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Month: October 2023

Character Review — AdgerCharacter Review, Josie James, Greg Shapiro, Jazminder Parikh, MD, Johnny Barnes, Dalton Farouk, Peri Martin, Carmen D’Angelo, MD, Dr. Devon Grace, Tommy 2000, Lex Feldman, Velexio, Character Reviews are Coming, Ixalla, Elise Jeffries, MD, Frances Miller Ashford, Marnie Shapiro, Ceilidh O’Malley, Dr. Mei-Lin Quan, Trixie LaRue, Tathrelle, Nell Murphy, Craig Firenze, Adger, Astrid Hennigsen, Benjamin Chase, Bobby/Jerry Brodie, Cyndi Mendez, Dez Hunter, Eileen Bragin, Eleanor Braverman, Judge John Lowell, Keisha Darnell, Minka Lopez, Nell Murphy, Noah Braverman, Olga Nicolaev, Peter Ray, Rachel Gifford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sally Bowles/TSTO Tiles, Shannon Duffy, Student #17, Tad Lewis, Ginny Carey, TSTITO, Selkhet 3000, complex evil characters, Emma 1000, They Say This is the One, Elston Young, Trinity Hawthorne, Character Creation

Character Review — Adger

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 31, 2023

Meet Adger, One of My Original Characters

Who is Adger?

The final of the four chief characters in Untrustworthy undergoes almost as many changes as Tathrelle does.

Where Did Adger Come From?

By the time I got to this character, I was getting tired of making up alien names. Hence, his name is just the word badger with the first letter off. Er, sorry, character!

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Adger

Hired by Velexio and various generals to get their military dictatorship in power and then increase their power, no one counted on Adger catching feelings.

Description

Like all other Cabossian men, he’s bald and has three fingers on each hand. A fourth appendage on each hand is his two-part genitals. Otherwise, I have no real description of him, and no thoughts of anyone who I picture as ‘playing’ him.

Purpose/Theme/Motivation

As the world shifts around the characters, Adger’s own purposes begin to change. He goes from being a jerk (in the best description of him) to being more like a lovesick fool than anything else. But he is never a hero and he is never the kind of person who readers would or should root for.

However, at least, unlike Velexio, he has occasional positive-ish moments. But they are few and far between, and they are blink-and-you’ll-miss-them fast.

Quotes {Tathrelle and Adger meet for the first time and things do not go well…}

Adger … turned and smiled at her and bowed slightly. “I’ll leave you two to get acquainted,” Velexio said and departed.

Once Velexio was gone, Adger shut the door to the small room. He looked Tathrelle up and down. “You are very interesting,” he stated.

“How so?” Tathrelle’s tone was skeptical.

“And you even told the people to call you by your first name! Do you have any idea what sort of annoying attention that’s going to get you? Ah,” he shook his head, “you are clearly a rank amateur. Still, you are a bit promising, I think.” He came closer to her. “You are an attractive woman. A little rough around the edges, but that may be how and why you were elected in the first place. It seems the people have a certain type of taste in such matters, eh?”

“Taste?”

“Oh, do you honestly believe that you were elected due to your acumen or the like? You had numerous rivals, as I recall. Or have you yourself forgotten that small detail? You may have thought it was an insignificant detail, but, you see, it’s really not. So you were selected by the people, but they hardly knew anything about you – or about any of your rivals, I imagine. But they picked you because,” he came closer, “you have … something.”

“I wish I knew what you were talking about, Adger.”

“Do you not, though? It’s a somewhat earthy appeal, you see. I had not really considered it. I had discounted it, you see, but now that I’ve met you, I think they might’ve been onto something. Of course, you could stand to be better in many ways, but in the basic respects, you’ve got it down pat.”

Relationships

Tathrelle

While he doesn’t get off on the right foot with her initially, he starts trying to make up for it as the story goes on. In fact, considering the changes that he goes through, it is highly likely that the carefully calibrated changes have some collateral damage and are affecting him as well.

As a result, he goes from a sexually harassing lout to, eventually, a person who genuinely cares about Tathrelle. But he’s got a lot of very funny ways of showing it.

Velexio

As Adger’s boss, Velexio should be in charge of him and telling him what to do. And Adger should be listening! But instead, he marches to the beat of his own drum. His reckless actions compound the conflicts and issues in the story.

While Velexio and the generals are the main architects of the misery in the story, Adger is far from blameless. Very far from blameless.

Conflict and Turning Point

When the rioting starts, he is in the thick of it. And while I pattern the rioting after Kristallnacht, his involvement is a lot more like a different incident, the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. Considering that I wrote Untrustworthy long before 45 even ran for president, I’m a little nervous about being a bit of a prophetess.

