A Fab New Engagement (Beatles style)

Excited to be able to announce that I’ve been engaged as the Consultant Historian for a new Beatles tribute band project.

This won’t be your typical Beatles tribute band of mop-top pretenders. Focused on the music of the Hamburg and Cavern days of 1961-1963, these are your proto-punk, leather-clad, rock-n-rollers, The Savage Young Beatles.

The Savage Young Beatles will make their US debut at the upcoming Abbey Road on the River festival, where I’ll also be attending as a guest.

It’s going to be a fun ride.

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THE MARCH RAMBLE

Thanks to everyone who liked, commented, or read last month’s initial monthly “Ramble.”.

Convention News:

Sad to report that I have to have to pull out of the first Peoria Artist and Comics Expo in May due to family commitments (But it’s for a happy reason – the birth of our grand-daughter is now scheduled on the same weekend) – I wish the organizers all the best for the show.

I have however added ArmadilloCon in Austin to the list for this year, and I’m looking forward to returning to what has been on of my favorite conventions over that last several years.

The updates appearances list now looks  something like this:

• April 19 – Windy City Pulp – Chicago, IL
• April 20-22 – Content Management Strategies conference – Chicago, IL.
• July 24-26 – ArmadilloCon – Austin, TX.

A Fab Surprise

During a visit to the always fun Twist & Shout music store in Denver this month, I picked up a copy of the updated 2013 BEATLES BIBLIOGRAPHY and was pleasantly surprised to read this on page 375

“Porter, Alan J. – Before They Were Beatles– This is a chronological exploration of the ways in which popular music came to play a serious role in the lives of the young men destined to be Beatles. Porter’s portrayals are thorough and well written and he has the ability to draw his readers into not only a historical, but also geographical exploration. This is an engaging text, written by a genuine Northerner, and it is recommended.”

Cool – Thanks to writers Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis for the shout-out.

For more frequent updates, comments, and general observations on life you can follow me on Twitter @alanjporter or on Instagram. For a full list of published work to date check out my website at AlanJPorter.com

SHORT STORIES

Initial feedback on  Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol 7. that includes my story “The Case of the Rotten Corpse,” has been very positive so far. – Thanks to anyone whose picked up a copy over the last few weeks. – In related news, teh previous volume, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Vol. 6, which includes my story “The Case of the Sugar Pearls” has been nominated for a Best Anthology of 2014 award.

Coming Soon

• Rick Ruby: The latest volume of stories featuring 1930s New York based P.I. Rick Ruby is in production. No information on a release date yet.
• Lotus Ronin: The new Asian Pulp anthology from prose ProSe Press is in production. I’ve done the final copy edits on the debut tale of my new pulp character, The Lotus Ronin, and am waiting for news on a possible publication date.
• Allan Quartermain: Stones of Blood: I’m currently still writing new short-story featuring the classic jungle adventurer in a tale that takes him from the streets of London to the battlefields of the First Boer War. More on this one as it develops.

THE LEXICON PROJECTS

James Bond Lexicon: A Guide to the Worlds of 007: The manuscript for our upcoming James Bond Lexicon has been delivered to the fine folks at Hasslein Books for copy-editing. If things stick to schedule we are aiming for publication around the end of September or early October.

This week I received a new batch of illustrations for the book from artist Pat Carbajal – and as usual they are high quality work. Here’s a taster for a few of the items that graced my email inbox a few days ago.

Don’t forget you can keep up with the latest news about the Bond Lexicon and the world of 007 in general at the book’s Tumblr and Twitter accounts

The Lexicon Affair: A Guide to the world of U.N.C.L.E.: Work continues on The Lexicon Affair, with notes and annotations under way for Season Two of The man From U.N.C.L.E. TV shows, and the Entertainment Publishing comics series. While The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. novels and digest magazines have recently been finished.

You can also follow the dedicated Tumblr and Twitter accounts for updates on the U.N.C.L.E. book’s progress as well as the upcoming new Man From U.N.C.L.E. movie.

COMICS

FORGOTTEN CITY – The second story arc issues (#6-10) are in various stages of production as the Kid Domino team get them ready for uploading to comiXology for digital distribution. I have turned in the detailed page-by-page outline for issues #11-15 and am now at work work on the full script for issue #11

Work is also underway on pulling together the first story-arc (issues #1-5) in a trade-paperback for eventual print distribution. In the meantime don’t forget that issues #1 thru 5 are still available as digital downloads at comiXology for just $1.99 each.

Creative ADD?

“So which of your various writing projects are you most passionate about? “

A work colleague asked me the other day after we’d spent several hours together stuck at Dallas airport and had killed some of the time by talking through the various non-fiction books, comics, short stories, and novels I have at different stages of production. On the surface it seems like an innocent enough question, and one that should be easy to answer. But it wasn’t, it really made me think.

After a few moments contemplation I gave what I think can be the only truthful answer:

“Whatever I’m working on at the moment.”

“I was just wondering beacuse they are all so different.” – Another good point. I have sometimes wondered if I had fixed on one subject area and focused all my creative endeavours around that, I may be better known as a writer.  Should I have had 11 books about The Beatles in the market place by now, instead of 11 books covering a wide variety of topics?  But that’s not me. I need to be trutful to myself.

When I joined Caterpillar in early 2013, I was asked to take a “Strength Finder” test, something that nearly everyone at corporate headquaters has done. I’ve traditionally been skeptical of these sort of HR profiling activities, but I must admit I was astonished by the results. They were spot on, sacrily so.

My top strength was listed as being a “Learner.” – And that’s why I write about lots of different subjects, characters, and time periods. I’m a learning junkie, and writing is a way to feed that. Each new project is an opportunity to learn about a new subject, new times, places, and people. An opportunity to meet and share with others interested in those same subjects. Opportinuties to do cool new things with cool people.

So what am I passionate about at the moment? James Bond (reference book), Harry Houdini (short story,) and the characters of Forgotten City (comic book series.)