Last week, I picked up Ray Fawkes‘ new graphic novel, One Soul.  

First, the background: One Soul follows 18 characters from birth to death, with their lives running concurrently, though their stories take place in different times.  Maybe I’m not explaining it well.  The Oni Press site explains it like this:

One Soul takes the experiences of 18 individuals and weaves them into the spiritual journey of a lifetime.

This is a story that can only exist in the comic form.  You could not adapt this into a movie, or a tv series, or anything else.  This story can only be told in this form.  It is a pure expression of the comic form.  And a testament to what someone striving for a story told the way it needs to be told can accomplish.

The book is a deep and emotional read.  Some characters die earlier than others, and some live long and prosperous lives.  Each death is keenly felt, while for some, the pain of their lives is felt even more keenly.  I found myself rooting for some characters, wishing for justice for others, and pitying still others.

More importantly, I found it hard to put down.  I wanted to keep turning the page.  Late at night, needing to go to sleep, I would still tell myself “just one more page, just one more page”.  And then finally, I finished it.  This is a book that needs a moment of quiet reflection after finishing; a moment to break to contemplate what you have read (tinged with more than a little awe).

I cannot recommend this book highly enough.  Its more than worth your time.  Its definitely worth the read.  And the second and third readings.

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Last night, I said goodbye to my best canine friend of 13 years.  He would have been 14 in October, but things were not going well for him.  He laboured to walk, to move around,and his eating was infrequent.  It was time.  The average life span for a dog of his size and breed is ten years, so any time after that was a bonus round.  We walked him over to the vet’s office, a last long walk for him, followed by an examination.

The vet was amazed at how old he was, and I think that’s why there was little talk of further treatment to make him more comfortable. She knew that his quality of life was falling and would continue to fall. From his demeanor and symptoms, she suggested that he likely had a degenerative disease of the spine, that was dissolving his spine, causing some of the mobility problems he had been experiencing, coupled with a neurological problem that had basically taken away feeling in his back feet.

Jessica and I knew that this was likely to be the end for him when we went in, so we were as prepared as possible. I knew it would be difficult, though.  He’d been with me for so much.  He got me through a couple of tragedies, and like good dogs always are, he cheered me up when I was down, and was the best companion.

As we sat, waiting for the sedative to take effect, I signed the consent form.  The one moment of levity in the night, was my misreading of a declaration in the form which read something along the lines of “I certify that the dog has not bitten any person or animal in the last ten days” which I misread as ”I certify that the dog has not been bitten by any person or animal in the last ten days” and I commented on how strange a declaration that was.  I commented on it, and was corrected, but could not get the image of some person coming up and biting my dog out of my head.  Everyone laughed, and then it was time.

The sedative had relaxed him enough (he was pretty anxious in the vet’s office), he lay down on blanket they provided. I thanked him for everything he had done for me, we told him we loved him, and they administered the drugs. We stayed with him, petting him until he was gone.  And the vet left us alone with him.  We didn’t stay long.  We had a good five minutes of weeping, and then just couldn’t stay any longer.  He looked like he was asleep, and knowing that he wasn’t just made it harder.

I will miss so many things about him.  I can’t even list them all.  But most of all, I will miss how if I was sad he would come over and lay his head in my lap and look up at me.  How petting him like that would make me feel better.

Thanks, buddy.

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Lately I have found myself talking a lot about writing, but actually doing very little of it. Oh, I will sit down at the computer, or with pen in hand, and I will turn off the Internet and focus only on writing for a bit, but no words end up in the page. And that has frustrated me. I haven’t been able to write that play, or even a short story. Which of course has frustrated me more.

The other day, Adrianna Prosser reminded me that writing needs to be practiced, and that if the writing muscle isn’t regularly exercised, it gets out of shape. So I need to exercise my writing muscles.

I need to write something every day, whether it’s a short (even a very short) story, a blog post or what ever. The important thing at this point is to just write.

