Category Archives: Writing

My Favorite Bits: More Robot Stuff

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Here are a few more details about the world of His Robot Wife and His Robot Girlfriend.

One of the main background events in His Robot Wife is the presidential election.  I used random names for the presidential candidates, but one of the vice-presidential candidates was named for a teacher I work with.  That was four years ago, and despite huge turnovers in our school district, we still work together.

One of the details that I was really proud of was the payNETime acount.  I needed something that was a cross between Paypal and the broader banking world.  PayNETime is pronounced “pay any time” and it spells NET in the middle.  I was really proud of myself on this one.

Mike and Patience live at 11 North Willow.  During my high school years, I lived at 11 Cottonwood.

The two main robot manufacturers are Gizmo and Daffodil.  Gizmo is another word for mechanism, of course.  Daffodil is the flower and is meant to evoke the idea of Apple.  There are numerous little parallels between Gizmo/Daffodil and IBM/Apple.  Add to that Daffodil is in Cupertino.

The Young Sorceress Characters: Yuah

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When you write a story, you have to have a story arc for your characters.  They have to have obstacles to overcome (or not) or you don’t really have a story.  To paraphrase Joss Whedon, starting out heroic, getting more heroic, end ending up even more heroic, is not a story arc.

One of the problems with writing is, you create characters you love and then you have to do things to them.  Yuah Korlann-Dechantagne is one of my favorite characters in Senta and the Steel Dragon, but she is one who has the toughest road to follow, and in this volume, she is at her most trying point.

The whole Terrence-Yuah story is about addiction, whether it is to drugs or some other behavior, and how it can destroy (multiple) lives.  Yuah’s obsession with Terrence and his multiple problems almost destroy her, and that’s really her part in this story.  Originally as plotted, there was more to her part of the story, but I found myself simply unable to write it, and ended up cutting quite a bit out, including the death of another character.

“Why are you here?” Pantagria repeated.

“I’m here because I’m ‘seeing’.”

“Then that brings us to an entirely different question.  Why are you seeing?”

“I don’t know.”

“You didn’t want Pantagruel.”

Yuah shivered at the memory.

“Who would want that monster?”

“He is what many women want.  He is who they come to see when they use the ‘see spice’.”

“How could anyone want that monster?”

“He is what your mind makes him.  In fact, he is a perfect reflection of what your mind makes him.  You see a monster.  Another woman sees a prince—a perfect prince.  But you didn’t come seeking perfection, did you?  You don’t even want perfection.  If you wanted perfection, you would have never wanted our Terrence, would you?”

“Don’t speak of him!”  Yuah’s hand became a claw with which she threatened to lash out.  “Don’t you dare say his name!”

 “I loved Terrence,” Pantagria hissed, her eyes taking an evil gleam.  “Forty thousand dressing maids with all their quantity of love could not equal my sum!”

“I am not a dressing maid.  I am Mrs. Terrence Lucius Virgil Dechantagne!  And you… You’re nothing!  Nothing!  You’re not even real!”  Yuah burst into a fit of tears.

Pantagria laughed in her face.

“You little fool.  He didn’t love you any more than he loved me.”

“You’re evil!” wailed Yuah.  “Why did you have to have him?  Why did you have to ruin him?  Why did you have to steal him away from me?”

“I didn’t go looking for him.  I couldn’t even if I wanted to.  He came to me.  He came to me just the way you have.”  Pantagria slowly circled the other woman.  “He came to me because he wanted something perfect.  It’s why all men come to me.  And it’s why women come to Pantagruel.  But not you.”  She stopped in front of Yuah.  “You don’t want either of us.  You don’t want something perfect.”

Yuah dropped her hands to her sides and sobbed uncontrollably.

“So, what do you want?”

“I don’t want… anything.”

“Then you have picked a particularly horrible way to commit suicide.”

Welcome India

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Amazon just announced sales of ebooks to India.  That’s wonderful news.    I’ve sold a few books there already– even paper books.  So, welcome any new readers from India.  Download one of my free ebooks.  You can find links on the “Books” page, and thanks for your support.

My Favorite Bits: Voting in the Future

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So many things in His Robot Girlfriend were not that different than in our own times (because I don’t think the 2030s will really be all that different), that I struggled to add a few fantastic elements.  It is after all, a science fiction story.

