Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
It's been touch and go for a while. I'm doing everything I can to try and get Part 1 of the Super Spy up on Amazon for free by Dec 25th. I've had to coordinate with the editor, illustrator, and formatting people to try and get everyone what they needed, when they needed it. Add to that my crazy perfectionist attitude, not letting anything go on to the next stage until it's absolutely ready, and you have a tried and true recipe for disaster or madness. Especially when "absolutely ready" seems to keep changing its meaning while I'm trying to get to it. From far away, it looks a lot closer than it is, but when you get near it you find out that its a moving target that does its best to try and stand in your blindspot.
The only thing I know for sure, is that I'm absolutely ready to post this blog.
The only thing I know for sure, is that I'm absolutely ready to post this blog.
Monday, December 5, 2011
A picture worth 1,000 words (or more)
The new cover for "Johnny B. Fast: The Super Spy" is finally ready to be shown. Granted, this isn't the absolute final, end of the line cover, as there aren't actually any words on it yet. But I've been sitting on this for a while and just dying to share it to all the people out there who have been anxiously holding their breaths waiting (if you've actually been anxiously holding your breath waiting, please let me know...it can only help my ego).
So here it is: This is a scene from near the end of Part1 where Johnny B. Fast & Agent 77 (Nancy) are after the Super Chip when the small problem of gravity reversing itself due to a technological attack gets in their way (don't tell me this hasn't happened to you before, we've all been there).
Remember, Johnny B. Fast: The Super Spy will be available for free on Dec 25th!!! (unless gravity reverses itself and gets in my way).
So here it is: This is a scene from near the end of Part1 where Johnny B. Fast & Agent 77 (Nancy) are after the Super Chip when the small problem of gravity reversing itself due to a technological attack gets in their way (don't tell me this hasn't happened to you before, we've all been there).
Remember, Johnny B. Fast: The Super Spy will be available for free on Dec 25th!!! (unless gravity reverses itself and gets in my way).
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
A glimpse behind the curtain, or a taste of things to come
The first part of Johnny B. Fast: The Super Spy is almost out, we’re just waiting for the cover and the editing to be finished. It’s going to be about 34k words (give or take how many of them are yanked screaming out of the text).
So while we wait, I thought we could peek through the curtain for a quick glimpse at B. Fast and the world he lives in. This moment takes place during a failed attempt to recapture a powerful artifact from the really bad guys (when you’re this bad, they call you 'really'). I chose it because it’s the moment when Johnny and Nancy first meet.
It’s about a 1k word sample before it was professionally edited, but since I managed to spell most of the words right, I figured I could be forgiven if I got the rest of them wrong.
Johnny B. Fast: The Super Spy….first introduction:
They brought up their laser guns and aimed them at Johnny.
Johnny slid to the ground and threw an egg at the floor. As soon as the egg hit the ground it exploded into a strobe of multiple colors, flashing and blinding everyone in the immediate area except for Johnny, who had kept his eyes closed when the egg burst.
Lasers shot randomly over his head.
Johnny stayed low to the ground as he quickly ran toward the nearest guard.
When the lights stopped, Johnny figured he would be taking down the four guards before they would have a chance to recuperate and figure out what happened. He just had to position himself to be at the right spot at the right moment.
That’s what being a spy was all about.
The strobe light stopped, and Johnny was ready to take down the…
Five guards?
Six?
Where did that other one come from?
Seven, no eight guards. Plus the two in the back.
Johnny wasn’t sure what happened. There were only supposed to be four guards, and now he had to deal with ten?
Things were not turning out as they were supposed to. If Johnny could get out of this in one piece, he would have to strongly consider taking a year off.
The ten guards, who could now see, brought their laser guns up in Johnny’s direction.
He had to think of something, fast.
Really fast.
Johnny froze.
“Uh oh,” he managed to say.
It looked like turning fifteen wasn’t going to work out very well for Johnny B. Fast.
But then she appeared out of nowhere.
Dropping down on the first guard from the half floor above, she knocked him out and instantly sprang toward the second.
Before Johnny, or any of the other guards knew what was happening, the young girl had already knocked down four of the ten guards. They looked to be unconscious, and Johnny wasn’t exactly sure what she was able to do to knock them out so fast.
The girl was wearing a black outfit and her brown hair was tide back in a ponytail. She moved so gracefully and quickly, that none of the guards had a chance to react.
Reaching into a pouch at her side, the girl threw out a rubber ball at the group of six guards that were left. The ball hit one of them right in the chest and then exploded out into a net that covered them all. One of the guards managed to get out as the net fully caught and then electrocuted the remaining five.
Johnny and the guard looked at her in awe.
“Are they dead?” Johnny asked.
“Just unconscious.” She replied.
Johnny and the last guard looked back at the net. It was at that moment that they both realized they weren’t on the same team. The guard brought up his laser gun, but Johnny quickly knocked it aside and punched him out.
“Nice move,” the girl commented as she looked at the nine guards she had taken out all by herself.
