I just read on scifi.com that Spielberg is going to write a pilot for Fox TV about a couple of young physicists during WWII who invent time travel and jump forward to 2007 to find something they can take back to end the war with.
So what, you say?
So, that's the gimmick in Time and the Soldier, upon which the rest of the long, complex, dense plot is built. So the book is DOA. That's the way things work in gimmick-driven genres.
I'll press on with it. Having put so much into it, I want to finish it. Also, I know it's going to be a terrific sf novel. But it'll be dead on arrival, anyway.
Of course I can't really blame Spielberg, even if he did read my mind and steal my idea. (Joke!) I had this idea 15 years ago, or so, and I wrote the first part of the book back then, and then I let it lie for many years before finally getting back to it. During those years, I often told myself that I should finish the book because someone else was bound to come up with the same gimmick, and then the book would be dead. But I told myself, "Yeah, yeah, whatever," and wrote other stuff instead. And this is the result.
Damn you, Steven Spielberg! You're evil, I say, evil!
4 comments:
Mickle on, my friend. Pilots, even those with big names attached, have a funny way of dying an early death. And hell, if it goes the other way and the Spielberg thing is huge, you're not DOA, you're suddenly eminently optionable. Two CGI ant movies, really?
By the by, I just started the Holmes, and I'm loving it. Doyle was formative for me, as with many crime writers, and I'm enjoying the hell out of your take.
Thanks, Chris. I really appreciate that.
In another online place, sff.net, Mitch asked me if I'm sure this makes the book DOA. I guess that on one level, what I'm afraid of is that the book will be published and then readers will assume that I got the idea from Spielberg's show, whereas I'm so proud of myself for coming up with that gimmick on my own.
But, yes, mickle on and we'll see what happens.
I'm glad you're enjoying the Holmes book. I tried to imitate Doyle's style. It came fairly naturally, and I found I really enjoyed writing that way. Now, that was English!
What Chris said. And perhaps can you tweak yours enough to really set it apart from Speilberg's. Something blatent without being drastic, maybe?
Hi, John.
I might do that tweaking when I reach the point where I'm pummeling the ms. to get the various sections and adventures to fit together properly. Perhaps by that time I'll have been able to find out more details about the evil Spielberg's pilot.
I could also add a new minor character, a devious Hollywood director, let's say, named something like, oh, Stefan Mielsperg, who tries to steal the secret of time travel from our heroes and mishandles the equipment - which he is not intellectually equipped to understand - and as a result gets MANGLED AND SQUASHED AND
But that probably wouldn't be wise.
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