The Next Big Thing Blog Meme

I found this meme that I missed out on when it was actually a thing, so I’m doing it now.

Yes, I’m bored and a bit creatively blocked today, why do you ask?

It’s just a bunch of questions and answers about a current wip or book you already have out.  I’m going to do it for No More Lies since it’s the one closest to done.

I rephrased some of the questions so they didn’t aggravate my internal editor.

What is the title of your book?

No More Lies

Where did the idea for the book come from?

Copy/pasting from where I talked about this a couple of days ago:

I invented Bobby as a kid as what I’d now call an AU version of Storm Shadow, then later decided he wasn’t him; he was his apprentice.  Bobby’s evolved since then, and any resemblance between Universal Nexus and GI Joe:  Real American Hero is coincidence or homage now, but he’s still a ninja who used to be a bad guy.  This story though . . . I woke up with the image of him under a tree and knew what he was thinking and had to write a bit to figure out what was going on.  Turned out it was the day he met the love of his life.

What genre is your book?

That is a ludicrously complicated question.  Is it a romance?  The plot kicks off because of a love story and it is a thing that drives a lot of it.  But I didn’t follow the “proper” plot arc for a romance.  (Neither, I’d like to add, does any romance I’ve ever actually enjoyed.)  So, according to what I’ve read, lots of romance fans would get pissy if I called it a romance.  Is it space opera?  Well, the setting is, but the plot has nothing to do with galaxy-shaking events or anything anywhere near that big.  It certainly doesn’t have the space battles that some idiots say are required.  (Firefly is not space opera, I guess . . . despite being frequently called the best space opera in ages.  Go figure.)  So a lot of space opera fans would be mad if I called it that.  It’s a slice-of-life romance in a space opera setting.

I’m probably going to market it as romance because that’s where the money is, to be bluntly honest.

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

Uhmmm . . . damn, for the sequel, set twentyish years later, it’s easy to think of who should play Bobby.  Robert Downey, Jr. would be pretty close to perfect.  But he can’t really convincingly play a twenty-five year old.  Chris Pratt, maybe?

For his girlfriend . . . the only requirements are blonde, nice rack . . . because Bobby’s shallow enough at the beginning that that’s a big part of what gets his attention, and able to glare someone to death.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

I have one finally!  It’s a monster of a sentence because whoever came up with this “one sentence synopsis” thing clearly wrote more straight-forward books than I do, but here you go:

A spy who ran away from home years before falls in love with a woman from his home world around the same time the people he’s spying on start suspecting him, so he goes back home and has to deal with a girlfriend he’s lied to, family and friends he upset years before, and people wanting him dead, all while trying to figure out how to live a normal life.

Who is publishing your book?

Don’t know yet.  I’m considering trying to get an agent because this book is good enough that I want it to get more attention than it will if self-published, but at the same time, look at what I wrote under genre.  Do I send it to romance agents or science fiction ones?

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

That depends on how you look at it.  The earliest surviving reference to the story is from early summer 2011, but that was a version that was supposed to be a 3000 word short story.  The version that ended up being completed took exactly a year to write, almost to the day, from July 2013 to July 2014.

What other books within your genre would you compare it to?

~whimpering~  How can I answer that when I don’t know what genre it is?!

Wait!  I just realized that the InCryptid books by Seanan McGuire are considered romances . . . paranormal romances, but still . . . so I’ll compare it to those, especially the first two with Verity as the narrator.  Snarky first person narrator who gets in situations over their head and doesn’t listen to their parents.  I have one of those too.

See, this is where I start feeling all kinds of angst over the unmarketability of this book.  I can’t compare it to anything in the genre, so I can’t do the all important “If you liked x, you’ll like my book” thingy.  My life would be much easier if people would just read descriptions and go “Oh, this sounds cool!” instead of always wanting to read things just like what they’ve already read.  Try new things.  It won’t kill you.

Anyway, pretending I’m a reader instead of the writer of this, I’d say what it reminds me the most of isn’t anything space opera or romance.  It’s the immersiveness and depth of world-building of a good fantasy novel or game setting.  Hmmm . . . along those lines I could maybe see comparisons to Traveller.

Oh!  Firefly or the first season of Babylon 5, a space opera setting, kind of an overarching thing tying everything together, but no single plot arc or similar!  Quirky characters getting into situations and dealing with them.  That works.

And watching Doctor Who while writing this revision has led to some dialogue style similarities, so I guess if you like the Ninth and Tenth Doctor, you’ll like my book?  (I haven’t gotten further than that yet.)

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

See above under “Where did the idea for the book come from?”

What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?

The narrator is a ninja/spy/assassin/comic book geek/musician who has Wisdom as his dump stat.  Who wouldn’t want to read a story about him?  Aside from people who like deep thematic works and other pretentious shit like that, I mean.  This book has no theme, unless “being in love is awesome” and “actions have consequences” are themes.  It also doesn’t follow one of those plot arc diagram thingies, nor does it fit the Heroes’ Journey.  It’s, ultimately, the tale of one year of the afore-mentioned ninja/spy/assassin/comic book geek/musician who has Wisdom as his dump stat’s life.

Oh, and if I self-publish, here’s the cover.  (I am willing to take criticism from people who work in graphic design and ordinary readers, but not from people who’ve read articles on how covers should look . . . because I’ve read those articles too, and I wouldn’t buy books with covers that looked that amateur.):