The answers to all of this month’s prompts are generally based on my current WIP, Spiral Architect, which is part of my Starbreaker saga. If you want, you can always download the current drafts with the following links:
If you aren’t happy with the cover, blame me. It’s mostly a DIY job; the tattoo graphic was commissioned from Ricky Gunawan for my first novel, Without Bloodshed, and I’ve reused it. Email me if you want to talk commission.
prompts by:
8/1: Intro Day. If you could hangout with one of your side characters for a day, who would you choose? Why?
intro
I’m Matthew. I write science fantasy. My stuff probably owes entirely too much to Michael Moorcock, Judas Priest, Blue Öyster Cult, and Final Fantasy. I published a couple of novels in the 2010s and my current WIP is Spiral Architect. My stuff isn’t YA and deals with abuses of power. It also takes liberties with mythology and religious beliefs. If you’re the sort who conflates depiction with endorsement, then for Hell’s sake read something else.
side characters
Well, Claire Ashecroft is generally good for a laugh. We could get drunk, hack a few cryptocurrency exchanges, steal everything they’ve got, distribute most of it to people who actually need money and keep a little for ourselves as wages.
It might be nice to have Naomi Bradleigh over as well, but I have no idea what she’d charge for piano lessons. Probably more than I currently pay.
8/2: How much do you know about your side characters prior to the first draft?
How much did I know about them prior to the first draft of Spiral Architect? I knew quite a lot about most of them since they’ve appeared in other novels and stories I’ve written. Others are entirely new, and I’m developing them as I go along.
8/3: If your favorite side character(s) had a theme song, what would it be?
- for Claire Ashecroft: “Big Balls” by AC/DC
- for Naomi Bradleigh: “Voice” by Hiromi Uehara
- for Eddie Cohen: “Killed by Death” by Motörhead
- for Christabel Crowley: “Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All”) by Type O Negative
- for Syd Reeves: “Best I Can” by Queensrÿche
- for Elisabeth Bathory: “In These Shoes?” by Kirsty MacColl
8/4: Share art, pics (face claims), and/or mood boards of one (or more) of your side characters.
I know this is useful for a lot of writers, but I’m not one of them. I think in plain text, and I dream in infrared.
Besides, I can do something better. Claire Ashecroft was inspired by Iron Maiden’s B-side, “Bayswater Ain’t a Bad Place to Be” in which Bruce Dickinson pretends to be the band’s manager, Rod Smallwood. When I imagined the rant being delivered by Julia Sawalha as Saffron from Absolutely Fabulous, I ended up with Claire’s prototype.
Though Claire doesn’t look at all like Saffron.
8/5: Does your MC have any pictures of themselves with their friends or family? Why/why not?
Morgan Cooper has pictures of him with people from the Phoenix Society, particularly Eddie Cohen and Sydney Reeves, since they’ve often supported each other in their respective missions. Morgan is an Adversary dealing mainly with civil rights/economic justice issues. Syd is a Peacemaker, specializing in arms control. Eddie is general staff, but often supports both as a sharpshooter with help from his trusty comrade, Puffsky the Magic Dragunov.
Morgan also has pictures where he’s with both Naomi Bradleigh and Christabel Crowley as part of the neo-Romantic power trio Crowley’s Thoth, and pics of him and Christabel together because they’ve been dating. He doesn’t have any pictures that are just him and Naomi; Christabel’s the possessive type.
8/6: MC POV: Have you ever kept a secret from your closest friend? If so, why?
according to Morgan Cooper:
Naomi Bradleigh does not need to know that I never quite got over my idiotic adolescent infatuation with her, or that I still treasure the sting of the one kiss I had of her. I’m with Christabel now, for as long as she’ll have me. Even if I could dump her and be with Naomi, she’d have to be a fool to accept me under such terms, because if I dumped Christabel to be with Naomi, I could just as easily “trade up” again. That’s not the kind of man I want to be.
8/7: What does your MC see when they look out their bedroom window/door?
