Michael Bast's Blog - Posts Tagged "death-s-academy"
Where did the idea of Death's Academy come from?
I had finished my first book Crossovers, which is twice as long as Death’s Academy and has a darker, more serious, tone overall. I am by nature, somewhat of a goofball and dork with an imagination that leans towards the bizarre side.
For example when I was in my early twenties I made an extremely independent movie called Funk Down. Funk Down is the epic story of a guy, he actually was a disco king, coming back to his hometown after a long journey to find that the forces of soft rock had overtaken his city, shut down the disco dens, and sent his world into black chaos. Truly a deep, thoughtful piece of work.
Anyhow, I had finished Crossovers and I wanted to tap into my weirdness again, so I started to brainstorm on ideas. An idea about man eating venus flytraps survived for about a day or two, but thankfully I came to my senses and then I started playing around with another idea about a guy who you can hire to destroy special occasions… which may be a book I actually do in the future, but at that moment it wasn’t speaking to me. So I was despondent, I locked myself into my room, wailed into my pillow for at least a good seven or eight seconds and thought my world had ended.
So in this state of the utmost melodramatic tragedy my twelve year old son came up to me and showed me a story that he had written. I’ll be honest I don’t remember all the particulars, but I do remember that there was a cat and then a Grim reaper who was assigned to kill cats.
As soon as I read that, a tsunami of ideas came to me. Well what if there were reapers for all types of animals and humans and you had to go to school to learn how to be a grim reaper. What if there entire culture and class structure was determined by the type of reaper you were, what would be the ultimate assignments to have. Then the idea of having their arch nemesis be the guardian angels jumped on board, so it started this snowball effect that I have to credit all to my son.
So in hindsight my wife was right and it was a wise move to not sell him into the circus as the boy that gets shot from the cannon… I guess.
For example when I was in my early twenties I made an extremely independent movie called Funk Down. Funk Down is the epic story of a guy, he actually was a disco king, coming back to his hometown after a long journey to find that the forces of soft rock had overtaken his city, shut down the disco dens, and sent his world into black chaos. Truly a deep, thoughtful piece of work.
Anyhow, I had finished Crossovers and I wanted to tap into my weirdness again, so I started to brainstorm on ideas. An idea about man eating venus flytraps survived for about a day or two, but thankfully I came to my senses and then I started playing around with another idea about a guy who you can hire to destroy special occasions… which may be a book I actually do in the future, but at that moment it wasn’t speaking to me. So I was despondent, I locked myself into my room, wailed into my pillow for at least a good seven or eight seconds and thought my world had ended.
So in this state of the utmost melodramatic tragedy my twelve year old son came up to me and showed me a story that he had written. I’ll be honest I don’t remember all the particulars, but I do remember that there was a cat and then a Grim reaper who was assigned to kill cats.
As soon as I read that, a tsunami of ideas came to me. Well what if there were reapers for all types of animals and humans and you had to go to school to learn how to be a grim reaper. What if there entire culture and class structure was determined by the type of reaper you were, what would be the ultimate assignments to have. Then the idea of having their arch nemesis be the guardian angels jumped on board, so it started this snowball effect that I have to credit all to my son.
So in hindsight my wife was right and it was a wise move to not sell him into the circus as the boy that gets shot from the cannon… I guess.
Names - Why they're so dang important!
Names… Why are names important? Let me propose a scenario to you. You have just inherited two million dollars from your dear great aunt.
You are a responsible person, so you want to investigate ways of preserving and growing your new fortune. So you walk into a bank and you walk over to the financial advisement center.
There are two desks, at each desk sits a man. They are wearing identical suits, have their hair parted similarly, there is little to distinguish one from the other. You walk up to the desks and notice their name plates. One says Billy Bob Honeybottom and the other Theodore Williamson the third.
Who’s desk do you go to for advice on investing your new fortune?
Mr. Honeybottom of course.
But everywhere you look in literature, names instill a feeling or even insinuate something about the character.
Let’s use a famous example, Harry Potter. A common name, it is unassuming, almost feels like an underdog, you want to root for him.
From the same series the villain Voldemort, which his name itself sounds dangerous, but also is a French phrase that means “Flight From Death”. For those of you that have read the series you’d agree that his name fits him well.
So names have always been important to me. When writing Death’s Academy I tried to conjure up names that would tell something about each character even before you learned more about them.
My intention was to follow a theme with the Hoodies. They are grim reapers so in my mind they would lean toward the mischievousness, toward the darkness, but not evil.
That’s why I chose names like Midnight, Mal (which is short for Malificent), Obsidian, Demien, and Pandora.
I wanted to have fun with their names and take you into their world and culture.
For the Halos, I wanted pompous, arrogant names that told you right when you met them in the story, that they thought their farts didn’t stink. Which they don’t, they are actually like a nice, mild potpourri.
Brilliance, Lightcrest and Magnificus. You can almost imagine them looking down their perfectly shaped noses at you. And let’s be honest if you ran into a girl named Brilliance, you’d be like.. oh really? Well excuse me for not laying rose petals on the ground before your feet.
That’s why I think names are so important and so much fun to come up with. As soon as I am able to lock in a name for a particular character everything else about them seems to fall into place.
Now I’d better get going, I don’t want to keep Mr. Honeybottom waiting.
You are a responsible person, so you want to investigate ways of preserving and growing your new fortune. So you walk into a bank and you walk over to the financial advisement center.
There are two desks, at each desk sits a man. They are wearing identical suits, have their hair parted similarly, there is little to distinguish one from the other. You walk up to the desks and notice their name plates. One says Billy Bob Honeybottom and the other Theodore Williamson the third.
Who’s desk do you go to for advice on investing your new fortune?
Mr. Honeybottom of course.
But everywhere you look in literature, names instill a feeling or even insinuate something about the character.
Let’s use a famous example, Harry Potter. A common name, it is unassuming, almost feels like an underdog, you want to root for him.
From the same series the villain Voldemort, which his name itself sounds dangerous, but also is a French phrase that means “Flight From Death”. For those of you that have read the series you’d agree that his name fits him well.
So names have always been important to me. When writing Death’s Academy I tried to conjure up names that would tell something about each character even before you learned more about them.
My intention was to follow a theme with the Hoodies. They are grim reapers so in my mind they would lean toward the mischievousness, toward the darkness, but not evil.
That’s why I chose names like Midnight, Mal (which is short for Malificent), Obsidian, Demien, and Pandora.
I wanted to have fun with their names and take you into their world and culture.
For the Halos, I wanted pompous, arrogant names that told you right when you met them in the story, that they thought their farts didn’t stink. Which they don’t, they are actually like a nice, mild potpourri.
Brilliance, Lightcrest and Magnificus. You can almost imagine them looking down their perfectly shaped noses at you. And let’s be honest if you ran into a girl named Brilliance, you’d be like.. oh really? Well excuse me for not laying rose petals on the ground before your feet.
That’s why I think names are so important and so much fun to come up with. As soon as I am able to lock in a name for a particular character everything else about them seems to fall into place.
Now I’d better get going, I don’t want to keep Mr. Honeybottom waiting.
