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online video

Damon Dark

I met filmmaker/actor/director Adrian Sherlock on a message board where he started plugging his homegrown sci-fi series Damon Dark. I admire what Adrian is doing, using the internet to promote and distribute his film. If the viewing figures so far are any indication, I think you'll be hearing more of Adrian in the near future.

I asked Adrian to say a few words:

I'm Adrian Sherlock and I'm the creator of Damon Dark, an Australian Science Fiction hero who I dreamed up in late 1980s, a character who is utterly obsessed with hunting down UFOs and investigating strange cases and becomes a slayer of alien-controlled human zombies! Damon likes to dress entirely in black, is something of a loner, and has more than mortal knowledge in him, having a huge experience of things unknown. He works for Department Six, a secret government agency that has provided him with classified information about aliens and the forces of the unknown.

Damon Dark came to life in a series of short and not-so-short films, made in the 1990s, which eventually became an indie SF on Melbourne's Channel 31 Community TV station in 1999 and a premiere screening at the 57th World Science Fiction Convention the same year.

Recently, I decided to revive Damon for an indie film called "Damon Dark and the Bomb". I've now put all my Damon Dark stuff on You Tube where Damon Dark and the Bomb's intro and ending segments recieved a huge number of views. In fact they got around 400 views in total, in just a couple of weeks.

Basically, all my films are self funded and I've been the writer, lead actor, editor and often the director/camera man on the majority of them. I make my own props and do my own FX.

I like to read books about success and positive thinking as they inspire me to put action behind my creative ideas. Other than that I like a variety of stuff, but I can say H.G Wells' The Time Machine, Olaf Stapledon's The Star Maker and some of Ian Fleming's James Bond books are among my faves.

I also love Shakespeare, especially the tragedies. And I love to watch my vast collection of British cult SF DVDs, from Doctor Who and Blakes 7 to Quatermass and Sapphire and Steel, from Thunderbirds to UFO and Space:1999. I'm also a fan of Fawlty Towers and the Goodies!

UFO and Quatermass have influenced the creation of Damon Dark. In fact, UFO star Ed Bishop once agreed to appear in Damon Dark as my co-star!

I really hope Damon Dark will have many more adventures written by other young writers and I hope that I will eventually see younger actors take over for me to play different versions of Damon Dark one day. I'd love it to
go on and on. The indie DVD releases have sold remarkably well on ebay and I hope to someday make Damon Dark into a big screen movie.

For a complete list of Damon Dark on youtube, check out Adrian's profile here.

Don't forget to visit the homepage as well!

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books

Debra Feldman-An Ordinary Hero
(click here for an excerpt)

I met local writer Debra Feldman during her appearance at the independent bookstore 'Feed Your Head' in lovely downtown Salem, MA. She is an invigorated and talented writer, bringing a very different approach to science fiction.

Here is a short description of the book from her site:

I was a kid during the Vietman conflict and an only slightly bigger kid by the time it was over. Though film footage was spoon fed to us nightly, that footage never told us much of anything, certainly not what was really happening or how our boys were really dying. And I wanted to know. I'm also a warehouse of useless information, Feldman admits. Mostly good only for game shows like "Jeopardy" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire". The moral of that story is: don't tell me anything you don't want me to remember for the rest of my natural life, especially if you tell it to me as a story.

The war in southeast Asia, Vietnam, had always seemed to be a conspiracy of silence. Turns out, there was no conspiracy, but there was a story. All that silence (at least from the perspective of the soldiers) was the only thing that saved sanity and allowed the men to lead fairly normal lives. To talk about it was to relive it and, frankly, living thru it once was plenty - in fact, it was more than enough.

On a night in 1978, I heard a story; a story so outrageous I didn't want to believe, but the source was reliable - prone neither to exageration nor embellishment. The story took about 90 seconds to tell, and at the end of those 90 seconds, I was changed. Seeing the face and eyes of my storyteller, as he answered a young girl's question - Why will no one talk about Vietnam?; shouted that this was a story that should be public, known by all. I waited, thinking someone else might tell it, explain the unexplainable, but no one ever did.

Decades later, I became friends with a man who returned from Vietnam with The Bronze Star, uninjured, but not unharmed. And as we became better friends, still, I never forgot the story I heard in 1978 - a covert-op that never can be explained; Top Secret; no records. The new stories between my new friend and me were as all stories between friends; sacred - not for broadcast; but, as I listened, I knew that others (besides myself) really were interested, they just had no one to ask. I did. My friend and I talked about blending his story with the 1978 story and when I told him the details, he agreed - go public. I was fortunate enough to find other veterans from Vietnam willing to talk, but only to me - their names will never be public, they go to my grave. It's what they wanted, it was the price of the their stories.

Five big men, a wild bunch of supporting characters, an amazing true story, a crazy imagination, a love of the mystery, and 2 1/2 years later, An Ordinary Hero was born. A word to the wise - not every hero wears the uniform you'd expect and there really is no such thing as coincidence.

Debra has been making appearances and hosting readings of her work at local venues such as Kate's Mystery Books in Cambridge, MA. Visit her site here

Jordan Rich of WBZ Radio said in his review: Debra Feldman's novel, "An Ordinary Hero" about time travel, lives intersecting, Vietnam, lost loves and so much more can be found here. Debra is a wonderful Massachusetts based novelist.