Wrapping up 2025, Wayward Wormhole portraits, Wings of Promise (3rd draft), EFNOTE 3X drum kit, more guitars

LATEST WORK:

Another year flew past. Not exactly in a blur–more like an arduous climb up a tall mountain, as I spent the entire year working on the 3rd draft of Wings of Promise (more on that later).

First, here are the portraits I did of the writers from the Wayward Wormhole 2024 novel writing workshop:

Cat Rambo (founder, instructor)

Giovanni Clairval

Rykie Belles

Em Dupre

WEBLOG:

The main focus of 2025 has been on writing the 3rd draft of Wings of Promise, so I could send it out to the agent who requested it. I don’t think I have worked harder on any project in my whole life, for the genesis of this story goes all the way back to 1998.

Back in the late 90s, my publisher (Sirius Entertainment) asked me to do a one-shot graphic novel, and I came up with a simple story of a neglected and bullied little boy who meets a mysterious little girl who is not of this world, the bond that develops between them before she is ripped away from him, and her promise to return. But that was right around the time when I decided to leave the comic book industry, as making a living as an indie creator was just too difficult (the collector’s market crashed around that time). So, the graphic novel never went past the rough storyboarding sketches phase.

In 2001, I wrote it as a short story to give myself a sense of closure, but I never submitted it to any publications and never shared it with the public. That was when the story expanded to include the portion where the boy becomes a man and his struggles during the decades waiting for the girl to fulfill her promise.

A year later, I decided to start an animated short film project where I would do everything–from the writing, concept art, storyboarding, 3D animation production, VFX, music and sound effects, to editing–and adapted the short story into a screenplay. The plot expanded yet again to include where the mysterious girl comes from and how she fights to return to the boy.

When an animation studio offered me a job as writer/director/art director, I accepted the position on the condition that they fund the short film and provide the manpower for its production. This is the promo illustration I did for the project (I also did concept art for the characters and various locations, the full storyboard, and some 3D models):

(The title was Promise back then. Many years later, it was changed to Wings of Promise.)

Unfortunately, the funding that was secured fell through. I eventually left the studio because it was struggling financially and having trouble paying the employees.

Several years later (2010-ish), around the time I decided writing fiction was what I wanted to focus on for the rest of my life, I began writing the story as a novel. I alternated between different novel manuscripts for years, often prioritizing other projects because I felt they had more commercial appeal, and I wanted to establish myself as an author that agents and publishers could trust to sell enough copies to sustain a career (as opposed to getting dropped after just one or two books due to low sales). It wasn’t until a few years ago that I finished the first draft of Wings of Promise and went through the beta-reader feedback cycle. I then wrote the first draft of Darkness Falls (book one of the Paranormal Underworld series, which is a complete reimagining of my graphic novel series from the 90s) and finished that as well. It was when I was working on the next manuscript (tentatively titled Silent Storm) that my friend Mel Melcer from a previous writing group told me about the Wayward Wormhole novel writing workshop. I debated whether to submit Wings of Promise or Darkness Falls, but decided to focus on the more personal story, as WoP had evolved and become partially autobiographical, encompassing not just my life but also that of my wife. In some ways, Wings of Promise is our love story, about the bond we share as two survivors of child abuse and domestic violence. I think perhaps choosing to submit WoP over DF was what got me accepted into the workshop, but I’ll never know.

And the rest, I wrote about in my previous blog posts, detailing how I got accepted into the 2024 Wayward Wormhole novel writing workshop, and what the experience was like.

After a year of working on the 3rd draft and using everything I had learned from the workshop, I finally finished it just a few weeks ago and emailed it to the agent who requested it. I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get a reply, but hopefully sooner than later (average seems to be two to six months). In the meantime, I’ll be working on the next draft of Darkness Falls, which the agent also requested. I predict it’ll also take at least a year, based on how long it took me to write the 3rd draft of Wings of Promise.

So, yeah, 2026 is going to be another extremely busy year.

…

One recent major change to my studio is the new addition of an EFNOTE 3X drum kit:

Ever since I sold my Clavia Ddrum 4 kit back in 2017, I’ve been slowly getting the itch to play a kit again (I’ve been playing the Zendrum LT instead all these years). While the Zendrum allows me to play things I cannot possibly play on a drum set, the reverse is also true, and ideally, I’d have both. My plan is to upgrade the 3X module to the Pro module so I can add additional pieces like splash, china, effects, and maybe another crash or just a trigger pad or bar for auxiliary stuff like cowbell, tambourine, triangle, percussion, electronic sounds, etc.

I’ve also been rigging up additional LED mood lights in the studio, and it’s a huge undertaking. Once I’m finished, I’ll post a video of how they look, as they are dynamic and can be programmed to different scenes and also react to music.

Every year, I think I’m going to stop buying/selling guitars, but I still end up doing it, and this year was no different. Bought and sold a bunch of guitars, and the collection currently looks like this: