Jul 06 2008
About a Fun Novel
As I slowly put together the bibliography section of this web site, I decided to talk about some books up front here, as I did under the Schofield name. And I do mean slowly, especially when there are about eighty novels I can talk about and well over a hundred short stories. I won’t talk about them all up front, but every so often I have a book that I am fond of and proud of, so I’ll banter about it here before putting it over on the other page.
This book came back to mind yesterday when I found a tee-shirt I had never worn while cleaning out a drawer in my closet. It is bright red and has a picture of The Shadow Warrior cover on it, and on it the saying “Who want some Wang?” is printed in bold. I am still saving it to wear at a special workshop or something.
SHADOW WARRIOR #1. For Dead Eyes Only. Pocket Books. October 1997.
I don’t think there were many Shadow Warrior novels ever done after this first one, even though I left the very last scene on a cliff hanger like a pulp fiction novel for the next author. This was a complete voice novel because in the game, the Shadow Warrior has a real voice and attitude, and for some reason, I really got into the voice, walking around the house for a month while writing this novel sometimes breaking into Shadow Warrior talk. Drove Kris nuts.
And there is one line in here that got me a call from the editor at Pocket. He was laughing so hard, all I could manage to make out was, “Can’t believe you did that.” Now trust me, that’s a phone call you want from an editor when you are writing comedy.
I remember writing the first fight scene in the restaurant and then walking around for a day laughing and worrying that I had taken it too far. I just reread that first scene and it still makes me shake my head and laugh. I learned a number of years back that this book, because it had gone out of print after about 40,000 copies sold, had become a collector’s item on the secondary market. I doubt it is anymore, since the so much time has passed, but at conventions, I tend to sign a bunch of these and have great discussions with fans about the Shadow Warrior. However, make note if you want to talk to me about this, I never played the game and have no clue about it. I just listened to a few lines from it before writing and tried to nail the voice. Everyone tells me I got it.
A fun book. And someday soon I’ll sit in a workshop with a bunch of writers and I’ll be wearing the “Who want some Wang” tee shirt. After all, if you can’t have fun writing, what’s the point. And I had a blast writing this book.
Cheers, Dean
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So how *does* one tell what genre a particlar novel is? (For the purpose of writing or marketing, I mean. Not for asking a bookseller where it’s shelved.)
As always, thanks much, Dean. Hope you and Kris had a great holiday weekend.
Oh wow, Shadow Warrior! Developed on the same Build engine that was used for Duke Nukem 3D Plutonium Pak.
I remember downloading the Wang game in 1997 during roughly the same period as I was submitting a lot to Star Trek SNW. A fun a relatively care-free period if I so say so.
I had no idea Shadow Warrior spawned books, given its relatively short rise (and fall) on the first-person shooter market.
Being a huge fan of the movie “Big Trouble in Little China” I could not help but fall in love with the game’s main character, complete with accent and ridiculous one-liners.
Writing the novelization had to be a 100% hoot.
Oh please, oh please, wear that t-shirt at one of the workshops I attend!