THE GATHERING DEAD Trailer

Okay, let’s get to it. Here it is, and I recommend watching in HD:

THE GATHERING DEAD Trailer from Stephen Knight on Vimeo.

For those who can’t stand Vimeo, here’s the requisite linky to YouTube:

Work on this began in February 2012, initially with a team of artists from the former Rhythm & Hues effects studio. That fell apart in March 2013, when no significant progress had been made beyond some initial previsualizations and two mostly-rendered shots. A combination of Maya and MentalRay were used, and as such, none of the created footage could be salvaged.

A new team was selected in April 2013, and Cinema 4D would represent the build environment. This team was significantly smaller than the first, which meant I had to pay more attention to the development and production process–basically, I was directing the trailer, albeit from afar. I have a wealth of project management experience, so I brought the required aptitude to the table. While the vendor was mostly professional, I found that the same evasive tricks were occasionally deployed when the schedule had been blown–“internet issues,” “rendering issues,” etc., etc. There’s not a lot one can do about this, so I adopted a stiff upper lip that would have left the British proud, while I and my partners merely continued to pay the bills. Finally, by January 2014–almost two years after the project began–I had a trailer that approximated about sixty percent of my vision.

I decided I could live with sixty percent.

One element hit one hundred percent, easy–Sean Beeson‘s score. The guy blew it out of the park, and he demonstrates a professionalism that’s pretty rare. Sound design was a very tricky component, and I’d have to rate that at sixty percent as well. I had to jump in and go hands-on in that regime, which is not my forte, but I found that Adobe Audition was easy enough to learn, and came with enough filters that I could use to at least approximate the sound quality I was going for. More learned listeners, such as the accursed Scott Wolf, will doubtless be aware that some sound effects are simply faked–they’re not real. This is where the true artistry comes in, as an experienced sound designer could take something almost totally unrelated and massage it into a sound effect that would fit the scene or sequence seamlessly. While I’ll give myself some small credit, there are simply some things that reverb, distortion, and amping can’t overcome. A sound engineer named Joe Cosgrove, who also voices Army Special Operations Command (designation RAPIER) in the beginning, lent his skills to the effort. I wish he’d had more time available, but he did what he could with what time he had.

Editing was quite simple, as I have Premiere Pro at my disposal. (For a guy who’s been relegated to the backburner of the industry, I have all the professional tools I need.) One tie-up was that Joe used the competing product, Apple’s Final Cut, which prevented seamless transfer of sound files. We got around that by using common file formats, but some signal degradation was inevitable. As such, some effects, such as the alarm system in the Black Hawk, became barely audible after the score was laid in. I’ll consider this a casualty of war.

Other items that bug me: the Black Hawk interior is totally fake in the sequence where McDaniels, Gartrell, Safire, and Regina react to the helicopter being hit by window divers. It’s a much more complex environment than what is displayed. The pilot (voiced by Sean Beeson) is sitting in the left seat, when he should have been in the right. The helicopter was spinning in the wrong direction, and for some reason, the compositor just couldn’t fix it (he did one version where the rotor spin was reversed, but that was about it). The troops’ helmets are modified bump helmets, and as such, are not exactly the right look…but this is splitting hairs. Real life operators will doubtless find fault, but given that the SF soldiers are fighting zombies, I’d say adherence to one hundred percent reality was never going to be achieved. Some buildings look unfinished, but other buildings look simply fantastic to me. Despite my complaints, there’s a lot here that’s right.

Total negative cost: in excess of $15,000. If this was going to be just a book trailer, even the big boys don’t spend this kind of cash. At more than one point during the evolution of this product, my partners and myself began to doubt our sanity. Fifteen grand is a big chunk of change. This expenditure wasn’t made lightly. That money could have gone to a lot of other things, like additional behavioral therapy for my son, or an interest-bearing CD for my partners. But fate rarely coddles those paralyzed by indecision, and this isn’t meant to be just an amped-up book trailer.

Its general utility is going to be in generating interest among potential investors, either for a live-action feature film or for a AAA video game. For a feature, the “real” entry point is upward of $35 million. For a AAA game, it’s at least $11 million. Either one of these is a huge, gigantic, incredible longshot. But if either pans out, the rewards will obviously eclipse the $15,000 payout.