But the changes which he goes through are, essentially, his own damned fault. The guy never knows when to quit, and he pays for it.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

Because there is virtually no continuity between Untrustworthy and anything else I have written, there are no real Easter eggs or the like which you can associate with this character.

Future Plans

I have no real future plans for him, although he may show up in the prequel.

Adger: Takeaways

Unlike Velexio, who is essentially purely evil for evil’s sake, Adger has some layers to him. But he never uses his talents or intelligence for anything beyond the most selfish of motives. And in the prequel, he’s even more of a willing participant.

Adger — the lackey who does the most damage so the powers that be don’t have to get their hands dirty.

Want More of Adger and the Rest of Untrustworthy?

If Untrustworthy resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how an alien society devolves into fascism.

Character Reviews: Untrustworthy

Untrustworthy Universe

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Character Review — They Say This is the One – TSTITOCharacter Review, Josie James, Greg Shapiro, Jazminder Parikh, MD, Johnny Barnes, Dalton Farouk, Peri Martin, Carmen D’Angelo, MD, Dr. Devon Grace, Tommy 2000, Lex Feldman, Velexio, Character Reviews are Coming, Ixalla, Elise Jeffries, MD, Frances Miller Ashford, Marnie Shapiro, Ceilidh O’Malley, Dr. Mei-Lin Quan, Trixie LaRue, Tathrelle, Nell Murphy, Craig Firenze, Adger, Astrid Hennigsen, Benjamin Chase, Bobby/Jerry Brodie, Cyndi Mendez, Dez Hunter, Eileen Bragin, Eleanor Braverman, Judge John Lowell, Keisha Darnell, Minka Lopez, Nell Murphy, Noah Braverman, Olga Nicolaev, Peter Ray, Rachel Gifford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sally Bowles/TSTO Tiles, Shannon Duffy, Student #17, Tad Lewis, Ginny Carey, TSTITO, Selkhet 3000, complex evil characters, Emma 1000, They Say This is the One, Elston Young, Trinity Hawthorne, Character Creation

Character Review — They Say This is the One – TSTITO

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 26, 2023

Consider TSTITO, One of My Original Characters

Who is They Say This is the One AKA TSTITO?

When I was first writing the Obolonks, I had no direction for them and virtually zero plot. But I came up with a wacky naming convention. Obolonks would receive names from the community. These names would have a basis in their characteristics, their behaviors, or their skills. In short, their reputations.

But what do you call the big cheese, the head honcho?

Then I realized their name would have to come from their reputation, too.

So I hit upon a simple statement of—this is the one, this is our guy, our representative.

Fortunately, Obolonks have to be mature before they get a name, so a child isn’t saddled with so much pressure and responsibility.

Where Did TSTITO Come From?

We all know the old cliché—take me to your leader. In fact, I have Greg Shapiro say that. But Greg is just kidding around.

However, as I think about them, I don’t honestly want them to be the big cheese for all the Obolonks. Hence, since the governor of Massachusetts is only the leader of the Bay State, TSTITO would just be the governor of the Earthbound Obolonks, as it were.

But as I write this blog post, for the life of me, I cannot come up with a name for the overall leader.

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for TSTITO

Obolonks start to hear human transmissions when we start to make them. Therefore, back in maybe the Victorian era (to include telegraphy), the people of Bolonk came to the conclusion that they were not alone in the universe (sound familiar?).

As a patient people who live a very long time, this person would have to basically be groomed and study every nuance to try to understand humans. As a result, I have TSTITO undergoing training for more than a good 100 Earth years before they come here.

Description

Because They Say This is the One is fairly old, even for an Obolonk, they are a darker orange shade than many of their fellow aliens. Since Obolonks aren’t human, I don’t have a human actor or actress to ‘play’ them. Rather, they resemble Modigliani paintings. That is, they are extremely angular in comparison to us.

In addition, their limbs are longer than ours, while their torso is shorter. A human could never ‘play’ an Obolonk without some pretty fancy CGI, although a voiceover is a different story, of course.

Purpose/Theme/Motivation

Because they are the overall leader, every Obolonk technically comes under TSTITO’s purview. Keeping the species safe and happy is paramount.

Quotes {Peri and Tommy meet They Say This is the One for the first time}

A pair of Obolonks ushered them in. They were younger, possibly not named yet. The main distinguishing feature marking them as Obolonk youth was their light, orange-colored skin, almost an iced peach shade. If not named yet, they’d be called something like Third from the One Who Trains Pigeons and the One Who Sells Substandard Footwear, depending upon birth order, shortened to Third or Three by impatient humans, or even Trey or Trois if the human was feeling creative or worldly.

TSTITO came out after a short conference with the two youths. “Ah, Detective Sergeant Martin, do come in. And I see you brought an android.”

