Back From Next

Howdy, folks!

Just got back from the best conference I'd been to in a long time: NEXT. Put on by Sovereign Grace Ministries, the theme was the church, and how I as a Christian fit into it. Speakers included C.J. Mahaney, Kevin DeYoung and Matt Chandler; and let me tell you, God has gifted those men greatly!

So, now I'm back, and you can expect posts again. I've got a handful of Deep Red comic pages in the pipeline, along with a fair collection of poems I wrote while on my trip. I'm also working on a internet-safe trailer for When Darkness Falls, so ya'll can get a little peek into what I spend my summers doing.

Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to post, I'm all ears!

Deep Red- #2

Here's the next couple of pages! And, fyi, sometime in the near future I will be compiling all of these and creating a page specifically for them, so you can re-read the whole story without searching through weeks of posts.

Deep Red- In Brick

Well, back when I asked ya'll about which story to work on next, I mentioned a Lego stop-motion video. A few days later, I posted a few screenshots. Since then, my goal changed a little. See, if any of you have ever made or attempted to make a stop-motion flick, then you know that it takes FOREVER. On the order of a few weeks for every two minutes or so. And Deep Red was too big a story to tell in thirty seconds. :)

So, I switched gears. I had dabbled with a certain program a while back, really enjoyed it, and rather forgotten about it in the hubbub that was finals. Well, partway through my realization that making a full-length feature film for Deep Red was impossible, I remembered it.

And ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the result: Deep Red; the graphic novel; in Lego.

And that's just the first two pages! There's nine more, as of right now, which constitute one section (or four pages, if you like), of text in the actual book.

So, what do you think? Nifty visualization, or epic fail? 

A Comment to the Comments

Well, since I had a little too much to say in answer to all the comments on my last post, I decided that instead of stuffing it all in the comments section and hope everyone checked back there, I would put it here.

To answer all the questions about viewing the movie; due to many of my actors' differing privacy preferences, (including my own), I doubt this movie will ever reach public viewing on the internet, though I might be able to fashion a trailer or scene preview at some point which will allow a glimpse of our work. I will get back to ya'll on that.

But seriously? 36 A's, and a collective dozen each of exclamation points and question marks; all for a junky photoshop of a sword with darkness sprayed around behind it and a fairly basic (read: unoriginal) plot line synopsis? Over excessive, much?

Keep thy cool, folks. :) Save your fanaticism for Legolas, Twilight and The Hunger Games. They need it. :P

Now, that's not to say I don't enjoy you all drooling over seemingly whatever I post, but it does get old to hear everything I do praised as if it was the latest Harry Potter movie. Just remember, as I have said before, and will continue to say, everything I apparently create has been given to me by God. And He should get the glory, not me.

So go ahead and scream with excitement every time the word "Excerpt" appears on this blog, but do refrain from putting said excitement into text. Trust me, you'll live longer for it. :)

Now, please don't take this for what it's not. I'm not asking anyone to stop commenting. I'd just rather not be the subject of uber-excitement. But here's what you can do. See, I'm just like you. The only difference is here I'm on the other end of the blog. I write, you read. But what if my writing is doing what this kind of commenting is doing, only the other way around? In other words, am I sticking myself and/or my writing on a pedestal to be admired and above reproach? Am I asking (not in so many words, of course) for all the attention and praise I 'say' I shouldn't have?

So keep me accountable. Let me know if I'm being stuck-up, or asking for praise and approval for my work. This blog should point to God, but if all it's doing is pointing to me, then it's failed in its purpose.

And finally, thank you all. Thank you for every single wonderful comment you've ever posted here. I truly appreciate them.

Sincerely, Farjag

It is DONE!!

In late December of 2009, I shot the first frames of my biggest film project to date.

Two months shy of a year ago, I shot my last.

Last night, almost three entire years after starting it, I can officially declare When Darkness Falls: 

COMPLETE!!

A Dark-Ages-esque piece, When Darkness Falls is the tale of a kingdom rising up against the tyranny that has crushed the life out it's people for fifteen years. It chronicles the story of the outlaw Flaren, him named the Fellburn, and his efforts to ignite the people of Faerndell into revolt against their oppressors. But the true hero of the story is a young boy named Drelborn, whose true identity will topple the outcome of the fast-approaching war one way or the other.

You Can Has Excerpt!

Because I'm lame and didn't know what else to post. :)

From Deep Red:

Kale chuckled, shaking Cordan’s hand good-naturedly. “Best of luck to you, mate. I’m pretty sure you need it.”
Cordan winked and turned to go. “I’ll be picking up them supplies tomorrow round abouts noon. Have ‘em ready at your east entrance, I’ll be putting down in the street.” 

* * *

“You sure this is a good idea, captain?” yelled Reese over the whipping of the wind and the roar of Deep Red’s engines. He hadn’t realized the Cordan wasn’t joking when he had said he was gonna pull up right to the cantina’s front door.
“Course I am! You ever flown a cutter afore?”
“No, but…”
“Then shut up!”

Mother's Day

To all Moms everywhere, but especially mine, we all love you so much. And while the second Sunday in May should be no different than any other day when it comes to our love for you and how we express it, we'll take any excuse to make this day even more special. So here's to you, dearest mother, may your presence grace our homes till the stars rain down from the heavens.

