I can’t believe it’s February already.  It’ll be June before I know it.  Man, so much to do.  The good news is I’m moving along.  I’m really happy with the progress I’m making on Unwanted Heroes.  Something about it is very liberating.  I think part of it has to do with how the slightly disjointed storytelling allows for such creative and writing freedom.  Ideas flow freely because I don’t have to force the storyline to stay within a particular boundary.  I want to clarify here that I’m not making a 21^st century Watchmen or Brat Pack or Kingdom Come.  It’s just a crazy world that mirrors our real world in a way that seems natural, inviting, and scary at the same time.  Hopefully. 

Enough of that for right now.  I don’t want to keep talking about it and build it up to heights it can’t obtain.  I’ve been talking a lot about UWH recently, but I haven’t mentioned progress on any of the other stories.  Well, it comes in spurts.  Wait, that came out all wrong, let me try again.  And yes, Matthew, you did come at a bad time.  I don’t believe in forcing ideas.  You can make yourself write, but unless your thought process is in full gear and the ideas are flowing like ambrosia, you’ll more than likely end up erasing and starting all over again.  So, why push it?  Why try and force something that’s not coming naturally?  Just give it a little time and let it come out on its own. 

I’ve been giving some thought to a sequel, of sorts, to The Unknown.  Taking Carlton and Murdock and sending them on a new journey to explorer the unusual.  I want to follow the same theme, but haven’t been able to pin down a good concept.  Again, just have to give it time.  I wish I had more to say this week, but my mind is a tempest of random thoughts and forced responsibility.  It’s hard for me to concentrate and focus one just one thing.  I’ll work on it for next time. 

Until then, keep your boots on.   @#*!

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

So much going on right now.  First off, we’re working on Die and Let Live, and getting everything set for that.  It’s such a big deal to everyone involved.  I know I’ve mentioned it already several times over, but it’s all so exciting.  I’m sure once we get started, the newness will wear off quickly and we’ll find ourselves trudging through the details.  Even still… 

As far as the second lot of news- I’ve started on Unwanted Heroes.  As of today I’ve written three pages.  What’s exciting about that is the spark that stirred me and got me going I haven’t even finished writing.  As I was putting together the fine details of the first chapter, other ideas started to emerge, and I started putting them down.  That led me to more ideas, and everything started to spider-web.  As of right now, the story doesn’t really have a direction, but I don’t care.  This story isn’t so much as about telling a journey, as it is about just telling a story.  As of now, I’m incorporating a lot of stuff into it from everywhere.  Example, there’s a brief mention in the first chapter of an autobiography written by a former sidekick called I’m in the League.  It’s about this guy’s life as a sidekick and his fight to get respect from the other heroes, and credit from the public for what he does.  It kinda plays out like a tv show.  People are all about the main character, or favorite characters, and don’t really care about the others.  They could take them or leave them.  Not every side character can get their own show.  You really have to earn it.  For every Frasier, there are two Joey’s.  The same applies for sidekicks.  For every Dick Grayson, there are two Jason Todd’s.  Anyway, with the way I’m working the story, I could conceivably excerpt a couple of pages from the book as a chapter.  It’s all open, which makes it great, and a lot of fun. 

Having an open format like this also makes it easy to maintain the schedule I’ve imposed on myself.  I don’t have to follow a particular arc or storyline, for right now, and can be slightly disjointed as long as I don’t sever the tether.  It’ll be good, trust me. 

What else?  I’ll mention it again, since I’m doing a lot of repeating today, the Charlotte Heroes Con is coming up in a few months.  4 to be exact.  June 4^th – 6^th.  I have every intention of being there and bringing a parcel of things with me.  If all goes as planned, I’ll have Die and Let Live, or at least enough to promote it, maybe a physical compilation of Unwanted Heroes (with a bonus story not published on the site), and a teaser of 117.  I know it sounds like I’m promising a lot, but I’m not really promising.  Think of it more as a wish list.  I guess the best thing to do at this point is to get back to work. 

See ya!

