Death Revisited

I am paying a visit to my good old friend: Death.

Death to the Old
No, I'm not a near-suicidal artist or deep gothic writer, I'm talking about the character Death... warmed over. You see, I don't want to rehash the same old, same old with Ælemental. I want it to be fresh, innovative and exciting to a new generation. But I'm also tackling fairy tales. Yeah, you know, the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Andersen. And that's just in the first book. So you see my dilemma: how to dress up the old in a new coat.

The New Fairy Tales
By now you may have caught on to the Sisters Grimm series or one of the fairy tale TV shows (Grimm or Once Upon A Time). And yes, the shows are just as creative as their titles suggest. Kinda blah. The Sisters Grimm novels are actually quite entertaining, but are rather light in approach. I'm trying to rewrite fairy tales in the way Tolkien would have done: with grandeur and prolific gravitas. But I also want it to be weird. Alien weird. Guillermo del Toro or Clive Barker weird. I want the characters to have history, but also an otherworldly feel and strangeness to it, that is offsetting at first, but totally logical when you dig deeper.

Meet Death
Death really is just a minor character, but there are fairy tales that deal with the Grim Reaper in all of his glory. I wanted to incorporate a fair amount of real danger to Ælemental and have Simon, Sally, Alix, Karl and Maya truly deal with deadly threats - both real and fantastic. Gone is the robe and scythe, in with the black suit, fedora and morphing face. Add some SFX like screams erupting from the folds of his jacket and a permanent black fog upon which he glides and you're starting to get where I'm going.

The Practical Aspects
So I stopped redrafting Chapter 16 back in November 2011, leaving Simon, Alix and Sesame stranded inside Death's offices, while searching for the magical artifact that will give them bargaining leverage towards rescuing Sally from her kidnappers. But Death would not be useful if he didn't have a few trinkets I wanted to use. Like the glass of water in which his image reflects when you hold it above a dying person. But I cannot possibly let you on to what happens with that glass of water other than that I changed it into a glass key. The glass key is useful for foreshadowing upon who befalls some awful fate later in the book. Death himself turns out to be very interesting and not all is as it seems at first. Aw, read the book if you want to know how or what. :)

Back to writing...

Going Low Tech

Day 15 of the Writing Marathon
At the rate I'm going I'm doing a chapter a day (although that would mean I should be at chapter 15, not 13). Not necessarily bad, but still too slow for my taste. Oh well. The problem is that after initiating Simon into the world of Aelementals, I need to lay down some foundation, some ground rules, some knowledge. But it has to be logical, without plot holes and without seeming contrived. This takes a lot of time to rewrite, because I need to connect and smooth over a lot of unnatural 'info vomit' (where you just rattle off a lot of facts), while remaining true to the characters' (new) wants and motivations. So we start with...

Knowledge Chapters
I wrapped up Chapter 12: The Library and the Beggar, in which Karl is making trips to the Great Library to find out more about the Three Trials Simon , Alix and Maya will have to face in order to secure their freedom from the Council of Aelders in FabelInsel. I know, there are a lot of titles in that sentence. Simon is confused by a lot of the terminology used in Aelemental, so I needed a few chapters to clear things up. These are those chapters. After having spent the previous two chapters with his mentor, Simon is now moving on from shock and confusion to understanding and action. Still, if only he could free himself of his house arrest. For that I need...

Snow White's magic mirror
(of communication)

Using Items of Freedom
I may have painted myself into a corner with this one. Being under house arrest means I need to find new ways of bringing information to Simon (and the reader). I can't just have Alix and Maya sit around explaining everything. Not, if I want to keep them at the same knowledge level as Simon. Also not if I want to escape the 'bullet list syndrome'. Because I'm in the fairy tale realm of my Aelemental mythology, I get to use all the cliche's of fairy tales. Sleeping potions are big in fairy tales. Give them to the heroes' jailers and voila! Instant freedom. But I also use new inventive methods, like giant photosynthetic leaves that project images, not unlike Times Square. Simon can view these by looking out of the window of the inn. Call it the eco-friendly version of Harry Potter's moving newspapers. I have to use this mechanism, because otherwise my characters are playing out their little drama in the confines of the inn only.

Getting Rid of Items of Freedom
This morning our apartment was also without electricity. The whole complex was. This was not unexpected, as it was announced in the elevators for a few days now. Still, I had to pack up my work, stick it on a flash drive and head out with my little notebook to the nearest coffee shop. Interestingly enough, finding creative solutions is also what Simon must do to stay in contact with his mentor. Everyone has mobile phones nowadays. Even fourteen year olds. So, the first thing I had to get rid of was Simon's phone. First I had it taken away when he was placed under house arrest and now I'm using it as a bargaining item to regain his freedom. Now he uses Snow White's magic mirror, which is more controlled (he can't just call the police or use Internet) and fits more within the fantasy setting.

