort to sneak in here to crank out one update per week. 

Beginning right now.  The holidays seem to break us down into two groups:  those with all the time in the world to kill after that last final, and those of us who need you to please-pretty-please stir the custard for the trifle, just for two minutes while we run to the ATM for some crisp bills for the doorman’s envelope—and while we’re out get a half dozen of those chocolate macaroon things for last minute thank yous—and oh yeah, find that youtube that showed how to make those curled ribbon decorations—better say five minutes.  Or, eh, ten, because I used up the last of the pickled ginger, too, so since I’m out…

I fall into the latter category, so as you probably guessed, not a lot of writing gets done over the holidays.  (Not a lot of email gets answered, either.  If you’re waiting, don’t worry, I’ll be through the backlog by Valentine’s Day, I’m sure.)

As it happens, I did finish a draft of the final chapter(s) of Do No Harm before the holiday crazy descended, so if my beta-brainstorm buddy comes through, it won’t be too long before we see an update there.  I say an update rather than a conclusion because I haven’t decided for sure if it will be presented as one chapter or two. 

While there is usually all kinds of extra busywork backstage when I’m going into a final chapter, I do have a head start in this case, since I had a title and a cover on deck for the “next” story when I was finishing up Demon’s in the Details, a next story that is not DNH.  The faux-flashback clip show was a last minute decision.  So, unless I change my mind again (always possible, but not likely in this case), the next title/cover is all ready.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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Vancouver, Domino’s Pizza and You (know who you are)

Okay, who watched it?  This is supposed to be the Cat-Tales blog, and we’ll get to that in a second.  But first, who watched the closing ceremonies? 

For anyone who missed it, it began with what I can only described as “Previously on the Vancouver Winter Olympics…”  Lights up on those 3 raised prongs, with the fourth stubbornly in its Opening Ceremonies position of stubborn unraised stuckage.  Out comes what my stagehand friends are already dubbing “Techie-Clown”, who takes a hammer from his toolbelt and gets the thing into position, and on we go.

That’s just awesome.  It’s having the sense of humor to say “OOPS” on the big stage.  The world was watching, we dropped the ball big time, and we’re the first to laugh at it.  How can you  not love that? 

Then there’s Domino’s Pizza.  I was in (ironically) a pizza shop the other day and they had CNBC running.  Fourth quarter earnings from Domino’s Pizza are through the roof.  There’s this thoroughly depressing chart depicting fifty companies with the same basic type of customer in terms of income, geography, etc.  For the last 6 quarters, they’re all doing pretty much the same thing: down, down, down, down, and down.  No real surprise there.  Then, last month, there’s this one red line on the graph whose head pops up while everybody else goes down.  Domino’s.  WTF?  Domino’s?  Really?  Domino’s pizza?   Yep.  You know why?  The “we were making a really stinky product” campaign.  The “We were the only ones not admitting and now we are and we’re fixing it” campaign.  Domino’s own CEO came right out and said they were doing everything right in terms of corporate identity, advertising, logistics, business model, staffing—everything right except THE PRODUCT.  They problem wasn’t the advertising, the economy, or the staff, it was as fundamental as the crust, the sauce and the cheese.  They admitted it and then they fixed it.  Reward:  record profits.

I’m just sayin’. 

Okay, enough of that crap, back to CT.  It was a really good week for the Tales.  Chapter 3: Gallows Humor was released, and Jokers fans were pleased to see that even though this was laughing boy’s first major appearance since The Dark Knight, Cat-Tales Joker is still very much Cat-Tales Joker  (Accept no substitutes, Kiddies!  HAHAHAHAHAAAA!  Discontinue use if you experience sudden bouts of sanity or develop normal skin pigmentation.) 

IMO, the landmark Joker escapades in other media occur when Big J is trying to make a point.  From driving Jim Gordon crazy (to prove that all it takes to turn anybody into him is one really bad day) to the TDK Joker’s blow up the other ferry challenge (Milleresque attempt to prove everyone is just as corrupt, ugly and morally bankrupt as he is), the cruelty and carnage is not cruelty & carnage for its own sake.  It’s to make a point. That’s not something our CT Joker excels at.  He just doesn’t have the attention span, most days.  I’d say that’s a big reason he’s come to rely on Harley more than he ever planned to: she carries the one.  In Gallows Humor, he did have a point to begin with, but as BenRG noticed, he started having so much fun, the whys behind it got away from him.  Silly ass. 

