So, it's next week. September 15th is on a Wednsday, that is when my first novel will debut to the world. A number of family and friends have all ready pre-ordered, and that absolutely coolest thing?
Copies of my book are overseas. Two of my military friends stationed in Iraq and Dubai have pre ordered, received their copies and are happily reading away. I have gotten positive feedback so far, so that is somewhat gratifying..
But how do i feel, really?
Can I really say I'm excited to have gotten this far? Can I say I am vindicated just because a small number of people have told me that they are enjoying what they have read so far?
meh.
I have had the idea for A Distant Battlefield for over a decade and change. It was originally one of the notebook stories i used to circulate to my friends around the way back in the early 1990s. I decided to copywrite it in about 93 i think. (then I had to change the title because it was originally Battleground Earth, and L Ron Hubbard had an issue with that. (of course he finally got his book made into a movie with John Travolta and it turned out to be a terrible damn film.
I never knew exactly what I was attempting back then, my mindset was not very advanced for a guy in his early 20s. I had other obligations and distractions and back then I never truly considered my writing as my ultimate career path.
But no matter what I did, as the 1990s became the 2000s, writing was always the thing i enjoyed more than anything, I never abandoned the Distant Battlefield concept. I hit upon that title, swirled it around my mouth like one of those snooty wine tasters and found that I enjoyed it. I rewrote it as a screenplay, changed people, places and things and then I went out there and tried to sell it like any other respectful screenplay writer.
In my bedroom, I still have all of my rejection letters. Bill Cosby, Spike Lee, Circle of Confusion, Valhalla Productions, all of them said no. (Circle of Confusion actually read the screenplay and stated that they even enjoyed reading it in their postcard response to me..but they still passed on it.
That's ok, I said to myself. I spent a serious amount of time weighing pros and cons and possibilities and scenarios, I knew I had a good property there, I understood (or leastways, I thought I understood) how the Hollywood machine worked, so i wasnt totally infuriated at the studio heads and reps for turning down the guy they didnt know.
I put the screenplay away and moved on with other things. I was not discouraged. I would find a way to get my property out before the people. (and the voice in my head even back then was asking; "well, why not turn it into a book?") I ignored that voice.
In 2000 I shot my first indie music video for an underground hip hop act. I shot for SOD, I shot a video for a dude called Banes, even shot a nice video in 2001 for an R&B chick named Candace Vendetta.
None of the videos went anywhere, and outside of the SOD guys, I have no idea what happened to any of those unsigned artists, either. I met a guy named Richard Hodge who wanted to shoot a series of very low budget horror and urban films around Brooklyn. for a period of time I was all over Brooklyn, on the waterfront, in an alley somewhere, running around train yards and rooftops, filming material for project after project.
I got minor credits for my camera work there, but that is as far as it went.
In 2003 I even tried filming my own urban/horror flick. And outside of having the experience of meeting the people and doing the work, my own film never went anywhere. (it was just good to have under my belt though)
other minor projects and plans came and went between this period, and i was pretty much in a rut until May of 2007 came along. (my lower intestines decided to send me to Woodhull Hospital for a brief vacation and it almost took my life)
Sitting in that hospital bed after the surgery, being told how close i came to shaking hands with the reaper was a pretty sobering experience. As I sat there for that entire month, I had nothing but time to think. (what was i going to do now? I almost died and now i have been given another life so to speak. what do i do with it? Am i just going back to the way it was? Am i going to 9 to 5 for the rest of my life without ever having even attempted to make a grab for something greater?)
And then the voice came back.
All right, let's make the damn thing a novel.
So here we are. September 15th is coming up and my labor of love is available to all. As I stated before many a time, this is more than just Science fiction/ action. there are some things about the human condition that I will discuss briefly, and every character you meet in this book will be yet another aspect of my diverse personality.
So, please read, enjoy, think, discuss..and just be.
I'll meet you within the pages.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Friday, August 27, 2010
Staying focused
So let me tell you what happened to me this week. As you all know I have been on a total mental and spiritual high in regards to my book and its impending release. I have been consistently happy, content and enthusiastic and i have taken that energy wave and applied it to everything i have been doing the last few months.
Last Saturday I got a letter in the mail from the rental management office that oversees our buildings. Grenadier realty was looking for $994 that they claimed we owed and stated that legal proceedings would begin if we did not pay. (legal proceedings, aka eviction)
Some background. After the economic collapse of October 2008, my boss at the time Jerry Mcaward suggested that one of his employees would have to go on unemployment cuz he could not afford to pay both of us. I decided to go off the payroll because my coworker has 3 kids and a mortgage and I am a single dude in an apartment taking care of his mom.
I filed for unemployment in early 2009. I would say resisted doing it until February of that year. I got the letter from the dept of labor in late Feb/Early March. At the time, our rental management company was Wavecrest. I went to the office with my letter from the Department of Labor and notified Aamanda Sanchez or Rivera or whatever the hell her last name was of my unemployment status.
Now for those of you who don't know, our building complex (Magnolia PLaza apts in Bed Stuy Brooklyn) is a section 8 building for low to middle income families. Your rent is based on your income. So if you lose your job, your rent is adjusted to reflect your new income.
I gave Amanda my letter, she tells me she is going to look out for me, and sends a handwritten note to the house telling us we can pay $696 a month. We were to pay that amount until our new lease agreement which took place in April/May of 2009. I was grateful. My mom was grateful. We had the unemployment checks coming in, we got our rent lowered, we could breathe.
What happened?
This absolute fool of a woman Amanda DID NOT MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT ON WAVECRESTS' RECORDS!! so even though we were faithfully paying $696 as we were instructed, their computers were still saying we owed $900 bucks a month in rent. The money began to pile up. We were going to the rent office every week trying to figure out what the hell was happening and we got absolutely no movement or assistance from the people at Wavecrest.
In December of 2009, we were told that Wavecrest was getting the boot from the firm that had hired them to manage the building. (I heard stories of racism and incompetence from the two muppets that were working there.)
No fucking shit.
Grenadier realty came in about January of 2010. they took our records, gave us new leases and promised to look into any nonsense created or left over by the two spastic colons that fucked up our rent in the first place.
Month after month, Grenadier claimed that they were looking into the matter of this past due money and that we would have nothing to worry about. And so we continued to pay our monthly rent on time and in its entirety and we continued to disregard that $994 amount that they kept saying was past due.
that was until last week when they sent that bullshit card.
I wanted to fight it of course, but mom was against it. She was tired, she was happy and she didn't want to jeopardize her apartment or deal with any possible court proceedings.
We did not have to pay this money. This was a pure fuckup from the original rental agency. If we were such deadbeats, how is it that we have managed to pay our rent on time every damn time it was called for? how is it that no one came to me to ask or investigate or even look into the matter? Their only solution was to pass it on to us? Why should we pay for money we did not owe? We did not instruct ourselves to lower our rent, and we damn sure don't work for Wavecrest to update their computers to reflect the new situation.
And so...that sat in my head all damn week. mom was unhappy. my energy level was sapped. It was if though nothing with the book had happened at all. there was no preview copies of the book shipped to my house, no well wishers from my family and friends, no photo shoot with my adorable niece and her cute, perky friends, no planning for a book signing party, no plans to visit the New York Comic Convention in October.
it was as if though i was nothing and going nowhere all over again...and then an amazing thing happened..wow. an amazing, astonishing revelation and reminder that when a person is at their lowest, God puts inspiration and energy in front of you..and yes GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
You wanna know where my inspiration came from?
You wanna know what it is I heard and saw that made me realize that I have the true inner strength within me??
get ready..you wont believe this shit..
HBO'S HARD KNOCKS..(TRAINING CAMP WITH THE NY JETS)
woo..I was so stunned that this was where the reminder came from, but let me explain.
the episode that i saw took place right after the week when the Jets played the Giants in the pre season game. the Jets lost that game and the defensive coordinator is in the room with his second string defensive and rookie players. He was giving them a pep talk, and it was that pep talk which really blew my hair back. It was what he said and how he said it.
He told his rookie players a story and that is how i will close out this week's blog.
The Devil was moving to another location. He was packing up all of his tools and objects of misery and evil and a person walked into his shop. the Devil explained to this person that he was moving and could not take all of his items with him and that they were on sale at very cheap prices. The person then asked Satan what was his most effective yet cheapest tool..
this last part i will capitalize cuz i want it to hit you the way it hit me.
Satan looked at the person and said "OH, THAT'S EASY. MY MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL IS DISCOURAGEMENT. BECAUSE WHEN A PERSON IS DISCOURAGED, ALL OF MY OTHER WEAPONS WORK."
read that line over and over again and think about how you have ever felt or sounded in your life when you were discouraged. when you thought you could not achieve something..think about what can possibly happen to a person when they become discouraged..
I will leave it there. love you all.
Last Saturday I got a letter in the mail from the rental management office that oversees our buildings. Grenadier realty was looking for $994 that they claimed we owed and stated that legal proceedings would begin if we did not pay. (legal proceedings, aka eviction)
Some background. After the economic collapse of October 2008, my boss at the time Jerry Mcaward suggested that one of his employees would have to go on unemployment cuz he could not afford to pay both of us. I decided to go off the payroll because my coworker has 3 kids and a mortgage and I am a single dude in an apartment taking care of his mom.