How will any of this pans out? You'll have to read it, but rest assured, it was fun finding not only original and creative ways to rid Simon of pesky technology and equipping him with low tech fantasy gadgets. It takes a little planning, work and smooth assembly, but hopefully we'll have a more natural process of getting from A to B.

FabelInsel with the movements in and around the city
to indicate the paths Simon and characters move.

Cheesecake Fiction

Day 8 of the Writing Marathon.

Have you ever been to the Cheesecake Factory in Chicago? Well I have and it's crazy. Big-butt (as in: that's what'll end up having) slices, massive amounts of other food, all for equally massive prices. If you love to eat, that would be your place. I'm not sure it if the decor is the same in every Cheesecake Factory, but I found at least the atmosphere to be inspirational. Pictures speak more than words so let me show you what I mean:

Inspiration

Pretty organic feel to it, no? That was kind of where I was going for with the tree-houses inside my fairy tale city FabelInsel. Simon, Maya, Alix, Karl and Sesame (the monkey) are now inside the city and staying at the Sleeping Beauty Inn, where they are staying, while the jury is still out with a verdict what to do with them.  They're going to spend some time (of the book) in this city so I needed a lot of reference materials to properly describe a magical  forest dwelling. 

I got my inspiration from other places too. The Maldives resort Nancy, Alex and I stayed at in the end of 2007 gave me the idea for the lighting of the city as well as the Great Library (which I might have to axe for Book 1, seeing that it's getting to big).

Firefly Lights

Glow Worm Lights

The Great Library

Security Globes at the Gate

Chapter 9: Emotional Resolution

Inspiration is all around us and it's up to us to use it and reuse it and... you get the picture. Today I finished Chapter 9: Sleeping Anger; a riff on Sleeping Beauty. It was a tough long chapter to write, because it was all new and gathered a bunch of emotional moments together in a more concentrated burst of character conflict. This sets the tone for the next few chapters when something similar occurs. For now, Simon is no longer shell-shocked by the Aelemental world around him, but actively bonding with Alix, while Maya watches all of this from the shadows. Karl happily and clumsily adds comic relief to the foursome.

I'll be back tomorrow. Zwaai-zwaai!

Bullet Exits Brain Leaving Big Hole.

Wednesday 9th November
Okay, so maybe I overdid it. My tools have maxed out on the amount of creativity I tried to channel through them. Check this wonky schedule out:

• 6:00 Got up and prepped Alex for 1st school day in almost 3 weeks.
• 6:45 Start up desktop...
• 6:46 Try again
• 6:47 :(
• 6:55 Okay, the computer is really dead. The lights are on, but no one is home. Ships.
• 7:00 Start diagnosing my computer myself - I am an IT guy first after all and an artist second, or so my diploma says. At this point of time, I won't argue with a piece of treeware, lest that also leaves me hanging.
• 7:30 I give up. It's definitely a hardware problem as I've run diagnostics and massaged every card, chip and cord in the casing. Time to bring it to the computer repair shop. But because that won't open until 10:30 I fetch water instead - our bottles are empty and our water company has stopped delivering 2 weeks ago due to the flooding.
• 8:10 I decide to get groceries as well. Hop on bike and go to expat supermarket, cuz quite frankly the local markets and smaller supermarkets have not been stocking up lately and at least this way I can get some decent yogurt, bread and canned goods.
• 9:15 Return sweaty. Decide to meditate and do some yoga. Meditate was crap (couldn't concentrate), Yoga was rushed. What the heck am I rushing for? Oh right, I really really want to get to writing, but I have to wait for the repair shop to open.
• 10:30 Ships. Ships. Ships. I totally forgot my coffee visit with my friend JD. This is what you get when you meditate like an ADHD patient on caffeine.
• 10:45 Coffee visit with JD. We share miseries and cures. Always good talks with JD.
• 12:00 Cycle to Fortune City, the local IT mall where I have my desktop checked. It's the graphics card that burnt out as well as the memory that was hickupping. That's what you get when you're such a visually oriented artist like myself. ^_^ Anyway, 30 min. of repairs later and 200 Baht poorer I cycle back home.
• 1:00 Eat lunch (egg/ham/tomato sandwich & green tea/lemonade), shower (aaaah) and hook up my ole computer.
• 2:00 Write 1/2 half of this blog.
• 2:20 GET TO WORK ALREADY!!!
• 6:00 Need to stop. Still in infernal chapter 6. I realize it's because this is also the chapter I left off polishing the text during draft 2 in order to dramatically start cutting in draft 3. I made that bold decision, because I was fed up tinkering details, while so much of the book needed to be axed. Now I'm paying the price.
• 7:45 I'm back.
• 9:15 Ended Chapter 6: The Yellow Dirt Road to the bombastic final two tracks of X-Men First Class. Man, those tunes kick some seriously dramatic @$$!

