"Welcome to the Party, Pal!"

Hey, sweet! It's 2010! If the movie ends up correct, this year we'll go to the brink of nuclear war with the Soviets, but will be saved when we make contact with benevolent aliens near the moon of Io! This year has MUCH more positive Hollywood spin than the forthcoming 2012...

Well, the story around here, as you've heard, has been comedy. Thanks to a push from my buddy Vladimir, I actually got up on stage at an open mic at a local comedy club and did stand-up...and loved it! What a rush, man! As of this writing, I've been on stage four times (and have a couple more gigs coming next week), have become a part of the Sacramento comedy community (I love getting Facebook chat requests out of nowhere from the manager of a comedy club asking, "Are you coming tomorrow night?"), and have even got a foot in the door with the MDA Labor Day Telethon, where my little dream sees me performing this summer in Vegas. I've been put in touch with the right folks who handle booking, and they've asked me for a DVD of my stuff. Which, thankfully, I have.

So this is mostly what I'm about right now, hitting the clubs (even if I'm not going up, just to network and check things out), working new material, getting ready for the big open mic finals in a couple of weeks (details of that will go up when I get a final date), where I'm hoping for a win. I'm seeing a guy in a few days to discuss getting booked at this comedy club in midtown Sac. Definitely a good start to my year. Having a great time.

And also, I've fallen into a freelance writing gig, currently writing press releases for a web company whose clients are all law firms. I'm having to write releases on stuff like possible drug lawsuits, stuff on the Toyota recalls, etc. It's a lot of research, but I'm learning a great deal, too, and enjoying finally doing writing for...you know...money! That's the dream right there.

Liking how the year's shaping up, and hoping to turn this one into a monster comeback from last year's suckness. High hopes!

This Time Around

Sorry I don't have more this time around. Yes, got busy with the other stuff, but just wasn't feeling it until close to the deadline. Hopefully more next time.

In the Forte 2000 Gallery, you'll see a new David Encisco piece. Well, you'll see it AGAIN, that is...you've already seen it as this CTO issue's cover! Can't get into details on it due to its spoilery nature, but there it is. Nice work from him, as ever.

On the story side, I've got one thing for you, and it's part of the Forte Expanded Universe page. This is a little piece called "For Immediate Release". As ever, I'm looking for creative and interesting new ways to tell stories instead of just going with prose each time, and this time I'm starting what I hope will be a series of such installments. What you got here is a series of press releases. I got to thinking about Forte history and how it might have been covered in the press, and then to what I've been doing on press releases, and how those are issued by organizations to the press to build stories. I wondered how Forte got its information out to the public. Well, now we know.

As you'll see, these releases come from a couple different sources (and I'm sure you'll see more sources in future updates). The first update is the official announcement on the formation of Forte. This was 1987, and the founding foursome had just gotten started, so they didn't HAVE things like press releases and such. So this one came by way of UNCLE, so I wrote it accordingly. The second one is an actual Forte press release regarding some roster changes on the team. I figure Dr. Jackal had started writing these for the team when necessary. The third one, though, went back to UNCLE, because it concerns a very dark moment in Forte history when the last thing on the team's mind was communicating with the press--and they were in no position, time-wise, to be doing such things anyway. So UNCLE (thanks, Cathy!) had to handle the deal again.

Hope you have fun with it. As kind of a continuation of what I started with last issue's Jack Parker book excerpt, this jumps back into early Forte history and gives kind of a different look at it. Travel back through history with me, Forte fans, and relive the magic!

Next Time...On "The 'F' Word"...

...there will be stuff. From me. About Forte. I'm sure. Tune in here to verify. Happy Presidents Day!

Michael O’Connell
For Whom the Forte Bell Tolls