One Jump Ahead meets real life

In my first novel, One Jump Ahead, Jon met Lobo in a square in the small capital city of an emerging frontier planet.  At that time, Lobo's main weapons control system was useless from damage on a mission, so he was there as a reminder of the might of the Frontier Coalition, the group of allied planets on the edges of human space.  Kids were playing on and near Lobo when Jon first encountered him.

Check this out, courtesy of the fine folks at io9:  kids playing on old tanks in Russia.  I doubt this is the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last, but it is cool to see nonetheless.

Tomorrow morning, way too damn early, I head to Balticon, where I'll be doing all kinds of stuff.  I hope to give you a preview of my con activities in tomorrow's blog entry.  Now, though, I have to finish working, pack, and grab a few hours of sleep.

Lobo on...spotting your enemies

At one point in No Going Back, someone shoots Jon. As Jon is telling Lobo about this incident, Jon expresses some concern about the person who shot him. Lobo thinks this is a dumb choice on Jon's part and offers the following advice:

Try to remember the simple things: If they shoot you, they're not on your side.

Words to live by.

Lobo on...human justice

I thought it might be fun to give you the occasional peek into Lobo's mind with his comments to Jon on various topics. All will come from No Going Back. I'll provide them as the mood strikes me--or if enough of you yell loudly enough.

At one point in the book, Jon says,

“What about the law? It exists to provide justice. That’s not mine to decide or to deliver.”

After which, Lobo reacts.

Lobo laughed. “I love that you can still make me laugh. Human legal systems exist for many reasons, justice being only one of them. It’s almost certainly true that the men at that auction were wealthy and, at least some of them, maybe most of them, were also powerful. Find anywhere, anytime in human history in which justice for the rich and powerful was the same as justice for the average person, and I’ll change my position...."

Anyone care to argue with him?

A Lobo line for you from No Going Back

I was making a few necessary tweaks and ran into this Lobo comment. It's one of my favorite of his--though I may yet change it; the book is far from done, but I am racing for the deadline.

“Humans,” Lobo said with a sigh, “can’t live with ‘em, can’t kill them all without more ammo than I can carry and without being really bored afterward.”

I love his mixture of the literal and the hyperbolic.

No, I won't tell you the context. For that, you'll have to read the book.

Remember that rule

I said I had, the one about not showing my work to anyone except Dave before the book or story is completely ready for publication? Well, I'm about to break it, and I thought it might be useful to explain why.

I've finished the first draft of the original, brand-new, never-before-seen solo Lobo story--the Lobo Christmas story--for Jump Gate Twist. I'm running it by Dave for a quick check before I do a final polish and send the entire book to Publisher Toni, who will be especially glad to have it because it's due to the printer about, oh, now.

I'm also, though, going to show it to Bill for a reason I consider sufficiently important to break my SOP: He possesses in-depth domain knowledge that I need. I'm not going to say what that domain is, at least not yet, because I don't want to affect anyone's perception of the story, but if you remind me after the book appears, I'll explain then.

My more general form of this exception goes like this: If a person really knows a specific subject that affects your work, and if that person is willing to lend you their expertise, then I think it's perfectly fine both to ask questions of that person during the writing of the work and to show the relevant sections of the not-fully-published prose to that person.

Which is what I'm doing now.

In directly related news, I can tell you that I will be the one person in the world who will be happier than Publisher Toni to see this book head into production. I am tired of being behind schedule and look forward to a return to writing normalcy.

A tease for Overthrowing Heaven

I've told Toni, Dave knows, and now I've decided to tell the readers of this blog: In Overthrowing Heaven, I'm going to explain how Lobo became what he is, which is...well, that would be undercutting the book. Let's just say that if you've read One Jump Ahead, you know he's special, not your ordinary PCAV. When you read Slanted Jack, you'll learn that he's even more than you might have thought at the end of the first book.

As Toni said, "Cool! Lobo's origin story." Quite so.

Having said that, I hasten to add that explaining Lobo's origin is not the main point of Overthrowing Heaven. It is a key part of the rather complex and, I think, very cool story, but it is only one part.

I'm quite looking forward to writing it. I hope you one day enjoy reading it.