I filed for unemployment in early 2009. I would say resisted doing it until February of that year. I got the letter from the dept of labor in late Feb/Early March. At the time, our rental management company was Wavecrest. I went to the office with my letter from the Department of Labor and notified Aamanda Sanchez or Rivera or whatever the hell her last name was of my unemployment status.
Now for those of you who don't know, our building complex (Magnolia PLaza apts in Bed Stuy Brooklyn) is a section 8 building for low to middle income families. Your rent is based on your income. So if you lose your job, your rent is adjusted to reflect your new income.
I gave Amanda my letter, she tells me she is going to look out for me, and sends a handwritten note to the house telling us we can pay $696 a month. We were to pay that amount until our new lease agreement which took place in April/May of 2009. I was grateful. My mom was grateful. We had the unemployment checks coming in, we got our rent lowered, we could breathe.
What happened?
This absolute fool of a woman Amanda DID NOT MAKE THE ADJUSTMENT ON WAVECRESTS' RECORDS!! so even though we were faithfully paying $696 as we were instructed, their computers were still saying we owed $900 bucks a month in rent. The money began to pile up. We were going to the rent office every week trying to figure out what the hell was happening and we got absolutely no movement or assistance from the people at Wavecrest.
In December of 2009, we were told that Wavecrest was getting the boot from the firm that had hired them to manage the building. (I heard stories of racism and incompetence from the two muppets that were working there.)
No fucking shit.
Grenadier realty came in about January of 2010. they took our records, gave us new leases and promised to look into any nonsense created or left over by the two spastic colons that fucked up our rent in the first place.
Month after month, Grenadier claimed that they were looking into the matter of this past due money and that we would have nothing to worry about. And so we continued to pay our monthly rent on time and in its entirety and we continued to disregard that $994 amount that they kept saying was past due.
that was until last week when they sent that bullshit card.
I wanted to fight it of course, but mom was against it. She was tired, she was happy and she didn't want to jeopardize her apartment or deal with any possible court proceedings.
We did not have to pay this money. This was a pure fuckup from the original rental agency. If we were such deadbeats, how is it that we have managed to pay our rent on time every damn time it was called for? how is it that no one came to me to ask or investigate or even look into the matter? Their only solution was to pass it on to us? Why should we pay for money we did not owe? We did not instruct ourselves to lower our rent, and we damn sure don't work for Wavecrest to update their computers to reflect the new situation.
And so...that sat in my head all damn week. mom was unhappy. my energy level was sapped. It was if though nothing with the book had happened at all. there was no preview copies of the book shipped to my house, no well wishers from my family and friends, no photo shoot with my adorable niece and her cute, perky friends, no planning for a book signing party, no plans to visit the New York Comic Convention in October.
it was as if though i was nothing and going nowhere all over again...and then an amazing thing happened..wow. an amazing, astonishing revelation and reminder that when a person is at their lowest, God puts inspiration and energy in front of you..and yes GOD DOES WORK IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.
You wanna know where my inspiration came from?
You wanna know what it is I heard and saw that made me realize that I have the true inner strength within me??
get ready..you wont believe this shit..
HBO'S HARD KNOCKS..(TRAINING CAMP WITH THE NY JETS)
woo..I was so stunned that this was where the reminder came from, but let me explain.
the episode that i saw took place right after the week when the Jets played the Giants in the pre season game. the Jets lost that game and the defensive coordinator is in the room with his second string defensive and rookie players. He was giving them a pep talk, and it was that pep talk which really blew my hair back. It was what he said and how he said it.
He told his rookie players a story and that is how i will close out this week's blog.
The Devil was moving to another location. He was packing up all of his tools and objects of misery and evil and a person walked into his shop. the Devil explained to this person that he was moving and could not take all of his items with him and that they were on sale at very cheap prices. The person then asked Satan what was his most effective yet cheapest tool..
this last part i will capitalize cuz i want it to hit you the way it hit me.
Satan looked at the person and said "OH, THAT'S EASY. MY MOST EFFECTIVE TOOL IS DISCOURAGEMENT. BECAUSE WHEN A PERSON IS DISCOURAGED, ALL OF MY OTHER WEAPONS WORK."
read that line over and over again and think about how you have ever felt or sounded in your life when you were discouraged. when you thought you could not achieve something..think about what can possibly happen to a person when they become discouraged..
I will leave it there. love you all.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Step by step
Wow. Havent been on here in about 3 weeks or so. I can't say that I'm much of a blogger. It was suggested by my publisher that I do this and I figured it would be a good way for people to get to know me and to know my product. I also figured i would use it as a diary of sorts to keep you posted as the release date of the book approaches...
But life does get in the way. There are issues and priorities and distractions and before you know it, you have lost the desire to do anything and you say to yourself, "Bah!! (I say bah alot) I'll do it tomorrow. And you know what happens when tomorrow comes, right? "Bah! I'll do it some other time." And so on and so forth.
Luckily, being that a few weeks have passed, I actually have a few things to talk about. Firstly, I have a release date for the book. Amazon.com allready has a pre-order page for A Distant Battlefield It will be available on September 15th.
WooHoo!! (I say Woohoo alot)
I was told by my wonderful indie publisher Wheatmark, that it will also be availalbe on the Books-A-Million page as well as physical copies for Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. (that rules) I have a bit of a marketing strategy in place, and there are many spots in the 5 boroughs of NYC that I plan on approaching to promote in person.
The last 3 weeks have seen alot of interesting activity. My sunburned family came back from Puerto Rico all happy and healthy. (did I mentioned sunburned?)
I received my first shipment of sample books. A box with 10 wonderful copies of my novel were awaiting my pleasure when I came home from work. (and of course my family members descended on said box like a plague of unwashed locust and lifted a number of copies.) I still have one copy for myself though.
My wonderful niece Amy Mendez rounded up a handful of her friends and this last Saturday we shot a number of photos with the lovely ladies modeling the Distant Battlefield Tees as well as a number of the books.
The intelligent and quite capable Darius Vick blessed me with his photography skills and the irrascable Phillip Shung provided the remaining resources. It was a fun 2 hour shoot with lots of laughs and good times.
All of it in an effort to get the world ready for A DISTANT BATTLEFIELD!! my first novel and part 1 of an amazing trilogy. It is full of sci-fi action but also has tons of cool characters as well as drama, intrigue, comedy and a dash of romance.
In the Fall there is more to do. I am arranging for a book signing event in Lower Manhattan, I plan on doing some marketing at the New York Comic Con in October and in between there will be some more tidbits and appearances.
A big thank you for all of you who have been reading and following, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who have assisted me either physically, mentally or spiritually.
I love you all.
But life does get in the way. There are issues and priorities and distractions and before you know it, you have lost the desire to do anything and you say to yourself, "Bah!! (I say bah alot) I'll do it tomorrow. And you know what happens when tomorrow comes, right? "Bah! I'll do it some other time." And so on and so forth.
Luckily, being that a few weeks have passed, I actually have a few things to talk about. Firstly, I have a release date for the book. Amazon.com allready has a pre-order page for A Distant Battlefield It will be available on September 15th.
WooHoo!! (I say Woohoo alot)
I was told by my wonderful indie publisher Wheatmark, that it will also be availalbe on the Books-A-Million page as well as physical copies for Barnes and Noble, Target and Walmart. (that rules) I have a bit of a marketing strategy in place, and there are many spots in the 5 boroughs of NYC that I plan on approaching to promote in person.
The last 3 weeks have seen alot of interesting activity. My sunburned family came back from Puerto Rico all happy and healthy. (did I mentioned sunburned?)
I received my first shipment of sample books. A box with 10 wonderful copies of my novel were awaiting my pleasure when I came home from work. (and of course my family members descended on said box like a plague of unwashed locust and lifted a number of copies.) I still have one copy for myself though.
My wonderful niece Amy Mendez rounded up a handful of her friends and this last Saturday we shot a number of photos with the lovely ladies modeling the Distant Battlefield Tees as well as a number of the books.
The intelligent and quite capable Darius Vick blessed me with his photography skills and the irrascable Phillip Shung provided the remaining resources. It was a fun 2 hour shoot with lots of laughs and good times.
All of it in an effort to get the world ready for A DISTANT BATTLEFIELD!! my first novel and part 1 of an amazing trilogy. It is full of sci-fi action but also has tons of cool characters as well as drama, intrigue, comedy and a dash of romance.
In the Fall there is more to do. I am arranging for a book signing event in Lower Manhattan, I plan on doing some marketing at the New York Comic Con in October and in between there will be some more tidbits and appearances.
A big thank you for all of you who have been reading and following, and an even bigger thank you to those of you who have assisted me either physically, mentally or spiritually.
I love you all.
Monday, July 26, 2010
All It Has To Be
So, let me tell you about what I have been doing lately that has been bringing me much joy.
Many, many years ago, I was a foot messenger. That was back in the mid 1990s when I was young and ripe and moist and was still making my way through the world, blissfully unaware of the greatness within me. Being a foot messenger was really cool, I got to go to tons of places taht I would never have thought of visiting otherwise. It was totally cool to walk through these new neighborhoods and coming across places I never would have spotted.
My favorite street is still ST.Mark's place in the East Village right next to Tompkins Square Park. It was there that I came across Kim's Video.