Mothers

Lady of the home estate
Queen of the kitchen faire
Countess of the budget royale
Mother of loving care

Madame of the watchtower
Mistress of the sister clan
Wife of the warrior
Damsel of the brother band

Protector of her children
Keeper of her beloved home
Shieldmaiden for her husband
Guardian of her hearthstone

Faithful to the end
Loved by those she bore
Let us never forget her
Let her name be passed to lore

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!
Let everyone sing your praise
You have all our hearts
Until the last of days

Deep Red

A picture can say a thousand words, or so the saying goes. But is it true? You decide.

Cordan left the old man snoring and made his down down through the clutteryard, hands shoved deep in his pockets. Piles of scrap metal lined the path, rusting ships, smashed towers, bits of cranes and buggies; anything metal you could think of came here to die. Cordan kicked a hub cap off the path absently and listened to the ensuing crash of whatever it had hit falling over.

The antennae towers loomed ahead, twisting spires of metal rearing high up over the surrounding piles. Lines draped from one to another, ladders hung here and there, and everything seemed connected to something else, so that the final effect was of a giant spiderweb of rusting metal suspended over the clutteryard. And if the antennas made a spiderweb, then Reese was the spider, a tiny body hanging upside down from a ladder, his shock of dirty blonde hair ruffled by the breeze.

It's always fun to try to paint the image in your mind across a canvas, be the medium what it may. 

But out of curiosity, do any of you use strange or interesting mediums to paint what's in your mind's eye? Or am I just a wierdo? :)

Not Mine

Well, this is a shameless plug for my new "About the Author" page located here *points up*

Why? Well, a while back I was reading one of those "Top Ten Blogging Tips" posts somewhere, and they mentioned the importance of putting a face to the writer. So there's my mug. But it's not me that's important, and that's the real reason for this post.

See, I started writing, and what came out wasn't another one of those "All About Me 'Cause I'm Awesome" pages. It was what any introduction to myself should be, a whole-hearted re-direct to the Most Awesome God I serve.

And as just as it so happens, the last poem I wrote was exactly on the subject. May it further explain what I'm trying to say.

Not Mine

What words flow from my mind
What lines seep from my pen
What haunting melodies do flit
On the ether around my head?

Whence come these bits of prose
These errant poems and songs
From where comes this feeling
Of words unspoken too long

These wisps are not truly mine
I cannot claim them as my own
My mind could not conjure such things
Nor my pen to write them alone

Yet still they come, fountaining on
Bubbling up in a rapid stream
I cannot stop up this steady flow
No more than a sleeper can stop his dream

But my life is not my own
I've been bought with a price
And no more are my words mine
Than is my purchased life

So may these words I've been given
Never stop their flowing
May my pen continue to spill
Out praises to my holy King

May every poem, story and song
All sing together of the One
May every sentence and every rhyme
Glorify the Father and His Son

The Tally

And the final count is:

Freeborn & Freegiven: 1
Feather & Fang: 1
Deep Red: 1
One of the Rewrites: 1
Whatever your heart tells you: 1

.......

Um.... I guess this means I have to decide for myself after all! :P

So much for that. :D

In other business, welcome to the blog Eruantien! Hope you enjoy your stay.
And thank you to everyone else who voted, I appreciate it greatly.

But now, since I know what you all really want to know is what I'm going to work on next...

I will write Deep Red. 

And I'm making a Lego stop motion video of it... so you'll get to watch that soon!

What now?

So... now that finals are over... and summer is here... I must decide...

What should I work on for writing?


And this is where I need your help, dear readers. Since I have multiple novels/stories underway (all in various stages of completion), I am at a loss as to which project to focus my attentions on. My options are thus:

Freeborn and Freegiven: Deep in the land of shieldsfell-ruled Quartorlen, the last of the freeborn must conquer their fears and journey into the heart of enemy territory to break the invader's hold on both their country and their countryfolk once and for all.

Stats: NaNo 2010 Novel
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 51,342
Project: Rewrite

Feather and Fang: Twenty-two years after the events of Freeborn and Freegiven, the freeborn of Quartorlen have split into factions, each vying for supremacy in the vacuum of power left when the shieldsfell withdrew their forces. When an assassin from one faction and a bounty hunter from the other are trapped together in the deadliest place in Quartorlen, they must work together or perish. And if they make it out alive, they will bring information that could change the face of the war.

Stats: Sequel to Freeborn
Genre: Fantasy
Word Count: 18,319
Project: Finish

The Truth/Trust Hole: In the heartland of a country much like ours, there is an arena. An arena where criminals with special abilities work out their life sentences fighting robots for public sport. These Games attract citizens of all ages, races, and walks of life, all come to see their favorite fighters cheat death again and again against a pitiless enemy. But when a young boy named Alen is thrown into the Hole, by chance, it would seem, everything begins to change.

Stats: NaNo 2011 Novel
Genre: Sci-Fi
Word Count: 52,973
Project: Rewrite

Deep Red/Crimson Streak: Somewhere in the Cluster an out-of-work headhunter sets out on a mission to find the greatest commodity in the markets of the Core: something he has heard is called 'Hope'. But when he enlists the help of a young boy who can apparently see the past and future, things go in a direction he wasn't planning.

Stats: Short Story
Genre: Sci-Fi
Word Count: 3,272
Project: Finish


What do you think? All of them have a lot of potential as far as ease of completion goes (unlike the other dozen or so which I could have listed), all of them get me excited when I think about them... so I'm in a pickle!

Help me out, and give me your opinions! And rest assured, one day I'll get to all of them, I just need to know which one to work on first.

Thanks in advance!
Farjag

And...

I have survived!!

The foul beast of finals has been slain, and I live to fight another day!

Onto glorious summer!