So the trailer is the first step in a long journey, but at least there’s something to show for it. I hope you’ll agree, watching the trailer makes the material an instant “get”–good guys are down in the city overrun by the dead, and they have to find a way to survive inside the Verbatim office building. I think that’s all I need to convey at this point–hook ’em and land ’em, then torture them with the full script and additional production design stuff. Who knows, maybe I’ll even get my old friend Andy Clement at Creative Character Engineering to provide some makeup effects designs to sweeten the deal–tough to argue against a guy who’s the most talented special effects makeup designer to hit the scene since Rick Baker. Not to mention Jeroen ten Berge‘s upcoming pre-production poster, which threatens to be even more eye candy.

Some more about this. Obviously, everyone thinks their creative work merits a film. Just a decade ago, such a dream would have remained just that–a dream. Now, newer technologies make that dream more of a possibility. For a few thousand dollars, I can personally buy a camera that can shoot film-grade quality product, and one that doesn’t go through magazine after magazine of film. It uses data cards instead. I can output to 1080p, 2K, 4K, even 5K. I already have the software to do editing and compositing (not that I consider my skills up to the task, but if push came to shove, I could do it). New revenue outlets such as streaming are beginning to flex their muscles–Netflix alone posted earnings of over $1 billion on streaming alone. I don’t consider these new revenue generators to be sufficiently mature enough to replace either the domestic or international box offices–how many of you think that The Avengers brought in more money from pay-per-view versus theatre ticket sales?–but as supplementary streams, they most certainly add power to the punch.

Difficulties, and here I concentrate more on film: Hollywood thinks zombies are on their way out. Despite the success of The Walking Dead and that overly-polished turd World War Z, folks in Tinseltown don’t want to hear about any more zombie properties. To them, he genre has always been a fringe one, and even though it’s super-hot right now (and has been for the past few years), like their less well-dressed brethren in the publishing industry, they think the genre is too low brow to really seriously consider. Regardless of what’s going on in the real world, this is a drawback. The industry maintains control over the distribution outlets, and those they don’t control would still rather distribute another Transformers movie than some low- to mid-budget zombie action flick written by some guy no one has heard about. Despite diminished output from the major studios, their controlling hands aren’t very far removed from the scene. I’ve made several runs at the industry (and received some excellent advice and kindly mentoring from the deceased Tony Scott), but the fact is this: Hollywood isn’t interested. Even when the profits are huge, if they don’t like the genre, or if they don’t know the guy making the pitch, their first instinct is to pass. “No” is the default answer, because if someone says yes and it blows up in their face, then they pay the penalty in reputational and perhaps even financial costs.

I would note that this isn’t just prevalent with zombie properties; the same could be said for post-apocalypse stories as well, such as those by Joe Nobody and A. American. Even though I haven’t read works by either author, they have sold quite well, but for some reason, they and properties like them don’t get the time of day in Hollywood.

I know this because I’ve had more than a handful of folks wave me off already. I’m not some young buck who’s full of blind faith–I’m a middle aged guy who knows how the world works, and the bottom line is, no one gives a damn. (Now if I was 22 and looked like Jessica Alba, I’m certain things might be different.)

So the only option is to make it another DIY project. Legally, if I were to encounter individuals who met the criteria as Class A investors and who were willing to take the risk, I’d have to form a separate LLC for the venture and offer the film through a Regulation D filing. This would convert the film from a neat idea and a fun project to an honest to God investment vehicle, which means it would fall under the governance of the SEC. I understand all of it, and it’s not a hard thing for me to do—I can file the paperwork and cover the fees myself. It’s going to be an interesting ride, that’s for sure.

Now that this is complete, I need to huddle with my partners and determine what the next steps will be. Crowd funding for more dollars is always an option, so the trailer can be refined, or another one can be developed, along with more pre-production materials. I’ll likely have next steps in the coming weeks, but for now…I hope you like the trailer.

Guest Post: John O’Brien, Author of the “A New World” Series!

Hey gang,

I’ve been in the foment as of late, and have not been readily available to amaze and astonish you with my wit and wisdom. Acting in my stead today is a real steely-eyed killer you might have heard of. Let’s meet…former AFSOC superstar (?) John O’Brien!

Here’s John:

Can It Really Happen?

Hello there. My name is John O’Brien and I’m the author of the series, A New World. I released the fifth book, “A New World: Awakening”, a couple of months ago and am starting on the sixth book tentatively titled “A New World: Dissension”.

