Brechalon – Excerpt

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BrechalonZurfina had her ticket on the B511 out of Brech to Flander on the southern coast, where she had already arranged to meet a boat that would take her to a ship bound for Mirsanna. There was no way that she could stay in Brechalon any longer. The government had refused to accept her independence. They would have her join the military or they would see her destroyed. They had already sent a dozen wizards and two sorcerers against her. But Zurfina was the greatest practitioner of sorcery in the Kingdom and was more than a match for any wizard.

A man in a brown suit stepped out from behind a pillar. To the other people in the station, he seemed nothing out of the ordinary, but to Zurfina he glowed bright yellow and was surrounded by a sparkling halo. She didn’t wait for him to cast a spell. She pointed her hand toward him and spat out an incantation.

“Intior uuthanum err.”

Immediately the man doubled over, wracked with uncontrollable cackling laughter. But before Zurfina could smile appreciatively, she was thrown from her feet as the world around her exploded in flames. She had been hit in the back by a fireball, and only the fact that she had previously shielded herself prevented her from becoming a human candle, as four or five innocent bystanders around her now did. Rolling to her feet and turning around, she found that she faced not one, but four wizards. The one who had evidently cast the fireball was preparing another spell, while the other three were casting their own. Her shield protected her from the lightning bolt, and the attempt to charm her, but one of the four magic missiles hit her, burning her shoulder as though it had been dipped in lava.

“Uuthanum uastus corakathum paj—Prestus Uuthanum.” Zurfina ducked into a side alcove as one of the wizards turned to stone and her own shield was replenished. Several more magical bolts struck the stone wall across from her, creating small burnt holes. Peering quickly around the corner, she saw the four wizards just where she left them, the three trying to use their petrified comrade as cover. Looking in the other direction, she saw that the wizard cursed with laughter had recovered and he had been joined by two more.

Seven wizards—well, six. That was a lot of magical firepower. But then Zurfina looked across the station platform. Directly opposite her was the open door of a train; not the B511, but a train bound for somewhere else. If she could reach it, she could get away. She glanced quickly around the corner again. The smell of burnt bodies mixed with thick black smoke in the air, but though there was plenty of the former, there was not enough of the latter for Zurfina’s taste.

“Uuthanum,” she said, and a thick fog began to fill the station platform.

“Maiius uuthanum nejor paj.” The three wizards to her right suddenly faced a dog the size of a draft horse, snarling and foaming at the mouth, and they felt their spells were better aimed at it than any blond sorceress.

Turning to her left, Zurfina cast another spell. “Uuthanum uastus carakathum nit.”

The cement that formed the other end of the platform turned to mud. The petrified wizard, deprived of his secure foundation toppled over onto one of his comrades, crushing him, while the other two struggled to pull themselves from the muck. Zurfina shot out of the alcove and ran toward the train. She had almost made it, when Wizard Bassington stepped into the open doorway in front of her.

She stopped right there in the open, unbalanced, unsure now whether to run left or right or back the way that she had come. She felt uncomfortably like an animal caught on the road in the headlamps of an oncoming steam carriage. Bassington didn’t move. He stared at her with his beady eyes. His eyes went wide though when Zurfina reached up to snatch something out of the air. Normal, non-magical people couldn’t see them, but he could—the glamours that orbited her head were spells cast earlier, awaiting the moment when she needed them.

She crushed the glamour and pointed her hand at the spot where Bassington stood, just as he dived away. The entryway where the wizard had been, and the passenger coaches on either side of him exploded, lifting much of the train up off the track as metal and wood shrapnel and human body parts flew in every direction. The flash knocked Zurfina herself back onto the cement and sent her sliding across the pavement and into the far wall. Before she could get up, she was hit with a dozen bolts of magical fire, some but not all of them deflected by her magic shield. It was a spell of weakening, followed by one of sleep though that finally dropped her head unconscious to the ground. The last thing she saw was Bassington’s hobnail boots walking toward her.

