Lee Stephen

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Lee Stephen

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The Next Big Thing Cast: William Sadler (Brent Lilan)

It was a train wreck. A total train wreck.

Nine words, simple and direct. The beginning of an epic. It is with those nine words that Dawn of Destiny, the first book in the Epic series, sets the stage for Scott Remington’s journey of faith and fury. But the words don’t belong to Scott. They belong to his first commanding officer.

Colonel Brent Lilan of Falcon Platoon is the first character introduced in Epic. It is only appropriate that he be the first character introduced in this “The Next Big Thing” casting series. For those wondering what this is about, you’ll want to check out my blog entry explaining the “what’s” and “why’s” of this unique little Epic event. For those already initiated, strap yourselves in. We’re landing in a hot zone.

[stextbox id=”black” image=”null”]Plasma bolts whizzed past Lilan’s head as he retreated around the corner of an alleyway. He flung himself against the brick and muttered a string of obscenities. It was time to pull out. It was time to salvage whatever was left of Falcon Platoon and return to base. The fate of Cleveland would rest in the hands of whoever else Richmond could muster up on a whim.[/stextbox]

Brent Lilan is the embodiment of a realist. Wifeless and childless, he’s known but one thing in his life: the chain of command. Following and issuing orders. Being all he can be at the cost of what most would consider “life.” A colonel at the Earth Defense Network (EDEN) base of Richmond, Virginia, he is the unfortunate heir of a tragic circumstance and a mission gone to hell. It is through that circumstance and that mission that Lilan becomes the new commanding officer for Scott Remington and his comrades as they fill the ranks of his decimated unit.

For as bluntly matter-of-fact as Lilan comes across, he’s a character dealing with deeply complex personal issues. He’s a man in his fifties still serving on the battlefield, reaching the point in his career when younger blood is being chosen for more critical operations. As capable as he knows he still is, he consistently finds himself being relegated more to a role of “rookie trainer” than front-line difference-maker. He’s given his life to the military, and he’s seeing that military slowly leave him behind. Without this career path—without war—what does he have? For as much as men fight to preserve peace, Lilan fights to hold on to the only purpose he’s ever known.

[stextbox id=”black” image=”null”]

Lilan stared at the comm in his hand, then surveyed his room. His eyes, fully adjusted to the darkness, settled on his oak dresser. How many times had he climbed out of bed and opened those drawers to dress for the day? He’d built that dresser fifty-some-odd years ago, with his father. It had traveled with him to every house he’d owned. It was made strong—made to last. Things weren’t made like that anymore. People weren’t made like that.

Pressing his hand against his forehead, Lilan gritted his teeth. Rolling out of bed and onto his feet, he shook his head and lifted his comm again. He called up General Hutchin.

“You awake now?” Hutchin asked.

“Yeah,” Lilan answered. “What’s the op?”

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The casting of Brent Lilan, to put it simply, was easy. Let’s be honest. All authors, be they great or small, cast their books in their minds. When you visualize scenes in your head—when you imagine how your words would look enacted on the silver screen—how can you not see certain people acting them out? There’s always “that someone” who you think would be perfect for certain roles. And I can honestly say, for the role of Colonel Lilan, that person has always been William Sadler. He was the first of any character in Epic that I ever cast in my head, before Dawn of Destiny ever became tangible in late 2006. I knew he’d be the first actor I’d approach for this “The Next Big Thing” journey.

 

 

“A military colonel in a sci-fi setting, eh?  I think I’d be okay in a role like that.” – Sadler on playing Lilan

William’s film career spans 35 years and over a hundred roles, from the zany creepiness of the Grim Reaper in Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, to one of his best-known roles as Heywood in Shawshank Redemption, to more recent appearances on 666 Park Avenue and the impending Iron Man 3. The man stays busy, so I consider it an amazing privilege that he was so quick to respond to me in regards to The Next Big Thing to accept this hypothetical role.

There’s something that must be said for William. He is living proof that if you work hard, and if you do things the right way, you can find success. He’s a natural entertainer – but being a natural at something won’t get a person to the grocery store if they don’t start taking steps, let alone to any kind of decent future. You have to put forth effort. You have to earn your stripes. Reading William’s back-story puts into perspective just how arduous the road can be. Keep in mind, now, that arduous doesn’t mean “bad.” But just the same, it means there are a lot of steps in the journey. William started in a 60’s garage band. Then he MC-ed a variety show (with a banjo, which is just the coolest thing in the world). Then he did stand-up, then he pursued acting in college, then he moved up to shows on “off-off-Broadway,” as he put it. By the time he got his first actual film role, he had already been doing entertainment for most of his adult life.

