It's always a great feeling to finish a draft. It feels so monumental. I love writing the words THE END on the last page. It's those little things that make it worthwhile. Now I have a month of no Alpha. The workshoppers are reviewing the novel--picking it apart--to tell me what they love, hate, and what just doesn't make sense. This is my favorite stage because people read it and I get detailed feedback.

I love stories. I'm sure that's obvious because I'm a writer, but stories are something I'm absolutely passionate about. When I was younger, I read voraciously. I read Lord of the Rings when I was 12 or 13. I read La Morte d'Arthur in my teens. The Death and Return of Superman was one of my favorite books as a teenager. So was the Animorphs series. I read all kinds of stuff, rarely writing anything. In fact, the first thing I remember writing for fun was a comic book about "SuperJake in 6th grade." Pretty narcissistic and yet telling of the kinds of stories I'd write later on.

I watch a lot of television and movies. I'm very critical of visual media, and very picky about anything I read. I expect to be grabbed immediately by a book whether by the character, the plot, or something about it. With a show, I want there to be something holding me from episode to episode. Usually, in stories I want there to be a "big bad." Some overarching conflict that takes me from week to week slowly drawing me closer to an inevitable battle or showdown. That's the kind of entertainment I LOVE.

The Psion series is similar. I wrote it while I was watching LOST. I enjoyed the cliffhanger endings, the introduction of new mysteries, the mythology it built, and the complexity of many of the characters. Another show with a similar style is Avatar: The Last Airbender. These types of shows are things I'm passionate about. Long, arcing stories with brilliant characters that keep you watching for those epic moments you never forget. That's what I try to do in the Psion books and anything else that I write.

I hope to be able to tell many of my stories. I'm sure many of them will be in this vein. The Psion series is a good example of what I will be writing for a long time: action-packed stories with characters you love and others you hate, and some you feel a bit of both toward, all of them racing toward an epic climax. It's exciting to think that I have only one more Psion book to write, and then I can "go" anywhere I please: imagining and building new worlds or expanding on old ones.

Probably no surprise. Growing up, I loved comic books. My cousin introduced me to them at about age 11 or so, and I collected Superman religiously for about four years. Unfortunately, I'm not a nerdy enough to understand all the major events DC or Marvel does so they can reboot their universes every few years, but I'm a fan of well-done comic book films.

Sadly, Marvel has been kicking DC's butt when it comes to film, at least, as far as live action goes. My wife and I watch every animated superhero film when they come out. DC wipes the floor with animation. The DCAU (DC Animated Universe) was stupendous. I was sad to see it end. It gave us four AWESOME shows: Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, and the Justice League. Then DC also had two incredible seasons of Young Justice, though not part of the DCAU. If you haven't watched any of those shows, you're missing out.

Marvel has had three animated shows that I LOVED. All of them are were cancelled prematurely: Wolverine and the X-Men, Spectacular Spider-man, and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. The first two gave us only 26 AMAZING episodes each. The third was two solid seasons. Some people are huge fans of the old school X-Men show, but I never watched it. I tried to, but thought it was a little too cheesy for my tastes.

Now we get to live action films. DC first: I know some people worship the new Batman Trilogy. I like them, don't love them. Batman Begins was great, but the other two had all kinds of plot problems. Very disappointing. Green Lantern was. . . not great. Not much attention given to character, unfortunately. Bad script. Overall, a failure, in my opinion. My two favorite DC live action films are Man of Steel and Watchmen. Both of them happen to be directed by Zack Snyder. I love the worlds he creates and the thought he puts into action scenes. He seems to strike a great balance between character and action. The Man of Steel film is obviously intended to reboot the DC films to lead up to a big, gigantic Justice League film, which is akin to ....

MARVEL! Now, keep in mind that when I say the Marvel live-action films, I'm leaving out Sony's sloppy handling of the Spider-man properties and FOX's A.T.R.O.C.I.O.U.S. handling of the Fantastic Four and X-Men properties. FOX is desperately trying to pull all their characters together for a big team-up like Marvel is doing, but we all know it's far, far too late for that. The X-Men films are all over the place story wise. An absolute mess. Marvel, however, had a plan from the beginning, and their patience has paid off.

