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Yep, it’s like that.
Over the last few months I’ve gotten a few inquiries about the next installment in the Heaven and Earth series, Come Hell or High Water. About 6 months ago, I posted a pic of the completed first draft and I was all boosted: it was 315 pages of angelic goodness and demonic awesomeness.
Or so I thought.
Then I read it. And I had my beta readers read it.
We all arrived at the same conclusions: it was good. Not great. Good. And full of potential. See, what we all realized was that the story was good, the character arcs were good, the plot points were solid but the execution was…meh. Here’s the best way for me to explain it: a comic book reference. Well, a comic book movie reference.
In 1989, Warner Bros debuted a cinematic version of Batman unlike anything we’d seen before. Michael Keaton helmed a darker, crime-noir rendition of the Dark Knight in a movie that abandoned the campiness of the Adam West series, and featured the musical stylings of a fledgling guitarist named Prince, an AWESOME Batmobile, and Hollywood’s favorite crazy man, Jack “Here’s Johnny!” Nicholson as the Joker. It was Incredible! It was funny and deadly and twisted and weird but, in 1989, it was groundbreaking. Where there were detractors about Michael Keaton’s ability to wear the cowl, Nicholson left us no doubt about his insanity—he had fun with the Clown Prince of Crime (impressed that I know those nicknames, huh?) and was, for me, the best, truest rendition of the Joker I’d seen.
Until 2008.
You already know where I’m going with this, don’t you? In 2008, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight comes out and we get something the comics have been trying to present for 60 years—and we get it IMAX. Where Nicholson’s Joker was a murderer who enjoyed it as art, who found the humor in the horrible, Heath Ledger gave us a “psychopathic, mass murdering, schizophrenic clown with zero empathy.” In 1989, the Joker was trying to make art and causing chaos by throwing money in the street and infecting all the cosmetics; in 2008, the Joker held an entire city hostage by attacking its law and order, from killing cops to turning the district attorney into a criminal to making Batman corrupt himself and ending his career as a hero in Gotham City.
1989: Good execution. 2008: Excellent execution.
Which brings me back to Come Hell or High Water. I can’t give you good enough. I can’t give you 1989 Joker when you obviously need 2008 Joker. I can’t do it. I know the deal lately is to whip your books out as fast as humanly possible, especially in this day and age of self-publishing. I respect that and I don’t knock anyone’s hustle. But I think you deserve better than that. From me you do. And truth is, so does the story. As much as each of you have invested yourselves into the trials and tribulations of your favorite angels, I owe it to you to do it right.
And it is coming. Soon. Promise.
But I won’t leave you empty-handed. I’ll make you a deal: if the Seahawks win on Saturday, I’ll drop you an excerpt on Sunday. If not, you get to wait a week. Because I love you, here’s a taste:
I grabbed her, placed strong hands on her arms and lifted from her feet. I don’t know where the strength came. My eyes glowed in the dark and I spoke in voice that wasn’t mine. “Listen, woman!” I said, and the flames flashed. “My name is Raphael. I am the Archangel of the Lord, the only God. The God of Adam, the God of Eve. I am His son as much as you are His daughter. I was before you ever were and I will be long after you are gone. Do you understand?”
I dropped her and she crumpled at my feet, murmuring whispers of prayer and clutching my ankles.
“No!” I sank to my knees, thumbed tears away. “No. Do not pray to me. Do not worship me. I am nothing special.”
But Ananda backed from me, scrabbling in the dust, eyes down. It was a frighteningly human pose and I realized how different we were. I didn’t like it. I grabbed her hand, made her face me.
“Look at me, Ananda. It’s just me.”
“Don’t,” and she snatched from me. “What do you want from me?”
“I want you to be my Chosen.”
See ya!