Senta and the Steel Dragon – Magic Battles

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One of my favorite parts of Senta and the Steel Dragon are the magic battles. There are many situations when magic is used against someone not magical, but battles between magic users are particularly cool.

Spoiler Alert: I’m not trying to give any spoilers, but there might be some, so be warned.

Book 0: Brechalon

In Brechalon, there is an actual magic battle between the sorceress Zurfina and no less than five wizards. Since Zurfina starts the series as the most powerful magic wielder in the world, you can imagine that this would be a pretty good fight.

Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur

In this book, Zurfina has a duel with Wizard Suvir Kesi. He ambushes her with a mechanically produced spell that zaps her magic away before he starts, but then he perhaps doesn’t know that she has spells stored that she doesn’t need additional magic to activate. The biggest use of magic in the book though happens elsewhere.

Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding Land

Sorceress’s apprentice Senta has a duel with washed out wizard-in-training Streck. Since neither of them is particularly powerful, this is a fairly light-hearted contest.

Book 3: The Drache Girl

In this book Senta has her second magic duel, this time with Master Wizard Bassington. Though she has gained a great deal of power since the previous book, it’s a big difference between facing a failed apprentice and a fully-powered wizard. This is one of my favorites though.

Book 4: The Young Sorceress

There are a couple of notable magic battles in this book. The biggest is Senta and a group of Brech wizards against a group of Freedonian wizards backed by riflemen. My favorite though is Senta versus a Lizzie witch doctor.

Book 5: The Two Dragons

Again, there are a couple of magic vs. magic battles in this book, and again, they aren’t the biggest uses of magic. There is Zurfina vs. a dragon. Then there’s Senta, a dragon, and a wizard versus a dragon– what do you know, two dragons! My favorite magic duel in this book though is Senta facing off against three Freedonian Journeyman Wizards and a Lizzie Witch Doctor.

Book 6: The Sorceress and her Lovers

There is probably less magic fighting in this book than the last two.  Still, there is one battle involving the sorceress, four wizards, and a couple of non-magical types with guns.

Book 7: The Price of Magic

This has more magic than any of the previous books, not surprising since Magic is in the title.  Senta has to face off against a whole group of lizzie shamen.  There’s a LOT of other magic tossed around, causing a great deal of destruction.

Over the next few days, I’ll post some magical battles.

His Robot Girlfriend: Charity – Excerpt

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HRG Charity“Are you thinking of moving to Big Bear City?” asked Mindy.

“It’s a great place to live,” said Tag.

“They have nice parks and excellent schools,” said one of the girls, marking the first time that Dakota had heard either one of them speak more than a single word.

“Oh, do you go to school?”

“Of course not,” said Stephen.

“The children are homeschooled,” said Mindy.

“Of course. No, I don’t think we’ll be staying.”

“Dakota needs to find a position in which he can reach his potential,” said Charity.

“Yes, and I need a job too,” he said, smiling at his own joke.

“Sometimes they hire threaders at the Sherriff’s Department,” said Stephen. “I could check an see if there are any openings.”

“I’ll let you know.”

When they finished eating, the robots all retired into the house, leaving the two men on the deck.

“Great meal,” said Dakota.

“Yeah, thanks. So, I think this is as good a time as any to talk. What’s going on with you?”

“There’s really not much to tell. I was living with this girl. I thought it was true love, but I caught her cheating on me, so I left. I was pissed, so I took a bunch of her stuff and donated it to GoodWorks.”

“Illegal,” said Stephen, nodding. “But at least you didn’t shoot them. I’d say she deserved it. Use the account I gave you and in a few days, she’ll give up looking for you, I would think.”

“Probably.”

“So how’s your mother?” asked Stephen.

“Dead.”

“When?”

“Four months ago. She’d been in a home for the past five years. She had Alzheimer’s. For the last two years she didn’t even remember who I was.”

“Shit. That’s really tough. I’m sorry. Those places are expensive. If you had let me know, I could have helped pay for part of it.”

“She was my mother. Her social security and her pension paid for about half.”

“She actually treated me very well,” said Stephen. “I didn’t appreciate it at the time. First I was so unhappy because I had lost my own mother. Then I was upset because Nora drove my father away.”

