Canister X – A.P. Fuchs: Zombie, Paranormal Romance and Superhero Novelist, Blogger, Artist, Publisher

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 7

October 2010

As noted in the last newsletter, September was a whirlwind, and in a lot of ways, October was, too. It was very much a month of aftermath of all of September’s hard work.

The beginning of this month was difficult for me after September’s all-out writing-fest. I was pretty burned out and, though I worked during the day, my productivity level was down. Thankfully, by the second week or so, I had recovered.

I launched Possession of the Dead earlier this month, both in print and in eBook. I was also in the newspaper and on the radio. Tonight I’m off to sign books at Coles, then this weekend is the Central Canada Comic Con so I’ll be selling a TON of Coscom books there.

Go, go, go. That seems to be the mantra here.

My wife, Roxy, is in the same boat. She just launched her webcomic, Fuzz Society, and aside from her posts on Tuesday and Thursday, she also got her art ready to sell as prints at the con. We’re off to the printer this afternoon to pick up the hardcopies of issue one, and we’ll be picking up the prints tomorrow. You should also join her Facebook group.

I’m also excited for her because Coles has graciously allowed her to sit in on my signing tonight to hand sell her comic without paying any commission to the store. (Good deal; if I could do that for my own books, I’d avoid that 40% discount they require, but ’tis the biz.)
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Got good news from Hollyweird as there’s been interest in one of Coscom Entertainment’s properties. Here’s hoping the book in question gets optioned for either film or a TV series.
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If you haven’t already been tuning in to Zomtropolis every Friday, please do so. My hope is to get the book going twice a week, but until things settle down, I simply can’t. Hopefully at some point during November, but no guarantees.
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In reading news, I’ve been gorging (almost literally) on graphic novels. Since I last wrote, I must have read at least five or six of them. For sure I read: Invincible Vols. 1 and 2 by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker and Ryan Ottley, The Walking Dead Vols. 1 and 2 by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore and Charlie Adlard, Phase 7 #001-004 by Alec Longstreth. American Splendor by Harvey Pekar et al. is there, too, along with Supreme: The Story of the Year by Alan Moore et al.

All of the above was just terrific. All completely different comics, all differently paced, all with different styles. And they were all pure good.
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Also, Axiom-man trading cards came in the mail the other day. He’s part of the massive comic book crossover, War of the Independents. Creators with characters involved who also wanted to be part of the trading card set sent in art for it. In return, we got a free deck of the entire set (50 cards). I also ordered in an extra set at discount and 100 Axiom-man cards for the con this weekend. Not sure if I’ll sell them or give them out as incentives for the books, or whatever. We’ll see.

Speaking of the con again, Axiom-man cover artist Justin Shauf is coming into town. Originally from Saskatchewan, he moved here for school (where I met him), then a few years later he moved back. It’s awesome that we’ve stayed friends for about ten years now despite living so far apart. He’ll have a table in Artist Alley at the con, so if you’re in Winnipeg this weekend, stop on by the Convention Centre and say hello to both of us.
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That’s pretty much it for me. The clock is ticking and there’s loads to do.

Peace out for now.

Best,

A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
October 28, 2010

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 6

September 2010

This month has been absolutely insane in terms of workload, which is why this edition of the newsletter is coming to you on the last possible day.

Aside from being busy personally with weddings, birthday parties, family stuff and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions (yeah, yeah, I know), professionally I’ve been working like a madman to get Possession of the Dead done on time so I can launch it at Central Canada Comic Con at the end of October.

So many days were spent logging in 4,000 words or more into the book, never mind rewrites, edits, formatting, and all the rest. As of this writing, I still have to piece together the cover, wait for my wife to finish reading it as first reader, and get the sucker off to press.

This is whirlwind publishing at its finest. However, despite the late nights, stressful days and all-round craziness, I’ve learned to really push myself creatively on a daily basis and have discovered what I’m capable of in terms of work production. This knowledge has now opened up doors for me, these newly-learned skills now something I can take forward into future projects.

I hope you celebrate this crazy workload with me next month when Possession of the Dead is released by buying either a paperback or eBook edition of the book. Thanks in advance.

