LUCKY SEVENS_THE RIVAL

The lovely Jo Schaffer

has tagged me for LUCKY SEVENS

http://jostorm.blogspot.com/2012/03/lucky-sevens.html

The rules are as follows:
1. Go to page 77 of your current MS
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines - sentences or paragraphs - and post them as they're written. No cheating
4. Tag 7 authors
5. Let them know

I gratefully accept tags, but I know many of my friends do not like them. I don't know who among them do not, so I do not tag. If any of you visiting want to play, great!

Alice insisted I use her latest book, so here are the those seven paragraphs (not sentences). Hey, you know how Victor loves words:

Legba, was still here. Happy with me he wasn’t. It was almost a tradition with me when arriving anywhere.

“What be wrong wid you, boy?” he huffed in his Jamaican accent.

Alice giggled, “Do you wish the list alphabetically or in order of importance?”

Legba pointed a long scraggly finger at the wiggling tentacle on the grass busily growing an Old One at the end of it. Sfumato! I never knew that could happen. Stephen King should publish a handbook or something on the by-laws of creepy-crawlies.

“You be killing all of dis city, girl!” Legba shouted.

Alice quickly pointed my way. “Me not him.”

“That’s right. Throw me under the wheels of the bus, Alice.”
***
Many of you have asked me about the word "Sfumato" with which Victor swears. Though a ghoul, Alice Wentworth was raised in the early Victorian Age and is made uncomfortable with Victor's normal "colorful metaphors" as she puts it.

Victor loves her with all his heart so he tries to use the word "Sfumato" that sounds like what he wants to say! Having spent literally years in public libraries for their safety, he is undestandably well read.

He knows Sfumato is one of the four major painting modes of the Renaissance.

The most prominent practitioner of sfumato was Leonardo da Vinci,

and his famous painting of the Mona Lisa exhibits the technique (especially in the shading around the eyes).

Leonardo da Vinci described sfumato as "without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane."

To Victor, Leonardo's description of Sfumato dove-tails exactly with what he feels about "proper" and "improper" when he wants to swear!
***
I have waited for this movie since I first read the books with the Leauge of Five as a young boy

JOIN THE QUEST FOR MAGIC! MOVIE MAGIC WITH CLARK SCHAFFER!

Join a quest for magic ...

Movie Magic!

With Clark Schaffer as your Gandalf,though he insists he looks much more like Aragorn.

Hibbs, if you're going to snicker, go outside and pretend you're Iron Man again.

The delightful, fun Jo Schaffer asks you to join her husband on this grand quest.

Her husband's film project CLEVERER is still on Kickstarter :

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/109319462/cleverer

He's giving away some great prizes to those who help out with a donation.

Even a few dollars will get her husband closer to his dream of making his own film--

after years of making other people's movies.

Please donate and pass it on!

Any of her Followers who would be willing to blog about Clark's Kickstarter project will have their name put into a drawing to win a face plate of the Iron Man mask made by Clark for the Iron Man 2 movie.

(I've asked not to be put in the drawing. Friends help just because they're friends. But wouldn't you want to win that mask?)

After blogging it--if you also Tweet, Facebook or get it out there any other way your name will go in again for each way you passed on the word.

If you're really ambitious you can blog it up to three times through May and June -more chances to win!

Keep her informed via comments or write her at jo at www.writerscubed.com

The drawing will not take place until the Kickstarter deadline has passed. Please help us spread the word!

Get involved in the movie biz and make her husband's dream come true!

Thanks everyone!

Now, from the bellowing I hear, I have to help Hibbs get his head out of the trees again.
***
http://clarkschaffer.net/iron-man-2-media-coverage/

Under the Utah Moon _Clark Schaffer and Movie Magic

Once again, Hibbs and I walk under a Utah full moon to find magic ...

Movie Magic ...

And its Wizard, Clark Schaffer :



Roland :

Hi and thanks for taking the time to do this interview.


Clark :

My pleasure. I thought you were bringing Hibbs, the cub with no clue, with you.

Roland :

Ah, he's out looking for the fork.


Clark :

The fork?


Roland :

You see, Hibbs figures that in a place called Spanish Fork,

there has to be an impressive fork somewhere around here. And where there's an impressive fork, there has to be impressive food to match so ...


Clark :

I understand. He's off for some impressive food. That does sound like Hibbs all right.


Roland :

Would you mind telling us a bit about yourself?


Clark :

I’m an art director and visual effects artist providing designs, models/ miniatures, creatures and matte paintings for the film industry. I operate my own fx house, Schaffer Studios, and have recently began producing my own independent features.


Roland :

Where you always a fan of the Sci-Fi / Fantasy genre or was that just something you got into through your professional work?