“You’re fucking kidding me. She didn’t drive him away any more than your mother drove him away. He ran away—chasing a fucking skirt. He was a worthless piece of shit that never did anything for anybody and the only two things he left us were his genes and the inability to maintain a relationship.”

“That’s not true. He was a good man. He was a good father. I remember him before he left Mom. We had fun. He took me to the see the Angels. He took me to Knott’s. He built me a swing set.”

“Yeah, well I guess I just got shit on then, because I didn’t get any of those things.”

Stephen was quiet for a minute.

“Yes, I guess you didn’t get what I got. He was different after he left Mom. That doesn’t mean we can’t… what you said—maintain relationships.”

“It must mean that. Look at you. You have a robot wife and robot kids.”

“I… well, I never really wanted kids. They just grow up and disappoint you. As for Mindy… well, it’s just easier.”

“Easier than a relationship with a real person,” said Dakota. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about. Being married to a real person is work. Even living with another person is real work. Did you even have a serious girlfriend before you custom ordered a lover?”

“Yes, I had a few girlfriends… but none of them were long-lasting. Yes, I suppose you’re right. So, I’m messed up. But I’m thirty-nine years old. I can’t lay all of that at Dad’s feet, or Mom’s or Nora’s either. When you reach my age, you have to take responsibility for your own faults.”

“Well, I still haven’t reached that age yet.”

His Robot Girlfriend: Charity – Excerpt

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HRG Charity“Who is it, dear?” called a woman’s voice, as a sylph-like figure danced out of a back doorway.

“Visitors. They’re going to be staying a couple of days.”

“How exciting,” she said, hurrying forward. “We never have overnight company.”

She was within arm’s reach before Dakota realized that she was a robot. Tall and thin, with short blond hair and blue eyes, she was dressed in a yellow sundress.

“This is my wife, Mindy,” said Stephen.

“You’re kidding,” said Dakota.

“No, I’m not fucking kidding! She means a lot to me—a hell of a lot more than you do!”

“Shh,” said Mindy. “You’ll wake the children, dear.”

“Mindy, please show them to the guest room.” Stephen looked at Dakota. “We’ll talk tomorrow. I have to get ready for work.”

Mindy smiled at Dakota and then locked eyes with Charity. They both froze for a split second. Then she beckoned them after her, as she walked like a game show spokes-model to the rear of the room. Exiting through a doorway took them from a small living room down a long hall.

“That’s Tag’s room on the left” said Mindy. The one just past it is the guest room. Stephen and I are at the very end of the hall, and the twins are across from you. I’ll try to remind them not to bother you, but they haven’t had much experience with visitors.”

“That’s fine,” said Dakota. “I don’t exactly know how to ask… how old are the children?”

“Tag is thirteen. The twins are eight.”

The guest room was small but neat, with a double bed covered by a crocheted comforter and with a large painting of a cat on the wall.

“You can used the bathroom across the hall,” said Mindy. “Clean towels are in the rack just inside the door. If you need anything else, let me know.”

She left, closing the door behind her.

“It’s like some sort of domestic Twilight Zone,” said Dakota.

“She seemed nice,” said Charity. “Remember what I told you about Daffodil Amontes? About them making excellent wives?”

“She seems like a robot. I mean, even if she wasn’t a robot, she’d seem like a robot. And since Stephen didn’t have any kids when I saw him last, I’m really interested to get a look at them.”

“You should get some sleep,” she said, peeling the bedding back for him. “I can stand quietly in the corner, or if you’d prefer, I could stand in the closet.”

“Why don’t you just lie down over there?” He pointed to the left side of the bed.

If the truth were known, Dakota actually preferred sleeping with someone else. He had been doing it for more than four years now. Rachel had insisted that they not get a bed larger than a standard double. He had complained, saying that there wasn’t enough room for him to turn over. Now he had missed it for three nights. Sleeping with the robot was not quite the same. She didn’t feel plastic; her skin was as soft and supple as a real woman’s would have been. She was hotter than a real person though, at least in some places. In others, she was cooler. But if he just lay there—if he didn’t touch her and feel the differences in temperature, and her shape, then it was almost like sleeping with Rachel.