So that’s the plan. Write something – anything – each day. Starting now.

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Like I’ve said before, I don’t do New Years resolutions.  This is the time of year, when I do set some goals for myself. So here they are:

• I am going to lose some weight.
• I am going to write something every day, whether a story, a blog post, or work on a play.
• I am going to see more theatre. There’s really no excuse for not seeing a ton of theatre in this city, so I’m going to stop making excuses, and go to see as much as I can.
• I am going to stay a non-smoker.

Those are the goals for 2012.

Why don’t we look at how I did on the goals for 2011, shall we?

Get paid to act. When I wrote this, I was feeling a little taken advantage of. I felt like I had taken a few acting gigs for the wrong reasons. So, the upshot is, that I didn’t really get paid to act this past year.  But the truth is that getting paid wasn’t what it was about (though, lets face it, that would have been nice). Really, it was bout being a little more choosy about where I put my acting energy.  I didn’t want to act in just anything, I wanted to act in things I believed in.  So, if that’s the case, I accomplished this goal.

Do more directing. I did a little more directing in 2011, as in, I did some.

Write more. I wrote some, but not as much as I should have.  In fact, I wrote little enough that I feel like the writing muscles in my brain need to be worked out a little to get them in shape.

Become a better theatre marketer. Nope.  Honestly, I feel like to be a better marketer, I have to learn how to be more comfortable in talking up the things I am working on.  Its like, over the years, I have taught myself (or been taught, I’m not sure which) not to toot my own horn.  In marketing, its necessary that you not only toot your horn, but find creative ways to do so.  This is an area where I need work.

Become a better shmoozer. I put this in here, because I’m not good at the shmooze.  Put me in a room full of people, and I’ll become more awkward than I am normally (and since I’m a pretty huge nerd, that’s pretty awkward). I am not good at the small talk, and not good at striking up conversations with people I don’t know. So this still needs work.

Get an agent. Mission not accomplished.  And to be honest, I didn’t really pursue this all that much.

Maybe next year, I’ll be able to round up this list with some more “wins”.

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As the days count down to the beginning of the Keystone Theatre Fringe Festival tour of The Last Man on Earth, I’ve been thinking about the challenges and changes ahead of me.  The changes I’ve talked about: giving up my job and apartment and hoping for the best on this tour.  That’s big for me. I’m doing my best not to even think about what I will do when I come back, because I’m a natural worrier and I know that if I start to think about it, I will not stop.  So, the plan is to just concentrate on the tour and the summer adventure and worry about the rest when I get back.   For now, all I have to really worry about is packing.

For the challenges:

- Getting out of my shell. Promotion for Fringe festivals is always about legwork; getting out and talking to people, schmoozing at the Fringe tent, and encouraging people in lines for other shows to come to your show.  This will take me way out of my comfort zone, because I’m a closet introvert. Walking up to people and starting a conversation is not something I am good at, or even comfortable with, so that’s something I will have to overcome this summer.

- This whole summer will be a test of my social networking abilities. Trying to keep my own twitter feed up to date , while also updating @keystonetheatre and The Last Man on Earth Facebook page as well will be a challenge, but one I think I’m up to.  I’ll have to make sure I keep taking pictures so I can tweet the Fringe experience and the show. And of course, I plan to blog the whole thing, in addition to tweeting and Facebooking.  What I’m hoping is that I get better at doing all of these things, so that when I get back, I can add that to my skills to help with that  whole “getting a new job” thing.

- Just sitting back and enjoying the ride. Like I said earlier, I’m a worrier, so just enjoying the ride isn’t in my nature. I like to know what’s happening tomorrow, and the day after that. But when we’re on the road, and in new cities, I really won’t know these things, so I will have to learn to just enjoy it. Or as the actors say “be in the moment”.

All in all, I’m looking forward to tackling these challenges.  I think I can do it.

What challenges are you setting for yourself this summer?

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