Welcome! This year I’m creating a set of posts/blogs/whatever you want to call them about the “story-behind-the story” for my backlist. This month, my “cozy apocalypse” book, Beating the Apocalypse, is one of my featured backlist books.
Sometimes it really takes a while for a story idea to develop into book form. I have several of those notions rattling around in my backbrain right now, little nuggets that might come together to make up a story one of these days…or not. Not everything falls together as quickly as the original Martiniere Legacy books did, or as slowly as the Goddess’s Honor (and now the Goddess’s Vision) books have.
Beating the Apocalypse falls in between the Martiniere books and the Goddess books when it comes to the time it took to become a viable story. It’s one of the books that has quite the tale behind it.
The original concept of Canaries, genetically manipulated human weather trackers, happened back in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. Back then, there was a fellow in the Portland area who was pushing the concept of cheap, palm-sized, novelette books and looking for writers. I knew Steve Perry (the writer, not the musician) through some other writer friends and he was on board with the concept, and had sold one or two things to this fella. Perry—or the other writer friend, I forget now which one it was, or perhaps it was both—strongly suggested that if I had something that might work, to send it off to this guy and run with it early on.
(I never forgot their overall advice to take advantage of opportunities like this early on, when the money’s still flowing. At the minimum you get paid and if it takes off—then you have the advantage of being the early bird and could end up being catapulted into greater visibility. This advice paid off big time for me when Kindle Vella came around because I was in the position to take advantage of it and, well, those lovely Vella bonuses put me over the top for qualifying for SWFA membership.)
I wrestled with the Canary concept but couldn’t quite make it work. The publisher flamed out and I put the idea aside. Ten years or so later, I fleshed it out into a short story which ended up as a Writers of the Future Honorable Mention. Can’t remember what year or quarter that was, but…that made me feel good. Even though I couldn’t find a market for the darn story.
That was one piece. Then there was a novella call and I ended up grabbing the characters from “Canaries” to write a novella about a Canary’s encounter with a dangerous, all-woman gang called the Pink Cats. The novella didn’t get accepted but…as the result of ending up in an anthology that was a contest finalist, I ended up with a potential book contract for the Pink Cats novella—it just had to be made longer. So…I put the Canary short story together with the Pink Cats story, and added to it.
Well, that whole publication story is a tale to be told elsewhere, as while it led to the first variant of Beating the Apocalypse, it was also a rude awakening to how sometimes small presses can be really problematic. I eventually got my rights back but even with the contract on my side it took time and threatening to go to SFWA’s Griefcom to force compliance, first to get royalty reports and payments, then to get my rights back even though I had a solid reversion clause.
(The original version is called Seeking Shelter at the End of the World and it should not be available ANYWHERE. Considering the publisher only put out a PDF version, I’m surprised I earned what royalties I did in the late ‘10s. And that particular story is very different from Beating the Apocalypse, including the fate of one main character.)
When I got the rights back, I kept poking at the story because I wasn’t satisfied with the darn thing. I didn’t like the original ending, the original relationships, and the original bad guy. Plus sticking those two stories together didn’t work in the original version.
I tore the story apart. Mark LeBrand ended up not being the villain but a well-meaning scientist haunted by the death of his little sister, and being manipulated by those in charge. Rianna only thinks her love Bobby is dead, but Bobby is saved by his brothers. Rianna, Bobby, and the other characters actually manage a happy ending. And…I start the story a lot sooner than in the original version.
The other piece is that I’m still handwaving the technology. Essentially, North America is left to stew in its own polluted mess (and there may be other tech involved as well) by means of some sort of barrier that keeps pollution in. As a result, toxic killer Clouds periodically form, and satellite/drone technology is such that there’s no access to accurate forecasting. The best means for predicting Cloud formation is data gathered by hypersensitive people who react before the rest of the population to those substances.
But the Portland setting is somewhat realistic, and Camp 84 is definitely a dystopian projection of what could happen with homelessness. Add in some vicious gangs, as well as political scheming….
On the other hand, Rianna and Bobby have the power of love (okay, is that a cliché? Probably. But it’s my story and I’m gonna have them in love). LeBrand has love as well, even though he’d deny it to his dying day.
I might write a sequel to this story. Someday. Maybe. But for now, I’ll leave these characters where they end up—still coping with an apocalypse, but they aren’t alone, and they might have actually ended up solving a few problems along the way.
Beating the Apocalypse is on sale for $2.99 at all major ebook vendors throughout April. Link below.
Buy Beating the Apocalypse now.
And if you’ve already bought the book, but want to tip me…feel free to donate to my Ko-fi here.
