Gentlemen of Leisure v3.0

Check out our new banner up top, compliments (after much cajoling...) of my uber-talented brother. You can see more of his work here.

Pretty awesome, huh?

Show Me Yours Blogfest

Fellow blogging buddies Falen, Hannah and Summer are hosting the "Show Me Yours" blogfest, in which participants share a 500 word (or so) excerpt from their finished or unfinished novel from last November's National Novel Writing Month challenge. Below is an excerpt from my unfinished NaNoWriMo 2010 book, Dawning Equinox. Be sure to check out any one of those lovely ladies' blogs for the full list of blogfest participants.

Horror at Hannah's

My good buddy Hannah has been spending the month of October celebrating all things horror on her blog, Musings of a Palindrome (so named because her name is a palindrome, not because she thinks she can see Russia from her house). As part of that celebration, she hosted a short story contest (less than 1,000 words) in which she asked for stories in the horror/suspense genre designed to freak her out.

And I won! Wahoo!

Go here to check out my story. I'm totally surprised, as this is probably the first horror story I've ever written (I don't read a lot of horror/suspense, and thus I get very few story ideas in that vein). I was just trying to freak Hannah out, so I'm glad I accomplished that.

And now the new Stephen King book (amongst other goodies) is winging its way to me! Thanks Hannah!

NaNoWriMo!

November is almost upon us, which means it's time once again for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo, or "NaNo", to the kids) challenge: write a 50,000 word novel in thirty days.

Last year, I finished a novel, but it came up short at around 48,000 words. I'll be trying again this year, with a more densely plotted novel (read about it here) that I hope will put me in the winner's circle (the prize? Pride...). If you'll similarly be handing over your November days and nights to the crafting of a novel, be sure to buddy me on NaNo's page (I'm Teebore, natch).

Blog-wise, I'm not planning on disappearing entirely, and plan to keep at least the "Last Week in TV" and "X-amination" posts on their regular schedules, but don't be surprised if there's one less post each week (most likely the Friday post) or more phoned-in posts (like this one) on occasion. Once November has come and gone, the holiday season will be upon us, and I've got something in mind for the blog that I hope will be fun. Stay tuned for more on that!

Blog Pimpin'

My good buddy Palindrome is hosting a contest in honor of her birth, over on her blog Musings of a Palindrome. And because pimping this blog is a key element of that contest, it's only fair that I return the favor. One good pimpin' deserves another, after all.

So check it out, for a chance to win some cool books, but more importantly, for the undoubtedly cool and interesting posts she has planned for the duration of the contest featuring notable pop culture moments in her life.

And to all our new followers, driven here under the contestorial whip of Palindrome, welcome! Hopefully, you'll find something you like here.

It's Not Just Spiced Ham!

A couple of quick housekeeping items.

First of all, fellow blogger, frequent GoL reader/commenter and all around good egg Falen recently hosted a writing contest in which entrants were tasked with crafting a 750 word fiction piece using one of six prompts she provided. And, if I may toot my own horn, yours truly placed second, and now a gaggle of writerly goodies is winging its way to my house! Check out my piece here, and read the other winning pieces on her blog.

Bold New Look, Same Old Content

Welcome to New Look Gentlemen of Leisure! 

The blog's second birthday has come and gone, which makes it high time we change things up a bit with a new look. Let us know what you think of the new layout, color schemes, and the logo I cobbled together using free Photoshop-esque software I found online!

Also, blogger has recently added the ability to insert jump breaks into posts. So for posts of significant length, you'll now see the beginning of the post, followed by a "read more" link that takes you to the full post. 

So you'll see something like this...

Dr. Bitz Makes It Big!*

Congratulations to Dr. Bitz, who's been named one of the Star Tribune's Viking Fan Bloggers this season.

He will be lending his trademark wit, sarcasm and ability to cut through the bullshit to the doings and transpirings of the Minnesota Vikings throughout the season (though presumably with less talk of lesbian porn and dead hookers than regular readers of this blog have come to expect from him).

His first post is up now, and look for future installments on a regular basis (i.e. whenever he feels like it) here, and on the main Star Tribune Vikings Blogs page.

Congrats once again!



*And by "big" I mean "still writing for free, but also now for a site with significantly higher visibility and traffic."

200 Posts and Counting...

By blogger's count, this is the 200th post on Gentlemen of Leisure. To celebrate (and to publish some more comic book-related material) here's a look at the 200th issues of some notable comic books.


Amazing Spider-Man: Spider-Man confronts the Burglar that killed Uncle Ben.


Avengers: Ms. Marvel's mysterious and speedy pregnancy results in her giving birth to a rapidly aging son, who turns out to be Marcus, son of Immortus, who brought Ms. Marvel to Limbo a few issues previous in order to hypnotize her into having sex with him so he could impregnate her with himself in order to be born back on Earth. In the end, he goes back to Limbo with a seemingly willing Ms. Marvel. The Avengers are okay with all of this this for some reason...


Batman: Awash with fear thanks to the Scarecrow, Batman and Robin recall their origins and rededicate themselves to crime fighting, eventually turning the tables on the fear-mongering rogue.


Captain America: Jack Kirby writes and draws an issue celebrating the bicentennial of Captain America's comic and America's.


Fantastic Four: The Fantastic Four battle Dr. Doom to prevent him from using his Hypno-beam to enslave the United Nations.


Iron Man: Tony Stark dons a new suit of Iron Man armor after a lengthy absence (brought on by the resurgence of his alcholism) to take down his rival Obadiah Stane in a story from which the movie drew partial inspiration.


Justice League of America: The original Justice League members, possessed by aliens, battle the newer recruits in chapters illustrated by character-appropriate artists of the day.


Superman (vol 2): The modern Superman continuity is slightly (and quietly) rebooted as a Supergirl dies and Superman battles Brainiac 12 in the future.


Uncanny X-Men: The X-Men battle Fenris while Magneto goes on trial for crimes against humanity. In the end, he accepts stewardship of the X-Men when Professor X leaves Earth to hang with his alien girlfriend (he claims it's for health reasons...).


Wonder Woman (vol. 2): The "Down to Earth" storyline, which helped define Wonder Woman's role as an Amazonian ambassador of peace, concludes while several backup stories celebrate the character's history.

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Gentlemen of Leisure!

So I realized the other day while showering that Gentlemen of Leisure’s one year birthday passed by recently without mention.

Guess that means we’ll have to throw the blog a party in Belding’s office to make up for it, huh? ~boots, you get the cake. Dr. Bitz, you “take out” the tyrannical hall monitor. I’ll get a calculator for the blog.

In the meantime, let’s take this opportunity to toot our own horns a bit (since everyone knows we’re not the type to pass up such an opportunity).

One year (and nine days) gone by. Who’da thunk it? Certainly not me; I figured the blog would have collapsed in unto itself long before we reached the one year mark, me rendered insane by a dearth of creative impotence, the good doctor on the run from the law for that giant pile of dead hookers “that just ended up in his trunk, somehow.”

But instead, we’re still going strong, managing to post new content every week. Sometimes it’s funny, sometime it’s insightful, sometimes it’s thought-provoking, sometimes it’s controversial and sometimes it’s just dumb, but it’s always there. We’ve even managed to put out some regularly-scheduled items, between Dr. Bitz’s little read (but much loved by those of us that do) Fantasy Baseball Logs and my limited-interest, long-winded episode reviews of Lost. We’ve grown a bit along the way, too, welcoming the wry and enigmatic ~boots to the team.

The first image that appeared when I googled "wry and enigmatic"

What does the future hold for the Gentlemen of Leisure? More of the same, mostly. But sexier!