Not too long ago, I wrote a blog about Candace Stupek - one of many people I've been friends with as long as I can remember. While that blog was mostly for the intention of discussing her role in an upcoming story of mine (giving reason for why she earned it), this blog is meant mostly for reflecting on another friend of mine - one of my best and closest friends in all honesty - Chrissy Bernal - and what she has meant to me in the past few years I've known her. (And, of course, I'll talk a little bit about her roles in a few stories I'm currently developing!)
I first met Chrissy on Facebook back in 2010 when she went under the pseudonym "Eve Bernal." I caught sight of a series of photos of her, taken by Jamiel Boling (whose work is outstanding and worthy of scrolling through on his official site). In these photos was a woman whose face and body sparked with power and completely took my breath away, which says a lot from the number of models that I met online by that time. When I first saw Chrissy's "Code Red" images, my first thought was "This girl looks like Famke Janssen as Jean Grey!" (little did I know at the time how she would later capitalize on that). To be honest, Chrissy is WAY more gorgeous than Famke (and I'm not just saying that because of the huge age gap between them - Chrissy at the time of "Code Red" was 32, by the way). She looked like a redheaded goddess in every sense of the term and had a figure like a strong African woman (something that I still credit her on today, lol). But it wasn't just her appearance that made me admire her so much - it was her humbled, inspiring personality.
(Jamiel Boling's hardcore skills in photography, editing, and VFX bring out sides of Chrissy that range from gorgeous to downright scary - but in a cool way!)
In usual fashion of someone whose personality, appearance, and real-life character gives me creative inspiration, I'd arranged for Chrissy to become one in a story I'd written at the time - a Disney/Back to the Future crossover simply titled "Disney's Back to the Future"). I was still up in my glory of writing "The Disney Ghostbusters" and wanted to capitalize on "Disney-ing" another franchise I grew up on. The project became something that grew in ambition with artwork of Chrissy's character, who would be a blend of herself and Doctor Emmett Brown, standing beside the DeLorean in a Red Sonja-type of attire (her character would travel to the Middle Ages at one point in the story). A lot of the "Code Red" images were used as references for the artwork, and we made a character based on Chrissy's empowering appearance that made it entirely her - there was almost no shred of the "Doc Brown" from the movies there. Unfortunately, the project fell through but eventually became what will be "Outatime!" this November, with Candace Stupek taking on the "Female Doc" role).
Shortly after my Facebook page between 2007 and 2010 was shut down and I had to start a new account, I re-added Chrissy's "Eve Bernal" page but discovered that she had another one under her birth name. This was when I found out that her actual name was "Chrissy" and not "Eve" (she's actually one of the many "Chris'es" in my life, next to my brother Chris and other friends who have variations of the name - both male and female). When I migrated over to Chrissy's personal Facebook page (now her main one - she's dropped the "Eve" now), I got to learn much about her. Turns out the whole time I worked on featuring Chrissy into my Disney/Back to the Future story, she's had history as a writer herself! It was no wonder she was so supportive of my wacky ideas (I've had many supporters in my work at the time, but Chrissy always backed me 100%, showing such awesome interest that has continued to this very day)! After I learned this, my friendship with this inspiring woman grew to monumental proportions!
(The cover of Chrissy's first publication, Sienna's Locket)
Chrissy's first book, Sienna's Locket, was first published on August 15, 2010 (near the time my Disney/BTTF story was planned to be posted online - so, in retrospect, while Chrissy was getting her story out to the world, I was miserably failing with mine, lol). Sienna's Locket was the first story in the "Sinny-Size series." It's inspired by Chrissy's daughter, Sienna, who was born with Primordial Dwarfism. When I learned about Sienna, my love and appreciation for Chrissy had grown just as much as our friendship. Sienna Bernal is one of the most spirited young ladies I've ever seen. When I first saw Sienna, my first thought was how she was just as gorgeous and fun as her mother. Not to sound cliché, but she's essentially the little sister that I wish I grew up with (I come from a family in which I'm the youngest child of only one brother and one sister - though I sometimes wonder how cool it'd have been if it was a balanced act with one more daughter in the family). And as if this girl's beauty and spirit wasn't impressive enough about her, she has a twin sister named Sierra! Unlike Sienna, Sierra wasn't born with Primordial Dwarfism, so she's noticeably taller than her twin sister (Chrissy refers to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids when she talks about it, but I think of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Twins).
(You won't meet girls any cooler than these three!)
