I’ve been pacing and staring at the white board trying to lay out the full plot for book 4 of the Edge series. This one’s called The Edge of Infinity. I know the final scene of the book, I have major (tent pole) scenes, and lots of plot threads some of which are to tie up hanging threads from other books. But what I don’t have is the unifying bad guy. I had been considering using the Old One disguised as a homeless Jesus figure, but then I was texting with a friend this morning, and I had a mad insight into the universe. The evil that dwells in men’s souls is far more monstrous and horrifying than any creature out of the Cthulhu mythos, or demon out of Hell, or even evil invading alien.
I realized that while the monstrous Old Ones were present in the first three books the real antagonist to Richard and the Lumina Scooby Gang was always a human. The truth of what I grasped this morning was that monsters are ultimately boring. It’s the human capacity to do evil and still justify it that is interesting and terrifying. How does a villain rationalize their actions because of course they believe they are the hero of their own story, and ultimately doing the right thing. How do humans cope with this duality in our nature, to be loving and empathetic, but to also attack and massacre a perceived
- other
even though it’s another human? The human genome project established that at the level of our DNA humans are fundamentally identical yet we persist in fighting over minor and meaningless externalities like skin color, race, sexual orientation or gender, and even less meaningful attributes like religion or country of origin.
So I know the MacGuffin in this book — it’s the potential discovery of a faster than light speed technology. Which then begs the question, who would want to oppose that and why? Once I figure that out I will have my antagonist for this book.
And at that point I can begin to actually lay out the acts and scenes that will comprise this novel.
I’m really excited you’ve returned to this series, Melinda. Many moons ago, I tripped on The Edge of Reason and learned you were a local treasure here in NM. So, I can’t wait to find out what the next book holds. Couldn’t agree more with your choice of a human as the baddie – it’s why I gravitate toward good literary mysteries. The complexity of the human soul is always more interesting.
Thanks, Mac for the supportive post. I’ve been working on the space opera for so long it’s been slow going to remember exactly where I was with Richard and Mosi and Damon. Fortunately I’m making a time jump which should help get back in the groove. Gives me a chance to reset a bit. I do have to go back and do the polish on Imperials 5 before I can commit whole heartedly to Edge, but maybe having a couple of projects will keep me from getting to too crazed during this time of plague.
I would sell at least 3/4 of my family for an imperials book 4 update. Also definitely another human, monsters are quite overdone and I feel some of the best books have humans with monstrous intents or outlooks as a result of their appropriately tragic and (optionally) sexy backstory.
Please, Taylor, don’t take such a drastic step. We are working on it. We have a contract with a brilliant artist who is designing new covers. We had hoped to launch book four at DragonCon this year. I don’t think that’s going to happen, but we do plan to have book four available by the end of August. And here’s the other news. I have finished book 5, and am about to start the final polish before it gets sent to the copy editor.