And now, the positive side!
If not Supervillain, then what?????
I ain't short on ideas. I ain't ever short on ideas, kids.
The biggest problem is that my ideas are so often weird. 'Metal, Candy, Flesh' weird. I mean, even A Rag Doll's Guide To Here And There is pretty weird. I have been informed, and I agree, that human protagonists that a teen can empathize with are important for a popular series. I hate Everymans, but like Penny, that just means I give the main character a lot of personality.
It will be a girl between 12 and 15 with a tendency to be the bad guy. Sorry, I just love that kind of thing. I just hate the implication it will replace the Supervillain world.
Okay, so, I have two ideas and this is where you guys come in. I could use your opinions on which is better.
First idea: Space Western. I actually even have an experimental title for the first book, 'You Must Be This Tall To Steal A Spaceship.' The main character is Pixie, or as she puts it “With a name like Pixie, most people assume I’m an annoyingly
hyperactive optimist with a compulsive attraction to trouble, and they are correct.” I have rigged up a physics explanation that means the galaxy is very frontier, with all FTL travel and communications centering around small ships. Piracy, scavenging, exotic ports of call, treasure planets, sarcastic teammates, weird aliens, and spaceships crewed by cowboys, ninjas, pirates, clowns, and any other cliche I can think of. Pixie and her crew are already well defined to me, and stealing spaceships and scavenging precursor technology sounds like a hoot.
Problem: I don't think a space setting is very relatable. Pixie has almost no regular kid problems.
Second idea: Cyberpunk. I don't think anybody has done early teen cyberpunk. There is a whole lot of potential there. A giant, endless city under a smoke-choked sky. I get to use my "All We Wanted Was To Make You Happy" crazy robot idea. Weird people, weird crimes, and most importantly, goofy 80s and 90s futurism weird, which is hilarious and fun. Cyberspace. Fake magic. You know the saying 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?' The Embraced have taken advantage of that to make themselves feel like wizards and witches and elves and all that. I get to put Emma Dark in an orphanage, which while not the standard child experience should give her enough connection points. While Pixie craves adventure, Emma is driven by curiosity and rebellion.
Problem: The world itself is literally fairly dark, even if Emma's adventures will mostly be fun, and it's a damn shame wasting Pixie and her well-developed characters that friends are telling me they like.
So. Your thoughts and preferences?
Not to be negative but if you're worried that your publisher will make a claim on your future work then the Space Western (that they might says is linked via the Jupiter Colonies) might not be the best idea.
ReplyDeleteOther than that they both seem interesting,
15-year old girl leading ship crews in Space Western is a bit distant from normal children experiences. So Cyberpunk is better. Orphanage is bit outdated, and put more distances between heroine and average kid.
ReplyDeleteFor Other Options : 3) Travelling township in space, heroine could visit planet on school excursion, run around inside large ship, teacher double as crews 4) LitRPG, Heroine ordinary kid at school and home, but inside game she is very big 5) Magic Worlds, learning spell in class, Spirits and Sphinx walk or fly between high-rise, suburban Witches and Werewolves as classmates
Oh! This whole "appeal to teenager" baffles me, since I'm age mid 50s and no children - I just love the supervillain books you wrote. So for me either setup is appealing if it's written as well as your other books!
ReplyDeleteAmazon put me on to a "Night Terror" series after your books (also has heroes and villains) - but seriously, the writing is horrendous in comparison to your work!
So please just create *something* that I can enjoy :)
Teengers (& many other people) don't only read to relate to something familiar, they also read to escape, to have fun, new, interesting experiences and meet new people and learn new ways of thinking and problem-solving in the safe medium of reading. "Relatable" isn't really in the genre, it's in the characters, their personalities, their values and how they react to situations.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hear "space western," I think Firefly, for "cyberpunk" I think SnowCrash/DiamondAge, but don't even hesitate, because your stories have never failed to be original, unexpected, "not like the others," better, and a joy to read. But your question, hmmm... I bet the more you're having fun, the more fun I'm having reading it. So which one is more compelling to you? I want that one first,
Personally I vote for the western. My 2 teen girls are both ok with Firefly, so seems like it has some anecdotal traction.
