Video commentary?

I just wrapped up a text-only commentary for I, Crimsonstreak where readers can get a look at all the different references throughout the book and what influenced the story.

I'm now experimenting with putting together video commentaries (basically, just reading the text commentary, adding some pictures and effects). I started with Chapter 1, which is one of the longer commentaries. It's clocking in at about six minutes. The author's commentary can work like a podcast...the images aren't all that important and readers could listen while browsing something else on the net. I'm just not sure if it's worth the work to do 17 chapters and five appendices, though.

I'll see how it goes for the first one, which is now A-rolled. It needs a bunch of images and a music track...we'll see what happens.

I, Crimsonstreak Commentary: Chapter 17

Chapter 17

If You Rebuild It, They Will (Maybe) Forgive You

Author’s Notes

• The chapter title is a play on “The Voice” from Field of Dreams. The line is often misquoted as “if you build it, they will come,” although the actual line is, “if you build it, he will come.”

• I have a clear idea for a sequel. Some minor setup for a second Crimsonstreak adventure is involved here. Not all the Clermont escapees were willing to fight in the final battle. Some of them did what villains do best: live to fight another day. They’ll need to be rounded up.

• The paper route flashback is a modified slice of Adams family history. I had a paper route for several years, but when I wanted to play high school baseball, I had to give it up. Unlike Chris, I was only a two-year varsity letter winner.

• Chris muses about some of the logistical problems of reestablishing the United States of America. They’re very real, from bringing back Congress to getting businesses to change their letterheads. It’s a subtle observation, but the point is that the New World Common Wealth had a huge ripple effect from the top (government) to the bottom (small business).

• Colonel Chaos didn’t establish the New World Common Wealth (Evil Chaos did that), but the NWCW was his brainchild. He feels duty-bound to set things right. His imprisonment and the subsequent battle have changed his perspective.

• I tend to be an upbeat guy, so I wanted the ending to reflect a certain hopefulness. Yet, we still have some unresolved issues. What do we do with Evil Chaos? The Clermont escapees? At the same time, I didn’t want a complete return to the status quo. Just having Miss Lightspeed “fixed” would’ve been a lazy way out; it would’ve wrapped things up too neatly.

• Zeus Caesar stored the memories of those he killed, including Miss Lightspeed. Through some quirk of science fictional junk science, their collision during the final battle sent Miss Lightspeed’s memories surging into Evil Miss Lightspeed. Thus, the Karen Fairborne who now exists is an amalgamation of the two, with the “good” persona overtaking the “bad” one for now. This part of the ending may not be a particularly happy one.

• Deep down, Chris knows this new Miss Lightspeed isn’t really his mother, but he’s willing to take a deep breath following his ordeal.

• A thematic footnote is the idea of a “superhero aristocracy”; that people with powers are better than those who don’t have any and should rule those who are inferior. I imagine this would be a very real conflict if superpowered beings existed. X-Men tends to play up this theme in the conflict between Professor X and Magneto.

• So what do you do with Colonel Chaos 2? As Chris notes, there’s no clear solution. Send him back to his own universe, and he can come right back. On the other hand, he’s too crafty to stay imprisoned for long.

• “Transformative quantum signature transference” sounds like pure technobabble, but did you know that one out of every 130,000 Americans suffers from it? That’s from the U.S. Department of Fake Statistics.

• The Crusading Comet emerges from Clermont with some major injuries. I’m concerned that arm of his may never fully heal, leaving Warren IV to take up the mantle of the Crusading Comet for good. That may be a hint.

• Chris mentions that Morty and Warren played major roles in saving the world “without powers.” This is a very different tune from the one he sang earlier in the book, when he implied Warren wasn’t a “real” hero because he didn’t have powers.

• A thematic thread throughout the book is the power of choice. Colonel Chaos chose to try to bring his wife back and distance himself from his son. Chris chose to leave the Crusading Comet behind during their escape from Clermont. Morty chose to sacrifice himself because he had one more lesson to teach Warren.

• “Warren Kensington—both of them—gives me the same businesslike nod” recalls an earlier line from the book: “They’re all named Warren Kensington.”

