From Fred.
1. You take a side-step into the land of mythology and encounter the personification of one of the big abstracts of your life. What is it, and how does the resulting conversation go?
I’m literally sitting here staring at a dictionary definition of ‘abstract’ and trying to work my way into an answer of this question. It’s a bloody great question. I’m just not very good at the introspection that leads to people being aware of unanswered questions in their lives. Either that or I haven’t got any, which is possible. I don’t tend to recognize a need to answer questions like, I don’t know, “What happens when we die,” or “why am I here?” The act of being is pretty much sufficient for me.
In a mythological landscape, I…would expect, perhaps, to meet Beauty’s Beast, as a personification of … maybe myself. Of what I want out of the world. Maybe a sphinx. The conversation…
Right angles to faeryland. *sigh* If there’s an abstraction in my life that I’m aware of, it’s a desire for that which is not. A wish for wings that work. It’s a lot of why I write: the world fails me in its lack of magic. I have a need to correct that failing. I want the ‘Here Be Dragons’ on ancient maps to be accurate in that description; I want the kraken on the sea bottom to be real; I want to walk through a faery circle and come out in another world where magic is as much a backbone as science is in our world. What I write almost always follows those lines: worlds like ours where, upon taking the moral equivilant of a sharp right turn, the characters discover there’s a great deal more to the world than they previously saw. I suppose if I were going to sit down and have a talk with my inner mythology, what we might talk about is how to bring magic into the world.
But, y’know. *shrug* That’s what I’m trying to do already. It’s not much of a secret to me.
2. You’re given an opportunity to choose (and to some extent define) a writing assignment that terrifies you, challenges you, excites you, and once completed, will have grown your toolset as a writer significantly. What’s the assignment
Ye gods. Writing a comic book with, or for, Warren Ellis. Or, hell, anything with or for Warren Ellis. But comics are his main forum.
3. Using each of the six senses (you pick what the sixth is), give me a sentence of how each one perceives regret. (e.g., Regret tastes like…)
Regret …sounds like a loon call from the lake on a quiet morning …looks like bright blue eyes in a sun-browned and wrinkled face; grey-white hair that’s a little wild; knotted hands and a cup to put cash in while you walk by on a foggy San Francisco evening …tastes like a smoky kiss at three in the morning …smells like the cake that just overflowed and burned on the bottom of the oven! argh! …feels like a churn of sickness boiling in your belly …seems like such a waste of time
4. Name your top three “Never”s. Interpret this however you see fit.
Never give up! Never surrender!
Never is a very long time.
Second star to the right, and straight on til morning.
5. You’ve been given a chance to write a script for your favorite comic book. The latest issue you write is supposed to end on a cliffhanger. Share the script for that final page (and that final page only) with us.
Christ. You bastard. Actually… wow. At the moment, I’m so disgusted with the X-Men that although they’re my gut reaction for ‘favorite comic’, I can’t say they are right now.
So I’m giving you CHANCE.
PAGE 022–
1–We’re looking down into the construction site; either we’re seeing it through Chance’s eyes, or we’re looking over her shoulder. There in all the brightness, Black is trussed up in chains and dangling from a crane hook. Cops are swarming below him. No copy.
2–Immediately below #1. The cops are taking Black down. No copy.
3–Immediately below #2. Murkowski, who is among the cops, turns away from Black and looks up into the lights with a little smile.
4–This frame takes up the whole right half of the page. Chance stands up in a three-quarters profile as they take Black away. She’s backlit, coat whipping around her, her hair flying as she looks down into the construction area.
TEXT BOX (TOP): The SUPERS don’t hide their faces. They’re NEW and BRASH and think they’re KINGS.
TEXT BOX (TOP THIRD): But not even a KING is above the law.
TEXT BOX (MIDDLE): I’m not LIKE them. They’ve got POWER.
TEXT BOX (BOTTOM THIRD): I’ve got EXPERIENCE.
TEXT BOX (BOTTOM): Maybe I’ll stay in the game.
TEXT BOX (BOTTOM RIGHT): Maybe I’ll take a CHANCE.
THE END