Here’s what you can glean from that: you have to work. I wouldn’t exactly call myself a curmudgeon at age thirty-one, but it seems that all too often people expect to make it to the top immediately on pure talent and little to no effort. It’s that whole “entitlement generation” thing. It doesn’t apply to everyone, obviously, but just the same, I could come up with countless examples in just about every creative avenue from writing, to acting, to visual arts, where the general attitude is, “the reason I haven’t made it is because my genius hasn’t been recognized.” That’s wrong. The reason you haven’t made it – if that’s your attitude – is because you aren’t committed to making it. It goes beyond just pumping out material day after day. You have to look inside you and say, “what do I have to do to be better?” Are you willing to bust your tail for no gain except personal fulfillment? If the answer is no, you don’t want it enough. William wasn’t sitting back with a silver spoon living the life of luxury when he woke up one day and said, “I think I’ll try acting.” He committed to entertainment at a very young age, and he’s spent his life working incredibly hard to better his talents and advance his career. You need only look at his body of work to see how that’s paid off.

Work hard, folks. Whatever your profession. Don’t root around looking for shortcuts. Put your boots on the ground and get muddy. It can take you exceedingly far.

There are a lot of ways to keep up with William’s current projects. In addition to his website, he’s an active member of the Twittersphere and Facebook, where he promises to be your best friend EVER. And if you have an extra five hours, you can read over the massive amount of work he has listed on IMDb.

Thank you so much, Bill, for being a part of this. It may seem like a small thing, but for this small author and his series, it truly is a privilege. And if this small author ever gets big someday, have a phone handy. We’re goin’ to war!

Thus concludes the first entry of this The Next Big Thing casting endeavor! We’ll be picking up with a new character next week. To pass the time, break out your telescopes and look for that bright morning star. It might just be our next one.

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Cancer Update

I had intended to use this entry as the first installment of my The Next Big Thing casting series, but being that my first big follow-up with the doctor was today concerning my mycosis fungoides diagnosis, I thought this entry would be better served letting people know how I was doing.

There’s good news, and there’s news that’s still not necessarily bad, but nonetheless not fun. First, the good news! The treatments I’ve been taking have been working very, very well, and there’s no reason to believe that this cancer won’t be defeated entirely. As I’d mentioned in the first entry, mycosis fungoides is incurable unless caught very early. We believe that may have been the case with me. All signs are pointing to this thing being defeated entirely.

The not fun news is that I’ll still have to be on chemotherapy for at least 2-3 months. By far, chemo is the worst part of this process. Though it’s just a once-a-week pill (methotrexate, for those curious), it still has a flurry of cruddy side effects, including nausea, headaches, and dizziness. It’s definitely not a picker-upper, and I’ve already had to leave work once (and miss a day) because of it. But, if the pills are necessary, they’re just necessary. It’s a take-no-chances kind of thing. I will happily endure the side effects of chemo pills if it means wiping out this cancer for good. So like I said, it’s not fun news, but it’s not necessarily bad. It’s just part of the process.

There’s something else I want to touch on here, and it’s something that comes just as much from my wife as it does me. We have both been completely humbled, and completely floored by the amount of support we’ve received. I’m serious. It’s overwhelming. Since this diagnosis, we’ve had our grass cut, meals delivered, donations given, none of which we asked for. That doesn’t even take into account the incredible amount of prayers and well-wishes that have been sent our way. This has been completely amazing. From the outset, we’ve wanted to use this cancer in a positive way for others – I can honestly say, this has been a hugely positive development for us. The support we’ve seen given to us (for which we both feel undeserving) has been life-affecting. It makes us want to be better people. From the bottom of both our hearts, thank you.

I’m going to be fine. The big toll of this (chemo aside) has been purely emotional and psychological. I don’t “feel” this cancer. It doesn’t slow me down. It just lingers in my thoughts. It’s very sobering to come to grips with your own mortality at age thirty-one. Even though this isn’t a cancer that’s going to kill me, the question has often arisen in my brain, why was it it mycosis fungoides? What made it that and not pancreatic cancer, or advanced prostate, or something in my brain? Did I just draw a lucky straw? It makes you realize that as healthy as you think you are, life can pick you in a heartbeat. It can give you something you’ve never imagined and force you to deal with it. I’ve had the thought more than just a few times, “It’s great that I’ll beat this, but what might come next?” Those thoughts are poison, but hey, I’m human. The key is faith. I’m working on it. I’m getting there. The encouragement, prayers, and support I’ve received have gone a tremendous way in reminding us that enough though times are tough, we are never forsaken. We’re never not beloved by God. And that has been a gift far more valuable to us than any cancer could be detrimental.

So again, thank you all, so very, very, very much. This has been incredible. I look forward to enduring these next couple months and having this chapter of life behind me. Not forgotten. But behind me.