I have allready stated my film preferences in an earlier blog, and I even discussed very briefly the types of films that i enjoyed. But there was another genre of film that I truly enjoyed as a kid, and those were the campy, weird b movies that played in Grindhouse theaters in Times Square (the real Times Square, not that sanitized crap that the tourists have infested now) Kim's Video was and still is the place where you go to find these amazing B movie treasures (or should i say Z movies considering some of the titles I was exposed to)
oh, what a joy. Even when I didnt have the money to buy anything, It was still a pleasure to walk into Kim's Video, go up to the second floor and lose myself within a universe of films that did not take themselves seriously, or where to graphic and mind blowing insane to be released by any mainstream studio.
BANNED IN 30 C0UNTRIES!! THE FILM TOO VIOLENT TO BE RATED!! DR BUTCHER MD!! (HE MAKES HOUSECALLS) The cover blurbs exploded across the dvd and vhs covers in a parade of capital letters and garish colors!! Films of every genre were represented, Blackexplotation, horror, action, western, sex, films from every corner of the globe sat side by side with the main stream stuff you could have picked up at Blockbuster or Best Buy, but here it was so much cooler..
How could you be in the vicinity of a movie called Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and not pick up the damn box just to see what the hell it was??
Sadommania
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
The Flesh Eaters
I Spit on Your Grave
Make Them Die Slowly
Cop Killers
Class of 1984
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!!
Thousands upon thousands of Grindhouse treasures just sitting there awaiting to be ingested by that part of my mental universe that could easily accomodate such madness, depravity (and really terrible acting)
Flying Guillotine
Grizzly
The Car
Maniac
New York Ripper
Slaughter's Big Rip Off
Zombie2
I Drink your Blood, I Eat your Skin
How the hell can you say no to films like that??
Now granted, these were not academy award winners by any means. these are not the films you sit your family down with a bucket of popcorn and say "We're gonna have a warm, wholesome family film night tonight!!"
No, sir, these films are for those of us who understood that not every film had to be art, or to tell a message. these films were for when you wanted to violently slaughter a few million brain cells (that sounds like a Grindhouse title by itself, doesnt it?)
the actor's knew what they were getting into when the participated in them, the writers knew what they were doing when they wrote it, and the directors knew what they were creating when they directed it. And I know what I am getting into whenever I wanna see something called The Bronx Warriors 1999.
I know where to go when I want to see something that has emotional weight. I know where to go when I want to be mentally stimulated. When I walk into Kim's video I am looking for something fun and cheesy.
I have been to Kim's video twice in the last three weeks. I have purchased (in no particular order) Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, The Copkillers, Don't Go in the House, Tenement (aka, Slaughter in the South Bronx) and for no reason, The Candy Tangerine Man (which features some of the worst camera work and lighting I have ever seen in a film) And you know what? I knew these movies were crap when I brought them, and I knew what I was going to be exposed to everytime I popped one of them in there.
and that's really the bottom line when I buy them. They dont all have to be epic achivements in cinema, Any film that i pop into the dvd player doesnt have to be a award winner. All it has to be is fun.
Many, many years ago, I was a foot messenger. That was back in the mid 1990s when I was young and ripe and moist and was still making my way through the world, blissfully unaware of the greatness within me. Being a foot messenger was really cool, I got to go to tons of places taht I would never have thought of visiting otherwise. It was totally cool to walk through these new neighborhoods and coming across places I never would have spotted.
My favorite street is still ST.Mark's place in the East Village right next to Tompkins Square Park. It was there that I came across Kim's Video.
I have allready stated my film preferences in an earlier blog, and I even discussed very briefly the types of films that i enjoyed. But there was another genre of film that I truly enjoyed as a kid, and those were the campy, weird b movies that played in Grindhouse theaters in Times Square (the real Times Square, not that sanitized crap that the tourists have infested now) Kim's Video was and still is the place where you go to find these amazing B movie treasures (or should i say Z movies considering some of the titles I was exposed to)
oh, what a joy. Even when I didnt have the money to buy anything, It was still a pleasure to walk into Kim's Video, go up to the second floor and lose myself within a universe of films that did not take themselves seriously, or where to graphic and mind blowing insane to be released by any mainstream studio.
BANNED IN 30 C0UNTRIES!! THE FILM TOO VIOLENT TO BE RATED!! DR BUTCHER MD!! (HE MAKES HOUSECALLS) The cover blurbs exploded across the dvd and vhs covers in a parade of capital letters and garish colors!! Films of every genre were represented, Blackexplotation, horror, action, western, sex, films from every corner of the globe sat side by side with the main stream stuff you could have picked up at Blockbuster or Best Buy, but here it was so much cooler..
How could you be in the vicinity of a movie called Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and not pick up the damn box just to see what the hell it was??
Sadommania
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry
The Flesh Eaters
I Spit on Your Grave
Make Them Die Slowly
Cop Killers
Class of 1984
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill!!
Thousands upon thousands of Grindhouse treasures just sitting there awaiting to be ingested by that part of my mental universe that could easily accomodate such madness, depravity (and really terrible acting)
Flying Guillotine
Grizzly
The Car
Maniac
New York Ripper
Slaughter's Big Rip Off
Zombie2
I Drink your Blood, I Eat your Skin
How the hell can you say no to films like that??
Now granted, these were not academy award winners by any means. these are not the films you sit your family down with a bucket of popcorn and say "We're gonna have a warm, wholesome family film night tonight!!"
No, sir, these films are for those of us who understood that not every film had to be art, or to tell a message. these films were for when you wanted to violently slaughter a few million brain cells (that sounds like a Grindhouse title by itself, doesnt it?)
the actor's knew what they were getting into when the participated in them, the writers knew what they were doing when they wrote it, and the directors knew what they were creating when they directed it. And I know what I am getting into whenever I wanna see something called The Bronx Warriors 1999.
I know where to go when I want to see something that has emotional weight. I know where to go when I want to be mentally stimulated. When I walk into Kim's video I am looking for something fun and cheesy.
I have been to Kim's video twice in the last three weeks. I have purchased (in no particular order) Lucio Fulci's The Beyond, The Copkillers, Don't Go in the House, Tenement (aka, Slaughter in the South Bronx) and for no reason, The Candy Tangerine Man (which features some of the worst camera work and lighting I have ever seen in a film) And you know what? I knew these movies were crap when I brought them, and I knew what I was going to be exposed to everytime I popped one of them in there.
and that's really the bottom line when I buy them. They dont all have to be epic achivements in cinema, Any film that i pop into the dvd player doesnt have to be a award winner. All it has to be is fun.
Friday, July 16, 2010
It's not just a book, It's also a social study!!!
I hated the term Social Studies. I didn't even hear it till I got into junior high school. I don't know what the hell that was!! I don't wanna study social things!! I don't even like to study!! but it was part of the school curriculum so I had to take it. I don't know about what Social Studies class you guys had to take in any of the schools you went to, but mine turned out to be more history than anything else. I never recalled having a class where we discussed relations between races or ethnic or religious groups. Satellite East JHS? their social studies class was global history. Same thing with Bushwick High School.
Now, history, that was something I enjoyed. Learning about other places, countries, peoples and cultures, now that was cool. I don't recall whether or not I had any real compassionate adults that taught the subject, (I do remember Mr.Stern, my junior high Social Studies/global history teacher who popped a mental gasket one day when he realized not every kid in the class had written down the homework assignment from the chalkboard one day..) Outside of that, I had no adults teach me anything about relating to other human beings in any setting.
And I wonder if that is one of our problems.
If our educational system does not feel obligated to teach our youth about how to relate to people of other cultures, religions or sexual orientations, then how exactly are they to be expected to be tolerant and understanding as adults?
I was watching the movie Mississippi Burning last weekend, (a film which has always resonated with me no matter how many times i watch it) and one of the characters, a female who was married to one of the racist police said what i have always believed about racism. (no one is born a racist. It is taught and it is acquired)
I love the Sci Fi fantasy genre. I always have. anything that gets a person's imagination to soaring and expanding beyond its boundaries is a wonderful thing. One half of my mental universe is always in that realm and will never leave. But as a Latino male who has heard and experienced his share of racial perception, hostility and indifference, the other half of my mental universe is always comprised of tales of intolerance, defiance, understanding and racial harmony.
all of those facets and factors combined to make A Distant Battlefield, my own little Social Study.
Yes, the novel is Sci fi on its surface, full of action, and drama and all the things needed to make a story experience that you will not be able to put down or dismiss quickly. I guarantee that these will be the fastest 440 pages you have ever read in your life.
But underneath that surface, I feed the other side of your brain as well with a Social lesson. A question really. Can a group of strangers from diverse backgrounds put their suspicions and hostilities and preconceived notions of certain people aside long enough to deal with a situation together as human beings?
I'm hoping you bring both sides of your brain with you when you read my words. I'm hoping you enjoy the characters, concepts, action sequences as well as the comedy relief,drama and intrigue that my tale will provide.
Hope you are ready for an interesting Social Study..
Now, history, that was something I enjoyed. Learning about other places, countries, peoples and cultures, now that was cool. I don't recall whether or not I had any real compassionate adults that taught the subject, (I do remember Mr.Stern, my junior high Social Studies/global history teacher who popped a mental gasket one day when he realized not every kid in the class had written down the homework assignment from the chalkboard one day..) Outside of that, I had no adults teach me anything about relating to other human beings in any setting.
And I wonder if that is one of our problems.
If our educational system does not feel obligated to teach our youth about how to relate to people of other cultures, religions or sexual orientations, then how exactly are they to be expected to be tolerant and understanding as adults?
