“The Last Enemy”

For the last month, I’ve been watching a fascinating and increasingly chilling Masterpiece Contemporary miniseries on PBS called The Last Enemy.  Set in London with flashbacks to Afghanistan, the story follows Steven Ezzard, a “genius” mathematician who had been living in China but had been called back to London to attend the funeral of his brother.  From the moment he lands at the airport, everything seems a bit off center — a driver chauffers him to the funeral but doesn’t say who sent him, and after the funeral and remembrance party where he meets some of his brother’s friends, he discovers that his apartment is being occupied by strangers.  The government, in the form of a member of Parliament, contacts Steven to ask him to review their new computer database for surveillance, and suddenly Steven falls down what people in the spy business call “the rabbit hole.”

What fascinates me about this story, besides the incredible tension at times, is the setting.  When Steven first arrives in London, everything seems as if the story is contemporary.  But as time goes on, little details pop up that point to a near future timing.  Nothing much has changed about daily life in the city, EXCEPT that government surveillance and control of a citizen’s movements is nearly total.  The Last Enemy focuses on human behavior and relationships, how security can be a dangerous motive for governments, not on what cars look like or architecture or how far civilization has developed, or not.  Perceval and the subsequent novels also focus on human behavior and relationships with a backdrop of the near future geopolitical situation.  The future or technology are not characters in the novels. The future is not really a “character” in The Last Enemy but a detail about the setting that gradually becomes evident.  

The Last Enemy has been excellent so far.  The fifth, and last, installment is this coming weekend.  I suspect a DVD of the series will be available through PBS and I may consider buying it.  But first, I want to see in the conclusion if my guess about the ultimate tool of surveillance is correct….

Marketing Update: Agents and Bookstores

Back in the thick of marketing as I’ve finished the literary agent research this week for another batch of queries.  I truly wish that there were more agents interested in representing hybrid fiction and specified it in their likes and dislikes.  This time I decided to try agents who love science fiction as well as other genres. 

Yesterday I mailed the snail mail queries.  I prefer to query an agent by snail mail actually.  It takes a lot more effort which demands more effort in consideration and response from the agent.  I e-mailed the e-mail queries this morning.  Almost immediately I received an “out of office” notice from one of the agents — she would be out of her office all next week.  Fine.  No rush.  About 25 minutes later, I received another e-mail response from the same literary agency, this time from an assistant who had sent me a form rejection.  Only 25 minutes later?!!!  I’m usually cool about rejections because of long experience but this one angered me.  There’s no way anyone can convince me that my query had been thoughtfully read and considered.  By an assistant and not the agent.  I thought briefly of resubmitting to the agent in a couple weeks, but then I thought, hell no.  I probably wouldn’t want to be at that agency if that’s the way they work and respond to writers…..   I know that often assistants will be the first eyes to read a query, but usually the agent also has some input, either through discussion or actually seeing the query him/herself.  Or the agent has given the assistant a long list of specific things to look for in a query, and also the deal-breakers.  At any rate, I wan’t terribly pleased to hear back so fast from an agent this morning.

So, now the waiting begins….

Next week, I plan to follow up again with the agent who requested the manuscript of Perceval.  He’s had it now for about 9 months.  I hope to scare up some kind of response this time, even if it’s a “sorry, we haven’t had a chance to read it yet” response.  The silence is deafening from him.  I continue to reassure myself that he liked the sample chapters well enough to ask for the complete manuscript….

Another marketing note: next week I plan to find a market for the excerpt from Perceval and submit it.  I need to get that out of the house.

For people who wonder about how booksellers choose the books they sell in their stores, I found an excellent blog post about it here: http://antickmusings.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-being-skipped.html. All writers need to know this information, and especially the details about printings and sales.  Bookselling is a tough business.

And what business isn’t tough right now?  As other businesses are assessing their balance sheets, so is publishing in all areas — publishers, booksellers, agents, packagers, printers, distributors.  For the last five years or so it’s been tough for a fiction writer to get published.  I don’t even want to think how much the current economic landscape has spooked people in the industry.  Books endure.

Reading as a Writer: “Farthing”

Back in August I read an interview of Jo Walton by Leonard Picker in PW.  They discussed the last book in her alternate history trilogy, Half a Crown, and its predecessors, Farthing and Ha’penny.  This interview totally intrigued me and I clipped it, folded it into my wallet, and took it out again the next time I was in a bookstore.  I had intended to buy all three books in the trilogy, but the bookstore had only Farthing in stock.  I bought it and started to read it before sleep every night.

First of all, the chapters were the perfect length to read before turning off the light to sleep.  Second, Lucy Kahn’s voice grabbed me immediately on page one.  Two points of view alternate chapters, Lucy and Scotland Yard Inspector Peter Carmichael, whose voice is cooler, more objective, and fascinated by the “Farthing Set,” as is all of Great Britain in 1949, eight years after Britain signed a peace agreement with Nazi Germany.  Hitler now controls the European continent and continues to fight the USSR on the eastern front.  America never entered the war, and has almost no influence in Europe.  I won’t ruin the amusing surprise here as to who became US president in 1940….(smile)

At the end of chapter one, Lucy mentions that Sir James Thirkie, also a guest at the manor house, “Farthing,” owned by Lucy’s parents, has been murdered.  From that point on, author Jo Walton weaves a complex story of a murder investigation and the political intrigues that will lead to the election of a new prime minister.  The last third of the book chills progressively colder and colder as Walton reveals the goal of the Farthing Set.

The primary strength of this novel is its two point of view voices.  Walton establishes them so clearly and deftly that I looked forward to bed each night to spend some quality time with either Lucy or Carmichael.  Each contributes clues to solving the mystery of who murdered Thirkie, and also the clues to the blanket of lies and innuendos contributing to a sly but vicious cover-up.  Lucy provides insight and access into the upper class circle of people gathered at Farthing that weekend, and yet has become an outsider because of her choice of husband.  Carmichael provides the much-needed cynicism toward upper crust dominance while his partner provides the working class skepticism.  Both cops are smart but human and make mistakes and well as find ways to protect the innocent.

Walton builds her alternate England through thoughtful and specific details of human behavior as well as the political intrigues.  I couldn’t help but be reminded a bit of “Upstairs, Downstairs” at times, but that was a good thing.  She writes extremely well.

I absolutely loved this book, and I’m looking forward to reading the other two novels in the trilogy.  Anyone who enjoys alternate histories, especially about World War II, or the novels Fatherland and The Plot Against America, would probably enjoy these novels by Jo Walton.

Essay Submission

Early this afternoon, I will hand deliver my submission to another essay contest.  The deadline is today at 4:30 p.m. and I’m lucky the publication’s office is only a few blocks from my home.

I’ve worked on this essay all week, deciding much later than usual that I wanted to submit something.  The idea had come to me a couple weeks ago.  The total word count couldn’t exceed 1000 words, so I needed to write something short and succinct.  And fast.  I finished this morning.  I’m satisfied.  It feels right in my body.

So often, my usual MO is to think of an idea, think it’d be nice to develop it and write something, and then do nothing.  I’m trying to break this habit.

So, let the waiting begin…..