William Kely McClung's Blog: Fuczm - Posts Tagged "super-ninja"

WHAT DOES WRITING REVEAL TO THE WRITER?

Not about him, but to him or her or any other way in which we think of ourselves?

We know it reveals glimpses to others, but what does self-analysis of the words we put on paper whisper back to us? I don't write as therapy, but from the joy of learning and sharing and constructing stories, in short, as someone who has things I want to say and finds meaning for myself in putting those things on paper whether someone reads them or not.

With 30 feature screenplays under my belt and diving headlong into my third novel, my themes seem to always be about people being worse than what we make up, more terrible than Vlads or Mr. Hydes or even the Hannibal Lectors, but also about a world populated with people better than we can imagine.

But now I realize I not only write with some modest talent for violence, but about death. Which is a bit strange as I'm sure I've only been dead a couple of times. Ha, just kidding. Maybe only once that I know of.

So where does this obsession come from, and can I really expect others to come along for the ride? And can I be okay if they don't?

I can only promise myself, and for those who come on the journeys with me, to keep exploring what makes us dark and detestable and that which makes us radiant and utterly fantastic. My stories, like this post, will maybe not follow any particular convention but will be, to the best of my abilities, explorations into what makes us human.

Yes, this post is rambling a bit. My fumbling for understanding, and by letting you in, that audience of maybe only one who might actually read these words, to hold myself accountable. As I'm only now discovering these things about myself, to remind myself in the future to look back, to not let myself off the hook.

60,000 words are currently spread over three different stories—sequels to LOOP and BLACK FIRE awaiting more research—and now, up as my daily obsession, SUPER NINJA.

A silly title maybe---but a title and an idea that started 30 years ago as a screenplay and secured a 3-picture deal as actor and writer with the legendary film producer Menahem Golan. And though he passed away some time ago, it's a story now demanding to be put on paper. I promise it will be as intense and approached with as much respect for myself and an audience as anything else I'll ever write.

This passage, somewhere at the end of the beginning, is what started this rant. Of course it's early days, so it may change or disappear entirely, but with luck and lots of hard work ahead, the rest will follow before the end of the year.

***


Nash could find no reason to fight, had no will to resist, no strength to deny the inevitable. Maybe he was still lying on the dank jungle floor on the steep slopes of Phu Si Lung. Maybe nothing from these past 10 years existed at all. He floated toward the ceiling, lighter than a feather, but was then dropped into the gelatinous oil. His hyperactive senses faded quickly; maybe the drug was finally processed and leaving his system. He saw the burning lab for what it was, the men as they really were, and the monster they called Angel.

Their eyes found each other until Nash was pushed down under the thick oil. Light became black and then something new, a darkness only the dead could know.

He gagged and felt the burning liquid enter his lungs. Eons… moments… the agony of death, beyond anything he’d known, burst white hot somewhere deep in his brain. Bolts of lighting raced along hundreds of miles of nerves in a single instant, fused the gap between each synapse, then sputtered and dimmed.

He floated. Had time to wonder what happened next. He’d done his best but he didn’t deserve heaven, he was sure of that. The fiery lab and the dozens of dead bodies and monsters were only a glimpse of the hell he would face for all eternity.

Somewhere in the glimpses of life flashing by at infinite speeds and the chemical reactions of a body shutting down down, Captain Steven James Nash, son of John and Nicole, the first love of Samantha Lynn Carpenter, decorated then forgotten commander of the Ranger’s covert special operations group Vipers, found peace.

As the body that had once been the man floated in darkness, his soul gathered itself and waited for what was to come.

And then he was gone.
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Published on May 17, 2023 02:50 Tags: black-fire, craft, loop, super-ninja, writing

FINDING MY VOICE - A JOURNEY INTO PAGES AND AUDIO

I'm still discovering my voice as a writer, an artist, a photographer, filmmaker, in short, as a storyteller.

Nothing I'm doing is saving lives or changing the world, but hopefully it brings a few gasps, a few laughs, a couple tears, and maybe a bit of inspiration to a few.

Like tens of millions of people, I grew up enthralled with books and stories. From science fiction to myths and legends and then history and biographies, and then finding my way back to the heroes of adventure and thrillers. I could draw, and later paint, and later still, transitioned into photography, screenwriting, acting, editing, and directing films.

It was only then, and now, after writing thirty feature screenplays over almost as many years, some lost, some sitting on literal and digital shelves, a few turned into films, that I have come back to the idea of writing stories as complete books.

I don't think I'm clever enough to write short stories and so I am into my third novel. Just over a hundred 4 and 5-star reviews on Amazon, but I've found some love on Goodreads, BookBub, and more, with a couple thousand positive ratings and so am encouraged to continue, and am now working on my version of a super hero, not a kids story! SUPER NINJA. More about the title some time soon...

