Writing Samples
IP Overviews, Book Excerpts, Writing Samples, and more.
Ghost of Tsushima IP Overview
Materials:
Traditional Materials: None
Digital Materials: Adobe Photoshop CC, Adobe Illustrator CC
About:
I was tasked with creating an IP overview for "Ghost of Tsushima" (SuckerPunch Productions), that would inform the viewers an abridged version of the various character motivations, plot-points, game mechanics, and more. I wrote all text-synopsis and descriptions, modified original production / concept artwork, created custom design motifs, and more. (All production artwork* was taken from in-game cinematics, and/or concept artwork, and has been heavily modified with additional visual designs and lighting for this piece)
*SuckerPunch Productions owns the original rights to "Ghost of Tsushima", and this piece is being used for informative purposes only.
SHORT EXCERPT FROM “ALWAYS”
CHAPTER 5 - BOOK 2 (MARA)
I can hear it…I can hear the music again. It always starts soft and subtle, creeping throughout the recesses of the house and echoing off the walls of every room. Violin soft and sweet, gentle plucks and silky strums whisper from its strings. It’s lyrics, sinuous and flowing, slither their way into my mind. “I…..Will….aLwAys…Find you….Hide…YoU…CaNnot.”
Try as I might, I cannot block the words from creeping into my thoughts and clawing away at my mind. I clasp my hands tightly against my ears, hoping to muffle the noise – yet the haunting melody always seems to slip through my fingers. I can still hear it…The voices, always trilling the same verse. The lyrics repeat over and over in my head, never stopping, never giving respite. It comes…..In the night, every night. For as long as I can remember, it always comes for me.
The music begins to swell, and in it’s growth becomes lurid and misshapen. The violin strings once gently plucked and sweetly singing, now hacked and sawed upon. The lyrics, once fluid and meandering, now distort hideously into shrill shrieks and gasps. The song fills my mind completely and smothers out all other thoughts. My mind, so full…it hurts. I cannot think straight; I cannot make sense of the madness. Hidden under my covers, curled up in fright, I call out for help. My anguished cry barely carries beyond my lips before dying out.
The air is frigid and dense; no sound seems to carry more than a few inches before expiring. My furtive cries fall upon deaf ears. There is only one sound that reverberates in these halls tonight. The air thrums heavily, dripping thickly with its ichorous sound. “I…..Will….aLwAys…Find you….Hide…YoU…CaNnot.”
My thoughts of escape…Ruined by my own leaden limbs. I beg and plead with my body to take flight and save itself, yet I am given no response. The dark corners of the room close in on me. I can feel myself being pressed down into the mattress; bed springs popping and groaning from the burden.
The air feels heavy upon my chest…I…I can’t breathe. Motes of light dance before my eyes, as I desperately gasp for air. The world around me begins to dim, as my eyes droop heavy and unfocused. The frantic chatter of my mind turns to gentle static. In the distance my mind screaming to fight, yet barely heard over the mist and mire of my clouding mind. I am dying.
The music suddenly stops, and an eerie silence takes hold of the house. The crushing pressure disappears. Clutching at my throat, I pull in sharp desperate breaths. My mind slow and plodding, my breathing ragged as the life-giving sustenance fills my lungs.
I sit hunched over my bed, rasping and retching, as twin red lines begin to trickle down from each ear. The soft patter of blood drips echoing off the newly empty air. The quiet moment continues on for what seems like an eternity, until a new sound fills the empty void.
A faint scratching can be heard in the distance. Soft and singular at first, the sound swiftly multiples in number and intensity. It grows louder and louder, like thousands of finger nails scratching and scraping against glass.
It’s echoing sharply from the window…From every window.
They are Coming.
Always (Short Excerpt - Sample A)
Materials:
Traditional Materials: N/A
Digital Materials: Scrivener, Word, Misc Research Tools
About:
This is a short excerpt from my in-progress Dark Fantasy Novel, tentatively titled "Always", which tells the tantalizing tale of three strangers - Mara, Ora, and Talia, as they piece together the mysteriies behind the fall of the Grand City of Chaya, decades of disappearing children, and the sinister history behind the Crone of Rotem.
