Back in 1999 I was still living in Los Angeles. I had originally gone out west to pursue my passion for acting. After several years of going to auditions and working on whatever I could the allure began to lose its tarnish. Trying to carve myself a niche was a tough slog. I was making inroads and had some connections, but was growing more and more frustrated with the whole process and all the downtime between gigs. And I was not getting any offers on the roles I actually wanted. Such is life. If I had stuck with it I might have eventually landed that choice role. But I was restless. In those downtimes between gigs I was writing - something I had been doing even before I moved West. I started on my first screenplay back in Atlanta in 1996 but never did anything with it, and once I moved to LA all but forgot about it.
In '98, while in LA, I was asked to adapt a project. Unfortunately the company went under before I had a chance to do so, but it was that project, along with the lack of juicy roles, that led me towards writing. By '99 I was split in my devotions. Part of me still loved acting, but the other part wanted to actually be working on something of interest. I never wanted to be some famous person with no life. No. I wanted to create something memorable and then disappear into the next project. That was the point when I began taking notes for Cipher.
In Hollywood there is a lot of talk of spirituality and living in tune with one another. It's almost like the leftovers of the hippie culture of the late '60s. That, of course, is only one side of the coin. The other side is much darker and just as prevalent. It was this duality that sent my mind spinning into motion with Y2K fast approaching. The actor side of me decided I needed to begin doing research. I no longer felt that LA was where I needed to be. My story was to be set back East, and my suitcase simply followed.
The tie to 2012 was partly motivated by the world's fear over Y2K, and also by the research I did into the Maya civilization. The world's belief in duality and the effective use of parallel worlds in works like Alice In Wonderland and The Wizard of Oz helped me to envision another parallel world for my story. Yet my parallel world was darker, and certainly not meant for a children's audience.
By the summer of 2000 I had completed the first draft of part one of Cipher and was beginning on part two and three. I had envisioned this massive trilogy like Lord of the Rings. It's funny, when I was still in LA preparing to move back East I heard about LTR going into production. It was a moment I'll never forget. It was like a punch in the gut. The look I had in mind for my parallel world was similar to that of Tolkien, with bizarre creatures like Orcs and Elves. I immediately had to rethink things, which was probably for the best, even if it meant changes. These little hiccups, these unexpected exterior influences, I came to find out, are as much a part of the process as everything else. Embracing the unexpected, and using it for one's own benefit, has become a rule for me when writing. Because if you want to finish, you just can't stop.
In the summer of 2001 I completed filming the trailer for Cipher. Apparently I now wanted to be a director, writer and actor. No, not really. I was a director out of necessity, as it is obvious to see in the trailer.
Once I finished the trailer September 11th happened, and my story and my trailer immediately lost importance. I had hoped to have Cipher made into a movie by 2012, but other things became more important. Family and friends came first. Time continued to pass by and one year turned into decade. I continued to write, cranking out almost twenty screenplays during that period. Yet something was missing. Cipher had been my life for the better part of two turbulent and memorable years, and 2012 was just over two and a half years away. If I were to just forget about Cipher and let 2012 come and go without doing anything with it, well, it seemed a tremendous waste.
Thus I began work on Monarch and the implementation of Cipher as an apocalyptic tome that my main character reads as the clock ticks down to 12/21/2012.
-aap
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