One area that I changed up quite a bit from our present world was the presidential election that is occurring in the background of the story.  I made three parties the status quo in the stories, not because I’m an advocate of the Green Party (who is the third along with the Democrats and Republicans), though I do consider myself an environmentalist, but I just thought three parties would be more interesting.  I don’t think America will ever have more than two major parties (the 1912 election nowithstanding).  I also gave the US 57 states, including Cuba– also pretty unlikely.

Some reforms that I added that I do think might happen, and would be welcome, are Internet voting, and a single election time across the nation.  In the story, voting occurs between 7AM Eastern Time and 7PM Pacific Time.  Though states are currently firmly in control of election procedures, with the rate of technological change, I could see both of these things happening.

As always though, I chose these things not because I like the idea myself, but because I thought it was more interesting for the story.  If you haven’t read His Robot Girlfriend, check it out.  It’s free just about anywhere you can find ebooks, and has been downloaded to date 422,860 times.

The Young Sorceress Characters: Townsfolk

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When I started writing Senta and the Steel Dragon, one thing I started doing right away was reusing minor characters.  That is to say, that when I needed a character to stand in the background or interact with a major character, instead of making one up, I reused existing characters.  There were two purposes in this.  First, since the story takes place in a limited-sized colony, this would give an air of virisimilitude.  Second, it let me create characters that I enjoyed and build them into more than a cardboard cut-out.  Here are some of those characters who appear in The Young Sorceress.

Lawrence Bratihn has filled a number of little roles in the series.  Most importantly, he was the other soldier who was captured by the lizzies along with Terrence in book 1.  Here in book 4, he works in the port authority.

His wife, Mrs. Bratihn has seen much more use in the series, as she runs the dress shop that all the major female characters frequent.  Her assistant Mrs. Luebking likewise.  Incidently Mrs. Luebking’s husband is occassionally mentioned, but seldom seen.

Mrs. Wardlaw (who was Mrs. Lanier when she arrived along with Radley Staff in book 2) is the governor’s secretary.

Mrs. Colbshallow is very special to me, and she is the mother of a major character, but she plays a relatively minor role in this book as in the others in the series.  My favorite little trick is when someone wants to explain how wonderful some food tastes, they simply compare it to something that Mrs. Colbshallow made.  (In my original draft, she was just referred to as Cook.)

Gaylene Finkler is seldom seen.  She has just a tiny scene in book 2, one in book 5, and a bit more here in book 4.  In book 1, she’s only mentioned once.  Even so, she’s a real person to me, the sister of a major character, and she’s named after my aunt.

Edin Buttermore has a very tiny part in book 2, but much larger ones in Books 4 & 5.  I had to be careful what I did to him in this book, knowing that he had a fairly large part to play in the next one.

Benny Markham and Shemar Morris are two boys that are mentioned a few times and are arround in the background in other books of the series, but here in book 4, I was able to give them a small but meaty part, as they escort Senta through the dinosaur-infested highlands.  I had fun finally giving them (especially Benny) a bit of their own personality.  Of course we find out who they marry at the end of book 5 (for one of them it’s a major character).

Marzell Lance is Yuah Dechantagne’s driver in books 2&4, both of which were written after I’d plotted out his part in book 5.  But it all manages to fit together.

 

My Favorite Bits: Tacos and Hot Dogs

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One of the little details in Tesla’s Stepdaughters is a little Freudian reference that I just couldn’t help myself from throwing in.

Tesla’s Stepdaughters is a sci-fi story set in an alternate world where men and women have been segregated from one another for more than forty years.  Women live much as they do today, while men are collected in enclaves in the far southern tips of Africa, South America, and Australia.  This is a result of germ warfare (in their WWI) that eradicated the majority of men in the world.

Part of the story involved the characters buying street food.  The men, living in South America and not liking anything German (because German scientist caused the germ warfare) would never have adopted hot dogs, like they did in the US.  So I had them eating tacos.  I was going to have the women, living in what is essentially our world, eating hamburgers, but then I realized the Freudianism of it all.  With hot dogs and tacos frequently used as euphamisms form male and female genetalia, I just couldn’t resist making those the dominant fast food varieties.

Tesla’s Stepdaughters: The Details

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Speaking of Tesla’s Stepdaughters, as  I was the other day, got me thinking about the Ladybugs and their world.

One of the things I’ve learned (I hope) is that even though you go to a great deal of trouble to create the details of a fantasy or sci-fi world, you shouldn’t go showing it off unless it benefits the story.  I think this is one of the weaknesses of His Robot Girlfriend that makes me want to rewrite it.