“This is Detective McFarland,” she said to the medium-orange alien. TSTITO was taller than Tommy’s normal height. Like all Obolonks, he was smooth-skinned, with a somewhat elongated cranium, no hair, and not much of a nose to speak of. His face resembled one she had seen in a painting at the Guggenheim Museum in the New York Meg—a Modigliani.

“This is an android,” TSTITO insisted.

“I would appreciate you not referring to my partner in the third person, as if he wasn’t here at all.”

“Detective,” said TSTITO, “I agreed to this meeting because the authorities are not doing anywhere near enough to investigate the deaths of my people. Your use of the most modern tools is encouraging. Your denying and attempting to lie to me about it is not.”

Before Peri could respond further, Tommy said, “I am a robot. This is not information being made known to the general public. Your discretion would be greatly appreciated.”

“Understood,” said the alien.

Relationships

With more than two spouses possible, TSTITO has relationships in spades. But the reader doesn’t see their spouses until near the end of the third book. But their offspring? That’s another story.

TSTITO and Their Offspring

With ten children from the communal marriage, they have complex relationships with the next generation—which includes younger Obolonks who aren’t biologically related to them at all.

TSTITO has the most difficult relationship with They Say This One Tiles Bathrooms Adequately, their eighth born. With a name that denotes a less than stellar reputation, this person has to already be something of a disappointment.

When this offspring reveals that they are very human-centered and not as much Obolonk-centered, it’s a lot like coming out to a parent who doesn’t approve. It’s also a lot like an experience which a lot of human immigrants have, where the second generation and beyond lose the old ways and assimilate into the mainstream, majority culture.

In this way, the relationship between the two is reflective of the immigrant experience as a whole—which is also the overarching theme of these related series.

Conflict and Turning Point

For TSTITO, the turning points occur when they learn that there’s trouble in Obolonk paradise (the Jovian moon, Callisto). Greg Shapiro, being the data guy that he is, susses out that the number of Obolonk deaths and injuries over the years just doesn’t add up. There aren’t enough of them.

Someone’s thumb is on the scale. And that thumb is orange.

But TSTITO also has a turning point when they learn who was really behind a series of September 13th bombings. But this is the overall turning point of the series.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

There isn’t a lot with this particular character. However, Josie James encounters mentions of them in various alternate timelines. These include scenarios where they were killed when they first set foot on Earth, thereby radically altering the timeline. After all, as the leader of all the Obolonks who have come to Earth, this is a linchpin character.

Future Plans

They may or may not show up in the prequel, which I am writing for the 2023 NaNo. But since this is a designation as opposed to a true name, a character with this name could show up in the third trilogy. However, this would be a different individual.

TSTITO: Takeaways

Officious and perhaps overly embracing of traditions, TSTITO is every parent who thought they would never embrace their LGBTQ+ offspring, but then eventually does. And at the same time, they are every first generation immigrant who thought things would stay the same but then learned this would be … not so much.

TSTITO — because someone has to lead the Obolonk people.

Want More of TSTITO and the Rest of the Obolonk Universe?

If the story of the Obolonks resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how our society turns tripartite, with humans, robots, and Obolonks.

Character Reviews: The Obolonk Murders

Humans

Robots

Obolonks

Character Reviews: Time Addicts

The Good Guys

The Bad Guys

The Obolonk Universe

Self-Reviews: Obolonk Trilogy

Self-Reviews: Time Addicts Trilogy

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Character Review — Selkhet 3000Character Review, Josie James, Greg Shapiro, Jazminder Parikh, MD, Johnny Barnes, Dalton Farouk, Peri Martin, Carmen D’Angelo, MD, Dr. Devon Grace, Tommy 2000, Lex Feldman, Velexio, Character Reviews are Coming, Ixalla, Elise Jeffries, MD, Frances Miller Ashford, Marnie Shapiro, Ceilidh O’Malley, Dr. Mei-Lin Quan, Trixie LaRue, Tathrelle, Nell Murphy, Craig Firenze, Adger, Astrid Hennigsen, Benjamin Chase, Bobby/Jerry Brodie, Cyndi Mendez, Dez Hunter, Eileen Bragin, Eleanor Braverman, Judge John Lowell, Keisha Darnell, Minka Lopez, Nell Murphy, Noah Braverman, Olga Nicolaev, Peter Ray, Rachel Gifford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sally Bowles/TSTO Tiles, Shannon Duffy, Student #17, Tad Lewis, Ginny Carey, TSTITO, Selkhet 3000, complex evil characters, Emma 1000, They Say This is the One, Elston Young, Trinity Hawthorne, Character Creation

Character Review — Selkhet 3000

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 24, 2023

Consider Selkhet 3000, One of My Original Characters

Who is Selkhet 3000?

I needed someone who could be a helper with the robots and Dr. Tinerrian, and quickly hit upon the idea of a robot filling that niche. Enter Selkhet.

