Day 8: EVOLVED MUTATIONS
Day 8 of #scrypthalloween looks at my short spinoff #book EVOLVED MUTATIONS. Some facts: 1) It was published on September 15th 2016. 2) the entire contents of the book are deleted scenes from my novel GENETIC MORSELS. I felt they worked better on their own. 3) one of the scenes came to me when I was standing overlooking #Philadelphia from the top of the Comcast building. I thought how horrible it would be if someone jumped, and it instantly became part of the story. 4) because this was based on people with extraordinary abilities I almost brought artists in to do another graphic novel, but decided it would have not made the due date.Instead I wrote it in a way where it could be converted into a comic version at some point if I desire down the line. 5) the cover is comprised of close up photos of my family’s eyes and altered to represent different super abilities. The top left is my son, then clockwise it’s me, my daughter, and my wife @homemadedelish .
Day 13 – Genetic Morsels
Day 13 of #scrypthalloween looks at my novel GENETIC MORSELS. The cover art by @dpipito resembles a chalk board littered with scientific notes. This is a theme that will continue through the trilogy in different ways. The novel was originally going to be a wrap up of any loose ends I’d created in the previous books, but at this point there weren’t any, so I introduced a new main cast and added substance and a political theme…
official description: Twenty five years have passed since a war with artificial intelligence has forever changed the course of humanity. Belief in the first world leader has been gained by the majority, but there are a few who can see past the media bias. As President Jason Black’s scheme unravels, the next step in human evolution begins. A passing of the torch to a newer generation of unexpected heroes occurs as they mount a resistance into the political fray. Led by Zoe Omandi the team is guided into dealing with not only their conflicting personalities, but also their extraordinary abilities. Real world physics makes this more than just a story of superheroes and villains. It is a story about survival and persistance. Can the heroes overcome the odds and unravel the truth before it is too late?
– available in print or digital at lulu.com and Amazon as well as part of the Beyond Human trilogy at Barnes and Noble.
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. 🙂
Genetic Morsels trailer
GENETIC MORSELS takes my novels to a whole new level. The beginning of a new trilogy begins here. The trailer has arrived.
novel – Genetic Morsels
Written by Rick Pipito
Cover art by Dan Pipito
Available in paperback at http://www.lulu.com for $8.99
Available for Kindle on http://www.amazon.com for $3.99
Twenty five years have passed since a war with artificial intelligence has forever changed the course of humanity. Belief in the first world leader has been gained by the majority, but there are a few who can see past the media bias. As President Jason Black’s scheme unravels, the next step in human evolution begins. A passing of the torch to a newer generation of unexpected heroes occurs as they mount a resistance into the political fray. Led by Zoe Omandi the team is guided into dealing with not only their conflicting personalities, but also their extraordinary abilities. Real world physics makes this more than just a story of superheroes and villains. It is a story about survival and persistance. Can the heroes overcome the odds and unravel the truth before it is too late?
sCrypt Publishing 