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

This past week I was able to take time out and enjoy a few movies.  I watched The Usual Suspects, Wonder Boys, and The Fantastic Mr. Fox.  I’ve gone on before about Suspects and Wonder Boys, so I’m not going to go into details there.  Mr. Fox was pretty good.  I enjoyed it a lot.  It did me some good to watch a couple of good movies.  It helps get my mind going.  Helps motivate me. 

You know another thing that really helps motivate me?  Bad movies.  I’m not talking Saturday-afternoon-SyFy-channel-starring-Jeremy-London-and-Billy-Zane bad.  I’m talking you-spent-how-much-making-this-piece-of-garbage bad.  Yeah, nothing gets the creative juices flowing like watching some poorly done. 

I’ve got a Thanksgiving size feast sitting before me, and by the end of this year I want to have eaten it all, or at least most.  I’m not a glutton.  I actually started writing the first chapter, if you want to call them chapters, of Unwanted Heroes.  Let me go on record now as saying this will be a learning experience.  There was so much that started coming out when I was writing that I could feel it getting muddled.  That’s kinda good, in a weird sort of way.  I’m only planning on the chapters being 2-3 pages in length, but could go longer depending on what’s going on.  Bear in mind that I’m not trying to reinvent the wheel, just put some cool rims on it. 

On the 117 front, I’m mulling over ideas for 3 new stories.  Before I can commit anything to paper, even the digital kind, I have to fully see it in my head.  That’s where these 3 ideas are.  Rattling around inside my head like a broken pinball game.  It’s all just going to take a little bit of time. 

Ok, time to get back to thinking and plotting and planning all these things I keep talking about. 

Stay gold, Ponyboy, and I’ll see you next week. 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

Happy New Year, everyone!  If all goes as planned this will be a pretty exciting year.  There’s so much on the horizon I don’t even know where to begin.  I’ll start with this.  As of right now I have every intention of attending the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, NC again this year.  Let me rephrase that statement.  I’ll be going no matter what, the only difference will be as an exhibitor or as an attendee.    The deciding factor is Die and Let Live, or what other project I may be working on.  Depending on how far along these things are, and how strong I feel about them will determine my presence.   This also goes for the Small Press Expo in Bethesda, MD this year.  The SPX isn’t until September, so even if Die and Let Live isn’t complete by the Heroes Con, it shouldn’t definitely be in all its wonder glory by then. 

I’m not going to go over again everything I have planned, but I will touch on something I’ve been talking about for a hwile.  Unwanted Heroes.  I have big plans for this series.  It’s going to be extremely experimental for me.  I’m going to try a lot of different things with this series; storytelling I’ve never really tried before.  It’ll be interesting.  Ok, I know I’ve been talking about this series and I haven’t produced sentences one.  Well, I’m taking it slow.  Real slow, I know, but I want to do it right.  Experimental, but right.  Does that sound weird?  Yeah, it does.     

So, what else?  Hurm…  Ooh!  I came up with a title for the one of the other stories in 117 Days in Hell.  Following my recent naming trend I’ve settled on Man in the Box.  So, as of right now the three stories are Long Way Down, Somewhere Beyond the Sea, and Man in the Box.  I’ve said this before, but I really can’t wait to get started.  By “get started” I mean being able to sit down and dedicate myself and my time to it.  Unfortunately, outside forces have me kinda stretched and stressed.  These “forces” are slowing me down a bit, but that’s no excuse.  I need to start making time for everything.  One thing I have decided on is that ROTS is taking a full backseat to everything else I’m doing.  I am disheartened by this choice, but it seems to be the best decision at this point.   

As always, if you haven’t been over to Raptorface (www.raptorface.com) you need to go check it out.  We’ve got a review of the movie Black Dynamite on there, and an editorial by yours truly on Choose Your Own Adventure books.  Do it now, I’ll wait. 

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Pretty cool, right?  Look for a new podcast in the next couple of weeks.  And you know how funny those are.  Huh?  Huh?  “Ah, what do you know from funny, ya bastard.” 