Beauty and talent certainly runs strong in this family. Sierra, as I found out back in 2011, is a songwriter and a singer (yes, she is just that much cooler than her mother - sorry, Chrissy!). Described as "the little girl with the big 'bluesy' voice," Sienna has performed on stage at local events and revenues around Texas (where she, her sister, and her mother are all from) - recently she's performed in Austin, Tomball, Houston, Pasadena, Conroe, and Kingwood. She has even performed once in Hollywood, California at Ten Forward Café and will be performing live in Nashville next month (Are you seeing a pattern in the rising success of this young lady?). Chrissy has posted many videos of Sierra's performances on her YouTube channel, including this recent one that has truly shown how far Sierra has come in her singing. Sierra has her own official site, which you can catch up on her journey from and help donate for her first album! Her talents are so impressive I'm currently making plans to feature her as a character in my first-ever "musical fanfic" (a genre that has probably been unheard of until now). The story is still confidential right now, but Sierra and even Chrissy are one of the few I've actually told what it is and what it will be about to - and Sierra is actually excited about it!
(Chrissy, Sienna, and Sierra with the wonderful Joey - Chrissy's husband and the twins' father)
Chrissy's entire family is the true definition of the word "blessing." Sierra and Sienna's story has been told over the media, from their appearance on 20/20 to Anderson Cooper's now-canceled talk show Anderson Live. From these appearances and what Chrissy has told me, Joey is a real dedicated father and husband to Chrissy and her girls, and I commend him particularly for helping Chrissy raise Sienna. He's the type of supportive father I hope to become one day (in fact, both him and Chrissy are the type of parents I aspire to become when I have my own children). This family is so awesome to me that I've taken it upon myself to feature them all in my upcoming "Disney Men in Black" story for this June. The story (which will be my fourth collaboration with Chrissy following two successful ones with "Disney's Ghostbusters: The Dead End" and one short story setting up the events of "World of Disney 3" this December, followed by "Marvel Mayhem" this March) involves characters inspired by her, Joey, Sierra, and Sienna - the first ever time I've written an entire family based on an actual real one in one of my fics. Although the story begins with them as a legitimate family of four, the events of the tale transform their characters into complete strangers, which will be the driving force of the story's drama. One sneak peek posted a couple of months ago has already revealed who (and more importantly what) Joey's character is.
(Chrissy as "Lawna" from Jamiel Boling's District 10)
I've already talked a little about Chrissy's character in "Disney Men in Black" from another blog, but I didn't talk too much about what really inspired the character. A couple of years back, Jamiel did a project that incorporated photography, visual effects, and video that worked around a story that functioned as a "sorta sequel" to District 9. He called it "District 10" and featured Chrissy as a character named "Lawna," a woman in the midst of an uprising from the Prawns (the aliens from the movie) and one of the few humans to survive. Lawna's on a mission to protect her two daughters (wonder who they are? - hint, hint). As stated from Jamiel's synopsis of the story, "For years she hasn’t seen any humans and have also seen fewer and fewer Prawns. After about 2 years of no other presence she started receiving random transmissions from NASA that stated, 'Whomever is still alive, a fleet of massive ships is approaching.'" The story was so good that I thought Jamiel would actually turn it into his own film project (still hope that he does), but the particular photos and video he shot of Chrissy as Lawna had really got me inspired to feature her as a similar character under slightly similar circumstances - just with a surprise twist.
Looking at those photos of "Lawna," I saw a woman who looked like she went ten rounds with Captain Gantu (one of the main characters in my "Disney MiB" story, based on the character from Lilo & Stitch). That was enough to encourage me to create a character for my own project that could follow up on that look yet have different reasons for how she got to it. That's the basis for Chrissy's "Disney MiB" character - a seemingly ordinary woman who has seen and been through hell for two girls who might not seem what they are. I owe much credit to both Jamiel (for his photography and "District 10" idea) and Chrissy (for that look she developed as a woman who kicks butt while she has had her butt kicked at the same time) in helping me create the most intriguing character to come in "Disney Men in Black" or any previous story I've written.
(One shot from a recent collaboration of Jamiel and Chrissy's - Icon Era.)
It seems like Jamiel and Chrissy's work has inspired many ideas for characters in my work, from "Code Red" to "District 10" to the recent "Icon Era" shoot they've done. While the figures that Chrissy portrays in these images are entirely hers and Jamiel's, there is inspiration resonated into characters featured in my work that does not entirely reflect on the attitude brought out from the photos. To put it in simpler terms, I'll create a character that has the same look that was developed exclusively for the shoot, but I'll also develop a story and characteristics I feel fits with that look. For example, the series of images from "Icon Era" features Chrissy in a long black dress with her signature long, flowing scarlet hair and high-heeled, open-toed black shoes; this look, as Chrissy describes it from her blog on the series, goes with the "film noir" feel that the shots have (one epic shot has a black-and-white color tone that makes it look exactly like a screenshot from a 1940s movie). But what the images scream out to me is "villainess." If there's one thing growing up to Disney cartoons has taught me, it's the even the most beautiful women can be the deadliest - and that's how these recent images with Chrissy has inspired me to develop a character for my Duck Tales/007 crossover series that will be introduced in Silvermask and become the main antagonist in its hopeful sequel, Money Shot. The character, whose name is Evelyn Christina Bernal, is a Spanish model and entrepreneur who is interested in only one thing: killing Scrooge McDuck.