Stay tuned for tomorrow, when the first of the The Next Big Thing casting entries gets posted! I’m excited about sharing these and about putting my mental focus somewhere else. It’s going to be fun.

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Casting The Next Big Thing

So those of you who keep up with this blog know that I recently participated in The Next Big Thing, a circulating survey among authors on the internet. The survey consists of ten questions, all of which – with the exception of one – I was able to answer. But yes, I left one out, didn’t I? I ducked and ran. I passed the buck. I tactically retreated.

Not exactly!

So one of the questions in The Next Big Thing is, “If your books were being made into a movie, who would you cast as its characters?” And let’s be honest, that’s probably one of the funner questions in the whole lot. You’re hearing this from the author. The guy whose stuff you’re reading – this is who he’d cast. Kind of puts things in an interesting perspective. But there’s always been a problem with that question, at least to me. There’s always been a reason why I’ve avoided it like the plague. It has nothing to do with how I think my selections would be perceived, rather, it has to do with the selections themselves. You see, when someone casts their characters, they’re putting up photos of living, breathing human beings. People who could very well be wandering the world wide web and suddenly find pictures of themselves on someone else’s website. Maybe I’m just playing the part of hypersensitive INFP, but it’s always felt to me as if actors’ privacy rights are regarded as completely unimportant. Yes, I understand that these are actors. Public figures. Etc., etc. But for me, that kind of thing still matters. They may be actors, they may be public figures, but they’re still people, and I don’t want to use their image without their knowing about it.

So I decided not to do it.

BOMP! Wrong.

Come on, guys. You know me. Battering ram, balls to the wall, “Break, Centurion!” I don’t slink away; I make things EPIC. So while my The Next Big Thing blog entry’s been sitting there, harmlessly bypassing that one little question, the author has been busy. Busy doing what? Why, casting Epic, of course. The right way.

Over the past month, I have been in contact with numerous actors, explaining what The Next Big Thing is about, talking about that particular question, and asking their permission to use them as my cast characters. Yes, these are real live actors that you’ve seen on television. I’ve just been extending to them the courtesy that I’d want extended to me. So far, the response has been incredibly positive. I cannot wait to introduce you guys to this “cast,” as they’re not only exceptional talent, they’re genuinely nice people who are excited to be part of this. They’re going to be introduced, not in one big blog post, but one-by-one over an extended period of time. I want this to last. I want it to be special.

I won’t say that there will a certain timeline for this, such as one actor per week posted, as sometimes reaching an actor takes time (and I will not, under any circumstance, post an actor who hasn’t given express permission). I’ll just say that as permissions come, the cast will go up. At the time of this entry, there are several actors lined up already. I will also be creating a master list, so anyone who wants to see all the actors who have been cast will be able to do so with ease. Over time, that list will fill up.

So get ready, Epic faithful! You wanted an answer to the Next Big Thing casting question? You’re fixing to get one.

Stay tuned!

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The C-Word

I thought long and hard about whether to post an entry about this. Truth be told, there’s a part of me that still doesn’t want to. The problem with that is that I have no good reason for keeping it to myself, especially when there are people out there whom I know would want to know. This isn’t because I did anything wrong. Much as Type-1 diabetes picked my wife at age sixteen, this decided to pick me at thirty-one. So here goes.

This  past Tuesday, I got a phone call from my doctor informing me that I had cancer.

Before this goes any further, I feel like I have to say something. Whenever people see or hear that word, they immediately think the worst. Allow me to assure you: I am not going to die. The particular cancer I have is called mycosis fungoides, and it’s a type of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma. It is extremely rare, only affecting five in every million people (for those who keep up with me on Facebook, my “I’m five in a million!” post will now make sense – that was typed literally as I was leaving the doctor’s office). Despite its name, mycosis fungoides is not fungal. It does, however, have some of the physical characteristics of a fungal infection, hence the name. I did put a link to its wikipedia page up there, but take my advice and resist the urge to look it up too in-depthly, because all it’s going to do is make you think, “Bull crap, Lee, you are going to die!” I’m not. The pictures of mycosis fungoides you’ll find on the internet are nothing – let me repeat, nothing – like what I have. I have several small patches that don’t look anything like the massive sores and lesions you’ll find if you look on Google images. I was fortunate enough to catch this very early, still in its infant stage. Typically, mycosis fungoides is incurable (but manageable), however we may have even discovered it early enough to wipe out entirely. That’s the prayer.

