The latest installment of the serialized eBook "CONSPIRACY!" has been emailed off to the Florida Swampwater list.
The chapter, "The Jar In The Filing Cabinet," is really a turning point in the novel, as the nature of the mysterious Zaius Project is revealed. This aspect of the book gave me some pause, as it sort of presages some current events a bit (placed in a somewhat ridiculous context). I just finished an interview with "Unthinkable" writer Mark Sable, and we discussed this topic a lot – is it responsible to write out doomsday scenarios and the like, if there is even the slightest potential of somebody copying them in real life? The government has had at least one "think tank" of fiction writers (including Brad Meltzer) come up with such scenarios, in a effort to anticipate them.
But a point I make in CONSPIRACY! is that there is an awful lot that can influence and inspire people to do terrible – or simply dumb and ill-conceived – things. In the next chapter, I go into depth about how a villain in the book was inspired to carry out his nefarious plan based on a certain comic book (I'll leave it to you to guess which one). I want to actually show him weaving this fictional narrative with scattered facts and fallacies from the Internet and coming up with his own textured view of the world. This textured view becomes his reality.
Along these lines, I was going to pimp this book to conspiracy websites and the like, but I wonder if that is wise. I think the narrative is so ultimately silly that nobody could really take it seriously. In fact, maybe some theorists will get offended (though I would advise them to finish the entire novel before jumping to conclusions).
Anyway, with this 13th chapter CONSPIRACY! is now three-fourths finished. I'm having fun typing up my old handwritten manuscript for this baby, tightening it up a bit, and getting it out the door. It gives me a sense of closure and accomplishment, and I think that's all you can really ask for.
Sign up for CONSPIRACY! here.
He had a signing last week at Jim Hanley's Universe, and I wondered what sort of people will approach him?
ReplyDeleteWill he get "interesting" fans like Neil Gaiman and Anne Rice get?
Will he have people come up to him and tell him their scenarios? (I have two, but not stupid enough to publicize them.)
Will readers approach you in tinfoil beanies and confide in you?
I wouldn't worry about copycats. If someone is intent on harm they have probably already considered plethora of possibilities.
ReplyDeleteI always hate it when shows like Mythbusters refuse to give out key ingredients to accelerants and explosives. Even worse, are the people that want to ban bomb-making sites from the WWW. That information is in libraries (or at least it always was; I assume these haven't been removed yet)
Maybe having to go to the library to look up the information helped ensure it was in the hands of intelligent people and not idiots, I don't know. All the geeks when I was in school just like to blow things up (not buildings or people - models and junk and the occasional mailbox).
That honestly gives me an idea for a spec script or a play or something.
ReplyDelete