I know not everyone loves The Avengers, but it is the 3rd highest grossing film of all time for a reason. It was a great "team up" film. And they are planning bigger and better things. As you know Thanos was teased at the end of the film as the "guy behind the curtain." Naturally, everyone expects Thanos to be the big bad of the 2nd Avengers film, but now the title of the movie has been revealed to be Avengers: Age of Ultron. GASP! What? Not Thanos!

No, according to Marvel talking heads, Thanos is being saved, probably for Avengers 3! Which means, we'll have more movies leading up to this colossus match-up between the Avengers and Thanos. Avengers 1, Avengers 2, Guardians of the Galaxy, Thor 2 (maybe?), and perhaps Ant-Man. All in all, a very exciting place to be. It's been impressive to see Marvel, if nothing else, take the time to introduce characters, make quality films, and do these stories justice. For a comic book fan like me, it's something I never thought I'd see. I know some out there are sick of the comic book films, but I hope we're just seeing the beginning.

Next post, I'll talk about what types of stories interest me, and why I write the way I do.

Got an email yesterday from Heidi Taylor at Shadow Mountain Publishing:

Yes, I just finished it, Jacob, and WOW! I could not put it down. I really enjoyed that book and I can’t wait to get my hands on book 2! Chris had asked me to go through and mark potential problem places – violence, etc that could raise questions with our board. I’ve done that and now Chris has it. He says he’s only going to read pieces but I know he’s going to get sucked in. It’s inevitable. I’ll keep you posted as I get feedback from Chris. But I’m really excited about this! I think teen boys are going to go nuts over it! Well done, Jacob!

Exciting news! Now, I'm still not holding my breath about a publishing contract with SMP for the Psion series. Why? Because SMP is very selective about the content of the books, and I'm nervous about what they'll think regarding the violence in Psion Gamma and Delta. However, I'm more than willing (read: thrilled) to discuss with them what changes they'd want me to make, and see if we can reach an agreement. Who knows?

Either way, it's nice to be loved.

I have no intentions of getting political or even taking a side in this matter. I strongly believe that both sides of this issue made poor decisions that night, and tragic consequences followed. But I'm so tired of hearing people on Facebook, web comments, and even the news pundits (though should we be surprised?) turn this into a politicized affair.

Truth is, this is a complex issue. We have people rushing to defend Martin because he's black, and so are they. We have people who rush to defend him because of "white guilt." And more rush because they hate guns and see this as platform for their political persuasion.

On the other hand, we have people who rush to defend Zimmerman because they don't trust black people. We have people who rush to defend Zimmerman because they don't want to believe someone would kill out of malice or irresponsibility. And we have those who see this as a threat to gun ownership, so they vilify Martin.

And we have so many many other kinds of people that fall in place in between.

Why aren't we asking ourselves the tough questions? Are we ever going to get around to those? What can we learn from this awful event? What should we do going forward?

The important questions is not "Is Zimmerman guilty?" I can tell you that. Does anyone really believe that persecuting or prosecuting Zimmerman will  fix problems? Will it really heal the black communities? No and no.

No one--NO ONE--knows exactly what happened that night except for one dead kid and a very remorseful man. If people don't want Martin's death to be in vain, if they want answers to why this happened, if they want to see racial tensions end, they need to look at themselves, not figure out which party to blame. Because the blame isn't on Trayvon, or Zimmerman, or the state of Florida for its Stand Your Ground law, or the 6 female jurors, or the prosecution. It's on everyone.

It's on communities and families. It's on parents. It's on a society with a screwed up value system. The old adage about pointing fingers seems apt.

Why should people have to feel the need to carry guns? Or have neighborhood watches? Or need to call 911? Why can't we treat our fellow man with respect and brotherly love? It seems that these questions matter more, and the answers will bring the peace and solace to our hearts that we seek, not seeing someone "get what they deserve."

God bless Trayvon's family, and George Zimmerman and his family.