A new experiment?
I often experiment with my fiction writing…and that’s not just true for sci-fi (see this Friday’s article that’s a homage to Frank Drake). The main reason is to avoid becoming formulaic like so many old mares and stallions in the Big Five’s stables. Experimentation keeps my storytelling fresh, unlike most of the novels those stables produce. It also justifiably sticks the thumb in the eye of any so-called expert in the publishing business who tells authors to write for the market—again, those are people who grovel to the Big Five: pariah agents, many acquisition editors, and PR and marketing people. While there are other reasons, I’ll finish with one more: Good storytelling is always about experimentation because every tale, even for formulaic Big Five authors, must be at least a bit different to maintain readers’ interests. That’s part of the creative process: New ideas lead to new stories, unless an author has writer’s block.
If you need examples from other authors, let’s consider Deaver and Marquez. Jeffery wrote one novel in reverse—an experiment that was a complete failure (maybe not for him but for me…and maybe his publisher?). It wasn’t formulaic, at least not in the same way that his “Lincoln Rhyme” series became formulaic. (His best book so far was an early one, Garden of Beasts, by the way, a stand-alone.) Gabby basically wrote Chronicle of a Death Foretold in reverse as well—a murder occurs and then that ex-journalist proceeds to show how the murder was solved. While that remind you of almost good old Christie mystery (yes, there were bad ones), it was something new in Gabo’s milieu, Latin American literature. (His best work, by the way, isn’t One Hundred Years of Solitude but Autumn of the Patriarch, a creepy, scary portrayal of a dictator who’s an amalgam of similar tyrants—I even see DJT in him!)
Major “best-selling” authors usually don’t experiment until they’re well-established; agents and publishers, not wanting to rock the boat, discourage experimentation even when they are. I’m not a major best-selling author, but I’m established and confident enough in my storytelling that I feel free to experiment. I’ve been doing that for a while, in fact. Rogue Planet, More than Human: The Mensa Contagion, and A Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse are all experiments in sci-fi writing; Rembrandt’s Angel and Son of Thunder were experiments in mystery/thriller writing (both surprisingly picked up by a traditional publisher—actually you can consider every novel in the “Esther Brookstone” series an experiment). Much of my short fiction is experimental as well. (See the published collections and free offerings on the “Books & Short Stories” webpage.)
The last novels in the “Esther Brookstone” series and two of the three in the “Steve Morgan” series are also experiments in the sense that the thriller aspects are modified to include not only crime but politics—better said, crimes committed in the political arena. Some of these books might even be called political thrillers!
There’s a new variation on that political theme, though. The “Steve Morgan” trilogy (if that’s what it remains—the first book has already been published) will be like an Oreo cookie: #1, Legacy of Evil was about Russian fascism; #3, Fear the Asian Evil, will be about Chinese fascism; and in between will be #2, Cult of Evil, that will have more the flavor a conventional crime story, albeit a bit grittier than anything Christie ever wrote. China and Russia have already been dissed in “Esther Brookstone” #6, Defanging the Red Dragon (a free PDF download—see the “Free Stuff & Contests: webpage); and #9, Celtic Chronicles; and in many of my other mystery/thriller novels. But in “Steve Morgan” the focus is new where the war against fascism is a major theme (fascism is a worldwide problem!).
But there’s more to my experiment contained in the “Steve Morgan” trilogy of evil: I’ve basically written these novels as one grand saga in order to maintain the flow, content editing in one novel influencing the one before or after. It’s a mental challenge as well as an experiment to write what’s basically a mega-novel in three parts where each part will be separately published. (Don’t worry. You’ll still be able to read each novel independently of the others.) I hope some readers will respond positively to my experiment and enjoy the novels. I certainly enjoyed writing them. (The second two will be released in 2022, but I can’t guarantee when.)
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