Craig Schaefer's Blog, page 22

Introducing: Harmony Black

So, remember that top-secret project I've been hinting about off and on? Now that we're safely past April Fool's Day, the truth can be told. I'm pleased to announce that this winter, courtesy of the awesome  folks at 47North Publishing, I'll be bringing you Harmony Black: the Series. That's right, the Daniel Faust series is getting an official spin-off. Here's the pitch:

VIGILANT LOCK is an illegal covert operation concealed within the United States government. In a world where criminal syndicates shield their operations under the cloak of black magic, corporate oligarchs rise to power with blood sacrifices and demonic patronage, and terrorist cells are upgrading from bombs to occult bioweapons, Vigilant's mandate is clear: investigate, exterminate, and keep the truth out of the headlines at all costs.

Harmony Black, FBI agent and Vigilant asset, has a new team and a new mission. Together they'll shine a light across the shadows of modern America, unraveling secret histories and unspeakable crimes. They aren't the only conspiracy in town, though, and the powers of hell may have already wormed their way into the marble halls of Washington D.C...

Nobody can be trusted. No place is safe. And your closest ally may have a bullet with your name on it. From Las Vegas to Miami Beach, from sultry Louisiana bayous to the frozen peaks of the Catskills, getting the job done means navigating a web of danger and deception. And Harmony and her team will get the job done. After all, they're the good guys.

You may have questions about all this. Here are some answers!

Q: So, is the Faust series ending?

No, absolutely not.  The Faust and Black books will not only alternate, but interweave. I've been given free reign by 47North to bring Faust characters and events into the Black line, and vice-versa. What we're doing here is pretty ambitious and, I think, super-exciting: opening up an entire supernatural world of which, so far, Daniel Faust has only explored one small corner.

The core difference is tone. While the Faust novels are crime stories, drawing inspiration from the greats like Elmore Leonard and Richard Stark/Donald E. Westlake, the Black series is taking on a more conspiracy/mystery/espionage angle.

Also, Daniel commits occult crimes, while Harmony solves them. Big difference there.

Q: Harmony Black? Really? Isn't she kind of, uh...uptight?

Bear in mind that you've only seen her through Daniel Faust's eyes -- and ever since they met, she's been making his life miserable. There's a lot more to Harmony than he realizes. Read the first book and I think you'll agree.

(And that's not even mentioning her supporting cast. If you dig Daniel's crew of rogues, just wait until you meet Harmony's new team...)

Q: What if I only read one series but not the other? Will I miss out on anything big?

I don't think so. I'm structuring the plotlines and crossovers so that they won't be jarring if you're only reading one -- but if you're reading both, they'll add insight and depth to the overall story.

For example, Dr. Khoury (from A Plain-Dealing Villain) has a small role in the first Harmony Black novel. If you've never read APDV, the scene stands completely on its own. If you have, there's a bit of eyebrow-raising dialogue that'll shed new perspective on Khoury's talk with Daniel at the Field Museum.

Rest assured that this won't be a situation where you're reading a great storyline across five issues of Batman, only to find out the whole thing got wrapped up in a side issue of Aquaman. And then you have to go to the store and ask for Aquaman and everybody laughs at you, and you've got like, one issue of Aquaman now and it's screwing up your whole filing system and now you hate comics forever. I wouldn't do that to you.

(In this analogy, to be clear, both Daniel and Harmony are Batman.)

Q: Will this series have vampires?

Vampires aren't real.

Q: Sexy vampires?

Get out.

Q: Is this just like the Dresden Files? Because I--

I WILL CUT YOU.

Q: Is this a kissing book?

It's more of a storming-the-castle book.

That's all I can tell you for now, but I'll keep you posted as we get closer to the big day. For now, I'd better get back to work.

Uwe Boll Presents: Daniel Faust

Fans of Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust series were elated by Wednesday's press release, revealing that the first book would be adapted for film by legendary director/producer Uwe Boll. While acknowledging that Hollywood adaptations often take unnecessary liberties with books, Boll wished to assure readers that "absolutely nothing -- beyond some very minor tweaks to make the series more palatable to a broader audience -- has been changed from the original story."