OK, I’m finished for today.  Barry Bonds, ya’ll. 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

Many of you have never heard of Dan O’Bannon, but if you’re lucky or have friends with good tastes in sci-fi, you’ve witnessed his work.  Dan was responsible, as co-writer, for the creation of the Alien.  He also wrote and directed the horror/comedy Return of the Living Dead; one of my personal favorites.  “Send more cops.”  He also wrote Lifeforce (How could you not like an early Patrick Stewart movie with a fully naked woman walking around through the entire film.), Total Recall, and Screamers, to name a few.  Among the sci-fi community O’Bannon was an incredible writer; if for nothing else helping to create one of the greatest science fiction creatures ever.  Thank you, Dan for the memorable movies.  

As if news the news of O’Bannon’s passing wasn’t bad enough- Brittany Murphy died suddenly, catching everyone off guard.  I won’t say that I’m a big fan of her work, but I was of decent size.  There was something about watching her in movies that always drew my attention.  I remember the first movie I ever saw her in was Freeway, a movie I thought very little of and only saw once.  Even still, I remember her scene.  I was shocked when I heard that she did her own singing in Happy Feet.  I had no idea she could sing.  She was such a great talent.  For some reason I can’t get that scene from Sin City out of my head.  The one where she’s leaning out the window calling for Clive Owen’s character, with such a longing in her eyes.  “Dwight, you fool.  You damned fool.” 

All of this makes it a little hard for me to do my average blog this week, prattling about my random craziness.  So, let’s switch gears for a minute.  I was thinking the other day, as I am prone to do, about writing.  I believe in challenging myself and pushing my stories to their limits.  I feel that sometimes my stories are too stripped down.  Maybe I need more background and details in my characters a little flourish isn’t a bad thing, right?  But, when is it too much?  A while back I watched the movie Wonder Boys, and felt as if I’d been punched in the chest.  The writing was so dead on.  The characters, the humor, everything felt so well crafted.  They really felt alive.  None of the characters felt superfluous.  Now, on the other hand I’ve read some books- well, attempted to read some books- where there was extra content that was completely unnecessary that it bored me.  Now, I realize that to tell a story not everything has to be paramount to the overall plot, and hat some things just need to be there to flesh out the characters and the world that they live in.  But, when I see a book that is 700 pages long I have to ask myself: Does it really need to be that long?  Sometimes yes.  I recognize that, and depending on the book or story it makes sense.  Other times I look at it and say: They must get paid by the page.  So, the balance is the hard thing.  Which, oddly enough, was what Wonder Boys was about.  When is it enough and when is it too much.  Balance.

So, running behind again, huh?  Yeah, well it’s the holidays.  Even still I’m more on time than an early 90’s Image book.  I hope everyone had a happy holiday, whatever you may have celebrated and are prepared to shed the skin of not only 2009, but the past decade.  I’ll talk to you all again in 2010, where we’ll start this all over again.  This time, let’s try and make it a little better. 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

Hopefully, by now you know me and realize that I only picked this title ‘cause it fit, and not because I actually like the song.  No, really, I don’t.  It just fit.  I mean, I went two weeks without doing a blog, and I already used the Romeo Must Die title, so this just made sense.  Y-You know what?  Forget you. 

Well, all excuses aside, the past two weeks have been kinda busy.  The holidays creeping up on me like a project deadline at work.  I mean, you know it’s there and it’s getting closer, but you’re still unprepared when your boss asks to see what you’ve been doing all this time.   So, I kinda fell behind.  Sorry. 

Sooooo.  Just to give an update on things.  We’re moving ahead with Die and Let Live, and look to start filming the middle of January.  If you live in Lynchburg or one of the surrounding cities and want to take part, let me know.  We’re looking for crowd zombies so bring some distressed clothes and a hunger for human flesh.  Hmm.  That makes me think.  Remember in the Dawn of the Dead remake how the zombies wouldn’t eat the dog?  Was that because it didn’t fit their hunger satiation needs?  You know, like how they won’t try to eat each other.  Or, was it a personal choice?  I ask cause what about country’s where they eat dog, would It be different?  I’m not even gonna mention India. 

