Writing

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Secret Origins of Jason Cosmo: Finieous Fingers!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Last post, I discussed the direct influence of the Dungeons & Dragons game and related settings and concepts on the creation of Jason Cosmo. To recap, a big part of my motivation for writing the original (handwritten!) Jason Cosmo episodes was the fact that, back in my pre-driving days, I could not easily get together with my friends to play D&D. So instead, I made up my own adventures and passed them around between classes.

But there was an even more direct and specific inspiration for Jason Cosmo and company: a comic strip that ran in the back of Dragon magazine called Finieous Fingers.

finieous

Finieous Fingers, World's Greatest Thief

Continue reading →

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Jason Cosmo Update: Now What?

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

What do you want to know?

My basic goal with the Jason Cosmo Update is to keep you, well, updated on all important developments pertaining to the Jason Cosmo series. The newest news is that I am close to signing a contract with the cover artist for Hero Wanted, after which I announce just who the artist is. I’ve seen and signed off on the pencil sketch for the cover and I think it will be pretty cool. Hope you like it.

I’ve also been updating you on my editing progress. Which, I admit, is not the most exciting topic. So in between actual updates, my question is — what do you want to read here? For instance, I could write about: Continue reading →

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Jason Cosmo: Better Than Ever!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

My line edit of the Hero Wanted manuscript is grinding slowly forward. As I noted on Twitter earlier today, I am now about a fourth of the way through the approximately 400 page manuscript, carefully scrutinizing and editing every line.

I thought this was going to be an exercise in checking for typos and looking up obscure points of grammar. After all, I have written this book twice! Surely it is already as good as it will ever be.  But as Editor Dan I am finding that the work of Author Dan on this twice told tale can indeed be polished, revised and improved–yes, I believe I am making Hero Wanted a better book than Jason Cosmo ever was.

Let me explain. Continue reading →

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Blurb Jason Cosmo!

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

You know those blurbs you find on books that are intended to make you think that this book is super-awesome because Famous Author X says so?  Like —“This book scared me.” — Stephen King or “A real page turner.” — John Grisham.

I probably won’t have many of those on the new edition of Jason Cosmo: Hero Wanted.  Continue reading →

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Editing Jason Cosmo: Hero Wanted

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Despite my recent silence in this space, I have not been idle. Work is proceeding on the forthcoming Trove Books edition of Jason Cosmo #1:  Hero Wanted. You have already seen the new Jason Cosmo series logo.

I am also awaiting preliminary sketches from the cover artist, for what I am sure is going to be an amazing cover. Continue reading →

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Hero Wanted

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Happy New Year and welcome to 2009. To this point, I have assumed that most readers of the Jason Cosmo Update are either:

  1. Longtime Loyal Readers who have read one or more books in the Jason Cosmo Non-Trilogy (Jason Cosmo, Royal Chaos, Dirty Work)
  2. Related to me.
  3. All of the above.

But this is 2009. Continue reading →

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Jason Cosmo Cover Story, Part 3

A Note to Loyal Readers of the Future: From my blog stats I can tell that few people are reading the Jason Cosmo Update here in October of 2008. So chances are that if you’re reading this at all, you’re doing so in the distant future, perhaps in a time in which the Jason Cosmo books have become the basis for a new Golden Age of universal peace, prosperity, and astonishing artistic, scientific and technological wonders. I don’t know, because I haven’t written that particular book yet here in the present. What I do know if that this post provides answers to questions posed in the previous post Jason Cosmo Cover Story, Part 2. So you should read that one first. — Dan McGirt

Greetings, Loyal Reader!

Pencils down!

Last time I invited you to find the errors in the back cover copy on the original edition of Jason Cosmo, of which there are at least seven. (Special thanks to the precisely one of you who shared your answers with the rest of us.) This time, as promised, I will reveal my answers. Some errors are straightforward and some are a question of interpretation, as you’ll see. Continue reading →