Tag: Shannon Muir

The Missing Marathon Speech

On April 19, 2022

In 2022, ToastMasters, YouTube

Recently, I did my third speech for Toastmasters.
My wife and I are members of Toastmasters 4 Writers in Burbank, California – District 52.

My second and third speech were connected because what I learned from giving the second speech would be applied to the third. The Second speech was about my family, especially my grandfather, James Shaw, who was from Ireland and came to America. There are many great stories I could tell about him and his life. When it came to telling the third speech I chose to focus on him as a Marathon runner, especially winning one in Belfast Ireland.

But as I began to do research for this speech, I was finding more questions than answers. On top of that there wasn’t a lot of recorded history about the 1909 race, and that the first Belfast City Marathon didn’t happen until 1982.

So this speech began as much about learning the truth about the race as it was about my grandfather winning it.

A big thank you goes out to John T. Glover who wrote the book HISTORY OF NORTHERN IRELAND MARATHON RUNNING for helping me locate the facts.

Who’s Who In New Pulp

By kevinpsb4

On July 19, 2020

In 2020, Airship 27, Book Illustrations, Book Illustrator

Are you looking for fast paced action adventure stories in the style of the old Pulp Novels of the 1930s and want to find great authors that write them. The pick up a copy of WHO’S WHO IN NEW PULP a directory of over 200 authors, artists, publishers and reviews in the New Pulp genre.

My wife Shannon Muir and I are very honored to be part of this directory.

You can purchase a copy through Amazon and all go to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Thank you Ron Fortier and Rob Davis from Airship 27 for putting this together.

Thoughts on An Irish Marathon

By kevinpsb4

On October 9, 2018

In Uncategorized

In 1909 my grandfather won the Belfast Marathon.

On Halloween of that year he left for America where he would run in both the New York and Boston marathons. Eventually traveling across country with his family to settle in Fullerton, California. Yet, our family has never been far from Ireland, having visited many times. We call it ‘Heaven on Earth.’

I have been thinking a lot about how far my grandfather traveled and ran through out his long life and how it relates to my own race of a job search.

Life is a marathon. Everything you do is part of that race, there are no sprints, and hundred yard dashes. Marathons are long races in which you have to pace yourself, there will be long straightaways, up hill climbs, and sharp hairpin turns that take you in unexpected directions or make it feel like you are running in circles and heading back the way you came. You have to be willing to keep at it for the entire run, ever focused on the goal even if you can’t see the finish line.

My marathon began when I was young and fell in love with comic books and television animation. I wanted to be a part of that! Run that race. After all the run to Hollywood from my home was relatively short, but I didn’t realize just how far that run would actually be. The slow jog through school was a struggle until I stumbled upon a university professor in art who understood what I was running for.

My first real milestone came when I was hired as a background artist on the pages of the first issue of SUPREME for Image Comics. I thought that would lead me on a long straight away working in the comic book industry, but a turn too soon had me going in another direction.

Miles would pass and I kept on running. Along the way I would meet another running nearly the same race as I. She became the love of my life. Together Shannon I would run and create the webcomic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY which has become a major part of our race for many years and miles. Though Shannon’s race had already lead her to work in television animation production, we soon found a mile stone together writing episodes of an animated series in Japan called MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL, though very few people have ever seen it in the U.S. Along the road we have both written short stories and novels, and I have been hired to do book illustrations. After running our race for what seemed like forever Shannon and I were finally married.

Last year my marathon lead me to working as an Associate Producer on an animated feature film. Again I thought I was on a straight away towards my goal. Unfortunately, it was a short run when the project got canceled. I learned a lot from the experience and hope to use my skills as I race for another production job.

I just passed my latest milestone having a comic book published in which I both wrote and illustrated the story. All-Star Pulp Comics #4, from Airship 27 Productions, contains my story “The DA’s Dilemma,” staring the Veiled Avenger, a heroine out of the Golden Age of comics.

Many times I have run long distances with nothing around and feeling very alone, no one to hand me a cup of refreshing water when I need it or provide needed encouragement and direction, and yet I refuse to give up. This race is too important to me.

Now, with thoughts of my grandfather, I have begun to wonder if my marathon race may lead me back to Ireland. I have discovered there are many great animation production houses in Ireland and if I got a chance to work with them my race would bring together two of my great joys; Ireland and Animation.