I was watching the movie Mississippi Burning last weekend, (a film which has always resonated with me no matter how many times i watch it) and one of the characters, a female who was married to one of the racist police said what i have always believed about racism. (no one is born a racist. It is taught and it is acquired)
I love the Sci Fi fantasy genre. I always have. anything that gets a person's imagination to soaring and expanding beyond its boundaries is a wonderful thing. One half of my mental universe is always in that realm and will never leave. But as a Latino male who has heard and experienced his share of racial perception, hostility and indifference, the other half of my mental universe is always comprised of tales of intolerance, defiance, understanding and racial harmony.
all of those facets and factors combined to make A Distant Battlefield, my own little Social Study.
Yes, the novel is Sci fi on its surface, full of action, and drama and all the things needed to make a story experience that you will not be able to put down or dismiss quickly. I guarantee that these will be the fastest 440 pages you have ever read in your life.
But underneath that surface, I feed the other side of your brain as well with a Social lesson. A question really. Can a group of strangers from diverse backgrounds put their suspicions and hostilities and preconceived notions of certain people aside long enough to deal with a situation together as human beings?
I'm hoping you bring both sides of your brain with you when you read my words. I'm hoping you enjoy the characters, concepts, action sequences as well as the comedy relief,drama and intrigue that my tale will provide.
Hope you are ready for an interesting Social Study..
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Damn Shame
About a week or so ago, I sat down to watch a two hour documentary about the making of the original Jaws film. (It was on the Biography Channel I think) anyway, it was a fun program. It discussed all of the problems that a young Steven Speilberg and his crew had with getting the mechanical shark to work. It was tested in fresh water and it worked fine, but upon putting Bruce (the name the shark was given.) into salt water, it began to go haywire. (and someone on that crew should have figured that out or at least questioned..)
But anyway the most interesting part of the documentary was toward the end. The cast and crew were all being interviewed, Steven Speilberg, Richard Dryfuss and a number of production members, and Dryfuss said something that really stood out to me. It was in regard to the movie's staying power. During the year the movie made its debut it remained in theaters from June to December of 1975.
Toward the end of the program they showed a picture of a Times Square theater with a monstrous line of people waiting to get inside. I smiled at the end of the documentary, I was so very thankful to have seen this movie in a film theater, so thankful to have experienced everything this documentary talked about. Then i thought about my neices and nephews and their generation.
Damn shame.
This young generation wont get to experience true tentpole films. They walk instead into a massive mega theater (which is of course part of a monsterous chain of hollow classless establishments which are scattered across the country), they will pay an obscene $15 dollars to walk into a small shoeboxed shaped room and sit through a bland 20 minute program which has...COMMERCIALS!! To finally get to the trailers, and maybe, just maybe the movie that they paid to see will have some sort of substance to it and will resonate within their heads for more than a week or so, before finally being supplanted by the next piece of fluff that hollywood swears will be the next big thing.
The films of my youth played to packed houses, did repeat business, stayed in theaters for months and created legacies and lasting impacts. There are so many films from the 70s and 80s that created the foundation for my own universe..so many of them to list here (that would be a fun project though)
sigh..so this is progress. (how long was Iron Man 2 at the top of the box office this May? Is it even still in theatres?)
Damn shame.
But anyway the most interesting part of the documentary was toward the end. The cast and crew were all being interviewed, Steven Speilberg, Richard Dryfuss and a number of production members, and Dryfuss said something that really stood out to me. It was in regard to the movie's staying power. During the year the movie made its debut it remained in theaters from June to December of 1975.
Toward the end of the program they showed a picture of a Times Square theater with a monstrous line of people waiting to get inside. I smiled at the end of the documentary, I was so very thankful to have seen this movie in a film theater, so thankful to have experienced everything this documentary talked about. Then i thought about my neices and nephews and their generation.
Damn shame.
This young generation wont get to experience true tentpole films. They walk instead into a massive mega theater (which is of course part of a monsterous chain of hollow classless establishments which are scattered across the country), they will pay an obscene $15 dollars to walk into a small shoeboxed shaped room and sit through a bland 20 minute program which has...COMMERCIALS!! To finally get to the trailers, and maybe, just maybe the movie that they paid to see will have some sort of substance to it and will resonate within their heads for more than a week or so, before finally being supplanted by the next piece of fluff that hollywood swears will be the next big thing.
The films of my youth played to packed houses, did repeat business, stayed in theaters for months and created legacies and lasting impacts. There are so many films from the 70s and 80s that created the foundation for my own universe..so many of them to list here (that would be a fun project though)
sigh..so this is progress. (how long was Iron Man 2 at the top of the box office this May? Is it even still in theatres?)
Damn shame.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
When Do You Know?
When exactly do you know or come to realize that you are doing exactly what you were meant to be doing in life? Is it an instantaneous thing or is it a slow process that we don't even take notice of until the watershed moment occurs and leaps out at us?
I've always fancied myself as a writer and creator. (and that's another good question, are you a writer when you write, or are you a writer when you are recognized for your writing?)
So back to my ramblings..I always considered myself a writer. Even as I made my own comic books as a kid and my artwork wasn't all that great, I looked forward to the writing aspect and felt that would save whatever story I was trying to tell at the time. I went the screenplay route at first, but after years of receiving one paragraph responses thanking me for my submission (or even worse, no replies at all), I began to lose hope. In 2000 I turned my creative energies to producing a number of indie films and projects, none of which got any further than the shooting stage, (something I attribute to the minds and desires of the people I was around at the time, and turned away from writing at that point.
I think I still have outlines for about 20 projects of all genres somewhere in my home, and when the Distant Battlefield franchise becomes successful, I plan on introducing these to the world as well.
Anyway, I was still spinning my wheels mentally around 2007 or so when my lower intestines sent me to Woodhull Hospital for a two month vacation from the world. As I lay in the hospital bed after the initial surgery, I took the time to do a quick reassessment. I was still alive, still on this planet, and when I get out of the hospital I will eventually have to return to the world...as what?
Am I to be a 9 to 5 humanoid for the rest of my life? is that all my life is?
Will I spend another few years of my existence shooting music videos for wanna be rappers and putting in hour after empty hour on someone else's indie project, making phone calls, dealing with actors and manning lights?
what exactly am I going to do now?
The only thing in my life that ever spoke to me was writing and creating. Stories, short stories, screenplays. If i remember the old saying, a person is what they do, not what they say. If all I ever did was talk about writing but never wrote anything, then I'm not a damn writer. Very simple.
I saw no labor in writing A Distant Battlefield. It was a love. It was spending time with a host of characters and having them play off each other. It was creating a universe which comprised 440 pages, and I enjoyed every single page.
Even months after the first installment was written, I think about the characters and the story every damn day. My mental editor is still going over pages and phrases and sequences, wholly satisfied with what we have done, but still believing we could say and do it better.
Part two is in outline form, and is more an array of thoughts and sequences than an actual order of events. But that's OK. That rough outline is the clay from which the second book will be sculpted, and I'm ready to get in there even now.
I'm about a good month away from introducing you guys to what I have created. Hope you like what I have presented to you, hope you understand what message I am trying to convey.
I truly look forward to the conversations I will have with all of you in regards to what I wrote and what my thought process was like. Hope to meet alot of you in person. If not, drop me a line or send an email. I will gladly write you back.
After all, I am a writer.
I've always fancied myself as a writer and creator. (and that's another good question, are you a writer when you write, or are you a writer when you are recognized for your writing?)
So back to my ramblings..I always considered myself a writer. Even as I made my own comic books as a kid and my artwork wasn't all that great, I looked forward to the writing aspect and felt that would save whatever story I was trying to tell at the time. I went the screenplay route at first, but after years of receiving one paragraph responses thanking me for my submission (or even worse, no replies at all), I began to lose hope. In 2000 I turned my creative energies to producing a number of indie films and projects, none of which got any further than the shooting stage, (something I attribute to the minds and desires of the people I was around at the time, and turned away from writing at that point.
I think I still have outlines for about 20 projects of all genres somewhere in my home, and when the Distant Battlefield franchise becomes successful, I plan on introducing these to the world as well.
Anyway, I was still spinning my wheels mentally around 2007 or so when my lower intestines sent me to Woodhull Hospital for a two month vacation from the world. As I lay in the hospital bed after the initial surgery, I took the time to do a quick reassessment. I was still alive, still on this planet, and when I get out of the hospital I will eventually have to return to the world...as what?
Am I to be a 9 to 5 humanoid for the rest of my life? is that all my life is?
Will I spend another few years of my existence shooting music videos for wanna be rappers and putting in hour after empty hour on someone else's indie project, making phone calls, dealing with actors and manning lights?
what exactly am I going to do now?
The only thing in my life that ever spoke to me was writing and creating. Stories, short stories, screenplays. If i remember the old saying, a person is what they do, not what they say. If all I ever did was talk about writing but never wrote anything, then I'm not a damn writer. Very simple.
I saw no labor in writing A Distant Battlefield. It was a love. It was spending time with a host of characters and having them play off each other. It was creating a universe which comprised 440 pages, and I enjoyed every single page.
Even months after the first installment was written, I think about the characters and the story every damn day. My mental editor is still going over pages and phrases and sequences, wholly satisfied with what we have done, but still believing we could say and do it better.
Part two is in outline form, and is more an array of thoughts and sequences than an actual order of events. But that's OK. That rough outline is the clay from which the second book will be sculpted, and I'm ready to get in there even now.
