Pardon again. I have been offline for too long. There are multiple reasons, but the biggest is that work on Renegade has run into a serious dilemma. I believed I had a good plan for the book but failed to take into account something major. The early part of the book requires one of the crew from the Argos to go to Earth. That seemed straightforward to me until I realized that in at least the last six books, I haven’t mentioned anything about Earth since Van Childs left to take residence on Mars.
If you read the first three books, you will remember that Van, along with Harry the Caretaker, introduced a number of upgrades to Earth’s society. Things like the cure for cancer and other medical advancements, changes in battery technology, the advent of orbital and suborbital flight as well as new propulsion technology to mention just a few. At the time, I hadn’t seen the need to follow Earth’s development after those infusions of advanced technology. Nor have I made any in-depth reference to Earth’s progress since life was discovered outside Earth’s solar system.
As Renegade opens, it has been six or seven years since Van Childs left Earth to establish Guardian Force. So how do you think Earth has changed in that time? Darned if I know, and that’s my problem. When I send an Argos crew member back to Earth, I think I’m bound to describe how things have changed given all the new technology that the population has been exposed to. Were they overwhelmed with all that was provided? How much of the technology could they adapt, given their relatively primitive state of engineering and manufacturing? An even bigger problem for me is how the socioeconomic structure of the planet might be changed.
Given enough time, I can probably come up with a model. However, I worry about how much of the book might be consumed by this description. It could be a lot, and that would detract from the basic story. I’m tempted to put this book idea to bed for a while and develop another idea until I can come up with a simple but realistic view of how Earth has progressed— or not.
I would be interested in your thoughts on this. What would you do?
BTW, R&P Story Publications has been up and operating for a while with books from Richard Story. His author’s page can be seen Here.
