Whew. And now, after the Ranty McRantypants post, here’s my Next Big Thing. I got tagged by Mary Victoria and–um–well, I think just about everyone else on my f-list has already been tagged. So if you’re reading this and you haven’t been tagged, consider yourself to be tagged!
What is the working title of your next book?
Netwalker Uprising, which will (hopefully) be out in late December or early January.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
A followup to my Netwalk novel, part of The Netwalk Sequence. I’ve been playing around with matriarchal dynasties for a while, so it’s matriarchal corporate future dynasties with cyberpunk and skiing. And bioremediation geeks.
What genre does your book fall under?
Oh snap. Let’s see. SF action-adventure, or as I like to call it, ski bum neuropunk.
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Dang, I don’t know. Probably Scarlett Johansen for Melanie. Maybe. Gillian Andersen at the age she was when she played Scully in the early X-Files. Meryl Streep for Sarah (in her The Devil Wears Prada bitch mode). A younger Meryl or current Gillian Andersen for Diana. For Marty? There’s no clear image of a geekish Native American actor to play him, damn it, and that’s who I’d want. Maybe Will Smith as a default.
Otherwise, I’d like the characters to be all unknowns, preferably ski bums who could act and are ready to move on from ski pr0n flicks. I’d love it if one of the ski movie companies fell in love with Uprising and decided to try to make it. I think they’d catch the right edginess of the work.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
In a post-apocalypse recovery future, how can Melanie Fielding find a way to protect her family and her business from virtual attacks by opponents from beyond the grave?
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It’s ski bum neuropunk featuring a strong female protagonist and her family interactions. What do you think? Seriously, it’s going to be self-published, out in e-book and POD. Just working on the final edits with my editor now.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
The initial manuscript was whipped out in a passionate writing flurry after I finally figured out how to kill my internal editor, back in 2006 or so. I wrote Netwalk, Netwalking Mars, and then Netwalker Uprising in a six month blaze. Out of sequence and by all the rules I shouldn’t have written anything but the first one, then tried to sell it. Shrug. The stories rode me hard. Uprising got whipped out in two months, rewritten, then set aside while I tried to sell Netwalk. After I self-published Netwalk last fall, I started the intensive Uprising rewrite. Had a major revelation about the nature of the world which led to massive revisions (along with input from the editor that the middle of the book was significantly broken and needed fixing). Still doing final tweaks now. This is a world in development, and man, is it ever mutating.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Some of Elizabeth Bear’s work, some of K.W. Jeter’s work, and C.J. Cherryh’s Cyteen and Foreigner works. Not all necessarily due to topic but to mood and pacing.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
The initial idea came from a discussion with my husband about what it would be like to observe Hells Canyon through a hawk’s eyes. I started imagining just what sort of implant interface that might take (this was long before GoPro cameras and I took the “through the hawk’s eyes” literally). Subsequently, I started skiing and that really kicked off the story. I stole the characters from an earlier noir novel I wrote and tried to sell in the 90s, A Madness in the Blood. Some of the elements in Madness will come out at the very end of the Netwalk Sequence…as in, Sarah has a deep dark secret which has scarred her for her entire life and affected her in virtual life. It takes her great-granddaughter to reconcile Sarah to that horrific secret.
What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
In Netwalker Uprising, I’m trying to integrate a degree of feminist consciousness with the conventions of sf thriller writing. I want to show a strong female protagonist who also copes with the realities of family life. Now she is rich, powerful, and privileged, so she has resources not available to ordinary people, but nonetheless…I wanted to have a strong woman protagonist who Has A Life, and really would like to get back to it, despite all the craziness that just seems to come her way.
Now…if you want to play and you haven’t yet…you’re tagged!
So I’m doing something new this holiday season. I’m putting up a few short stories, novelettes, and novellas in the Netwalk Sequence for sale, as I get them finished and I’m able to get them loaded.