I'm about a good month away from introducing you guys to what I have created. Hope you like what I have presented to you, hope you understand what message I am trying to convey.
I truly look forward to the conversations I will have with all of you in regards to what I wrote and what my thought process was like. Hope to meet alot of you in person. If not, drop me a line or send an email. I will gladly write you back.
After all, I am a writer.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Needs just a little touch of humanity
My last blog mentioned the types of Sci Fi that I have enjoyed over the years. To recap, I cant get into all of that CGI heavy stuff, as much as it helps, and as realistic as it can sometimes appear, Just pouring tons of that stuff into a film doesnt do it for me.
I mentioned why I liked District 9 more than James Cameron's Avatar. Both of them had stories to tell at its core, but Avatar was more like cotton candy to me. It was all fluff and flash, courtesy of all the damn CGI involved. District 9 at least relied on a more grittier, realistic feel. The special effects when used where more of a service to the film than a hinderence. And that's the thing about CGI, if used correctly, it can compliment a film. I look at it as ketchup. Ketchup is meant to compliment and add an extra zing to the fries. It's not supposed to overwhelm and drown the damn things.
But there are other aspects to a good Sci Fi franchise, and this applies to both film and novels. I'm a two sided man now. As a teen (and I spoke of this in an earlier blog) I sat through just about any action or sci fi film that crawled out of the creepy darkness that was the 1970s and 80s and although there were some good ones, whoo boy there was tons of crap. I sat through all of them, cuz I wasn't exactly looking to have my mind stimulated back then. I needed a decent plot, kick ass characters, tons of explosions and gun fire, and every once in a while, character development.
Now that I am older, I can do with more of the plot and interesting characters. I can sit through a film or go through a book that doesnt have tons of action per page or chapter, or minute after minute of big screen gunfire. I can work with a decent mix.
I would choose films like the original Star Wars franchise, E.T., the first Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, classics all, over the present day color and sound orgies that we deal with presently. I could not sit through Cloverfield or Independence Day because I felt that there were things missing there.
(Cloverfield had no characters for me to cheer for. I was somehow hoping they'd all get stepped on. Independence Day was a flat movie for me because it was one sided. I felt no awe or interest in the alien invaders. They could have been coming to our planet for pizza or a concert or something. Their motivations were muddled and boring at best)
If you look at all of the classic films that I have chosen you see that they have one thing in common; simply interesting human characters. A little humanity interspersed with explosions and chase scenes make any fictional work highly interesting.
I could have kept the entire first tale of A Distant Battlefield on the home planet of Garian, but i felt that it was important that I bring the conflict to the familiar territory of our world. I carefully crafted every Earth character that i introduce to have their own set of interests conflicts and suspicions. I bounce these characters off each other and then see if they can eventually merge into a singular organism that can survive and cooperate for simple survival.
A Distant Battlefield Is a Sci-fi based story which basically asks whether people of different ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds can come together, put aside their general every day suspicions and hatreds of each other and survive as a group?
Simple.
I mentioned why I liked District 9 more than James Cameron's Avatar. Both of them had stories to tell at its core, but Avatar was more like cotton candy to me. It was all fluff and flash, courtesy of all the damn CGI involved. District 9 at least relied on a more grittier, realistic feel. The special effects when used where more of a service to the film than a hinderence. And that's the thing about CGI, if used correctly, it can compliment a film. I look at it as ketchup. Ketchup is meant to compliment and add an extra zing to the fries. It's not supposed to overwhelm and drown the damn things.
But there are other aspects to a good Sci Fi franchise, and this applies to both film and novels. I'm a two sided man now. As a teen (and I spoke of this in an earlier blog) I sat through just about any action or sci fi film that crawled out of the creepy darkness that was the 1970s and 80s and although there were some good ones, whoo boy there was tons of crap. I sat through all of them, cuz I wasn't exactly looking to have my mind stimulated back then. I needed a decent plot, kick ass characters, tons of explosions and gun fire, and every once in a while, character development.
Now that I am older, I can do with more of the plot and interesting characters. I can sit through a film or go through a book that doesnt have tons of action per page or chapter, or minute after minute of big screen gunfire. I can work with a decent mix.
I would choose films like the original Star Wars franchise, E.T., the first Poltergeist, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, classics all, over the present day color and sound orgies that we deal with presently. I could not sit through Cloverfield or Independence Day because I felt that there were things missing there.
(Cloverfield had no characters for me to cheer for. I was somehow hoping they'd all get stepped on. Independence Day was a flat movie for me because it was one sided. I felt no awe or interest in the alien invaders. They could have been coming to our planet for pizza or a concert or something. Their motivations were muddled and boring at best)
If you look at all of the classic films that I have chosen you see that they have one thing in common; simply interesting human characters. A little humanity interspersed with explosions and chase scenes make any fictional work highly interesting.
I could have kept the entire first tale of A Distant Battlefield on the home planet of Garian, but i felt that it was important that I bring the conflict to the familiar territory of our world. I carefully crafted every Earth character that i introduce to have their own set of interests conflicts and suspicions. I bounce these characters off each other and then see if they can eventually merge into a singular organism that can survive and cooperate for simple survival.
A Distant Battlefield Is a Sci-fi based story which basically asks whether people of different ethnic, religious and economic backgrounds can come together, put aside their general every day suspicions and hatreds of each other and survive as a group?
Simple.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
My Kind of Sci-Fi
So what have I learned from being exposed to popular culture for the roughly 4 decades that I have been on this planet?
Most specifically, what have I been impacted by from all of the Sci-Fi and fantasy culture that I happily exposed mself to?
To start, I believe that any form of popular culture should always have some sort of impact. Doesnt matter if it's music, the written word, even television and film can and have provided examples of impactful content. Throughout human history, the most classic examples of popular culture stood out from everything else by being able to say something or prove itself relevant to the human condition in some way.
As I stated in an earlier blog, I am a product of 70s and 80s film and televsion culture. My stepfather took us to the movies in the 70s when movies were actually inovative and sincere. They were also widely varied. You could have chosen a film from any genre back then and could have come across something that was wildly original and unlike the flash over substance films of today, actually managed to stay with you.
I can still remember watching the original Star Wars film in a jam packed theatre in downtown Brooklyn NY, I fondly recalled the restless days and nights for me afterward, as although i was rudely instructed to return to reality, the days immediately following that viewing were still jammed with those images of fantastic characters, far away worlds (that were so amazingly rendered) and climatic personal struggles.
It took me a good month or so for me to even get over the fact that it was a damn movie, as if though my mind had taken just that long to absorb all of the utter awesomeness that my little 7 year old mind had been exposed to.
After that, (and this never took place on a consicious level) I knew that i wanted to somehow, someway contribute to that genre. I just didnt know how. (actually at that age I didnt have to know how, not yet, I still had comic books to read, and little girls to bother and tons of running around the school yard with my friends before I even geared my little mind toward such significant thinking)
As my school and formative years shot by, my mind began to (dare i say it..) mature. I was learning the ins and outs about true writing and again, whether it was a pre meditated thing or not, I was practicing and honing my craft. Character creation, dramatic conflict and resolution, the intricacies of dialogue, all of these things made their way into my brain box in one way or another.
I began to look back at the films of my so often fondly remembered youth with something I had not used before or didnt even know i had..a critical eye. It wasnt even something I realized I was doing. I just did it. I was now looking at faults, and wears and seams within the works that my youth had originally regarded as so perfect.
Have you ever sat down to watch a movie you absolutely loved in your youth as an adult and it turned out to be a peice of crap? (that is what happened to me)
I recently purchased a collectors edition dvd of Escape from New York
I sat in front of the 46 inch Samsung Flatscreen in the living room, rustled up some junk food, and prepared to drink in the nectar that John Carpenter had offered me and i eagerly drank in the early 1980s (in a semi darkened theater somewhere in Brooklyn)
and I sat there for 90 mins watching this film which had yes, made a contribution to my Sci-fi up bringing, sat through the deleted scenes that were included on the disc and when I turned it off I said to myself what a peice of crap!!
I was sitting there for about 15 minutes, arguing with my brain and asking it exactly what did i see in this film in the first place that made me cherish it so, and where the hell was it now?
And i suppose that is the problem and we have all gone through it at one time or another. the mind matures. It seeks meaning now and is better trained to cut through the flash to seek that substance. This is true whether you are thumbing through a book you once read so many years back or listening to an album you enjoyed in your youth or etc.
When I began writing A Distant Battlefield, I began to craft it in a way that appealed to both sides of my brain. I wanted the slam bang action that I enjoyed as a child but also wanted to put some brain matter into it. I need it, I like seeing it in other forms of popular culture and I want others to have that brain matter as well.
A Distant Battlefield then, is a concotion comprised of many elements that I enjoyed from books and films; the intelligence and imagining of Larry Niven's Dreampark as well as the character structure and set up of Niven's Lucifer's Hammer, (both of which are excellent novels in regards to how they present set up, concept and characters.)
I was also influenced by a pair of my all time favorite cheesy disaster films from the 70s namely Earthquake and The Towering Inferno. Again the presentation and buildup of the concept as well as the introduction of the varied characters made an indelible impression on me.
I will close by talking briefly about two present day examples. I recently saw both Avatar and District 9 on cable recently.