The film will follow the adventures of Daniel Faust, a vampire hunter working for the Vatican, and his girlfriend Caitlin -- an angel in disguise, sent by the heavenly powers to protect the innocent on Earth. Together, along with their wacky friends, they'll take a road trip across America ("at least the parts of America that look just like Eastern Europe," Boll added) in their quest for the mysterious Etruscan Box. A box, the legends say, filled with pirate gold.

Early production efforts were stalled by a lawsuit from the Syfy Network, alleging that they already owned the rights to the Daniel Faust character and, in fact, had aired a Faust TV series back in 2007. "Wait," a Syfy executive was overheard saying, "what do you mean, this isn't the Dresden Files?"

We can only hope that the Faust adaptation fares better than the ill-fated Revanche Cycle TV series, which was notably cancelled by Fox Television a record five minutes after the deal was signed. "You see," explained a Fox representative, "instead of canceling it after a single season -- preferably ending on an episode filled with cliffhangers that will never, ever be resolved -- we realized we could achieve maximum viewer irritation at minimal cost by canceling the show before shooting the pilot."

"But still," he added, "that pilot script? It was really good, I mean, you would have really loved that show. Which is why it had to die."

Writing Challenge Tuesday: Chekhov's Gun

My latest blog weeks have been scattered with memorials, and I’m really hoping I do not get any more of those to write. Being in the writing world, even so new to it as I am, makes me feel like I have heroes I value more than ever. I’d take it as a personal kindness if we could hold off on having the “death comes in threes” thing. And yes, I knocked on wood. And threw salt over my shoulder. And spun my cat around three times. He was on the back of my chair, and it’s really funny when he gets confused. Don’t worry. I did it slowly.

So for this week, I wanted to get back into standard writing challenges. This particular one has been both my cross to bear and also a beloved part of my writing. I try very hard to avoid throwaway excess. Narrative pieces which aren’t going to be used don’t really have a place. I avoid excessive detail because it’s not following through, and anything I do use is going to come up as important eventually. Even if it’s two books later. Or three. Or, as you'll see later this year, five books later. Uh, yeah. #sorrynotsorry.

That particular principle in writing is called Chekhov’s Gun, and it’s the theory/argument that if you have a gun in Act One of a play, it must be fired by Act Three. Now, while it’s bad to have a Chekov’s Gun just for the sake of it, they’re a very useful device.

Plenty of movies and TV shows overdo the idea. A shiny detail that sticks out so plainly that you can see it coming a mile away. Castle is particularly replete with these, but don’t get me wrong, I love Castle. It isn’t trying too hard to be smart. It isn’t trying to be Sherlock, or Person of Interest. It’s fun. They do stuff with the Chekov’s Gun principle almost all the time, and on the occasions that they don’t, they tend to have a one-off character who is too remarkable to be ignored, and therefore obviously the killer.

Funny story. I like to joke that every person has some useless super power. Mine is, I can see the future - but only in media. At one point, I was watching Castle with an ex, and I said, “Oh. That guy.” My ex said, “…how the hell could you know that?!” “The bow tie.” “The bow tie?!” “Yeah. They made him stick out with a weird trait so we’ll remember him later when he’s revealed.” Sure enough, it was so. Mind you, the joke there is that anyone can see those things. It’s just Chekov’s Gun in human form. 

So for this week’s writing challenge, imagine the gun in your story (or knife, or hacker’s code, or lock pick, or necklace, or whatever else you can think of.) How is it introduced? What role will it play? How will it come to be important to the story, and most vital, is it necessary to the story? Is it Chekov’s Gun, or is it extraneous detail?

See you all on Thursday for more Inspirations!

Inspirations: Terry Pratchett

It should be no surprise that, after Tuesday’s blog, I’m writing about Terry Pratchett again. He’s a huge name in the writing community, and even if words do survive us, it’s hard not to feel like we’ve all suffered a loss.

I feel for his family, his close friends. I’ll never know the pain they feel for losing him. What I do know is that I lost someone who was always innovative, smart, funny, quirky, curious, and adventurous in his writing. That’s hard to come by. I struggle with it myself. The commentary from Death on his feeds and the way in which his passing was handled was beautiful. I’m reminded, however, of another passage from The Hogfather.

“All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."

REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.

"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"

YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.

"So we can believe the big ones?"

YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.

"They're not the same at all!"

YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET— Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME... SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.

"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"

MY POINT EXACTLY.