That’s an interesting and one I might have answered no to a short time ago. However, you only have to see the news to know that, it’s not really an ‘if’ to some form of apocalypse happening, but ‘when’ and in what form. Now, first of all, I am no expert by any stretch of the imagination. There are many much more knowledgeable than I. I know, hard to believe. However, some of the three brain cells left roaming around in my head to collide and form a thought. Some of those thoughts are best left inside although they do occasionally come out in the form of blurting out something inane.

Well, there’s me digressing again. A common occurrence.

So, let’s look at the various forms that could bring about the downfall. Or change if you’d like to call it that. There’s natural disasters, economic collapse, rebellion, viral pandemic to include the ever so popular flu vaccine. Ha, not so far-fetched now eh? The natural disaster would have to be one that affects us globally. Polar ice caps melting, the Yellowstone Caldera deciding to vent (pun intended). Yep, again not so far-fetched. The earth’s crust slipping. It’s happening. Magnetic north is changing in ever-increasing increments. All not fun stuff. No thanks to those.

Economic collapse. Entirely possible. Chaos in the streets but the powers that be and the military will be viable and bring military law into power. Again, no thanks. So, let’s talk viral. And by that I also mean the vaccinations. We’ve seen the truth in those recently.

Viruses do mutate, some quickly and others over time but they all mutate. Just look at the strains emerging today. They adapt and overcome and we are hard-pressed to find medicines to keep up with them. We are even having a hard time keeping up with antibiotics for the drug-resistant strains of bacteria. Cool, the Zombie Apocalypse can and will happen. Not so fast. Most likely not but something like the rage virus. Well, hmmmm….. The brain is a wired object, meaning, rewire it and it changes. It all works as a single entity and so block something and it changes what it was. Too high of a fever, parts of the brain are burned. Viruses invading and taking over certain parts of the brain and there’s now a different person, with different actions and reactions, based on the viral makeup and what they take over.

There also has to be a survival aspect to viruses or they wouldn’t mutate to survive. Yes, I know it’s through ones that survive and have a partial immunity but the viruses adapt and change. They can even adapt and change to treatments on the fly. That’s survival. With survival, wouldn’t there be a propagation aspect? So, there are a few ingredients. They won’t technically be zombies but they will seek food and need to propagate to survive. How fast they are and to what degree they can think will be determined by what parts of the brain are affected.

Far-fetched. Probably. Government super soldier, tough yet obedient, fearless, numb in the brain so they’ll take any order – not too far-fetched. Lots of homeless around. A trial version escaping – not too far-fetched.

So, as you look upon the ghouls prowling the streets come the end of the month, know it’s not all that far-fetched. Thank you for spending some time with me and have a Happy Halloween.

* * * * *

All five of us – Tonia Brown, James N Cook, John O’ Brien, Armand Rosamilia and Mark Tufo – hope you have been following along on the Haunted Halloween Blog Tour 2012. We love to see comments after the posts, and we also love to pick a random commenter and give away a free eBook or even a signed print book, so maybe you’ll get lucky!
We have centralized all the upcoming dates and blog posts on a Facebook event page. Feel free to join us there and see what is coming up next!
https://www.facebook.com/events/211796112284317/

Knight here…thanks to John for filling in for me and lending his voice for a bit. Sorry for not tidying up the place, John–the beer stained rug and cigarette burns in the furniture look like hell, but this is what accommodations are like in the Army…

Folks, I’ll be back soon with a long-winded post of my own. Will need some time to write it…it’s epic.

It’s also an obit.

Just not mine.

Taking It In The Snot Locker (UPDATED)

“And The Future of Trade Publishing Is…”

I wrote a few days ago how novelist Sue Grafton, she of the Letter Mysteries, dropped a few depth charges on us self-pubbers who should apparently remain confined to the deep, cold depths of obscurity. Her comments not only annoyed me, but actually left me in a condition that could certainly be coined as “approaching anger.” I felt her words were needlessly snobby and, more importantly, were perhaps crafted to intentionally insult. It’s as if she actually wanted to take one in the snot locker and be left with a mouthful of bloody Chiclets…

…or maybe, she’s just not as precise in selecting her words as she might have us believe. A shame her publicist wasn’t on hand to help her out, no? Authors say the strangest things when they think no one is listening.

Apparently, Forbes Magazine feels this may be the case. I present to you herewith the article, Publishing Is Broken, We’re Drowning In Indie Books – And That’s A Good Thing.