Where Did Selkhet 3000 Come From?

When I first started writing about the Obolonks, I was completely winging it. As a result, I had no idea what I was going to do with Selkhet (or any of the other characters, for that matter).

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Selkhet

Much like Tommy 2000, Selket is created in Dr. James Tinerrian’s lab. She precedes him yet is a 3000 model. But she’s not the first fully sapient robot that Tinerrian makes. That is the seldom seen Emma 1000.

Why is she a 3000, and Tommy a 2000? Even Peri asks this! But the truth is, at the start, I was just going with what I felt sounded the best. With Tommy, there was some alliteration. Then I came up with an explanation. She would be overly emotional and sometimes less than controlled. Hence Tinerrian takes Tommy back to an earlier restore point.

But I have never honestly explored her less than fully controlled side. Maybe I will in the prequel, although it’s more likely it would be in the third trilogy series.

Description

I like the look of Selena Gomez for Selkhet. Very lovely, and very no-nonsense.

Actress Selena Gomez, who I see as Selkhet 3000. Image is for reference purposes only.
By The White House – [1], Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118366234

Purpose/Theme/Motivation

In some ways parallel to Tommy, she’s almost a proof of concept as to just what Tinerrian can do. But like Tommy starts off, her emotions are initially more a series of weights and measures than anything else.

That is, she performs trillions of calculations per second to determine if the proper emotional model to follow is the one of disgust, sorrow, joy, or any other feeling.

Her essential motivation is to take care of things for Jim Tinerrian. This includes long after his death, in the Time Addicts trilogy and beyond. In that trilogy, she immediately recognizes that Josie James needs help, and helps her.

But (if I recall correctly), she and Josie have never actually met before. But Selkhet trusts Tommy, and Tommy knows Josie is important.

Quotes {Peri has just met Selkhet and Tommy; Tommy has just morphed in front of Peri}

“Or an executive or any professional person here on Earth,” Tommy said. “Or I can look like a hayseed from Europa.” To prove his point, he became younger and taller and leaner, and wore a pair of coveralls but no shoes.

Peri’s jaw dropped, “Did you see that?” she asked Selkhet and Dr. Tinerrian. “Did you? That was, that was incredible.”

“Oh, that’s nothing,” said Selkhet, yawning slightly and morphing herself into a short, elderly, overweight Indian woman who looked a lot like Peri’s ex-mother-in-law.

“Oh my God!” Peri reeled, her heart in her throat, “You, you’re a, a, a, a, what?”“

Dr. Tinerrian, I believe you owe me a dollar.” Selkhet smiled. “We had a little wager going. The doctor said you wouldn’t guess I, too, am a robot. I am Selkhet Three Thousand.”

Peri sunk into the desk chair Tommy had vacated. After a moment, her detective instincts kicked in. “If you’re a Three Thousand, then why am I getting a Two Thousand? Er, no offense meant there, Tommy, but why?”

“Selkhet is a prototype. She’s the first of her kind and is here to help me with all of the other robots. Hence her name, Selkhet.” Peri squinted, tilting her head slightly. Dr. Tinerrian added, “Selkhet was the Egyptian guardian of the dead. Our Selkhet here is guardian of the robots. Anyway, Tommy is the first for the police department. We’re rolling out the entire Tommy Two Thousand series within a year, but he’s the first. There’ll be one in every police department from the Boston Meg to the Perth Meg and elsewhere in between—in all twenty-eight megalopolises if I have anything to say about it. And maybe they’ll even be off-Earth, and on a moon or a planet, too.”

Relationships

Although she’s just a machine, Selkhet has relationships.

Selkhet and Jim

Did Jim Tinerrian consciously create Selkhet to be a kind of dream girl for him? I confess even I’m not sure. But her devotion to him extends long past his death. Although she’s not as much of a tragic figure as Tommy is after Peri’s death.

One thing I wanted for her was for to not be Jim’s mindless servant, and she isn’t. She’s more of an employee half the time.

Selkhet and Tommy

Almost like a big sister in the first trilogy, Selkhet becomes Tommy’s plus-one for various social engagements in the second trilogy. I don’t really ‘ship them although I recognize that readers might…

Selkhet 3000 and Emma 1000

Because Emma doesn’t show up until the last of the Time Addicts books, I don’t have too much on this relationship. However, even though Emma is the elder of the two, Selkhet is more sophisticated and take charge.

Emma often doesn’t know how to act around people, and suffers from what we would call a form of social anxiety. Selkhet takes Emma under her wing and champions her, almost like a mentor and a protégée. And although I never put it on the screen, Emma had to have reactivated at some point.

Perhaps Selkhet was responsible for that? I might explore that in the third trilogy.

