What a Character!

The nice thing about writing a series of stories is that I don't have to let go of the lead character.  After all, he is a little bit like me.  At least on the geeky side.  Dr. Doyle provided a nice complement in her critique of "Zegin's Infection":

It moves fast, it's heading in a definite direction rather than wandering around all over the place, and it focuses on a competent character working in his area of expertise, which is always a plus when you're thinking about the core audience for science fiction. It's been observed, more than once, that science fiction fans have a serious "competence kink" -- they are far more likely to sympathize with competent characters who can rise to an occasion than they are with ordinary or less-than-competent characters. 

Then she proceeded to let me know what I needed to fix. ;)  But I really appreciated what she said about the main character.  Zegin is an expert at what he does - starship diagnostics.  Think of a futuristic MacGyver who knows how to program computers, minus the bad haircut.

It has to be a fine balance though.  If the character is too strong then the readers loose the ability to relate to him (or her).  Which is why the lead has to have a "achlles heel" - something that they are struggling with.  Superman has kryptonite, Batman has his internal dark thinking, and Zegin is a bit sensitive and worries too much.  But when there's trouble he's always willing to jump into the fray.

My only concern with the Zegin stories is the level of geek speak.  At times the story will get a little technical.  I try to counteract this with dialog as Zegin tries to convey his technical actions.  Early readers have stated that it does get a little geeky but that they were able to stay involved with the story.  I guess I'll find out once the first story is released.

Making Progress

It has been a good week.  I completed the revision of Zegin's Infection from Debra's edit and critique.  I'm very pleased with the end result.  It has a smoother flow.  And the additional content helps to provide more of a background story and will lead to some interesting stories in the series.  

The next steps are to wait for Sean to finish the cover art, get the title placed on the cover, and then get it formatted for Amazon.  And to finish up the writing on "Zegin's Abduction" - the next story.

Stats for this past week are:

Klout Score: 46 (+1)
TT.com Page Loads for the past month: 916 (-38)
Twitter Followers: 613 (+112)
G+ Peeps Following: 209 (+10) 

My goal for Twitter is to have 1k followers by the time I release Zegin's Infection to Amazon.  That will be a nice round number for getting some statistics for Amazon sales.

Ongoing and Future Projects

Aside from the various story lines and adventures I have in mind for Zegin, I also have a full novel in the works.  I'm currently 5 chapters into "TransOp" - a near future story where corporations are the government and one company abuses their technological power to manipulate the general population.  And Steven Gould's new book "Impulse" arrived on my Kindle this week.  All I need is more time.  Cloning is out since my wife refuses to let me do it.

Keep reading.