When he looks out his bedroom window, he can see West 96th Street in Manhattan if he looks down, or into the bedroom across the street if he looks directly across. Said bedroom is currently occupied by a polycule of four who are currently and with great gusto trying to get the two women pregnant. Morgan once saw them at play by accident, and has since been careful to avoid looking across the street.
Not out of prudery, but out of respect for others’ privacy. Morgan suspects that if his neighbors across the way wanted to do a porno they’d put it online and charge for access.
8/8: What is your MC’s bedtime routine like?
Morgan Cooper’s bedtime routine is private, and not relevant to the story. But he’s determined to be human, so he does a lot of the same things you and I do before bed. Use your imagination.
He does, however, have a king-sized bed because his rakshasa Mordred likes to sprawl. Being a rakshasa, Mordred looks like a Maine Coon cat the size of a leopard, so he takes up a lot of bed even when curled up.
8/9: Does your MC have children? If not, do they want to?
Morgan doesn’t have children. Even if Christabel was interested in having kids with him, as one of the einherjar Morgan isn’t sure he and Christabel can actually have children. They might not be genetically compatible. But he still wears condoms just in case, because he isn’t all that enthusiastic about being a father to Christabel’s children. This is probably a sign that they should break up, but he’s not willing to do that for reasons explained elsewhere.
8/10: What’s your MC’s most annoying character trait?
Aside from his penchants for melodrama and self-flagellation? He beats himself up because nobody else can or will.
8/11: MC POV: If you had to give your closest friend one piece of advice, what would it be? Why?
Morgan dares not claim Naomi as his closest friend because Christabel would get jealous. So the closest alternative is Eddie, who Morgan knows better than to presume to advise because he’s at least thrice Morgan’s age.
Nevertheless, if Morgan were to advise Naomi he’d tell her not to stay in Crowley’s Thoth if she’s doing it for his sake, because he’s only sticking around for hers.
If he were to advise Eddie, he’d tell the guy to stop drinking. Eddie Cohen doesn’t have a drinking problem; he has a doing dumb shit when he’s drunk problem. (He admits as much in Without Bloodshed. That’s he how ended up with Elisabeth Bathory in his bed.)
8/12: Does your MC have any prejudices?
Morgan grew up in a culture where religion is strictly private and personal. People are generally as circumspect with their gods (of which they often have more than one) in public as they are with their genitals. Certain monotheist sects who think that making a public spectacle of their piety is a good way to testify to their glory of their one and only god are the exception to this rule. Morgan detests such people, but keeps that to himself because their right to worship in that way is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights he swore to uphold.
8/13: Antagonist POV: How many people are you close with?
according to Isaac Magnin:
With how many am I close? It rather depends on how many enemies I’ve made at any given moment. I make a point of keeping them at least as close as my friends.
8/14: What parts of your world would you recommend a tourist to visit? Why?
There’s always stuff to see and do in Morgan Cooper’s version of New York. Just don’t be surprised that the signage isn’t just in English, Spanish, or French, but in Dutch and Lenape as well.
8/15: What parts of your world would you recommend a tourist to stay away from? Why?
Stay away from the orbital colonies over Uranus. That’s where all of Earth’s assholes get exiled. Fortunately, it’s generally hard to get there; you need to have been convicted on a tyranny charge. However, there are degrees of tyranny. If you get exiled to Uranus your neighbor could have tried to overturn an election and set himself up as dictator, or she might have been a small business owner who got nailed for wage theft because she didn’t pay time and a half for overtime.
8/16: Give an example of a popular activity or tradition in your world.
People generally celebrate the Winter (in the northern hemisphere) Solstice instead of Christmas, unless they’re Christians. It’s generally an excuse to socialize, share gifts among close friends, confess love, or propose marriage. There are often free-to-the-public concerts in major cities, such as the Winter Pops concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London – a regular gig for Crowley’s Thoth.
8/17: MC POV: What’s a deal-breaker in a friendship and/or relationship?
According to Morgan Cooper:
I’m not sure I actually have deal-breakers, and that’s probably not healthy. My therapist has warned me that my reluctance to discard friends could cost me dearly.