Human beings need stories like the ones he told. We need them because they help us believe, and because they teach us. If fiction is a lie that teaches us something true, then I feel like I had a very good teacher in Terry Pratchett.

Sir, you’ll be missed.

Writing Challenge Tuesday: Carried on the Back of a Turtle

Twice in as many weeks, the geek world has been rocked by the loss of an icon. I admit, I wasn’t sure what to say about this last week. What author doesn’t look up to Terry Pratchett? Who didn’t curse and swear when the word of his illness was released?

One of the things I most loved about his work, and still do (because work outlives the man) was his penchant for reimagining. I remember very early on in life hearing the tale of The Little Match Girl. It was this “sweet” story by Hans Christian Anderson which people told around the holidays. And if you’ve ever lived in any sort of poverty situation, it’s not sweet at all. It’s like the demonic lovechild of Ayn Rand meets Fox News and tells bedtime stories.

The gist, for those not familiar, is this. A little girl who sells matches freezes to death on New Year’s Eve, because she can’t go home. You see, she’s afraid her father will beat her for not selling enough matches. She lights one, then another, then another, trying to keep warm. Then she dies and her dead grandmother goes with her to heaven. Now, to be fair, there is some “sweet” stuff in there about her grandmother being the only one who was ever good to her. But the end result of the story is “poverty stricken child dies of perfectly solvable problems and is now noble and heartfelt despite the fact that no one nearby her did a thing to help before she was dead.”

Mind you, I have a bit of a chip on my shoulder for that story because I’m not fond of the noble poor person trope. It’s something overused for the purpose of ignoring privilege, which irritates me. All the same, the story is appalling, and it’s one I dread every year around NYE as people dredge out “classics.”

Terry Pratchett took a run at this story once, and I loved what he had to say. I don’t know that I can ask anyone to try and write with his legacy looming, but here’s my thought: Reinvent a story that has an ending you hated.

New 8tracks Mix - Justine and Juliette

So, it’s time for another 8tracks.com listing. I threw around ideas on who to pick this time around. I almost veered into the Revanche world to pick someone (Felix practically screams for his own mix.) Then I found myself under a stairwell in a basement with two cambion threatening me unless I did one for them.

(Let me out now.)

Anyway, Justine and Juliette are archetypal, hilarious, and often deeply problematic for anyone nearby. I mean, anyone with a pulse. Or a self-preservation instinct. Or a face. All that said, they’re quite amusing, and I had to go rather far afield to get all the music for this list. I can honestly say I’d never considered listening to half of this until I realized how great it was for writing these maniacs.

Twisted Sisters - Justine and Juliette

Poison (Cover) - Groove Coverage

In for the Kill (Radio Edit) - LaRoux

To the Apocalypse in Daddy’s Sidecar - Abney Park

Dirty Paws - Of Monsters and Men

Crazy Bitch - Buck Cherry

Girls Chase Boys - Ingrid Michelson

Everybody Wants to Rule the World - Lorde

Die Young - Kei$ha

Christfuck - Wumpscut

They’re Coming to Take Me Away - Neuroticfish

We Are the Ones - Zombie Girl

Dear Prudence - Siouxsie and the Banshees

Legal Assassin - Repo! The Genetic Opera

I Am Human - van Canto

This Ain’t a Scene (It’s an Arms Race) - Panic! At the Disco

Paint it Black (Cover) - Vanessa Carlton

…and a bonus surprise track at the end.

Note about these mixes. I’ve had a few mentions of fans saying the mix is out of order. 8tracks, to keep you from being complacent or just because they’re mean, don’t play them in order each time. I suppose it’s so that you don’t exist purely on streaming mixes. Or to be contrary.

Anyway, see you all next week for more inspirations and a new writer challenge!

Writing Challenge Tuesday: The Road Not Taken

So, I’m a closet poetry nerd. Not a poet. You know those people who say science is awesome, and then they’re all, yeah, I know what Schrodinger’s Cat is! I’m like that, except with poetry. Mind you, I’m familiar with poetry. I’m just not personally skilled at it. It’s like being a fan of Morrison and admitting I never sing outside my car on long drives.

However, there are a few poets I’m familiar with, and love dearly. Robert Frost is one of those, because his poetry is very accessible to me. The subtle metaphors in every day themes are great. Apple Picking, Birches, all these things are very familiar to me because I live in a damn cold place, and I might not be from New England, but cold is cold.