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This month also brought around a foreign rights interest in Coscom Entertainment’s titles. Nothing is in stone yet so I can’t say who or what. I’ve been down this road before so I know not to go cracking open the champagne until ink is on the page. Just a heads up, however.

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As mentioned above, I spent a lot of time playing Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the newest Spider-Man game out there. (I play on a PS3.)

I usually play a game on easy mode first, just so I can get deep into it, explore and learn more about it without constantly getting stuck, so finishing Spider-Man only took a few days. However, there are additional challenges per level you need to do aside from just beating the bad guy, and every time you beat a challenge, you get points (spider essence) plus you unlock new combat moves, and character features like health and costumes. There are 180 challenges in total and I’m sitting at 173 completed (I think). You’re able to go back and replay levels to complete them. When I hit 180, then I’m going to do the game again in normal mode, which in turn unlocks behind-the-scenes stuff like wallpaper art. The hard mode unlocks other things as well.

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If you’ve been watching my Twitter feed, you’ll know I heard from Hughes Capital Entertainment in LA just the other day. I’m waiting to connect with them either by phone or email to see what’s going on. Let’s hope the news is good.

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It’s a new season of Smallville, the final one, and the premiere was on the 24th. The premiere had us off to a promising start, planting seeds for future episodes, and a few twist moments. I’m particularly interested in when Clark becomes Superman, especially now that we’ve seen the suit, and also when he gets his glasses because right now, the whole secret identity thing doesn’t make sense as, because he’s working at the Daily Planet, people there know what he looks like without his glasses.

I’m sure this season’s story arc involving Darkseid will play into–maybe–some kind of time alteration or memory wipe or whatnot.

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The Canister X comic book project is still a go. I’m still at 11 pages because all of September was spent writing. There’s still a chance the first issue will be out by the end of October. We’ll see, but, yes, the comic is coming and once one issue is out, then more will follow and in a timely manner.

Speaking of art, I uploaded some of my old artwork to DeviantArt as a kind of showcase. It’s a work-in-progress in that more will be added as time goes on, especially once the Canister X comic is out. In the meantime, you can check it out here.

Lastly, in regards to comics, my wife, Roxanne, finished her comic book and is now in the inking stage. We’ll be releasing it at the comic con at the end of October. The book is called Fuzz Society and has a fan group on Facebook here. Please join and show her support. I read the comic and it’s really good and I’m not just saying that because I’m her husband. It’s coming out through Coscom Entertainment and I wouldn’t publish it unless it was publish-worthy. Really excited and happy for her.

Thanks again for tuning in. See you in October.

Best,

A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
September 30, 2010

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 5

August 2010

Work is progressing very swiftly on Possession of the Dead (Undead World Trilogy, Book 2) and I’m well past the 50,000-word mark. If I keep up my present momentum, I hope to have it done before the week is out. Present per-day goal for word count is 4,000. It’s got to get done and please don’t think just because I’m pounding it out means I’m not taking my time with it. It’s just how I write. I blast all the words out onto the screen first, then I go back edit/delete/tweak/etc. It’s a cool story, picks up right where the previous one left one, and sets things up nicely for the third installment.

Why the big rush? Simple: Central Canada Comic Con. This year will be my fourth year going as a vendor and I move a solid amount of product when I’m there, and folks last year were asking for Blood of the Dead’s sequel so I assured them it would be out 2010, no later. I’ll be officially launching Possession of the Dead at the con, but odds are it’ll be out online before then, probably mid-October or so. Just watch www.CanisterX.com for an announcement.

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Earlier this year I also teased about changing my online presence and having more stuff for you, the reader. This is still true and things will be changing at www.CanisterX.com before Possession of the Dead is released. In fact, one of the changes will be part of celebrating the book’s release.

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On the above, times are changing for the working writer and for publishers everywhere. 2009 was kind of the last year for the old way of doing things. The publishing business is changing daily and lots of publishers are going out of business. We’re living in an increasingly media-centric society and, unfortunately, the old days of paper and ink are fading fast. However, that does not mean books or comics are fading. Just means we need to change our plan, really invest in the e-arena and bring you solid entertainment that way.