Anyway, the chapter was very well received, and Jacker’s first foray into another rogue’s theme seems to have been sufficiently creepy.  The other development last week was that I finally got around to swapping out the old artwork on the website.  For those who aren’t aware, “Wanders Nowhere,” the CT insider who pens the Capes and Bats spinoff, is a fantastically talented cgi artist.  Last year he made a virtual Gotham City and allowed me to take a bunch of snapshots of our favorite feline in situ, prowling the rooftops as nature intended.  Those pictures have been sitting here on my harddrive for at least 6 months, waiting… waiting… waiting.  Finally I got around to popping them into place.  It’s nice to have a more realistic Catwoman up there, just to help with that division between The Post and Reality. 

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com 
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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This week in Cat-Tales: Joker vs. The Outline

You know, there’s really nothing like writing Joker. Any other tale, I’d be here saying I had a finished chapter draft, it was out for beta, and we could expect it to be posted in a day or two. With Joker involved, I honestly don’t know if I have a finished chapter or not. Either the ch 3 draft is finished and I’m well into chapter 4, or else I’m about 80% done with chapter 3. I seriously do not know.

See, it’s not that Joker doesn’t care about the outline, it’s that he doesn’t care about pacing either. He wants to do his thing in his own way, and he doesn’t care if all of you have been reading for 6 pages or 12 or 20. So I keep passing these lines and moments that would make a decent breakpoint, and he chimes in “NOT YET! NOT YET! Stall ‘em! Harley’s almost got the flamingo feathers stapled to the swimming pool!”

Then there’s a sound of a chain saw, a kitchen timer, a flamingo screams, and Harley says “oops.” I don’t know what the hell is going on in there, and I’m afraid to ask. My inner Bruce is scowling. He says this is no way to run a storyverse, and he’s right. But here’s the thing: I just heard a flamingo scream. I wouldn’t have thought there was any difference between a flamingo and any other bird when it came to squawking but there is. There is a very discernable difference. So for right now, Joker is calling the shots. I’m going to let him get to the end of chapter 3 or 4, and then I’ll make the call on whether it is one chapter or two.

Until then, renewed apologies to chipsnopotatoes. You were indeed the first to ID the Dustin Nguyen PIC and last week’s blog has been duly edited. Meow.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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A New Golden Age of DC Comics

Hey Chips,

You do indeed get credit for the find.  Your post was the first I had heard of any of this.  As you know, I have been out of that world for many years, but Geoff Johns is certainly one of the names I remember, and as one of the good guys.  Indeed, THE good guy.  I seem to recall he was affectionately known as “Other Geoff” in my old comic shop, to distinguish phonetically from Uncle Jeph (said with equal affection).  And “Jim” is Jim Lee?  Can’t say I have any opinion there, other than he is a spectacularly talented artist.  I don’t know any of his views in terms of creative philosophy, Cat or otherwise.  

Anyway, you asked for my thoughts, such as they are.  

Snark first, then we’ll get serious:

The only triumvirates I’ve ever heard of ended with the rich guy under house arrest while the other two fought a civil war until the one not named Caesar is driven into Egypt, where he died by his own hand or someone else’s.  If it were me, and I wasn’t named Caesar, I wouldn’t be keen on trying it again.  

Serious answer?  Well… 

I think a new Golden Age of DC Comics is achievable in our lifetime.  Honestly.  We had a collective epiphany in the late ‘80s that this isn’t kid’s stuff.  That there is not just a market but a hunger for complex, realistic and adult stories about these characters we collectively love.  We immediately took a wrong term in defining what “complex, realistic and adult” mean.  We took a 25 year detour, but that potential still exists.  Look at all the readers who might have given up on the comics but never gave up the characters or what they should be.  Look at TDK, that’s what happens when you understand, respect and keep the essence of what the characters are and use them in truly sophisticated, mature and complex storytelling.  It takes 3 years and a hundred million dollars to do on that level.  Comics have the ability to produce far more – not as much as they think, perhaps.  There is only so much you can turn out and still keep it good.  But through that medium, we can get more than one wholly satisfying Batman outing in 3 years.