In particular, I really love Stopping By Snowy Woods, but obviously (from the title) my favorite is The Road Not Taken. I contemplated not pasting it into the entry because it was hammered into my head by so many high school classes my brain thinks it’s default knowledge now. But it’s not, so here it goes:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

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Tomorrow is a huge day for me. I can’t say why yet, but it’s kind of a big deal with upcoming awesome news, and it got me to thinking. What would happen if I didn’t make the choices I made to get here? What if I hadn’t finished writing The Long Way Down? What if I hadn’t stuck with Daniel as a protagonist I wanted to write?

So my challenge for this week is this: Pick a decision that you made in your life. Then, write the opposite. Imagine that you didn’t meet that girl/guy, you didn’t take that job, your decided to stay in that city instead of move… And write that.

Big days coming. Time to pick my road.

New Audio Release: Redemption Song

Good morning, everybody! I'm pleased to announce that Redemption Song is now available as an audiobook. You can find it on audible.com for now, and it should pop up on Amazon and iTunes within the next couple of days.

Inspirations: Star Trek

In keeping with this week’s theme, I wanted to talk a little bit about Star Trek. Now, I know, that sounds a bit silly. I write a modern day urban fantasy with magic. There are very few ways I could be less like Star Trek, theme and genre wise. All that said, it is an inspiration. Not just for my writing, but for the kind of writer I want to be.

I think the thing I realized when I watched Star Trek, then TNG, then Deep Space Nine, and Voyager, and Enterprise, was that the story had to matter. This was a formative moment for me with my writing, as I began to see that I couldn’t just write something for the sake of checking off all the boxes. I couldn’t make everything I wrote about filling a reader’s interest and getting them to buy. My stories had to have a point, a soul, at least in my eyes. My demon characters and my antagonists, my drug dealers and unhealthy magicians all have one thing in common - they’re part of a larger lesson to me.

Mind you, this isn’t a lesson I’m trying to teach. Hell no. I’m nowhere near that wise. I think, in the end, I’m learning from the stories that I’m writing. About what the limits of reason are. About hope. About envy, and desire, and what it’s like to covet. I think that if I didn’t have these ideals in my stories, they wouldn’t mean anything to me, and this whole mess would become an exercise in futility.

So here’s to the lessons Star Trek taught us, about wonder, about discovery, about new horizons and never settling for what is “known.” I sure as Hell won’t forget.

Writing Challenge Tuesday: Live Long and Prosper

Greetings all! These last few weeks have been quite busy, and with quite a few ups and downs. I still have a looming Super Secret Awesome thing, which I can’t yet post about publicly (sorry, I’m a tease.) On the sad news front, Leonard Nimoy passed this week, and I think the whole geek community is in mourning.

Death brings out the best and the worst in people. Seeing Zachary Quinto’s goodbye to a mentor and friend, Nimoy’s final post, the reactions from Shatner and the cast… It’s all been a heartache to every geek I know. I thought about skipping the writing prompt this week, and just drinking a toast to the dearly departed Spock. I decided to go ahead with it anyway. Best to honor someone with action, I suppose, even a very small one.

For this week’s writing challenge, I want to talk about wonder. I remember being a kid and watching Star Trek. I remember one of the first episodes I ever saw terrifying me. It was something about an alien life form that looked like a fried egg and latched on to Spock’s face. Years later, Alien would gross me out and make me fascinated with a far more vivid yet similar process. I have no idea what that says about me.

The main thing I remember about Star Trek, however, is how progressive and amazing it was. I saw metaphors for social issues played out through the guise of alien societies. I saw issues of race, sexuality, religion, creed. Star Trek took a huge chance in the greater fights for equality. Leonard Nimoy was a big part of that. He spoke up for literacy programs, for racial equality (particularly in acting), for gay rights, and for women’s rights. He was a genuinely good person.

I’ve been struggling to figure out how best to turn this into a writing prompt. I think the easiest way would be: Say goodbye to a treasured hero. How would you do it? How would you memorialize someone who affected so many lives? How would you bring closure to their story, send your protagonist off in style, make sure that they had the ending they deserved? More importantly, how would the characters around them honor their contribution and values?

See you all on Thursday for an Inspirations post. ‘Till then, live long and prosper.