She is Risen

“Can’t stop what’s coming.  Can’t stop what is already here.”–Tori Amos

The gears are turning ever so slowly, but they are still turning.  “Baby Girl” will be a reality and so will the “She Is Risen” site.

Since this is all rather early in the game and no one really cares about it anyway (except for the one or two of you who do), I feel I can speak freely about where we’re going with this and what I hope that Team Baby Girl can achieve.

This is the most ambitious creative project that I’ve ever attempted and as such, I’m still a little bit skittish about my inexperience as a writer.  There will be bells and whistles aplenty (oh, you’d better believe it), but the success of “Baby Girl” and “She Is Risen” is ultimately contingent on my ability to produce quality work.  I’ve been accused of “over thinking” this and while that’s certainly true, I want to be very careful to make sure that this is a project is sturdy enough to withstand the skepticism of a mass audience and compelling enough to hold their interest.

Speaking as a bona fide latter day member of Generation X (thanks, Doug Coupland!), I think it’s safe to say that my peers and I know a thing or two about hype.  Media hype is the real religion hiding behind whatever materialistic idealism came out of the ’80s.  Every single one of us has been inundated by it and that’s why we all know what the “bat symbol” was back in 1989 without any text to remind us that it was the call sign of Tim Burton’s BATMAN.  That’s just one example, but if you’re old enough to find interest in this blog then you probably know exactly what I’m talking about.

So, before the “Baby Girl” mothership lands, we’re going to have some fun establishing what the story is with an interactive website.   “Baby Girl” is a very personal story for me, but it also has the potential to be a franchise.  What makes a franchise?  Well, in my definition, it’s any property that one can geek out and obsess over.  To accomplish this, you need a mythology which can be expanded upon and “Baby Girl” certainly has one. 

At its heart, “Baby Girl” is meant to accomplish two personal things for me.  It’s a way of using specific examples from my recent history as a way of examining the unhealthy patterns that I fall into when in a relationship.   When I started writing this thing, it was very specifically about a recent break-up.  And while the characters and their internal dynamic remains the same (I’m so locked into the character of Emma O’Toole that I couldn’t possibly fathom changing it now), it’s become a much broader project with some nudge/wink surprises for “insiders” who think they know the story.

A close second to the personal aspect of the story is the opportunity for me to build the type of fictional mythology that I love and respond to in other people’s work.  I’m an obsessive and compulsive individual and somehow, I’m finding the ability to create a world with its own internal logic is something which comes naturally to me.  It’s my way of rationalizing a concept which is thoroughly absurd.

Okay, so what IS the story?  Can you keep a secret?  It’s about a young woman who discovers that she can fly and has a strange relationship with pain.  She can withstand physical damage, but she’s not impervious to pain.  It’s just that she sort of enjoys the sensation that others would find agonizing (like lighting her hand on fire).  In an unlikely development, she meets an awesome guy who is also a werewolf (though he may not be) and this works out rather well since his desire can lead to bodily harm and she is someone who can withstand extreme bodily harm.  This leads to much frolicing and self discovery in the woods.  I’d give her a red hoodie, but that might verge on silly.

Meanwhile, she has just had a brief fling with a psychic lesbian (aren’t they all?) who isn’t taking this new development very well.  Fortunately for her, after spending a little bit of time in our heroine’s head, the unstable young tomboy discovers that she has abilities similar to lady love and with her new ever-suffering girlfriend/sidekick, she goes off to discover the Em’ within herself.

In addition to her new girlfriend, my psychic lesbian anti-heroine befriends a young girl who always seems to be hanging around and clearly knows more than she should about the strange events of our story.

And so, that’s the set-up.  It’s going to unfold in that nonlinear way that I seem to like so much, but my challenge is to write an intentionally incoherent narrative that others can actually follow.   Speaking as one of the most insecure writers you’ll ever meet, I honestly think I can do it.  Hell, I’ve already begun.

Once it is done, please feel free to meet me in Montauk.

Before that happens, there will be more than a little bit of business on this very website that will give newcomers something to occupy their time with.  Without spoiling the trajectory of “Baby Girl” or its sequels, I know where this story is going and I’ve roughly established the mythology behind it.  Ultimately, you’ll be able to explore that mythology for yourself by clicking around on http://www.sheisrisen.com.

But that’s still months away (to say the least).  For the moment, I’m putting out a call for illustrators and web designers who want to discuss how we can format this site.  My imagination and vision when it comes to web design and programming is so 1993.  Oo, oo!!  I want it to be just like THE 7TH GUEST!!

Nooooooo.  We’ll have none of that (well, maybe a little of that).

My plan is to have a kind of interactive game that will allow users to unlock the characters and their backstory while also exploring the mythology of the “She Is Risen” world.  True, I’m doing this to buy myself some time to get it finished (”She Is Written?”), but it will also give me an opportunity to tease newcomers and drum up some interest in the project.

If all goes according to plan, this should be a lot of fun (and hard work).

And needless to say, this message will self-destruct when the game is on.  We have to preserve SOME of the mystery.  It’s just that for now, you have a unique opportunity to have an insider look at the creative process.

Once it’s done, I’m gonna go all Larry Wachowski and stonewall readers. 

And get a sex change (okay, only in print).