Well, I have another confession to make.  I’m not gonna make my goal for 117 Days In Hell.  I’m not tossing my hands in the air and giving up, but realistically, I’m not going to have three full short stories written in 2 weeks.  I mean, I could do it, but it’d be crap, like that book I read about the lamp monster.  Really?  437 pages about this unassuming lamp that had been possessed by the spirit of a little girl who was electrocuted while changing a light bulb.  It killed 19 people before they realized that to stop it all you had to do was turn it off and unplug it.  So, if you want me to write that, then fine, but I don’t want to, so I’m not gonna.  Now, I did start over again on Long Way Down, and I like the way this one is going much better than when I first started. 

In related news, I saw Ninja Assassin, which I like a lot and did a review of for Raptorface.  The movie really got me kinda pumped and anxious about writing the script for Way of Honor.  I’ve never talked about this before on the site, but I love Joel Silver as a producer.  The man is a producing deity.  He’s produced over half of my favorite movies.  I’m not going to list even some of them here.  If you don’t know him and want to see his body of work, look him up on IMDB.  I’m holding Way of Honor for him.  This movie was made for his particular touch.  Joel, baby, call me.  We can have lunch, talk shop, and make a deal. 

I wanna touch back on Die and Let Live before I go.  I’m so excited about doing this, I really don’t know how to properly express it.  The very idea of doing the book this way, something I’ve never done before, just has me kinda charged.  Going back to the vault for a minute: “I’ve got that excited scared feeling.  Where I’m 98% excited and 2% scared.  It could be the other way around.  I could be 98% scared and 2% excited, but that’s what makes it so intense.”  I think the plan is to actually have the actors act out the scenes so that the pictures won’t look stiff and posed.  There’s still so much that we’re limited by, which also makes it exciting.  I mean, we have no idea how we’re going to shoot certain scenes.  But the dedication to the project is there so, no matter what, it’ll be an adventure.  It also appears as though we’re going to have a videographer, so Crawling to the Surface: the Making of Die and Let Live is still possible.  Let’s just pray it doesn’t end up a Lost in La Mancha.  Look it up. 

Depending on how things go with Die and Let Live, it’s got me feeling like I want to finally film my own movie.  “Let me explain.  No, there is too much.  Let me sum up.”  I’ve always wanted to make an independent film.  I’ve thought about filming Chains, which is probably the one I’d go with, unless I wrote something new.  Now, William Shakespeare’s the Boys of Verona is what I’d really like to do.  Blood Brothers was also written with a small budget in mind, but Chains is much easier for a first time attempt.  Honestly, I should probably do something even smaller, but I’m getting ahead of myself.  Baby steps.  Baby steps. 

Ok, that’s your entertainment lesson for the past few weeks.  Later. 

 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

“You’re far too kind.  Please hold your applause. This is your song, not mine.” 

In the spirit of the holiday I thought I’d talk about something I’m thankful for.  Everyone has a gift or talent; something that they do better than the average person.  Most people ignore their talents, or take them for granted.  Those that don’t can sometimes face a long hard role to see their passion blossom into something great that they can share with the world.  It’s not easy.  Some people internalize their talents, and keep them solely to themselves.  Others set out on a journey to take what they have and launch it into orbit for everyone to see.  Many make it.  Even more see their gift catch fire like Icarus and crash to the ground.   What can be even harder, is to picks up the pieces and start over again. 

As you all know, or should- I mean, I don’t want to insult anybody here, but if you’re reading this and you don’t know what my talent is, then “Push your call button and Tommy will come back there and hit you in the head with a tack hammer cause you are a retard.” *sorry* Writing.  That’s what I do. 

Now, is it hard?  Yeah, it’s hard work, but it doesn’t feel like work.  It’s something I enjoy. Something I love.  It’s hard, arduous at times, but it’s never work.  The hardest part is not giving up.  Let’s face it, who doesn’t want to share their gift with the world?  Frank Lloyd Wright.  Andy Warhol.  Dave Grohl.  That’s what they did.  Think about your favorite band, and the cd that brought them to your attention.  Now think about the cd’s that came before that one.  The underground recordings, and self pressed cd’s they sold from the trunk of their car.  All the songs that they wrote and sang, the touring, the endurance.  They stayed focused and true, and they never gave up.  I’m sure they thought about it several times, and even took a hiatus or two, but never officially threw in the towel.  Why?  Well, there are tons of reasons, but the one that probably helped the most, were the people that believed in them.  The ones that stood beside them and encouraged them.  The ones that looked them in the eyes and said with such conviction and belief: “I love your work.” 