So yes, in my opinion, an actual honest-to-god Renaissance is possible.  But it can only begin with an apology.  I question whether Geoff, Jim, and those who appointed them are aware of just how much bad will has been created over the last 10+ years.  More is needed than another retcon, reboot or “new direction”.  I don’t know what is needed.  I don’t pretend to know.  I do know this:  You cannot set out to deliberately anger, disappoint and offend people, take away something they enjoyed and laugh at their cries of outrage, and then offer a half-assed reboot like a dozen others.  

Someone I absolutely adore once said to me “You may forget the exact words, but you never forget how people made you feel.”

I expand it to:  You may not be able to articulate it, but you never forget how people made you feel.

I have gotten a lot of email over the years from people who are angry, betrayed, bitter, belittled, heartbroken, deceived, paranoid, beaten, broken, despairing, exasperated and exhausted.  Few had the self-knowledge, vocabulary and energy to express it coherently, but all have been kicked in the stomach.  Unlike me, they didn’t note names.  They can’t say J’accuse Ed Brubaker. They do know the name of the company: DC Comics.  

How do you fix that?  I have no fucking idea.  I wish them all the luck in the world, but I have no earthly idea how you FIX this.  

That’s my reaction, Chips.  I wish it was more… something.  

Chris Dee 

www.catwoman-cattales.com

cattales.yuku.com

cattales.wikispaces.com

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P.S. My inner Joker is furious I did not use that last sentence to plug More Cowbell.

This Week in Cat-Tales

I’d say the biggest public development for Cat-Tales fans last week was this fantastic Just-in-time-for-Valentine’s Day piece by DC artist Dustin Nguyen, that JoannaC chipsnopotatoes brought to our attention (sorry about that, Chips):


i can't stay long by *duss005 on deviantART

DC Pros, wherever you may be, that’s what pleasing readers looks like. Just in case you were wondering about that strange reaction beneath the image, where the DA readership wracks up 30 pages of enthusiastic commentary on the couple, the costume, and the twitch-smile, where they’re setting record numbers of favorites, Facebook shares, Diggs, and downloads. Your predecessors experienced this – well, not the Facebook part, obviously, but the lack of rocks and rotten eggs hurled at their heads. That’s the result of making the audience happy instead of alienating them. It’s actually a pretty good feeling, just in case you want to try it some day.

But back to Cat-Tales, eh? Our own Thundering Monkey released the picture for his Batverse calendar:


Poor Harley.

And me? Nothing visible accomplished this past week, but an extraordinary amount happening behind the scenes Some work done on the TBA, and I got some unexpected help and support on that project from someone who I haven’t seen in months. Some of you guys are so kind and generous, it’s just unreal.

That said, the TBA is now officially a no deadline affair. For the best of reasons: A friend and client’s book is now officially speeding towards publication. He has battled with the crap economy and he has won. YAY. That does create a fair amount of RL work for me which takes precedence over the CT stuff. But of all the reasons I don’t mind postponing a CT project for a few weeks, this is the best. A man of ideas getting his ideas out there into the world to rise or fall on its merits, that’s the alpha and omega for people like us. That’s how the system is supposed to work, and every time it actually does, the sun shines a little brighter, the birds sing a little sweeter (which is nice for us and it really annoys the life-is-shit Miller crowd, so win-win)

Anyway, that’s the week in review. Today, I can finally return to writing the chapter. Meow and Huzzah.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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This Week in Cat-Tales

It was quite a week for Cat-Tales.  Rolled out Chapter 2: More Cowbell – a chapter title I had decided upon back when I was still running around Atlantis wrapping up Demon’s in the Details.  The response confirms what we all knew:  Joker is a draw, he gets everybody worked up and speculating like mad.  Joker and Scarecrow playing off each other is – well, I’m not going to say “comedy gold” because Jocular Jack can take phrases like that the wrong way, but the pair of them do crackle on the page. 

