If Kaleidocide Was A Movie (Secondary Characters)

Kaleidocide, the second Peacer novel and a sequel to Silhouette, will be released on December 10, 2013.  In anticipation of it, I wanted to share what some of the characters and places look like in my imagination (or close to it, anyway), and what a movie might look like if Macmillan Films is able to develop one for production.

Here are some characters that I hesitate to call "minor," because they're all so important to the story, but they are not as central as some others I'll get to in a future post.  First, Korcz and Stephenson would look something like this (Stephenson especially, because I based him, visually and in some other ways, on my friend Paul, who is in the picture below with his wife Trish).

 

 

And here's what Tyra (the "cupbearer" in the story) and Tara (Michael's ex) might look like.  For Tara it was hard to find a picture, other than one of Vanessa Williams, because she is African American with blue eyes (and incomparably beautiful, of course).

 

Stanford Glenn is a high-ranking American leader who lobbies for access to the Sabon antigravity technology and seems to know more about Michael's predicament than he is letting on.  Idris Elba is great in everything he does, so he would be great in this role too...

Next, what would Saul Rabin's "ghost" look like?  How about these "almost real" photos of Clint Eastwood, who would fit the role so well, to capture the artificial intelligence construct that keeps alive the dead man's memories and knowledge (and some of his political machinations)...

 

 

Finally (for this post), the seven-foot Chinese cyborg Min is very difficult to find a visual representation of, because there are no seven-foot Chinese cyborgs in reality, of course, but also surprisingly there are none in comics or movies either.  This was the only picture I could find that somewhat approximated the way I imagine him.  He wouldn't wear a heavy leather coat in the climate of the Bay Area, but he does have two swords similar to this one that he can pull out of his back to wreak havoc on enemies when the ammo for built-in guns is depleted.  (Like it says in the novel, this gives new meaning to the term "shoulder blades.")

 

 

If Kaleidocide Was A Movie (Oakland and Marin)

Kaleidocide, the second Peacer novel and a sequel to Silhouette, will be released on December 10, 2013.  In anticipation of it, I wanted to share what some of the characters and places look like in my imagination (or close to it, anyway), and what a movie might look like if Macmillan Films is able to develop one for production.

In this series of posts, I'll start with more minor characters and settings, and work my way up to the main ones.  So here is what the ruins of Oakland might look like, in an early scene where the Japanese cyborg triplets fly some Firehawk helicopters into the city to smoke out an assault team waiting to ambush Michael Ares...

Here is one of the Firehawk helicopters that the cyborg triplets fly into the ruins to take out an enemy assault team.  And below it is what the enemy helicopters they encounter might look like.  They are called "Sikorsky Primes" and are painted a teal color to channel the ancient spirits of the xing lu cai se, or kaleidocide, initiated by a militaristic ruler of China named Zhang Sun.

Finally (for this post), here are some views of the Marin Center (including the entrance to the jail that is built into a hill) where a later action scene occurs, and a picture that is something like the huge car carrier that Michael's double and Lynn make their escape in by using the cars like remote-controlled missiles (you have to read it!:).  The carrier in the novel would be a more futuristic version, of course, and even bigger.

One Helluva Day! (Review of Day One, by Nate Kenyon)

Talk about a bad day! (And a good book) John Hawke never had a worse one, what with the killer AI sending every machine in sight, and even the cops and the military, to kill him (and a large percentage of the rest of the population). But the worst part is he's separated from his family, and doesn't know whether they've survived some very human evil. And this is the best part of the story, in my opinion, very much like the movie version of World War Z where the danger to the main character's family is the "macguffin" that drives the plot, and rather effectively. I'm sure Kenyon plotted and started this novel before he saw that movie, so it isn't a ripoff, but another effective version of the same hook. And the action is good, too. As a writer myself I especially liked how he introduced us to the characters' pasts while the disaster was starting and escalating, to keep our attention early. A few flaws, I thought, but definitely a certified page-turner. [Parental Info: Some R-rated profanity and gore, but no significant sexual content.]

If Silhouette Was A Movie (Main Characters)

Now that I have finished Kaleidocide, the sequel to Silhouette, and sent it off to the publisher, I have some time that I can do something fun that I've wanted to do for awhile. Macmillan Films is trying to get a movie deal for Silhouette, so I thought I would find some photos online that would show how I imagine the characters, locations, vehicles, weapons, etc. Is this how you imagined them when you read the book? Leave comments with your thoughts about them if you want.