I never bothered going to see Avatar in the theaters. I know James Cameron is an excellent visionary, and with all of the CGI technology available that i knew he would use to bring the concept to life, maybe that was the problem. I saw the trailer as well as the extended trailers for the film and although the concept and story was excellent, it was drowned out by the absolute CGI orgy that took away from the film's thinly veiled environmental message. I was more comfortable with the scenes of the military characters within their base than i was with the Skittles rainbow forest world of Pandora. (it was just too damn obvious that it was all fabricated and I guess that just took the enjoyment away from me.)
I am absolutely planning on getting the Distant Battlefield franchise into a theater near you one day..and I am hoping that i have crafted an intelligent story that relies more on people than on green screens to convey itself...and that is why I enjoyed District 9 more than I did Avatar.
District 9 told a gritty sci fi story, and it was more my taste. The aliens are practically sequestered in a Warsaw Ghetto like environment on the outskirts of Johannesberg South Africa. They are dirty, gritty and more believable and in my opinion had more of a personality than James Cameron's blue people. The story was impactful and could be easily understood and although CGI was obviously involved it was more of a compliment to the story than a distraction.
I suppose I'm just not the type of person who likes to drown his french fries with ketchup. I believe that the ketchup should compliment the fries and not overshadow them. (does that make any sense?)
Most specifically, what have I been impacted by from all of the Sci-Fi and fantasy culture that I happily exposed mself to?
To start, I believe that any form of popular culture should always have some sort of impact. Doesnt matter if it's music, the written word, even television and film can and have provided examples of impactful content. Throughout human history, the most classic examples of popular culture stood out from everything else by being able to say something or prove itself relevant to the human condition in some way.
As I stated in an earlier blog, I am a product of 70s and 80s film and televsion culture. My stepfather took us to the movies in the 70s when movies were actually inovative and sincere. They were also widely varied. You could have chosen a film from any genre back then and could have come across something that was wildly original and unlike the flash over substance films of today, actually managed to stay with you.
I can still remember watching the original Star Wars film in a jam packed theatre in downtown Brooklyn NY, I fondly recalled the restless days and nights for me afterward, as although i was rudely instructed to return to reality, the days immediately following that viewing were still jammed with those images of fantastic characters, far away worlds (that were so amazingly rendered) and climatic personal struggles.
It took me a good month or so for me to even get over the fact that it was a damn movie, as if though my mind had taken just that long to absorb all of the utter awesomeness that my little 7 year old mind had been exposed to.
After that, (and this never took place on a consicious level) I knew that i wanted to somehow, someway contribute to that genre. I just didnt know how. (actually at that age I didnt have to know how, not yet, I still had comic books to read, and little girls to bother and tons of running around the school yard with my friends before I even geared my little mind toward such significant thinking)
As my school and formative years shot by, my mind began to (dare i say it..) mature. I was learning the ins and outs about true writing and again, whether it was a pre meditated thing or not, I was practicing and honing my craft. Character creation, dramatic conflict and resolution, the intricacies of dialogue, all of these things made their way into my brain box in one way or another.
I began to look back at the films of my so often fondly remembered youth with something I had not used before or didnt even know i had..a critical eye. It wasnt even something I realized I was doing. I just did it. I was now looking at faults, and wears and seams within the works that my youth had originally regarded as so perfect.
Have you ever sat down to watch a movie you absolutely loved in your youth as an adult and it turned out to be a peice of crap? (that is what happened to me)
I recently purchased a collectors edition dvd of Escape from New York
I sat in front of the 46 inch Samsung Flatscreen in the living room, rustled up some junk food, and prepared to drink in the nectar that John Carpenter had offered me and i eagerly drank in the early 1980s (in a semi darkened theater somewhere in Brooklyn)
and I sat there for 90 mins watching this film which had yes, made a contribution to my Sci-fi up bringing, sat through the deleted scenes that were included on the disc and when I turned it off I said to myself what a peice of crap!!
I was sitting there for about 15 minutes, arguing with my brain and asking it exactly what did i see in this film in the first place that made me cherish it so, and where the hell was it now?
And i suppose that is the problem and we have all gone through it at one time or another. the mind matures. It seeks meaning now and is better trained to cut through the flash to seek that substance. This is true whether you are thumbing through a book you once read so many years back or listening to an album you enjoyed in your youth or etc.
When I began writing A Distant Battlefield, I began to craft it in a way that appealed to both sides of my brain. I wanted the slam bang action that I enjoyed as a child but also wanted to put some brain matter into it. I need it, I like seeing it in other forms of popular culture and I want others to have that brain matter as well.
A Distant Battlefield then, is a concotion comprised of many elements that I enjoyed from books and films; the intelligence and imagining of Larry Niven's Dreampark as well as the character structure and set up of Niven's Lucifer's Hammer, (both of which are excellent novels in regards to how they present set up, concept and characters.)
I was also influenced by a pair of my all time favorite cheesy disaster films from the 70s namely Earthquake and The Towering Inferno. Again the presentation and buildup of the concept as well as the introduction of the varied characters made an indelible impression on me.
I will close by talking briefly about two present day examples. I recently saw both Avatar and District 9 on cable recently.
I never bothered going to see Avatar in the theaters. I know James Cameron is an excellent visionary, and with all of the CGI technology available that i knew he would use to bring the concept to life, maybe that was the problem. I saw the trailer as well as the extended trailers for the film and although the concept and story was excellent, it was drowned out by the absolute CGI orgy that took away from the film's thinly veiled environmental message. I was more comfortable with the scenes of the military characters within their base than i was with the Skittles rainbow forest world of Pandora. (it was just too damn obvious that it was all fabricated and I guess that just took the enjoyment away from me.)
I am absolutely planning on getting the Distant Battlefield franchise into a theater near you one day..and I am hoping that i have crafted an intelligent story that relies more on people than on green screens to convey itself...and that is why I enjoyed District 9 more than I did Avatar.
District 9 told a gritty sci fi story, and it was more my taste. The aliens are practically sequestered in a Warsaw Ghetto like environment on the outskirts of Johannesberg South Africa. They are dirty, gritty and more believable and in my opinion had more of a personality than James Cameron's blue people. The story was impactful and could be easily understood and although CGI was obviously involved it was more of a compliment to the story than a distraction.
I suppose I'm just not the type of person who likes to drown his french fries with ketchup. I believe that the ketchup should compliment the fries and not overshadow them. (does that make any sense?)
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Spiral Notebooks, Pens and other Advanced Technologies
I'm a self taught writer. Actually, does anyone go to any sort of school to learn the creative part of writing, or do they go to learn the technical aspects? I never thought a person could be taught creativity. A screenplay writing course can teach you spacing, formatting and things of that nature, but it can't do anything for your creativity.
I had an art teacher tell me a long time ago, that you learn how to draw by following and understanding a certain set of rules but that you actually become an artist by breaking those same rules. (Does that make sense to anybody?)
Anyway, in my opinion, I believed that the self taught route was the best. Not that it was a conscious decision or anything, that's just the way it turned out.
As a young comic book fan, I absolutely loved the far out stories and concepts that was presented to me on those color splashed pages. I was so inspired that I began drawing my own damn books. This mostly took place in school when I was supposed to be learning things. Drawing paper was never an issue, no, damn that, I had notebook paper!! Every test paper, every note given to us by the school to take home, every single solitary paper surface where a little Puerto Rican kid could draw balloon people wearing masks, was quickly taken over and scrawled on. (For some reason I was somehow civilized enough not to draw all over the text books we were given..still can't figure that one out)
Anyway, that's pretty much the way it went. From elementary school all the way through High School, I drew all over every damn thing. A typical comic book for me was to grab eight to ten pages of loose leaf notebook paper, fold it in half, and there was my book. I drew a cover, interior pages and even did little ads on the inside front and back covers.
By high school of course, the writing was starting to mature, the artwork however was not catching up. So by the time I was in my 20s, I concentrated soley on the written word. But I was still sticking to my primitive guns; I was not using word processors, typewriters or even computers.
My tools were quite simple; I had sprial notebooks and pens. Although I am quite computer savvy now, I just cannot create using a damn computer!! That huge white screen, staring at me, waiting for me to begin something of importance, scowling at me, as if though I were wasting its time...
A Distant Battlefield took about four spiral notebooks to write. I had no problem with that at all. I am comfortable there. I can do a chapter, or a half chapter, lose interest or doodle on an upper corner of a page. It's strictly a comfort level thing and there is of course the obvious connection to my youth.
Any visitor to my apt in Brooklyn would easily testify to the closet in the spare bedroom which is jam packed with notebooks, notepads, finished scripts, story ideas and tons of character sketches; an entire universe in pulp form waiting for me to unleash it on the world.
From there, once I have gone through several drafts and rewrites, I can then take the sprial notebooks to the laptop for the final iteration. Then and only then do I sit in front of the computer and put some work in.
It's probabaly not unusual. I doubt I'm the only writer who feels this way, and I look forward to meeting some of them one day. We will compare notes, swap stories, talk about technique and creativity and other sorts of stuff.
I'll bring my spiral notebooks and my balloon people.
I had an art teacher tell me a long time ago, that you learn how to draw by following and understanding a certain set of rules but that you actually become an artist by breaking those same rules. (Does that make sense to anybody?)
Anyway, in my opinion, I believed that the self taught route was the best. Not that it was a conscious decision or anything, that's just the way it turned out.