Some select quotes, cherry-picked by You-Know-Who:

Indie Success and The Publishing Lottery

Another reality that goes against the establishment view of Indie authors is that some of them have, in fact, gone on to sign very significant contracts with major publishing houses. A few examples:

1. Amanda Hockingwrote 17 teen supernatural suspense novels in her spare time and then self-published them, becoming the first Indie sensation before she signed a $2mm deal with St. Martins Press.
2. John Lockesold over two million copies of his Indie books before signing a limited deal with Simon & Schuster to get physical distribution for some of his novels.
3. E.L. James wrote the precursor to Fifty Shades of Grey online as fan fiction and self-published it on her own website before Vintage acquired it.  She was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people for 2012.

Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule and these examples don’t necessarily prove that publishing is broken.  But the conceit that Indie authors are merely a bunch of lazy hacks unwilling to face rejection ignores the fact that even the biggest proponents of the old publishing system admit that there are many talented published authors nobody has ever heard of.  Have you read The Lion’s Eye?

And this line of thinking also ignores mid-list authors.  These men and women have talent and persistence but write for small market segments.  The economics of traditional publishing makes it very hard for either publisher or author to profit from a pool of only 10,000 to 30,000 readers, no matter how devoted.  Amazon, on the other hand, allows Indie authors to keep up to 70% of their e-book royalties, compared to the 15-20% royalties that conventional book publishers offer authors on printed books – and mainstream publishing royalties are much worse for ebooks.  Publishing independently can allow mid-list authors to make a reasonable living on writing.

And…

There is something very odd about this war of words between successful authors on different sides of a tectonic shift in the publishing world: it doesn’t exist in many similar industries facing the same sort of technological upheaval.   You don’t hear Christina Aguilera or Adam Levine knocking indie bands.  Instead they joined a show called “The Voice” which aims to capitalize on the credibility of indie artists by finding journeyman artists and giving them a shot at major label contracts.  Indie filmmakers are revered, not reviled, partly because they eschew the studio system and its constraints on artistic expression.  And the art world seems keenly attuned to the idea that the next Georgia O’Keeffe might be producing revolutionary work somewhere out of their sight until she turns 30.

Bold by me.

This is what’s perhaps the most puzzling part of this entire I’m-Gonna-Bust-Up-Your-Rice-Bowl paradigm exhibited by trade-published writers: their incessant need to come out swinging, when by all accounts they’ve “made it.” I guess it’s kind of like the medical profession, where young doctors are put on shifts that last for days by their superiors, despite the potential that critical misdiagnoses are more apt to occur when the attending physician is suffering from utter exhaustion–the old guard had to go through it, so the same must hold true for the new one. As such, it seems writers aren’t really professional writers until they’ve been rejected a million times and managed to somehow, some way, sail into a perfect storm of opportunity where their work is picked up by an agent or a publisher (or any other select circumstance which results in trade publication).

Well yeah, in 2009, that’s pretty much how it worked.

Hello, 2012!

Grafton, Thor, the incredibly out-of-touch Author’s Guild–all of them orbit around the celestial body called trade publishing (aka “traditional publishing,” a designation which drives people in the trade business crazy), and it certainly appears they haven’t quite figured out that their industry is going through some seriously tumultuous change. It’s a shame they’re more interested in circling the wagons and manning the battlements to prevent upstart self-publishers from elbowing them away from the trough; it does seem like an opportunity to practice some inclusiveness, and thereby make an attempt to shape the coming changes, as opposed to being overwhelmed by them.

Did horse breeders try to shoot up Henry Ford when he began manufacturing automobiles? Did any of the major aviation manufacturers get all nervous and jittery when Igor Sikorsky started experimenting with helicopters? Damn, did Kodak go on the warpath when digital media came into being, even though they had to know the technology would lead to their death knell?

I’ve written millions of words in my quest to become a writer. Most of them were bad, some were merely adequate, a precious few bordered on being good. But the distant success of my works had little to do with my ability to tell a story–while my detractors are legion, it does seem I’ve proven at least that much–it had everything to do with them landing in front of the right person, at the right time, on the right day, on the right side of the slush pile.

Folks, those are incredibly steep odds to overcome.

