We've all skipped over reading those stories about some guy who had a twin that didn't survive, and became part of his body. Eventually, that remnant becomes a threat to the survivor. And though it's been a part of him since before birth, there comes a time to extricate her from his body. Often times, reconstructing the gaps is more difficult than removing sis.
Goodbye, Abby. I'll miss you... :(
In 1988, the movie The Seventh Sign was released. I guess I went to see it because I was curious. The fact that my pastor told us not to didn't help. I wanted to see what the threat was. It stunned me. Partly because of the feeling it gave me in the end of the Reagan era, when I was still expecting a less Biblical, and more nuclear Armageddon written in Cyrillic. But mostly I was stunned that someone had the stones to make a movie with a thinly veiled Jesus and somewhat realistic elements of the Book of Revelation right there on the screen. This wasn't the Omen's stylized 666-a-thon. This was dialogue between Abby, a desperate believer, and the One in whom she believed. And frankly, I believed in THIS Jesus more than the taskmaster that they preached on.When the movie ended, and I stopped blubbering, I was left with questions. Not so much how it matched the "Biblical" account. That was Baptispeak for "believe what I say or get out." It wasn't perfectly Biblical, but I was just freeminded enough to let that slide.
That was no dream... you were THERE!
No, there were questions about the plot, but mostly the characters. How did Abby get from the First Century to now? Why did Lucci kill the priest? Jimmy wasn't really martyred, just murdered. And the clincher... HOW could the signs be stopped? I searched for the novelization to read what the movie couldn't say. I couldn't find it. When I finally realized that it never existed... I wrote it myself. Yes, I sat down with an old tape player with a crudely lifted audio of the movie... and wrote what I deemed a "private novelization." I answered many of my own questions. For example, if Lucci couldn't die until Messiah returns, how could even 30 rounds of 9-mm kill him? And where is he? I vaguely tried to get what I wrote published, but not really. It wasn't time... It was too late.
Brain Blit... It's a technical term
One night, desperately poor, I was stuffing grocery store ads (Meijer's Flyers) into my local newspaper, with metal rock music blasting into my nice Christian brain. The task was mindless, and so, my mind went elsewhere. I was thinking about Abby getting tossed into the future, and in what I call a "Brain Blit", I got a rush of information, plot, character and bible verses that answered many of the questions and drew a frightening parallel. "Well, if Abby went from then till now, what did THEY think happened to her? Did she die? Or did she just vanish? And if that, where did they THINK she went? Did they mourn her or place a memorial? Then, I realized that it sounded like I was talking about the death of Judas Iscariot. I never understood why there were two stories about how he died, hanged and bowels gushing out. I've heard simple preachers try to biblify an answer, but something inside me could see through their fabrication. I realized there was a way for them both to be true. Ask Vlad the Impaler!
Oh My Whatever!
What if JUDAS ISCARIOT also vanished!? What would happen if he were to land in the 20th Century? (It was 1989, so we had long way to go till Y2K.) And so "The Seventh Trumpet" was born. Or at least conceived. It was going to be a sequel to The Seventh Sign, and answer questions that no one remembered ever existed. I took the characters, Lucci, Abby, Russell and even the David Banner persona of Jesus... and added Judas, Nemesis and Chaos.
"Don't Dilute It"
Starting in 1990, I tried VERY hard to contact Clifford and Ellen Greene to get them on board/ By very hard, I did whatever I could without the Internet, IMDBPro, money and lawyers, to find them and pitch the sequel. No avail. I even went to the effort to find the house they filmed the movie in. That is nearly a book in and of itself. Maybe I can write it as a sequel to The Shack. :-D Kidding. But when I went to SCWCLA08, I was in the pirate sessions with Matt Pallamary, Lorelei Armstrong and, among others, Jeff Michaels. When I did my read and critique, he got it. Even when others got the heebie jeebies, and they raised questions with a tinge of fear in their voices. I was shaking their beliefs. They hated Judas and couldn't bear to think that he might still be alive. But Jeff was grinning as he nodded when I was still to hold silence. In the 4am session, I confessed to him that it was a sequel to The Seventh Sign. I was standing, and he was sitting... but he peered up at me as if he had seen the future. With the serious countenance of an avenging angel, he said merely, "Don't dilute it."
Scalpel... bolt cutters..
So now, I have the momentous task of surgically removing Abby and the Seventh Sign from Judas Christ. Now, I will say this... I have been preparing for this moment for about 16 of the 18 years. I wrote "The Seventh Trumpet" in modular chapters, where all of my original writing and characters were segregated from Abby, David and to a lesser extent Lucci. Picture a cable car with many cars hung off the cables. But some of the cars are all mine, and some are sequelizations. If I cut that cable, only those cars will fall. I will have gaps to fill, but I was careful to leave only gaps that I can fill with original material. Lucci is an immortal Roman soldier. Wickett & Kaplan didn't invent him. He's a genuine legend named Longinus. I can borrow from the same legend they (and others) did. Abby is
"For such a time as this..."
When I wrote my silly little novelization, I spent the wee hours and a lot of candle wax exploring how the plot elements presented in the movie could happen, and at the same time, be "biblical". And then, to make my life interesting, I tried to make them realistic. I added elements, events and actions that would have followed, if they had been in the movie. Not the least of which is Jesus asking Lucci if he will do something for him. And the tsunami that wipes out the South Bay of Los Angeles. It turns out, there is a lot of backstory that I can draw upon. Maybe some thought that writing was a waste of time, but perhaps, it was written for such a time as this. I will be drawing those elements that no one ever read or saw in the movie, and fill in the gaps in my own writing.
I have some hurdles, because the Seventh Sign brought so much to the table. Lucci guilt for killing Abby, Jimmy, Father Byrne. Abby was someone special, and I had something special for her at the very, very end. I may not be able to recover... but I'll try. Wickett and Kaplan brought a lot to the table... but they left it there to spoil. It was too good to waste.
Another Brain Blit
After I left SCWCLA08, I spent the next day walking around Manhattan Beach. I was thinking about everything and nothing at all. Not REALLY trying to cogitate on my task. Car shopping, mostly. But I did end up thinking how I was going to get Abby's Replacement (let's call her Annie for now) into the story, and how could I replicate the horrific sadness of a new father having lost his wife to an insane priest. As I finished my lap and returned to my hotel (I could show you the exact spot), I had another brain blit. And I choked up as I walked. I knew what I was going to do. It was all right there in front of me. ;-)
To-do list... Elect a president...
After I got back from SCWCLA08, I had some business to take care of. And take care of it I did. Now, there is one last piece of business and them I'm off. I have to elect a President. Whomever wins, I will not be writing him (or her ;-) into Judas Christ. But having an idea of where the country is headed will help me keep this tale as germane as possible. Let's just say that the Arab/Islamic world will be staring down the Great Satan. Whose eyes through which Satan is staring back in real life will dictate how I write those chapters. So stay tuned...
Maybe that effort in 1989 to sequelize a movie was a waste of time. But maybe, it was stocking a storehouse for such a time as this. Maybe it had to age, like a fine old Scotch. And like that very old Scotch, I won't dilute it.
No comments:
Post a Comment