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In comic news, I’m 11 pages into my autobiographical comic, Canister X, named after my website. This autobio comic is nothing like what I’ve seen so far that’s out there—not that I’ve read every autobio comic; I’ve read some and read of many—and I think my use of blending real life with fantasy is quite unique. We’ll see. I hope to have this comic out by comic con as well.

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That’s it for this month. It’s a brief newsletter because the clock’s ticking and much work needs to be done.

As always, thank you for supporting my work and that of my company, Coscom Entertainment.

I should also point out if you love monster (namely zombies, werewolves, vampires) and superhero books, not only is Coscom Entertainment the place to get quality stories, but if you have an e-reader (or just read them on your computer as well), all of Coscom Entertainment’s books are $2.99US or less for the Amazon Kindle and in other formats (.epub, .mobi, lit, pdf and more) at Smashwords or Fictionwise. Our books are also available at the iBookstore for the iPad and iPhone as well for $2.99, too.

Thanks again. See you next month.

Best,

A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
August 23, 2010

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 4

July 2010

Been switching gears recently and really buckling down on getting Possession of the Dead done so that it’s ready for the end of September/early October. Getting into the habit of writing every day takes discipline and for the past 5 years, I haven’t been writing every day, not like the old days when I first started in this business. Running my company takes time and a lot of mental energy. As creative types can attest, creating something requires a lot of brain power in terms of channeling one’s imagination into something coherent. Every day I need to choose how I’m going to spend my mental energy for the day and where I’m going to put it.

Right now, I’m choosing to divide this mental battery in half, putting half into my company, the other half into me and my work. Like I recently mentioned in my interview with The Black Glove, I’m a writer, and like all writers I need to get stuff out of my head on a regular basis otherwise my life seems to hit a downward spiral and it’s difficult to get out of it.

Getting back into the writing habit has helped balance things out for me and made my days a little brighter.

Don’t get me wrong. I love publishing and I love my company and the authors I work with, but I also have the need to just create and call it good. Again, it’s all about balance and it’s always a wonderful feeling when you find it.

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Garden’s growing. Sort of. Seems—and we didn’t know this when we planted—you can’t use seeds from the previous season, so while we did plant a row of radishes and despite them growing tall, when we harvested them, all that came out of the ground was a miniature pencil-looking radish that was inedible. Very woody. Oh well.

The pumpkins are finally showing signs that we will indeed have pumpkins this year (unless the forthcoming air conditioner needs their little bit of real estate then, alas, they’ll have to go the way of the many pumpkins before them). The short green stems are budding. They’re in a shadier spot, unfortunately, due to the layout of my yard, but they might still pull through as sun reaches them for a bit during the day.

Been eating fresh spinach out of the garden. Good stuff. No after taste, like the store-bought variety. Very organic and earthy in flavor.

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Enjoying Madman by Michael Allred. Madman, if you don’t, is basically a throwback to old sci-fi and horror comics, and Madman himself is a science experiment gone wrong in a monster-ish way slapped into a superhero costume and who, along with his friend Dr. Flem, go on all kinds of adventures. I’m reading the first trade paperback in the series and am really digging it.

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Got an idea for a series of novellas, each book being around 25,000 words or so. Had to start it because it was coming into my head so easily, so I dropped the first 1,800 words of that on the 15th of July. Got to be sure to not let it take over my writing time on Possession of the Dead 100% because I do need to ensure that book is out no later than Halloween for Comic Con. Am aiming for late September/early October though.

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In Coscom Entertainment news, since we’re located in Canada, originally we had to use Mobipocket.com to get our books on Amazon Kindle. Now Amazon is open to Canadian publishers directly for the Kindle platform so I got about 99.9% of Coscom’s titles up and running on the Kindle directly now. What’s even better is virtually everything in the catalog is under $3. Under 3 measly clams. That’s incredibly awesome news for readers especially since most eBooks are $9.99 and up.

If you’re a Kindle user, check out what Coscom Entertainment has available by going here.

Thanks.

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Had the pleasure of going to Ai-Kon this year. My first time. My wife and I had a blast. An entire weekend dedicated to manga, Anime and Japanese culture. We bought some manga, went out for all-you-can-eat sushi, took in the costume contest and watched some cosplay skits—pure fun. It was also a chance to scope out the convention and see if it could somehow work as place to come as a dealer and sell books. Unfortunately, unless I start publishing manga, it won’t work. Unlike Central Canada Comic Con, which celebrates not just superheroes but all sci-fi and fantasy, Ai-Kon is solely anime or manga-oriented and unfortunately Coscom’s material wouldn’t have a place there. Regardless, I still got to make contact with some artists and slipped them my business card.