The self-publish “movement,” such as it is, seems to only be growing, gathering more momentum as each day comes to a close. Trade publishers, while perhaps not on the ropes, are feeling it in the bottom line. And when they start to bleed, they of course spread the wealth, which means folks like Grafton, Thor, Turow, et al, might not find themselves in the positions of advantage they’ve grown accustomed to. The publishing industry is changing, and while no one has a firm bead on what the end game might be, I don’t think anyone reading this post has to be related to The Amazing Kreskin to figure that change is gonna hurt.

And comments like the ones being cast off by trade-published writers like those already named aren’t likely to increase my sympathy for them when they wake up one day and find their new contracts are suddenly less rewarding than they had been in the past. And for sure, they’re not about to make me fold up my self-publishing tent and go home.

An example: in 2009, I didn’t make jack writing. Not a single penny.

At the end of 2012, I’ll likely realize around $80,000…in profit. (And my accountant hates it when I tell people how much I make, so for those of you who might have been curious why I haven’t been posting my sales data this year, there is your explanation.)

So yeah, waiting a year or so for an agent to read my query letter and then request a partial or a full submission, and then take a year or more to accept or reject? Sorry, it’s just not worth my time any longer. Because I can earn now, and be judged by the readers, the people both self-pubbers and trade pubber rely upon. The readers are the ones forcing this change, not Amazon, not self-publishers, not the fact that some company in Taiwan makes chips that go into iPads, or that a couple of guys named Jacobsen and Comiskey invented E-Ink.

My middle name isn’t Copernicus, so if I can understand this, I’m amazed that a bunch of self-reverential smarty-pants in the publishing industry can’t figure it out for themselves.

But hey, greater minds than mine have articulated all the above with far fewer words: check out the musings of David Gaughran or, for something a little more pointed, Hugh Howey’s epic rejoinder, complete with super-cool graphic that I wish I’d thought of. (I remember well when HH was trounced by the loving souls over at AbsoluteWrite, and I rejoice that his fame and fortune doubtless has many a trade published poster there writhing in AbsoluteJealousy, if nothing else.)

At the end of the day, all this asshattery is going to hurt a lot of folks, and it might be beneficial to all if perhaps some of the Big Name Authors might be a tad more selective with their words. Because while it’s amusing to watch them make asses of themselves, it’s also going to make their eventual comeuppance even more of a train wreck. (And I don’t know about you, but watching trains wreck sounds kind of fun.)

The upshot of all this is, there will be winners, and there will be losers. And I don’t think I’m on the losing team.

EDITED TO ADD: Through Hugh’s site, I found that Ms. Grafton has posted “an explanation.” It’s not an apology as she says, but she does expound upon her viewpoint.

Regrettably, my previous analysis stands.

THE GATHERING DEAD Film Update #2

So, things continue to plow ahead on the project. I’d like to show you some concepts here that will go in the fundraising trailer. This is where the Black Hawk carrying McDaniels, Gartrell, the Safires, and the rest of the team from The Gathering Dead crashes in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

First off, we have the storyboard concept art. This is basically just a picture that covers most of the dynamic elements that will be embodied in the fully rendered scene. In other words, it’s a comic book-like drawing, as shown here:

Crash Scene Storyboard

Boom goes the Black Hawk! Not terribly exciting to look at in this incarnation, I know. But this is how it almost always begins: a scene from a script is roughed out in a set of storyboards, usually in a shot-by-shot format. This specific board here actually incorporates three different shots in one, but conceptually, I think it’s easy to get what’s going on: the MH-60M is crashing in NYC.

Now, the sequence has to be rendered for animatics, which will be the first generation CGI effects pass. Obviously, the board above doesn’t look very realistic at all. So what has to happen is that actual images of NYC have to be captured and mapped out. This is thankfully easy to do, since New York actually exists–it’s not an alien city or anything like that, so there are tons of photographs out there to use in mocking up the animatic. (And if need be, I can always take the 4 or 5 trains uptown and take pictures myself.) In this instance though, Our Friend Google Maps comes to the rescue.

Crash Site and Markups

Above are two shots of the intersection of East 79th Street and Lexington Avenue, the location of the building the team takes shelter in. You can see no such structure exists; it will be built in CGI and then composited onto the scene. Additional effects will be added, such as wall-to-wall traffic, smoke, some flames, and yes…zombies. And in the middle of that, comes the stricken MH-60M Black Hawk.

