The Next Big Thing

I have been ignoring this corner of the internet, AND I was tagged by the lovely Laura Goldstein to take part in THE NEXT BIG THING.  Thanks to Laura for thinking of me and thanks to y'all for bothering to read it.

What is the working title of your project?

Right now, the manuscript doesn't have a title. Maybe y'all could suggest one. The main character is named Nel, and so I'm sure that will come into play somehow. Often I know the title of the book looooong before I even have all the poems written, but for whatever reason that is not the case this time around.


Where did the idea for your book come from?


I was digging through the detritus of old notebooks and found a couple character sketches, a few handfuls of lines. I'm sure old bad Sci Fi movies and old bad Westerns were involved, but the notebooks were just set aside and I'm not really sure where the spark came from any more. I've wanted to write something hybrid for a while and I think that was part of the impetus too.


What category does your book fall into?


Sci Fi Western Epic in Verse (and prose)


What actors would you choose to play in a movie rendition of your book?


I think we'd need Lori Petty, Gene Hackman, and the voice of Tom Waits, oh, and the original Trigger.



Can you give us a one sentence synopsis of your book?


Cloned human slave develops supernatural abilities in a sort of aural Farraday Cage kind of way, and faces violent oppression from patriarchal evil Overlord type, complete with the weird social commentary that only Sci Fi can offer.


How long did it take you to write your first draft?


This is always an impossible question for me. I work from old notebooks, and then write into what's there, collage it, chop it up, etc. In terms of focused time, I put together a solid draft in a few months time.


What else might pique readers' interest about your book?


There is a character who is physically a bird cage and birds, requiring a certain number of birds inside himself in order to walk, talk, be sentient, etc. Think hive mind. There is also a sex scene that may not make it past the censors.