Control: Space Paladins…
I, Dalton Lewis, wrote a book. A book! I worked very hard on it. I sat, in Finnegan’s basement, hanging out, and we discussed the possibility of collaborating on a role-playing game. We settled on a space paladins story in which five mechas joined to create one giant mecha to fight bad guys. He said that was a good genre of story that would make for a fun adventure story. We tried to sit down and create the rules for a role-playing game that would allow a character to become a mecha pilot and save the day.
A few weeks later we were hanging out with a couple of our friends that were a couple, Lenny and Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald lay on the couch to sleep for some of the time, but we sat around eating donuts and drinking soda and energy drinks and talked about what role-playing we would do. We decided to do Microscope, a role-playing storytelling game in which we plan out a story and tell the story about something.
I mentioned Space Paladins.
They decided that Space Paladins could be something for us to talk about and create a story about. We created a storyline in which we had a villain who was simultaneously evil beyond belief and sympathetic and believable at the same time. She should believe in her cause and her people.
We also planned a kaiju cattle drive and discussed some government of colonies far away from Earth and a company which had some corruption and yet governed much of the colonies. Then I asked the gentlemen what they thought of the idea of me writing a novel about the space paladins, and they said that they thought that it would be fine.
I wanted to channel the fun and excitement of the huge space battles that a story like this would allow to have happen while still creating troubled teenagers that people would care about.
I wrote an essay about the novel and used that essay in planning the novel. I didn’t do a lot of research for the project — just a little work on looking up fuel and how it is refined and used.
I’ll be honest for a second. My writing career has hit a troubled spot. The last few novels haven’t done well. I have tried to write a fun adventure story with wonderful characters and dramatic conflict within those characters to try to see if I can turn it around.
This is a test. I tried to write a novel by planning out a set of interesting ideas with a friend and then writing an essay about the novel as I was writing the first draft of said novel. This was one of many plans I have utilized when writing novels, and I am interested in how well this one does.
Fighting bad guys is a necessity in these stories and has to parallel the real-life struggles of the characters. They have impossible problems. One has run away and doesn’t have a family or school, another has a dying father, and another is bullied ceaselessly at school — and yet he regularly saves the people who bully him from being killed. I wanted to show all these characters and stories while also showing good guys beating up bad guys in a big galaxy. That symmetry interested me.
I wrote a novel, and that is a great accomplishment. I have done it many times, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is something to be proud of. I’m glad I created these characters and this world — and if you want to read it, go ahead. It will be avilable for free download from 7/19 to 7/23 if you want it for free or you can buy it today or next week.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
