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The history of Dylan and Stager. This one is kind of complicated and really simple at the same time. I needed character names for these two best friends. Dylan came about because the playlist started playing a Bob Dylan tune and I thought that's one name I'll call the guy Dylan. Stager was almost named after Bob Seger but I had already put in the Page family after Jimmy Page so I tried to do a double meaning and called him Stager. A stager is an old acting term I think from the time of Shakespeare, it's someone who is a veteran of the stage who runs the play during a performance. Both these guys are veterans in their backstory but I had in mind that Stager was the older, wilder of the two and he would be frustrated with our boy because he just didn't get what they were trying to tell him.
Run Rabit Run the imagery, the dream. We ended up cutting out pages and pages of the dream sequences. I have to give my editor, Charlee Redman, credit for suggesting they go because it really improved the pace of the story. What you missed in those sequences was really noting important. I had in my mind that our hero would have these dreams where his two childhood friends were helping him and hunting him at the same time. They would try to heard him towards a giant yellow stickpin balloon, his destination, and they kept telling him to go past it, that that was his real destination. A kind of reach your goal and exceed it metaphor. It was really stupid, some great scenes in there but it all slowed the story down and kind of got you lost. There was a running theme to the dreams based on the song Fox on the Run by the 1970's band Sweet although I think I was thinking more of the Scorpions cover of the same song. If I remember right it popped up in my play list and I thought I have to use this in the story. Then we cut it all out.
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| Bobby Morgan & Jim Grider on a blowgun hunt showing off their catch Brandon Grider Jim's son. |
These two are actually based on two very good childhood friends of mine, Bobby Morgan and Jim Grider. Much like the history of Dylan and Stager these two were adventurers always out in the woods and I was the guy they let tag along. I could tell volumes of stories about our exploits but I wont.
I guess I should explain the photo though. Jim got a blowgun from somewhere and for weeks we three tried to master the art of blowgun hunting. We all got pretty good at hitting a Styrofoam cup at about 10 feet away. After mastering that kill we moved down to the Mississippi River and started using trees as targets. Brandon, Jim's son went along with us and they posed for that pic like big game hunters. Brandon was not hurt by the blowgun, at least that time.
I guess I should explain the photo though. Jim got a blowgun from somewhere and for weeks we three tried to master the art of blowgun hunting. We all got pretty good at hitting a Styrofoam cup at about 10 feet away. After mastering that kill we moved down to the Mississippi River and started using trees as targets. Brandon, Jim's son went along with us and they posed for that pic like big game hunters. Brandon was not hurt by the blowgun, at least that time.
The three hunters. These guys I thought were good Imagery for several reasons. One the idea of three guys going off to find the Black Truck or zombies or whatever they were hunting seemed noble. The idea of the three coming back as zombies spoke well to just how unprepared they were. I make this even more apparent when our boy goes through their belonging and finds shells and bullets that don't match the guns they were carrying.
In contrast our boy being trapped under a bush and how he had to control his breathing as a zombie heard strolled past him says a lot about how prepared he was. With no weapons he had to count on his cunning and skill to stay alive just under their feet. They went into the situation blind or ignorant and died while he was from pure experience surviving the heard with noting but what he had already learned. I thought it was a moment that showed just how far he had come from a guy who makes so many mistakes. He's still making them at this point just on a grander scale and not a personal one.
Decking for a garden & putting things back as they were. I believe I have already talked about resources but think about this for a moment. If you where you are now in the world had to build something to keep you alive and you didn't have easy access to simple building materials from a hardware store where would you get them? I thought of someones back deck, privacy fencing, kicking out sheet rock and pulling studs from old homes. Tons of places in an old home could be salvaged it would just take some creativity.
This again got into that survival thing from YouTube where people show how to survive. I saw one show where a car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and it's getting dark. The guy took a knife and sliced up the seats using the cushions to insulate himself. took the tires off and burned them so the black smoke caused a plumb for rescuers to see. hubcaps were used to collect and melt snow. I would not have thought of half of that stuff and there were a ton of other things he did to survive. What would you have done?
This again got into that survival thing from YouTube where people show how to survive. I saw one show where a car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and it's getting dark. The guy took a knife and sliced up the seats using the cushions to insulate himself. took the tires off and burned them so the black smoke caused a plumb for rescuers to see. hubcaps were used to collect and melt snow. I would not have thought of half of that stuff and there were a ton of other things he did to survive. What would you have done?
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