There is a pretty large amount of detail about the Ladybugs and their music in Tesla’s Stepdaughters, but I tried to use only what I needed to be descriptive.  In editing, I cut back on the details of their concert playlists.  However, I created WAY more detail than is shown in the book.  I created every album of the Ladybugs career, every song on every album, who wrote each song, and who played what instruments on those songs.  I posted the details long ago on the blog, and if anyone is interested I’ll post them again.  I even put it out there in ebook format, but I took it down, as I didn’t want people to be disappointed that they weren’t getting a story.

All this is something that I’m being very mindful of as I write His Robot Wife: Patience is a virtue.  I have maps and diagrams and lists, but for the most part they will be for my own reference.  When I’m done with the book, I may post some of them here, but hopefully I’ve learned enough that I’ll just show off the important part (for the story) in the story.

The Young Sorceress Characters: Graham Dokkins

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Graham Dokkins is the boyfriend of Senta Bly, the main character in Senta and the Steel Dragon.  He plays quite a big part in Senta’s development throughout the series.

Spoiler Alert Starts Here!

The main thing I had to deal with in The Young Sorcerss, as far as Graham was concerned was what to do with him.  Senta is going through some stressful situations in this book and it’s taking her beyond her previous experiences, and Graham is a calming moderating force upon her.  I needed that calm and moderating force to be gone.  I did that by getting him involved with intrepid girl reporter Nellie Swenson, which was one more stresser for Senta to deal with too.

Senta and Nellie Swenson both get their name (and the latter, the inspiration for her origin) from real life intrepid reporter Nellie Bly, and this is a little clue about their relationship in the book as well.

Incidently, Graham isn’t named after anybody.  His is just one of those names that got pulled out of the air.  It just sounds like a pleasant kind of fellow that you’d like to know.  That works, as most people who’ve written me about the series tell me that Graham is one of their favorite characters.  How could he not be, really.  Here’s a kid who is brave and adventurous, fiercely loyal to his friends and family, knows more of the native language and culture than most adults, and gets to hang out with real live dinosaurs.

My Favorite Bits: Astrid Maxxim’s Mansion

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Astrid Maxxim and her parents live in a mansion in Maxxim City.  It is three stories high and huge, with an observatory, a laboratory, and a music room on the unused third floor.  Only a part of the first and second floors are used, the former having a series of unused rooms where servants were once housed.

The inspiration for this mansion comes from two sources.  The first is the house that my grandparents lived in when I was born.  It was a huge, two-story house made of red brick, that had been built over a hundred years ago as a hotel.  About forty years ago, my grandparents sold it and it went through several owners.  A few years ago, it was gutted so that it could be rebuilt, but the owners apparently ran out of money.  When I visited it last, it was just an empty hulk.  The other day I looked for it on Google Earth and found only an empty lot.  I have often dreamed of this house, all the way back to when I was a kid.  Back then, in my dreams, it often appeared as being much larger than in real life.  In recent dreams, it is always in decay.

The second inspiration comes from just a few miles west of the first, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  I used to live in a crappy apartment building next to the freeway in Tulsa.  This was back when I attended second grade a Paul Revere Elementary School.  Across the road from my apartment was a row of stately mansions.  A school friend of mine lived with his mother in an apartment above the garage behind one of these large, lovely homes.  I believe his grandparents lived in the big house.  I remember going inside one time and seeing a sweeping staircase like something out of Falcon Crest.  A few years ago, I took my kids on a trip through Tulsa, looking at all the places from my childhood.  The row of beautiful old mansions was gone.  Paul Revere Elementary School was gone.  The crappy apartment building I lived in– still there.

Newest Version of His Robot Wife Now Available.

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As I write this, the newest updated version of His Robot Wife is now up at Smashwords and Amazon.  By the time you read this, it should be available for download at all ebook retailers.  On the information page, it says Revision 8-8-12.

On a related note, I am cruising right through the draft of Patience is a Virtue, but I’ve been adding a lot to the original outline– so much that I had to go back and create a new outline.  The result is that this book will probably be much longer than either of the two previous books.  His Robot Girlfriend was 39,000 words, His Robot Wife was 28,000.  Originally I planned the new book to be close to His Robot Girlfriend, but now the outline calls for 64,000 words.  Of course, as I mentioned, usually my drafts get shortened during revision.  But now you know part of what is taking so long.