“There were no cliffs in Burcliffe, IN.”
There is no town in Indiana called Burcliffe. There are, however, countless unrealized projects with my name on them that happen to take place in a fictional rural Indiana town called Burcliffe. I don’t imagine it would have cliffs if it did exist, but it would certainly have a deep quarry or two. I suppose those unfamiliar with traditional cliffs might label those as such. Matter of fact, that’s probably how they got the “cliff” in Burcliffe.
The summer of 2015 saw the beginnings of what I imagined would be my second feature film. I called it The Good Times Are Killing Me. This was the third or fourth project that had begun with that title. As with those projects, I started calling it something else not too long into the process. The film began like this:
(At this point, I was still ignorant of the fact that there were no cliffs in Burcliffe. Later projects would amend that fact.)
The film, later called Latimer, followed the final case of a failed private investigator named Hal Latimer. His objective: track down and deliver a letter to the estranged teenage son of a former flame. Where does this son live? BURCLIFFE!
Latimer never saw the light of day. Burcliffe, however, lived on.
The unnamed town of what did become the second feature film, HUM, was meant to be called Burcliffe. However, the only mention of its name appears on an obscured envelope.
Alas, Burcliffe would still need more time to make its first canonical appearance.
December 2020: I take a crack at a comic book. It’s called BURCLIFFE. It opens like this:
The comic book stalls (although the door is left open)…
November 2022: My freshman English students are participating in NaNoWriMo. I start to write a novel. It’s an adaptation of my Burcliffe set screenplay, Latimer. The novel is called The Good Times Are Killing Me.
February 2023: I’m writing to you about my very real comic book, Blood & Corn. It takes place in a fictional rural Indiana town called Burcliffe.
So far, there are no cliffs.
Still, the scenery is rather nice.
Welcome to the Burcliffe-Verse, dear readers. Hold on to your butts.