mlbphd's Bookshelf

As the author, I thought I'd share a slightly different viewpoint as to how the story came into being. Originally written in 1973 as a short story entitled VIRUS 5, you can imagine the underlying technology has changed significantly over the last 40 years. I have always been fascinated by the idea of what if we sent people to the stars and when they got there, there were already people there. So I had to come up with two completely different methods of interstellar travel, one slow and one faster than light. My heroes, Rei and Rome, have been there since the beginning (in 1973) as well as OMCOM. And the major threat was always the Stareater. That's about it. Everything else about the story has changed and evolved over the years. The first book of the modern version, called VIRUS 5: Asdrale Cimatir (Stareater), was 108,000 words. It started with a beautiful short story about Silas Hiram, a farmer on New Earth (later called Helome in The Ark Lords). He was the first to discover that Alnilam disappeared. My intent for that book was to do a "you are there" type of style. So what are the odds that people 14 centuries in the future still speak English? Zero. So I had to invent a language. I actually wrote a computer program that would translate any English words or paragraphs into Vuduri and used as needed. Well, being a beginning writer, I was open to suggestions by other, more advanced writers, and the whole story started getting chopped down. Gone was the story of Silas Hiram. Gone was the pretty exciting chapter on how the Vuduri discovered Rei's Ark. Gone was the viscerally stunning chapter on Rei's reanimation. I think the story lost something but I persevered. I had in my mind the scene where Rei is all alone on Dara, getting ready to let the VIRUS units loose and thinking he had lost Rome forever. But then it occurred to me, when Rome figured out how to remain behind, she would just radio Rei and the scene would lose all its dramatic tension. That's how the Vuduri with their 24th chromosome and the Overmind sprang into being. They had no NEED for radios, they had their heads. So I had to go back and reengineer a whole new society. I had written a future history outline but this kind of set me back. It took a while but eventually the whole thing blossomed and became more like the story you read today. After I completed Asdrale Cimatir, I was sitting around one day and said to myself, what happens when they get there, to Deucado? The idea of traveling all that way, only to face imminent death, seemed exciting. But I had to figure out WHY they were being attacked. Genocide seem like a powerful theme so that became the underlying background. I loved the idea of a split narrative, Rei taking a physical journal, Rome taking a mental one, before they rejoined each other. The book was relatively easy to write and I wasn't burdened with having to put in as much physics and science. It became more of a philosophical and adventure story. Its original title was VIRUS 5: Bez Onquode (An Uneasy Peace). Book 3 wrote itself. Once I had set up all the political forces, the travails that Rei and Rome had to go through were pretty clear. I finished it in about 6 weeks. I loved the idea of a double climax. Just when Rei and Rome thought they had ended the threat forever, the Stareaters return. That was fun! Then reality was, nobody was going to buy Books 1, 2 or 3 from an unknown author. So I got the idea to crush the now 330,000 words down to one book, three parts. That's the book you see today called Rome's Revolution. Since so many words had to be cut out, a lot of the long developing story lines (like Rei and Rome falling in love) had to be sped up. I had to create the Espansor bands to get Rei and Rome in love super-fast. In the original book, it took them 8 chapters to even recognize they had feelings for each other. In the new one, they are sleeping together by the end of Chapter 2. Oh well. Hopefully, you won't find it too rushed and just suspend belief and go along for the ride. More on how The Ark Lords came about in my review there.

After Rome's Revolution was published, I started work an a YA sequel called The Milk Run starring Aason and Lupe, all grown up, with just a guest appearance by Rei and Rome. I got about halfway done and realized I had no idea about what their life was like once they returned to Deucado. I was determined to make this one all action and adventure. No need to add much science or physics. And I always wanted to start a story with an explosion. Well, the explosion was just a grease fire but it was the best I could come up with. I wasn't sure where the story was going to go when (I swear) I was in the shower and it hit me. The Ark Lords (Erklirte), the insane people in the gray sarcophagi and The Great Dying, they were all one and the same. I had written about them for six years and NEVER KNEW IT! So the story of how Jack Henry (Hanry Ta Jihn) defeated the Ark Lords became important. I wrote a little, four chapter short story and interwove it in the relevant parts of the second half of The Ark Lords. A couple of other tidbits: Knowing that I had The Milk Run coming up, I wanted Aason to have his own "pet" starship so that's how Junior came about. The not-sex scene between Virga and Rei is still one of my favorites. I still laugh every time I read it. The final book in this arc, starring Rei and Rome, will be entitled Rome's Evolution where Rome must become a true telepath to save all of their lives. I'm hoping to have it finished by the spring. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy The Ark Lords. I really enjoyed writing it.

As the author, I am somewhat biased so rather than review this book, I thought I'd give you a few teasers. My goal for this book was to tie up all the loose ends left over the previous four parts (Rome's Revolution and The Ark Lords). Do you remember at the end of The Ark Lords, there were still a few crazies running around Deucado even though the vast majority were banished to Helome? And whatever happened to Sussen, the agent of MASAL whose escape trigger the events of Part 3? Those questions and many, many others are answered in the new book. For this book, rather than Rei and Rome fighting cosmic forces dedicated to exterminating all of mankind, I thought I'd make this one more personal. The only threat is to Rei and Rome and Aason. It is a little like a 35th century detective novel in that they have to track down the people threatening them and only them. There are two historical Intermezzos which give you a little backstory about "Rei's Last Day on Earth" and why Rei took a dangerous space walk just to get his futuristic version of an iPod. As a final treat, the Epilogue is the launching point for a new novel starring Rei and Rome's children. That novel, not a true sequel but rather the beginning of a new series should be out by the end of the year.

Who knew? I started writing a blog over a year ago and vowed to write one entry every day. As I got into the process, I discovered it got easier, not harder. At the end of the first year, I compiled all the entries and ended up with nearly 120,000 words! That's longer than The Ark Lords and Rome's Evolution. It's been good practice and I still have a long way to go. I hope you'll check out the book. The price is right (free everywhere except Amazon + B&N who make me charge 99 cents). Anyway, enjoy.