To Kill And Die For - Discussion
#31
Posted 18 April 2009 - 08:37 AM
I hope Bond isnt falling for the girl again
you introdued her brilliantly I just hope our James gets it on with her and quick
Does the Blue Owl really exist is New York??
#32
Posted 18 April 2009 - 08:17 PM
I have tried, to show the different phases. Fun, Professional and love interest of the relationship in contrast to the storyline of the chapters.
Have I got it right, is the character development at the right depth? let me know your thoughts.
cheers
#33
Posted 19 April 2009 - 10:33 AM
"To Kill and Die for"
Please drop by and leave some feedback.
I am currently researching my next project, and attach the teaser poster for
BOMBSHELL.
#34
Posted 22 April 2009 - 02:27 PM
Fantastic story.
great read
thanks
real edge of my pants stuff.
#35
Posted 25 April 2009 - 02:25 PM
It felt very Bondian and I was eager to use it.
I'm glad you are enjoying the story, let me know how you like the end.
#36
Posted 26 April 2009 - 04:17 PM
So far TO KILL AND DIE FOR (great title by the way) is turning out to be a very exciting read. Volante writes with skill and speed that keeps you reading.
I'm hooked. Absorbing and moving. Let's see what else is in store...
Harry Fawkes
#37
Posted 05 May 2009 - 01:08 PM
I was hooked as well great read.
The last page took me by suprise another brillint ending.
You keep doing that
it might be just me but I never know how volantes story is going to end there is always a twist on the last page
#38
Posted 12 May 2009 - 04:35 PM
Glad you liked the story.
Well I'm back from my hols with some new ideas for my next story BOMBSHELL.
Workload still dictates a Dec 09 release, but I hope to put up more teasers as the year goes on.
I was reading the "Darkest Bond moments" thread earlier, thought it might be interesting to set up a "Darkest Bond Fanfic moment"
For a moment of self induglence I would like to nominate the death of Daisy Sinclair from
To Kill and Die for
***
At three o clock in the morning he stood beside the bed and completed the chain reaction by killing David Carlson.
Stasi administrated the poison via a hypodermic needle into his neck.
His death was silent and quick, but intuition told him something was wrong. Stasi gently pulled down the sheet and lent closer to get a good look at James Bond, he inclined his head and studied the dead face, with a silent rage coursing through his body he realized the man before him was not Bond.
From a light and troubled sleep Daisy became aware that she had to wake up, and then came the panic. Something was stopping her from breathing.
Her eyes would not open. Could not open, frantically she brought her hands up to her face, the terror became a living thing something was on her face.
Daisy tried to move she rolled in the bed and came upright, in the precious seconds she had she identified the object as something with a plastic feel over her mouth and nose, and then she fell to the floor unconscious.
She became aware of a strange crackling noise.
She opened her eyes, but nothing made sense.
Daisy tried to move her body but realized she was tied to a chair; her legs were fastened to the chair legs, her arms behind her were draped over the back.
The room was still in darkness but her vision was impaired as was her breathing.
With rising panic she became aware that the crackling noise was the sound of her own breath.
“It is a cheap plastic bag” The voice in the dark made her shiver. With grim realization Daisy understood the sensation of her laboured breathing.
She had a plastic bag over her head.
As she frantically moved her head trying to locate the voice she felt the tape against her throat.
The bag was firmly taped over her head.
She was suffocating to death.
“You have approximately two minutes of air left”
The voice became a form in front of her, darker than the surroundings. Daisy felt the tape over her mouth, she understood that the tape on her eyes and nose had been removed and replaced with the bag.
Daisy continued to breathe through her nose.
The air was stale and she felt the panic of suffocation raise in her throat.
“You need to remain calm, Daisy” The voice knew her name.
“I have just killed the man you were sleeping with; I want you to tell me was his name James Bond?”
Daisy panicked, she fought against the rope and jerked her head from side to side, but the effort made her dizzy as the lack of oxygen stopped her quickly.
David was dead.
“You have just one minute left to live” She felt his hand touch her through the thin material of her night dress. “Your heart is racing. Please calm down and answer my question. Just nod or shake your head. Understand?”
Daisy screamed within her body, and she felt the tears well up in her eyes and begin to roll down her cheek.
She took in more stale air and choked on the cough that would not come. The room was spinning; she felt her fingers tense up against the rope.
She cried in silence and now the tears poured down her face.
“Nod for yes shake for no, and all this can stop” His hand pushed harder into her sternum.
