Weekly Card, A Bit Late

The Hermit from Ian Daniels Tarot of Vampyres. I’ve felt like a hermit the last few days, locking myself in the house to get the revisions done on the vampire novel and sent off to beta readers. I’ve also been OD’ing on “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and its soundtrack while I write. Seems fitting on this Memorial Day. Even though it’s a fantasy/horror story, the scenes of the Gettysburg battle and Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg address choked me up. There’s a part of the battle scene that slows, focused on one Union soldier running ahead to engage the Confederate troops, and it’s really quite heartbreaking, nicely filmed.

And look, the card has a wolf on it, and the book talks about this card indicating being a ‘lone wolf.’ :::smacks self in forehead::: It’s a time for introspection, silence, going within yourself for the answers, being isolated. Vampires are outsiders, ‘others.’ What they seek is beyond the confines of everyday mass consumerism. The Hermit contains all four elements, fire (scepter), grail (water, the vessel containing the fire. Grails can hold many things), knife for air, and skulls for earth, all this gained by his journey to the Underworld. The wolf is there to guard the entrance. This is the time to complete a journey, a mission, a quest (the story?).

There’s a need to ignore the rest of the world, don’t be distracted by all the banalities of modern society. As they told the Tie fighters in Star Wars making their run on the Death Star, “Stay on target.” Well, I have one more day off before I head back to the grind. Head down, back to editing.

Enjoy some solitude and downtime this week if you can.

Putting the Cart Before the Horse

But what the hey, eh?

This weekend has been all editing, all the time. I’m working on the vampire novel, prepping it for a volunteer beta reader, and consequently going over it all AGAIN. I’m happy to report that the scenes that made me tear up or laugh as I was writing them are still having that effect. While that may seem like a strange barometer to a non-writer, as I’m sure you’re all thinking all writers love their own writing, and that’s often true, there’s also the maxim that if your writing doesn’t sweep you away, it won’t have that effect on your readers either. If you don’t love what you’re writing, it’s likely no one else will.

:::disjointed segue – ENGAGE!:::

I often get inspired by music, so it’s not that much of a stretch for me to hear a soundtrack running in my head as I write. So THEN I got to thinking (as all writers do at some point, I’m sure. It can’t just be me) if my book were to be made into a movie, who would I want to do the soundtrack for it? Yeah yeah, I know, if it were to come to pass I’m sure I’d have no actual say in it, but I can dream can’t I?

So mostly I’d want a pretty hard rock soundtrack, but there are scenes in the book that would call for something more atmospheric, creepy, romantic, more cerebral stuff. Even some classical. Right now I’m all hung up on the soundtrack to “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.” I know, I know, believe me no one is more surprised than I am that I liked this movie. But there are some really strong performances in it. Rufus Sewell is tremendous as he always is, with a wonderfully nuanced role as an evil vampire. Dominic Cooper is the next heartthrob ladies, as Henry Sturgess. I expected this to be a silly, frothy comedic romp, but there are few really light moments. It’s not heavy drama, certainly, with such a ridiculous premise but it’s so much better than I expected. The cinematography is really beautiful, the lighting and color in the scene when Abraham proposes to Mary is striking. Mary Elizabeth Winstead is adorable and charming as Mary Todd, and later in the film has a great scene as the grieving mother when their son dies (hardly a spoiler if you know anything about history). Marton Csokas is wonderfully vile as Jack Barts.

Anyway, the soundtrack is by Henry Jackman, and you can hear a lot of Hans Zimmer’s influence in a number of places. Unfortunately I can’t find a clip of the segment that I really love. It’s during the fight scene on top of the train and the music swells to a majestic and poignant orchestration of the theme. It’s quite beautiful, I wish it was longer. I can’t even find that it’s included on the soundtrack CD which makes me sad.

Anyway, along with the orchestral soundtrack, most movies have other pieces written and performed by bands added in (Linkin Park contributed the end titles theme with their song “Powerless”).

So what bands would you like to write songs for your movie? For me, I’d want Rubylux  (their new single, “The World Goes Quiet” just dropped on iTunes, check it out

provided they’re not too famous and busy by then, HIM of course, maybe some Avatar (Torn Apart would work really well in one scene), or Black Veil Brides (love their latest In the End). Argh. So I’ve spent the whole day checking out music. Now, back to editing. I’ll try to get a Tarot card for the week posted tomorrow.

Addendum 5/27/2013: This is too fun, I have to share this – Rubylux is on board for the soundtrack!

 

@ddsyrdal Thanks for the shout out in your blog! Consider us confirmed for the soundtrack! 😉

— Rubylux (@rubylux) May 27, 2013

More Misappropriation of Classics

So far we’ve had Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which is going to be followed by Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and now we have (wait for it…)

Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer!

I dunno, this thing seems to be taking itself WAAAAY too seriously, it’s described as action/horror.

The next trailer shown was for “Pinnochio the Vampire Slayer” by Dylan Higgins, a black-and-white action/horror comic book starring a character whose slogan is “I’m Pinnochio, I kill vampires.” In this twist on the classic story, Gepetto is killed before Pinnochio can become a real boy, and thus the he instead begins a journey of revenge against all vampires. His weapon of choice is his ever-growing nose, which he breaks off to utilize as a stake to kill vampires. Vado said the buzz for the book is greater than anything he has published before, and he is truly excited for it.

 

I was laughing by the end of the little promo video. Of course a couple of snarky comments on io9 a few weeks ago about it didn’t help:

Terrified vampire: “Are you here to kill me?”

Pinocchio: “No.”

SPROING!

Stabbity.

Sorry, I’m still laughing.

And we’re still waiting for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by the same author who started this whole thing, Seth Grahame-Smith. I don’t know who he’s plagiarizing for this one, but he apparently received an advance to the tune of $575,000. They’re even talking about a movie. As long as it’s billed as a comedy,  fine. The whole concept is so patently ridiculous I hope no one is looking at this as anything other than slapstick. (is that kind of a pun?)