Who or what is Causing Mara's horrendous nightmares? Why is Talia continually reliving the destruction of Chaya? Will Ora's spirit guide be able to save her from the clutches of the Crone of Rotem? Stay tuned for all the answers hidden away in the whole grand adventure, releasing in the near future!
**Note, this is a rough draft of the in-progress manuscript, and thus will have various grammar errors, syntax, tense and point-of-view mistakes. My first pass if rough and organic, just trying to get the whole tale out and on paper. Be gentle with me!**
SHORT EXCERPT FROM “ALWAYS”
CHAPTER 2 - BOOK 1 (ORA)
The far wall of the courtyard, once a flat stone partition awash in the bright hues of the nearby torchlight, now hosted a darkening gash across its surface. An oily black residue bubbled up from the surface, growing steadily larger as it consumed the wall behind it. All of this Ora watched, in complete silence and unable to look away.
Further and further the darkness grew, pushing outwards into the surrounding stone surface. The inky black depths absorbed all light and matter, pulling everything into its sucking maw. Bricks and cobblestones shuddered, and then quietly crumbled to dust as they were swept into the expanding vortex. Finally, with a wet squelching sound, the expansion stopped and the inky blackness began to recede. She started to see something take shape within the empty void that had been created. It was…. An alleyway, that had quite literally popped into existence.
What was once an expanse of dimly lit stores and stony facades, had been shifted apart to reveal a deep alleyway that sliced far into the distance. This dank and gloomy scar had squeezed itself into the gaps between the storefronts, and now existed as if it had always been there. Strange however, that the flickering lights never seemed to touch its entrance, but rather were bent around it and continued on past.
In its perpetual gloom, Ora could see nothing of the alley’s contents from her doorway. Just a murky stain on her vision that carved itself into reality. However, she could hear a soft muttering coming from its depths. Words that seemed to emanate from within the darkness, yet made no sense to her ears. Louder and louder the mumbling grew, and as the sound swelled within her ears, a shape began to come into focus within the alley.
Twin sunken eyes, glistening in the darkness, and razor-sharp teeth peeking from behind tight withered lips. The hunched form stepped no further than the entrance of the alley, stopping just before the light touched upon its brow. It was a woman, ancient as the hourglass that held the sands of time, and sharp and grating as the grains that fell within. She leveled her gaze out across the courtyard, searching for something, before focusing on Ora in the distance. Her mouth tightened into a toothy smile, the corners of her mouth stretchy uncomfortably wide, far more than humanly possible.
“I have found you at last, my story you’ll hear. Your strings I control, now puppet…Come here!”
Ora pulled open the door and stepped forward onto the steps outside. Her mind screamed to turn back, but forward she marched, unable to control her own body. Her limbs flopped forwards and back awkwardly, propelling her ahead painfully as the joints bent in ways never intended. The figures toothy grin never left its visage as it turned back towards the alleyway. It beckoned a mottled old hand over its shoulder before stepping back into the darkness, fading from view. The soft muttering and mumbling returned, once again emanating from the recesses of the alleyway.
Ora staggered down the steps of her home, bouncing with each clumsy step, and out towards the entrance of the main square. into the night she wandered, leaving the safety of her home, and heading towards the unknown.
Always (Short Excerpt - Sample B)
Materials:
Traditional Materials: N/A
Digital Materials: Scrivener, Word, Misc Research Tools
About:
This is a short excerpt from my in-progress Dark Fantasy Novel, tentatively titled "Always", which tells the tantalizing tale of three strangers - Mara, Ora, and Talia, as they piece together the mysteriies behind the fall of the Grand City of Chaya, decades of disappearing children, and the sinister history behind the Crone of Rotem.
Who or what is Causing Mara's horrendous nightmares? Why is Talia continually reliving the destruction of Chaya? Will Ora's spirit guide be able to save her from the clutches of the Crone of Rotem? Stay tuned for all the answers hidden away in the whole grand adventure, releasing in the near future!
**Note, this is a rough draft of the in-progress manuscript, and thus will have various grammar errors, syntax, tense and point-of-view mistakes. My first pass if rough and organic, just trying to get the whole tale out and on paper. Be gentle with me!**