Author Archives: wesleyallison

Unknown's avatar

About wesleyallison

Author of twenty science-fiction and fantasy books, including the popular "His Robot Girlfriend."

His Robot Girlfriend — Politics

Posted on by
3

People accuse me of having all kinds of hidden agendas in the robot books, both political and otherwise.  Some have suggested that I’m a radical environmentalist because of the prominance of the Green Party in the story.  I do care about the environment, but the reason that the Green Party plays a part is that I thought it would be more fun to have three parties vying for the presidency than two. 

Others have said the story is a thinly veiled treatis on same-sex marriage.  There is a reference to the fact that same-sex marriage is more common in the future of the story.  That is not an endorsement by me.  I don’t have really strong feelings about it one way or the other.  I do think the institution of marriage is being damaged less by same sex couples than by people (either gay or straight) who practice serial monogamy– getting married and divorced over and over again.  I’ve been married to the same woman for 26 years. 

One area that few people get is the parallel of Apple Computers.  I tried to parody and reference Apple in a number of ways.  I find Apple and Apple fandom both interesting and humorous.  On the other hand, though I wasn’t part of it when I wrote the books, I wouldn’t give up either my iPad or my iPhone 4S for anything now.

Harriet Smith

Posted on by
Reply

Harriet Smith is a character in His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife.  She is the daughter of the main character– Mike Smith.  Harriet is very loosely based on my own daughter, but as my daughter has happily pointed out, she would never put up with such a jerk of a husband as Harriet has, and quite honestly, unlike Mike, if my daughter did, I’d put him in the ground myself.

There are a few little inside stories that are taken from my own life with my daughter, such as her ability to talk a subject to death until my eyes glaze over, and the remembrance that they have of the time that Mike threatened to kill a kid who was bullying Harriet and almost lost his job because of it.

On the other hand, Harriet is a dental hygienist, and is fascinated with teeth, something my daughter has never shown any interest in.

Lucas Smith

Posted on by
Reply

Lucas Smith is a character in His Robot Girlfriend.  He is the son of Mike Smith and his deceased wife.  While I was writing His Robot Girlfriend, my son was participating in Jr. ROTC at his high school.  Because of this, I made Lucas a soldier.  Other than that, he bares no real resemblance to my son at all.  In fact, Lucas has a relatively small part to play in the story, so his character isn’t really all that fleshed out.  He doesn’t appear in His Robot Wife at all.

I’m Over the Cloud

Posted on by
Reply

I am over cloud computing.  This was supposed to be the wave of the future, helping us keep organized.  Now I have media spread out over at least seven different clouds and I can’t find anything I want to find.  I’m also done with the vaguaries of having something I’m supposed to own, in the hands of someone else who can cancel my access any time they want, and only let me know this somewhere in their 500 page user agreement.  I’m done with it.  Having it available for download is fine, but from now on, if I can’t back it up on my own hardware and play it on at least two different players, I’m not spending my money on it.

Update: The Young Sorceress

Posted on by
Reply

I got the following message on the blog, but I can’t seem to find it now.  “Is either the Young Sorceress or The Two Dragons part of the Senta and the Steel Dragon series, perhaps?”

Yes.  The Young Sorceress is part 4 and The Two Dragons is part 5 (the conclusion) of Senta and the Steel Dragon.

Chapter 7 of The Young Sorceress is now done and it’s on to chapter 8.  I expect 15-16 chapters total.  I’ll keep you up to date. In the meantime, I’ve been thinking of the blurb for the book back.  It might go along something like this.

The young sorceress Senta Bly can get into all kinds of trouble.  Imagine the trouble when there are four of her, one extremely secretive and cunning, one giddily happy, one paranoid and frightened, and one apparently intent on murdering her boyfriend Graham and the new girl he’s been seen around town with.  Which if any, is the real Senta?

Astrid Maxxim is Coming to Paperback

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been vascilating over which if any of my books should go to paperback.  I don’t really sell any, though I do give some away.  On the other hand, my ebooks are starting to sell.  Still, I thought of all my books, Astrid Maxxim deserved a paper treatment, as it is aimed at young readers, who might not have access to an ereading device.  I chose an unusual format– 8 1/2 x 11 inches, 98 pages.  I did this for a couple of reasons- 1) it just works better with the cover illustration, and 2) I wanted it to be different than my other books, since this one is aimed at children.  As I write this, the proofs have already shipped and I should have them by the time you read this.