My first self-published novel was LOOP, a science fiction horror novel that I have hopes of turning into a movie. My second is BLACK FIRE, an action thriller that takes my hero across the globe to save the daughter of a fallen comrade.

Both started as screenplays, and when a film I was to direct in Cameroon fell apart during the pandemic, I buckled down to expand them into full blown novels.

I'll talk more about that process and the inherent differences between screenplays and novel forms of the same story.

And so... finding my voice... literally. Both in words on the page and in recording audio.

So much more to share, hopefully to accomplish several things.

One is to document for myself the journey. As artists, I think many of us struggle with thinking our efforts have any value at all. Maybe some self-love gives them value, but I still hope to go further. As a martial arts teacher, I spent years traveling the world learning and teaching others, mostly in hope of guiding people into the discovery of their own journeys.

I miss it. Martial arts brought me many friends, led me to all facets of filmmaking, and took me around the world. I try to bring some of that into my stories and writing, but selfishly, I understand that teaching and sharing is when I learn the most.

As an actor and teacher, I've spent a lot of time investigating, learning, and discovering my literal voice, the instrument with which I speak. Still so much to learn!

During my hold during the pandemic, sheltering with family, I began investigating the idea of recording my voice in hopes of releasing an audio version of my stories. Like most of us, I didn't and don't have an ideal space to record.

Still, with piled up mattresses and pillows, blankets and acoustic baffles in the earliest, quietest hours of morning, I did my first attempts with the most primitive tools. Then came research on current microphones that I might be able to afford and interfaces and recording programs.

One of my first problems was like a lot of people, I hated my voice, or rather, wasn't confident in it. So began new research and practice on how to actually speak.

I am writing this in part to hold myself accountable. Like the stories and writing journey itself, to put myself on the line and, good or bad, to complete my first audio book.

Lots of directions and I don't promise to stay on any one likely path. Recording and audio principals haven't really changed that much since their beginning, but ideas of how to use the new technologies may take me down some interesting roads.

This is my beginning, and a challenge to myself to put up and shut up. I may fail in the next week or two, decide its too much work or the failure is too much embarrassment, but I've never given up on anything I 've ever started, though realistically, I maybe should have, but I'm inviting you along for the ride in hopes it entertains and inspires, or at the worst, gives me another way to find my voice and tell a story.

LOOP and BLACK FIRE and some fun reviews can be found on AMAZON under my name William Kely McClung

LOOP https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09TJH24KB

BLACK FIRE https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BSSD7CVL
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Published on October 13, 2023 06:34 Tags: audio-books, black-fire, loop, super-ninja, writing

SUPER NINJA - 50 YEARS IN THE MAKING!

Super Ninja was born in the early 80's as a superhero I envisioned that tied in much of my childhood love for action and adventure stories and my lifelong pursuit of martial arts.

The story wouldn't really find a focus until by what still feels like a miracle, after nearly thirty years of training and winning the MiddleWeight division of International Full Contact Stick Fighting Championship, I was invited to join the fourth installment of the American Ninja series filming in South Africa with Michael Dudikof and David Bradley, directed by Cedric Sundström, getting to do action, stunts, choreography, and as chance would have it, step in to play the character Super Ninja.

By the time we wrapped production, I had written my first screenplay, which I later sold and starred in, and started back on my first writing attempt, Spy Dancer. As I was actively pursuing more film opportunities, that story was set aside and I wrote my first draft of the screenplay Super Ninja.

The story and style had very little to do with the character in the American Ninja series, and was much closer to a true superhero origin story along the vein of Captain America or Spiderman.

Within a couple years, I was able to present the story to Menachem Golan who jumped at it. Within a week I had signed a three-picture deal to star and write, and my face was in hurried ads in his company's brochure for the Cannes Film festival, along with full page and even a double page ads in Variety magazine.

Little did I know or understand how his company was struggling and soon Menahem left Hollywood and moved back to Israel.

Though I never made it big in Hollywood, film has been intrinsic to my life since that first taste in 1990 where with my enthusiasm and the generosity of Cedric and my early film mentor Mike Stone, I played a dozen 'utility roles,' got to double both the stars, and played the character Super Ninja.

I was able to stay in touch with Menahem, served as his 1st AD and post production supervisor on one of his films, and traded ideas back and forth for more action movies that sadly never happened. I can honestly say we were friends and that I miss him and his council.