ReplyDeleteI'm not in that market demographic <\end disclaimer>
ReplyDeleteBut I'd vote for the space western. Just because it sounds like more fun, and I usually don't care for grimdark settings. Unless you're going for over-the-top silliness a la' Snow Crash, if the setting is depressing enough it leaches all the fun out for reading the story.
I doubt seriously it will be depressing. I mean, you have people who have pretend magic wands with electrical zappers in so they can cast lightning bolt, and biosculpted catgirls who really, really want you to buy whatever's in those brightly colored bottles she sells. It's darker than Penny's world, but either concept I'll want to play up the silliness under the gritty surface everyone else thinks they're living in.
DeleteThe most interesting feedback I've gotten was to go Space Western because 'aspirational' is better than 'relatable.'
ReplyDeleteBoth, I want boooooth. Although I absolutely agree 'aspirational' is better than 'relatable.'
DeleteI'd love to see a space opera by you. Not that keen on the western aesthetic though. Especially if it bleeds through to clothing styles, its one of the reasons that i never got into firefly. Everybody dressing like cowboys in space just seemed Weird and kind of stupid.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm reminded of Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" (than which there is nothing better in my estimation), among others. Multiple levels of technology in evidence throughout the galaxy, the equivalent of "Kon Tiki" sailing right alongside a nuclear-powered sub. Some races have barely gotten out of bed, others are about ready to sail into the sunset, all mixed together throughout the galaxy like refried beans.
ReplyDeleteJust on the name alone, I am sold on 'You Must Be This Tall To Steal A Spaceship.' Hi-Yo, Silver-Ship! Away!
ReplyDeleteI vote for cyberpunk because I would love to see what you do to ground that in the day to day interactions like you did with the superhero world. That said, I will likely buy whatever you write next.
ReplyDeleteI do understand the desire to have a publisher to handle all of the things that go into making a book besides writing it, but your last publisher was crap at that (the copy-editing seemed like a joke and I never saw any advertising for it; I think I found the series through Boing Boing). Amazon has self publishing (https://kdp.amazon.com/en_US?ref_=kdpgp_p_us_psg_kw_ad71) that looks reasonable to a lay person. You can even transition to a publisher later (see what Hugh Howey managed with his Wool series).
I have a local friend who's authored a whole series of books which she self-published through Amazon, apparently successfully enough to keep her at it. She's apparently a member of a whole circle of similarly self-published authors. I can put you in contact with her, if you like; she's very savvy and down-to-earth and could fill you in on all the pluses and minuses of this route.
DeleteI vote cyberpunk
ReplyDeleteperchance dragons may be involved in some way?
ReplyDeleteCyber punk sounds like a lovely idea
ReplyDeleteA bit off topic, but have you thought of consulting with a developer to make Teddy Bears and Machine guns? You could even do it as a starcraft mod, which would go much faster. It could bring more people in to the Please Don't tell universe.
ReplyDeleteI'm a fan of both of these ideas, but the first one grabs more of my attention. I really like the line where FTL is restricted to small ships. That is a cool idea and would inform the world building in interesting ways. I'm looking forward to whatever you write next.
ReplyDeleteSpace Western, definitely. And good luck with your publisher(s) - both the old one in retrieving whatever you can, and the new one, whichever way you go.
ReplyDeleteNot keen on we'd terms(seriously autocorrect?), westerns but I like space
ReplyDeleteI feel like exploring the tech universe in the cyberpunk series would be a lot of fun - It has the same sort of mad sciency vibe that TIM series does
ReplyDeleteHonestly iits your writing style that keeps me coming back, so I would be good with either. As far as preferances go however, I personally would do the cyberpunk one 1st.
ReplyDeleteThe reason - while either story would be good, i imagine a connection to both stories exsistances. As an example, i see Emma, eventually after her stories are mostly done to eventually be the matriarch of a family line of strong people - one of who is Pixie trying to live up to the family stories.