As a young comic book fan, I absolutely loved the far out stories and concepts that was presented to me on those color splashed pages. I was so inspired that I began drawing my own damn books. This mostly took place in school when I was supposed to be learning things. Drawing paper was never an issue, no, damn that, I had notebook paper!! Every test paper, every note given to us by the school to take home, every single solitary paper surface where a little Puerto Rican kid could draw balloon people wearing masks, was quickly taken over and scrawled on. (For some reason I was somehow civilized enough not to draw all over the text books we were given..still can't figure that one out)
Anyway, that's pretty much the way it went. From elementary school all the way through High School, I drew all over every damn thing. A typical comic book for me was to grab eight to ten pages of loose leaf notebook paper, fold it in half, and there was my book. I drew a cover, interior pages and even did little ads on the inside front and back covers.
By high school of course, the writing was starting to mature, the artwork however was not catching up. So by the time I was in my 20s, I concentrated soley on the written word. But I was still sticking to my primitive guns; I was not using word processors, typewriters or even computers.
My tools were quite simple; I had sprial notebooks and pens. Although I am quite computer savvy now, I just cannot create using a damn computer!! That huge white screen, staring at me, waiting for me to begin something of importance, scowling at me, as if though I were wasting its time...
A Distant Battlefield took about four spiral notebooks to write. I had no problem with that at all. I am comfortable there. I can do a chapter, or a half chapter, lose interest or doodle on an upper corner of a page. It's strictly a comfort level thing and there is of course the obvious connection to my youth.
Any visitor to my apt in Brooklyn would easily testify to the closet in the spare bedroom which is jam packed with notebooks, notepads, finished scripts, story ideas and tons of character sketches; an entire universe in pulp form waiting for me to unleash it on the world.
From there, once I have gone through several drafts and rewrites, I can then take the sprial notebooks to the laptop for the final iteration. Then and only then do I sit in front of the computer and put some work in.
It's probabaly not unusual. I doubt I'm the only writer who feels this way, and I look forward to meeting some of them one day. We will compare notes, swap stories, talk about technique and creativity and other sorts of stuff.
I'll bring my spiral notebooks and my balloon people.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Influences and External contributions (AKA look it up yourself)
I never met my father. I know of him. I was told he was a minister who drank and yelled and was an absolute brute of a man. He took off after the birth of my youngest sister. (apparently he thought creating a family was like a drawing on a piece of paper. If you didn't like what you drew, you could just discard it and start over.)
And so he did. He left me and my two sisters and my mom and took off for parts I'm not concerned about. I have no memories of him nor do I have any concerns or passions.
My earliest memories are of my step father. They involve the five of us living in a terrible two bedroom apartment in a rat infested tenement in East New York Brooklyn.
My stepfather was not much of a prize himself. He fixed air conditioners and refrigerators, He smoked weed, drank beer, but he shaped me. Indirectly, mind you, but he shaped me.
He took us to the movies alot in the 1970s, and saw some of the most iconic films of the decade not on TV, but in a large theater. Shaft, Superfly, Jaws, Earthquake, Towering Inferno, The Exorcist, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, King Kong (1976) Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind..(should i continue?)
He also indirectly contributed to my imaginary universe by starting me off with comic books. He was so sick and tired of me finding his stash that he just gave up and got me my own.
They were all Marvel books, Micronauts, Spider-Man, Shogun Warriors, Captain America, it was a small stash, but it grew. I tried to show my appreciation for what he did by trying to strike up comic book conversations with him. But he was an adult, and i was just his step son, and I was more of an annoyance to him than anything else.
The idiot.
I would always begin the conversation the same way; I would approach with a copy of the Fantastic Four, its group's leader Reed Richards had just used some complicated word that I had no hope of understand on my own, and I would innocently go up to the man and ask what the word meant, and the answer was always the same..Look it up yourself!!
and i did, figuring that I was doing what he wanted like a faithful little step son, and not seeing it as the brush off that it was...As time passed and i grew into a teenager, (my stepfather was kicked out of our house and our lives in 1981) I realized what it was he did to me....
and appreciated it.
It's a self reliance thing, you see. But there was more to it than that. It wasn't that he had indirectly taught me a lesson, it was that he indirectly shaped me in a way. The thinking went like this...Comic Books with complicated words forced me to go to a dictionary, and improved my English. Comic books with scientific concepts compelled me to learn about science, and history, and philosophy and all those other wonderful things.
My comic book collection kept me off the streets, away from drugs and gangs. I learned respect and appreciation for my mom and for the strength and resolve she showed in raising 3 kids successfully in 1980s Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, all the influences of crack and crime and bullshit, and this tiny, frail woman managed to keep us away from all of it..It wasn't easy, (then again, I don't think any life trial or tribulation is supposed to be) But it got done. She steered us clear, kept us safe, and showed more heart than any fictional character i had ever read about.
And so all of those things, My father, step father, comic books, films, crime and drugs, my mom, all of them someway in some aspect contributed to who I eventually became..and i have placed all of those aspects onto my pages.
As a writer, I am a chef. My kitchen is anywhere with a surface for writing or typing. My ingredients are my imagination, and a good pen, and a spiral notebook and a good laptop. And i stir, and I craft, and I bake and broil and I add a little sci-fi, and some fantasy, and some urban flavor and some politics and a host of other things, and eventually what comes out is....
Well, we'll all see together very soon.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few words to look up.
And so he did. He left me and my two sisters and my mom and took off for parts I'm not concerned about. I have no memories of him nor do I have any concerns or passions.
My earliest memories are of my step father. They involve the five of us living in a terrible two bedroom apartment in a rat infested tenement in East New York Brooklyn.
My stepfather was not much of a prize himself. He fixed air conditioners and refrigerators, He smoked weed, drank beer, but he shaped me. Indirectly, mind you, but he shaped me.
He took us to the movies alot in the 1970s, and saw some of the most iconic films of the decade not on TV, but in a large theater. Shaft, Superfly, Jaws, Earthquake, Towering Inferno, The Exorcist, Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, King Kong (1976) Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind..(should i continue?)
He also indirectly contributed to my imaginary universe by starting me off with comic books. He was so sick and tired of me finding his stash that he just gave up and got me my own.
They were all Marvel books, Micronauts, Spider-Man, Shogun Warriors, Captain America, it was a small stash, but it grew. I tried to show my appreciation for what he did by trying to strike up comic book conversations with him. But he was an adult, and i was just his step son, and I was more of an annoyance to him than anything else.
The idiot.
I would always begin the conversation the same way; I would approach with a copy of the Fantastic Four, its group's leader Reed Richards had just used some complicated word that I had no hope of understand on my own, and I would innocently go up to the man and ask what the word meant, and the answer was always the same..Look it up yourself!!
and i did, figuring that I was doing what he wanted like a faithful little step son, and not seeing it as the brush off that it was...As time passed and i grew into a teenager, (my stepfather was kicked out of our house and our lives in 1981) I realized what it was he did to me....
and appreciated it.
It's a self reliance thing, you see. But there was more to it than that. It wasn't that he had indirectly taught me a lesson, it was that he indirectly shaped me in a way. The thinking went like this...Comic Books with complicated words forced me to go to a dictionary, and improved my English. Comic books with scientific concepts compelled me to learn about science, and history, and philosophy and all those other wonderful things.
My comic book collection kept me off the streets, away from drugs and gangs. I learned respect and appreciation for my mom and for the strength and resolve she showed in raising 3 kids successfully in 1980s Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, all the influences of crack and crime and bullshit, and this tiny, frail woman managed to keep us away from all of it..It wasn't easy, (then again, I don't think any life trial or tribulation is supposed to be) But it got done. She steered us clear, kept us safe, and showed more heart than any fictional character i had ever read about.
And so all of those things, My father, step father, comic books, films, crime and drugs, my mom, all of them someway in some aspect contributed to who I eventually became..and i have placed all of those aspects onto my pages.
As a writer, I am a chef. My kitchen is anywhere with a surface for writing or typing. My ingredients are my imagination, and a good pen, and a spiral notebook and a good laptop. And i stir, and I craft, and I bake and broil and I add a little sci-fi, and some fantasy, and some urban flavor and some politics and a host of other things, and eventually what comes out is....
Well, we'll all see together very soon.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a few words to look up.
Monday, June 7, 2010
Keeping busy, being patient.
I hate being patient. I hate being told to be patient. I hate having somebody tell me that good things come to those who wait. I want to kick those people in the groin. (Actually, I would like to spend an entire day just wandering the streets of New York City, walking up to absolutely random strangers and kicking them really hard in the groin.)
There might be some sort of law somewhere which prohibits me from doing that, so I guess I wont.
I've been writing for about a decade and change now, actually even further back than that. Anybody who knew me in Bushwick High School, any of my family members and closest friends, anyone of them could tell you that I always enjoyed writing and drawing. (I wasnt all that good at the drawing, but I did get better with the writing)
I think the first story I ever wrote was on one of my older sister's spiral notebooks. (that full story will come later) I used my notebook stories to practice my craft and eventually began to learn all i could about screenplay writing.
I learned the format real easy. I all ready had the creativity so i figured it would just be a matter of time before that first screenplay sale.
It never happened.
I learned how to write laters to agents, and i sent them respectfully with the self addressed stamped envelope so their lazy asses didnt have to spend money on a stamp when they passed on my screenplays and wished me good luck in my future endeavors..
