So I've got some pretty awesome opportunities going on right now, of which I will not speak lest I jinx them. I will say that it involves rewriting two different manuscripts, which may seem horrible to the uninitiated but is really flipping awesome. I'm in serious crunch time right now and will be for a few months. If ever there was a time not to suck, this would be it.
The trick is, when I'm not writing on the official stuff, my brain keeps creating. Lately, it has been falling back on that Knight Rider post I did awhile back. I have since rewatched the pilot of the original series (and thus answered why he was called Michael Knight, something I knew as a child that but forgot as an adult). If you've never seen the original Knight Rider, you haven't missed much. It was an '80s show that is very much an '80s show. It did not endure the test of time.
The thing is, it was iconic for its time and impressionable to a young boy. Even if you haven't seen it, you've probably seen KITT, the black Trans-Am (from the original series) / Shelby GT500 (from the 2008 failed series) with the red light that flashes back and forth like a Cylon.
The 2008 show smacked of formula and made classic sci-fi mistakes that someone that doesn't normally read/write the genre would make. Specifically, the artificial intelligence of KITT and the abilities of the car were too powerful too quickly. The super-computer that can hack building security systems to watch through cameras, that can change the appearance of the car, etc etc. Put that all in the beginning and where do you have to go to challenge your protagonists? That's not power creep, that's a power skyrocket.
They did a few things right, tossed up the "man and his car" dynamic with another character. They better played the outlaw status (of course, with a lame FBI agent). Of course, they screwed up the whole two people and their car dynamic with the surly jock guy driver and daddy's-girl love-hate romance thing that was never very romantic and never actually developed their characters beyond being whiny. I really don't like the cocky jock hero. That was the biggest barrier for me to getting into Farscape. Crichton really rubbed me wrong.
ANYWAY, so me being me, I think I can do it better. ALSO, my mind is in super-duper creative mode, and while I do not have time to write fan fiction, I do have a blog where I can tickle my fancy for the time being. So settle in for a more of Joseph L. Selby's Knight Rider (2012).
Major Michael Long (Idris Elba) is a decorated Army special forces/airborne ranger detached to Knight Industries as a test driver and military consultant as part of the KITT development program under contract by the Department of Defense. As an operator of the KITT platform (a hummer in its first iteration), his call sign is White Knight. Once the team goes independent, his call sign changes to Black Knight. I'm not sure how this will play, what with television race politics, but mostly it has to do with the car, going to the black car (of indeterminate make--I don't feel compelled to adhere to the original Trans Am; there's advertising money to be made here, so do what's best for the show's budget).
Wilton Knight (William Daniels) is the founder of Knight Industries, one of the country's leading arms manufacturers. In his old age, he's focusing on saving lives rather than taking them, working on technology to save soldiers' lives rather than take them. The company is going in the opposite direction. He considers the KITT program to be his final legacy. He is assassinated when the technology is stolen.
Eleanor Knight (China Chow) is Wilton's only child and director of Knight Industries' fastest-growing division. She oversees contracting with the CIA and military. Her relationship with her father is strained. She does not share his vision of the future of the company. She has a worse relationship with Michael, who has a poor opinion of contractors and the contracting industry.
Yi Bo (Jerry Shea) is the team's linguist and computer programmer. He works on integrating voice command and voice actuation software with Vik's prototype KITT design. He and Vik do not get along. He think's Vik is immature and doesn't like his practical jokes (such as Vik installing a Cylon voice as the default program voice). He is also a Chinese spy. He tries to steal the KITT technology, but doesn't know Vik is working in a secret partition. The version of the software he steals is obsolete and non-functional. He pursues the team, trying to finish his original assignment.
Vik Singh (Vik Sahay) is the team's computer intelligence designer. He is the geek's geek. All your nerd humor has an easy access point here. Relax on the cliches, though. Yes he's single, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to act around women. He just finds computers more interesting. He's an overprotective father obsessing over his greatest creation, which gets in the way of life. This obsession is what prevents Bo from getting a complete version of KITT and what saves Navi's life.
Anand Patel (Sachin Bhatt) is the chief engineer responsible for integrating the KITT systems into military transports. He is inadvertently killed when Bo steals the software.
