Blackjack Hero Journal #2

Bad week. Little sick, but no excuses. Added another twenty pages to the mix, good stuff. Reintroduced Powermaster (remember him?), but with a surprising new spin. Finally got around to writing the Midwest All-Stars, who are more fun to write than they should be. I had no idea what I was going to do with Red Quiver until I literally got to that page. Yes, the Midwest All-Stars have two archers (since Superdynamic made Blackjack pickup his bow again).

I had a contest over on Facebook to change the name of Despoil (which by the way, I HATE. Have I told you guys?), and the response was pretty awesome. I ended up falling in love with Lilith in part cause of Cheers/Kramer - LILITH! - but also because the way the character is coming about, she's not an established character with a full name yet, despite the fact that she's the first Class-X super since the Original Seven. Besides that one, I loved most of the other names you guys came up with, so I'm going to add them to my list. Look for most of them to make the book in one way or another. Some of them were pretty damned clever.

Another thing that made my output a little crummy this week is that I was beset with doubt. Not about Blackjack, but about some of the other projects I'd like to work on. It's a funny/strange thing to have too much to do, then you get all depressed and then you don't accomplish anything. Are those stage two and three of procrastination according to the DSM-IV? I'm suffering from "wanna-do-too-much-itis" and its killing my focus.

See, with the time I had after I was 'done' with Blackjack 2 and the time it took to get polished by my writing partner Josh, I started screwing around and wrote a few things. One was Heart of the Jungle, an adventure fantasy inspired by the Indiana Jones movies, and the Tomb Raider and Uncharted games. I wrote about 100 pages of it, before time ran out and I had to turn my attention back to Blackjack, but as I was finishing that first act, I came to an epiphany on the whole idea, discovering an ancient Inca "code" that would serve my story. I'm dying to return to that book. I love writing Tommy Walker. The guy just speaks to me and tells me what to put down on the page. And Alicia? It shouldn't be so natural for me to write a uber-rich, cover-girl debutante trying to renew herself after a decade of drug abuse and sexual excess. I know how to channel my inner Paris...

Then, I had another pause while my editor finished the book and came up with another idea, something shorter and serialized, something futuristic, but trying to show the dark veneer beneath the utopian bullcrap. It's based on a story I wrote ages ago, but more defined, and as I started to put together the first episode, much darker than anything I have ever written before. It's called Interstellar Overdrive and the idea is to do it quarterly, as long as it doesn't interfere with the other works. It should be a shorter work, maybe 80-120 pages per episode, in an ongoing story that we're looking to wrap up in a dozen or so episodes. When done, we intend to put together a show bible and pitch it to the TV networks.

IO is as close to a buddy cop movie as I'll ever do, uniting two friends who are veterans of a recent intergalactic conflict, who have no one else to count on but themselves as the past comes calling with a vengeance. We have episode one almost done (it's out of my hands except for tinkering), and I finished the final touches of episode two Friday night.

The fear is straying to far from Blackjack. I owe you guys and I'm not going to leave you hanging. Blackjack is my number one priority and will continue to be, while at the same time pulling away from it for little bits when I need a change of pace. Episode one of IO took me awhile, but Episode two came together in a couple of weeks, working on the side, so I think I can do both for now.

Blackjack 3's outline is kind of in the air at the moment. I have a strong acts one and two, but my five act structure might not endure. In part, it's because of some of the awesome comments and suggestions you guys have been throwing my way. It's impossible to get such good ideas and discard them outright. This week, I plan on finishing act one of the third book, and try to finish the epilogue. When I have those two done, I'll get them online to you like I've done before. It's a hell of a nasty cliffhanger, if I can manage to get my ideas down on paper properly, and I know you'll like it.

As far as Dale himself, things are changing. As you saw above, or maybe you've read in a book 3 teaser I spread around a few months back, Superdynamic is kind of "in charge" of Blackjack, and in order for him to take the next step in the transition from villain to hero, is making him jump through some hoops. For his part, Dale will do whatever it takes, he's ecstatic about the possibility and for the first time, he's playing nice, being a good boy...but that never works for Dale, does it? His most positive kindness and good deed has a way of turning around and biting him in the arse.

The world might be willing to forgive our transgressions and trespasses if we show contrition, or go through the long process of redemption, but that is usually the exception to the rule. As we've seen many times with misdeeds of people like Charlie Sheen, Chris Brown, Michael Richards, Lindsey Lohan and now Paula Dean, beware when you anger the populace.

Okay, enough pontificating. Next week, Sunday, act one of Blackjack 3...now to think of excuses for my impending failure!

Blackjack Hero Journal #1

So I've got 45 pages of Book 3 so far and I'm just getting started. The plan is to break it up into five acts with a short prelude. I don't want to do what most stories do, to skip the uncomfortable, difficult recoveries.

Blackjack had a hard time in Book 2, not the least of which was getting a majority of his bone structure pulverized by the man-god Lord Mighty. In most stories, we'd get a shot of him in the hospital, as we had at the end of Book 2, then the next time we see him, he's got a band aid on his cheek, and one hand on a sling as he bitterly says goodbye to his dead mom/dad/girlfriend/wife at the cemetery (in heavy rain).

Part of what I want to do is show the growth of this poor guy, and I think we learn a lot about ourselves when we're laid up and have to recover. Especially after the experiences of Book 2.

The other thing I don't want to do is to skip the relationship between him and Apogee. Most books have the almost-die-kiss-I-love-you stuff, then the next episode/movie/book they're already living together, fighting...that's kind of a cop out. The hardest part of a relationship, to my experience, is starting one, then keeping one. I look forward to the challenge of writing Apogee and Blackjack's growing relationship without skirting a single difficult moment. The interesting part is to write it, while not making it too long or boring.

Also, how well do they know each other? They've shared some interesting experiences, and maybe there's the gist something, but there's a lot of stuff to work through. Fortunately, I've set things up so we can show them getting to know each other, and have some good action in the meantime.

Blackjack's coming back from injuries that would have killed anyone else, unwelcome to the roster of remaining heroes, and facing a new threat that makes his fights with Epic and Lord Mighty look pale in comparison. And remember, Zundergrub opened up the gates to Utopia (copycatting bastard David Goyer!), ruining the tenuous balance between good and evil. Things are getting worse with all those villains running around. Heroes are hanging up their capes, taking long vacations, anything to avoid facing uneven numbers.

Blackjack needs to get good in mind and body. It's time to man up.

Damn, I'm looking forward to writing this book!