And how will that happen? Am I going to go out and pay the U.S. Army $45,000,000 for a Black Hawk and have them crash it in Manhattan’s Upper East Side? Nope. It’ll be a CGI model, which is already partially rendered:

MH-60M Black Hawk

This model isn’t complete. The pilot doors will have to come off, the gunner doors will have to be opened, and so will the doors to the troop compartment–the 160th flies pretty much without doors on their aircraft in all weather, so those elements will be altered. But in the coming weeks, all of these elements will be brought together using Maya, Mental Ray, Blender, and 3DS Max to provide a fully-formed action element. In other words, you’ll see what happens to a multimillion dollar special operations aviation aircraft after it’s been hit by a window diver. Add in some additional opticals, composites, music, sound effects, and voila! Ten seconds of a trailer is born.

Should be fun.

New York Times: Amazon Signs Writers, Cuts Publishers Out

Oh boy, like it’s something a zillion people didn’t already know.

But when the Gray Lady herself starts covering it, then you know it’s got to be the real deal…finally.

Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal

But there’s still tons of denial out there. Just recently, I watched from a near distance as a veteran horror author cautioned a fledgling writer to find an agent, and not self-publish. He didn’t mention the years of waiting that would be involved; the months waiting for an agent to read and agree to represent, the months of trying to sell the manuscript to an editor, the time it would take for the editor to sell the product internally–it has to have the blessing of the marketing department, you know–the edits, the rewrites, the acceptance, the printing, the distribution, and finally, if all goes well, the earn out. We’re talking years.

And at no time did the veteran mention to the newcomer that the agent will be helping him/herself to 15% of all earnings–forever. And that 15% of a 6-8% royalty is a lot of work for doing nothing.

I know several published authors–some big names, too–who are trying self-publishing. They’ll release old or maybe even new short stories, and then bitch that they’re not raking in the money across the transom. Readers want novels, not short stories, but these big guns give up their novels to the publishing industry (and 15% of all proceeds to agents) instead. I don’t get it, myself. There are most certainly instances where individuals have gone to win the publishing gold doing it their way–hell, see the NYT article–but I guess once you’re set in your ways, there’s no going back.

Fine by me, I guess. I’m digging the whole self-pub cycle, even though it’s a hell of a lot of work. But the best guy I’ve ever worked for is myself, so I’m unusually motivated to keep my boss happy.

The Rising Horde: Just Some Odds and Ends

I’m continuing to bang out the first draft of The Gathering Dead sequel, currently called The Rising Horde…though lately, I’ve been thinking of changing it to The Gathering Horde. What do you guys think? I’m averaging a good 3,000 words a day, which is a pretty healthy rate, I think. I have a hard-stop of October 20, as I need to deliver the draft to an editor for an initial pass, which is going to be an aggressive goal.

But hey. Life’s tough.

But while I should be writing about hundreds of zombies emerging from the surf around Padre Island, I’m going to loaf a bit and share some general errata with regards to the novel itself. Just so you guys can see what’s going on in my head, so to speak.

First off, music is key, and despite having a vast library of CDs and MP3s, I guess I needed something new and different to see me through. To the rescue: YouTube, and the scores to three video games, of all things–Lost Planet and Lost Planet 2 by newly-discovered Jamie Christopherson, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 by Hans Zimmer (who I don’t usually care for) and his hardworking contributor, Lorne Balfe. Some of the music doesn’t quite fit thematically, but hey, it’s free and it’s working for me. Some cool cuts:

Takedown – CoD:MW2

Rangers Lead The Way – CoD:MW2, which is fitting since I have a BN from 75th Ranger on-station

Task Force – Lost Planet 2

Infiltration – Lost Planet 2

Wayne’s Theme/Title – Lost Planet

Sortie/Mission Briefing – Lost Planet

Some good stuff here, really gets me going.

Other stuff–let’s see some pics!

McDaniels and Gartrell are part of Joint Task Force SPARTA (JTF-SPARTA) which is centered around defending a specific objective in Texas. The facility in question is already fairly remote–if you call being 10 or 20 miles south of Odessa as remote, and most people would probably agree with that. Here’s the location, marked with an X, courtesy of my fantastically mad Photoshop skillz…

JTF Sparta Location

 

Basically, it’s out in the middle of nowhere, which is a great change from the claustrophobic vertical environment of New York City. Nice and flat with limited obstructions and the ability to be converted into a full-on free fire range…which the task force will need.