Navi Patel (Navi Rawat) is Anand's wife and partner. She specializes in advanced combustion engines and propulsion systems. She is wounded but not killed during Bo's theft. She takes the KITT software from Vik as they escape the burning warehouse. She installs it in the care that becomes the show's KITT-mobile. She is responsible for the upkeep and performance of the car, making any mechanical improvements. (Ejector seats! You remember this? David Hasselhoff flying up on top of a 20-foot wall and jumping down the other side and landing without bending at the knees. Oh '80s, you so crazy.)
Knight Industries Turing Transport / KITT (Zachary Levi) It's inevitable that KITT will eventually have a voice. In its first appearance, KITT is a white hummer. The red light is installed only as a point of reference for test-course observation. Vik originally installs a Cylon voice (as much for me as the classic nerd shout out). Eventually the computer creates its own voice as its begins to display genuine artificial intelligence. This is a feature that allows the car to evolve over the course of the show and adds an air of unpredictability, as these commands are not being programmed by the team.
Special Agent Connor "CC" Campbell (Tahmoh Penikett) is a retired Marine lieutenant and current field officer in the Washington, DC, bureau. He has a stellar track record and an investigative mind. He is assigned to retrieve the KITT technology and apprehend the criminals responsible for the espionage. He's not so single minded as to be oblivious to the clues that show a more complicated conspiracy, but he's also not so morally gray to overlook that the KITT team ran instead of coming to the authorities.
Supervising Agent Glen Larson (Richard Schiff) is Agent Campbell's direct supervisor. He may be corrupt but there's no evidence and he makes no direct overtures that suggest one way or the other. He takes an active role in the investigation, making sure to remain informed in all matters.
Probationary Agent Francis Elliott (Fran Kranz) is a young but genius computer expert that Agent Campbell recruits to aid in his pursuit. Where Campbell does the field work, Francis tracks the group digitally, trying to target the various GPS and network connectivity made by the KITT software.
Zhang Li (Bruce Locke) is Bo's handler and leader of the espionage group trying to steal the KITT technology. He is also the Chinese representative at the United Nations and has diplomatic immunity. Agent Campbell wants to have the State Department expel him, but Agent Larson insists the evidence isn't convincing. He wants a more solid case before they approach the State Department so they don't tip their hand.
In season 2, Army CID gets tired of waiting for the FBI to crack the case and this introduces new characters that I have not cast here.
Now, there are a few racial topics to discuss. First, the entire "Knight Rider" team is non-white. This is intentional. One of the reasons I enjoy British television is that the racial politics aren't so obvious. The need to include or exclude an actor because of gender and ethnicity tires me. Idris Elba was the best character in Thor despite the uproar of his skin color. And he's proven he can carry the lead in Luther, which is a super awesome show that needs more episodes. I admit that China Chang has looked "less" Asian in some of her roles, and while it's horrible that's even a consideration, some network asshole will bring up the lack of white leads, so screw that guy. Take this middle ground. Navi Rawat has years of exposure on Numb3rs and other shows and Vik Sahay was a comic genius on Chuck, so hopefully the lack of white in the team won't be an issue and this will usher in an enlightened age in American TV where the color of the character doesn't matter.
Likewise the villains are Chinese. This is also intentional. Rather than having a chase-and-run scenario between the team and the feds, the fact that the team isn't in the wrong makes that chase unsustainable unless there's a third party complicating things. This is classic Scarecrow and Mrs. King espionage and we're using China instead of the Soviet Union. So anyone wanting to say that it's unfair that the Asian (non-Indian) actors are all villains needs to show me where they were complaining that Russians were always the villains in the '80s.
Which brings us to the Feds. Yes the white people are chasing the non-white people and no that wasn't intentional. It's a mix of TV race politics and a genuine desire to cast those actors in those roles. Tell me Fran Kranz wasn't the best part of the Dollhouse and you'd be lying. Who doesn't want more Richard Schiff? He's always awesome and giving him a possibly corrupt character to play just sounds like a lot of fun. So when the same network prick above asks where the white people are to play to middle America (that's what they call racists), we point to the good guys. Look! The law-abiding characters are white. Shut up and sit down. Let's tell an awesome action/espionage/adventure story with Idris Elba being awesome.