As said, this was our first year and it definitely won us over to coming back again next year.

If you’re in Winnipeg and are reading this and didn’t come out this year, be sure to do so in 2011. Totally worth it. Lots to do, everything from movies to video games to cosplay, art shows, vendor exhibits, panels, workshops and more.

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Thanks for reading this month’s info-dump.

Will be back in August with more.

Peace.

A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
July 19, 2010

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1 No. 3

June 2010

About mid May CanisterX.com switched hosting packages and in turn allowed me to install WordPress onto my hosting platform instead of running the freebie version from WordPress.com. As a result, it has made the site more powerful and more capable than its predecessor, paving the way to a more interactive website and one to soon carry much more free media for you, the reader.

I’m really excited about the stuff I have planned for the new site. All I need now is the time to implement it which, as anyone thickly immersed in the publishing business will tell you, is sometimes hard to come by. However, my schedule this year as compared to last year should allow the extra hours required to take things to the next level in my career and also for my press, Coscom Entertainment.

Speaking of Coscom, I want to thank those of you reading this that have purchased our books for doing so. Your support makes it possible for Coscom Entertainment to keep putting out books for you and to keep bringing you stories. I do ask that, if you haven’t read any of my books or those of my colleagues, I kindly request that you consider it. As much as we love our craft, we, like everybody, have bills to pay and families to feed. We do that by providing you with entertainment, and really hope to keep doing so in the years to come.

Thank you in advance for your continued support.

As of this writing, the contracts for the Simon and Schuster deal went out this past Friday (May 14) and the first book, The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown, is due out in December. The second book, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz, is due out in April 2011.

Also as of this writing, Coscom Entertainment agreed to a mass market deal for another mashup. A publishing date for this one has yet to be set. More details will be revealed when I’m allowed to inform you.

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In other publishing news, things are going well for Coscom Entertainment. This year, after last year’s whirlwind, I’m slowing things down a touch and not publishing as many works by other people. Time is needed to finish up some stuff of mine that has been put on the backburner.

So far, 2010 looks to be a 3-book year for me. April saw the release of Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead. July will see the release of my first-ever horror short story collection called Magic Man Plus 14 Tales of Terror. September, if all goes to plan, will see the release of the second book in the Undead World Trilogy, Possession of the Dead. I’m writing that last one now and it’s coming along quite well, the scenes easily unfolding before my mind’s eye, transferring quite readily to my fingertips. It carries the same flavor as Blood of the Dead, but the story itself has a different feel as Joe and the gang go up against more than just zombies in this installment.

There is the possibility of a fourth book from me late this year, and that is the print edition of Zomtropolis. As of now, I still plan on maintaining the weekly schedule and leaving the chapters up for free even when the print and eBook editions come out. For those not yet reading Zomtropolis, it’s a zombie-meets-love-story-meets-futuristic tale following a guy who’s blogging about the experience of living in Zomtropolis after the city’s been pretty much wiped out by the undead, and his surviving therein along with dealing with the crushing heartbreak from an ex-girlfriend named Selena. New chapters are posted every Friday. The book can be accessed at www.CanisterX.com right here.

I’m giving some careful and serious consideration to doing a lot of anthologies coming up shortly, most of them zombie ones. More news on how this develops. I enjoy editing anthologies and reception for Dead Science and Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head has been positive overall.

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In terms of household stuff, my garden is growing very well, and the vegetables are having noticeable gains daily. I have no doubt this is owed to the crazy amount of compost I added to the garden prior to seeding. I took last year’s compost and buried it in the garden before winter. When everything thawed, I took the compost created during the winter season and buried that as well. I let that sit for a few weeks and then topped the garden off with some new soil (containing a special compost blend), raked that in, and then we seeded.

We’re also attempting pumpkins this year and have 8 or 9 shoots coming up. Never grown pumpkins before so this should be an adventure, especially since I had to dig a new patch for them right by the house. The idea here is once the pumpkins themselves begin to show, my boys can pick one or two each to take care of as their own special project. Teaches them responsibility and how to care for your environment.