“James Bond the man that blew up Mr. Kassian’s warehouse. Nod or shake”
Daisy shook her head and the bright stars of light fought with the blackness
“Do you know where Mr. Bond is?”
Daisy nodded the move was very small. Suddenly she felt the bag being squeezed in front of her face the man was cutting a hole in it. Daisy sniffed and took in the fresh air.
“Now I’m in a dilemma, if I take the tape from your mouth you will scream, but I need answers. OK I think I have the solution, now Daisy I will ask the questions you just shake or nod”
Daisy nodded her head. Stasi needed only a basic understanding of Bond’s destination to determine his actions.
“Did he go to the airport?” Daisy shook her head.
Stasi understood that Bond as an agent of MI6 operating in a foreign country would only have a limited number of alternatives open to him.
“Did he go to the British embassy?”
Daisy nodded her head.
Carefully Stasi smoothed out the plastic bag in front of Daisy’s face, and then carefully he applied more tape to close the hole he had made. Daisy made a small noise and her eyes widened in horror.
Stasi knelt in front of her, he felt saddened that he could not see the full detail in her eyes, but the night vision goggles were a necessary evil.
He inclined his head “Most people don’t have ‘what it takes’ to kill another human being, even if the money is right” He gently rubbed his hands along her thighs. “When it comes to ethics, even though they deny it to themselves the lack the resource and know how can be compensated for. So what is the big stopper?”
Daisy felt the room begin to spin, her breathing was becoming shallow and the sound of his voice was hypnotising her. “People are too afraid of the consequences, for men it is going to prison and getting sodomized” His hand moved up her body and rested between her breasts, he felt for her heart beat.
“Most contracts are between two and eight thousand US dollars which is less than the average person wants for committing murder. You know Daisy; most people deceive themselves into believing fear of incarceration has little to do with their morals, because it makes them feel better about themselves”
Daisy’s head fell forward.
Stasi kept his hand against her body until her heart had stopped.
#39
Posted 12 May 2009 - 04:41 PM
#40
Posted 14 May 2009 - 07:44 AM
I tried to write the story based on the characters, and then fit the Bond plot around it.
The character of Stasi was an amalgamation of Wes Bentley's mannerisms from "American Beauty" and the paranoia of the Tooth Fairy from "Red Dragon"
I personally enjoyed visulising an established character in the "Bondian" situation. From that moment on the story sort of wrote itself.
I know that when I read it back, I got a chill, "seeing" Wes incline his head and watch the life drain out of my Bond girl.
Thanks again.
Paul
#41
Posted 19 May 2009 - 02:51 PM
To Kill and Die for, plot.
Therefore (before the weekend) I hope to put up the Epilogue.
Which will form the bridge to my new story, and give a fitting send off to Daisy.
#43
Posted 30 May 2009 - 11:42 AM
#44
Posted 31 May 2009 - 03:42 PM
With Bond 23 scheduled for a 2011 release date, I guess it's up to us to keep the Bond fans happy with some original work.
I'm looking forward to Midas Gold.
But in the meantime, I have been turning my hand to a bit of modeling (NO -not on the catwalk) but modifying a CR DBS into a QOS DBS
enjoy
Attached Files
#45
Posted 05 June 2009 - 12:19 PM
I love the scene with Bond in the graveyard.
The headstone inscription made my girlfriend cry.
brill story
#46
Posted 15 June 2009 - 09:47 PM
I wanted the graveyard passage to be very simple and moving. Glad you liked it.
Thanks to all the readers, downloads are still going well, and very soon you will have Harry's Midas Gold to sink your teeth into.
BOMBSHELL will be available in December.
So there is plenty to look forward to until Bond 23 hopefully in 2010
#47
Posted 16 June 2009 - 10:48 AM
(To Kill and Die For) is in NO way based on ANY actual factual Banker.
The story line suggests that a UK Banker was in league with the Russians in their plan to bankrupt the UK by withdrawing their funding of UK investments at a critical time. The aim of their plan was to plunge the UK into financial ruin.
The story line was adapted from the Credit Crunch effecting the UK, but of course that happened as a bi product from our Financial establishment, failing to control the markets.
As readers of 'To Kill and Die For' will know, Sir Francis Pinevail perishes in an aeroplane accident.
Thank-you.
It is important that that matter is clear, as a sub plot to my latest story BOMBSHELL involves 007 searching for the body, and hunting down Pinvail's link into the Government.