She was gone when he woke up. When he climbed out of bed, he found his suitcase on the floor by the door. Pulling out a clean set of clothes, he crossed the hallway and took a hot shower. When he was done, he brushed his teeth and then ran his hand through four days of whiskers. He would have to either buy a razor or learn to live with a beard.

In the front of the house, Dakota found the dining room. Charity was sitting at the table with three children. They were just as mechanical as she was. The boy looked enough like Stephen to be his real son, but he wasn’t. He was a robot. The two eight-year-old girls looked like their mother, with similar bright yellow dresses. All four of them sat with nothing but water bottles in front of them.

“Sit here,” said Charity, vacating her chair for him. “Mindy has made you some waffles.”

At the sound of her name, Mindy danced out of the kitchen, holding a plate of waffles high in one hand and a bottle of syrup in the other. She sat them directly in front of Dakota and pirouetted away.

“Do you prefer coffee or milk?”

“I’ll take a Coke if you’ve got one.”

“Here’s a glass of milk. We don’t keep sodas in the house.” She sat a tall glass of milk in front of him. “Say hello, children.”

“Hello,” they all said primly and in unison.

His Robot Girlfriend: Charity – Excerpt

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HRG CharityThe sun was really beating down when Dakota Hawk pulled his pickup to a stop next to the metal cargo container that GoodWorks was using as the drop location from which to collect donations of clothing, furniture, and electronics. When he climbed out of the cab, his foot slid in the half molten asphalt. The poor bastard, who was earning a dollar less than minimum wage to sit in the heat and collect the donations, stepped out from the container’s interior, dripping sweat, his hair plastered to his forehead.

“Back again? What are you trying to do, get rid of everything?”

“As much as possible,” said Dakota. “Do you have water in there? Maybe a fan?”

“Oh yeah. I’ve got a nifty little setup. Come in and look.”

The air outside was well over 140 degrees Fahrenheit, and it was just as hot inside. It was even more oven-like. The back third of the container was filled with cardboard boxes and plastic trash bags full of who-knows-what. Along the left side were a few pieces of larger furniture. Along the right hand wall were a dozen non-animated robots—a couple with clothes, but most naked. Just inside the entrance sat a chaise lounge next to a mini-refrigerator with an electric fan sitting atop it. A long orange cord ran out the door, across the parking lot, and was plugged into the back of McDonalds.

“Sweet,” said Dakota, and then he turned back to his truck and began unloading the black bags filled with clothing and household goods. He handed them to the guy, who then stacked them in back. By the time they were done, his own long, blond hair was plastered to his face.

“Mostly clothes, feels like.”

“Yes, mostly clothes.”

Dakota had spent all morning trying to empty out the apartment. The first hour had been taken up getting his own things. He had packed up his vueTee and his other electronics, and then his clothes. That had filled up the back of the truck, leaving just enough room for the two crappy chairs his dad had given him. He’d taken it all to the Jiffy Locker and rented a storeroom, their smallest size. After unloading, he had made one final sweep through the apartment, taking whatever was left that he wanted—nothing more than a few photographs and mementos. Then he had spent the next five hours hauling as many of Rachel’s belongings away as possible and donating them to GoodWorks. He realized he could be charged with theft, but he didn’t care. Her closet was empty, her wriTee and all her files were gone, she had no pots and pans and no fine silverware, her underwear drawer was empty, and her grandmother’s Depression era glassware collection was history. He looked at his watch. There wasn’t time to make another trip before she got off work.

He looked back into the cargo container.

“Say, what are you going to do with these old robots?” Dakota asked.

“They have a group that recycles them for parts. Most of them are Gizmos, and you can’t really fix them anymore.”

Dakota looked them over. They were mostly Gizmos, but not all. He recognized a Braun… and something else. A naked female robot, waist bent at an anatomically impossible angle stared at the wall. A curtain of long brown hair was brushed aside just enough for Dakota to make out three small holes in the back of the neck, and beneath them, a button.

