SUPERMAN : GHOSTS
We see a man, possibly in his later forties, walking around a highrise apartment. He is walking around in an aimless way, his hand to his head. He's talking on a cordless phone as we hear Superman (Henry Cavil) narrating. Superman: His name was Tim. I know this because his wife said 'I love you, Tim' while she called long distance. I heard this from two city blocks away. I know that her name was Carol because he told her that he loved her, too. I know that Tim had two daughters. I know this because after Carol said I love you, she said that the girls missed him very much. I know that his daughters had brown hair, and freckled noses. I know this because I saw their pictures. Time in the apartment slows down as the walls and ceiling around Tim begin to shake. Superman: Tim was loved. He will never see Carol or his children again. He will never see them again even though I can move faster than a bullet. Even though I can fly. Even though I can lift a building Tim is dead. Because as fast as I am I will never be fast enough. I will never be strong enough. Even with all these powers at my control, Tim and others like him will die. I hear people all over. I hear how much they hate me. How they blame me for all the destruction in their lives. They call me the Boyscout in mockery and say how my life is so easy. I remember the names of every person who died while I tried to save them. I am haunted by them. I wish I were indestructible where it mattered. Tim's apartment turns to black and we see an extreme close-up of Superman's eye as the faces of all those who have died around the Man of steel rush across his pupils. We see a fast montage of faces, groups, families, friends all being torn away by explosions and energy blasts. These faces trapped in horror all blend and burn together into the back of a bald head. We pull out and see the bald head rests on the back of a well tailored suit. We pull out further and see Lex Luthor standing in front of a giant screen as athletes move across the screen. Luthor: Usain Bolt, fastest man in the world. Dennis Rogers, pound for pound the worlds strongest man. Michael Phelps, the worlds fastest swimmer. None of these human accomplishments means anything. All of human endeavors, all of our strengths are now meaningless in the face of this illegal alien. Even the most touted of Americas heroes, this Batman of Gotham city, a vigilante capable of doing what an entire police force was unable to do when they buckled at the mercy of the terrorist Bane, is tissue paper in a hurricane compared to this alien. He is not subject to our laws. He is not a citizen of our countries. He owes no loyalty to anyone but himself. In summation, gentlemen, he is this planets greatest threat. Luthor is interrupted by the clearing of a throat. Bruce Wayne: With all due respect, Mr. Luther, this alien has not shown anything other than loyalty to this country. Aside from hoping he never becomes the badguy, what could you possibly propose we could use to defend ourselves from him? Luthor: Every suit of armor has a chink. We just need to find his.
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Yeah, I'll clean this up a little. Can't have people offended, not on the internet.
I've learned to bite my tongue over the years (those who work with me will disagree, I'm sure). It's more of a political thing. Be nice to the waitress so you don't have spit in your food. That and maybe she's having a bad day and it will be easier to manipulate the situation by appearing sympathetic, and therefore endear her to you so you get better service. Is that disingenuous? Manipulative? Yes. But they are pretending to like me so they can get a tip, so that's okay. Social media is more tricky. You almost have to be friends with people on Facebook whom you work with. Even if you don't like them, because if you don't you get the inevitable "why didn't you accept my friend request?". To which in the real world I would answer, "Because I don't like you and wouldn't piss on your gums if your teeth were on fire." But* in which I have to respond with, "Oh I'm not really on there much. I just use it to play games on." Or some other lie in order to not hear from my bosses "It doesn't matter if you like him, don't piss him off and do your job". Twitter is even harder. I don't want to respond rudely, these are potential customers and networking people. If I offend them I could potentially hurt sales, or opportunity. What to do? I know some people get lots of followers by being rude. I'm sure they lose out on a lot of chances, too. I don't want to be a slave to a tip. I want that tip, though! So if I want authenticity I must be authentic. I can still be polite and speak my mind. Be tactful. Just not say F@ck you. Or "You are an idiot". Or "I know people that smoke crack that make more sense than you." Or "I'm not saying you don't know what you're talking about, but I don't know what you're talking about." Or "Shut up you knob gobbling thunder c#nt". Or "No one cares about your teen pregnancy, just shut up and deal with the consequences. Need help, ask. Otherwise toss off." I've never said that last one. Maybe one day. *Do not start a sentence with the word "but". Although I have found social media sites somewhat gratifying, it's difficult to say if they are beneficial or not.
I can promote my book to a hundred other people promoting their own book, check my weebly site (it at least tells me how many people looked at this post), and wonder how my book sales will look at the end of the month. That last one bothers me. Amazon updates sales at the end of the month. So I have no idea if all my marketing is falling flat. I could literally be wasting my time and not know for thirty days before I should try something new. I contacted Amazon to ask them if there was a feature that at least told me how many people at least browsed my book. I thought it would be a great idea, that way I could market my book more effectively, come up with a strategy of why people were window shopping and not buying, make money which would ultimately make Amazon money. Their response was: "For account security reasons, we're unable to share specific information about our customers and their browsing history. Thank you for your understanding of this policy. Thanks for using Amazon KDP." I don't care if Janey Smith browsed for porn before and after she looked at my book, I don't even have to know her name. I just want to know if anyone looked. Amazon can do this. They have programming designed especially for it, similar to Google's "What's trending now" feature, or their adsense. I understand this is a great marketing tool. It's not like poker. By holding their cards close to their chest, they are taking away an effective money making tool from their submitters. Well, that's my mini rant. Hopefully I made a million dollars on my book and can use that money to create a Nerf army to take over the wonderful Amazon and liberate the stats. Kind of sounds like Cherry Poppin' Dadies, doesn't it?
Basically it's a great chance for writers to get interviewed for the books they have written, and give a shout out to authors they want to support. After all, who will help the Indie Writer except other Indie Writers? What is the title of your book? True Monsters. Originally I titled it and marketed it as The Shepherd's Wolf, a title I was very proud of...until I found someone who published after I did with the same title, and refused to change it. It was a thirty-something-page erotic novel involving beastiality. I contacted them and asked them to change it, but they refused. I was also reading a marketing book at this time and it recommended using a more marketable title, and True Monsters was born. Where did the idea come from for the book? Initially the idea came from my own sense of smell. It's very sensitive, and often I let my nose get plugged so I can't smell. Then one day I kept getting a whiff of a cologne and I kept trying to find the person, like a bloodhound. That's when I developed the idea of a police detective that used her mutant sense of smell to find clues. I toned it down and made it, I think, more believable than that. What genre does your book fall under? It would best be placed under Crime/Police Procedural, though the ending could throw it into philosophy or the supernatural. Once you read the book, you can go through it and see it subtle references and clues you may not have noticed the first time around. Especially the characters Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? In a way I want to avoid that. I want to give the reader a little credit with their imagination, to get to know these characters. When I first read Lord of the Rings Elijah Wood was in Back to the Future Part Two, and I would never have imagined him as a Frodo. At gunpoint? Mila Kunis, as Ginny. Her acting chops have really come around, especially since American Psycho 2. Definitely Ben Kingsly as Revernd Phios would be a dream. Ioan Gruffud would be a great Rob Oldsole. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? Would you catch a serial killer you identified with? Is your book be self-published or represented by an agency? My book is available on Amazon, so self published. The ultimate goal is to be published in paper because in my mind that is the childhood goal. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? I laid the groundwork for about four months, and then my wife gave birth to our first son. The beauty of my current job is that I can take up to nine months off with pay, so I was able to work full time on the novel for six months. So less than a year. My new novel is taking a lot less time. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? That's kind of difficult, as I tried very much to make it original. But what author doesn't say that? I would compare it to a Faye Kellerman's Rina Lazarus for strong female, Island of Dr. Moreau for setting, and No Country For Old Men for moral ambiguity, with a little Dean Koontz action/science for fun. Who or What inspired you to write this book? I wrote this book because I read a novel by a writer who published under a pseudonym, and the story was very, very much like one I had worked on. I felt they didn't do the story justice, and that the characters and plot got cheated. Normally I love the books by this author. This time I finally said, “I can do this. I can do this better.” So I scrapped what I had written and started working on True Monsters, an idea I had bounced around for a while. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Every fantastic thing is grounded in the real world, and I even have a running list on my website for “doubters”. That, and the ending really pays off. I invite others to ask me questions about the story and the characters on my website amachineofwords.weebly.com My book can be found at : http://www.amazon.com/True-Monsters-Shepherds-Wolf-ebook/dp/B005QH1ZYW/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1349735434&sr=1-1&keywords=true+monsters+the+shepherds+wolf One Last Thing: Check out these other great authors! They give excellent feedback about their novels, tweet pithy things, and help out other authors. They are also inspiring. Chris Turner at: http://www.innersky.ca Jeff Whelan: http://jeffwhelan.wordpress.com/ Cheryl Bradshaw:http://cherylbradshawbooks.blogspot.com/ Roberto Calas: http://clumsyseduction.blogspot.com/ Sayed Sabat: http://www.zeus-publications.com/way_to_kabul.htm |
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