It all started once I decided to stop trying to write in first person point of view, and switched to third person omniscient. Once I began playing God, women took control.
After college, I wrote shorts and poetry, with some limited success. Not enough to make anyone notice. Life occurred, and “real” work began. Writing became technical, mostly peer articles for fitness industry publications. I also became adept at advertising and marketing copy.
I kept trying fiction, secretly. I sat before the computer, attempting to get a story out of my head, and somehow palatable.
I had these great characters, usually fantasy and urban fiction guys. I wrote in first person. I wanted others to really get to know my character . . . I wanted to be my character. I failed miserably for nearly three decades.
The Space Fleet Sagas came to me while dreaming. The protagonist, Daniel Marcel Cooper, a sci-fi version of a recurring character from my failed past. Another “Coop,” but a hybrid wizard-fay-human. Why a science fiction space adventure haunted my dreams? I cannot honestly tell you. I like sci-fi, and I really enjoy adventure novels, but I have always leaned towards books like the Dresden Files, Iron Druid, or Jane Yellowrock.
CONTACT AND CONFLICT, is the platform for the Space Fleet Sagas. I wanted to introduce Coop and his ship, the SFPT-109, John F. Kennedy: Earth’s first force-ready ship capable of intergalactic travel. I imagined the ship as a patrol vessel, with armaments including multi-capable torpedoes. The PT boats of WWII came to mind. Quick ships with small, heroic crews. Boats that went up against enemy ships hundreds of times bigger, but never badder.
I had a protagonist, and I had a hook with the John F. Kennedy, PT-109. I live in a world where millions of refugees are fleeing the conflicts in the Middle East. I watch, and do not understand, terrorist acts or combatants harming innocents. I wanted to explore difficult cultural issues from a distance. I also wanted to create an adventure like the ones I read as a kid . . . stories that made me keep reading.
Notice all of the “I’s” in that preceding paragraph? That insight, which only took about thirty years to reach, changed dreams into reality. I wrote the entire book in less than four weeks, and all in third person omniscient. I took “I” out of the equation.
And women took over.
When you read the samples at book sellers, or book review sites (or go to http://donfoxe.net/order-books.html), the first character introduced is Coop. The next two are female. I should have seen the foreshadowing. I read sff adventures and mysteries, for god’s sake! Foreshadowing is like baby formula for plots.
After the story ended, and re-writes, and editing began, it was only then I realized, besides the lead, every major character moving the narrative was a woman! Without spoiling the book for you, let me illuminate . . .
Ship is female, because ships are traditionally female. Ship’s Artificial Intelligence, therefore, voices as female. You will read the sample, so not a spoiler to know the AI’s avatar, and Space Fleet’s commander are both female. First two kick-ass aliens our protagonist encounters are, yep, female. When all is bleak, and help is needed . . . ex-girlfriend is called on. Also kickass, with wise-ass friend . . . female.
A platform book, the keystone for a series, has to deliver, but, it is, by nature, more boring than the books to follow. As a reader, you need to be interested enough to continue with the next book. As a writer with a long-term vision, I have to place some foundation blocks, which require over-describing certain technical aspects. Strong, female characters help do both. Women become the more interesting characters. Feminine, sexy, tough, reliable, smart. Male characters can do most of that, but they cannot do feminine. Admit it . . . a guy talking tech-stuff is just a guy being a guy. A girl talking techie is hot.
Conversation moves a storyline better than descriptions. You would rather hear someone’s opinion, than a litany of facts. Terry Goodkind is a wonderful wordsmith, but pages of describing a forest gets old. Women are just better at conversation than men. I needed dialogue. When the action begins, when the plot moves from set-up to delivery, those female characters used to help create the atmosphere naturally moved into the battle scenes.
The innate nature of females, to switch from cub to tiger when required, is displayed in both humans, and aliens in CONTACT AND CONFLICT. Females holding major character roles continue with the following books.
That civilized females of different races, different species, different planets would share certain qualities is one of the themes which bind the sagas, and associated stories. Women rule. Word.
CONTACT AND CONFLICT, the continuing sagas, the short stories, and back stories used to fill in characters, and histories (http://donfoxe.net/characters-crew.html), share a common principle: read them to escape. I write to escape. I read to escape. I want my readers to enjoy a couple of hours of pure adventure, set in space, with aliens, good guys, bad guys, and hope. Hope that one day we might have a first contact. Hope that some fictional solution might work its way into solving an Earth-bound cultural conflict.
Do not spend thirty years in the void of brain-space. If you have the desire to write, and you have trouble getting your imagination under control, try a different point of view. Guys, explore female characters. Girls, get your guy-side on. If that sounds alien, cool. Take a character, male or female, who is important to you, and have a woman describe them . . . fictionally. Please, do not ask your mother to describe some super hot alien vixen with a lust for all things purple. Use a feminine POV. Bet you discover things you did not know you knew.
I crave feedback. Drop a comment. Better: if there is a storyline you want pursued, or a character fleshed out, by history or action, you have a platform. Women took over my galaxy, but the galaxy is big. There is room for changes, so send me critiques, reviews, and suggestions (http://donfoxe.net/contact.html).
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