Ashley Parker creator Dana Fredsti’s new series for Titan Books kicks off (literally!) with The Spawn of Lilith, featuring a new heroine who has an unusual trade. Here Fredsti talks about her real-life experiences working as one of the stunt crews who make leading actors look so fine…

 

Back in 2015 my editor at Titan Books, Steve Saffel – nicknamed Dark Editorial Overlord by yours truly – and I had a brainstorming session to figure out what direction we wanted to go with my new series.  Originally, I wanted an immortal protagonist who would have demon-killing adventures in different time periods. I was inspired by the Casca, the Immortal Mercenary series by Barry Sadler (also of the “Ballad of the Green Berets” fame). We decided to go in a different direction and stick to modern times. So I needed give my heroine a ‘Clark Kent’ identity to go with her reluctant superhero job of killing monsters. We tossed a few ideas back and forth before settling on something in the film industry. Steve suggested making her a stuntwoman, which clicked with me.

I loved the idea. I have a background in theatrical combat and swordfighting, had worked on a few films on both sides of the camera, and – most importantly – the world of Hollywood practically gets down on its knees and begs to be made fun of.  My own experiences gave me rich material to work with and it would be nice to get something out my youthful indiscretions other than embarrassment. Nothing quite like getting an IM on Facebook from a friend overseas saying “I just saw your boobs!”

No, it wasn’t that kind of movie. Just a bad bad bad sci-fi flick written by someone who justified partial nudity with a transporter pod that required the transportees to be nekkid – that’s the same as ‘naked,’ but it somehow makes it seem slightly less humiliating and yes, I realize I’m fooling myself.  Because, see, if they entered the transporter with any inorganic material, they’d be turned into a bunch of “super-charged, super-fucked atoms.” And in a world where there is no cotton, only polyester or poly-cotton blends, clothing is not optional when traveling via super-charged, super-fucked atom transporters.

Partial nudity justified!  Yay, nekkid boobs!

I did a few low-budget to “Budget? What budget?” movies with names like Time Barbarians, Legion of Iron, and Ninja Nymphs in the 23rd Century (although it might have been the 22nd or 24th Century. I can’t remember and the clothing was less futuristic looking than any of the Mad Max movies). Ninja Nymphs in Some Future Century was noteworthy because Jack West was the Stunt Coordinator and I ended up doing fights and working with his team on the film. Jack stunt-doubled Wang in Big Trouble in Little China, doing all the cool wire work/flying through the air stuff in the fight between Wang and Rain. He was also the nicest, most easy-going stuntman I’ve ever met.

I also worked on Sam Raimi’s Army of Darkness, a movie with an actual budget. I was a swordfighting Deadite and a sword captain (I helped train extras in basic sword choreography), and I nearly got trampled in the scene where Arthur and Henry’s respective armies get all bromance-y at the end and hug each other. (And who knew that the movie was gonna become this huge cult hit? My then husband had many drinks bought for him when he worked on a film in Norway a few years later when people found out he’d worked on AoD as the on-set armorer.)

One thing I want to clarify is that while yes, I did stunt work and fights on a few films, I don’t consider myself a stuntwoman. I was an actress with extensive specialty training (and not all stunt people consider specialty training worthwhile) in theatrical combat, my expertise being sword fighting. Broadsword, rapier/dagger, smallsword, saber, lightsaber… I love edged weapons. I never, however, have done a fire gag or a high fall – I was and still am sensibly afraid of heights – although I did shimmy down a rope from a 30 foot drop when I was training for the role of Red Sonja in the Conan show at Universal Studios. I’ve never jumped out of a moving car, been dragged behind a truck holding onto a whip, or hung onto the skids of a helicopter as it took off. There are many things I haven’t done that are the bread and butter of hardcore stunt-people, and it’s important to acknowledge the difference.

I never risked my life for a film – something stuntmen and stuntwomen do on a daily basis – unless you count having to tell my mom I was gonna do partial-but-totally-justified-nudity.

The Spawn of Lilith is out now from Titan Books