Joe
• • •
nice, can’t wait to read…Paul, I think you can probably dive into your last scene before I merge all the most recent stuff…I’ll set it for you. Clayton and Randall are running up to the roof with Jenny and the kids, and as they pass one long corridor, they hear human screams. Clay says you go on ahead, I’ll meet you up there. Clay runs down the corridor, finds 4 draculas have just about broken through the barricade into the maternity ward (enough so he’ll be able to get in). He smokes them. Runs inside himself. this is what he sees…(where I’ll end the section I’m currently writing):
Adam on the floor of the corridor near the nurses’ station on the verge of being devoured by Oasis, another teen dracula is watching them. she just gave birth to a baby dracula, a huge hole in her stomach where the baby-dracula ate its way out.
Clayton kills those three draculas, saves Adam. Quick down beat, then Nurse Herrick dracula (nice out-of-nowhere scare) attacks and Clay wastes her. Then Clay leads and Adam wheels Stacie (still unconscious and mid-transfusion) out of the maternity ward, with his child (who was in the nursery) in his arm. sound good?
Blake
• • •
Which floor is pediatrics?
Which floor is OB?
Paul
• • •
I kind of like it, especially the idea the army has seen this before…what are you thinking? that this is the last we’ll see of Shanna?
Blake
• • •
OB - 3
Pediatrics - 2
Blake
• • •
Not necessarily. I’m thinking some government agency knows about this virus, and has either been tracking it down or working with their own strain of the thing. They know they can’t let it loose. That’s why they’re so quick to firebomb the building.
I don’t think we have to explain more. If we decide on a sequel, it’s a plot point we can expand or leave in the background. But it hints that this is bigger than we thought. Even Moorecook, who thinks he’s in charge, might be a minor player on this stage.
Paul
• • •
perfect.
I’ll just continue Clay 5.0. Clay is heading down the steps, sees Randall coming up with the kids and Jenny from 2. Takes the rear. I’ll get him onto the 3rd (OB) floor on the way up.
Paul
• • •
I’m all for it.
Blake
• • •
“perfect. I’ll just continue Clay 5.0. Clay is heading down the steps, sees Randall coming up with the kids and Jenny from 2. Takes the rear. I’ll get him onto the 3rd (OB) floor on the way up.”
So Jeff, just get Randall and Jenny and the kids heading up out of pediatrics, and they can run into Clayton.
Blake
• • •
Will do!
Jeff
• • •
Do you guys have scans of your signatures? I think it’d be a nice touch for the title page. If not, no worries.
Blake
• • •
No, but how much trouble can it be to scan one?
Paul
• • •
You’re right. What could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Jeff
• • •
I’m voting against signature scans.
While in Florida I saw a technology that allowed authors to actually sign ebooks. I expect it to be commonplace in a year or two. To have fake signatures is like those Nora Roberts autopen signed books—it doesn’t add value, plus it ruins the potential for a real signature when the technology arrives.
Joe
• • •
Joe, I’m enrolling you in OA — overthinkers anonymous.
Paul
• • •
I can’t accept that enrollment until I think about it for a while.
Paul
• • •
Okay so it’s 2 in favor of signature scans, 2 opposed.
Now each side submits one representative, and those two fight to death.
The victor will get to make the call.
Blake
• • •
Btw, Paul will be representing the pro-signature side in the death match.
Blake
• • •
I’m starting to add everything into Draculas 2.4 tonight, with the exception of Paul’s Clay and Adam 7.2 and Jeff’s 9.0. Jeff, you’ve got a tiny scene to write to meet up your crew with Clayton, and Paul is just about done as well with having Clayton bust into the maternity ward. I’ll add those final scenes when you guys finish. It’s looking great.
Blake
September 16, 2010
DRACULAS 2.4 is up…We’re over 63,000 words. I moved our old files into the old folder, and still kept Jeff’s 9.0 and Paul’s Clay, Adam, and Shanna 7.2. It took a little work to put everything together since certain characters cross each others’ paths, but I’m shocked at how well it came together. The rhythm of it seems right on to me. Please go into 2.4 and make sure I haven’t messed up any timelines or anything and that everyone digs the order of scenes.
Joe, maybe Maria wants to read the new stuff?
Here’s how I think it all plays out:
1. Jeff links Randall up with Clay (and Paul’s already written the scene when they meet up en route to the roof)…Jeff just extend from the last scene with Randall in 2.4…it’s like a couple paragraphs at most I think.
2. Joe needs to look at the Randall/Jenny reunion final scene in 2.4 and decide if he wants to add a scene from Jenny’s POV where she says she loves him, etc.
3. Clay goes into maternity ward per earlier email, kills everything, and leaves with my couple and their baby.
(I’ve made bolded notes in 2.4 where these scenes need to go…just use the search function and search for the asterisks in the manuscript*)
Let’s brainstorm in the next day or so about the order of scenes and from whose POV they’re written to wrap up the big finale.
Blake
• • •
It’s now 2.5. I gave it a quick read and corrected a few typos and corrected one of my movie quotes.
Blake — I fear you’ve done too much damage to Adam for him to be good for anything. A fractured humerus makes that arm good for nothing, and we need him helping get Stacie upstairs and stacking chairs and spilling blood later on.
Jeff — can we draw out Benny’s death just a tad more? He’s been such a great nemesis, I feel he needs little more drama - I’m talking maybe a dozen words or so. And maybe a drawn-out fart before he goes…I mean, making a clown a human whoopee cushion is kind of appropriate, yes?
BTW, how DO we get Stacie up to the roof?
WHAT IS CLAY DOING? HOW DOES THIS END FOR HIM? I’M NOT SURE IF HE’S JUMPING ONTO THE HELICOPTER SKIDS ANYMORE WITH HE ADAM GOING BACK INTO THE HOSPITAL.
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.
We cut away after that.
Back to Shanna later: Watches the helicopter come. Clay isn’t on it. She weeps.
Meets another survivor. Young guy. He’s calm and a bit flirtatious.
How about he’s dressed in scrubs? Looks vaguely familiar. (We need to set up that Mort’s changing back to human. He goes to doctors lounge for clean clothes - we don’t need to see him putting on scrubs)
Shanna’s in isolation in the trailer. She watches copter rescue and the hospital’s fiery demolition through the 1-inch glass window. The 4 kids are brought in. Dr. Driscoll hands her the baby (“I don’t do babies.”) Then a young guy shows up in scrubs. Says he’s Dr. Michaels, a pediatrician. He’ll take care of the squalling baby. When Driscoll returns, Shanna learns there is no Dr. Michaels.