Cold Opens

I love cold opens. I love when a movie, tv show (what is the difference these days?), comic, or book open in the midst of the action. No preamble. No slow motion Snyder-like retelling of a story we all know already. Just someone racing down a highway, or in my favorite case, some crazy ass laughing vikings and sad guy from the Middle East, riding out a huge storm on a longboat.

I love using the same in media res approach to my own writing, and with a found object that has taken on the form of a semi-religious text, that seems a bit odd, I know. Fortunately or unfortunately, that is how my brain works, and I wanted that same jump into the action without too much exposition. So I stole from a personal favorite, the much maligned The 13th Warrior. Specifically the opening voice over that sets the tone for his character and the rest of the movie in some respects.

So rather than a traditional forward or acknowledgement, I start with the author defining for the reader how they see themselves. The page also holds the first hand illustration to help illuminate the content of the page, the author hard at work. Lastly, the page has the first appearance of the color orange, the significance of which I will get into at a later date. Suffice to say, it is an important theme, as is the color blue and the colored text.

I am known as Kask suhnu Rikardnu,
Suhnu Henree, suhnu Yan, suhnu Nod,
This is my testament. Things I hath seen.
The words I hath heard. The horror and hope.
Hate me and judge me for what lies within.
I ask no pardon nor mercy, nor pass.
Just know that things hath not always been thus.

The Testament of Kask