Category Archives: “His Robot Girlfriend”

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

I haven’t had too much time to write, but I did manage a few pages this week.  I’ve been splitting my time between Patience is a Virtue and 82 Eridani.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails this month about His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife.  People seem to be enjoying them and that’s great.  I wish I could tell everyone exactly when I will have the new book done, but I can’t.  I’m really planning to finish this summer.

I walked into school the other day and the first thing anyone said to me was “Four weeks till spring break, and ten more after that.”  So, I’m not the only one counting down.  I’d really like to get caught up during Spring Break, but I don’t know.  At least I’ll keep plunking away.  Whenever I get a page written I’ll have to give myself a little celebration.

His Robot Girlfriend Casting Call

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We’ve talked about casting actors to play the characters in my books before.  I’ve had all kinds of suggestions for who could play Patience, but I saw Emmy Rossum in the preview for Beautiful Creatures and knew immediately that she would be my new choice.  She looks like how I imagine Patience, and that is because she looks quite a bit like the young lady that I used as a model when I was writing His Robot Girlfriend.  When I think about Patience, I see the tall forehead, the big eyes, and the wide mouth.  That doesn’t sound all that attractive when I say it like that, but you can see that they all go together to make an altogether beautiful woman.  Imagine my surprise when after looking up her name on IMDB, I found out that she is also a singer and I had a couple of her songs in my “Current Faves” playlist the whole time.

Patience is a Virtue: Wanda

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Wanda is the most important new character in Patience is a Virtue.  Like Patience, she is a robot– a Daffodil Amonte 2.  She is a bit on the short side and very curvy, with lots of wavy red hair.  She belongs to Ryan and was built to his specifications.

Wanda is far more robot-like than Patience and the latter becomes her mentor, teaching her how to be more human-like.  Wanda is shocked and frightened by Patience’s general disregard for the laws of robotics.

Having someone to tutor in the ways of the world has given me a chance to play with an entirely new side of Patience and it’s turning out to be a lot of fun.

Patience is a Virtue: Ryan

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Ryan is a new character in this book.  He becomes an unlikely companion to Mike– unlikely because the two of them are really nothing alike.  Ryan is, or rather was, an outgoing boisterous fellow, and is a car salesman.  Recently his life has been turned upside down with the discovery that his wife was cheating on him and his subsequent divorce.

I was thinking about my stories the other day, and realized that I had numerous stories going on that all had cheating wives in them.  I don’t know why that’s on my mind, as my wife is as faithful as a Barsoomian calot.  I suppose it’s something that just tends to be on a man’s mind at a certain time in his life– a sort of evolutionary imperative, if you will.  But I have a cheating wife here, one in 82 Eridani, and one in Kanana the Jungle Girl (currently in limbo).  At least two of them will see the light of publication this year.

Patience is a Virtue: Harriet

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Mike’s daughter Harriet has a much larger role in this story than she did in the previous two.  She was really just a background character in the first two books, so I’m enjoying fleshing her out now.  She’s become a real girlfriend for Patience, as well as a mom in her own right now.

Originally Mike had two kids, a daughter and a son, because I had two kids, a daughter and a son.  And while initially I did pattern a few traits after my own daughter, Harriet really bears little resemblance to her now.  Despite that, my daughter still refers to Harriet as “her character.”  I think this has less to do with the two of them being alike, and much more with the fact that I am very much like Mike.

When I first wrote His Robot Girlfriend, my idea was that there had been a resurgence in old-fashioned names, so Mike’s kids and the kids in his classroom would reflect that.  Later I made a few changes and additions, some of which didn’t hold with that idea.  Specifically, I changed the name of Mike’s son for some reason to Lucas, and I added a couple of other characters.

 

Patience is a Virtue: Mike

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Mike Smith is the main character in His Robot Wife and His Robot Girlfriend.  He is Patience’s husband.  Of course he is in Patience is a Virtue.  It wouldn’t be a story without him.  I think much of the charm of the story is in Mike’s relationship with Patience.  Of course most if not all of Patience’s motivations in the first two stories was her devotion to Mike.

In this book, Mike is less central to the story, because it belongs much more to the robot.  Of course he is still there just as much as before and most of the best dialog at least in my opinion, belongs to him.

Mike goes through some medical problems in this book that mirror my own– specifically he tears the cartilage out of his knee just as I did.  This only makes sense, since of all my characters, Mike is the  closest to me.

Patience is a Virtue: Patience

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

As I mentioned yesterday, the new story is told much more from Patience’s point of view.  Patience is a Daffodil Amonte model robot and as such, can do quite a few things that human beings cannot.  Telling the story from her point of view gives me the chance to show what’s going on inside of her a bit.  For instance, she can carry on a phone conversation completely in her head, without verbally having to speak the words.  So, she can carry on a conversation with a person in front of her at the same time that she carries on a conversation with someone on the phone, and theoretically could be doing web searches and other actives while doing so.  In this story, Patience gets a little threatening– not physically, but she can after all, mess with your bank accounts, credit rating, and public records, all the while talking to you.  We also get to see a little more of why she does what she does.  For instance, she lets Mike get hurt if she thinks that saving him all the time would damage his self image.  And she bases her decision on which store to patronize based on whether the clerks are Daffodils or Gizmo robots.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

I’ve been working on Patience is a Virtue today and am just finishing up chapter six.  This book is plotted out to be 20 chapters, so I’m a little over 1/4 of the way through the draft.  As I’ve noted before, this will make it the longest Robot book in the series, and just from my own perspective, I think it’s the best one so far.

I jump back into it yesterday, making yesterday only the second day since the beginning of the year that I’ve met my New Year’s resolution writing goal.

As I’ve noted before, this book is much more from Patience’s point of view than the previous books.  I hope this makes it fresher.  It certainly makes it fun to write, as Patience, while not your typical robot, nevertheless does view humanity as a somewhat mechanical outsider.  Over the next few days, I’ll share some of what I’ve got cooking in the book so far.

Patience is Everywhere

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His Robot WifeThe model that is featured on the cover of His Robot Wife and His Robot Girlfriend pops up all over the place.  Of course, there’s good reason.  She’s beautiful.  I see her on posters and ads and today I got a groupon-type email with her on.  I’m sure everyone is using her because her pictures can be purchased on royalty-free art sites.  I just hope some of the money is trickling back to her, wherever she is.

See the ad here.

His Robot Girlfriend Soundtrack

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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.