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Summer Recap and Starting Fall
Hey everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend.
Fall 2020 is here. As crazy as this year has been, I’m excited about this season. It’s one of my favorite times of the year, and I especially love Halloween. Already started my list of horror movies to watch!
Still, there’s a lot to mourn about this year, and it’s ok to recognize just how drained many of us are. The following is an Instagram post I did a few weeks ago. I summed up my thoughts about the past few months, and I shared my honest feelings. Maybe you can find this relatable:
“Summer 2020 was nothing like I originally planned. I was supposed to go to Disney World for the SMA conference, table at HeroesCon, and see plenty of friends.
Alas, each of my trips got canceled, and I’ve had to be extremely careful about seeing people in person. Socially distanced visits have become my temporary normal, and I can only go out in public to select places (my local comic shop is the only place I currently go to for leisure). Also, this is the longest time in my life I’ve gone without going to a movie theater.
I’m a generally laid back and positive dude, but there’s no denying that 2020 has sucked for a lot of people. On top of COVID and the social unrest in our world, personal hardships of mine have included losing my service dog in June, managing my care while my Mom underwent surgery, and struggling to maintain a work/life balance when I can’t travel or do normal extrovert activities. What started as a year full of adventures quickly took a sharp turn in the opposite direction.
Still, the past few months weren’t all doom and gloom for me. In June, my creative team and I acquired an agent for our original graphic novel “Ava.” I just looked over character designs by @ben.humeniuk last night, and I can’t wait to get this book out in the world.
Other highs include immersing myself in books and movies, deepening relationships with people near and far away from me, spending more time outside, and talking about everything from spiritual conversations to crazy human interest stories.
I’m more than ready for things to return to some semblance of “normalcy,” if that’s even the right word. I want to be able to say that watching the making of Frozen 2 series was only one of the exciting things that happened to me this week and to freely be with people in person again. I have faith that we’ll get there one day. It probably won’t be terribly soon, but it’s something to look forward to. For now, I’m treasuring the fact that I’m healthy, employed, loved, and not without hope.
Also, seriously watch the Frozen documentary series. It made me feel better about everything, and writer-director Jennifer Lee is an inspiration.”
#summer2020How are you coping with the craziness of 2020? What things are you looking forward to about the rest of this year?
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4 Replies
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Hi Kevin!,
That was a well balanced and realistic write-up you did on 2020. Like you and everybody else, I had to cancel all my plans and trips that I was dearly looking forward to. I think people with SMA enjoy our trips more than the average person because we don’t take it for granted.
Also, when it rains it pours. On top of everything going on in the world, I’ve known plenty of people including myself who have experienced great personal hardships in their private lives this year. However, I’ve learned that through faith we can always find light in the darkness. We can either focus on the positives or negatives. One day we can go back to our lives even though it will be a while like you said.
On another note, I’m a comic book lover too and very interested to know how you got into the industry! Nothing like a well written plot combined with fantastic artwork! I also really liked the making of Frozen 2 documentary. Sometimes I like to watch the behind the scenes stuff more than the actual movies themselves.
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Hey Ari! Thanks for reading! Yeah, it’s been quite a year. But like you said, we’ll be able to get back out in the world one day.
Regarding my comic, it’s been in the works for quite some time. I wrote the script with a close friend of mine and a mutual friend of ours helped connect us with an artist. We considered Kickstarting it at one point, but we ended up participating in a Twitter pitch contest called PitMad. That’s how we acquired an agent. Still, there’s no one way to break in. Just make comics and tell stories.
Thanks for reaching out!
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Hi Kevin,
I see you’re a prolific writer and work for Bioware. Do you mind if I send you a private message on here soon about how to get a job writing? Never had much luck getting an actual paying job, which is pretty discouraging.
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Absolutely! Feel free to message me.
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