New Computer
Just trying out, to see if the new computer will let me post... and it will! One less thing to stress about!
Even More Fun With Research
Here's an old one, to remind me that I really do need to get back to painting. Having turned in the manuscript for the next Hollywood murder mystery just before Christmas, I've been putting together outlines for what I hope will be the next Ben January book (# 21!) and the next Hollywood book (which will take place mostly in the film industry in New York, which was just as much a center of motion picture production in the mid-'20s as Hollywood was, and a lot more fun after hours). Writing up an outline is like pre-writing the book. I, at least, have to figure out what happens, and how; who's the villain, who gets killed, and why. Any murder mystery is actually two stories: the story of the crime itself, and then the story of how Mr. Holmes or Lord Peter or Professor Tamar figures out whodunnit. And, in my case at least, to give a picture of the world, the society, in which such events take place, which is a large part of the fun. It's one reason I love historicals. ...
I just found your blog! Since I began reading your books before computers, it never occurred to me. And I just finished reading The Silicon Mage for the millionth time. It is so very satisfying! Thank you for sharing the fruits of your wonderful imagination and skill with us! Molly Swan-Sheeran, Lopez Is, Wa.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, all the computer stuff in that series is hopelessly out-dated now! When I write the short novelettes about Antryg & Joanna on Kindle, I have to write them as historical pieces, taking place in an era that's gone (which is VERY strange...). (Delphi Net, anyone?)
DeleteI remember reading Silicon Mage when it first came out. Cool a woman programmer. Rare as hens teeth. I bought my first computer about that time a Hewlett Packard. It had Word before it had numbers. .9, I think. I remember writing batch files with DOS command line. And spending time on BBs whose names I don't remember now. 40-45 years ago has become history! I can't imagine how to write, now, about then. My imagination just fails me. I have I believe ( I need to check this0, all of the Silicon Mage books in paperback. Tattered but much loved. I will continue to watch for your updates on any of your series. Thanks
Delete40-45 years ago IS history! As I am reminded, every time I make a joke in my history class about John Wayne or the Godfather and they have no idea what I'm talking about. When I write the Further Adventures stories about Antryg and Joanna, I check my recollections on Google (What year were people standing in line outside toystores for the new Cabbage Patch Kids? What year were women wearing those awful break-your-neck platform shoes? Who was playing in Vegas in 1987?). Exactly like writing a historical novel (Would a fraudster have been using magic-mirror ghost illusions in 1839? Would Joan Crawford have been an extra in Hollywood in 1924? In MAY of 1924?). (Would a well-bred girl have been able to travel by herself on public transportation in 1836 I DON'T THINK SO!!! and any number of other anachronisms I have encountered in historical romantic fiction...)
DeleteI recommend highly (while I'm on this subject) Krista Ball's "What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank" and Susanne Alleyn's "Medieval Underpants", whether someone is writing historical or fantasy fiction or just wants an entertaining read.
I did have a programmer friend check through the technical bits of Silicon Mage before I turned the manuscript in. I actually worked at the plant that was the model for San Serano, and man, wasn't THAT place creepy in the middle of the night! (It's long gone now and the ground wall-to-wall condominia.)
well, I am sure you get scads of ' lets have more of ' requests but let me chime in too.
ReplyDeleteI just reviewed your books and while I love January and Asher et al and never miss one, another of the series I very much enjoyed is the Abigail Adams set.
As far as I can tell there are both artistic and practical reasons why a series or genre is left behind.
But hopefully sometimes the time is open, ideas intrigue,
and its possible to add another. If so I vote for
Abigail!
And look forward to January! Karla Z
Funny you should mention that. I've been re-reading the John & Abigail books and thinking, Boy, those are really fun and I'd love to get back to them. They're a project on the back-burner, to be returned to when I'm able to retire from teaching and have a bit more time and energy to do "spec" projects. At the time Penguin dropped the series, a series would stay dropped, but if I can get the time to write them, I could simply self-publish through Amazon Kindle and Smashwords, as I publish the further adventures. It's a question of When and How, not If.
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