#48
Posted 16 June 2009 - 06:41 PM
Bravo Mister Volante.
I love the scene with Bond in the graveyard.
The headstone inscription made my girlfriend cry.
brill story
I can't say I cried but it made a thrilling chill run down my spine.
By the way BOMBSHELL is a fab title.
#49
Posted 19 June 2009 - 02:33 PM
Your crowing achievement here was the psycho-become-hit-man Stasi / Pavel Chenko; to say he is a nasty piece of work would be an understatement. He isn’t a motiveless thug like H or even a cross dressing near perfectionist like Tien, but a damaged youth, unhinged and bitter. Curiously I didn’t actually get much sense of why he turned out like this, you seemed to leave that open to interpretation, but so carefully was he drawn it didn’t notice. The non-description of his features, concentrating on his eyes alone was very clever, as this allows the reader to create their own image. His killing of both Daisy and her fiancé David was possibly the most powerful sequence in the book because you have allowed us to empathise with Daisy, unlike the earlier torture of Graves which seems overtly gratuitous. I would point out a note of caution for the future: Daisy’s deception to her fiancé is followed by her torture and murder; analysts would suggest interpreting this is as punishment for her infidelity!
I notice you reproduced it as an example of the dark side of Bond. I’d question this, as it actually doesn’t show Bond’s dark side; you reserved that for a little later when 007 coolly discusses with M his future mission while calculating how to avenge Daisy’s death. All in all chapters four and five together is probably the best thing you’ve written so far, despite the overtly wordy stuff Stasi comes out with.
I also felt you created an excellent supporting cast here. Vladimir Chenko was a believable oligarch, alternately sailing his yacht, hiding in rainforest or holding secret rendezvous in Berlin. I got a real feel for his plight, although I was completely baffled by the code word he used for his hiding place. You can explain it to me however many times you like and I still won’t believe it. I felt you were searching for an excuse to send Bond to Hawaii.
Additionally your central female character, Ornella, was a much more acceptable creation, being beautiful and sexy although I had doubts about her ability as a secret agent. She doesn’t seem particularly able and you even have her screaming in alarm. I didn’t believe she could deceive Kassian for so long and so easily. In fact your chief villain is the major failing of the story, not because of his designs on the world, but because you don’t give him anything original to say. The conversations between him and Bond read as if they are trying to score witty points. It reminded me of Alan Rickman in Robin Hood.
Indeed your knowledge of film history leeks out of the pages. From the helipad atop a hotel to the destruction of a warehouse, from a Royal Navy rendezvous to a cattle train ride, from an exploding yacht to a drive in the desert with a Howard Hughes character. Your most accomplished piece was the chaotic gun battle in the Blue Owl, which replicated the nightclub showdown in Michael Mann’s Collateral.
This was probably your most skilled piece of action in the novel. Overall the action parts actually disappointed me, which was odd given that I much preferred them in your other works. I found most of them slightly laboured, especially the climax at the pumping station, which left me scratching my head as I struggled to figure out what was happening and where. I was very disappointed to see you resort to the cinematic countdown in an attempt to inject tension. That really doesn’t work. A scene like this needs the tension mounted through the thoughts and fears of its characters, but what they actually do is spout lines of rhetorical dialogue. A disappointing end.
Equally I was confused by the epilogue, which doesn’t add anything to the book. Your initially ending in Hong Kong is regrettably short, and I fully understand why you would have wanted to extend it, but all that business with the crashing Lear jet was totally confusing. The cemetery scene feels like even more of an add on, as if your apologising for allowing Bond to admit he was being used by a woman he actually loved. Beware of Freud, he’d have a field day.
Perhaps the most satisfactory element of To Kill and Die For is the contemporary angle, which you encompassed really well, having the conflict in Georgia, the oil shortage and the world financial crisis all nicely interlinked. You’ve clearly put a lot of thinking into this. Equally Bond wasn’t the master of all his moves, being tracked across the globe by the Spider. I look forward to both these ideas being developed in your next story Bombshell.
#50
Posted 22 June 2009 - 04:27 PM
I just thought it was good
I thought Stasi was brill aswell and I liked Alan Rickman in Robin Hood
#51
Posted 24 June 2009 - 06:44 PM
Thanks Chris.
Glad you enjoyed the story.
I too believe that my confidence is growing with every story I write;
which allows the story to crack on at a pace without the need to explain every technical detail.
