Greg's Blurty

The Next One I'm Not Going To Write
This one is kind of different. A departure of a sort from the norm, if you will. Not entirely but it is noticeable. I notice it at least. Your mileage may vary but I doubt that it will all that much. It has enough of my usual trademarks that my core fan base won't be too offended, I think.

It's set in 1958 and time travel is a major theme and the protagonist is very loosely based on Art Bell. I even named him Art, for my non fan base---because my hardcore fans don't need that obvious a hint---that I don't want to lose any sales to. He's fourteen years old and not especially good or bad at anything and not especially interested or disinterested in anything. In other words, he's just average, normal kid.

He is fanatical about one thing. Ham radio. For those of you who think I just lied to you in the last paragraph, rest assured that I didn't. It wasn't a lie at all. It's a narrative device called The Unreliable Narrator and if you stop sleeping through Post Modern Fiction, 303, I won't have to explain these things to you anymore.

He's also a compulsive shade tree mechanic/tinkerer when it comes to radios and antennas and just about any and all other electric, mechanical and electromechanical devices. When he was 12, while helping a neighbor clean out his garage for the astronomical sum of $2 (Which is nearly $15 in in 2008 dollars), he came upon an old slot machine that was in pretty bad condition and the neighbor said he would just throw it out.

Art objects and says it can be fixed, that he could even fix it himself and it would just be a waste to throw it away. The neighbor laughed and said, "Kid, if you can make that piece of junk work again AND make it look nice enough for me to put in my den, I'll give you $25."

While the neighbor continued laughing, thinking his money was safe ($25 in 1958 is almost $185 in 2008) because it would take an experienced machinist and woodworker to accomplish the task but saw it as a learning experience. He figured he would give the kid another dollar in a week or two when he would finally give up, just for trying.

Art, meanwhile was seeing the used Hallicrafters S-38 that Mr. Watkins, the town TV repairman had for sale in his shop for $20. Otherwise, he didn't even care about the money or even the slot machine all that much. He thought it was neat but not much more than a means to his owning the S-38 that he wanted so much that he dreamed about it.

They bundled the old 90 pound slot machine into an old red wagon and wheeled it to Art's house next door and got it up on his father's work bench and Art started work that very night. He read, religiously, in addition to a bunch of radio magazines, Popular Science, Popular Mechanix, Popular Electronics and Mechanix Illustrated and his collection dated back to the 1930s---so he had a basic idea of where he was going with the project because every so often there was an article on how slot machines work and there was no shortage of information on how to refinish the cabinet.

The gaps were filled in with books, articles and help from the library and his friends in the local ham radio club and in two months, the project was finished and the next day, he owned the S-38. That's just a sketchy example of one of the things that happens to Art and I guess the big thing is that he accidentally creates a time machine while working on radio equipment.

He doesn't have a big desire to time travel but he does have a big desire to pass math, which he is having trouble with. So that's what he mostly uses the time machine for. What he uses it for the most is spending time in empty dimensions...he discovers he can take a stack of magazines and/or a building project with him and spend days, weeks or even years working and reading while only being absent from here for a few seconds.

And, eventually, Art begins getting a sense of what we call reality really is by experiencing sides of it that most never see and he comes to realize that things like passing math tests just aren't that important. What is important, then? Well, you'll just have to not read it when I finish not writing it, which should be at about 9 tonight.

Some critics are going to say it's absurd because no 12 year old could restore a slot machine, let alone stumble on the secret of time travel two years later. To them, I say, "Oh yeah? Then how was Mozart writing music when he was five?" That should shut them up. But then they'll start talking again and say things like, "And where's the sex and violence?"

To that, I say, well, for the total lack of sex and nearly total lack of violence, you can call it a kids' book if you want but I think at least some adults will like it. And that concludes my dealings with the critics on this this one. But I'm not quite done with this post yet.

Because I've noticed that this is the second day in a row that I've conceived and not written an entire novel, I'm wondering if I can do it everyday for a week. I'm not calling it a goal because goals are made to be not achieved. This is merely a question of whether or not I can do it. Stay tuned for the next seven days if you want to see if I can do it.

Current Mood: depressed
Current Music: Coast To Coast AM----Friday June 20th, 2008