In the meantime you practice your craft and you the people and go to the places and you're encouraged to just stick with it and....show patience..(sigh)
Show patience/just wait/ it will eventually happen/blah blah blah..
but they're right. Every family member, friend, enemy and associate who said those words to me were correct. I sort of figured it out now.
Even as you pursue what you want to be in life and even as you practice your craft, you will realize that there is always something more you can learn. One little trick, one additonal method...and as you develop patience and skill in your chosen field you also gain wisdom and the ability to honestly look at what you have done, are doing and what you hope to accomplish.
I have always believed in the story that I wish to tell with A Distant Battlefield. I know what I wish to say, I know how I wish to say it, and I know where I wish to take my audience. It is not just another Sci-fi movie with big explosions and bugs and lizards and robots..All those things are present, but I also wanted to say something about us as well.
I think I have the formula figured out. I think you will be pleased and interested, and entertained with what I will present you.
I have written and re-written the story on a number of occassions until I got the blend just right. I shopped it around and I got my share of praise and rejections and now Wheatmark Publishing has agreed to help me bring it to the public. As they go through the process of getting the book ready for the public, they have told me to relax, and..just show some patience.
I say the same to you as well. (sigh)
I just wanna kick someone in the groin right now..
There might be some sort of law somewhere which prohibits me from doing that, so I guess I wont.
I've been writing for about a decade and change now, actually even further back than that. Anybody who knew me in Bushwick High School, any of my family members and closest friends, anyone of them could tell you that I always enjoyed writing and drawing. (I wasnt all that good at the drawing, but I did get better with the writing)
I think the first story I ever wrote was on one of my older sister's spiral notebooks. (that full story will come later) I used my notebook stories to practice my craft and eventually began to learn all i could about screenplay writing.
I learned the format real easy. I all ready had the creativity so i figured it would just be a matter of time before that first screenplay sale.
It never happened.
I learned how to write laters to agents, and i sent them respectfully with the self addressed stamped envelope so their lazy asses didnt have to spend money on a stamp when they passed on my screenplays and wished me good luck in my future endeavors..
In the meantime you practice your craft and you the people and go to the places and you're encouraged to just stick with it and....show patience..(sigh)
Show patience/just wait/ it will eventually happen/blah blah blah..
but they're right. Every family member, friend, enemy and associate who said those words to me were correct. I sort of figured it out now.
Even as you pursue what you want to be in life and even as you practice your craft, you will realize that there is always something more you can learn. One little trick, one additonal method...and as you develop patience and skill in your chosen field you also gain wisdom and the ability to honestly look at what you have done, are doing and what you hope to accomplish.
I have always believed in the story that I wish to tell with A Distant Battlefield. I know what I wish to say, I know how I wish to say it, and I know where I wish to take my audience. It is not just another Sci-fi movie with big explosions and bugs and lizards and robots..All those things are present, but I also wanted to say something about us as well.
I think I have the formula figured out. I think you will be pleased and interested, and entertained with what I will present you.
I have written and re-written the story on a number of occassions until I got the blend just right. I shopped it around and I got my share of praise and rejections and now Wheatmark Publishing has agreed to help me bring it to the public. As they go through the process of getting the book ready for the public, they have told me to relax, and..just show some patience.
I say the same to you as well. (sigh)
I just wanna kick someone in the groin right now..
Thursday, June 3, 2010
So What's it about???
A Distant Battlefield is a sci-fi/action novel which initially centers around a coup attempt on the planet Garian. A renegade officer by the name of Jerrah has amassed a fleet of warships and hundreds of thousands of loyal officers in an attempt to oust the government of Garian which is the seat of the United Planetary Alliance; a body of planets dedicated toward peace, commerce and understanding.
At the defense of the planet Garian, is a fleet of star cruisers led by the veteran Admiral Levin and thousands of loyal followers. Their fleet is stationed just above Garian's orbit and are prepared to defend the planet from the usurper.
What they are not aware of is that Admiral Jerrah has a unique weapon at his disposal; a Time Displacement Cannon, which is capable of beaming its chosen target anywhere through time or space. Expecting a quick victory, Jerrah activates the weapon on Levin's fleet of ships.
The cannon malfunctions and its time-rending energies burst outward in all directions, engulfing Levin's entire fleet, but also exposing Jerrah and his warships to the blast. A monstrous worm hole is created, and both fleets of craft are drawn into its swirling mass.
They are tossed trillions of miles across the length of the galaxy and abruptly appear in the skies over present day Midtown Manhattan.
It is a warm, sunny October morning as the citizens of New York prepare for their usual day..which never gets started. A terrific thunderclap of light and sound explodes in the skies above the Eastern Seaboard. A whirling mass of thick black clouds suddenly spring up out of nowhere, and as terrified millions of people look on, the cloud mass suddenly parts, revealing a clear sky full of bizarre skycraft.
Without any warning or ceremony, the massive ships begin firing on each other. Simultaniously, dozens of fighter ships stream outward to swoop and dive and do battle with each other over the heads of terrified running citizens.....
and so it begins.
This novel is one part Science fantasy, and one part social experiment. I introduce a number of survivors from various walks of life, A Wall Street type, a Lawyer, two paramedics, four inner city vigilantes, as well as a Middle Eastern cab driver and a Jewish Diamond Dealer and throw them all into a situation together. Can these diverse personalities put aside their differences, suspicions and perceptions in order to achieve the common goal of survival?
We shall soon find out.
At the defense of the planet Garian, is a fleet of star cruisers led by the veteran Admiral Levin and thousands of loyal followers. Their fleet is stationed just above Garian's orbit and are prepared to defend the planet from the usurper.
What they are not aware of is that Admiral Jerrah has a unique weapon at his disposal; a Time Displacement Cannon, which is capable of beaming its chosen target anywhere through time or space. Expecting a quick victory, Jerrah activates the weapon on Levin's fleet of ships.
The cannon malfunctions and its time-rending energies burst outward in all directions, engulfing Levin's entire fleet, but also exposing Jerrah and his warships to the blast. A monstrous worm hole is created, and both fleets of craft are drawn into its swirling mass.
They are tossed trillions of miles across the length of the galaxy and abruptly appear in the skies over present day Midtown Manhattan.
It is a warm, sunny October morning as the citizens of New York prepare for their usual day..which never gets started. A terrific thunderclap of light and sound explodes in the skies above the Eastern Seaboard. A whirling mass of thick black clouds suddenly spring up out of nowhere, and as terrified millions of people look on, the cloud mass suddenly parts, revealing a clear sky full of bizarre skycraft.
Without any warning or ceremony, the massive ships begin firing on each other. Simultaniously, dozens of fighter ships stream outward to swoop and dive and do battle with each other over the heads of terrified running citizens.....
and so it begins.
This novel is one part Science fantasy, and one part social experiment. I introduce a number of survivors from various walks of life, A Wall Street type, a Lawyer, two paramedics, four inner city vigilantes, as well as a Middle Eastern cab driver and a Jewish Diamond Dealer and throw them all into a situation together. Can these diverse personalities put aside their differences, suspicions and perceptions in order to achieve the common goal of survival?
We shall soon find out.
Tuesday, June 1, 2010
My first blog!!
Ok, so, I have a blog. Have no idea what to do with it, but I'm a creative sort so I'll think of something. What should I do..uh (aha!!) I shall introduce myself.
My name is George L. Lopez. I am the creator and writer of A Distant Battlefield, the new sci-fi series of novels and franchise which will soon be in your bookstore soon. I am a Puerto Rican male born and bred in Brooklyn, NY and have been fortunate enough to have had many amazing experiences as well as having met a number of ethincally diverse and interesting people.
I am a single male living in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, have no kids of my own, but i do have three neices and a nephew which i look upon as if though they were mine. Have two wonderful sisters, and a crazy wonderful and loving mom.
I am an avid Sci-fi fan and writer, a student of history, world politics, science and just about everything else within the human endeavor.
Within this space I shall of course tell you all about my novel which the good folks at Wheatmark Publishing are going to help me bring to the public. The story that I plan on telling you will encompass a number of social issues while at the same time introduce you to far off worlds and bizarre characters, while also introducing characters that will all at once feel quite familiar.
This is my foray into the genre that I have always loved and respected, and I truly hope you all will go on this journey with me.
Please make yourselves comfortable by the campfire I have started. Sit and relax. Gather round closely. I have a story to tell.
My name is George L. Lopez. I am the creator and writer of A Distant Battlefield, the new sci-fi series of novels and franchise which will soon be in your bookstore soon. I am a Puerto Rican male born and bred in Brooklyn, NY and have been fortunate enough to have had many amazing experiences as well as having met a number of ethincally diverse and interesting people.
I am a single male living in Bed-Stuy Brooklyn, have no kids of my own, but i do have three neices and a nephew which i look upon as if though they were mine. Have two wonderful sisters, and a crazy wonderful and loving mom.
I am an avid Sci-fi fan and writer, a student of history, world politics, science and just about everything else within the human endeavor.
Within this space I shall of course tell you all about my novel which the good folks at Wheatmark Publishing are going to help me bring to the public. The story that I plan on telling you will encompass a number of social issues while at the same time introduce you to far off worlds and bizarre characters, while also introducing characters that will all at once feel quite familiar.
This is my foray into the genre that I have always loved and respected, and I truly hope you all will go on this journey with me.
Please make yourselves comfortable by the campfire I have started. Sit and relax. Gather round closely. I have a story to tell.
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