After a good days of worship, work and yard work, I managed to snag a few minutes to sit down and type. Typing by itself should never be considered an enjoyable experience. However when typing involves sitting out on the deck with your laptop (running an illicit version of Kubuntu), that activity becomes fun. And even more when you are typing, nah, conceiving a novel.
After so much internal debate and arguing, I finally think I have an idea distilled into novel form. Yes, the novel still exists in a science fiction realm. I am a child of the future, and I feel most comfortable there. However I refused to give into the temptation of using magical devices. I am tired of authors, playwrights and screenwriters playing willy-nilly with the fabric of space-time. It seems wrong to tear gapping wounds in the universe, just to get to exotic places faster. It has as much finanesse as a bullet entering a body has finanesse. There is not such thing as clean shot. Blood, muscle, bone, nerve and tissue get twisted, minced, torn assunder and pulverised whenever hypersonic projectile meets human body. The same goes for all those other magical elements. Interdimensional portals, grey goo, biomechanical virii, aliens, et cetra. If an author goes down that road, why not throw in a wizard, a merry band of trolls and a dragon called Puffy? It is all fantasy anyways.
On the other hand, I like to drege up uncomfortable issues. I am rebel. But setting things in a pure post-apocalyptic world seemed a bit much. Especially nuking Toronto seemed too much. After dining out and having so much fun downtown… I decided nuking downtown Toronto felt wrong. So I decided to devastate some poor future city on Mars. In fact Mars in the near future seems like the best backdrop for many of my ideas. I can develop my own old ideas into this setting. And I can also use real (or feasible) technology, politics, and social settings, without touching too many raw nerves. I can’t please everyone but I try not offend too many. I prefer not to make enemies in the process of my writing. Overall I like the backdrop/universe, it has potential for this novel and other similar projects.
Also some of my friends will probably end up in some form of characters in the novel. It is almost unavoidable to do so, or at least to base characters on people you know. Exactly who, where and in what role I will see. And as promised certain names shall be dropped. Now all I need to do is to write it in its entirety. Fortunately the novel consists of ideas and elements distilled and refined of over a decade of daydreaming and writing attempts. This time I will write the novel and not just attempt to write it.
Oh, and the working title: The Keeper of the Serenity. Apologies to all you Firefly fans out there, but I want to call the protagonist’s starship the Serenity.