Conflict and Turning Point

Just like Tommy 2000, Selkhet 3000 is in both of the currently existing trilogies and her fate is fairly similar to his. When he is damaged in a way that is essentially a happy accident, he shares his transformation with her, so that she may experience it as well. That’s one turning point in her existence.

Another is when she helps out Josie. Selkhet could have more or less looked the other way. But she doesn’t. I don’t honestly explore it, but to my mind, it’s not specifically due to continuing devotion to Jim. I feel it’s more that she just plain feels it’s the right thing to do. Her acting on a hunch makes her more sapient than, in some ways, even Tommy.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

Much like Tommy, Selkhet can technically live forever, as long as she can find replacement parts. Hence, she played a relatively big role in the final book in the Time Addicts trilogy.

Future Plans for Selkhet 3000

The prequel for Time Addicts did not include her. And as for the prequel to The Obolonk Murders, that’s a long shot.

Selkhet 3000: Takeaways

Charming, smart, and sophisticated, Selkhet 3000 has a lot going for her. She’s fun to write.

Selkhet 3000 — the mother hen of the sapient robots.

Want More of Selkhet 3000 and the Rest of the Obolonk Universe?

If the story of the Obolonks resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how our society turns tripartite, with humans, robots, and Obolonks.

Character Reviews: The Obolonk Murders

Humans

Robots

Obolonks

Character Reviews: Time Addicts

The Good Guys

The Bad Guys

The Obolonk Universe

Self-Reviews: Obolonk Trilogy

Self-Reviews: Time Addicts Trilogy

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Character Review — Benjamin ChaseCharacter Review, Josie James, Greg Shapiro, Jazminder Parikh, MD, Johnny Barnes, Dalton Farouk, Peri Martin, Carmen D’Angelo, MD, Dr. Devon Grace, Tommy 2000, Lex Feldman, Velexio, Character Reviews are Coming, Ixalla, Elise Jeffries, MD, Frances Miller Ashford, Marnie Shapiro, Ceilidh O’Malley, Dr. Mei-Lin Quan, Trixie LaRue, Tathrelle, Nell Murphy, Craig Firenze, Adger, Astrid Hennigsen, Benjamin Chase, Bobby/Jerry Brodie, Cyndi Mendez, Dez Hunter, Eileen Bragin, Eleanor Braverman, Judge John Lowell, Keisha Darnell, Minka Lopez, Nell Murphy, Noah Braverman, Olga Nicolaev, Peter Ray, Rachel Gifford, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sally Bowles/TSTO Tiles, Shannon Duffy, Student #17, Tad Lewis, Ginny Carey, TSTITO, Selkhet 3000, complex evil characters, Emma 1000, They Say This is the One, Elston Young, Trinity Hawthorne, Character Creation

Character Review — Benjamin Chase

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 19, 2023

Let’s Consider Benjamin Chase, One of My Original Characters

So, who is Benjamin Chase?

For The Enigman Cave to work, I needed for Marnie to be not only okay with space but downright happy to be there. But one of the flies in the ointment would be her ex.

And while Ben may be almost a negative version of a Mary Sue, he does have his moments, one of which is in the Quotes section. Besides, it’s more than a little bit fun to write a character who is perpetually pissed off. Or, at least, he seems to be.

Where Did Ben Chase Come From?

To round out the cast and give Marnie a smaller antagonist before getting to the bigger one, I came up with the idea of an ex. And, originally, because I named her Marnie Chase, I first thought that I would have her catch him cheating and divorce him in the book.

Then I thought better of it, and made them already split as early as page one.

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Benjamin Chase

David Strathairn, who I see as Benjamin Chase.
By Keith McDuffee from Northborough, MA, USA – FlickrUploaded by stemoc, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=30832011

The chief botanist on board the Valentina Tereshkova is a necessary part of the crew. Brilliant and handsome, you can almost forgive Ben’s flaws. Almost.

But he’s hard to deal with under the best of circumstances. His original tolerance for Marnie was due to her intellect. But their marriage was stormy at best.

Description

In the book, I describe him as, … “tall and slender, with dark hair gone gray at the temples. A few lines on his face added character and interest, and dark eyes could hold nearly anyone’s attention. They had certainly held Marne’s attention, back in the day.”

My husband suggested David Strathairn for the look, and I have to agree.

However, this actor doesn’t seem to have played too many villains. But Ben isn’t exactly a villain. He’s more like a thorn in Marnie’s side than anything else.

Purpose/Theme/Motivation

The smartest guy in the room should have been happy with the smartest woman in the room. But Ben’s not so secret dirty little secret is that he’s a philanderer.

And in a ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ moment, Marnie’s thoughts tell the reader that he’s a serial philanderer.

When things really hit the fan, he doesn’t get a comeuppance although Marnie does eventually dress him down. For Ben won’t act like a hero. But he can act a little less like a whiny brat. Marnie takes what she can get.

