Awesome, incredible book!
Early this week I was chatting with a friend online, telling him the very first print copy of my novel was on the way. He asked how I thought I would feel once I had it in hand. He assumed I'd be overjoyed, yet, I tend to be more pragmatic than that, and know that the first copy, while nice to finally see, is only a start. When it arrived I told my kids what I look forward to, is being sick of looking at at after signing thousands of them and book signings.
A little background on the novel. I suffered from insomnia in college, and among the things I eventually found that helped me sleep was to begin with an interesting premise, and work through the events from that starting point in my mind. What if someone invented teleportation? What if I were given a trillion dollars? What if the Immortals from The Highlander were actually self-emitting holograms from Star Trek, sent back through time for some ultimately, nefarious purpose? What if I could receive, process and retain information like a computer?
Well, with that last one I, first, had to develop a reason why, then think out the impact on society. My novel Memorite Rogue came from that. The premise is that a school was established to teach the basics of memorization and data processing by the human mind. The school exists in two parts. The first, the Memorite Preparatory School, for ages 6-11 gives the overall foundation. Those successful enough are allowed to continue to the second part, for ages 12-18, The Memorite Academy. The schools and the graduates are controlled by The Memorite Society. Eventually a faster method of receiving and sending data was developed, the TacCom, a device strapped to the arm, which allows the wearer to feel the information being sent, and send information through a touch pad on the top.
The novel outlines the impact on society, and the boundaries such a group would necessarily have to have, as well as the various responses people would have to those belonging to the group. It explores all this in a suspense/romance setting where the death of one Memorite is investigated by the police and the Memorite Society, when the clues all suggest another Memorite committed the crime. Meanwhile the two heading the investigation, local police detective Kevin Gould and Memorite Laura Wynn, find themselves falling for each other, and Laura Wynn is shocked to discover that the emotional distraction takes a more severe blow to her abilities than she ever would have imagined.
I have already developed a rough outline and some initial research for a prequel, which will explain why the Memorite Academy was founded. It's proving to be twice as complex (and long) as Memorite Rogue, because in it I combined several plot ideas into one. I had to stop working on it for financial reasons. If Memorite Rogue sells enough copies, I can justify the time in completing the prequel.
Posted by Danny Carlton at July 20, 2006 6:10 AM