(Watch out, Scrooge! She's coming for you!)
The best part about having a friend who's a fellow writer is that they understand your ambitions, goals, and methods. When I share my ideas with Chrissy, she doesn't ask me questions like "What does that involve," "Do I have to do anything," or - the most popular one I get - "What do I have to do?" There's hardly any rejection, like there is most often when I offer to write someone into one of my stories (mostly because they think that I'm shooting them in a film). There's hardly any doubt or bashfulness (I've had one or two people decline because the character "isn't them"). There's only a quick reply (i.e. "Cool!" or "Awesome!") and I'm off writing a character with long red hair, fair skin, blue eyes, an impressive bust size, a fit figure, and a smile that - depending on the character - will brighten your day or hypnotize you into your doom. With Chrissy as my inspiration for a variety of characters that stem from her real-life persona and photo shoots, what I essentially have is an unrestrained freewill to let my creativity flow, because she's a writer just like me and knows all the things that goes on in the story is purely fictional and does not reflect her actual self (unless the story or character requires it).
It's like writing a script for an experienced actress who you know has history in writing and directing and can provide any creative criticism necessary in strengthening the story. Chrissy is just exactly that when it comes to my work - there was one instance where she told me that I had too many characters in one story, which she was right about (this led to me creating outlines for my stories to keep a track record on plot, characters, setting, etc.).
The particular story that Chrissy told me that I had "too many characters" in was one I've been developing for my "World of Disney" series (my most ambitious fan fiction series to date). Chrissy is just one of nearly 40 characters I've developed for the series based on actual friends - her character being one of the most important ones coming into the series in its fourth year online. Because she is the easiest friend to develop a character for, Chrissy has three separate ones developed for three separate adventures in the WoD series. For "Marvel Mayhem," Chrissy will be Chrissy Livingston - a WWII scientist and grandmother to my character ("Agent Sean Livingston" from The Marvelous World: World of Disney 2) who has cryogenically frozen herself into the 21st century for selfish scientific desire. For "World of Disney 3," she will be Chrissy Ryder - an engineer in the Star Wars Universe and mother to two Padawan learners (based on Sierra and Sienna) who suffers from a case of "altered identity" when she morphs between herself and a version of me, due to purposes that are explained in the Tales of the Disneyverse miniseries. And, for next year's "The Disney Access," she will be Chrissy Thomas - a fully alternate version of my character from the first "World of Disney" who is basically repeating the events of that story with her in my place (the reason for this is also explained in Tales of the Disneyverse).
(Chrissy wearing the attire her character will be depicted wearing in "The Disney Access")
In most of the roles that I've written Chrissy in, her character has some sort of link to the one I write for myself. In "The Dead End," she was a dimensional counterpart of my character "Sean Spengler," who was in turn a counterpart of Egon Spengler from the Ghostbusters films; and, in the "World of Disney" series, she's connected to my character from the first story (I can't say *how* exactly due to spoilers). In one case, the link between our characters was purely an intention to the main plot; in the final Disney Ghostbusters story, Ghostbuster teams from across countless dimensions are called in to face Chernabog, the main villain of the story. Meanwhile, on the "World of Disney" spectrum, the idea of linking our characters in spirit is mostly inspired by Chrissy and I sharing that same connection in real life with our love for writing, fitness, art, staying motivated, and family. For "The Disney Access," I intend on capitalizing on the idea of the two of us being one in the same, opening up the pros and cons to our different lives (sometimes I see Chrissy being all that I wish I could be and more, but I know she'd tell me that it's never too late achieve my goals).
That's the type of advice that I take with me every day I'm blessed enough to have an inspiring conversation with this amazing woman. Chrissy truly does live up to her skills as a motivator - if you're ever feeling down in the dumps, she'll make sure you're back on your feet in time to watch the sun set!
I'll have a lot more blogs on Chrissy in the future (there's so much positive things to be said about her), but this one was for me personally to reflect on how great a friend she has been to me, coming into our fourth year of our friendship. Some days I wonder what were to happen to me if I didn't have her inspiration, but I'm working on NOT thinking too much about that. ;-)