No better place to start than with Michael Ares, the main character. He is from England, so how about Luke Evans, who looks something like the Michael of my imagination...



And then for Michael's wife Lynn, how about Naomi Watts...



Michael and Lynn are both in their thirties, Michael is ex-military (special forces) and Lynn was raised in an orphanage at the Presidio founded by Saul Rabin's late wife Kathryn. The glasses Luke Evans is wearing in the pictures could easily be the net glasses that Michael uses throughout the book, and Naomi Watts is not only beautiful, as Lynn is, but could also embody the domestic and innocent parts of the character's nature.

Interestingly, the two actors also have the same color eyes as the characters in the book.

WORLD Magazine Q&A

An excerpt from my interview with Marvin Olasky:

Photo by Art Cox/Patrick Henry College

Dave Swavely is the pastor of a Pennsylvania church, the father of seven, and the author or co-author of several nonfiction books and one new novel, Silhouette.  

Pastor and writer. Do those two callings go together? The discipline of writing, having to think through the way you’re using words more than when you just talk, is good for my trade as a pastor. Fiction published in a secular market gives me the opportunity to make connections that I wouldn’t otherwise make with people who are uninitiated to the Christian faith.

Which calling came first: pastoring or writing? When I was a little boy, I began to write. If somebody would have asked me even when I was very young, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I would have said, “A writer,” and I actually also said, even, “A novelist.” I majored in creative writing. I didn’t believe I was called to be a pastor until I became one after college. 

Let’s talk about your futuristic action/mystery novel, Silhouette. It’s published by a big New York house, Macmillan, and doesn’t have much about Christianity—although the main character is starting to sense that he’s missing something. He’s being exposed to Christians, liking some of the things he sees but mostly disliking Christian ideas—yet Providence behind the scenes is working in his life.

It’s set in a post-quake San Francisco, which has become a city-state ruled by a semi-benevolent dictator, so it and the draft of your sequel have some violence and sexual (not explicit) situations. Any good literature will contain both the sacred and profane, because life is full of both. Authors get shot at from both directions. In the Christian publishing world you can’t have too much of the profane or they won’t publish you. In the secular publishing world you can’t have too much of the sacred, or they won’t publish you or they’ll try to cut it out. It’s hard to write about the sacred and profane, to have a place for it to be published and read in today’s market, and also to do it in a way honoring to the Lord, where the profane serves the purpose of showing how great the sacred is. 

The bad news makes us understand more our desperate need for the good news? Experiencing the bad news through the characters shows how great the solution is and how much it’s needed.

(For the rest of the interview, click here)

Truth in Dickens' Fiction (and a great movie version of it)

I just love this DVD! Some Dickens novels I read first, then check out the movies, but some I watch first so I can have a picture in my mind of the characters and places, and then enjoy the nuances and details of Dickens' depiction. This one I've watched several times without reading the novel yet, and it's one of my favorites ever. Tom Wilkinson narrates Dickens' semi-autobiographical tale (an "exaggerated" and "edited" version of his life, we could call it), Daniel Ratcliffe plays the young David, Bob Hoskins as Mr. Macawber, Maggie Smith as Betsy Trotwood...what's not to like? And the rest of the characters and settings are just right too.

As a Christian, the icing on the cake for me is Dickens' propensity for illustrating God's sovereign providence, even over evil acts and persons, which "causes all things to work together for good" (Romans 8:28). Some critics have said too many coincidences come together in Dickens to be believable, but I believe like he did that it happens all the time, though we may not see it from our limited vantage point. The fictional narrator is able to see it, however, so we can too as we watch the events unfold through his eyes.

An example is the terrific scene where Miss Trotwood tells off Mr. Murdstone and his sister, saving David from a fate worse than death. She can "peg" the abusive husband because she endured one herself in the past, and she has the passion and resolve to stand up to him for the same reason. The hand of providence used her past misfortune to insure a bright future for David, and provide a greater measure of redemption and meaning for her own life as well.

Echoes of Eden Review and Recommendation

This is one of the better graphic novels you've never heard of. My friend Marvin Olasky's writing kept me interested throughout, and the art and production are nice. A fictional story with intrigue and action, but also with much true information about the uncanny connections of world religions that "echo" the story of Eden in the Christian Scriptures. Interesting issues to think about while the story develops, but not too "preachy." Highly recommended for those readers who like some truth with their fiction.

You can purchase it here.