The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton now has its own Facebook page. Follow this link and “like” it.
This page replaces the seperate pages for Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess and Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress.
**** SPOILER ALERT ****
One of the characters in Astrid Maxxim is a robot. She’s Robot Valerie, imprinted with the memories of Astrid’s friend Valerie Diaz.
Robot Valerie has two purposes. The first is just that I wanted a robot character. Orignially she was going to be a robot version of Astrid’s other friend Denise. I had Denise and Robot Denise for a long time in the draft, but Denise already has a complicated family life, so it just seemed natural to change the robot to Robot Valerie.
The second reason for Robot Valerie was as a plot device. The bad guys are after Robot Valerie, naturally, because she’s a cool robot. It’s just one more thing for Astrid to worry about.
For some reason, people just like robot characters. People generally love Patience in His Robot Wife, and of the comments I’ve gotten so far about Astrid Maxxim, probably 75% talk about Robot Valerie.
Astrid is the title character and the main character in Astrid Maxxim. As a character, she has two facets. On the one hand, she has to be interesting, so she has her foibles and flaws, but on the other hand, it is her eyes from which we see her world. Therefore, she has to have a solid center.
Astrid is extremely intelligent, but she is also intuitive and empathetic. She is kind and friendly, but shy and unassuming. She loves science and technology and is easily frustrated by superstition and silliness. She is supremely confident about herself, but not so confident in her interactions with others. This along with a certain rigidness regarding change, I associate with her being an only child.
Astrid is a fun character to write and I hope to do a fairly long series of her stories. It all depends on how long I last, I suppose.
The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton is now available at the World Famous Diesel Ebook Store.
A new version of The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton is now available at Smashwords, and will soon be available everywhere else. If you are one of the 3 people 🙂 who purchased the first version, you can download an error free updated version for free. The new version is labeled 11-20-12 on the copyright page.
Thanks to Moe the Cat for sending me a list of errata to be fixed (and this is not the first time he’s done so either). There is a special thanks to Moe, and my son John who performed a similar service, on the dedication page of the new version.
Alright, since I’m thinking about soundtracks, how about this for a His Robot Girlfriend/ His Robot Wife movie?
Daffodil Lament – Cranberries
All is Full of Love – Bjork
From a Shell – Lisa Germano
Settle Down – Kimbra
The Greatest – Cat Power
Trouble is a Friend – Lenka
I Like You So Much Better When You’re Naked – Ida Maria
This Guy’s in Love with You – Herb Alpert
He Needs Me – Shelley Duvall
Everybody Hurts – R.E.M.
I usually don’t listen to music with lyrics when I’m trying to write, though I listen to instrumentals. I do listen to songs when I’m thinking about plots and ideas though and there are a few songs that remind me of events in stories, and that I think would make great soundtracks to movie versions of my books. Here is what might be included in a Blood Trade Movie.
You’ve Been Flirting Again – Bjork
9 Crimes – Damien Rice
All I Want from You is Love – Let’s Go Sailing
Dirty Laundrey – Bitter:Sweet
I Want to be Your Dog – Joan Jett
Bad Girls – M.I.A.
Paper Planes – M.I.A.
Werewolves of London – Warren Zevon
Paradise – Coldplay
Mad World – Michael Andrews
Little Sister – Queens of the Stone Age
My son, who is the biggest Eaglethorpe Buxton fan, surprised me for my birthday with an Eaglethorpe Buxton mug that he ordered with my promo picture. He also had made a His Robot Wife t-shirt. Awesome.
The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton is now available for $2.99 at Kobo Books for your Kobo reading device or Kobo ebook app.
I usually enjoy creating characters that have some major flaw in their personalities. In fact my favorite characters are those who are seriously twisted in some way. For one character in Astrid Maxxim, I went a completely different way.
In the Tom Swift books I read as a kid, my favorite character was Tom’s best friend Bud Barclay. Bud was totally reliable and faithful, completely unwavering in his friendship and belief in Tom. I patterned Toby Bundersmith after Bud in that respect.
Of course Toby has to be different in one way– he’s not just Astrid’s best friend– he’s her boyfriend. In fact, she often daydreams of one day being Dr. Astrid Bundersmith, so he has to not only be great, but dreamy as well. Toby is my perfect boy. He never wavers, he’s always supportive, he’s always reliable, and always responsible. He can’t save the day, because Astrid is the hero of the story, but he’s always there to back her up. If someone has to come to Astrid’s aid, it will be Toby. In truth, he’s pretty boring. Fortunately, there are enough other characters who can cause chaos, doubt, and trouble for our girl inventor.
City of Amathar 