Those four words have such power in them, you can barely believe it.  Think about the times someone has sad it to you, even over the smallest, or simplest thing, and how it made you feel.  “Yeah, it’s kinda like that.” 

So, I’d like to take this time to say thank you to everyone who believes in me.  Everyone that comes to the site; even if it’s your first time here.  Those that have read every story I’ve written, and those who haven’t read anything more than this blog. 

Thank you.  Happy Thanksgiving.

 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

If you’ve been watching tv lately, and I know you have, or have been to the movies recently, then you’ve seen a trailer for the new movie Ninja Assassin.  Honestly, I’m kinda psyched about the movie.  It looks sweet.  But, this brings up an important question: Where have all the ninja’s gone?  This year we’ve been lucky enough to have three ninja’s on the big screen, the Assassin, Snake Eyes, and Storm Shadow.  I haven’t seen GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra yet, but I don’t have too.  I like Storm Shadow, but I’ve always been a Snake Eyes man, and with Ray Park behind the slotted mask I’m good.  I was on board with him playing the word go.  My reasons for not having seen the movie has nothing to do with him.  As Peter David would say, But I Digress… 

So, there has been a serious lack of ninja movies for the past two decades.  In the eighties, ninjas were everywhere.  I’m not just talking giant turtles, either.  You had the American Ninja movies with Michael Dudikoff, The Master tv series with Lee Van Cleef, Revenge of the Ninja, Pray For Death, I could go on and on, but you know the deal.  Now, ninja’s haven’t just disappeared in a puff of smoke.  They’ve been around, but in the background, or in the occasional not so great movie like The Hunted with Christopher Lambert. 

What happened?!  We didn’t stop loving ninja’s, but apparently someone did.  Or maybe it’s the Hollywood cycle.  The market was flooded with so many ninja movies, and bad ones at that, that it took 20 years before we could bring them back in a fashion that wasn’t overly kid friendly.  No offense to any green fighting renaissance masters.  Raphael is the man!  But, was it oversaturation of movies that drove the ninjas to obscurity?  Did low budget studios and bad production values do what no samurais ever could, and cripple the brotherhood of ninjas?  I think ninjas ultimately suffered from what I like to call Superman II syndrome.  Remember all that crap in Supes II that was completely out of character?  Same here.  You had movies like Ninja III: The Domination, where the spirit of a ninja takes over the body of a woman to get revenge for his death.  Really?  I can believe that chefs can toss fruit (tomato is a fruit) into the air and pin it to a wall with a thrown knife, but I can’t believe that ninja’s can transfer their souls into other people.  Nor do I believe that they can change the color and style of their ninja garb with meditation and some hand symbols.  I even believe that if you kill a ninja their bodies can dissolve into a pile of goo, but I don’t believe that they can be killed by some lucky, unskilled Average Joe with a gun.  So, that’s what I believe happened to ninjas.  They were diluted to the point that the essence of who they were was lost among modern myth and bull crap.  Plus, no ninja movie should ever have an 80’s music score.  We can’t have Huey Lewis singing: The Power of Shuriken.  “The power of a shuriken is a curious thing.  Cleave one man’s heart, and another man’s brain.  Thrown with accuracy from an Asian named Ken.  That’s the power, the power of shuriken.” 

But, maybe this was their plan all along.  Ninjas work in shadows and secrecy.  When the light is shined on them it exposes centuries of secrets and traditions that man was not meant to know.  What better way to hide yourself.  Wouldn’t it be just like a ninja to use misdirection to move people’s attention off them, and allow them to retreat back into the shadows once again?  Yes.  I believe that we were all prey to a trick of the modern ninja.  We cannot allow ourselves to lose track of them again.  We must stay vigilant and keep our guard up.  Don’t allow ourselves to be distracted by fake superstition and smoke and mirrors.  Keep the light on them, and expose their tricks and kung fu treachery.  Especially kung fu treachery.  We must keep ninjas in the mainstream and active.  Don’t let them slip away again.  We can’t afford to. 

 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

“It’s been a long time.  I shouldn’t have left you without a dope beat to step you.” 

Ok, I’m really stretching with this title.  A little Aaliyah to start off the blog.  It could be worse.  Since I haven’t done a blog in two weeks I thought about naming this one “Have you brought any fruits or vegetables to Mars?”  I love Total Recall.  The weekend it opened, I saw it that Friday, twice on Saturday, and again on Sunday. 

So, the big question, where have I been?  Right here.  I kinda fell behind with some things.  I made a goal for myself to have Die and Let Live written before the end of October.  That put some pressure on me, which is good.  Sometimes pressure really helps to force ideas from your head.  Sometimes it can have an adverse affect, but this time it was good.  Now, technically I’m not done.  I still have a scene I want to add in (gonna try and do it tonight), then I’ll be done for the most part.  I say most part, because there will be some tweaking to the story once the photos are taken.  I’m actually pretty excited.  It’s new and different for me.  The entire concept is kinda… I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s cool.  So, what next? 

Well, I had another goal for myself, as I’ve mentioned before, which is to write three of my stories for 117 Days In Hell before the end of the year.  I’ve already started on Long Way Down.  I’m kinda struggling with how I want to approach Somewhere Beyond the Sea.  I need to establish characters, but I’m not sure how much detail I want to go into, and how many do I want to actually give moderate attention to.  Oh well, I’ll just wing it like I always do.  LOL.  Seriously, I’ll work it out.  “Trust me.  Harry will do it.  He doesn’t know how to fail.”  The other one I’m going to try and finish this year is Down In A Hole.  Mood is really important to this one.  I’ve got to be careful to keep the mood oppressive and depressing at the same time.  It needs to have a heavy, dragging, claustrophobic feel that will actually drive the character forward, and not hold him back.  Unfortunately, focusing on 117 means that I’ll have to backburner ROTS some more.  Yeah, I know.  I’m not happy about it either.  But, it’s not going anywhere.  I’m mean, it’s not going away.  No, the ideas I have for book two are too good to just let go.  Here’s one you haven’t heard in a while, You Are Now Leaving Planet Earth.  That one’s still around.  I’m working on something new for that.  I’m not going to make that one as straight forward as I originally intended.  I’m going to try and ground the characters a little more than I had originally conceived. 

What else?  Ooh, The Colonial!  This is one I haven’t told you about yet.  I just came up with the name not too long ago.  The Colonial is a period piece done in a fashion similar to Brotherhood of the Wolf. 

So, prepare for goal #3.  The Colonial and You Are Now Leaving Planet Earth will come after 117 as part of my Mind’s Eye Chronicles Collection.  A collection of short stories new and old.  You’ll have to buy the book to read those when they’re done. 

So, you have a nice timeline for all my future projects.  *whew!*  This is gonna take some work.  Better get started. 

Final note.  Raptor Face podcast #3 was recorded last Friday, 11/06.  You can check it out here: http://www.raptorface.com/?p=162. I had to bail early, but that shouldn’t stop you from listening to it.  You get to hear me make an ass out of myself.  Now, tell them that isn’t fun. 

 

JeraleC

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

Yeah, it’s not the same not hearing it from the lead singer of Disturbed.  Needless to say, as the title suggests, I’m Down With the Sickness.  It’s just a small thing, not related to anything in the animal family, winged or hoofed.  Thank heavens for cold pills and their hallucinogenic properties.  I had this weird dream about a reality show with Christopher Walken called Walken Tall.  You can’t make this kinda stuff up.  Ok, I made that up, but still.  Since I’m slightly out of sync with the rest of the world, pop on over to www.raptorface.com and get your fill of me audibly with Raptorface podcast #2.  You can listen from the site or download it and listen on the go.  In your car.  While taking a jog.  Going for a walk.  Riding a bike.  In the shower.  (Not in the shower, please).  Thank you, and I’ll see you next week.  Ah-choo! 

 

Jerale C

Mindseyechronicles@comcast.net

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