Jennifer Brozek | September 2020

Tell Me - Adam Gaffen

I met Adam Gaffen while participating in the DragonCon mentoring sessions. He’s got a process to learning all about his novel’s characters and how that informed his decisions on the novel’s universe.

 

Today, I’d like to tell you about how I came to meet Cass and Ken, and how the process of getting to know them led me to creating an entire universe for them.

It all started with a name – Aiyana Cassidy. I knew, immediately, that nobody called her Aiyana, that her friends, her family, they all called her Cass. Once I knew that, I started to get a picture in my mind: red hair, glasses, very serious. A woman who could have traded on her looks, but instead relied on her brains. Proved herself over and over, and is now professionally respected. She does something that requires lots of both practical and theoretical knowledge, how about quantum mechanics tied to optical engineering? Then what? Well, who does she hang out with? Kendra, of course. Kendra Foster-Briggs, a friend from her childhood. Friend? No, more than a friend. Wife? Not yet. Fiancée? Yes.

So Kendra’s her fiancée, and…what? Who’s Kendra? Well, she’s blonde and beautiful and a former movie star. She and Cass grew up together in, in, in the Northern Imperium. What’s a Northern Imperium? It’s one of the countries that has replaced the current United States. How did that happen? Gee, I don’t know, and I don’t think they know either. Kendra was too busy chasing boys in school, and Cass was more interested in science than history. And then, and then, what? Cass went to MIT, of course, while Kendra went to get into the movies. No, not movies, sensies. She was the ‘bad girl’ of the two, and ‘sensies’ seems more interactive than ‘movies’. Now it’s years later, and they reunite because Kendra’s retired and Cass is working in Los Alamos. They fall in love, no, they fall back in love, and move in together.

Gee, what a cozy, domestic scene. But it’s not going anywhere yet; it’s static. Gotta move things along, right? What if they didn’t just fall in love with each other, but another person? Who’s that? Derek seems like a good name. Strong, reliable. Rich? Why not? Doesn’t have to work, so he does light sculpture, and that’s how Cass met him and started seeing him casually. Then seriously. Then introduced him to Kendra and was terrified, but they all hit it off, and finally Cass decides to propose to them both. That leads to a wedding. But, let’s see, what would you not expect from a 22nd Century wedding? How about the minister trying to assassinate Cass?

That would be unexpected.

So Cass and Ken and Derek are going to get married, and the minister pulls out a gun, no, a flechette gun, gotta remember it’s 2113, and then they Run Like Hell – hey! That’s a good title for a book! And we’re a going concern!

Now for more complications, and explanations. Figure out what Cass actually does for work. Kendra can’t just be an ex-actress, right? Has to be more to her. Maybe it was a cover? What if she’s semi-retired, but not as much from sensies as her other profession? And now the banter comes out, the snappy wit, the ease and familiarity between Cass and Ken. Kendra’s a fan of late 20th Century/early 21st Century pop culture, did you know that? No, I didn’t, but it makes sense, given some of the things she says.

Now that I knew more or less who they were, I could start putting together some more ideas, more explanations. Cass specializes in optical engineering and quantum mechanics, what if she put the two together and solved the problem of teleportation? That would make some people in the transportation industry very unhappy, wouldn’t it? Definitely! And if Kendra worked for an outfit that did protection for geniuses like Cass, that not only gives a plausible reason for her to go back to them but also tension between Cass and Ken – was it all just a job? And the outfit would also explain Kendra’s ability to deal with hiding in plain sight, and how to cover their tracks, and all sorts of issues.

And their stories just kept coming! So far I’ve written a quarter-million words in their universe, and they’re nowhere near done!

Thanks for dropping by! Now, if you’ll excuse me, Kendra’s tapping on my shoulder.

***

Adam Gaffen hates writing about himself and does so as little as possible. He's spent most of his life dreaming about other times and places, but when he's on this planet he's with his wife, Michaela, and being plagued by their cats and dogs. He's a trained chef who won't work in restaurants, is seeking a degree in Philosophy (Politics, Morality and Law) at Arizona State University, and is busy writing the third volume of The Cassidy Chronicles. He currently lives in Maine but will be relocating to southern Colorado soon, where he's heard the snow actually melts on occasion.

Tell Me - Bryan Young

Bryan Young is a convention friend of mine who also does a lot of media tie-in writing. Today, he tells me about tackling an unexpected BattleTech project and everything he had to overcome with it.

I wasn’t supposed to be writing about the Clans in BattleTech. Everything I’d pitched for BattleTech over the last few years had been in wildly different directions. And the few ideas I had involving the Clans, none of them involved the Jade Falcons. That didn’t mean I didn’t like the Clans or the Jade Falcons. I just knew that as a brand-new BattleTech writer, Clans would be the hardest thing to get right.

So when I got my first book assignment to tackle a BattleTech book and was informed it would be Clan Jade Falcon, maybe I panicked a little. I’d really focused a lot of my research on mercenaries, on the Davions, on the Kell Hounds, on the Jihad. I’d only skirted around the Clans. But now I had a tight deadline and a lot of catching up to do.

Honor’s Gauntlet was the end result.

I crammed everything I could and was incredibly grateful for the fact check team to help me through everything else. I’d avoided the Clans to my peril, because I found so much interesting material to work with The Jade Falcons are currently tearing up the Inner Sphere in their march to Terra in hopes of becoming the ilClan and they’re doing it in the most horrific ways possible. But some Jade Falcons stand against the war crimes and I got to tell a story about a Warrior who worked his hardest to thread that needle. How do you serve your clan that has clearly got an unethical bloodlust and still remain true to the actual tenets of honor in combat?