I took my first dose of pill-based chemotherapy on Wednesday, addition to being prescribed two potent steroid creams specifically geared toward this type of condition, which is strictly surface-based (in other words, this isn’t in my organs). In two weeks I have a follow-up, at which point I’ll know a lot more about how well the treatments are working. I believe they’ll work well, as I’ve already seen signs of significant improvement in less than a week of utilizing these creams. And obviously, the chemo will do its thing, too. For those wondering, no, I won’t be losing any hair. The only side effect I’ve felt to this point has been a headache that came the day after the pills, which are once-a-week pills.

There’s a chance, being what it is, that I may have to deal with this for the rest of my life. Though it can go into remission for 10+ years, unless it can be wiped out completely at the outset, it’s always there. Lurking. Waiting. Like a necrilid in the dark.

I put that last little bit in there for a reason. I’m still me. Is this depressing? Yeah. Is it stressful? Heck yeah. I feel about like you would if your doctor told you that you had cancer. But all things happen for a reason, and all things work for the glory of God. I have no clue what will happen, here. As confident as everyone is that this will be wiped out, there’s always a chance it won’t be. That’s life. But I was never in control of life, anyway. As a writer, I can put Scott Remington, and Svetlana, and Jayden, and Esther through terrible things. I can pretty much wreck their lives. But I can do this because I, unlike them, know what the next pages hold. I know chapters that are books away that they can’t even begin to see in the midst of their crisis. And I know, because I love them, that they’re going to be okay. That trials will make them better. That though none of them are guaranteed smooth sailing or even survival, I will never forsake them, because they are mine. If I, the wretched sinner than I am, can feel this way about characters I made up, how much vastly greater is God’s love for me, one of his children? It can’t even be compared.

In the meantime, please just say a prayer for me. That’s the best way anyone can help. Forgive me if I’m occasionally a little “blah,” and if you happen to be an Epic fan, good gravy, please talk to me about Epic. Escaping to the world of Novosibirsk, and Room-14, and Bakmas, and E-35s is like, the greatest therapy in the world right now. It’s like medicine.

And that’s it. I don’t plan on harping on this topic, but I will keep people posted as things develop. Hopefully I won’t need to for much longer!

 

(because I’m cured, not dead)

 

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The Audiobook Progresses

With the Xenonauts novella–something I’ll touch on in another entry–wrapping up, I’ve had more time to sit down and work on the production of the DOD audiobook. I’ve had several people inquire as to why this audiobook project seems to have taken so incredibly long. Being that it’s going on three years in development now, I’ll absolutely agree: yes, this project has taken very, very long. Arduously long. Tortuously long.

The reason for this is pretty straightforward and can best be described by a single word. Beastly. Because that’s what this audiobook is. Outright beastly. Up until this point, the most anyone has heard or seen of the audiobook, beyond a few pitifully short teaser trailers released in years past, has been the “theatrical” style trailer, seen here. While that trailer (which is actually the audiobook’s introduction) will offer an insight as to the approach this thing is taking, listeners won’t fully understand what this audio experience will be like until they start hearing actual clips. Those will be coming in time. But what I can tell you is this…forget everything you ever thought you knew about audiobooks when you consider this one. This is not a person reading the story. This is a summer blockbuster in audio form. I think one of those most telling scenes in this project is from the Battle of Chicago, an iconic Epic mission that spans two chapters in Dawn of Destiny. The first of those two chapters clocks in at over thirty minutes long. That’s thirty minutes of people shooting, running, screaming, fighting. Thirty minutes of the most bombastic soundtrack you have ever heard in an audiobook. Thirty minutes of total dynamic immersion.

It’s just the nature of the beast (no pun intended) that this project is taking as long as it is. Every sound is inserted “by hand.” Everything is timed to happen when it happens, from musical cues to pauses in dialog to that plasma bolt that just took out the window. It just takes time. Thankfully, with the help of the absolutely sensational Natalie van Sistine, who is handling all of the dialogue editing for this thing, the speed at which this audiobook is being produced has increased tenfold. Right now, it’s rocking and rolling. This is good, and it’s why I was confident enough to name 2013 as the year this thing hits the public.

I’m most excited for you guys to hear my voice actors. They do such an outstanding job bringing the Epic characters to life, from Stewart Cummings total ownership of Scott Remington, to Paul Bellantoni’s chilling take on General Thoor, to Gabriel Wolf’s uncanny ability to actually become a Bakma. Not to mention Patrick Quance, who singlehandedly elevated the narration of this project to something so ridiculously good, it almost defies belief. As much as I’m pumped up to share the story of Dawn of Destiny with people in a fresh, new way, I’m even more excited to share these actors with you. Every single one of them, of which there are over two dozen, knocks their role out of the park. It’s awesome to hear.

So sit tight! I know it’s been a long wait (believe me, I know). Every day brings this thing closer and closer to fruition.

I love this job.