Marathons are, as I have said, long races and I am nowhere near being able to see the Finish Line. For all I know it hasn’t been installed yet. Just know that my shoes are tied and I’m still on the road. It’s time to run!

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
October 6th, 2018

Hikky from MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL

By kevinpsb4

On February 9, 2018

In Uncategorized

Years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to write several episodes of the Japanese animated series MIDNIGHT HORROR SCHOOL, created by Naomi Iwata
The show was a relative success in Japan and many other countries around the world, unfortunately they were able find a market to sell the show to here in the U.S.A. So we were never able see our episodes broadcast in English.
I would have really been nice to show them to people, especially to help promote our animation careers for other series.
Maybe it’s not too late.

Hikky and his school friends are objects that human students loose during the school day. Such as a pencil that falls off your desk. At night the school becomes magical and all these lost objects become alive and go to their own school. There they learn to do amazing things and to one day graduate and become one of the Wonders of The World.

It was a fun series to work on. It got me my first animation writing credit and membership into the Animation Writers Caucus of the Writers Guild of America West.

Celebrating 15 Years of a Webcomic

By kevinpsb4

On June 30, 2016

In Uncategorized

Celebrating 15 Years of a Webcomic by KevinPSB4

Though only a few months have passed for Debra and her friends, the webcomic FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY have been around for 15 years.

FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY (www.flying-glory.com) is the story of ambitious Debra Clay who’s grandmother was the wartime super heroine FLYING GLORY. Now the teenager always looking for ways to promote her rock bang, The Hounds of Glory, is thrilled to discover that she has inherited her Grandma Elsie’s super powers. Once she’s convinced her friends to put on costumes as part of their performance, a new team of super heroes is formed even if they didn’t want to be. Because they are soon fighting super villains between, and sometimes during, their rock concerts.

Be sure to pick up FLYING GLORY FLASHBACK a special 15th Anniversary edition that my co-writer Shannon Muir put to get. It includes all the song lyrics she wrote for the series as well as character bios. (amzn.to/293eI1L) Only 99cents.

“Training It” – Final Blog about SDCC 2013

By kevinpsb4

On August 12, 2013

In Uncategorized

We use to call it the San Diegan, then in the year 2000 Amtrak decided to remain the train and it’s been the Pacific Surfliner ever since.

And so it was the Pacific Surfliner that Shannon and I traveled on down to the San Diego Comic Con International and then back home again.

It is a great way to travel. Sitting back and relaxing, take a nap, read a book or write one. Sure beat being trapped in traffic on the 5 Freeway.

It was also a whole lot less expensive then trying to get a hotel room.

Post Comic Con 2013 Blog #2 – Thank You Roy Thomas

By kevinpsb4

On July 26, 2013

In Uncategorized

Many of my professional comic book and animation friends on facebook and twitter have commented how this was one of the best San Diego Comic Cons they have had. Each say this for their own reasons, and it’s up to them to tell you why, but let me talk about why this is one for me.

As I’ve written about before, when I first got into reading comics I discovered the Justice Society of America before I really knew the Justice League was more than SUPER FRIENDS. Soon after that I found a comic called ALL-STAR SQUADRON. This book was written by Roy Thomas, and in one way or another included every single ‘Golden Age’ hero that DC Comics owned.

For many years, Thomas had his hands controlling the greatest of characters from both Marvel and DC.

Because as a kid he grew up reading all the original Golden Age characters he maintained a passion for all of them when he became a professional writer himself. I’d like to think I’m following in his footprints.

At the first ComicCon I attended, I was excited to attend a panel on Roy Thomas and his books. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, he couldn’t make it to the panel but con personnel said he was there. So another attendee and I mustered up enough courage to go to the info booth and ask to have him paged. (Realize I was a very shy kid in my early teens. Of course I’m still rather shy in my mid—never mind.) But Mr. Thomas never showed up. I was disappointed, but didn’t have any negativity against the man who controlled all these great characters.

Years later after getting my first job in the comic book industry, I met him extremely briefly while attending Pro-Con in Oakland. (Anyone remember that?) But he and Marv Wolfman were in deep discussion that I didn’t want to disturb him.

