Take 5 with Scarlet DashBoy

Matt: I'm pleased to welcome Scarlet DashBoy--one of the lesser heroes in the I, Crimsonstreak universe--to the blog today.

Scarlet DashBoy: What do you mean, "lesser?"

Matt: I mean you're not in the book as much as some of the others, obviously.

Scarlet DashBoy: Oh, okay.

Matt: DashBoy, what's your ability?

Scarlet DashBoy: I'm a super-speedster, like Crimsonstreak.

Matt: Do you do anything else? Shoot laser beams from your eyes?

Scarlet DashBoy: No.

Matt: Fly?

Scarlet DashBoy: No.

Matt: Jump high?

Scarlet DashBoy: No.

Matt: Just a super-speedster, then?

Scarlet DashBoy: Yeah. Now wait a second...I'm just like Crimsonstreak. He can't do any of those things.

Matt: His parents can.

Scarlet DashBoy: But how's that--

Matt: Next question, then. What is your fascination with Crimsonstreak? I've asked you two questions and you've mentioned his name twice already.

Scarlet DashBoy: You've asked like seven questions.

Matt: I didn't know you could count that high. Just answer the last one.

Scarlet DashBoy: I've always looked up to Crimsonstreak. Like, he's the best superhero out there. He's funny, he's fast, he wears a red costume. I love red.

Matt: I think he prefers people to refer to his uniform as crimson. You've kind of taken the same approach to fighting crime as Crimsonstreak, then?

Scarlet DashBoy: What do you mean?

Matt: Not to put too fine a point on it, but you basically ripped off everything about him.

Scarlet DashBoy: So I wear red. I run fast. That doesn't mean I'm just like Crimsonstreak.

Matt: There's that name again.

Scarlet DashBoy: You made the comparison.

Matt: You call yourself Scarlet DashBoy. Your power is super-speed. You don't see any similarities?

Scarlet DashBoy: I guess he did kind of rip off my style.

Matt: I see. He says you took his super-suit once and made everyone think you were him. Is that true?

Scarlet DashBoy: Sometimes you have to help those lesser heroes make a name for themselves.

Matt: You didn't answer the question.

Scarlet DashBoy: There was a big crisis. I wanted people to think Crimsonstreak was there to handle it.

Matt: Are you sure you didn't want to save the day and have everyone give you the credit?

Scarlet DashBoy: I don't think I like you.

Matt: I don't think anyone likes you.

Scarlet DashBoy: That's not very nice.

Matt: Neither is stealing another hero's identity. (sighs) Are you going to be in the next book?

Scarlet DashBoy: Will there be a next book?

Matt: I don't know.

Scarlet DashBoy: You're not much help.

Matt: You wanna do the plug?

Scarlet DashBoy: Sure. I, Scarlet DashBoy is available at a variety of fine retailers...

Matt: The book is called I, Crimsonstreak.

Candlemark & Gleam Website
Amazon Paperback
Amazon Kindle Edition
Barnes & Noble
Barnes & Noble NOOK Book

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ABC's of Crimsonstreak: Letter D

We now turn to the letter D in the ABC's of I, Crimsonstreak.

D is for Dashboy.

Make that Scarlet Dashboy.

Every hero must have an equal, a rival who pushes the hero to do his or her best.

Scarlet Dashboy is not that equal.

Dashboy's origins are shrouded in mystery, but one thing is clear: he's obsessed with Crimsonstreak. It's so bad, in fact, that Dashboy once stole Crimsonstreak's uniform in order to "fight crime" as his supposed idol.

He even ripped off Crimsonstreak's color, choosing "scarlet" instead of "crimson."

The guy is a menace whom Crimsonstreak must put up with because a real hero doesn't go around eliminating aspiring sidekicks, even when he'd rather kill them.

Dashboy is a speedster, though he couldn't hope to match Crimsonstreak stride for stride. His secondary power is the ability to grate on our hero's nerves. No one sees a very bright future for the young man, but potential left untapped could turn to bitterness down the road.

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I, Crimsonstreak Commentary: Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Have Jacket, Will Travel

Author's Notes

• The rogue’s gallery of the I, Crimsonstreak world is chock-full of some real winners. Dark Plague can make people sick, but he can’t cure them. O-Zone can punch holes in the ozone layer, but is incapable of doing anything else. Sylvester Striker is a reformed villain (his bio is actually kind of sad). Just an observation.

• Chapter 2 contains the first passage that really gives us a hint that Chris is a little too obsessed with popular culture. There are other references beforehand, of course, and tons of references afterward. But his comment mentioning Reading Rainbow, “Dementors,” and “Nazgul” indicates his broad scope of pop culture knowledge. At the same time, the character is fairly well read. He mentions Crime and Punishment and (a little later) makes a good Sherlock Holmes reference. Chris is definitely a little ADHD in his thought process, a conscious decision on my part. He may not have his father’s genius, but he does process things very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that he can afford to go off on “thought tangents” without losing focus on the task at hand.

• Crimsonstreak doesn’t know what to think about religion. After all, his mother and father are superpowered beings who routinely fight others with god-like powers. This doesn’t mean he doesn’t believe in a higher being or understand the importance of faith. It’s just something that’s hard for him to relate to. That’s where his comments about Sylvester Striker come in to play. He takes a bemused detachment toward Sylvester's faith and isn't mocking it.

• Crimsonstreak catches a break when the Crusading Comet and Infrared appear. This almost works like the beginning of Return of the Jedi, where Leia turns Chewie over to Jabba the Hutt to gain access to the bad guy’s inner circle. Of course, the two heroes didn't exactly want to get captured and sent to Clermont.

• A quick aside here – our hero is a major sports fan. His tastes, for better or worse, gave me a chance to get on my Midwest, Big Ten soapbox. Like me, he’s a Colts and Indiana University basketball fan. It seems like so many characters in fiction are Yankees or Cubs or Red Sox fans. I took the chance to give my teams a little love and (occasionally) take a shot at the New England Patriots. I know pure evil when I see it.

• The Purdue knock was completely unnecessary. I actually like the Boilermakers a lot (I blame my brother-in-law for graduating from Purdue), but made the comment because anyone who’s from Indiana knows that Purdue could win three straight national championships in basketball and everyone in the state would still be talking about how Indiana made the Sweet 16.

• A few more heroes trickle in, setting up a prison escape for Crimsonstreak and his allies. One of those heroes is a guy named Scarlet DashBoy. He was originally just a character mentioned in passing, but one of my beta readers thought DashBoy was hilarious. I expanded the character just a bit, giving him a couple of flashbacks and a cameo later in the book. For any of you in doubt, DashBoy is an idiot.

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