“How much do you suppose they’ll get for them?”

“Oh, a few hundred each, I suppose. Most of them don’t work at all.”

“Could I buy one?”

“We don’t sell them to the public.”

“Seems a shame,” Dakota said. “I’d give you $500 for that one there, right now.”

“Well, we don’t even know if it works.”

“You wouldn’t have to worry about it. Cash deal. No exchanges or refunds.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and typed in $500, waving it back and forth in front of the guy’s eyes.

The guy reached into his own pocket for his phone.

“You can’t tell anyone about this,” he said. “You know, because they don’t want us selling them.”

He pressed his phone to Dakota’s; transferring the $500 into what they both knew was the guy’s personal account.

“Nobody’s going to hear anything about it from me. Help me load it?”

Work in Progress

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A Great Deal of PatienceI’m hard at work on His Robot Wife: A Great Deal of Patience, but it is not going quickly.  I just finished chapter six, which took me 38 days.  Chapter five took me 40 days.  At that rate, it will be more than a year before I have the first draft done.  Part of the reason its going slowly is research.  Part of the story takes place in Japan, and I have Japanese characters that I need to get right.  I have no doubt that his will be by far the best robot book when I’m done though.

As I was starting Patience, I was also fiddling around with Nova Dancer, a space opera story that I’ve been working on here and there for a while.  It’s not going to be done anytime soon, but when it finally is, I hope to make it the first book of a series.

Finally, back in October, I was working on Kanana: The Jungle Girl.  This is a book I’ve had an on-again off-again affair with for a few years.  I’m achingly close to finishing, but can’t quite pull the trigger.  I hope to get back to it this summer.  It will literally take two weeks to finish, if I can just get to it.

My Writing – Part 8

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Desperate CoverDesperate Poems

I had written a thousand poems when I was in my teens. Over the years, I had sporadically written more poetry. I decided the time was right to publish them in ebook form. Of course I wouldn’t expect anyone to pay for my poetry, so it would be a free offering. I had already collected a pretty good cross section of my poems, so I just formatted it all together, and sent it out into cyberspace. I tried out about a thousand titles for the volume, before I finally settled on Desperate Poems.

Astrid Maxxim and the Antarctic Expedition

When I wrote Astrid Maxxim and her Undersea Dome, I had simply continued on at the end until I ran out of steam. When I stopped, I had the first four or five chapters of a third Astrid Maxxim book. The book would take Astrid to Antarctica. Then I went off and wrote Patience is a Virtue, taking the characters there to the Antarctic too.

When I finally got back to Astrid, I decided that I would include global warming as part of the plot. I already had an element from the first book that would tie into the South Pole. I needed some danger in the story, so I read up on some real life events concerning Antarctic wildlife and fictionalized them. I had written a much looser outline than usual, and when I was halfway through the book, I suddenly realized that my chapters were too long. I wanted some uniformity with the other books of the series. So, I went back and split chapters up, but I still ended up slightly off.

Astrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space Plane

I was really into the Astrid Maxxim mode when I finished writing Antarctic Expedition. In fact, I feel like I didn’t really hit my stride in that book until I was finishing it up. I immediately started on the next book. This is really the one in which the main character starts to grow up. She was already one part Tom Swift and one part Walt Disney. Now she started becoming a little bit Steve Jobs. She was becoming a genius with a bit of an edge.

Once again I hired Matthew Riggenback at Shaed Studios to do the covers and I had him design them for books three, four, and five. Just as I had before, I continued writing past the end of Astrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space Plane, creating the first few chapters of the next book before setting it down to do something else. This was the beginning of Astrid Maxxim and the Electric Racecar Challenge. In the meantime, I think that Astrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space Plane is the best in the series so far.