Good. So this wraps up the first part of Simon's journey in Book 1. He has followed the trail of his kidnapped sister and is about to enter the mythological city of FabelInsel. I'm glad I was able to compress and shorten this trek, if only because it serves no other purpose than to introduce the reader - through Simon's eyes - to the fantastical world of Aelemental. The real meat of the story begins now...


Aaaaand more art:

More Stan Sakai turned Aelemental.

CU latah, alligatah.

Hacking Through the Jungle

Hey There,

Jungle fever has taken over. Simon is now with the Marubo tribe in the Amazon, trying to figure a way to help them while staying on course trying to find the hidden fairy tale city. I am researching a lot on this particular tribe and the customs, dress, foods and daily routine of them, so I can accurately describe their lives into which Simon  and Maya are thrown. They have met up with Simon's monkey Sesame and friend Alix, so the group of heroes is back together, well, minus Karl and Sally that is. But the rescue is underway!

The jungle is also on my mind lately as I prepare not to enter the Amazonian jungle, but her Asian cousin down in Malaysia. In the second week of April I'll be heading down to Singapore and meet up with my friend AJ, and a third person and together we'll go hike in Earth's oldest tropical rain forest for 3 days. Of course I won't be able to write, but I'll leave some blog material behind that will auto-post itself, or ask fellow co-writer Nancy to fill in those days. She is very busy now with her work for the Red Cross, so I'll have to see if that will work or not. Eventually she'll have to go through my first draft anyway, so might as well get used to blogging.

Finally I'll send myself forward into the urban jungle of Bangkok today to get new boots for my trip and other equipment, as well as do the usual chores of grocery shopping, picking up Alex from school and paying the bills. I wrote 1900+ words yesterday in my Blitz writing session, but like I said, I have to research at the same time, so that slows the actual writing down. It's ok. After this things will get easier again once we enter the hidden city and get ready for the final confrontation to save Sally and Karl from the bad guy...who has a special secret of his own up his sleeve. Can you say: Jungle Boogey-man?

Friends, part 3: The Fictional Side

Hello friends of Simon,

One day I hope Simon and Sally will have a lot of friends. Readers of their story will hopefully feel as close to them as I do. Their story is maybe completely fictional, but I think without even trying to Simon is going to have a lot of me, growing up, in him. Simon is an artist, but an unrecognized one. He loves to doodle, mostly at school during class, because at home he is not encouraged in it. After Simon's mom passed away, Simon's dad changed. Instead of the nurturing and supportive parent he used to be, he turned serious and no-nonsense like. Because a great part of who Simon used to be was being creative, and this is no longer recognized, he struggles with who he is and where he fits in. As such Simon tries to belong at his school by wearing brand name clothing, sneakers and carrying a mobile phone. However, he is increasingly feeling out of touch.

Empowerment is a huge thing in young adult novels and is the linchpin on which normal everyday kids turn into something unique. There comes a point in every kids life where they stop just 'being a kid' and want to 'be themself', whatever that means. And what does it mean? This search for an identity, a unique 'me', someone who is seen by others as an individual? This existential question, whether solved or not, returns later in life as the mid-life crises many men go through. Are they their job? Their role as a husband or parent? Who are they, these 30-somethings. As mortality becomes more of an issue and parents pass away, and ones own body stops looking trim and fit people start wondering what their legacy will be, what they've added to humanity.

So, as such, the best 'coming of age' stories or 'hero's journey' novels are about self-realization through empowerment. Nancy and I are playing with the idea of each writing our own version of Simon and Sally's adventure, because it would allow us to write from our own personal background, using our own style. The world in which they adventure would remain the same, and the 5th book (which is all about Simon and Sally working together) would be a joint work, but the previous 4 books would be in fact 8 stories. Readers could then follow either Simon, or Sally, or both. I have already mapped out a set of personal problems that need to be resolved for both characters, a unique journey into where these kids start and how and with what realizations they develop into empowered unique people. They just happen to also be prophesied heroes.

From Simon's point of view, he will first lose his old friends and family (and indeed the very world he comes from), only to pass the magical portal into a new magical world, where new friends await, who will be better suited to assist him on his journey. Alix and Maya and Karl are these friends. He will also have a mentor (not unlike Gandalf, Dumbledore and Obi-Wan Kenobi) and a pet monkey who provide further help. Simon's new friends will each add to the mix of intelligence, comic-relief and emotional soundboard providing the 'Holy Trinity' of fiction. At the end of each book Simon (and hopefully Sally) will have progressed naturally along a predestined path of character development the likes of which have been unseen yet in young adult fiction.

And I will blog about it along the way. As I will of any new friends I might get in my personal life and with this blog. Stick with me. I'll take you places, my friends.