Monthly Archives: October 2015

Characters: Mike Smith

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His Robot GirlfriendOver the past several weeks, I’ve talked about the characters in Blood Trade, Women of Power, and finally Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike.  Now it’s time to move on to His Robot Girlfriend and its sequels.

The story that became His Robot Girlfriend consisted originally of some short flash fiction and the characters were not very well developed. When I decided to turn it into a book, I completely rewrote it, adding an ending. I had to turn some cardboard people into real characters. In the case of Mike Smith, I just decided to make him– me. This was pretty easy, because the original was from the first person point of view.  He was a school teacher, about five years older than me, when I started, and instead of being happily married with two kids, he was a widower with two surviving children. Personality-wise, language-wise, and description-wise, he’s about as close to me as I could get. As I neared the end of His Robot Girlfriend, I started feeling a little uncomfortable that he was so much like me, and I began working in little things that made him at least somewhat different. In the end, physically at least, Mike changes quite a bit. Patience really gets him into shape. I started at the gym, just in time to injure first my knee and then my achilles tendon.  In His Robot Wife, Mike has a similar knee injury.

By His Robot Wife, Mike has become a fairly sharp-dressed, in shape retired fellow.  This was a natural progression from the end of the first book.  So, he’s no longer really very much like me physically, but he’s still pretty snarky.

Los Angeles Part III

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As you read this, I’m back home and probably happy to be so.  As I write it however, I’m sitting poolside at the Airport Merriot in Los Angeles.  It is a mostly cloudy 75 degrees, so it’s quite pleasant and even though I’m out in the middle of the deck, it’s not too sunny.

Sadly, there are no bathing beauties walking around in barely there bikinis– Just a couple of families splashing and talking around the pool.  Of course there could be women looking at me and thinking much the same thing, in reverse.  I’m sitting here in slacks and a shirt, because I didn’t pack a swim suit and forgot to even pack shorts.  There you go.  Not that my choice of clothing would make much of a difference.  Even old ladies are not particularly interested in what a fat old man is wearing.

Hey!  There’s guy that looks just like George Lucas!  Nope.  Not him.  Great hair though.

Rachel Carson High School

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Part of the setting for Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike, as well as the other Astrid Maxxim books, is Rachel Carson High School.  It actually went through several different name changes.  I wanted a female scientist and I didn’t want to go with the obvious Marie Curie.  She needed also to be an American.  I think Rachel Carson is the most important woman (maybe person) that most people don’t know.

Being a teacher, one of the things I enjoyed was playing with the school environment.  All of the meals at Rachel Carson are gourmet meals.  They have a Michelin Star chef.  Every child is dedicated to learning.  The students stay after to maintain the school and keep it clean.  Every student is on a specific program– designed to lead them in a different direction in life.  Some of these are revealed in the books.

 

Characters: Austin Tretower

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Astrid Maxxim 2In Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike, Austin Tretower is the new kid at school, but by the second book, he is firmly fixed as part of Astrid’s gang.  He came to live with his grandmother in Maxxim City when his parents were killed in a car wreck.  Austin is a little on the ungainly side and he is frequently distracted, losing his possessions and getting lost.  He is very excited to have a friend who is a real live Maxxim, as his grandmother, a former Maxxim employee, has told him many tales of Astrid’s father when he was a boy.

By book 4, Austin is in the beginnings of a relationship with Robot Valerie.  Only time will tell whether the two of them will make it work.

Characters: Christopher Harris

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Astrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar ChallengeChristopher Harris is Toby’s best friend and is the only student at Rachel Carson High School who’s grades and test scores match Astrid’s.  They both expect to contend with each other for valedictorian.  Christopher, like Toby is also a licensed pilot.

Christopher, who doesn’t like to be called Chris, is an African American with short dark hair.  Both his parents work at Maxxim Industries– his father as an engineer and his mother as a chemist.  I wanted an African American kid among Astrid’s gang, to represent students at a typical school.  I certainly didn’t want a stereotype, so Christopher is not into any sport involving balls, and he is most proud of his grades and his computer skills.  He is in fact, an amalgam of several students I have had over the years.

In books two through four, Christopher has an on-again off-again relationship with Denise, though he’s popular with quite a few girls at school.

