The Sum of David

There are a few things that I will go straight up fangirl over. Hellboy is one of them.

Josh spent much of the weekend hibernating against our awesome 20-degree weather, so I popped in the Hellboy movie while he sawed logs on the couch. First off, let me say this: I know it’s not the perfect movie. The graphic version of Seed of Destruction is superior in several ways (the greatest of which is the fact that Sammael doesn’t resurrect fifteen times and we have to watch them battle him over and over. And over.) But it is so much fun. The casting is perfect. No one but Ron Perlman could play Hellboy — playing a giant red demon-man toting a giant stone hand and covered in runic symbols would be impossible for anyone else to pull off. Doug Jones and (the uncredited) David Hyde Pierce are an impeccable Abe Sapian. And even my reading brain didn’t translate Professor Trevor Bruttenholm as well as John Hurt did.

The thing that makes this movie enjoyable for me is the execution of taking the world and story from paper to live action. Hellboy’s creator, Mike Mignola, worked very closely with del Toro to make the creatures and environments rich and believable. I think they do a beautiful job of it — the set of Bruttenholm’s study and the Russian graveyard are especially beautiful in my opinion, and Kroenen and Sapien really are very fantastic. With three discs, the Hellboy special edition is also  one of the most extensive bonus features DVD I’ve ever encountered and offers HOURS of yummy documentation of what went into making the world come alive. (Rivaled in size and detail only by LOTR box sets — 7 discs. Yowza.)

Mignola’s Hellboy is a fascinating character. While I am not usually a huge fan of horror in other fiction, I love it in Mignola’s dark, boxy style and the humor he injects into the stories is a nice balance between the gore. I generally love the ‘refusal of destiny’ arc in stories anyway, and throwing in the impending apocalypse via the hero is right up my alley. Combine it with lots of dark folklore, disturbing occult conspiracies, heaven vs. hell, and the whole what makes a man thing — I am one happy camper.

Visually, Mignola’s art is more than drool-worthy. He has an unmistakable style: heavy shadows that can cover an entire page but still insinuate there is so much going on; angular, sometimes abbreviated shapes that lose nothing from their incomplete execution; character designs that challenge your base knowledge of mythological figures (like the stone, iron-maiden goddess Hecate, anyone?); action and framing that is clear and dramatic. And his paintings make me cry tears of jealous, reverential JOY.

JOY!

“Look, Sammy, I’m not a very good shot… but the Samaritan here uses really big bullets.”

Writing on David’s sequel has begun slowly, but there is excellent progress being made. My soft deadline right now for the completion of the first draft is May 1st. We’ll see. I’m feeling confident.

…which is ironic, because I totally got my first rejection letter today. I had (sort of) successfully forgotten that I even sent it out, except I started trying to remember why Dec. 15th stuck in my mind and, ah, that’s when the 2 month response time would be up. Well, I got my familiar SASE in the mail yesterday. I stared at it for a moment and, in an exercise of self-control, put it down and started cooking dinner.

But let’s face it, it’s a freakin‘ response, and the piece of paper contained within that envelope lived in the drawer of a real agent’s office — I opened it.

I’ve been bracing myself for months in the event I receive a letter that reads anything beyond “Yes! Please!” Although it would be outside my usual character, I was really afraid I would take the rejection personally, but there wasn’t any of the heartbreak or anguish I thought might bloom from the experience. Actually, my level of disappointment was only about a .5 on a scale from 1 - 10. The letter was very polite, very encouraging. I really thought I’d be more bummed than I am.

I suspect that this may be because by getting a response at all, I’m at least a part of the game now.

So the letter is going up onto the cork board in my studio, I’m on to pursue the next agent in my magic agent binder, and it’s back to work on the next book. Things are rolling along.

There are three days left to read the end of The Sum of David. On Thursday, I’ll be pulling the conclusion off of the site and leaving only the first three chapters for preview purposes. Originally, the story was slated to wrap up the last week of 2007, and I intended to leave the site up indefinitely for anyone that was interested. Recently, however, I decided that I might as well give my best effort at trying to get it published. It’s the beginning of a trilogy, and I’m going to be writing the whole series anyway… and since my main muse hasn’t read my last two books (go easy on him, he’s sixteen — I hope he’s got better things to do than read his sister’s stories), I need another audience to write for. So how about… everybody else?

There are a lot of things going on right now. Since I haven’t blogged for a while, I’ll lay them down here, if for no other reason than to keep myself organized.

I’m getting caught up on the three most recent Heroes episodes tonight. I have to say from the first three: I don’t feel that it’s as good as last season’s. I’m intrigued, yes, but not in a crazed, omg I-have-to-know way. Seeing a show like that does make me want to write, though, and I’ll take inspiration anywhere I can get it. And I know I’m three weeks late, but: Lt. Uhura?! Are they tapping the whole original Star Trek cast? If so, William Shatner needs to be Syler’s dad. Please do not mistake this for complaining. I think it’s awesome.

Tuesday is a meet-up at the Creative Treehouse to talk about improving Bellevue, and more specifically, Bellevue’s best coffee shop: Affogato. I’m interested in what’s going on there and how to improve the area, since any benefits for Bellevue will mean upsides for Aff and the Creative Treehouse.

Wednesday is Halloween and I’d love to pass out candy, but I’ve had to work late the last three years… hopefully that trend will end this year, but we’ll see. Trick or Treating seems to get earlier and earlier every year — I think last year it was 4 to 6pm or something, and I can’t get home until 5:30, earliest. Josh doesn’t even get out of work until 6. It’s a shame, because I pretty much melt at every costume. Cartoon character? aw. Pirate? AW. Dinosaur? Take my candy. All of it.

And, on the remaining evenings? Oh my. I’ve got Halloween decorations to prepare, purchase and/or create for the Creative Treehouse’s Haunted Treehouse party on Saturday night. I’ve got another pumpkin to carve and three art pieces to finish for the night’s gallery… plus I need to create signage for the event. Not to mention my costume isn’t close to finished… All of which has to be complete by Friday night, because I’ve got a family dinner on Saturday afternoon in Hundred, WV — and I won’t be back in Pgh in time to decorate the place during the day. whew!

Two worlds collide in a rush of lightning, tusk and claw.

Well, here we are, kids. If you’re interested, a mouse click will deliver you to the final 13 chapters of The Sum of David, complete and available for your perusal. I hope readers will find the end logical and satisfactory, and I’d love to hear any comments regarding the story. I’m going to leave these remaining chapters up until Nov. 1.