Quotes

A few minutes later, Chase stomped in. “You know I’m not on the bridge crew.” He glared at his ex-wife. “And who the hell sent me a picture of a bunch of chlorophyll?”

“Chlorophyll?” asked Ray. The others just stared.

“Yes! Goddamned chlorophyll. I don’t have time for these shenanigans,” Chase huffed.

“Ben,” Marnie looked him in the eye, “are you absolutely certain that’s chlorophyll?”

“I know chlorophyll when I see it. Every botanist does.”

“And the chemical formula, Tom, what do you have on your screen?”

“C fifty-five, H seventy-two, Oh five, N four, M-G.”

“That, C-whatever stuff,” Marnie said. “Is that chlorophyll?”

“Yes.” Chase was even more peeved. “Everybody past basic Biochemistry knows that.”

“They never found it off Earth though, eh?” Marnie played her trump card.

“What?”

“Here,” Astrid punched up another picture. “This is the atmosphere of the world we’re orbiting.”

Ben leaned over and looked through the scope at the Scientific station. “Well, I’ll be damned.” He, too, was slack-jawed. “We, we found it.”

“You sure?” asked Marnie.

“Yes,” Chase was threatening to become as shell-shocked as Marnie and Tom were. “Algae can have chlorophyll. They’re technically unicellular. But they, they live communally. I, I would say they, they count as, as multicellular.”

“Remember where you were, remember what you were thinking and, and how you felt,” Marnie said. “Because this is goddamned history.”

Relationships

Aloof and often intolerant, Ben still has two significant relationships.

Marnie Shapiro

In a stormy, meeting of intellects type of marriage, Ben isn’t the kind of affectionate and caring person that Lex Feldman is. Because she’s such a laid back person, she tolerates his shenanigans until they turn into obvious, undeniable philandering.

I think of them almost like Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter, where there’s a lot of verbal sparring. I can almost see Ben and Marnie with cocktails in hand, at some swanky New York party, continually insulting one another. In real life, of course, this is exhausting at the best of times.

Kristen Watson

The head nurse on the Val is one of Ben’s conquests and the last woman he was sleeping with before the divorce became finalized. Perky, young, and almost regretting the affair, she is everything he is not.

In particular, he’s not a fan of children—yet she becomes pregnant anyway. Oops.

Conflict and Turning Point

Much like with the rest of the Enigman cast, Ben’s turning point happens a few times. Once, when the planet and its riches are discovered, but also when the government of Earth collapses.

But he doesn’t take a brave stand or anything. He just becomes a little less of a pain in the patoot.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

He doesn’t really have any. The only continuity I foresee for him will be in the prequel story.

Future Plans for Benjamin Chase

For either the 2023 NaNo or maybe 2024 (2025?) I will write a prequel in the Enigman universe. Ben will be there and the reader will see their marriage a bit. But I don’t want that story to turn into just a constant bitchfest for the two of them. That’s not the plot.

In fact, I don’t want him on screen much at all during that story. But once I start writing it, I may change my mind. We’ll see, particularly if it feels like the word count ends up being too low.

Benjamin Chase: Takeaways

This character is vital to the storyline and particularly vital for Marnie’s own personal growth as a character. But a real person like Benjamin Chase would be annoying as hell.

Benjamin Chase — proving even whiny people can sometimes be heroes. When it suits them.

Want More of Benjamin Chase and the Rest of The Enigman Cave?

If The Enigman Cave resonates with you, then check out my other articles about how our society handles first contact with a species that may be as primitive as Australopithecus.

Character Reviews: The Enigman Cave

The Enigman Cave Universe

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Self-Review – Alix’s Apocalypse

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 17, 2023

It’s Time for a Review of Alix’s Apocalypse

Alix’s Apocalypse came about as a short story during 2021, when I was working to keep sharp between NaNoWriMo outings.

Background

The initial one-word prompt was the word daisies. And so the first thing I thought of (because I can be ultra-morbid at times) was of corpses pushing them up.

I named the title character after a women I had know years ago but, unfortunately, I had at the time recently learned that she had passed away from breast cancer.

Plot

When the world ends, there are survivors. But how can they get together and learn to trust one another again? For Alix, the feeling of trust and community begins to return when she starts to receive gifts at her campsite.

Characters

The characters are Alix, Esteban, and Shari Chung. Mentioned but never seen is Alix’s mother in law, who had Alzheimer’s. However, this story was not written for The Longest Night Watch.

Memorable Quotes from Alix’s Apocalypse

They’re everywhere, covering countless fields of grass and bones and spent shell casings. In thousands if not millions—probably billions, who am I kidding?—of unmarked final resting places, the dead are pushing them up.

It all happened in the early spring. The land was full of promise and rainstorms and their ships. Those hideous conveyances, the color of the underbelly of a dead fish.

