Xaviar X. Xerexes

Writing a Novel

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 12, 2014

So NaNoWriMo is coming up in November. Is it NaNo-RYE-Mo or NaNo-RHEE-Mo? I’ve always said “rye” myself. I have started and flailed several efforts at cranking out a horrible first novel so why not try again? I’m “cheating” in the sense that I’m starting now and will probably not finish in November but maybe cranking out a couple 1000 words or so every week will get me a novella by the end of the year. I think that’s almost realistic if I don’t fall prey to my usual predators of insecurity, doubt and failing to meet my own standards of …

And I Ran. I Ran All Night and Day.

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 12, 2014

David Malki is brilliant. Every sports interview should go like this.

Novel in Progress: Week 1

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 11, 2014

From Here To There There is a particularly dull aspect to life as an adult where all of the rough edges are rounded off through self-imposed peer pressure. Tentative steps at negotiating a path between your own impulses and inner life with the unstated expectations of the very serious adults around you turn into heavier and heavier footsteps on a road. Days turn into months turn into years and that road feels like a six lane highway with sound proofing walls running along the side and no off-ramps in sight for miles. And you may ask yourself; well, …how did …

The Magicians Trilogy

by Xaviar XerexesOctober 11, 2014

Lev Grossman has written three Magicians books about Quentin Coldwater, Brakebills Academy and the magical land of Narnia Fillory. (By the way you can buy a print of the image above here) The first novel, The Magicians, took familiar tropes from a whole river of fantasy literature and invested in them a seriousness of emotion and consequence that was quite cathartic for me. In particular, the book plays with C.S. Lewis’ Narnia books which was an intense favorite of my childhood. I am almost the same age at Lev and the way the Narnia books fired my imagination and my …

SPX 2014

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 14, 2014

I made it to SPX today and it was a good floor full of interesting people and a wide range of comics. I caught up with a couple of people briefly although I had a longer conversation with Clay Yount (and was happy to see he is still making comics after the end of Rob & Elliott). Walking the floor I saw a lot of faces and names I recognized but a lot more I didn’t. I have no skin in the comics game anymore though — I am not making comics, I am not really writing reviews or other stories …

Bookmark: Saga

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 8, 2014

Read first three collected volumes of Saga. UPDATE: I posted this bookmark back in 2014 and finally picked up Volume 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 halfway through 2018. It’s gorgeous art just as I remember the first three collected volumes. I need to pick up the rest of the available volumes pretty soon – best not to wait four years between visits to Saga. October 2019: Read Volume Nine of Saga. Feels like its getting to the end of its story?

Working on ComixTALK: Old Content Disappearing

by Xaviar XerexesSeptember 7, 2014

Remember Comixtalk? Totally dormant for a couple of years (some might argue dormant for close to a decade! hey now..) as I turned to this site for the sporadic writing I still do. But after a couple of years away I started getting notions (for reasons!) about remodeling the old site and focusing on the aspects of it that right now seem like they would be interesting to me. So I have set up a test site with the current site imported and begun to work on it. First thing (and here I wish I had a bigger megaphone to …

David Rees New TeeVee Show: Going Deep

by Xaviar XerexesAugust 11, 2014

David Rees of GYWO and MNFTIU and legendary guru of sharpening pencils — now on the teevee with a new show called Going Deep with David Rees. Check a bunch of them out on Hulu.