Eclectic Writer

Elevator Pitch, Big Idea, call it what you will, but I think I’ve managed to get one for the Paradigm Cube.  I fought it at first, see my previous posts for hints of that cataclysmic battle, but I came around.  I didn’t like the idea of doing a book that is, essentially, about religion.  However, that is what it is about.

Elevator Pitch

What if God didn’t create the Universe, but was created at the moment of the big bang or the great expansion in a Quantum probability incident, and since that time God has manipulated events on worlds where higher species appear to discover the rare being capable of transcendence so that they can be recruited as companions.

This “Big Idea” combines an idea from another of the tag ends of novels, the Quantum God.  So what does it mean “companion?”  I don’t know yet, but I am working on that now.  I am keeping some of the elements of the earlier novel while branching out.

As I see it, the closest parallel is Heinlein’s Job. But they are not that strong.  (As the creator I may see differences more clearly than others.)  I do have to start figuring out how far I am gong to go with gutting Paradigm Cube.

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One of the things that I noticed at the San Diego State Writer’s conference was that there are a lot of Writer’s here in San Diego that write, or aspire to write, Science Fiction and/or Fantasy.  Just a bit too late, I decided that it would be nice if we could find a way to keep in touch.  The result of that desire is to being the San Diego Science Fiction & Fantasy Page.  It is, at this moment, a work in progress, but I intend to use it to keep up on our local writers and our local people who want to write.

I took off without much forethought, so it will take some time to get it up and running.  My plan is to keep track of local and regional conferences. 

I will be posting links to books that I find helpful in writing.  People who want to sell their books can post there.   Someday, I hope it is a real resource for everyone.

Sometimes I luck into hearing something on the radio or in a conversation overheard from another table that kicks the creative flow into high gear.  I heard an interview on NPR this morning – No, I don’t remember which show — about the Humboldt river and the Indians that prospectors called “Diggers” because they subsisted on roots and small rodents dug out of the ground. The show aired an interview with an author who wrote a book about the immigrants that came out west int he 1800’s.  He mentioned that the American Indians along the Humboldt river were called “Diggers” by the miners and the white immigrants that came through. The point came up while he was talking about how important the Humboldt river in Nevada was to the wagons.  It was a source of water across the great basin. “Diggers” was the derogatory name used by Miners and immigrants for the Indians. 

A caller mentioned that Paul Harvey once said that the Indians used golden arrowheads.  As far as I can tell in my brief research, that is just bunk.   But indian’s barely subsisting in a harsh desert using golden arrowheads whose only value was for their weight is an attractive idea.

It brought to mind an interesting conflict, between people passing through a land to desolate for them to even consider staying and the people who called that land home.The immigrants and the Indians have nothing in common except that time they spend in the same land.

I don’t know if I will every write anything about that, but it is an idea that can be minded someday…maybe.

The San Diego State Writer’s Conference was a blast.  It was a great experience, and a bit humbling.  I made mistakes.  The agents I chose, though I selected Science Fiction and Fantasy were not.  I take that as my bust, because I should have looked closer.  But my appointment with James Minz of Baen Books was great, and Bob Mayer’s presentations were among the most valuable I’ve ever had.

From this experience, I have settled on three specific goals.

1. Use Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust to edit Red Tears
2. Rework my original idea for Paradigm Cube and create a High Concept
3. Write short stories and continue to use them as a vehicle to get my foot in the publishing door.

I’ve already rewritten the big idea after a killer critique session by Bob Mayer. I am going to continue tomorrow and try to get it finalized, so I can move on in the writing process.

Meanwhile, I am reading The Novel Writer’s Tool Kit by Bob Mayer and waiting for Coyote Kings of the Space Age Bachelor Pad by Minister Faust.