That’s the central question I tried to throw at Archer Pryde, the man who would become the lead character in my book. He’s different than other Jade Falcons and Clan Warriors. He commands with respect for competency and encouragement rather than the fear endemic to the Jade Falcon command structure and he gets results. But the leadership of the Falcons, starting with Malvina Hazen, right at the top, didn’t really like that. And that’s what built the political drama of my story. The big stompy ’Mech action was the easy part.

And now that it’s done, I’m proud of the result. I think I was able to create something unique and interesting in a sprawling universe that sometimes takes a while to get your bearings in. And I had to do it fast, which just goes to show that deadlines spur creativity rather than stifle it.

I hope people enjoy it, but whether they do or not is secondary to the fact that I had a great time and learned a lot doing it.

***

Bryan Young works across many different media. He worked as a writer and producer of documentary films, which were called "filmmaking gold" by The New York Times. He's also published comic books with Slave Labor Graphics and Image Comics. He's been a regular contributor for the Huffington Post, StarWars.com, Star Wars Insider magazine, SYFY, /Film, and the founder and editor in chief of the geek news and review site Big Shiny Robot! He co-authored Robotech: The Macross Saga RPG in 2019 and in 2020 he wrote a novel in the BattleTech Universe called Honor's Gauntlet.

Tell Me - Kris Katzen

Today Kris Katzen tells me about fighting imposter syndrome to take on one of her favorite genres: Superheroes.

I've always loved superheroes.  I like the action and the adventure, the humor and the camaraderie, and the good guys winning—most especially the good guys winning.  I don't do dark or dour or grim.  Nothing wrong with any of that, it's just not my thing. I'd wanted to write a superheroes novel for a long time, and finally I took the plunge.  Then—in the best tradition of superhero stories—stuff got in the way, and the project didn't go nearly as fast as I'd wanted. 

Although I eagerly dove in, Escapes ended up on the back burner for quite a while.  By that, I mean for years, not just for weeks or months.  Life and a bunch of other writing projects intervened, so once I could take it off the back burner,  I was looking at it with a fresh eye.  What I read shocked me.

Brief tangent: every writer I know is their own worst critic.  Every single one suffers from bouts of Imposter Syndrome—however briefly or sporadically.  We're never satisfied with what we write, and never consider it finished or good enough.  Yes, writers are also often proud of their work, but at times the doubt creeps—or crashes—in. But enough digression.

I read this Work in Progress of mine and—to my great pleasure and relief, and more than a little astonishment—I liked it!  No Imposter Syndrome at the moment.  The story contained humor and excitement.  The characters came across as vivid and distinct, and just really cool, appealing characters.  I loved it that so much of my concept had translated so well to the page.  That encouraged me and made it much easier and faster to finish. 

I ended up with the origin story of how this group of incredibly disparate individuals came together and decided to stay together.  The ensemble 'cast' of seven needed to be distinct, dynamic, and delightful, not to mention radically different from each other.  A former soldier is wanted for being a traitor.  A erstwhile priest has been sentenced to death for speaking out against her order's dogma.  A deposed empress is fleeing a trial for her mismanaged reign.  A beyond-brilliant scientific genius comes from a world where the bulk of the population regards science with benign contempt.  An explorer comes from a world of homebodies, and a pair of con artists comes from one of the most law-abiding, honor-system planets around.

Their backgrounds made uniting them the biggest hurdle.  Why would a disgraced soldier, a heretical priest, a overthrown monarch, a renegade scientist, a solitary explorer, and two outcast con artists stay together?  How would they even meet? As if their backgrounds and personalities didn't present enough of a challenge, they also needed to deal with an additional obstacle:  vastly diverse sizes.

The tiniest member of the team is an inch tall.  Yes, an inch.  Think Ant Man and the Wasp, except that that is her permanent and natural size.  At the opposite extreme, the most gigantic person in the group is over two hundred feet tall.  Yes, a twenty-story-building-tall person.  The five remaining characters range in height from two feet to twenty feet.  Nothing like variety!  The seven of them need different ships suited to their physiology—not to mention their incredibly different tastes.

So, seven characters with absolutely nothing in common who don't even like each other, let alone trust each other. 

But . . .  "Escapes", you ask?  How?  Why?  From whom?  The better question is, who isn't after them?  Their respective former compatriots are.  Law enforcement personnel are.  Bounty hunters are.  Evil scientists are.  As are any individuals they might run into who would happily turn them in for a huge reward.  They'd gladly just remain in hiding, but that's far easier said than done.  If one group of adversaries hasn't found them, another has.  Other times, they're forced to choose between remaining out of sight, or potentially revealing themselves to help someone in need or prevent an all-out catastrophe.  The only thing never an issue for them is boredom.

And that's my entry in the superhero field:  action-packed fun zooming among the stars, and trying to not get killed.

***

At seven years old, Kris Katzen wrote her first novel—all of seven pages!—and hasn't stopped since.  She writes mainly science fiction and fantasy, but (under various pen names) has published in almost every genre.  She loves astronomy, history, all things cinematic and theatrical, speaks fluent German and earned a black belt in Shotokan.  Most importantly, though, she is the doting mom of her beloved, astronomically adorable swarm of felines.