For example, Eddie Cohen has a tendency toward casual misogyny. He generally knows better than to air such opinions around me, however, because I won’t tolerate it. I keep him around because he’s always had my back, and if you need a good sharpshooter he’s your man. Just don’t ask him what he thinks of monotheists after his third drink. He’s got some truly vile opinions formed by wartime experience.
Then there’s my girlfriend Christabel. She offers no pretense that her love is anything but conditional, and makes it clear that she only keeps me around because Crowley’s Thoth wouldn’t be the same without me on guitar, bass, and backing vocals. Then again, she only keeps Naomi around because the band wouldn’t be the same without her on lead vocals and keyboards. She doesn’t particularly like either of us, and has even gone so far as to tell me that I was nothing but a machine pretending to be a man.
I should have dumped her for that, but she was drunk when she said it, dumping her would have broken up the band, and – worst of all – she’s right. I just don’t see why she has a problem with that, because being human seems to me an exercise in pretending to be more or better than what you really are. I pretend I’m not merely a weapon. You pretend you’re not merely a chimpanzee’s mostly hairless distant cousin.
8/18: Is your MC good at flirting?
Well, he doesn’t think so. In fact, he doesn’t flirt much at all, except when somebody flirts with him. As a younger man he needed to be told that somebody was flirting with him.
8/19: Antagonist POV: How do you like to have fun?
according to Isaac Magnin:
Didn’t anybody tell you I get my jollies by kicking puppies and punching kittens?
Don’t worry. I don’t actually do that. I am, however, an inveterate libertine so I will refrain from describing in any particular detail my leisure activities. There might be children reading.
8/20: Does your villain ever cry or show sadness?
Not in public, or anywhere where it can be recorded and used against him. Isaac Magnin has a reputation to consider. It would rather spoil the persona he’s worked so hard to cultivate if it turned out that his secret villain song was in fact “Behind Blue Eyes” by The Who and not “When You’re Evil” by Aurelio Voltaire or “I Think Bad Thoughts” by Danko Jones. He wants people to think he’s a man of wealth and taste, not still a sad little kitten.
8/21: MC POV: A stranger makes a crude comment about your SO or BFF. How do you react?
according to Morgan Cooper:
I doubt Christabel would appreciate me taking a sword to every idiot who yells “show yer tits” when we’re on stage, so I stick to asking her if she’s OK or wants help. We have implanted computers that let us text each other with a thought, so it isn’t necessarily obvious that I’ve asked her if she wants an assist. Her response to ask if I can manage it without committing a massacre. Which I’ve only done once, and for far greater cause than some drunken moron demanding a striptease at a rock concert.
The last time somebody said something crude to Naomi, I didn’t have to intervene. All she did was give him a contemptuous glare and ask him if he’d care to repeat himself so that the rest of the class could hear him. Though she was wearing a sword, she didn’t even have to touch the hilt, let alone draw it. Her voice was weapon enough, but if it had come to the point of bare steel I would have been beside her with my own sword drawn.
8/22: What makes your hero feel weak?
according to Morgan Cooper:
If you ever want to feel weak, try witnessing a blatant injustice and not being able to intervene despite your willingness to do so because your involvement might only escalate the situation. If I saw an individual being assaulted by one or more assailants, I can do something about it. If I am alerted to exploitation, I can go after the exploiter. If a single authority figure exceeds their authority, I can strike them down.
However, the very system that gives me the authority to go after individual tyrants and exploiters, to even kill them in self-defense or defense of others facing imminent danger to their lives, is itself corrupt. For example, the UN’s vaunted space program and humanity’s colonization of the solar system is fueled by the involuntary transportation of convicts found guilty of tyranny and exploitation, and this injustice is generally accepted because most people find this hypocrisy a delicious irony. Even if I could burn the motherfucker down right now, all I might accomplish is the creation of a clear stage for the rise of a new and more egregiously tyrannical regime.
Einherjar or not, a single angry man with a sword in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other does not a revolution make. I do not have the right to overrule the collective decisions of billions of people. Do I?