Their rays are some sort of combination of poison and radiation. But at least they weren’t airborne. So, when an area was hit, it was devastated and became a barren wasteland. We called it being over. But in between the parts that are over, there are parts that are not. And this is where the daisies bloom by the millions.

And even the places that were over aren’t quite so over these days. I’ve seen deer walk into the over places and emerge unscathed. Of course, twenty years from now, they might all get cancer. Which would be tragic. But I don’t know if deer ever live that long, anyway.

Rating

The story has a K rating. I write about the end of the world, but you don’t really see it on screen.

Takeaways for Alix’s Apocalypse

If we are ever attacked and essentially all become feral, then I hope someone remembers to give a gift and start to trust again.

Alix’s Apocalypse — because maybe there can be a semi-happy ending after all that. #amwriting

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Self-Review – Dominick and Angela

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 12, 2023

A Review of Dominick and Angela

I really like this little story of how a small time mobster is changed by love and leaves his old life behind. Dominick decides to leave it all behind before he is pulled any deeper into the mob life.

Background

The initial section came from a one-word prompt: bilk. I wanted someone who would almost defend that as a life choice, to bilk people out of their money.

But then Dom grew on me, and I came to the conclusion that he and Angie needed to get out.

This is a short story that I wrote in 2021 to keep sharp between NaNoWriMo months.

Plot

Knowing that his life is only going to get worse, Dominick decides he needs to leave it all behind. At the same time, he’s in love with Angela and wants to make a life with her.

The story therefore starts in the confessional at St. Catherine’s, where he’s talking to Father Russo about his dilemma.

But it turns out that this is not Father Russo’s first rodeo.

Oh, and FYI, there is no Saint Catherine’s on Staten Island.

Characters

The characters are Dominick Ottomanelli and Angela, his girlfriend (she never got a maiden name). We also see his mother, Louise and his Nonna (grandmother). The only other characters are Marina Santiago and Father Russo, with quick appearances by the cleaning lady Marjery Simms, and the caretaker, Robert Kowalczech.

Other characters I mention but you never see them, namely Paul White; Martha Renatti and her toddler; Louie D’Antonio and his family, Anita, Mario, Tammy, and Kathy; and Marina’s colleague, Jeff.

Memorable Quotes from Dominick and Angela

Father Russo sped through the ceremony as quickly as possible. When it got to the time for their vows, Angie held up a hand. “I want to say something.”

“Of course.” The priest stepped back a bit.

“My mother always said that marriage is a great adventure. I’m glad my adventure is gonna be with you.”

“E ticket all the way, baby.”

“By the power vested in me by the state of New York, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Rating

The story has a K+ rating, as I mention some violence but it’s never onscreen.

Takeaways for Dominick and Angela

So, I don’t honestly know how accurate his life or the process of covering up his existence are. But I don’t think they matter as much s how this story makes me feel, and I hope how it makes a reader feel. And it doesn’t have a home yet. Still, I hope a publisher (or maybe just me!) will take a chance on a lovable galoot like Dominick.

Will Dominick and Angela make it? Even I have no idea. #amwriting

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Tropes and the Allure of the Familiar

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 10, 2023

Background – Tropes

What are tropes? Should you always avoid them?

There is something about their familiarity. It is kind of comforting, in a way. But it can also be rather stale writing to lean on them too heavily. What are the pros and cons of them?

Marketing 101

Consider one of the most basic concepts of marketing, whether it’s the latest cutting edge digital marketing (AI-infused or not) or a billboard on a lonesome highway somewhere.

One of the core concepts for both is giving your buyer persona (your ideal customer) what they want. Let’s take that to product marketing for a second, shall we?

Now, it is highly unlikely that you will go broke selling cheese pizza if your pizza is at all decent and the marketing isn’t utterly saturated. This is because lots of people love pizza, and the cheese variety is as basic as you can get. Apart from pepperoni, extra cheese is the most popular pizza topping out there.

It can be made kosher or halal, and you can add it to any standard semi-vegetarian or lacto-vegetarian diet. Sounds awesome, right?

But what if you invent, oh I don’t know, pizza-flavored coffee?

People certainly enjoy both pizza and coffee. And they may even enjoy them together. So, why not put them together into one product?

Why not?

Because ick, that’s why.

Seriously. Don’t do this.

What Does Pizza Have to do With Tropes?

Your super standard cheese pizza is equivalent to a trope. It is not only popular. It’s also expected. Yet pizza-flavored coffee is unfamiliar and weird. Even when both elements sell well, the mashup sometimes just doesn’t make enough logical sense.

So, your idea of a horror mystery science fiction romance with talking unicorns and a guest appearance by Elvis is probably going to be a bit much to people. Even if they love every single one of the elements, the mashup feels forced, overdone, and just plain odd.