I’m still getting a few emails and IMs about Sherlock Holmes and chapter 1, and I’ll remind everyone that if you don’t want to go see the movie, a few relevant clips are online and posted in the forum.  It’s not the same, of course, but it’s better than nothing.

I also put in a little time on that TBA I mentioned a few weeks back, which is still eligible for a March release for the anniversary, scheduled “in very light pencil,” as my favorite stage manager was so fond of saying.  Too many if/thens I can’t control to really commit to it, however. 

Speaking of, my love-hate relationship with technology continues.  I’m the happy recipient of a hand-me-down mp3 player.  Wasn’t something I was ever interested in, but the previous owner of this one upgraded to video over Christmas, and he passed the old one along to me.  Now I can have my books on tape roam around with me.  I can’t imagine using it for anything else.  So that’s the love part.  As for hate, I’ve made no progress at all with those last two steps that will get me completely settled on the one laptop.  I would have got there by now, except my phone decided the other electronics were getting too much attention.  So it’s on the blink now.  Grr.  Some days, these things are honestly more trouble than pets.   However, even if we’re not completely there yet, life is SO MUCH BETTER now that all my web and graphics software is under one roof. 

The weekend was spent catching up on some reading and a few other things that have nothing to do with CT.  Work on chapter 3, as well as that TBA, resumes today. 

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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This Week in Cat-Tales

Another backstage week.  I know they’re not very interesting from the outside looking in, but the show can’t go on without them.  I finished up the draft of Chapter 2 and started working in earnest on a TBA to unveil (we hope) in March for the anniversary.  Didn’t really have a chance to make progress on the laptop situation.  Maybe this week.  (What can I say, Santa once again failed to come through on my pleas for a clone, a staff, a slave or a robot. So it’s another year of one thing at a time.  What can you do?)

Had a fantastic surprise when Hitman Tommy Monaghan returned to the forums.  Tommy and I go way back… damn, I don’t even know how many message boards and rpgs we go back.  It’s been incredibly fun having those chats about writing again, and one of these days, who knows, he might just have something new for us all to enjoy.  If not, he’ll keep us honest in the Iceberg Lounge (that’s the general chit-chat thread in the forum, for those who have not visited).  With apologies to King Hal:  Men now sipping appletinis will hold their manhoods cheap while any speak who hoisted a Guinness with Monaghan upon St. Siegel’s Day.

Other than that, let’s see… I did finish off the new Dan Brown this weekend.  It’s not a bad book, just a slow starter – and unfortunately, it suffers from inevitable comparisons to The Da Vinci Code.  I’m sorry, there is no pretending Washington DC is as rich in history and mystery as Europe or that the Masons can bring the same organic conflicts, plausible heroes and villains to the table that you get with millennia-old, hardline, Old World Christianity.  Still, The Lost Symbol is a good read.  CT fans will see familiar James Sanborn sculptures referenced, as well as a few mentions of string theory.  Thematically, however, my heart will always belong to The Da Vinci Code: To kneel at the bones of Mary Magdalene is to pay homage to everyone who has been robbed of their voice. That’s good stuff.  I like adventure and suspense as much as the next gal, I really do.  I just like it more when it is all about something larger.  Remembering those who have been robbed of their voice, cheated of their power, harmed by abuses of power, that resonates.  TLS does have some thematic meat on the bone, its ultimate revelation is a good one, and one I happen to agree with.  But for me, at least, it doesn’t have that punch of DVC.  Which brings us back to: if this book was by anyone other than Brown and free of the DVC comparisons…  C’est la vie. 

Anyway, before I flee to start the week, the best while-you-read snack food has to be Emerald Cocoa Roasted Almonds, Dark Chocolate Flavor.  I am completely hooked on these things.

And on that note…  New week and new month hitting at the same time is always festive in the old inbox.  Ciaomeow, everybody.

Chris Dee
www.catwoman-cattales.com
cattales.yuku.com
cattales.wikispaces.com

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