“Thanks. Um, you too, nice move, I mean moves, because you did more than my one.”
The girl laughed at him, it was a nice melodic sound, but Johnny didn’t like the fact that it was directed at him.
The warehouse was now empty, both Scar and the Chip were long gone.
The girl got a closer look at him.
“You’re that boy from school, Johnny something…Clunker! Johnny Clunker.”
Johnny hated his real name. What kind of a name was Clunker? It was the sort of name that guaranteed you wouldn’t get picked for teams, or get to hang out with the cool kids. It practically begged teachers who saw it on test papers to try and find any way they could to give him a failing mark. No matter which way you looked at it, Clunker was not cool. Which is what he capitalized on in school to keep his super spy identity secret, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
“That’s not my real name!” He blurted out before he could really think about it. Why did she make him so nervous?
“No, it is my real name. But it’s not the name I’m going under right now.” He tried to correct himself.
“What’s the name you’re going under right now?” She asked the obvious question, her eyebrow arched up in an amused glance.
“I’m Johnny B. Fast,” he said, holding out his hand. “And I’m a super spy.”
The girl looked at him for a moment and then burst out laughing again.
Johnny felt really foolish holding out his hand for her to shake while she was laughing at him. He slowly retracted his hand.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
She quickly composed herself.
“I’m sorry. I never met a spy who introduced themselves as a spy before.”
“Maybe I admitted I was a spy to throw you off and make you think the last thing I was was a spy?” Johnny tried.
She looked like she was going to laugh again, he had to get a hold of himself, why was he so nervous?
“Forget it, that just sounded terrible,” he admitted.
She could see he was suffering, and her heart went out to him, “I didn’t mean to laugh,” she offered.
“Yes you did.” He shot back.
“I guess no one ever means to laugh when they laugh. That’s the whole point of laughing, it takes you by surprise.” She reasoned.
What a strange girl she was. Still, Johnny couldn’t deny the fact that she had flawlessly taken out ten guards by herself.
Nine! Johnny had taken care of the last one, even if he was preoccupied at the time, it still counted.
Trying to make up, she held out her hand for him to shake.
“My real name’s Nancy Korrins, but you can call me Seventy Seven.”
“Seventy Seven?” Johnny asked.
“Yup,” she offered back, her hand still stuck out between them.
“What kind of a name is that?”
“It’s my spy name,” she replied, taking back her hand.
“That’s not a very cool spy name,” Johnny said.
“Spy names aren’t supposed to be cool, they just are.”
Johnny shook his head, “What’s the point of having a spy name if it isn’t going to be cool?”
“That’s just guy talk. Guys are always trying to look cool, or be cool, or have cool names.” She reasoned. “Besides, the whole point of it all is to save the world from evil.”
“I think the world would rather be saved by Johnny B. Fast than by Seventy Seven.” Johnny shot back.
So while we wait, I thought we could peek through the curtain for a quick glimpse at B. Fast and the world he lives in. This moment takes place during a failed attempt to recapture a powerful artifact from the really bad guys (when you’re this bad, they call you 'really'). I chose it because it’s the moment when Johnny and Nancy first meet.
It’s about a 1k word sample before it was professionally edited, but since I managed to spell most of the words right, I figured I could be forgiven if I got the rest of them wrong.
Johnny B. Fast: The Super Spy….first introduction:
They brought up their laser guns and aimed them at Johnny.
Johnny slid to the ground and threw an egg at the floor. As soon as the egg hit the ground it exploded into a strobe of multiple colors, flashing and blinding everyone in the immediate area except for Johnny, who had kept his eyes closed when the egg burst.
Lasers shot randomly over his head.
Johnny stayed low to the ground as he quickly ran toward the nearest guard.
When the lights stopped, Johnny figured he would be taking down the four guards before they would have a chance to recuperate and figure out what happened. He just had to position himself to be at the right spot at the right moment.
That’s what being a spy was all about.
The strobe light stopped, and Johnny was ready to take down the…
Five guards?
Six?
Where did that other one come from?
Seven, no eight guards. Plus the two in the back.
Johnny wasn’t sure what happened. There were only supposed to be four guards, and now he had to deal with ten?
Things were not turning out as they were supposed to. If Johnny could get out of this in one piece, he would have to strongly consider taking a year off.
The ten guards, who could now see, brought their laser guns up in Johnny’s direction.
He had to think of something, fast.
Really fast.
Johnny froze.
“Uh oh,” he managed to say.
It looked like turning fifteen wasn’t going to work out very well for Johnny B. Fast.
But then she appeared out of nowhere.
Dropping down on the first guard from the half floor above, she knocked him out and instantly sprang toward the second.
Before Johnny, or any of the other guards knew what was happening, the young girl had already knocked down four of the ten guards. They looked to be unconscious, and Johnny wasn’t exactly sure what she was able to do to knock them out so fast.
The girl was wearing a black outfit and her brown hair was tide back in a ponytail. She moved so gracefully and quickly, that none of the guards had a chance to react.