A Place to do my Writing

Posted on by
Reply

I’ve been hard at work converting my daughter’s bedroom back into the den it once was, now that she’s moved on to her own place.  I’m really looking forward to having a quiet place to work.  As you can see, it’s a work in progress.

Get Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike on your Nook!

Posted on by
Reply

You can now pick up Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike for your Nook by following the link below.  Just as at Amazon, Kobo, and iBooks, it is just 99 cents.

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1107759360?ean=2940032863465&itm=1&usri=astrid+maxxim

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike now at Kobo Books

Posted on by
Reply

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike is now availabe at Kobo books for 99 cents.  Follow this link right to it: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Astrid-Maxxim-her-Amazing-Hoverbike/book-dHww_7RCZ0eAeEurAyXCNg/page1.html

Patience

Posted on by
Reply

Patience is the Robot in “His Robot Girlfriend”. Just as you might expect, she’s perfect.  What I find interesting is that so many people tell me they love Patience– both male and femal readers.  I guess she’s so pleasant that she’s just hard not to like.
@font-face { font-family: Arial Unicode MS; } @font-face { font-family: Garamond; } @page Section1 {size: 8.5in 11.0in; margin: 1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin: .5in; mso-footer-margin: .5in; mso-paper-source: 0; } P.MsoNormal { MARGIN-TOP: 0in; FONT-FAMILY: Garamond; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; mso-style-parent: “”; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: “Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family: “Times New Roman” } LI.MsoNormal { MARGIN-TOP: 0in; FONT-FAMILY: Garamond; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; mso-style-parent: “”; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: “Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family: “Times New Roman” } DIV.MsoNormal { MARGIN-TOP: 0in; FONT-FAMILY: Garamond; MARGIN-LEFT: 0in; FONT-SIZE: 11pt; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0in; mso-style-parent: “”; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-pagination: widow-orphan; mso-fareast-font-family: “Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-font-family: “Times New Roman” } DIV.Section1 { page: Section1 }
Though her hair was covered with a clear plastic cap, he could see it was jet black. It matched two dark, carefully arched eyebrows and a set of long eyelashes.        She had no other body hair.  Her face could best be described as cute, with large blue eyes, a button nose, and thick voluptuous lips.  She had the kind of slender and yet curvy body that was just not possible on a real woman.   Breasts the size of apples just kind of floated there above a perfectly flat stomach.  Mike tilted his head down.  She looked anatomically complete.

Of all my characters, none went through as much of a change between first draft and published work as did Patience Smith in His Robot Girlfriend. Originally she was a rather Amazonian figure, physically very imposing, but much more submissive. Some might argue that Patience is still submissive, but I think we find out in His Robot Wife that she really isn’t. When I rewrote a series of short pieces into a long story, she needed to have much more force of personality so that she could advance the storyline of forcing Mike to change. A college professor once told me the main character is the one in the story who changes the most– and that would be Mike.

When I started rewriting, I just wasn’t happy with her physical description, so I started completely from scratch, using some of the actresses that fit that body type: Christina Ricci, Natalie Portman, Alyson Hannigan, as well as a young woman I knew as a model– so yes, there really is a Patience out there. I observed her as carefully as possible (without seeming too creepy) so that I could describe her movements and gestures– like when Patience bounces on her tip-toes or incorporates dance moves into everyday movement. Since then, I’ve tried to find a human being to at least think about when I write most of my characters. 

Her personality couldn’t be base on a real person or even a person that I though up.  She’s a robot.  Her personality couldn’t be readily apparent.  It had to be very subdued.  It had to sneak up on the reader as it sneaks up on Mike.  For that reason I think, quite a few readers find her a dull automoton– Image finding a robot as such.  I think this is a failure for me as a writer.  Still of all the fan letters I’ve ever gotten, I would say that easily 40% (written about any book) tell me how much they love Patience.

I mentioned before that the robot books are not my favorite Wesley Allison books.  That being said, they are my most popular, so I may well write another.  Oddly, I have the hardest time thinking up plots for Mike and Patience, when plots just seem to pop up for my other books.  If a new one ever does pop up though, I will write it.  I have two titles in mind that I think are appropriate, but I’m not giving them up just yet.