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Been obsessed with Batman: Arkham Asylum recently and have been playing it religious. I beat the game (on easy mode so far) and am now just doing the side missions and picking up the rest of the Riddler’s riddles and also other tiny challenges that unlock for you as you go along. Once done, I’ll try and beat it again in normal mode.

The sequel is coming out this year last I heard, so my wife and I are eager for that as she is just as hooked on the game as I am. Today, she beat the game in normal mode so she’s got one up on me in that department, I suppose. Then again, she’s always been a hardcore gamer whereas, though I used to play Nintendo and N64 a lot as a kid, I’ve been out of the video game scene for the past dozen years or so. I sound like an old-timer here but, man, yeah, they’ve changed a lot. Almost like controlling real life now instead of blocky 3D items that still looked like cartoons.

Speaking of video games, Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions is also coming out this year so that’s another one that’s on my must-buy list. Comes out September, I think? Somewhere around there.

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Back in book news, since the last issue I’ve done two book signings with my third to be done this Friday (June 18), all of them in an effort to promote Zombie Fight Night. I’ve also tugged along to each outing a giant zombie vs werewolf cut-out, life-sized, where you can step in behind it, stick your head through the holes above each character’s shoulders, and get your picture taken. This thing generates a lot of buzz around the mall, I can tell you that much.

Not sure how many more signings I’ll do for Zombie Fight Night. We’ll see, though I would like to set up another with one or both of my local Chapters stores.

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Lastly, after reading and editing Magic Man Plus 14 Tales of Terror, my eyes were really opened to something about my writing that I knew about but perhaps, on some level, didn’t accept.

See, ever since I began putting words to paper, my work has consisted of a similar theme throughout each story, most of them containing a certain kind of character and situation. For those who have read most of my stuff, it’s probably been apparent to you. For those who haven’t, well, I won’t spoil it, but yesterday I made the decision to make a change in my work, one that’s hopefully for the better. So though that old theme might recur now and then, it certainly won’t be as prominent as it has been for the past 10 or so years.

I do, however, want to thank you all for reading my work. There’s great pleasure in knowing that what a writer creates has made its way into readers’ hands and has been received positively overall. So again, thank you. Truly.

- A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB
June 17, 2010

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2

May 2010

Starting this issue from the road. It’s Tuesday and I just had my first weekend off in a month or so. Even did a bit of administration work Sunday night.

Work has resumed on the second book in The Undead World Trilogy. It’s called Possession of the Dead and takes place right where Blood of the Dead left off. This book has been a long-time coming as normally I’m not this slow between installments in a series. Even my Axiom-man stuff has fallen behind. Last installment in that series came out in August of 2008. Blood of the Dead was end of July. Of course those following my endeavors online know I haven’t been doing nothing. I’ve spent the past 1.75 years growing Coscom Entertainment as a company, bringing loads of books to market. Just recently we signed on with Simon and Schuster to reprint The War of the Worlds Plus Blood, Guts and Zombies by H.G. Wells and Eric S. Brown, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz. As I type this, we have another mass market deal near finalized for another one of the mash ups. I also have some stuff cooking behind-the-scenes regarding my personal work.

Definitely a season of change and I’m honored to help play a part in growing a few authors’ careers. I hope I’m able to do more for others on the Coscom Entertainment list as the days go by.

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Finished reading Alec: The Years Have Pants by Eddie Campbell not too long ago. Though this isn’t my formal review (which will be posted at CanisterX.com), this definitely falls into the recommended reading category, especially if you’re an artist, regardless of your craft.

Alec: The Years Have Pants is Eddie Campbell’s autobiographical comic book series, for those who don’t know, in which he’s basically given us an overview of his career starting from childhood drawing habits, to how he became a full time comic book artist, to the present day in a giant 640-page graphic novel that, all told, took around 30 years to write and draw. (The pieces within were done here and there since he started this thing back in the ’80s.)

What’s so interesting, and what I found particularly engrossing about Eddie’s narrative, was that I was able to relate to nearly all of it on a personal level, his struggle to becoming a fulltime artist similar to my own in a lot of ways, right down to trying to work at home in addition to your fulltime job with kids bothering you every ten seconds. Also what’s it like to working a dumb job you hate, getting the privilege of being a fulltime artist then, for one reason or another, having to go back to a dumb job again so you could have food on the table.

Very awesome read and wholeheartedly recommended.

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Spent a good chunk of today (the 6th) with Sean Simmans. He’s the artist of Axiom-man: Of Magic and Men, Zombifrieze, and the cover artist of a host of Coscom Entertainment releases: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim (along with interiors), Alice in Zombieland, Anna Karnivora (along with interiors), Bits of the Dead, Emma and the Werewolves, Revolt of the Dead, R.I.P., Robin Hood and Friar Tuck: Zombie Killers, The Undead World of Oz, Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes: Zany Zombie Poetry for the Undead Head, and the classic books Coscom Entertainment presently has out: Dracula, The Invisible Man, and The War of the Worlds. He also did interior illustrations for those last three.

Last night (the 5th) Sean, Bill Czolgosz and me did coffee at a coffee/gasoline shop called Damar in Melfort, SK. We walked in through the main door via the gas shop and I didn’t really know what to expect. You see, I don’t go out for coffee at gas shops. We don’t do that in Winnipeg. Yet upon entering it turns out you go past the counter and the next thing you know you’re in a quaint coffee/food establishment with dim lighting, comfy booths and chairs and a very gentle ambiance of other enthusiastic coffee-goers. We stayed there, drank some java, went over some business, talked comics, writing and publishing, then Sean drove me back to my motel.

This afternoon (the 6th), Sean and I took care of some business-related stuff in the morning then got together later in the afternoon for burgers, smokies and hot dogs. He cooked. I watched. He gave me beer. I drank it. My kids played on his trampoline. When I suggested he and I go on it, he shot me down quick. Probably a good idea. Sean’s one of those burly guys who you wouldn’t want landing on you.

I visited his art studio at the top floor of his house. He just moved in there so the room was still under construction. Still cool to see the ol’ drawing board and all that. And it’s literally a drawing board. Looks like a homemade cutting board, actually, but it suits him just fine. Hasn’t used a drafting table in a long time, he said. Me, I need my drafting table. Helps me see what I’m doing more dead-on than me hovering over it on a desk.

The next time I’ll see Simmans will be, hopefully, for Central Canada Comic Con at the end of October 2010. You’ll find us there peddling our stuff and other Coscom Entertainment books. Good time to get a signature from either of us, or both.

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While away I also had the opportunity to drop in on Justin Shauf, the fellow who does the pencils and inks for the Axiom-man covers. He and his wife just had a baby two days prior and had taken the kid home just that Friday morning, some 6 or 7 hours prior to us arriving there. Was pleasant, had some coffee, visited for an hour and half/two hours while my kids played with his, then my family and I hit the road again.

I’m hoping Justin can come out to Central Canada Comic Con as well so he can sign Axiom-man books and posters.

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Remember that thing last month about switching financial institutions because my previous bank (Bank A) screwed me? Well, the switch wasn’t a good idea. Not my fault, but this new bank (Bank B) needed paperwork that I didn’t have, so when I contacted the people who could provide it for me, it turned out they mailed the forms to my old address instead of my new one (from two years ago) and I would have to redo this particular form and send it in via snail mail. (For you young ’uns reading this, “snail mail” is the ancient art of printing out a piece of paper on your printer; putting it in an envelope; writing your address in one corner of the envelope and putting the particulars of who you’re sending it to in the middle of it; putting a stamp on that envelope and entrusting it to Postman Pat who has the uncanny ability to roam everyone’s neighborhood the world over. You can even see him at the Post Office even though you just passed him on the street while driving there. The envelope—now a letter—is sent by vehicle or plane to the destination written upon it to be opened by the receiving party at a later date. Harumph.) Anyway, finally got all that done. Turns out there was a crazy huge fee associated with the account at Bank B—something unbeknownst to me and not told to me when I opened it, a fee apparently only applicable to this institution, which was later confessed to—forcing me to close it and go back to my previous account which was still open. So I had a couple checks made up by the teller: one in CAD funds, the other in US funds; they had to use checks because their guaranteed draft machine wasn’t working. Took one check to Bank C upon which I found out I had to wait 7 business days for it to clear. Took the other check to Bank A which I wanted to leave in the first place only to find out they wouldn’t cash the check because the check didn’t designate it was in US funds (though drawn from a US account number). It was too late in the day for me to go back to Bank B so I instead left a fiery message on my account manager’s machine. Went there the following morning. Turns out they can’t write US checks—in terms of labeling them as such—because they don’t have blank checks labeled like that. Got a guaranteed bank draft instead, a couple gift certificates for my inconvenience, then it was back to Bank A. I gave the teller the draft. Was told there could be up to a 12-hour hold, which is apparently standard. Fine. I go to cash another check and she wanted to put a hold on it for 45 days even though I’ve been cashing checks in that account from that same source for nearly 6 years. Talked her into not putting a hold it, carefully explaining a portion of the funds in question contained my mortgage and car payment, food money, etc., and I had a family that was counting on me to deliver the goods and what was I supposed to do if I couldn’t get my cash?

