Friday, February 8, 2013

RIP -- what it's all about

Opening yourself up to a whole new world can leave you vulnerable -- but it's the only way to grow. Rip Cooper, 24, may be a successful freelance photographer making a name for himself in a new town, but personally, he's in a rut. No friends, no goals, no greater purpose. He's going through the motions...until the “angel” Serissa informs him that he's “one of the Seven.” That’s the starting point of RIP, a series of e-novelettes that blends drama, humor, action, and the paranormal.

At any given time, seven individuals throughout the world are gifted with the capacity for extraordinary perception. They can see, hear, touch, smell, and even taste ghosts. The flip side is: Ghosts can do the same to them.

Most people who die go either to Heaven or Hell, depending on how they lived their lives. But some are on the fence. These people linger around the Earth as invisible, inaudible, intangible ghosts, and each one has a choice to make -- become a better person and earn a place in Heaven, or give up and settle on Hell. The former are considered angels, and the latter tend to become demonic. It is, however, possible for a ghost to shift back and forth before finally being summoned to either place.

Rip is not Mr. Action-Hero. He’s a decent fighter, but he initially has no incentive to fight.

The series is about Rip coming to terms with his place in the world. He must choose to embrace his new role and excel, or turn his back on it and slide into a life of untapped potential and mediocrity. He's a loner who yearns to be a part of the world -- and being a freelance photographer, he’s often on the outside looking in. Also, he was never a brave child, but as an adult he must resolve to cultivate his courage.

Serissa serves as Rip's angel guide and steers him to where he's needed. But she's also a recently deceased, sociable young woman who misses life and interacting with the living. Rip is the only solid entity she's ever encountered in her afterlife, the only living person who can even acknowledge her.

She's an angel, true, but in this world, angels are merely flawed people working their way out of purgatory and trying to avoid an eternal sentence in Hell. Rip fears becoming separated from the world, but Serissa already is. She's a fun angel, and her colorful personality serves as a contrast to Rip's more subdued nature. However lively she seems, she’s always just hanging on by a thread. After all, there’s no proof there actually is a Heaven, and when you’re an intangible ghost, it’s hard to hold on to anything.

RIP is coming to a digital device near you in late March.

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