• For better or worse, Crimsonstreak views Warren as the little brother he never had. This probably means they’ll continue to bicker and fuss while Chris remains overprotective of the young Crusading Comet.

• “There’s no magic superhero intuition, no instant solution for everything. When we manage to save the day, it’s usually thanks to sheer determination and a lot of luck.” This line says a lot about Chris and superheroes in general. They may not always know what to do in a given situation, but they’re going to try to save the day.

• In the original draft of the book, there was a more overt reference to the presence of the character who eventually became Stoner Cheetah. It took too much of the focus away from Chris, so I changed it.

• “Running. Always running. Not today” is a twist on the familiar phrase used throughout the book. Here it serves to let us know we’re finished…for now.

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I, Crimsonstreak Commentary: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

A (Potentially Dangerous) Case of the Munchies

Author’s Notes

• Crimsonstreak’s references are starting to pick up now that he’s out of the drudgery of the Clermont Institution for the Criminally Insane. He loves his pop culture, but gives us a little history riff on “Give ‘em Hell Harry” to start the chapter.

• The relationship presented here about food and our hero’s abilities is only implied. We have a few scenes where he’s eating something very quickly or having a snack. It doesn’t reach Brad Pitt in Ocean’s 11 levels, but it’s something to watch.

• The crack about “roughing it” is a reference to a very old family joke. One time, my brother came home to visit from college with a couple of his friends. I was probably 16 or 17 at the time. His buddies were going on a camping trip, but talked about how they were staying in air-conditioned RV’s with satellite TV and all the amenities. I told them they were a couple of real “throwbacks,” and the story remains part of family lore.

• The Human Compass is mentioned exactly once in the book. As our hero says, there isn’t much use for the guy. I’m sure he tries hard, though.

• Ah, the infamous talking cheetah. I have to laugh at this part of the book because this is completely ridiculous. I fully admit this. My wife kept telling me this was the part of the book where she stopped reading because the character was just too absurd. When I submitted the book to Candlemark & Gleam, the cheetah character also gave the editor pause in its original incarnation, which was sort of a “magical native” trope. Looking back, it was a terrible idea, but my editor had a suggestion: make the character a stoner. Thus, Stoner Cheetah was born. I think he’s a lot more fun to write in this persona. A little stereotypical, perhaps, but I like the guy.

• Don MacClean’s “sweet perfume.” In “American Pie,” it could refer to tear gas, the music of the Beatles, or reefer. I’m going with reefer.

• Stoner Cheetah throws in quite a few references of his own: Bono, the Technicolor Dreamcoat, the Ten Commandments. I think he channels a little old-school Keanu Reeves at points.

• Chris’ escape is fairly straightforward. Under the guidance of his transforming man-cheetah, he takes a dive into the waters below. He’s injured, though, and it’s slowing him down. Frustrated, he takes a break and gets some cheap calories from Stoner Cheetah’s Cheeto stock.

• The Clermont Enforcers aren’t very bright, but they don’t really have to be. Even when inmates escape, a force-field keeps them from going very far. Chris encounters three escaped villains who simply died, and nobody bothered to check into it. This scene was inspired by a brief bit from an episode of G.I. Joe called “Worlds Without End” where three Joes encounter their own corpses. Wait…what? Yeah, that actually happened in a kid’s show.

• Crimsonstreak’s tangent-prone mind has a field day with the force-field. First, he’s doing a Wile E. Coyote. Then, he’s in a York Peppermint Patty commercial. Before we can take a breath, he’s quoting the theme to the superhero TV show The Greatest American Hero. An aside: I always thought this was a Lionel Richie song, but it’s Joey Scarbury. Believe it or not, the official title of the song is “The Greatest American Hero (Believe it or Not).”

• Oh, sweet irony. I set out to write a book about a hero who isn’t based in New York…and he ends up in New York. A “few” superheroes have made the Big Apple their home, including Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Punisher, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Daredevil, the Avengers, and…oh holy hell, the entire effin’ Marvel Universe. Batman (Gotham City) and Superman (Metropolis) both patrol NYC analogues.

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