His Robot Wife: Charity

I have noticed (and others have as well) that I tend to write about similar things in different stories. I wrote two stories set in Antarctica, relatively close together. I had very similar conversations in The Drache Girl and Tesla’s Stepdaughters—different topics, but a similar format. I was working on a (as yet unpublished) story involving a cheating spouse. This was still on my mind when I came up with a plot for a new robot book. For the first time a robot story came to me in a sort of natural way, like other stories. For that reason, I think it’s the best of the four robot books.

Because of the plot, I needed entirely new characters for this story. I tied it in with the other books by placing it in the same setting and then I had some of the characters from the earlier books—Mike and Ryan—appear in this one as well. Ryan has gone from being a car salesman to a realtor. Happily I was able to take some of the threads from this book and weave them into the next His Robot Wife book.

My Writing – Part 7

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Astrid Maxxim and her Undersea DomeAstrid Maxxim and her Undersea Dome

After writing the first Astrid Maxxim book, I made a list of about twenty possible titles. Just like the Tom Swift books that had inspired them, each book would be Astrid Maxxim and her (Insert Invention Here). The second Tom Swift book was Tom Swift and his Submarine and number seven was Tom Swift and his Diving Seacopter—one of my favorites. So I wanted to do an undersea adventure. All of Astrid’s inventions grow out of the others, so the idea of an undersea dome fit perfectly.

I had hired Matthew Riggenback at Shaed Studios to design the first Astrid Maxxim cover and so I wanted him to do any others to maintain the feel of a series. I was even more jazzed about his second cover than I had been about the first, and that’s saying something. In the end, everything came together and I’m really proud of the books. I’ve given a lot of the Astrid Maxxim books away to students and other youngsters, and I offer the ebooks free to libraries.

His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Sales of His Robot Wife were starting to slow, even though it was still by far my best seller. I decided that I would write another book in the series. This time though, I would put more effort into it—make it a longer, better book. I wrote an outline and worked on it extensively before starting. About halfway into the book though, I had a change of heart about what I wanted to focus on. I decided that the book should reflect much more of Patience’s point of view than Mike’s. This ended up making His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue more difficult than it otherwise would have been. I think the book turned out pretty good though, and it is my second best selling book.

As a side note, I used the same model for the cover art of all three books, and purchased the rights to several other poses, for possible use in future books. This model is extremely popular in royalty free art, and I see her on bulletin boards, web sites, and once on a huge poster in front of the spa at Circus Circus hotel in Vegas.

The Sorceress and her Lovers

It had been two years since the publication of the last book in the Senta and the Steel Dragon series, but had actually been seven years since I wrote the previous volume. The plot had been setup in the original epilog of The Two Dragons, which I had cut from the book. I added a bit of conflict. The only completely new part of the story was the part dealing with the Lizard King Hsrandtuss. I had introduced him in The Young Sorceress, but hadn’t planned anything else for him. When I had written the outline for The Sorceress and her Lovers, I wrote the outline for the next book as well. I don’t know when I’ll get to write The Price of Magic, but I’ll get to it eventually

I really liked returning to the world of the Steel Dragon, however, things have changed so much and characters have grown up, so that it has a bit of an unreal quality to it for me. I don’t know if that comes across to the reader or not. In the end, it’s not my favorite book in the series, but I like it.

My Writing – Part 6

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The Young Sorceress (New Cover)The Young Sorceress

The Young Sorceress was the only book in the Senta and the Steel Dragon series that was difficult to write. I came up with an overly complicated plot, again fitting it between two already written books. This was more difficult than before because of the momentous events that happened in books 3 and 5 of the series. Instead of following the characters and switching viewpoint with each chapter, I decided to follow the format in Brechalon and switch from character to character several times during a chapter. The result was that I really love parts of this book and don’t care too much for others. One of the main goals was to tell the back story of Isaak Wissinger, who would appear in book five. I really love that storyline. Another was to set up Kieran Baxter’s return in book six. I don’t think this worked out nearly as well, though I love the character as he appears in the later book. The Senta story sections quickly became very unwieldy to write, though I think the reader can follow them. I ended up cutting a lot of things that seemed cool when I thought them up, but sounded silly once I wrote them. After editing, this was the shortest Senta book.