Judging by the number of downloads TO KILL AND DIE FOR has had, the reader now trusts me to deliver, so I am trusting the reader to believe in a character without knowing every moment of their past.
After writing EDGE OF TREASON, I read a couple of Sebastian Faulkes and John Connelly novels. They were packed with details which I felt were superfluous to the story. Realizing I was doing the same I made an effort to concentrate on the actual story line.
SILHOUETTES AND SHADOWS followed and even now I regret not waiting and doing a final re edit. I know it would be better if I were to write it now.
But the style was established, its my own and is all I can do.
I was able to pace myself better with TO KILL AND DIE FOR, which I believe improves on my formula.
That's why I have set the December target for BOMBSHELL,(allowing plenty of research time and only writing when the ideas are fresh)the CBn fans deserve the very best. With Harry Fawkes, Greene Planet, tdalton, Clinkeroo and the team putting pen to paper (so to speak) the CBn fans can expect the very best in James Bond Fanfics to keep them keen until Bond 23 hits the screens.
#52
Posted 25 June 2009 - 11:45 AM
That's why I have set the December target for BOMBSHELL,(allowing plenty of research time and only writing when the ideas are fresh)the CBn fans deserve the very best. With Harry Fawkes, Greene Planet, tdalton, Clinkeroo and the team putting pen to paper (so to speak) the CBn fans can expect the very best in James Bond Fanfics to keep them keen until Bond 23 hits the screens.
I may even be joining you in the race, so to speak.
Watch this space for The Humming Bird....
#53
Posted 25 June 2009 - 12:45 PM
Your title in intreguing I look forward to the story.
I was writing BOMBSHELL this morning and mixed my seasons and colours to get a chapter title AUTUMN RED.
Just those simple two words inspired a lot of reaction and for Bond a lot of Action.
so, on that Bombshell...
Edited by volante, 25 June 2009 - 12:48 PM.
#54
Posted 26 June 2009 - 09:29 AM
For Bond 23 Eon should look no further than TO KILL AND DIE FOR.
I can just see the climax of the story now!!!
Bond's fun and frolicks on the yacht with his leading lady.
Hundreds of extras needed for Bond's strole down the Venetian Macao "Venice" canal.
A glimpse of the Cirque du Soleil performing their routine in the backgrund as Bond locates the villain.
The tense encounter with Bond and Kassian in the opulent private gaming room, culminating in one of nature's most primitive deaths, and
the final scene of Bond leaving the cemetry alone.
Come on Mr. Wilson, most of the work has been done.
What do the fanfic fans reckon???
#55
Posted 01 July 2009 - 01:44 PM
TO KILL AND DIE FOR.
I don't think there is much more mileage here so please join me on the
BOMBSHELL
discussion thread
#56
Posted 01 August 2009 - 11:38 AM
A tall brunette with a made-for-beachwear body,
glided through the hallway.
The dark skinned beauty had the high cheekbones and the wide mouth of a European.
The man smiled as she passed, and she returned the gesture,
showing her white even teeth and the hint of a sparkle in her dark brown eyes.
The man felt elated by the fact she had even noticed him,
he tried to place her origin,
but if he had conferred with others,
who had seen her for those fleeting seconds
the arguments would have gone on for hours.
Surely there were traces of Native American in those high cheekbones,
maybe German or French, surely not English.
Maybe it was an Irish ancestry.
The arguments continued but they were all wrong.
Ornella was in her mid twenties and was born in Beslan, North Ossetia.
Edited by volante, 01 August 2009 - 11:40 AM.
#57
Posted 22 August 2009 - 10:05 AM
Honest guys, and comments and feed back much appriciated
#58
Posted 28 August 2009 - 02:46 PM
TO KILL AND DIE FOR
Daniel Craig gets the nod for 007
(I know it upsets the purists among you, but I like to keep my story up to date
The Bond villain Oliver Kassian was based on Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Bond girl Ornella, Jessica Biel
Main henchaman and all round evil psycho Stasi was based on the actor Wes Bentley
other major plot characters were, Ex KGB spymaster Vlad Chenko
...and finally Ali Later plays the Bond girl love interest Daisy Sinclair
I hope they fulfill your visulization of the characters.
If you haven't read the story, I hope they trigger your desire to do so.
Edited by volante, 28 August 2009 - 03:08 PM.
#59
Posted 22 September 2009 - 07:20 PM
http://photos-a.ak.f...6_3355816_n.jpg
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