It worked out in the end, but I’m still waiting for that 7-day hold previously mentioned to be over. I’ve been chasing the same money for nearly a month and it seems if I’d just let bygones be bygones from the beginning, I would’ve been waiting around the same amount of time for the funds to clear.

Except I wouldn’t have any gift certificates.

And those are a good thing.

- A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB

Canister X Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1

April 2010

Writing and publishing for a living is a dream come true for me. Sounds horrifically cliché, that last bit, but the truth is it’s what I’ve wanted for about ten years, and the ability to not have to go to a 9-5 for even longer.

I look back at high school and all my friends talking about their plans for the future, what universities they were enrolled in, the profession they were aiming for—direction. I never had that. Sure, I had “direction” in the context of wanting to be a comic book artist for DC or Marvel, but in terms of the “how” I’d get there, I didn’t know. Not really. Something about commercial art, but nothing specific. We don’t have cartooning schools here, you see.

Oddly, there was a comfort in not knowing the precise steps but knowing I’d get there eventually. When most of my friends were cramming for exams, staying up ’til all hours studying for tests, aiming for the high marks—to be honest, I was more concerned with just getting by. Not getting by as in barely passing, but if I got a C, I was fine with it. The way I saw it, was aim for average and if you score better, you’ll feel like a genius. So there I was, kind of cocky, thinking, “Man, so glad I won’t have to bust my butt to get good grades just to get some job I don’t like.”

When I was a kid and I thought of what I’d be doing for a living, I didn’t have an answer. All I knew was that it’d be “something.” Maybe something at a desk. Writing on paper. Maybe signing my name on a few things, but not much else. In terms of what industry or specific job, I didn’t know.

Then I got into comic art in grade eleven and found out I could express my love of superheroes for actual money and not just as a fan.
It’s been a long road since then and I’ll tell you about it sometime when I post my memoirs here. I’ve already begun putting to paper my writing journey as a separate series of entries.

Back to the beginning: writing and publishing for a living is a dream come true, but it can also be a frustrating one sometimes, and remember that bit I said about not having to bust my butt? Well, I might not have done so academically, but I can tell you I’m working it hard every day to bring you entertainment, whether it’s my own personal books or the books of those I publish through Coscom Entertainment.

And so here we are, frustrated again because I’m writing this super long entry which is my second attempt at a monthly newsletter. I started Coscomment: The Next Generation a while back, before I was posting daily at www.CanisterX.com, the idea being that instead of maintaining a blog, I could just send out a monthly newsletter. Well, it turns out I could maintain a daily blog and have developed the habit of doing so, but I still also like the idea of a newsletter, one giant info session discussing everything from writing, to publishing, to cooking, to my day-to-day life and areas of interest not related to my career as an artist. Almost a brain dump of sorts, but with a little more structure.

It’s fun to just kind of ramble and deposit a large amount of information in one go.

So here we are, back to doing a newsletter.

The frustration? The pretentious statement of “always having something to write,” starting one project after another, sometimes not finishing what you start because, believe it or not, folks, a lot of writers have novels and stories that go bust on them and they dump them off into the nether regions of their hard drives, never to be seen or heard from again, remaining unknown to the general public.