(I lost a lot of opportunities over the years because I didn’t want to disturb people. Finally getting over that. That’s a blog post all into itself.)

Finally we reach this year. Shannon and I attended a couple of spotlight panels. One on the artist George Perez, and the second was on Roy Thomas. The panel was moderated by Jon B. Cooke (editor of TwoMorrow’s COMC BOOK CREATOR magazine), and they talked about Thomas growing up and reading comics as a little boy, on to writing and editing for Marvel, and then doing what he says is his favorite book for DC Comics ALL-STAR SQUARDRON.

Yay, me too.

Here’s the cover of the very first Issue I bought:

Getting to hear him talk about all that was really good, but the day wasn’t over. After a dinner at the hotel before heading to the Writer’s Guild of America gathering, we were coming down an escalator and knew we had a limited amount of time. Standing in the corner by the Starbucks in hotel’s lounge stood Roy Thomas.

What feels like the first time in my life, I didn’t hesitate or think about what I was doing, and just went up to Mr. Thomas and introduced myself.

He was extremely friendly as I told him how ALL-STAR SQUADRON not only got me into comics, but also into enjoying history of World War II. That pleased him, because he was always incorporating history into the stories.

I told him how I later worked for Brian Murray who had been one of the artists on the follow up series YOUNG ALL-STARS.

Shannon spoke up saying how as an editor at Marvel, Roy had given a writing assignment to Christy Marx who later became a mentor to her which lead to her own career in animation.

I thanked him and his wife once more and headed off to meet more of our fellow writers. I was walking on cloud 9 almost crying with joy. Nothing could have made this Con better, and yet there were other things that we will be talking about for a long time to come.

Though most of those ‘golden age’ characters have dropped back into the shadows as new generations of writers and characters take over, Roy Thomas and the ALL-STAR SQUADRON will forever be the heart of what makes comics special to me and why I write and draw them.

Thank you Mr. Thomas.

A Good Kick in the Pants

By kevinpsb4

On April 22, 2013

In Uncategorized

Do you have someone who’s willing to give you a good swift kick in the pants? You should.

Someone willing to tell you when you’re heading in the wrong direction, or not moving at all. Who can pull you off the couch and down into the desk chair and stand over your shoulder to make certain you start working.

They’ll remind you of what your original goals are and help you refocus on your target once more.

You might get momentarily upset with them. After all getting kicked in the rear hurts. But the sting will fade, and it’ll be soon be forgotten as you thrown yourself back into the work that is your passion, whether it be writing the novel that’s been collecting dust, or finishing the next page of your comic book.

Or, get back to writing that blog you left hanging several weeks ago. (Who, me?)

For me, that person is my fiancée Shannon Muir who last night wanted to know what I was currently doing in my writing. I told her of all the plans for this project or that.

That’s when she gave me that strong swift kick in my pants.

She didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, but reminded me of all I was capable of, and what I should do to get myself moving again. I had no right to complain I didn’t have enough time (that’s an easy one, I know you’ve used it too), but she gave me the kick saying that I’m only working three days a week while she works a full five days and sometimes more and is still able to find the time to write the latest installment in her WILLOWBROOK SAGA series of novels.

Shannon also gave me some guidance towards how to get myself and my books noticed and revive my existing websites to use them for the best outcome and promotion.

So with her standing over my shoulder ready to give me that next hard kick, expect to see more of my work, and more activities out there starting this week.

Thanks Shannon it only stung for a little while, I still love you.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

Wonder Con Anaheim, 2012

By kevinpsb4

On March 19, 2012

In Uncategorized

Had an enjoyable three-day weekend at WonderCon in Anaheim.

Got to see a lot of my fellow writers and creative people from comic books, animation, and novels. Went to a whole bunch of panels about working in different industries as a writer, learning how best to promote our work, and getting to see how some authors are promoting their books and themselves.

No matter how long I’ve been at this, there is ALWAYS something more to learn.

There were three panels on animation writing, each with their own special tone and subject. From selling a series, tales from the trenches, to what it takes to tell an action adventure story in animation.

The one on action was I think the most informative and I learned something from. Animation, like comic books, is a visual medium and the story must be told with the pictures. However, in comic books a single page of 1 to 8 panels of art can also be filled with dialog balloons and the reader and take his/her own time to read it. The same sequence in animation might only take seconds on the screen and only the most pertinent lines of dialog can be used. It needs to be cut down and much as possible, and the rest of the story must be in the artwork and animation.

Another panel was on how best to publicize your comic book. We did a lot of this last year when we were promoting the 10^th Anniversary of FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY, but there is still more we should have done and perhaps in different ways. Again, being there was a learning experience.

We don’t usually go to the Big Event panels, or the ones that are solely promoting a publisher’s line of comics or TV shows, but a friend of ours is working on a major show as part of the new DC Nation block on Cartoon Network so we couldn’t miss that. The fan response to GREEN LANTERN, YOUNG JUSTICE and the DC shorts was quite positive.

Other panels included a SPOTLIGHT on comic book writer Mark Waid who told us more of his plans for Digital Comics. Since Shannon and I have been doing a webcomic for 10 years, there is a lot to learn from him on this as well.

Another panel on the book WOMANOLOGY created by women creators, veterans and new. A worthwhile project, endeavored, and book, check it out.

There were also panels on gaming, both video and table top, which was more Shannon’s thing as her own experience in both. She can tell you more about that.

[EDIT] We also had a great time at a panel on Voice Acting with some of the best actors currently working in the industry. I may write about this at another time.

You can find Shannon’s view of Wonder Con here: http://t.co/tAg1nab9

Our final panel of the three days was on YOUNG ADULT novels, and there were 9 authors on the panel talking about their work, but done in a very enjoyable way that the question and answers weren’t boring and cliché. Three of the authors got to announce that their books were at different stages heading towards Hollywood, the audience loved that though knew that anything could happen between now and then. We did see two very well produced trailers to promote a couple of the books. One of the books is already in production as a film. As both Shannon and I have our own novels out right now, it’s really great to hear what others are going through.

Speaking of our own novels, both of us couldn’t help but keep checking Amazon’s Author Central and Smashword’s Dashboard through out the convention to watch our sales rankings. Shannon had one of her novels up for free yesterday it was fun to watch it climb the charts to # 15 in Family Sagas. As for mine, CLOCKWORK GENIE is currently on sale for 99¢ so it was great to see it hope up the ranks a bit, and I was really pleased to see REVENGE OF THE MASKED GHOST get some sales even though I haven’t been promoting this week. Maybe someone bought both, was it you?

Over all WonderCon was a relaxing weekend compared to our normal experience at ComicCon International in San Diego. Our only real problem was the heavy rain Saturday morning, which was a problem for everyone else as there wasn’t enough parking for not only our own convention but also two others going on at the same time. A good thing we chose to take the bus down each day so didn’t have to worry about any of it. Go OCTA.

I came home from the convention last night to find out that ParaYourNormal had posted an interview they did with me. You can read it here. If you read the interview, you’ll also have a chance at winning a free copy of CLOCKWORK GENIE. Read an excerpt of the story at the end of the interview.

You’ll also find a link in the interview to BlogTalkRadio through which you’ll be able to hear the ParaYour Normal crew interview me live this Wednesday (March 21^st). Here’s that link: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/parayournormal

So having a nice relaxing time at the convention with my fellow authors, I don’t feel like this is March Madness. Of course once you all start buying my books that may change.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

NanoWriMo – A Novel this November

By kevinpsb4

On November 3, 2011

In Uncategorized

Am very proud of my fiancée Shannon Muir as she begins working on her latest novel as part of NanoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). As she types away at her keyboard, I know several of my online friends are doing the same thing.

I was contemplating starting one as well, but have too much to do this month.

You see, just days ago, I types the two most glorious words to an author, and I typed them twice.

“The End”

I typed it first on a short story, which I submitted to a publisher for consideration as part of an anthology.

Then I typed them again on my first novel.

Two years ago I did participated in NanoWriMo, and completed the novel I worked on that November, but it was far from perfect and had so much in it that there is no way I could truly consider it finished. Even now I know it needs a page one rewrite.

However, about two weeks into that NanoWriMo, I had an idea for a new story. The concept came to me whole, and while not wanting to interrupt the book I was working on; I jotted down a full page of notes of this new tale and put it aside.

