On the 7th Day of Christmas…
ON THE SEVENTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS MY TRUE LOVE SENT TO ME: 7 Super Heroes…
6 corrupt files, 5 demon spawns! 4 lost souls, 3 werewolves, 2 vampires, and zombies in a story.
I’ve always been a fan of comic books. They were a big part of my youth growing up and now I get to see them on the big and small screens. When I wrote GENETIC MORSELS and its spinoff EVOLVED MUTATIONS, I wanted to portray abilities in a more realistic manner. I wanted a comic book like novel that wouldn’t be so… well comic booky. It had to be something any reader can enjoy because it would relate to the real world and how physics actually work. Aside from the science behind it I also looked to real life examples of extraordinary abilities. Take Stephen Wiltshire depicted here. He can fly over a city in a helicopter one time and then draw every single detail he saw accurately. He’s got the world’s most fascinating photographic memory. If you had a super ability what would you want it to be?
Order a copy of my novel or short for yourself or a friend. If you want personalized copies then shoot me an email (Rickpipito@hotmail.com), otherwise they can be purchased in print or digital at Lulu.com or on Amazon.
Day 14 – Evolved Mutations
Day 14 of #scrypthalloween looks at my short story EVOLVED MUTATIONS. For the cover I wanted to show superhuman abilities in an intense way. I used close up eye pictures of my son, me, my wife, and daughter, then passed them each through a filter and placed a reflection of their “abilities” in their eyes with the help of @homemadedelish ….
official description: One morning you wake with a tingling sensation in your spine. Your veins feel as though they have a river of fire flowing through them. You scream out in agony as the change takes over, and suddenly realize you’re on fire. The fire doesn’t burn you, but it incinerates all around you. You panic, but are not alone. Your generation has had its DNA altered. The possibilities are both frightening and promising. This story expands that found in the novel “Genetic Morsels”.
It’s available in print at lulu.com or as part of the Beyond Human Trilogy on Amazon and Barnes and Noble sites.
Beyond Human Trilogy
The BEYOND HUMAN Trilogy is available now at lulu.com in print, on Amazon in digital, and Barnes and Noble (in the next 2 weeks). It contains the novels: GENETIC MORSELS, PLANET ATE, and DEVOURED UNIVERSE, plus the short stories: EVOLVED MUTATIONS, ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, and COSMIC ORBITS, and a teaser of what will be coming soon.
Day 21 – Superior Inspiration
Inspiration for my novel GENETIC MORSELS and its spinoff EVOLVED MUTATIONS began before I could even hold a pen. Since then it has grown to various different outlets. Something about super human beings fascinates me. In real life we’ve seen cases that have been unexplained. Spontaneous human combustion, clairvoyants, feats of strength and survival that are above the norm. The fact is that a great deal of the human brain is dormant. We’ve yet to unlock the potential of utilizing the full capacity of our brains.
This is where my novel came in. I wanted to present a story where the people in it had abilities in a real world setting and environment. Imagine a generation of super powered people. How did they get these abilities? Is it the next step in evolution? These are questions answered in the plot.
As I said my fascination began before I could hold a pen. I grew up reading MARVEL and DC comics. Unlike most comic book “fan boys” I typically don’t hate a movie or side with one company because I equally enjoy both. I find the faults in these movies and tv shows, but the bottom line is MOST of them are very enjoyable to different degrees.
But Marvel, DC, and other comic book companies aside, there have been some other great movies that have a similar idea of putting the characters into a real world scenario. Two of my favorites of these are UNBREAKABLE and CHRONICLE.
Unbreakable caught me off guard. Back when M. Night Shyamalan was producing some really great content, he showed trailers for this film and they didn’t reveal a thing. I had no idea what to expect going into this, and had no inclination that this was a “superhero” movie at all. I knew nothing, and it turned out to be a really decent film.
I had a similar reaction with Chronicle. I’d heard very little about it other than I needed to see it. I knew this was a found footage superhero movie, and to me it was very refreshing (in ways different from Unbreakable and other movies). If there is one superhero movie you should watch that is underrated, it’s this one.
When it came time to write GENETIC MORSELS, I had been swept up in endless hours of research. As fascinating as superheroes are to me, my one problem is that comic books fail to recognize real world physics. In my research I found the book THE PHYSICS OF SUPERHEROES by James Kakalios. It is presented by a number of physicists who answer such questions as “How much food would the Flash need to consume in order to keep up his speed” and “How would Spiderman’s webs hold him to buildings without ripping chunks off or dislocating his arms?” They use scientific fact and equations to show the answers. I took much of this into account while creating some of my characters and the situations they’d be in.
While EVOLVED MUTATIONS seems a little bit more over the top than the novel it came from, it too uses real world common sense to keep everything as grounded as possible. Prime example? Bernie Johns. He’s a character I created who has the ability to generate fire from his hands. The problem is that his skin is not immune to fire. He is a horribly scarred and misfigured man with a good heart and tragic story. Daryl Dartmouth is another character who has super speed, but gravity and friction makes a speedster have difficulty in stopping. In real life while moving at over a hundred miles an hour you’d have to slow down first to stop. Comics don’t take that into account. Someone moving at that speed could easily slam into a wall if they weren’t careful.
So what are some of your favorite super hero or villain stories? What kind of freaks do you find intriguing? If you’ve read Genetic Morsels, who is your favorite character? Make sure to hashtag #scrypthalloween in your response and you may win a copy of one of my books. 🙂
short story – Evolved Mutations
New release day! EVOLVED MUTATIONS is a short story expansion of my novel GENETIC MORSELS. For the cover I took a close up picture of each of my family member’s eyes. From top left clockwise it is my son, me, my daughter, and my wife. After passing them through some filters and adding a hint of power in each of their eyes we were able to convey a pretty fun, yet enticing look.
Think about this: One morning you wake with a tingling sensation in your spine. Your veins feel as though they have a river of fire flowing through them. You scream out in agony as the change takes over, and suddenly realize you’re on fire. The fire doesn’t burn you, but it incinerates all around you. You panic, but are not alone. Your generation has had its DNA altered. The possibilities are both frightening and promising.
EVOLVED MUTATIONS is available at http://www.lulu.com/shop/rick-pipito/evolved-mutations-a-genetic-morsels-accessory/paperback/product-22864378.html
It will be part of the upcoming Beyond Human Trilogy release as well.
sCrypt Publishing 