Reaching into a pouch at her side, the girl threw out a rubber ball at the group of six guards that were left. The ball hit one of them right in the chest and then exploded out into a net that covered them all. One of the guards managed to get out as the net fully caught and then electrocuted the remaining five.
Johnny and the guard looked at her in awe.
“Are they dead?” Johnny asked.
“Just unconscious.” She replied.
Johnny and the last guard looked back at the net. It was at that moment that they both realized they weren’t on the same team. The guard brought up his laser gun, but Johnny quickly knocked it aside and punched him out.
“Nice move,” the girl commented as she looked at the nine guards she had taken out all by herself.
“Thanks. Um, you too, nice move, I mean moves, because you did more than my one.”
The girl laughed at him, it was a nice melodic sound, but Johnny didn’t like the fact that it was directed at him.
The warehouse was now empty, both Scar and the Chip were long gone.
The girl got a closer look at him.
“You’re that boy from school, Johnny something…Clunker! Johnny Clunker.”
Johnny hated his real name. What kind of a name was Clunker? It was the sort of name that guaranteed you wouldn’t get picked for teams, or get to hang out with the cool kids. It practically begged teachers who saw it on test papers to try and find any way they could to give him a failing mark. No matter which way you looked at it, Clunker was not cool. Which is what he capitalized on in school to keep his super spy identity secret, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.
“That’s not my real name!” He blurted out before he could really think about it. Why did she make him so nervous?
“No, it is my real name. But it’s not the name I’m going under right now.” He tried to correct himself.
“What’s the name you’re going under right now?” She asked the obvious question, her eyebrow arched up in an amused glance.
“I’m Johnny B. Fast,” he said, holding out his hand. “And I’m a super spy.”
The girl looked at him for a moment and then burst out laughing again.
Johnny felt really foolish holding out his hand for her to shake while she was laughing at him. He slowly retracted his hand.
“Thanks,” he mumbled.
She quickly composed herself.
“I’m sorry. I never met a spy who introduced themselves as a spy before.”
“Maybe I admitted I was a spy to throw you off and make you think the last thing I was was a spy?” Johnny tried.
She looked like she was going to laugh again, he had to get a hold of himself, why was he so nervous?
“Forget it, that just sounded terrible,” he admitted.
She could see he was suffering, and her heart went out to him, “I didn’t mean to laugh,” she offered.
“Yes you did.” He shot back.
“I guess no one ever means to laugh when they laugh. That’s the whole point of laughing, it takes you by surprise.” She reasoned.
What a strange girl she was. Still, Johnny couldn’t deny the fact that she had flawlessly taken out ten guards by herself.
Nine! Johnny had taken care of the last one, even if he was preoccupied at the time, it still counted.
Trying to make up, she held out her hand for him to shake.
“My real name’s Nancy Korrins, but you can call me Seventy Seven.”
“Seventy Seven?” Johnny asked.
“Yup,” she offered back, her hand still stuck out between them.
“What kind of a name is that?”
“It’s my spy name,” she replied, taking back her hand.
“That’s not a very cool spy name,” Johnny said.
“Spy names aren’t supposed to be cool, they just are.”
Johnny shook his head, “What’s the point of having a spy name if it isn’t going to be cool?”
“That’s just guy talk. Guys are always trying to look cool, or be cool, or have cool names.” She reasoned. “Besides, the whole point of it all is to save the world from evil.”
“I think the world would rather be saved by Johnny B. Fast than by Seventy Seven.” Johnny shot back.
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Slipping through the crack, or Who is Johnny B. Fast?
I've been writing screenplays for over twelve years. I think I've written over fourteen of them, lost count along the way. Four years ago I decided to direct one of the scripts I'd written, just to make sure that it got out there: www.8milliondollars.com.
It was a great learning experience, but one in which I had to wear too many hats. Given the opportunity to do it again, I would only wear the directing hat.
I thought I would go on writing screenplay after screenplay, but then something happened in the fall of 2010. As far as I remember it I was just sitting there, minding my own business, when this strange character named Johnny B. Fast popped into my head. I definitely didn't invite him in, and I wasn't looking for him, so to this day I have no idea how he got there. All I know is that one moment he wasn't there, and the next he was. And before I could get rid of him he invited in a host of his friends: Nancy, Ackers, The Widow Black, Silence, Big Petey, Red, even his dad Henry, and his dad's boss Mr. Underling made the trip inside.
Before I could kick him out, the crack he had slipped through was so wide I no longer had the choice.
Like it or not, Johnny B. Fast was here to stay. And since I couldn't get rid of him, I decided to write about him, because sometimes writing things down helps you come to terms with them. But the more I wrote about Johnny, the bigger he got, prying that crack open even wider and introducing me to a host of gadgets and wonders that could only exist in his world.
I'm stuck with him now, that crack has become a highway of ideas, going way too fast for any speed limit I could impose. And truth be told, I can't even imagine which side of it I was on before the crack began.
Johnny B. Fast is here.
And in the coming weeks I'm going to introduce you to him.
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