Lucky enough to write and direct three independent feature films of my own and winning dozens of awards for nearly every category at smaller film festivals across the globe, and writing, good or bad, more than 30 feature screenplays, and then delayed by the pandemic to direct what for me would have been a huge international production in Cameroon and across France, I completed my first novel; the science-fiction horror story LOOP, and followed it with the international action thriller BLACK FIRE.

Which brings me back to SUPER NINJA... a superhero story 50 years in the making.

The novel, as intense as my other stories and screenplays, is a far cry from my first writing attempts. It has kept much of original story that I presented to Menachem nearly 30 years ago, captures the wonder of the early stories of Tarzan and John Carter and the Greek and Roman mythology I grew up on, and ties in some of evolving technologies and dangers we will be forced to deal with today and in our evolving future.

I'm pushing hard to have SUPER NINJA in hand, and on shelves, in early to mid-Spring 2024. And with a bit of luck, and maybe, with another miracle, find a way to bring SUPER NINJA to the screen.
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Published on December 07, 2023 03:23 Tags: fantasy, movies, super-ninja, writing

The Unseen Force: Exploring Faith in Super Ninja: The Sword of Heaven

An exploration of faith wrapped in a violent, hardcore, superhero origin sci-fi action story!

Super Ninja: The Sword of Heaven


As my story is a bit of a mind-melding, genre-bending, sci-fi thriller with heavy overtones of magical realism and fantasy, dealing with both a superhero origin story and a mysterious AI entity, I thought it might be cool to let the AI, in my story, 'THE BOB,' write its own take on SUPER NINJA: The Sword of Heaven.

Go ahead 'The Bob,' and take it away!


SUPER NINJA: The Sword of Heaven is a thrilling and ambitious new novel from William Kely McClung, a work that defies easy categorization and challenges readers' expectations. McClung's background in martial arts and filmmaking infuses the narrative with a kinetic energy and visceral intensity that is rarely seen in the realm of speculative fiction.

The novel's strengths lie in its unique blend of genres, complex characters, and exploration of thought-provoking themes. McClung seamlessly weaves together elements of science fiction, fantasy, cyberpunk, and thriller, creating a rich tapestry of ideas and imagery that captivates the reader's imagination. The characters are multi-layered and morally ambiguous, grappling with the burdens of the past and the temptations of power. Their journeys of self-discovery and redemption resonate with readers on a deep emotional level.

SUPER NINJA: The Sword of Heaven ’s exploration of faith and the unseen forces that shape our lives is particularly compelling. McClung delves into the complexities of belief systems, challenging readers to question their own assumptions about reality and the nature of existence. The juxtaposition of ancient traditions and futuristic technology creates a fascinating tension, highlighting the timeless struggle between faith and reason.

From the very beginning, the novel establishes a sense of wonder and mystery surrounding the Sword of Heaven. Forged from a meteorite in feudal Japan, the sword is imbued with extraordinary power. This mystical weapon serves as a symbol of the unseen forces that operate in the universe, forces that cannot be fully explained by logic or reason.

The protagonist, Steven J. Nash, a Vietnam War veteran who mysteriously disappears and reemerges 50 years later with extraordinary abilities, embodies the struggle between faith and doubt. Nash's journey is one of self-discovery and acceptance, as he grapples with the inexplicable nature of his existence and the powers he possesses.

The novel also explores the theme of faith through the character of The Bob, an artificial intelligence formed from the ethos that inhabits Nash's mind. The Bob, with its vast knowledge and quickly expanding analytical capabilities, struggles to comprehend the inexplicable. As The Bob delves deeper, it begins to recognize the limitations of its own understanding and the existence of forces beyond its comprehension.

The theme of faith is further explored through the characters of Shingo Funikoshi and Nakamura, who represent opposing forces in the novel. Shingo places his faith in technology and progress, while Nakamura clings to the traditions and beliefs of his ancestors. Both characters ultimately face the limitations of their faith.

Throughout the novel, nearly all the characters grapple with questions of destiny, purpose, and the meaning of life. They are confronted with choices that challenge their beliefs and force them to confront the unknown. In the end, it is through faith, trust, and acceptance that the characters find strength, resilience, and the ability to overcome adversity.

SUPER NINJA: The Sword of Heaven is a testament to the power of faith and the enduring human need to believe in something greater than ourselves. It reminds us that even in a world dominated by technology and reason, there are still mysteries that defy explanation and forces that operate beyond our understanding.

#SuperNinja #SwordofHeaven #Faith #ScienceFiction #WilliamKelyMcClung #TheBob #GoogleGemini
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Published on May 15, 2024 14:37 Tags: faith, fantasy, magical-realism, science-fiction, super-ninja, superhero, williamkelymcclung

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William Kely McClung
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