 

But how to defend the facility, you might ask? I did too, and that’s where I asked a zillion and one questions and got some fantastic answers. Seems that since the usual things, such as suppressive fire from machineguns and indirect fire from arty isn’t much of a threat to thousands of zombies, the best thing to do is to deny them access. So that means lots of trenches, lots of fire, lots of smoke, and once they get through that–what, you didn’t think it was going to be that easy, right?–you need a really high berm and lots and lots of CONEX containers.

 

CONEX container

And add to that several rows of HESCO barriers, which are filled with earth and can serve as secondary barriers…

The finished product: a HESCO wall

There’s much more than just this stuff, of course…but that should give you an idea of what the task force has in mind, with regards to static defenses. I’ll come back in a bit and drop in some pictures of vehicles, weapons, and maybe a thumbnail of the forces arrayed against the encroaching dead…

Write What You Know?

One of the most cited axioms in writing is to “write what you know”.

Now of course, if all you know is amphibious bicycle repair and you’re trying hard to write an action-adventure book, then you’re going to need to spread your wings a bit. This isn’t to say your heroes can’t come to the rescue on an amphibious bicycle, but if you plan on writing chapter after chapter of them repairing and maintaining their awesome ride…well, suffice to say, it’s unlikely that fame and fortune will visit you.

I’m a little fortunate in that I tend to know a lot about many different things that are easy to incorporate into a novel. The United States Army, helicopters and airplanes and aviation in general, weapons, boating, high technology, a little bit of biology and medicine, East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East (also known as Southwest Asia, for those who like to be pedantic about things), littoral operations, special operations…hell, unlike bestselling author Vince Flynn, I even know that U.S. Navy SEALs aren’t called Special Forces, that’s the official designation of Army Green Berets. So that’s a goodly amount of knowledge to bring to the table, and since I’m not currently enamored of writing romance stories where this kind of stuff might seem out of place, I’ve got a lot of stories to tell.

But what if you have a hankering to write about things you don’t have direct experience with? What if you just have to write a detailed police procedural, and don’t know jack-diddly about the techniques and procedures a police department would array to solve a crime? Lazy (or extremely talented!) writers would just make stuff up, package it, and fire for effect. Those of us who want to bring more verity to our works beyond whispering “realism” once or twice during the writing process can actually do something else. And I do this all the time, since I’m a far cry from being a brainiac.

It’s called “research”.

Research can be annoying and dreary work, but it is something of a necessary evil. I was surprised to read in a Patricia Cornwall Scarpetta novel that one of her characters actually got most of the startup procedures for a Eurocopter A-Star down pretty pat. (One would think Cornwall would dispense with such details, but apparently she still believes in research.) While this didn’t mean very much in the context of the entire novel, it still conferred a fair amount of credibility to the work, and even non-aviators might have found it an interesting set of circumstances.

Research helps open doors for us as writers, and incorporating the fruits of that research into our works can give readers a glimpse into a life they might otherwise remain ignorant of. I’m not advocating using your fiction as a teaching tool, as too much emphasis on fact can make for some very dry reading, but it most assuredly does add another dimension to the reading experience. But if real-world data doesn’t easily fit into your fiction, or if it derails the story you want to tell, then be creative. I was one of a handful of people who was incensed when reading Tom Clancy’s Clear and Present Danger, as it was rife with inaccuracies about U.S. special operations forces–U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) had just been established, and for sure that component would have been calling the operational shots, not the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. And why would a composite team be assembled to jump into Colombia? 7th Special Forces Group had a ton of guys with all the training necessary. And Air Force special operations providing tactical transport? Keep it streamlined and us the then-Task Force 160, an organic Army special operations aviation unit! These inaccuracies pulled me out of the story, and that’s not usually a good thing.

But full disclosure: I still finished the book. even after finding these transgressions borne from lazy research. And the book went on to become a successful movie. And even better, the 160th’s 3rd Battalion was featured inserting Benjamin Bratt’s troops–and I found it ironic the suits in Hollywood almost got it right where Clancy failed.

So research away, folks. Add some realistic grit to your endeavors. Don’t just describe how black the smoke is, add something to make the reader feel he or she can almost smell it and feel the blistering heat from the raging fire.

And oh yes…Happy Memorial Day. Take a second to hug a vet, because they made sacrifices so you don’t have to.