Tropes and Scènes à Faire

Er, what are scènes à faire? For that, you need to go back to copyright. Scènes à faire are not really tropes. They are something different entirely.

Here’s a set of examples.

Romance Scènes à Faire

The meeting and a first date. A first kiss, and a rivalry. A relationship in peril. And a happy ending. What do all these have in common? They are so common in romances that readers and audiences have come to expect them. And, you can’t copyright them unless you get extremely specific and/or put a new twist on them.

These are all examples of scènes à faire. You’ll never get into copyright trouble (er, I’m not your lawyer, but this is kinda obvious) if your romance contains a kiss.

Horror Scènes à Faire

Don’t go into the basement! Oh my gosh, don’t go anywhere alone! Trust no one! The Scream franchise played up scènes à faire to box office gold. Characters could stay alive if they could follow the unwritten ‘rules’ of the genre. Again, unlike Freddy or Jason, these are expected bits and not copyrightable.

Science Fiction Scènes à Faire

So, there are a few subsets of science fiction, including space opera, sci-fi/fantasy, and dystopia. They all have their own scènes à faire. In a space opera, a description of the ship is fair game. So are planets, stars, and moons.

In a fantasy, magical or near-magical elements (think ‘the Force’ in Star Wars) are something a reader or audience member has come to expect. And in a dystopia, expect elements of either a fallen civilization or a fascist one.

Why Are Scènes à Faire Okay, But Tropes Kind Of Aren’t?

There is a somewhat blurry line between the expectations that come with scènes à faire and the staleness that can often accompany tropes.

TV Tropes is a gold mine here. It’s all a rabbit hole you can find yourself falling down. So, here’s a sample. Let’s look at the trope they call, One Last Job.

In this trope, a career villain agrees to ‘one last job’ before retiring. This can end up with the villain’s death or comeuppance, or the villain rejects retirement, and a bunch of other variations. This can even be attached to a good guy agreeing to one last case or arrest or the like.

TV Tropes shows not only the trope itself and where it exists, but it also points out the variant. In Supernatural, for example, Sam is the one who wants to do ‘one last job’—but he’s a teenager. Hardly a person we would call seasoned.

The Copy/Paste, the Expectation, and the Reader

If I wrote a story about ghost-hunting brothers where one of them was going to do ‘one last job’ but was swept into the fray anyway, readers would probably feel it was familiar. And for anyone who knows Supernatural, it would be way too familiar.

So, that’s probably too close. But what if I make them sisters who are bounty hunters, and take the fantasy aspect completely out of the equation? Is that enough for it to feel original yet still familiar enough to please my buyer persona and meet their expectations?

The answer is—I don’t know, unless I try.

And neither do you.

Takeaways

Tropes can actually be good tools for writing. But there are some caveats.

Getting too close to a source work or at least a general idea of one can feel stale and unimaginative. And if your own writing bores you, then imagine how your readers feel?

But getting too far away from it can throw out the baby with the bath water and turn into pizza-flavored coffee.

So, try to aim for a sweet spot, where a reader is comfortable and your work feels like coming home again, and not like a pale imitation of something that came before.

Wield your tropes wisely!

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Pocket Conflicts in Writing

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on October 5, 2023

What are Pocket Conflicts?

So, pocket conflicts are the kinds of conflicts which are tiny. They aren’t wars and they don’t lead to divorce or a firing. Instead, they are more about the speed of “who moved my cheese?”

Hence they are kind of trivial, yet they can add a lot of annoyance into anyone’s life. And they can add color and interest to your characters, too.

Sibling Rivalry

Because the sibling relationship is often fraught with conflict, it can be the perfect vehicle for these types of conflicts. And if you have ever seen two children in the back of a car arguing about who last touched whom (or if you have ever been either of those children), or who last sat in front, then you know exactly what I am talking about.

And sibling rivalry does not necessarily go away when the siblings have grown up. Old resentments can crop up even when going through a deceased parent’s things. And the ‘kids’ might even be in their sixties by then.

Work Relationships

Pocket conflicts abound at work. And it’s not just cheese moving. What happens when someone moves somebody else’s desk? Or maybe someone was passed over for a promotion. Furthermore, colleagues can resent when a person has a different schedule if they don’t know why.

If a parent has to drop their children off at daycare, and has permission to do so, then there’s every possibility that employee will, on occasion, be late. And that can create a conflict with that person’s coworkers if the boss doesn’t explain things properly.

And let’s not even get started with the kinds of conflicts that come from being vaccinated—or not.

Pocket Conflicts: Takeaways

Get your characters out of their comfort zones, but only a little bit. Because sometimes the small pebble in your shoe can hold your thoughts more than the metaphorical gunshot wound to your gut. And your characters should be no different, if you want them to seem real.

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