As I said I would try to do, I'm developing a comic idea that'll break down into four issues. Obviously I have no budget to sell this idea to any artist, but at least I'll have some fresh samples of my work.

Working, basically. I sold two manuscripts in Q4 2009 and the best thing to do after a sale is... write more stuff to sell! So that's exactly what I've done, producing a new manuscript in what (for me) is record time.

The title: Juárez Dance. The theme: borderland noir. It's my shot at solidifying my reputation as a go-to guy for stories about the American Southwest and related parts of Mexico. We'll see how it goes.

As is probably obvious, I haven't done any comic scripting while I've been working on the novel, but I may get to that now that my calendar is clear.

It seems to me that one of the better ways I can go about netting an artist to collaborate with would be to put more of my comics work up in this space. But what? Just recycle the old stuff, or write some new material that's better reflective of what I'm doing these days?

Hmmm....

Because I promised you folks regular updates, here's a little on the progress of my book deals, taken from Publishers Marketplace, a sort of clearing house for announcements concerning deals and agents and such:

Sam Hawken's North Pass, about the femicides in Ciudad Juárez where over 400 Mexican women have been murdered or gone missing since 1993, to Pete Ayrton of Serpent's Tail, by Svetlana Pironko of Author Rights Agency (World English).

As my friend Dave Z says, this is when it starts getting real, when Publishers Marketplace posts the announcement.

I've decided to try make an update here at least once a week so people know I'm still alive and kicking. It also helps prospective collaborators to know I'm still looking for a work connection.

Contracts for one book have been turned in while I'm still waiting for legal to clear another. That's something of a pain, but it's also the way things work in the book biz: everything takes forever. It's one of the reasons I find myself with so much free time. There are the edits, but I'm still idle most of the day and looking for something to alleviate the boredom.

You may wonder why I don't just shop my own ideas around to artists. There's one big reason for this: money. Artists don't work cheap and they certainly don't work for free... unless the project is one of their own devising. Just as I don't work for free unless it's a project of my own.

If I bring my ideas to an artist, it's inevitable that the artist is question is going to ask what the art budget is. The answer there is none isn't an acceptable one to artists that work professionally or at the professional level. I don't want to insult another pro by begging for free work, as much as I'd like to have it.

I have my paying gigs and I'm willing to work for a delayed paycheck if it gets my foot in the door on the comics end of things. Some artists are willing to do the same thing, I know, but I don't feel like cold-calling every artists who strikes my fancy to find out if they're one of them. I'd rather just do what I'm doing now: put the call out and let people know that I'm available and willing to tackle comics projects.