Kanana the Jungle Girl – Update

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Kanana: The Jungle Girl -- Cover RevealThey say that everything has its time.  I posted in April 2012 that I was hard at work on a story called Kanana the Jungle Girl.  In September 2012, I posted that I was putting on the back burner.  In March 2013, I went back and rewrote the outline for the project.  Well, this past week, I pulled the manuscript out and started writing.  It was plotted as a eighteen chapter book.  In the past four days, I’ve written three chapters and combined a fourth into one of the three I finished.  At this point I’ve only got five more chapters to go.  I don’t want to jinx myself, but I feel like I can polish these off pretty quickly.

As I mentioned the other day, this story is a sort of reverse-Tarzan type story with a couple of differences. It takes place on a mysterious unknown continent on a vastly different alternate Earth (in fact, it’s a ringworld), around 1913. It features alternate world versions of a few historical individuals, notably Teddy Roosevelt. I optimistically said I thought I could finish it off in a month or two.  At the rate I’m going now (knock on wood) it might be days.  Watch this space.

Fabulous Los Angeles Part II

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I’m still here, doing my damnedest to try and enjoy being away from home.  It’s not horrible.  The food is pretty good, and I don’t mind being alone, but I get the feeling that when I get home Monday night, I’m not going to feel like getting up early the next morning to be Mr. Teacher again.  Fortunately, this is a short week.

Just a reminder that The Price of Magic is available for preorder at Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks.  The release date is December 4th.  Thanks to those of you who’ve already ordered it.

Characters: Robot Valerie

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Astrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space PlaneIf you read yesterday’s excerpt, then you have a good idea of where Robot Valerie comes from.  She was designed and built by Astrid and programmed using Valerie Diaz’s memories.  This works spectacularly well– too well.  It creates a living thinking version of Valerie that is a robot.  Robot Valerie is quickly adopted into the Diaz family and the two Valeries end up acting much like twins.

Robot Valerie has a great deal to deal with in negotiating her way through life.  People see her differently than she expects them to.  She ends up being closer friends with Astrid than Regular Valerie is, since Astrid is always coming up with upgrades for her.  Then of course there are those out there who would like to capture such a valuable piece of hardware, so Robot Valerie is under almost constant threat of kidnapping.

Fabulous Los Angeles

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As I write this I am at a training program for the International Baccaloreate program in Los Angeles.  And as you read this, I’m still here.  Four days away from home.  Add that to the fact that it’s the end of the quarter, with grades and everything else, and I haven’t had a chance to get much written lately.

I do get the afternoons and evenings off, so I’m planning to get some writing done them.  What’s pissing my off right now though, is that even though I was promised free in-room wifi by the IB programs guide, the hotel want to charge $17 a day for it.  Total bullshit.  So I’m using my iPhone as a hotspot right now.  Fortunately, now that I’ve fixed my home wifi, I have more data available on my 4G.

Well, I’m exhausted.  Hopefully I’ll have something positive to tell you in a few days.

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike – Chapter 3 Excerpt

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Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike“What’s in this box?” asked Toby, from across the room. “What’s Project RG-7, and why is it top secret?”

“I was going to show you guys next week,” said Astrid, leading the others to where Toby was standing beside the crate. “I guess you can go ahead and take a look now.”

Reaching up, she flipped open a latch and opened the side of the crate. Inside, packed with straw, was a metallic girl. She had bright silver skin, but was otherwise quite human looking. Her hair was the same metallic material as the rest of her, a solid hair-shaped mass rather than individual fibers, but she was wearing regular clothing. She had on a pink jacket over a blue t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers.

“Oh my gosh!” squealed Valerie. “She looks like me!”

“Yes, she does,” agreed Denise.

“That’s because I patterned her after you,” said Astrid. “She’s a Robot Girl 7.”

“What’s she… I mean it, for?” asked Austin.

“Well, who wouldn’t want a robot?” wondered Astrid. “She could be anything: friend, babysitter, maid.”

“Why did you make her look like me?” asked Valerie.

“She’s just a prototype. I thought you would be a good model for her.” Astrid stepped over to a table and pulled back a sheet. “What we’re going to do is hook you up to her and we’ll copy all the information from your brain into the robot. It will be much faster than trying to program it with a computer.”

“I don’t know…” Valerie took a step back.

“It’s perfectly safe,” Astrid assured her.

“What if it sends my brain into her body? What if I wake up and you’ve turned me into a robot?”

“That can’t happen,” said Astrid.

“That would be way cool!” exclaimed Austin. “Make a boy robot and copy my brain!”Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike