A JOURNEY TO DYSTOPIA

My latest novel, Under Wicked Sky, has just hit the market like a battering ram made from a cannibalized car door! 

It feels strange to call it my “latest”, though, given the long and excruciating process of conception to completion to release, and the many works I’ve written since.

It’s not unusual for a novel to take many forms and directions, en route to completion – much less release – but had I known Sky would endure these trails and trials… well, I would have written it anyway. Point is, creating is not always an A to B process. If you care for a peek inside the heartaches and headrushes of writing — stay with me. But I warn you, it is not always an inspiring story. 

Under Wicked Sky, like my debut novel Progeny, began its troubled existence as a screenplay.  In an effort to give myself an opening for my TRUE ambition, which was to become a film actor. 

From Bell Witch: The Movie

But that’s for later. 

Couched in my youthful ambition was a compulsion to send a message of some kind. With the controversy of global warming just beginning to rear its catastrophic head in earnest, it occurred to me that when this thing really gets going, it’s going to change everything. And not just a little. Folks get cranky when they’re hot. Murder rates rise. Police forces are stretched to their limits. People die just from the heat itself as well. Even if you don’t believe global warming is real, it’s not hard to imagine a debilitating heat like the kind depicted in Sky.

Not every graphic needs a caption, dammit.

The Carlisle Inn, Sky‘s main setting, is a well-appointed bed and breakfast with high tech air conditioning called Cold-Con, designed specifically to deal with the new crisis. Naturally, people are going to want access to this luxurious cool, and those who are inside are going to fight to protect their shelter. Supply lines cease to flow. Law breaks down. Civilization begins to crumble. Next thing you know — cannibals.

Similar peril would befall the tale itself in its damned and damnable voyage. I began submitting the script here and there, and immediately garnered some interest, though none of these early leads panned out. Then I was cast in an independent zombie film titled One Last Sunset, whose producer and director expressed interest in the script. He had a long way to go with his zombie feature and not a lot of money to work with, and I’m not a very patient guy. In time, no doubt, he would have gotten it done. However, I chose to continue submitting the script. 

With The Walking Dead’s Addy Miller, on the set of One Last Sunset.

Now, I had been through much of this with earlier screenplays, one of which was in play at the same time. I understood there is a good bit of uncertainty in the business. Dishonesty and deceitfulness too. Despite this caution and cynicism, I did not expect that literally every step of every single script deal would be fraught with some such chicanery.

I soon heard from a director/producer – let’s just call him Chappie – who was toiling in the reality TV industry — Bridezillas and such. That should have been warning enough, but I was anxious just to get something produced at that point. I signed an option (and received actual money!) then waited for notes. You see virtually every screenplay gets a re-write, with input from directors, producers, and in many cases, distantly – connected outliers who have no business calling creative shots on so much as a birthday card. Chappie and a handful of his chums all wanted creative input. A lot of it.

TV for people who hate TV — and want to continue doing so.

Chappie’s rationale for these changes was to make the story more mainstream — more action-oriented, less horror — and thus more attractive to the money people. C list names were bandied about (the mention of A list action star Jason Statham, interestingly, was met with derision) and the characters were to become not just more diversified (I had already made sure to create characters of various ethnicities and backgrounds) but of course — younger.

Guns were to be introduced. I had intentionally written the narrative to be gunless, not only for the sake of more intimate violence but also to separate it from the countless generic action thrillers already clogging the market. There were other pointless, arbitrary changes that added nothing I could see. But I was getting paid, and soon, it seemed, produced!

For whatever reason, Sky, then called S.O.L., was apparntly backburnered by my frustratingly – uncommunicative senior producing partner Chappie. I spent the better part of two years waiting to learn what would be next. More notes came, taking the script in directions that were not only wildly different but counterintuitive. I really started to ask myself — “Is this guy fucking with me?” 

Adjustments made, I cashed my option check (a lower rate than the industry standard by quite a longshot – but worth it to me, if it meant having a film credit) and I waited some more. And some more. And some more. I called and emailed. 

Nothing.

Checking to see if my Hollywood friends had perhaps overdosed or been caught embezzling, I checked the appropriate iMdb entries and learned that friend Chappie had previously directed a horror movie, something he had never mentioned to me. I got my hands on said movie. Speaking charitably, it was absolute garbage.

What to do? I could sell out and wait to see if he offered another option, or even a buyout, and hope one of my other projects in the pipeline would cancel out the stench of my connection to Chappie.

A local producer/director friend, different from the zombie filmmaker, made some overtures toward taking it on. This was after I had written at least four scripts for him for “backend points” (translation: no pay) which he either lost interest in, or, like my boy Chappie – he was just fucking with me. 

Either way, more months and drafts were wasted, until SOL eventually found its way to a reputable – if budgetarily-limited – producer in Louisiana. He put it on his slate and announced it online. Then — months and months of nothing. That link remains on iMDB as of this writing. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8846346/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_7

By this point I had largely gravitated to prose fiction. My experience with converting the Progeny screenplay (there’s another harrowing tale of Hollywood skullduggery) and having it published was the opposite of all my expectations, and all my dealings with the film world. In other words — an absolute joy. I felt like Sky also had a better shot as a novel than a straight-to-vid, drop in the movie bucket. I went back to my original draft, tossing away any and every minute influence Chappie had contributed.

I deleted all that normie-ass horseshit straight to oblivion. And it felt amazing.

Sure enough, Sky garnered interest from publishers almost instantly. It wound up on the publication slate of a decent-sized up and coming pub house. Then — Covid 19. 

We’ve all had to make sacrifices.

The pandemic claimed this publishing company, as it did so many others, leaving Sky once again in limbo. By now, all of the previous script deals that were once in some stage of development had also failed. Nearly a dozen projects. I had an endless paper trail of broken promises, lies and if I’m honest, incidents of me humiliating myself for the sake of moving something forward, just the littlest bit. On the other, better hand, I found publishers, magazines, and book blogs incredibly receptive. It was exactly what I needed. 

I reached out to some author friends for help finding a good fit for my baby. The amazing and infinitely kind Jude Matulich-Hall, author of fantasy epic The Everstream Chronicles (find it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Eversteam-Chronicles-Jude-Matulich-Hall/dp/B09KNGFZ84/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2LE6MDFT92BW6&keywords=jude+matulich-hall&qid=1644709583&sprefix=jude+matulich%2Caps%2C85&sr=8-1 )

gave me a name. Within thirty-six hours, Sky had its new home, with no less than Reven Tale Press, a wonderfully author-friendly imprint characterized by consummate professionalism and quick turnaround. 

No bullshit.

So, there you have it. The story of a story, how and why it came to be.

Is there a lesson here? Certainly, for me. For other authors? Well, it could be construed as a warning against the deceitful and despair-inducing black hole of screenwriting, but truth is, I know quite a few screenwriters who immediately hit with pure success, got rich their first time out, and now write movies and enjoy the lavish lifestyle one might expect. I guess the real lesson was best stated, ironically, by acclaimed screenwriter William Goldman — “Nobody knows anything.”

But there’s another quote, a more pro-active one, that also keeps me going: “Be like water. Adapt and bend,” Bruce Lee

And now — the official world premiere of the book trailer for Under Wicked Sky…