Not Zombies!
I had a dream last night. I dream stories a lot, but I don't always remember them as well as I do this one. It could make for an interesting story
In my dream last night, my friends Kevin and Crystal were in a Greece-shaped theme park. It looked like an amusement park, but you had to find clues and solve a mystery. But it was full of monsters, like killer geese and zombies. There was a fourth person in our party, but I didn't recognize who he was. He was heavier and seemed familiar, but didn't have the face of any friends of mine who have that kind of body shape. I didn't know his name, either. But I knew he was a friend.
There were digital elements to it too. We were wearing glasses that would allow us to put things in our inventory without actually carrying them. One goal was to collect all of one type of book. You didn't have to carry the actual book once it was marked in your inventory. I think the total goal was something like 30 of each type of book, so that would have been hundreds of books. Instead, once you had a book in your inventory, you could display its contents on your glasses.
The whole thing kind of reminded me of READY PLAYER ONE, this whole-world experience, even though I only ready the sample to the book (I'm waiting for the price to come down). Most of all, I remember waking up and wishing it were real. Aside from the zombies and the killer geese, it seemed like an awesome, immersive adventure. I'd love to do it in real life.
Although I don't know how large it was. I knew it was shaped like Greece, but I don't know the scale. If it were actually Greece-sized, walking across the whole thing would be a hell of a lot of work.
In my dream last night, my friends Kevin and Crystal were in a Greece-shaped theme park. It looked like an amusement park, but you had to find clues and solve a mystery. But it was full of monsters, like killer geese and zombies. There was a fourth person in our party, but I didn't recognize who he was. He was heavier and seemed familiar, but didn't have the face of any friends of mine who have that kind of body shape. I didn't know his name, either. But I knew he was a friend.
There were digital elements to it too. We were wearing glasses that would allow us to put things in our inventory without actually carrying them. One goal was to collect all of one type of book. You didn't have to carry the actual book once it was marked in your inventory. I think the total goal was something like 30 of each type of book, so that would have been hundreds of books. Instead, once you had a book in your inventory, you could display its contents on your glasses.
The whole thing kind of reminded me of READY PLAYER ONE, this whole-world experience, even though I only ready the sample to the book (I'm waiting for the price to come down). Most of all, I remember waking up and wishing it were real. Aside from the zombies and the killer geese, it seemed like an awesome, immersive adventure. I'd love to do it in real life.
Although I don't know how large it was. I knew it was shaped like Greece, but I don't know the scale. If it were actually Greece-sized, walking across the whole thing would be a hell of a lot of work.
You Can't Take It With You
I was reading the sample ebook of READY PLAYER ONE on my nook this morning, and I ran across a phrase you see pretty often. "You can't take it with you." A few weeks ago I was editing the crypt scene in PRINCE OF CATS. Traditional royal burial of millennia past where they were given all the goods they needed for the afterlife. Seeds, farming equipment, fine silks, jewelry, etc etc.
And it made me think. What if you can take it with you. Think of all the different ways people have been buried. What if that burial is a portal to the next stage of existence and what you're buried with is all that goes with you. There would be people that would have control of all the food because they came through with the tools and the seed necessary to farm. There'd be others that would come through with armor and swords and what not. Other people that come through with valuable gems and jewelry, whatever other treasures buried with them.
How would you feel if you were some schmuck that showed up in the new world and all you had with you was a lame blue suit?
And it made me think. What if you can take it with you. Think of all the different ways people have been buried. What if that burial is a portal to the next stage of existence and what you're buried with is all that goes with you. There would be people that would have control of all the food because they came through with the tools and the seed necessary to farm. There'd be others that would come through with armor and swords and what not. Other people that come through with valuable gems and jewelry, whatever other treasures buried with them.
How would you feel if you were some schmuck that showed up in the new world and all you had with you was a lame blue suit?
Ideas on Stuff
Two ideas that have been bouncing around my head that I wanted to write down.
