I don’t even know where to start. Was it in 2018 when I wrote the first draft of “Hell: A Rescue Mission?” Or maybe it was in 2022 when Ian Whates, publisher of NewCon Press and editor of Parsec Magazine reached out to me to buy my story, “Theo Ballinchard and the Oranges of Possibility,” a short story in the world of The Sisters Mederos and Fog Season.
Or maybe, it was when I decided to get a certificate in film technology from Austin Community College. My worlds all collided in a glittery smashup of fantasy, science fiction, filmmaking and art. And I’ve written a lot about the journey before, but as Tolkien (or Robert Earl Keen, whichever) told us, the road goes ever on and on, and the party never ends.
This is the story of Hell: A Rescue Mission the short story and movie, and my short story collection, Into the Dark, from NewCon Press.
Hell: A Rescue Mission: First Draft
I wrote Hell in December 2018. It was a dark story, and ended abruptly, and didn’t quite work. I workshopped it with my several writers groups, and kept hammering away at it. In 2021, when I started taking classes at ACC, I wrote a screenplay adaptation, paring away the excess and focusing on the emotion. That’s the class that gave me the ending, very different from the short story itself.
And then I let it be. I wrote other screenplays and stories, made Do Over and Shakespeare in the Diner: Macbeth (never let it be said that I don’t like colons), and graduated with my film certificate. But I had a couple of reasons to go back to the screenplay.
One, I thought I could do it justice, after learning from my previous projects. Two, I had the opportunity to take another class at ACC, and wanted to jump right in. I wanted to explore more exciting camera movements. Dolly shots. Dutch angles. Handheld camera movement. Macbeth had been fairly static, which was what I wanted then. What if I could put together a team who wanted to push the boundaries on what we could do with exciting camera work?
So I got the team back together, from Macbeth and other projects. And working with Angela Reavis on camera was exactly what I wanted — exciting, bold, fresh, and funny.
Into the Dark: The Short Story Collection
After Theo Ballinchard came out in ParSec Magazine, Ian reached out. He was starting a short story collection series, Polestars. Did I want to be one of the authors in the series? Yes. Yes, is the answer to that. You should check out the other authors in the series, many of whom I’ve been a fan of for years.
I put together a curated collection of the stories that have marked my career.
“A Prayer for Captain La Hire” was reprinted in Year’s Best Fantasy. “Blood on the Snow” was published in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. “Pigs and Feaches” went to Apex Digest and later Best New Tales of the Apocalypse. Later stories include “Caro Comes Home,” a love story, and “Joe Fledge’s Jump” was a finalist in the Jim Baen Memorial Contest.
At that point, “Hell: A Rescue Mission” had not seen publication. So why not include it in the collection? What an exciting prospect, to have the short story and the movie come out simultaneously.
Adapting Hell
I want to be clear that the short story and the film are different versions of the story. They share some scenes and even some dialog, but the stories are very different. And I think that’s a strength. The best adaptations take a different approach to the source material. Just think of The Shining. Or Arrival, based on the Ted Chiang story “Story of Your Life.”
I still think there’s room for yet another adaptation of “Hell: A Rescue Mission.” There’s enough story in the short story to make a feature-length movie. Maybe. Stay tuned.
The collection comes out in December 2024. “Hell: A Rescue Mission” the movie also debuts in December 2024. I’ll keep everyone posted on how they can see the movie — it should first appear in the ACC showcase in the early part of December.
Into the Dark is available wherever books are sold.
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