This ties in Stoker’s Dracula, Vlad the Impaler, the Draconist order, the black death, and the source of monster legends, and wraps it all up in a neat little historically possible package.
Joe
• • •
BTW- the Draconis ouroboros symbol is a dragon creature eating its own tail. Much like our draculas eat themselves.
Joe
• • •
Verrrrrrrrry cool.
Where does it work into the story? Are we going to weave in bits and pieces throughout?
Jeff
• • •
Blake is putting it in, when Shanna is explaining to Clay what possibly caused this.
Joe
• • •
To make the timeframe work, I think Clay needs to reunite with Randall =after= Randall has saved Jenny. Randall has had enough solo adventures, so I’m going to take him straight to pediatrics, and his final battle with Benny should be when Jenny (and the kids!) are there. She has a grudge against the clown, too, so they can fight him together. They kill Benny, but right before that, Randall gets bitten, so Clay reaches pediatrics just as they’re dealing with that unfortunate fact.
Joe, are you working on any new Jenny stuff? I can pick up where you left off, but I don’t want to step on your toes (since everybody knows you type with your toes—the pictures Blake sent me are frickin’ disgusting!).
Jeff
• • •
Cool. If a point comes up where it makes sense to do this, I’ll have somebody try to explain the backstory to Randall, who has trouble following the details and says “You know what, this late in the game I really don’t give a shit where these things came from!”
Jeff
• • •
Right now, Jenny is killing Lanz. When she’s done, Benny can show up and Randall can burst in and save her.
Joe
• • •
Okay, how about this:
Jenny is fighting Lanz. Kills him. Benny shows up and chainsaws through the door.
Randall rescues her. Tearful reunion. Then they’re surrounded by draculas. Randall fights off a bunch with his saw, but he’s outnumbered. Gets bitten.
Clay comes in with the boom boom, clears the path. Threatens to kill Randall. Jenny won’t let him. They go, with the kids, to the roof because Clay thinks he can flag down the tv helicopter.
Along the way they meet up with Adam, Stacie, and the baby.
Army shows up. Begins to massacre draculas, causing all of them to flee—running up the stairs. Everyone on the roof.
Randall begins to change. He and Jenny express love. Randall becomes a dracula and starts kicking ass.
Clay gets the kids on the helicopter, the baby, and then Stacie is killed and Adam wounded.
Randall is wounded and dying. Jenny stays with him.
Clay gives Adam the grenades, leaps onto the skids as the helicopter takes off (Yippe ki-yaa, mother fucker), and loses his grip and falls off the building.
Adam blows up, making meat confetti. Jenny tell Randall she loves him. He dies. Just as she’s surrounded, the army drops a bomb.
Shanna sees the explosion. Watches the helicopter come. Clay isn’t on it. She weeps. Meets another survivor. Young guy. He’s calm and a bit flirtatious.
Clay climbs out of a tree, his arm and several ribs broken. “Jumping onto a helicopter is a fuckall lot harder than it is in the movies.” Reunites with Jenny.
Survivor gets baby. It’s Mort.
What say you all?
Joe
• • •
Also, my Jenny/Lanz section topped 5000 words. Which means that we’ve written about 50k words so far. I’m figuring it’ll go 15k more, maybe 20k when we go back and add a bit more setting and atmosphere. 70k is a respectable word count for a book like this.
Joe
• • •
Who is this guy on your blog saying that hospitals don’t use cell phone jammers? He isn’t right is he?
Blake
• • •
Upon further study, he may be right. But that’s a quick fix. We used that device because we didn’t want people calling for help, but now it doesn’t matter because help is coming anyway.
I’ll kill it in the sample and reupload the file.
Joe
• • •
Just changed the jammer in the sample and the main manuscript, and uploaded it to Kindle. At the beginning of the sample I had a disclaimer saying it was uncorrected proofs, so it won’t matter. We owe that guy a beer.
Joe
• • •
Apparently I was misinformed, and hospitals don’t use cell phone jammers. I changed it in the sample and the final manuscript.
This is actually a good development. Now Shanna can call Clay when he goes back into the hospital to help Randall, so they can have a tense goodbye scene on the phone. Randall can also call the TV station and tell them to bring the helicopter to the roof.
The point of not wanting cell phones is because we didn’t want the cops to come early. But they came early anyway, so it doesn’t matter.
Joe
• • •
I researched cell jammers for Cherry Bomb and could swear they were used on airplanes. But apparently I was wrong, because if they were used it would crash the plane. My bad.
The measure of a man is not only being able to admit when he’s wrong, but being grateful to those who point it out.
BTW, I think all of you are consistently wrong about everything.
Joe
• • •
You spelled “Killborn” wrong on all of your books.
Jeff
• • •
You smell like cheese.
Joe
• • •
The Jenny/Lanz section is done. Now Randall needs to save her, and quick.
Joe
• • •
American Genocide is off to my agent…it’s draculas time!
Blake
September 12, 2010
I think I’m all right with this…question tho…need to iron out the whole helicopter helping out thing. If the Army is going to blow the place, would they even allow a helicopter to go near a contaminated site. Not saying it can’t happen, we just need to establish how it does.
Blake
• • •
Joe and I have been thinking that the only thing Draculas is missing are Hardy Boy/Nancy Drew-style illustrations. 5 of them, and the scenes we want to do are:
Benny the Clown being attack in the ER over the caption: “Oh no, I’m getting bitten…again!”
Oh God. Is that a…flamingo?
the wheelchair dracula chasing Randall
Oasis getting ready to munch on Grammy Ann and asking for her red candy
Clayton Theel and Shanna, heavily armed, kicking ass and taking names.
The artist, Carl (who did the killer cover) would do these for $XXXX apparently. Any objections, suggestions?
This would be the style:
http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/.a/6a00d8345169e469e20120a7544a31970b-pi
Blake
• • •
Dunno how I missed the birth scene, Blake. Beautifully done.
Joe
• • •
Thanks. Just finished reading Jenny v. Lanz…truly vile, brother. I must have grimaced at least a dozen times. Self amputation…eeewwww. Great scene. I’m not sure if it should be cut up or presented as one long sequence.
Jeff and Paul - read your new stuff too. bravo. Excellent work. We’re hitting a really nice balance of horror and laughs. I think if we can tease out a little more suspense in the final polish this thing will be firing on all cylinders. Something truly horrific, truly scary, and truly funny. A tall order, but we’re getting there.