I want to write a city whose nickname is the Ever-Blossoming City. Every time the monarch dies, the core of the city is torn down and rebuilt in a style dictated by the new monarch. In years of plague or political upheaval, this may actually mean buildings would be torn down before they were finished being constructed. How much of the city is torn down depends on how prosperous the crown is, so you may see a hodgepodge of disparate design styles, grids leading into crisscrosses and what not.
Also, I want to write a short story named HARVEST TIME that focuses on two characters, a royal steward and a ship captain that has recently returned with goods from a newly discovered continent. He gifts them to the monarch and among those gifts is corn. The monarch feasts on the corn at dinner. That night, the corn turns up in the monarch's chamber pot and it is decided that corn is actually poison and the ship captain has tried to assassinate the monarch. It is the steward's job to catch him (and depending on how it develops, may be the person who convinced others corn was poison) while the captain flees in an attempt to prove his innocence.
Really, I just want to write a story where the plot is predicated on the fact that corn is still solid when you poop it out. How does that not freak people out?
I want to write a city whose nickname is the Ever-Blossoming City. Every time the monarch dies, the core of the city is torn down and rebuilt in a style dictated by the new monarch. In years of plague or political upheaval, this may actually mean buildings would be torn down before they were finished being constructed. How much of the city is torn down depends on how prosperous the crown is, so you may see a hodgepodge of disparate design styles, grids leading into crisscrosses and what not.
Also, I want to write a short story named HARVEST TIME that focuses on two characters, a royal steward and a ship captain that has recently returned with goods from a newly discovered continent. He gifts them to the monarch and among those gifts is corn. The monarch feasts on the corn at dinner. That night, the corn turns up in the monarch's chamber pot and it is decided that corn is actually poison and the ship captain has tried to assassinate the monarch. It is the steward's job to catch him (and depending on how it develops, may be the person who convinced others corn was poison) while the captain flees in an attempt to prove his innocence.
Really, I just want to write a story where the plot is predicated on the fact that corn is still solid when you poop it out. How does that not freak people out?
Interesting Dynamic
I watch people. I consider myself an extroverted misanthrope, if that's allowed. I love to talk and joke and laugh, but that's usually when I'm the center of attention. Drop me in the middle of a crowd where I don't know anyone, and I'm not like a real extrovert that goes around introducing himself to everyone. I kind of just shrink and disappear unless someone bridges me into a group where I might contribute in some meaningful way to a conversation. So what that often means is that I watch people. I watch all kinds of people, studying how they act, how consistently the act, and more importantly how they contradict themselves. It's how to build character in a story. Really all life is a story. So why not study its characters?
I saw something the other day that really piqued my interest. I work in an office building in Boston. There are a whole stretch of publishers right in a row, so you get some 10- to 12-floor building filled with editors and project managers and the like. Because we're so close together, all our floors are secured to keep the enemy from infiltrating and steeling ourprecious books. That means the building has a person in the lobby checking badges. I don't know their names except for Alex, the morning guy. There are plenty of others that rotate in and out during the day. So I can't say who the employee was in the lobby because it was an afternoon while I was leaving, but what I saw really made me want to write it down.
It was bitter cold. We've had a mild season so far, but the tall buildings can sometime create wind tunnels and when a strong, cold wind blows, it can cut like a knife. This sends the homeless looking for some place warm. It may be a winding alley that breaks the wind, it may be a shelter, often it's the subway. I come out of the elevator and pass the front desk and there is a woman dressed very obviously in everything she owned. She had half a mouth of teeth and her skin was so weathered she looked a couple decades older than she probably was. She was talking and laughing with the guy at the front desk.
There's always a moment of pause when encountering a homeless person in the big city to determine what type of homeless person they are. Are they merely destitute? Do they have problems (war vet, etc) that have driven them onto the streets? Are they addicts? Are they bat shit insane? It's really only this last one you worry about. The addicts leave you alone during the day. The worst you usually get is a yelling at. Maybe some spit. The destitute and the damaged will accept your charity but ignore you if you ignore them. But the bat shit crazy people are the dragon in the china shop.
