The Work Week

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 27, 2008

Back to work.

Nice being distracted with something new and shiny. Have you been looking at ComicMix this week? As we transition editors, the writing staff is in flux so I find myself doing a lot of the coverage at the moment. Fortunately, after all the practice with Famous Monsters, it’s been fairly painless.

I enjoy tooling around comics and pop culture sites, dealing with publicists and setting up a news calendar so we can determine long-range coverage plans.

Meantime, the rest of my freelance life is also back to work it seems. I just received my contributor copes to Tales of Zorro and must say, it’s a handsome looking book with fine illustrations. I do look forward to seeing what my fellow writers added to the adventurer’s legacy.

Also, the final outline to the Iron Man novel got the green-light from my editor and its off to Marvel for their input.

Additionally, I’m at work on researching and drafting a proposal for a comics project that popped up out of the blue which could be all sort of fun.

I’ve also begun consulting with a convention on programming for 2009 and that should be fun and perhaps the easiest money I’ll earn this year.

Sitting at the desk, iTunes playing in the background, IM up to keep tabs on friends and coworkers – it all feels so normal and a welcome change after the last month (or seven months).

A New Chapter Begins

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 22, 2008

Monday, Deb and I return to work.

For me, it’ll be a largely transitional day as I add something new to my plate. As of that day, I will be assuming the role of News Editor at ComicMix. The online managing editor, Rick Marshall, has left the company and they have reconfigured their needs and made me an offer.

While I have been a fulltime freelancer for a year now, I’ve mentioned before the mental sense of dread that I will one day wake up and all the assignments will vanish. It’s not uncommon in the field. So, when Mike Gold invited me to lunch, I was not really looking for an offer but listened when it came.

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Aftermath

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 20, 2008

The ritual portions of grieving ended yesterday and we’re all worn out. It still doesn’t feel real; we all keep expecting to wake up from an elaborate nightmare but then it sinks in that it’s real. Robbie’s gone and the pain remains as strong as it was on Thursday.

Our family provided us tremendous support. Jim and Jennifer were closest geographically and were the first to step right up and help us get things done at home. But all the others arrived and went right to work, shopping, cooking, serving, cleaning and telling us to go sit. That helped a lot.

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Eulogies

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 18, 2008

The support demonstrated by friends, neighbors, co-workers, friends and family has been overwhelming. I don’t want to give it short shrift and will talk about it when we’re really done with the ceremonial aspects of our grief. But today at the funeral, Uncle Jim and Deb both gave stirring eulogies that I wanted to shared for those who could not attend.

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The Final Week

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 15, 2008

Robbie fought with every ounce of strength he had left. It proved not to be enough as the lung disease proved stronger and more insidious.

Over the last few days, he was having increasing difficulty breathing. The constant dry cough led to more nausea and no amount of antiemetics seemed to make him more comfortable. As a result, he wasn’t eating enough and was losing weight fairly quickly, down 6% in the last week. He endured multiple CT scans, electrocardiograms, ultrasounds and x-rays all ruling things out but not finding a cause. As a result, there was little choice but to do a biopsy and it was determined to work on only one side to minimize the risks.

A simple lap around the hospital floor proved too taxing for him on Monday. He was struggling and on Tuesday told Deb that he wanted to fight on but was feeling really tired.

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Bone Marrow Drive in Fairfield

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 13, 2008

So, let me tell you about the Community Theatre. It used to be a single screen theater servicing Fairfield since the early 20th century. Sometime in the past it was twinned and became part of the Sony chain. Eventually, it was shuttered and lay dormant.

Leo Redgate formed the Community Theatre Foundation and resurrected the place as a second-run house staffed largely by volunteers. These volunteers are almost 100% high school students learning some valuable job skills and having a ball. Robbie practically lived there, putting in countless hours. If it was Saturday night, you could find him downtown.

As a result, he earned Leo’s trust and admiration which manifested itself early on by being asked to be on the crew for special events. It’s how Robbie got to meet Paul Newman and Johnny Depp. His work resulted in a scholarship when he graduated high school.

Leo has been in touch regularly since Robbie’s leukemia was diagnosed and he keeps asking how he can help. On his own, he decided to use the Community Theater Foundation to help with a Bone Marrow Registration Drive.

The last one in town was just a few weeks back and thanks to his pals, 101 people were registered. Now Leo’s trying to do the same. For those in the vicinity here are the details:

Telephone Number: 800-676-4545
Drive Name: NE/Community Drive
Drive Location: Community Theatre
Address: Foundation 1424 Post Road, Fairfield , CT 06824
Drive Date: Aug 22 2008
Drive Time: 3:00PM – 6:00PM

What to expect

Joining the NMDP Registry is easy. Patients need donors who are between the ages of 18 and 60, meet the health guidelines and are willing to donate to any patient in need.

When you come to a donor drive, we will explain what it means to become a donor, help you understand your commitment, answer your questions and help you through the process.

