I'm Scheduled for a Double at the Word Mines, and I'm Clocking In
or, I'm ready to write my next novel, and here's the world-building I've done in preparation PLUS a title reveal
Dear readers,
I’m bidding you adieu for now, as it’s time to tackle the Frankensteinian sci-fi story rattling around my brain. Starting July 1st, I’m crawling back onto the writing horse and giddying up. Updates here will be light, but you can track my daily progress on my Instagram.
Expect some photo diaries, though, as I will not be chained to my basement typewriter for the entire 24. Hell, I might even get around to my NYC trip write-up, if I’m so inclined.
For now, I leave you with some of my world-building exercises for the as-of-yet untitled novel.
Meet your S.W.E.E.T.I.E. pie
S.W.E.E.T.I.E. (Smart Worker for Efficient, Effective, and Thorough Integrated Environment) was my first creation. I was in need of a faceless robot upon which a face could be sculpted. I decided on a cutesy name for the model, which carries the implication that the company (The Q.P. Company, more on them later) behind her creation picked the name first and threw together the acronym second.
S.W.E.E.T.IE. was released before this next robot, but she was created after based on leaked plans from a rival company. They rushed her to market, and she’s technically inferior. Personally, I love her retro cream shell.
Fun fact: Q.P. decided to omit a full face so as to assuage the consumer’s fear of being watched. The slit that creates her mouth houses her speaker—and her eyes.
B.E.A.U. is not afraid
I created NouveauWare’s B.E.A.U. (Beloved Electronic Assistant Unit) with one thought in mind: “I need a robot that one might be afraid to leave their lonely wife with.”
B.E.A.U. is a certified robobutler here to take care of all your needs. Unlike the S.W.E.E.T.I.E. knockoff, B.E.A.U. is built with a dashing face that straddles the uncanny valley the correct way. He’s looking at you, and you like it.
Ultimately, the roles of the ‘bots are relatively small in this story (I say, tempting fate) but necessary for the 20 Minutes into the Future setting. A B.E.A.U. owned by NouveauWare nepo baby Otto Ware will be looming, ever-present, to make the primary cast uncomfortable.
And the corpse of a S.W.E.E.T.I.E. will be Frankenstein’d into a Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl.
Valorie’s Desk
Ah, Valorie! Valorie Lee Grimes is one of two protagonists. A former geneticist who worked on the top secret “Sara Oddbodi Project.” Above is her beaten-up desk, which includes the mess of a woman who doesn’t sleep often and loves deeply.
Hanging over her desk is a watercolor etching by poet William Black, “The Ancient of Days,” which depicts Urizen, the representation of abstractions and an abstraction of the human self. A retro computer bears the logo of The Q.P. Company and a handwritten note reading, “you know why.” The woman in the picture frame resembles an old movie actress…
Leland’s Lab
Leland, the other (arguably primary) protagonist is Valorie’s son. A tech college dropout, Leland uses Valorie’s basement to tinker with whatever strikes his fancy that month and occasionally sleeps on the air mattress when he can’t make it up the stairs. Graffiti from a brief interest in tagging lingers. He is approximately as neat as his mother.
Clay, wax, and silicon face sculpts by his friend Fortune are scattered about along with circuit boards, computer chips, and energy drinks. A poster taped on the wall reads, “If you can’t join them, beat them.” A well-loved teddy bear rests on the air mattress.
Pay Evil Unto Evil
For this logo, the vibe I was going for was “Low Budget Anime Production Studio”—which is a joke perhaps only I and other weebs would appreciate. This is a relatively new logo for Q.P., with the angel obscuring the company’s dark past.
Despite the joke logo, Q.P. is an American company making low-to-mid-quality American products. “Q.P.” stands for “Quick Pro,” as the first name was “QuickProCo” before bad press necessitated the change.
The angel’s name is “Nev.”
NouveauWare was birthed from a need for a superior competitor to The Q.P. Company. Otto Ware—a nephew to the current CEO—has no real interest or ties to the company other than getting free swag and a cushy trust. Otto is a tertiary character and will remain static, but I love him and his car-crash YouTube compilation fascination.
NouveauWare’s logo references the Betty Crocker brand, and like Betty Crocker, they sell kitchen gadgets, cake mixes, and more miscellaneous household tools. But like certain innocuous companies, they have a befuddling hand in the tech world selling everything from webcams to cyber security.
NouveauWare—they’re everywhere.
Tell me, what do you see?
Above is a Rorschach test. What do you see? Can you find humanity in each picture? How does that make you feel?
Who is this woman? Who do you see? Mother, daughter, wife, hooker, icon, cunt? What personality are you projecting upon her?
Eulalia, my first Frankenstein—non-chronologically. She’s my Rorschach Barbie, dolled up by a trans man whose love for femininity skews towards drag queens, Bridget Bardot, and giantesses from cartoons. She is the dream woman, but she is also nothing at all, an impossibility, a figment.
Lally will probably give me nightmares, but that’s okay. Still my homegirl.
What was the Sara Oddbodi Project?
Octavia Baudin! Who is she? An actress richer than god and dead as a doorknob. What do the rich do when they can’t live forever? Sell their genetic material and hope science eventually figures out the whole cloning thing.
Who is Sara Oddbodi, if not just a funny name I’ve kept in my notes app for two years? Another Frankensteinian creation? Normally I would say, “that’s for you to find out,” but I did just mention cloning, so I’ve already given away the game.
The specifics of Sara’s creation are less important than the questions she poses about humanity and the strange emotions she stirs in Valorie. You know me: every story is a character piece.
But wait—two Frankensteins? In one story!? How the hell am I going to do that?
Breaking News:
I have a working title! Woohoo! During the process of this write-up, I managed to stitch together a string of words my brain approved of with a double-layered meaning. No longer am I developing “Untitled Sci-Fi Novel”—I’m writing The Last Eidolons.
And because I am a visual learner, here’s the narrative structure:
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at parallel storytelling, might as well combine it with my latent Frankenstein-girl tendencies.
Goodbye for now!
I’ve officially run out of things to ramble about regarding The Last Eidolons. The only thing left for me to do is write it.
July 1st, I’ll start my daily word count posts (with a break in September for a Provincetown vacation), so you can track my progress and silently judge me. Click here for that as well as pictures of my dog.
Adieu, like and subscribe, hitthat be l lhkpg tbenb ot igh—