8/23: In your MC’s mind, what’s the worst thing they’ve ever done?
according to Morgan Cooper:
I once investigated a so-called “finishing school” where young men and women were not only trained to participate in high society, but rented out to pedophiles (yes, I know they’re technically ephebophiles; don’t be so goddamned pedantic). Some were even married off without their consent. I had all of the evidence I needed before I set foot on the grounds. The Phoenix Society does not send an Adversary until its lawyers are confident they have an ironclad case. Everything I saw confirmed what I already knew. I don’t regret putting everybody involved to the sword, evacuating the students, and burning this “school” to the ground.
Nor do I particularly regret announcing myself, not as an Adversary, but by quoting a mass murderer: “I am the Devil, and I am here on the Devil’s business!” It had seemed appropriate in the moment.
What I regret is that I went full Dredd. I let my rage overrule my judgment and training. Even such as these are entitled to due process, to a fair and public trial. I denied them that basic right even though I knew better, even though, no matter how obvious and egregious my own crimes I would still demand that I be proven guilty before facing the punishment due.
I should have stood trial for it. I should have been condemned. Instead, some people mistake me for a fucking hero. Worst of all, I’d do it again given sufficient cause. When the law is no shield, only the sword remains. Never mind that I’m sowing dragons’ teeth in my wake.
8/24: Antagonist POV: What do you like the most about the place where you live?
according to Isaac Magnin:
As a consummate actor in history, I’ve developed a taste for chewy scenery. As such, being a wizard in a penthouse office atop a steel and crystal tower in the center of a city where none should exist is all but obligatory for my role as the dark lord in white who secretly rules the world. How else am I to look down on you poor fucking humans? Besides, my penthouse has all the amenities, including some lovely art that I personally looted from the Vatican’s archives of proscribed works during Nationfall.
Why the Vatican? Just because I could, as a bit of petty revenge for how Constantine perverted Christianity into a tool of state oppression. Do you have any idea how much effort I had to expend to make that Jewish carpenter’s son seem like both a divinity and a down-to-earth rabbi? He had the rabbi part nailed down, but the divinity required far more subtle wizardries than I usually bother to use. Mainly because I didn’t want Sabaoth noticing that I was setting up a man rebelling against his manipulation of humanity as his chosen messiah. I did not go to such trouble so that some emperor could prop up his illegitimate regime and keep the Roman Empire doddering along for another century or so.
Oh, and what thanks did I get for telling Jesus I would make him one of the most important men in human history? Nothing but “Get thee behind me, Satan.” One could argue that I might have had that coming because of how his story ended, but that wasn’t him. That was his stunt double.
Wait. Are you still taking me seriously? Here’s the truth: I had nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity. But there’s not much point in actually being thousands of years old if you can’t occasionally mess with mortals by doing a variation on Mel Brooks’ 2,000 Year Old Man routine.
8/25: What does your MC never want their parental figure or mentor to know?
Morgan would never want his adoptive parents to know how badly their rejection hurt him. He refuses to let them have that kind of power over him. They no longer have a place in his life, and that was their choice.
8/26: If your MC wrote books, what genre would they write? Why?
It’s a toss-up between true crime and music theory for metalheads. The former because Morgan Cooper has seen some serious shit on the job as an Adversary; he knows where a lot of bodies are buried because he saw to their funeral arrangements personally. The latter because he did most of the songwriting for Crowley’s Thoth alongside the classically-trained Naomi Bradleigh (a Juilliard graduate) and has learned a few things along the way.
8/27: Antagonist POV: What do you like the least about the place where you live?
according to Isaac Magnin:
I can’t believe we still haven’t invented bacon-flavored drywall. If I’m going to chew the scenery, it should damned well taste good.
Seriously, though, I am wealthy enough to be a walking argument for forcible wealth redistribution. I am the personification of everything that’s wrong with capitalism. If I cannot have a home built precisely to my tastes then who can?
8/28: Who is the first character you created for this work?
