Tag Archives: Terrific

Terrific — Chapter One

Yes, yes, yes. I’m still working on my upcoming superhero novel, Terrific. What, you don’t believe me? Well, here’s the proof!

Below is the current draft of the first chapter. Note that it is just a draft and will undergo revisions later, but things are coming along. When you self-publish, it’s vitally important that you reject your own work to ensure you put out the best possible book. I’ve rejected two full previous versions of Terrific, as well as another half a manuscript, but I’m feeling confident about how this one is turning out.

So read it, enjoy, and bug me to get the thing finished and published.

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Terrific

–a novel–

By Daniel Sherrier

1.

Miranda Thomas liked pretending to be someone else. Her true self receded behind a persona she had spent innumerable hours crafting, rehearsing, and perfecting to the greatest possible extent. And her hard work paid off as she made her regional theatre debut in The Reluctant Guest.

They enjoyed her. Several dozen strangers laughed at all the right moments. Everyone returned to their seats after intermission. They cheered when the lights went down at the play’s conclusion. And audiences never lied. Miranda loved that about them.

She had graduated from Olympus University a mere three months earlier, and she was already doing her favorite thing in the world…as a professional. Her castmates were fun, the reviews were strong, and the nonprofit company owned a charming venue. This was not a poor start.

Today’s matinee wasn’t quite finished. Miranda had one last moment on the stage, the only one as herself.

Warm light enveloping her, she crossed the polished floorboards of the Aeschylus Theater for her curtain call. The stage was smaller than most, and its house seated a mere eighty-eight on three sides. An intimate performance space, perfect for a four-person contemporary comedy. It minimized the barrier between actors and audience, filtering none of their reaction. Right now, it was Miranda’s stage. Continue reading →

More than halfway!

Back in May, I decided it would be a swell idea to review one comic book a day for a year. Earlier this month, I hit the halfway point, and I somehow haven’t given up on it.

For those of you just tuning in, I’m writing only positive reviews to highlight the good stuff. (There’s enough negativity elsewhere.) I think of it as a lengthy thank-you to an industry that has provided me with countless hours of enjoyment since I was eight years old. Some books I’ve read many times over the years, some I’m reading for the first time, and some I hadn’t read in well over a decade.

It’s not a “best of” list. The books appear in no particular order, and I’ll end up excluding many great ones. It’s just whatever I happen to be reading or whatever old favorite I feel like sharing that particular day. Usually I’ll focus on just one issue, but occasionally I’ll highlight a full storyline or miniseries all at once. There really is no grand plan at work here. You never know quite what to expect as you check in each day…and I usually don’t either.

Maybe you’ll find some good recommendations to try out, or maybe you’ll just be reminiscing along with me. Perhaps a bit of both. Any which way, I hope you enjoy.

And I apologize for the very unpolished prose. The pace leaves little time for revision, and I am still hard at work on my novel, Terrific, in which I’ll contribute my own superheroes to the literary world. (That will be polished.)

That book is coming. In the meantime, check out the many excellent comics I’ve highlighted.

A “Terrific” task indeed

I’m still working on Terrific, my superhero novel and first true novel (as opposed to series of novellas and novelettes). I’ve already written it twice, and now version three is under way. The first version wound up being an ongoing comic book series in novel form. The second version wound up being a movie in novel form. Now to write a novel in novel form.

Technically, I started this project in January 2015, right as I published Earths in Space vol. 2, but it also dates back to college, 2003 specifically, when I wrote a play called Super! It was workshopped at William & Mary and also appeared in a small Chicago theater a few years later. The main theme was escapism—adulthood is hard, so how do we hide from it? Into what can we disappear, and how unhealthy is that disappearance?

An old postcard for the play. Dates are 2008.

It was partially a superhero deconstruction, though I wrote a sequel that was more of a superhero reconstruction (also workshopped at W&M, though never professionally staged—probably for the best). I re-envisioned that reconstruction in a television pilot I wrote. Called Selfless, it was a set a year after the end of the play, using it as backstory but obviously needing to stand on its own. It was basically about a young woman who felt compelled to keep helping other people rather than do the hard work of sorting out her own life, but helping others winds up helping her, too.

I had fun mapping out a season of episodes that told individual stories that built on each other (kind of like Earths in Space and RIP). But it would’ve been a hard sell, and I realized building a television career wasn’t the right path for me. So I set the superheroes aside and put my comic book sensibilities to work in Earths in Space’s sci-fi adventures. Continue reading →