But the more I worked on the story for Nano, the more my thoughts lingered to the new one. So when December rolled around, I jumped head first into the new novel.

The first draft of the story flew from my finger over the next few weeks, though I had to admit that the climax stunk. So in the rewrite I discovered other characters that lived with in my novel’s world and had their own parts of the story to tell.

As I asked more questions about the characters and the world they lived in the story expanded and became much better.

With Shannon acting as my editor, I went through several rewrites and the story kept getting better. Much more so than what I had originally jotted down in a flash.

Now the novel is finished and I am currently painting the cover art and formatting it properly to be release as an ebook, by the end of November.

All this resulted from NanoWriMo. My original book sits in a virtual sock drawer, and one day will come back to life.

This has been a great experience for me, and I wish an equally great experience to all my friends that are writing their novels this November.

Keep Writing.

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

The Lyrics of Glory

By kevinpsb4

On October 10, 2011

In Uncategorized

As you know, Shannon Muir and I are celebrating the tenth anniversary of our online comic book FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY.

The story involves a team of teenagers who have chosen to put on costumes and be super heroes to support their leader Debra Clay who discovered she has inherited super powers from her grandma who was the World War II heroine Flying Glory.

On top of that, the team is also a rock band, first starting out performing for their high school and in local concerts. Now they are FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY; and their heroic actions have brought more attention to the band and their music.

And their music is our music. Or rather, their lyrics are Shannon’s lyrics.

One of the ways that we try to make our comic book unique from other super hero comics, or web comics, is that at least once per issue we include lyrics to a song that the band performs. All the songs that have appeared in the comic book over the last ten years have all been written Shannon Muir.

Music as part of an action adventure is how Shannon and I got to know one another.

When we were younger, and she lived thousands of miles away, we both enjoyed watching an animated television series called JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS.

Originally created to sell dolls, JEM was a well-crafted television series that had and still has an audience and fandom of boys and girls, men and women. Developed by writer Christy Marx the series dealt with a wide range of topics both fun and serious beyond the simple adventure.

As a young teen watching such a show, Shannon did something I never would have had the nerve to do. She wrote to the production company and was soon in contact with Christy Marx herself to learn about the show and writing for animation. Marx soon became Shannon’s mentor and friend.

I would later meet Marx online, and then at a science fiction convention. Whatever I said must have impressed her enough because when Shannon was ready to move down here to Los Angeles she asked Christy about me. She must have said something nice, because we’ve been together for over fifteen years.

The reason I bring this up is that Shannon and I have not intended to make FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY a copy of JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS, it’s quite different, but Marx’s influence is there.

One such influence is the inclusion of a song per story. There were usually two songs, I believe, per episode of JEM.

In our current issue, as part of our 10th anniversary celebration, Shannon is including three songs as part of the story. The next song page will appear next week.

Shannon has now assembled all her songs written for FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY, as well as songs written for another series she developed called ENCHANTRESSHAWKE. Along with the lyrics to over fifty songs, she has also written an extensive history as to where each song came from.

Her songbook is entitled FLYING GLORY FLASHBACK: Celebrating 10Years Of The Lyrics, Words, and History Behind The Webcomic

It can be punched in both paperback book or as an ebook.

To all the fans of FLYING GLORY AND THE HOUNDS OF GLORY as well as those who like music and to discover where lyrics come from, I encourage you to support Shannon and purchase her book.

Thank you all for putting up with this little promotion.

Best

Kevin Paul Shaw Broden
Four Names of Professional Creativity

Second Annual Animation Book Look

By kevinpsb4

On May 13, 2008

In Uncategorized

A quick announcement and invitation.

Along with my fiancee Shannon Muir, I will be attending the Second Annual Animation Book Look to sign and sell copies of Shannon’s book: GARDNER’S GUIDE TO WRITING AND PRODUCING ANIMATION. I provided all the interior art, and will be selling original art during the event.

There will be many other artists and authors from across the animation industry as well.

The Animation Book Look will be at the Van Eaton Galleries in Sherman Oaks on Saturday May 17th from 1pm to 6pm. Please visit the Animation Book Look website for further information. It is co-sponsored by the Creative Talent Network.

Book Looking to seeing you all there.