Clark :

I’ve always enjoyed science fiction and I have to say that designers like Ron Cobb, Joe Johnston, Syd Mead and Ralph McQuarrie embedded in me an even greater appreciation for the genre.


Roland :

What was your favourite film?


Clark (rubbing the back of his neck) :

Tough question. As far as films that inspired me to want to make movies and create visual effects I’d have to include Star Wars, anything that Ray Harryhausen did,


Roland :

As a child, I loved THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD. I found it on a late night TV marathon. What other films did you like?


Clark :

So many -- Alien, the Dark Crystal, Indiana Jones, Planet of the Apes, Back to the Future, Ghost Busters… I followed the work of ILM and Rick Baker religiously.


Roland :

How long have you worked as a professional film maker?


Clark :

For twenty years.


Roland :

Wow! You must have really honed your talent over that time.What was the first project that you worked on?


Clark :

I worked first on a mostly forgotten about film called Free Jack after which I worked at BOSS Film on Batman Returns. I worked on various parts of the huge Gotham City model, focusing most of my energy on building the ornate Gotham Cathedral.


Roland :

How did you get started as a professional model builder?


Clark :

Since I can remember I had always wanted to be a visual effects artist so I had always drawn or sculpted or built models with this in mind. As I got older, mostly right out of high school I began documenting all of my work and keeping a photo portfolio.

Once I felt that I had a large enough body of work to represent my skills as a sculptor, painter, and model maker, I went from my home in the San Francisco bay Area and spent a few days interviewing with various FX companies.

I met with BOSS Film, Fantasy II and Dream Quest, and they all said that if I were living in Hollywood I would be working. I moved to Hollywood two months later.


Roland :

But your studio is now in Utah?


Clark :

Yes- long story. When my wife and I started raising a family we both felt strongly about providing a different atmosphere as the backdrop of our kids childhood than LA offered. We moved about ten years ago, went first to Oregon, then to the Bay Area


and then a production brought us to Utah where I was surprised to find a rather big and established film industry. I have since established myself as the place to go for anything visually out of the ordinary,


I still work for the studios on select jobs and our boys are growing up with white Christmases at the foot of the Rocky Mountains.


Roland :

Now what about you producing your own films?


Clark :

Since I was a kid I’ve wanted to tell my own stories on film and now with my own studio and over 40 films under my belt I’m finally doing it.


Roland :

And tell us about the original way that your making it happen.


Clark :

The biggest drawback with making a film is that it cost a lot of money and it takes a special kind and rare person to invest in a film.

There is a site online called Kickstarter that allows artists and filmmakers to present their projects to the world and it lets individuals contribute to projects to make them happen.


I need $100,000 for my first film and I feel very confident that there are enough people out there who will find my story compelling enough to help me reach my goal by July. It’s a “strength in numbers” approach to accomplishing something great.


Roland :

What can the people who contribute expect?


Clark :

Everyone who contributes gets a variety of potentially valuable gifts; I’m even offering an actual x-wing model from the original Star Wars film. Then they can follow the progress of the film over the course of its production, get their name on the credits and receive a copy of the film upon completion.


Roland :

That sounds terrific.


Clark :

Yes. We are excited. We are encouraging everyone to check out the site and contribute whatever they can.


Roland :

In closing, what project would you have loved to have worked on if you could have (from any time) and why would you have loved to work on it?


Clark :

The original Star Wars. It changed the way films were made. It took model making to its greatest place. It would have been fun to be part of that energy and creativity, to be part of the creative, hippie artist group that was assembled and to have had a hand in creating such a historical piece of film.



Also anything that Jim Henson made. He died just before I got into the industry so, sadly, I never got to work with him.


Roland :

Thank you so much for the time you took out of your busy schedule for this interview.


Clark :

As I said at the start, Roland, it was my pleasure. Now, let's go find Hibbs before he gets into too much trouble.

***
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/109319462/cleverer

FLASH FICTION BLOGEST_SAM IN A FLASH or THE DREAMER'S PUNISHMENT

Come join Cherie Reich's FLASH FICTION BLOGFEST :
http://cheriereich.blogspot.com/2011/04/f-is-for-flash-fiction.html



{From the journal of Captain Samuel McCord} : (500 words)

What did Oscar Wilde write me?

“A dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight,

and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world.”

The house is dark, its empty windows more like vacant eyes than dirty glass.

They give the building the look of some discarded skull of a lost god.

I don't like this.

Lt. Trifle (yes, that's her name,

and why she got a black belt in Karate)

called me out here in the middle of nowhere.

Nowhere being on the outskirts of Metairie --

which is on the outskirts of New Orleans --

which, itself, is on the outskirts of Hell some nights.

She said I was needed out here and then hung up.

Or got the phone snatched out of her hand.