So I pause, waiting to see if homeless lady is getting escorted out, if the cops are on their way, or if all is well. I hear the desk guy laugh and know all is well. Whew. It's always hard dealing with the crazy ones because you want to calm them and help if you can, but the wrong word or gesture may get you attacked. More often you just want them to be quiet until you get to where you're going and you can leave them behind. Ahhh, life in the big city.
In this case, though, everything was copasetic. I listened to their conversation as I crossed the lobby to leave. She was claiming she worked in the building but had forgotten her badge. Wouldn't he be a dear and let her go up and get it from her desk. He laughed, said she had tried that one last time, and she should try a different tactic.
When I stepped outside and got a blast of cold air in the face, I finally realized what he was doing. He wasn't allowed to let her loiter and he obviously couldn't let her go up to the secured floors. But if he was "helping" her, he could let her stay for awhile and stay warm. So she "lost her badge" and he helped her figure out "what to do" and they joked around for awhile while she thawed out and then she went on her way.
That, in itself, I think is cool. But I thought it would be a good twist to the "whodunnit" stories that you see in shows like Castle where the homeless are there only to be barely-functioning witnesses that can't testify on the stand, but can give the police the clue they need to carry on the search. What if you had a higher functioning homeless person that was friends with a doorman. The doorman let her come inside and warm up for awhile. She got warm and didn't cause any trouble. They all laughed, everything was spiffy, and then...THE MURDER! Lots of opportunity for red herrings while the detectives get over their assumptions of homeless people and realize they've been approaching the whole thing from the wrong perspective.
I saw something the other day that really piqued my interest. I work in an office building in Boston. There are a whole stretch of publishers right in a row, so you get some 10- to 12-floor building filled with editors and project managers and the like. Because we're so close together, all our floors are secured to keep the enemy from infiltrating and steeling our
It was bitter cold. We've had a mild season so far, but the tall buildings can sometime create wind tunnels and when a strong, cold wind blows, it can cut like a knife. This sends the homeless looking for some place warm. It may be a winding alley that breaks the wind, it may be a shelter, often it's the subway. I come out of the elevator and pass the front desk and there is a woman dressed very obviously in everything she owned. She had half a mouth of teeth and her skin was so weathered she looked a couple decades older than she probably was. She was talking and laughing with the guy at the front desk.
There's always a moment of pause when encountering a homeless person in the big city to determine what type of homeless person they are. Are they merely destitute? Do they have problems (war vet, etc) that have driven them onto the streets? Are they addicts? Are they bat shit insane? It's really only this last one you worry about. The addicts leave you alone during the day. The worst you usually get is a yelling at. Maybe some spit. The destitute and the damaged will accept your charity but ignore you if you ignore them. But the bat shit crazy people are the dragon in the china shop.
So I pause, waiting to see if homeless lady is getting escorted out, if the cops are on their way, or if all is well. I hear the desk guy laugh and know all is well. Whew. It's always hard dealing with the crazy ones because you want to calm them and help if you can, but the wrong word or gesture may get you attacked. More often you just want them to be quiet until you get to where you're going and you can leave them behind. Ahhh, life in the big city.
In this case, though, everything was copasetic. I listened to their conversation as I crossed the lobby to leave. She was claiming she worked in the building but had forgotten her badge. Wouldn't he be a dear and let her go up and get it from her desk. He laughed, said she had tried that one last time, and she should try a different tactic.
When I stepped outside and got a blast of cold air in the face, I finally realized what he was doing. He wasn't allowed to let her loiter and he obviously couldn't let her go up to the secured floors. But if he was "helping" her, he could let her stay for awhile and stay warm. So she "lost her badge" and he helped her figure out "what to do" and they joked around for awhile while she thawed out and then she went on her way.
That, in itself, I think is cool. But I thought it would be a good twist to the "whodunnit" stories that you see in shows like Castle where the homeless are there only to be barely-functioning witnesses that can't testify on the stand, but can give the police the clue they need to carry on the search. What if you had a higher functioning homeless person that was friends with a doorman. The doorman let her come inside and warm up for awhile. She got warm and didn't cause any trouble. They all laughed, everything was spiffy, and then...THE MURDER! Lots of opportunity for red herrings while the detectives get over their assumptions of homeless people and realize they've been approaching the whole thing from the wrong perspective.