And this monthly newsletter attempt is me yet again having “something to write,” and something to try and entertain you with, and if not that, at least keep your interest.

Hopefully it hits the mark.

Guess I just can’t shut up.

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Been busy as all get out. This month alone I finished up Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead, signed a deal with Simon and Schuster’s Gallery Books imprint; did all the tasks associated with that deal; launched a free online serial on www.CanisterX.com called Zomtropolis: A Record of Life in a Dead City; edited a book for Coscom Entertainment; did author royalties; have to get ready to send taxes before we head off on a short holiday; got a chunk of the Coscom catalog up on Smashwords.com; launched Animal Behavior and Other Tales of Lycanthropy by Keith Gouveia; arranged a book launch for Zombie Fight Night with a local bookstore; never mind all the other tasks that comes with being a fulltime writer and publisher (including a financial institution switch for the business after my current one really screwed me over). Yeah, crazy busy, but it needs to get done and I’m not complaining. Just feeling the burn, if you know what I mean.

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My compost bin has been collecting various compostable items all winter. Of course they freeze during those months so not much happens rotting-wise, but now it’s all thawed and I’d say the stuff is around 80% ready. The problem is I only have one compost bin—and they’re not cheap: $30-$60, depending if you can get them on sale or not like we did—and if I keep adding fresh items to it every few days from our small kitchen bin, those new items have to start at the beginning of the process, thus slowing down the rest of it in terms of getting the stuff to the garden. Anyway, lately I’ve been leaving what’s in the bin in the bin, and any new stuff is in small plastic bags from the kitchen bin and sitting on our porch in a diaper box. That’s fine for a few bags of new stuff, but with the weather heating up, I don’t want bugs to start swarming around them or the neighbor’s cats tearing them open. I’m thinking a week or so I’ll bury the almost-ready compost from the main bin in the garden and let it sit for a few more weeks then plant, in turn starting a fresh batch with the stuff from the bags.

My current compostable items list includes (and I’m always open to suggestions for more items from other composters):

- fruit and vegetable scraps
- paper
- soft cardboard (i.e. egg cartons)
- hair
- yard clippings
- grass
- dryer lint

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I admit I’m a latecomer to this—especially since I’m really not one to follow the trends and don’t give in to hype or do something because “everyone else is doing it”—but I seem to have an addiction to Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and find myself having it play in the background on Youtube while I’m trying to beat Mahjong Dark Dimensions over at Arcadeboss.com. It’s catchy, and I try to counter that addiction a bit by viewing the Key of Awesome’s Lady Gaga spoof, “Lady Gaga: Bad Romance parody (feat. Lord Gaga) #6.”

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Since Zombie Fight Night is so close to coming out as I write this, I’ve also been getting things ready for my local tour and am trying to get local media attention onto the book. I have nearly all the stores interested (still need to make a couple phone calls), but so far only have one event scheduled for May 20 at 7pm at McNally Robinson’s Booksellers. That’s okay. And just the other day I honed my idea to get the attention of those in the store during the event.

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Zombie Fight Night: Battles of the Dead officially launched on Thursday, April 23, 2010. I’m very proud of this book because it combines two of my favorite genres: martial arts and zombies. This is my ode to B-fight movies. If you like action, zombies and Fight Club, you’ll dig this. It’s available at Amazon.com both in Paperback and Kindle, as well as via the usual paperback and eBook channels that I use.

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Watched a Stephen King documentary on the 23rd as well, the one from A&E Biography called Fear, Fame and Fortune. Back when I started writing this was an important source of inspiration to me. That and American Movie. I own the King doc on VHS, which goes to show how old it is. I haven’t seen it in years. I could relate to a whole lot in there, especially the being poorer-than-poor part. The one theme that kept coming up during the documentary was Stephen King’s persistence at making a career out of writing.

And it’s true. In this game you need to push, push, push and keep going even when you want to give up. Even when others say you should give up. You have to. Persistence is what separates the aspiring writers from the real writers. Aspiring writers only want to write, whereas real writers actually write.

This is an industry that is based on getting things done. If you can’t produce then you’re out of the game.

Like I say around the Coscom Entertainment office, “Get it done.”

- A.P. Fuchs
Winnipeg, MB