I came as soon as I could.

Was I in time? Time. I could stop it for awhile --

if I was willing to pay the price.

I was. It hurt like hell. I deserved worse.

Ask a thousand widows what the undead McCord deserved, and they'd tell you the same thing.

The time-snared air felt like heavy invisible water pressing in against me. I endured.

It's what I do.

I made my way to the back of the house. I tried to cat-foot in out of instinct.

Reality trumped instinct.

The weight of frozen time made each step feel as if I were lifting the weight of the world. Cat-footing was out.

Lumbering like a dinosaur with arthritis was all I could manage. I smiled sad.

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time.

And time was mine. For as long as I could endure the pain.

The house of shadows was deserted. No furniture. Lots of needles. Lots of spoons. Discarded rubber tubing.

A crack house.

I made it to the front room.

It wasn't empty. A young punk had Trifle dead to rights.

Mostly dead if I didn't act fast.

How he got the drop on her was obvious. She was cradling an unconscious girl. Trifle's heart had blind-sided her.

I released time.

The addict yelped in surprise. He jerked his gun towards me.

I spoke low, hearing the thunder sent by the Turquoise Woman above me.

"How young can you die of old age?"

"What the fuck?"

Sad last words.

I answered my own question.

I sped up time all around him. He squealed, squirmed, then wheezed into raspy coughing. He aged into an old man in seconds.

As he fell, he crumbled into dust right in front of Trifle. The moon caressed the hot sunset of her hair as she looked down, the beauty of her pale face twisted into ugliness by horror.

The mound of dust drifted away with the faint breath of the night. Trifle turned hollow eyes to me.

"You're a monster.”

What had Oliver Goldsmith written?

‘Silence gives consent.’

I left without saying a word.
***
Become part of Hollywood magic :
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/109319462/cleverer

HIBBS : COME TO JO'S PARTY! AND RESCUE ME!!

Hibbs, the cub with no clue, and I walk out of Jo's rocking party

and out onto her lush backyard.

"Whew!," gushes Hibb.

"That is some party, Mr. Roland. Who was the Ostrich Lady,

wearing that dress of honey combs, who kept dancing with me?"

"Oh, that was Lady Gaga. You're lucky, Hibbs. Once she wore a dress of meat."

"What? Oh, Eeeyoo!"

His eyes light up. "Ah, do you know where she put that dress?"

I raise my eyebrow, and Hibbs says, "Don't look at me that way. Meat shouldn't go to waste."

He sits down on the grass with a thump beside me.

"At least that mother and daughter came to my resuce ... sort of."

"You mean Madonna and her daughter, Lourdes?"

"Yes, them. What was that weird dance that Madonna woman kept dancing with me?"

"It's called a tango, Hibbs."

"Well, it sure tangled my spine, that's for sure! Ah, speaking of spines,

her daughter looked like her spine was all rubber while she danced with me. Is that the tango, too?"

I ruffle the hair atop his small head. "No, Hibbs, that's called the Dip."

Hibbs shruggs his shoulder.

"At least that band, THE WANDERING PEPPLES, played so loud I didn't have to talk much."

"You mean THE ROLLING STONES, Hibbs."

He nods his head. "Yeah, them."

"Oh, there, you are, you little sneak!," comes a strident voice behind us.

Hibbs pops to his feet, holding out his paw. "Who's that, Mr. Roland?"

"Taylor Swift."

Taylor rushes toward Hibbs, who thrusts out his open paw even more.

"Now, you keep those spindly little legs right where they are, Miss Taylor. I'm all pooped out."

Taylor giggles. "Oh, you cute thing, you."

She wraps an arm around a squirming Hibbs, dragging him back into Jo's party.

Taylor giggles, "I dated a werewolf, but I've never danced with a bear."

Hibbs lolls his head over his shoulder, imploring me with begging eyes.

"Mr. Roland, help! Mr. Roland!!"

I chuckle back at him. "Face it, Hibbs. You just have animal magnetism!"

"Mr. Roland, that is SO not funny!"

Ah, everyone, come help me rescue Hibbs at Jo's party :

http://jostorm.blogspot.com/
***

My melded entry for PURPLE PROSE and THE NATURE OF MAGIC blogfests will be a day late, coming to you Saturday.
***

HIBBS : ONCE I HAD FEET_COME WITH ME TO JO SCHAFFER'S!

Hibbs, the cub with no clue and no feet, here.

Look at my poor feet. They're worn down to nubs.

Ouch! Even coming through a shortcut through DreamTime, going from Fiji to California was sure no fun!

But pretty Miss Jo was worth the trip. Come listen to Jo and Roland talk about neat stuff :

http://jostorm.blogspot.com/2011/03/interview-with-author-roland-yeomans.html
***