The Two Dragons

I was finally ready to publish The Two Dragons, over five years after I had written it. It required much more revision than the two other parts of the original Steel Dragon manuscript had, because of the additional stories. One of the biggest changes was the elimination of a long epilog that told the stories of every character for the rest of their lives. I had decided now to continue the series on, so it wasn’t needed or wanted. Instead, I wrote a new ending that jumped a bit into the future and set up the next book. I had written this months earlier for fun, not really expecting to use it, but there you go.

The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton

I was really tired of serious material after writing The Young Sorceress and revising The Two Dragons. I decided before I was done that I would return to Eaglethorpe Buxton. I had gotten a lot of feedback on the previous stories and quite a few good reviews, so I thought I should continue Eaglethorpe’s adventures. Rather than write a long story, I plotted out three stories, each as long as Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess. Adding the three of them together with the two previous stories resulted in a pretty long book. The first of the new stories: Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Queen of Aerithraine had been in my mind for some time. It was a natural continuation of the story in Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress. Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Amazons, I plotted out while writing the previous story. I was completely done with both before I plotted out Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Day of the Night of the Werewolf, though I had already come up with the title. I had as much fun writing the new Eaglethorpe stories as I had writing the early ones. I’m pretty happy with the book, but sadly it is one of my poorest sellers.

My Writing – Part 5

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Women of Power

I had published my free books on Feedbooks.com, and one of the features of that site is that many people write fan fiction of superheroes, publishing them in serial form. I love comics, so I thought this was a way cool idea. I wanted to be in control of my stories though and not have them belong to someone else because I used their characters. So I created my own superheroes and setting, writing the first two chapters and publishing them in serial form.

I stopped writing after two chapters because I was busy with His Robot Wife. When I was done, I decided to stop messing around and turn this story into a novel, which I did. I had a lot of fun with Women of Power and am pretty pleased with the story. The title is a play on the phrase “women of color”.

Blood Trade

While I was writing, I had joined a writers’ group called Shared Words. We met biweekly at Borders Bookstore, usually at a table in a back corner. One week we were seated in a different location, right between two entire counters of vampire romance novels. One of my fellow writers suggested I write my own vampire book. I replied that my book wouldn’t be at all popular, because my vampires would be horrible and not at all sexy.

That exchange became an idea that blossomed into a plot in my head. I did renege on my idea that my vampires wouldn’t be sexy, though my vampire, Novelyne, never actually romances anyone in the book. I wrote half the book, the chapters getting darker and darker as I went. I finally realized that I liked where it was going, and went back to the beginning, rewriting the whole thing to be really dark. Blood Trade seemed like a great title because the plot involved the exploitation of runaway children and fits with vampires. I also did a Google search and found no other books with that title. Since then, about a dozen have been published.

Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike

I was talking to a friend about the sources of my inspiration for writing. I pointed out that my first book was an homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs and the books I loved as a teen. I then remembered that I had an earlier love—Tom Swift Jr. I pulled a few of my old Tom Swift Jr. books out of the bookcase and expounded on how much I had loved them. “I should write my own books like these,” I said aloud.

I sat down and planned out what I would write to create books like those I remembered from my youth. I had loved the stories of the boy inventor and his best friend, the 1950’s innocence and enthusiasm for the future, the naïve belief that science and technology would fix everything, so I wanted those things too. I was always bothered by the fact that Tom Swift never aged and no matter how many cool inventions he created, the world wasn’t changed much. I would fix those things. Finally, my story would be multi-ethnic, because the Tom Swift books were really, really white.

I created my characters—the intrepid girl inventor, her best friends (one Hispanic and the other the child of a gay couple), her heroic boyfriend, his best friend (an African American genius who didn’t play basketball), and their bumbling buddy. I created her home base, a kind of cross between Tom Swift’s Swift Enterprises and Disney World, and her home town. Finally I gave her a name—Astrid Maxxim—Astrid meaning star, and Maxxim meaning utmost, literally a super star. I don’t even remember how I came up with a hoverbike as the main invention, but I had more fun writing Astrid than I had writing in a long time.