All you need to do is:
• Complete a registration form with contact information, health history questions and a signed agreement to join the NMDP Registry. To help you complete the form, bring along:
o Personal identification (such as a driver’s license or passport)
o Contact information for two family members or friends who would know how to reach you in the future if your address changes.
• Pay for tissue-typing costs, in some cases (tax deductible donation).
• Give either a swab of cheek cells or a blood sample so your tissue type can be tested.

That’s it! Your tissue type is then added to the NMDP Registry. Doctors search our Registry when they need to find a donor for their patients.

Week Thirty

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 9, 2008

Two words can sum up the week: visitors and nausea.

The visitors came almost daily which helped since Robbie remains in the stasis between surgery and resumption of full chemo. The week kicked off with Kate still here and was joined by Uncle Jim and Aunt Jen. As usual, Father Sam made a Monday appearance and then throughout the week, various pals from Fairfield came to see him which was terrific. His first 7-West nurse, Tonetta, also made a surprise visit which cheered him.

On Thursday, he was visited by one of his teachers from the Aquaculture school, Ms. Ebmeyer who brought along three of his classmates from the magnet school. It was there he really began his interest in piracy. The class, which every week went out on a boat for marine biology, dubbed themselves the pirates and it stuck.

The other part of the week was Robbie feeling constantly unwell, mostly with rounds of nausea. As a result, each day was like a constant cycle of anitemetics from Benadryl to adavan to kytril and back again. None seemed to be doing the trick and it persisted and seemed even worse yesterday. We spoke with the resident who tried compazine which seemed to help a little. Still, constantly feeling unwell seemed to be taking its toll and Sarah, one of his nurses, commented she saw this evolving as well. He was most certainly not like himself when she cared for him on Thursday. Jess and Nichole both suggested marinol, an antiemetic made from marijuana.

This morning this was tried and we’ll see what happens and what the oncology team thinks is the cause.

Meantime, a CT scan earlier this week showed three spots in his lungs that the surgeon continues to think is blood. That the spots have not changed size or shape three weeks after surgery is the puzzle so a repeat CT will be done on Monday and then we’ll see what happens. His blood counts finally recovered this week but with his lungs still in question, it was decided to resume the holding action chemo, etoposide, before moving to the full chemo. He did endure another bone marrow biopsy yesterday which should also help direct next week’s actions.

So, we make him comfortable. He watches TV and takes walks. We’ve gotten him back to reading, setting aside time each day and he’s now into Ender’s Game. We get him to eat when he can but he’s thin and what little hair had started to return is now falling out. Fortunately, he continues to deal with this with a tremendous amount of strength, remaining a good a patient and a terrific example to the rest of us.

Iron Update

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 5, 2008

Editing is like bartending, the finished result tends to be satisfying but getting there always takes different paths.

Many of my prose editors have been idea guys, helping me hammer out the initial concepts and then leave me on my own for the final outline and writing. In some cases, they course correct the outline but usually, let me go.

Much of my early prose work was with John Ordover on the Star Trek books and he was a strong idea man, almost handing me the plot after we covered some broad stroke ideas. He was certainly a top-down editor, preferring to use his writers as extensions of his vision.

The line editing done to the manuscripts has tended to be light or done without much of my involvement.

As a result, I’ve always felt somewhat dissatisfied with the end results since I have not been intimately involved from soup to nuts. On my own, I find myself hitting a wall and often need collaborative discussions with peers.

Iron Man, so far, is turning out differently. I took my one paragraph idea and over the course of several days, did some research, some expanding, some rewriting and finally expanded it into a nine page outline with chapter breaks. I sent it off to my editor and received, today, a very long, thoughtful e-mail along with an annotated version of outline. This was followed a phone call where we hashed out some further thoughts and came up with some additional ideas, all building off the original outline.

Tomorrow, I can spend the day revising it, making it a stronger work which has me excited.

One Year Later

Posted by Bob Greenberger on August 3, 2008

It was a year ago this weekend that I suddenly found myself out of work. We had barely two week’s notice that AMI was foolishly shutting down Weekly World News. Since then the company has continued to flounder so in the long run, getting out of there was probably a good thing. The newspaper was a hoot to work on and I miss it and maybe someone will wisely find a way to resurrect it.

By the time I packed up my desk and left, I had already alerted the free world I was available and was determined to find staff work. There were calls and meetings and a few formal interviews. Then…silence. Along the way, I collected unemployment and filled my schedule with whatever freelance work I could find.

As the weeks passed, the freelance work continued to come my way, from various sources, and I was busier than ever while setting my own hours. Once I was invited to help ACE produce the Heroes Happen here comic strip, I had a very full schedule with Famous Monsters in the offing.

By Christmastime, the job leads had dried up and the freelance was flowing so I sort of shifted mental gears. I was going to try going fulltime freelance even though there remained that constant fear I’d wake up and all the work would vanish.

Of course, there was no knowing that come January being fulltime freelance was the best decision I could have made. And since then, it has continued to work well as stuff continues to get done largely from the hospital.

I have work to fill every hour through late October and maybe beyond as I talk to people about stuff and then more odds and ends may turn up.

Will it all vanish tomorrow? Maybe. Will a fulltime gig get offered? Maybe.

The last year has been professionally more successful than I could have imagined so maybe these things really do happen for a reason.