First came Isaac Magnin, sometimes known as Imaginos. He was inspired to a great extent by the 1988 Blue Öyster Cult album, as well as Dr. X in Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime. He’s also a Silicon Valley Saruman, recommended his tailor to Rufus in Final Fantasy VII, and owes a bit of his persona to Al Pacino in The Devil’s Advocate.
Who are you carrying all those bricks for anyway? God? Is that it? God? Well, I tell ya, let me give you a little inside information about God. God likes to watch. He’s a prankster. Think about it. He gives man instincts. He gives you this extraordinary gift and then what does He do? I swear, for His own amusement, His own private cosmic gag reel, He sets the rules in opposition. It’s the goof of all time. Look, but don’t touch. Touch, but don’t taste. Taste, don’t swallow. And while you’re jumpin’ from one foot to the next, what is He doin’? He’s laughin’ His sick, fuckin’ ass off. He’s a tight-ass. He’s a sadist. He’s an absentee landlord. Worship that? Never! … Why not? I’m here on the ground with my nose in it since the whole thing began! I’ve nurtured every sensation man has been inspired to have! I cared about what he wanted and I never judged him. Why? Because I never rejected him, in spite of all his imperfections! I’m a fan of man! I’m a humanist. Maybe the last humanist. Who, in their right mind, Kevin, could possibly deny the 20th century was entirely mine? All of it, Kevin! All of it! Mine! I’m peaking, Kevin. It’s my time now. It’s our time.
Second was Morgan Cooper, inspired by “The Sentinel” by Judas Priest and the swashbuckling catbros in “A Matter of Vengeance” by Archie Goodwin (story) and Rich Buckler (art).
Now facing one another, the standoff eats at time
Then all at once a silence falls as the bell ceases its chime
Upon this sign the challengers with shrieks and cries rush forth
The knives fly out like bullets upon their deadly course
Screams of pain and agony rent the silent air
Amidst the dying bodies blood runs everywhere
The figure stands expressionless, impassive and alone
Unmoved by this victory and the seeds of death he’s sown
8/29: Does your antagonist believe your hero has a chance of succeeding?
according to Isaac Magnin:
I would not have bothered with Morgan Cooper if I didn’t think he had a chance of ridding this world of the tyranny of demons. It is, however, a small chance in large part because of his own refusal to accept himself for what he is. His determination to be “only human” cripples him, as does his determination to rebel against his very design and devote himself to music.
At least, that is what I would say to his face, to further fan the flames of his defiance. The truth is that his will to rebellion is exactly what I had hoped for. Without it, my plan to free humanity from not only the depredations of Sabaoth but of my own generally benevolent despotism cannot possibly succeed.
8/30: Have you ever planned to kill a character and then not done it?
A few times. I’m under standing orders from my wife to not kill off certain major characters. So I plan their deaths and then figure out how to write the story without having to kill them off.
Then again…
I’ve got a couple of screenplays for a story called Shattered Guardian that start after Morgan Cooper died in battle. However, his psyche was restored into an upgraded body from a backup. The problem is that the backup is a couple of months old so he has to reconstruct his memories of what he did before he died from external sources, and he cannot believe that he not only fought a false god to a standstill, but actually died and was then resurrected. He isn’t used to his new body, and his girlfriend is seriously annoyed with him. She had played Chopin’s funeral march in b♭ at his burial, and sight-reading is a bitch when you can’t stop crying.
8/31: Has your MC or antagonist ever approved of something the other’s done?
according to Isaac Magnin:
Morgan Cooper is good for Naomi Bradleigh. They fit together far better than Morgan did with Christabel. If I disapproved of Morgan dating my daughter I’d take him out shark fishing – and use him for chum.
That should be enough to kill him, but if he somehow manages to survive being dismembered and used as shark bait then there’s always a nice deep vat of sulfuric acid or molten steel. Failing that, I’ll damned well teleport him into the Kuiper Belt. We’ll see if his memories of my daughter’s kiss are enough to keep him from freezing in the dark.
You think I’m being over-dramatic? I designed the einherjar to be damnably hard to kill, even if you’re one of the ensof. He’s already taken more abuse than Rasputin.