When Words Invade

Just as the Martians are invading New York State in the novel, the words are invading my mind. While the words themselves haven’t been coming as fast this past week or so, they’re still coming but more slowly, it makes sense because I’ve been doing more research.

One of the catches of this particular novel is that it’s requiring a certain amount of research that wasn’t necessary for some of the previous books in the series. For example, New York Governor Herbert H. Lehman is a minor character in this adventure. Now I could just say this is an alternate world so it’s an alternate character, but I didn’t want to do that. I want a sense of verisimilitude, and that comes from research.

Some of the basics I had to determine were things like his politics, and his family. It’s not enough to know the political party, but it’s also helpful to understand what the man stood for. Also, given the situation these characters are in it helps to know his military record. In this case, he was a WWI veteran but not a combat veteran who achieved the rank of Colonel. I’m not sure how many of these details will actually hit the page, but everything that does hit the page will be influenced by these details.

I also found an interview show where he was a guest, so I was able to get an idea for his voice and manner of speaking. It also helped that it showed his stance on a number of issues, from defense to civil rights.

In other news, sales have been going quite well, especially in the last few days as I’ve not only sold a number of books on Amazon but books have started moving on other platforms as well…