Kickstarter

By now almost all of you should have received at least something from me. Still waiting on a few additional items and then it's nothing but fun stuff (additional stretch rewards, etc). If you want in on the YouTube thank-yous, please send me your info/survey responses by the end of the month!

A bunch of little things/in other news...

1. For those backers who asked to be added to my mailing list (and/or who want to join now): 

I won't be adding you. Not because I'm mean, though maybe I am mean. But I'm going to ask you to do it manually to make sure you're only sharing with me the info you want to (outside of Kickstarter). This is what I mean when I say I won't abuse your personal info.

To subscribe, enter your email address here and then confirm when you receive a confirmation email request. 

http://alexwilson.us5.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=3677a8ca91d425aea19cac7c9&id=c47227f848

FYI I'll be giving away an autographed copy of the science fiction/fantasy prose anthology Writers of the Future 29 (which includes a prose science fiction story by me) to a random mailing list subscriber in mid-June... before it's even available in bookstores.

(Only your email is required, but zip codes could help out later if I'm doing appearances near you.)

2.  Today I'm launching a Facebook page! Please like if you like such things.

http://www.facebook.com/lexbooks

Both this and the mailing list plug means in the future I'll be bugging you less here in the future about things like:

3. The free digital comic Outre #1 is out now, and it includes my epic-in-8-pages tale with Ben Garriga: "My Universe Expands Until I Have No Center," as well as an interview with me. (The other interview in the issue is with the amazing Fiona Staples, so with any luck I'll get a lot of accidental readers who see my shaved head and assume I'm Mr. Brian K Vaughan...)

http://outreanthology.wordpress.com/2013/05/04/download-outre-1/

In Genre calls the story "Very well put together, the story manages to span millennia in a matter of eight pages and still remain one of the book’s highlights."

Here's a promotional bookmark I designed, which will debut at Heroescon in a few weeks. Front and back:

4. I will be at Heroescon June 7-9 (Charlotte, NC), tabling with the fabulous Alethea Kontis, booth 2004 in Artist Alley. And I'll be on a Making Comics panel there at 12:30PM that Saturday. I'll have copies of The Time of Reflection, a few Limited Editions of the same, and some You Got Your Schwarzenegger in My President minicomics. I'll also be debuting the print edition of "The Last Christmas of Mrs. Claus" chapbook and the second printing of the "micro-chapbook" "A Wizard of Mapquest."

In 2008 or so, Alethea snapped a few photos of me participating on one of my first ever panels with George R R Martin. And a gnome:

You see the gnome, too, don't you?

5. For local backers, I will have a reading on Friday, June 28 at FlyLeaf Books in Chapel Hill. 

6. If you've seen me teased lately on social networks, here's the Writers and Illustrators of the Future award acceptance speech I gave, which might've jeopardized up-to-two marriages (first half of the 7 minute vid) last month:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8ay-v6rPek

(Be sure to play the second half, too, where the artist on my story gives my favorite speech of the night, and I'm not just saying that because of where she calls me a little girl.)

Thanks again!

Alex.

I just got back from Hollywood to find a big box from Silvio! 

Yes, the Limited Editions are here, which means reward shipments can resume. Obviously transit time (especially from North Carolina in the U.S. to Brazil) was longer than expected, so I reiterate I how sorry I am about that. I don't think Kickstarter backers should have to lower expectations when it comes to funded projects. I do plan to try and make it up to those backers affected.

My goal is to have all the remaining awards in the mail by the end of next week. A few of you higher-tier backers will still have to wait for their more unique rewards, but I'll be sending your Limited Editions with this batch anyway, separately if need be.

Captain America 2 - Extras Casting in Cleveland 

Since I specifically mentioned Captain America 2 when talking about working as an actor, I thought I'd let those in Ohio know that there's a cattle call this Saturday in Cleveland:

http://clevelandfilm.com/blog2/?p=3137

Sometimes these are followed by email submission opportunities, sometimes not. It all depends on the extras casting director and the film infrastructure of the area. Since so many TV shows filmed in North Carolina and Georgia need a constant influx of new extras, most of the background casting around where I live is done over Facebook. I believe Iron Man 3 in NC had a cattle call or two, but I got in by sending a photograph and measurements (or whatever they asked for).

A few of the basics you might want to know. Background work is fun and pays fine for a good day's work, but it's sporadic and you won't find out about whether you're cast, what time, and the exact location of the shoot until the night before. Occasionally, you have less time, but those are rare (and you aren't obligated to drop everything and go). I got the call for Iron Man 3 six hours before I needed to be on set, and it's three hours away (I knew it would be three hours away, just as you'll know that shooting will likely take place in or around Cleveland). For this reason, the work lends itself to freelancers, self-employeds, unemployeds, or others with flexible schedules more than it does for most nine-to-fivers.) 

Other things you might want to know (I'll go into more detail later in a backers-only post) before deciding whether to wait in line this weekend:

• You might be asked for general availability at the cattle call, but they shouldn't need you to confirm until less than a week out. This is because they don't know yet. Extras are set dressing. They are important set dressing, but they are the last layer of many.

• If you say you're available on Tuesday and they cast you for Tuesday... and then you either can't or won't go, don't expect to be called again. If the time is inconvenient (you thought you'd start in the morning, and instead you start at 8PM), that's the way it goes. Your casting director will give you the info as she or he has it.  

• Your pay as a non-union extra is typically something like 72/8, which means you're paid $72 for the first eight hours regardless of how many hours you work. If it's an outdoor sunny scene and it starts raining an hour after you get there, they might send you home and still have to pay you $72. I think states differ about what happens after 8 hours, but in NC it's generally time and a half after 8 hours. 

• Expect to go 12 or more hours per day. You won't be working the entire time. My shortest day was about 11 hours, which was the only time I worked fewer than 12 hours. Longest was 13 or 14. 

• When I did extra work, more than half of each day was spent sitting around, talking, and reading. Bring a book. Bring a deck of cards if you want. Best to leave the laptops and/or iPads or other expensive items. Unless you're a parent chaperone, you will have to leave your bag/stuff/clothes in extras holding with a bunch of strangers while you work. 

• On a big hush-hush project like Captain America 2, they might ask you to surrender your cellphone during the shoot. This is because many extras like to post pictures on FaceBook. Don't be one of those extras. If they allow you to take photos, they'll probably have a policy. For example: you may take photos only in the holding area, and/or you may only post photos after the film or TV episode comes out. 

• Do not expect to meet celebrities. On an action film like Captain America 2, many things will be shot by the second unit. I don't think director Shane Black was even in North Carolina when I worked on Iron Man 3.

• It's fun, but it's work. Have fun. Be professional.

Thanks for being a part of this!

Alex.

Oh, and this why I was in Hollywood (a big science fiction prose writing award called Writers of the Future; it was a fun week):

The corrected printing of the Limited Editions turned out great, and they landed safely in Brazil last week.

Moving forward, Silvio will soon be finished autographing the hundreds of things we're making him autograph, and then he needs to get a few more responses about backer commissions before he can finish the last of those (I just sent followup notes to those backers tonight) and then he'll send that mass of stuff back to me in the United States.

More in a bit. Thanks for your patience!