Something I’ve wanted to do for a looooong time

I’m a huge fan of the old Doc Savage pulp series. Lester Dent (who wrote most of them under the “house name” of Kenneth Robeson) knew how to turn out a great adventure story and one of my goals for the 101 in 1,001 is to complete my collection (there’s about 20 of the paperback reprints to go). I suspect that the James Bama covers I went through my teen years with didn’t hurt.

Back in the early eighties, after I started writing, the idea of a story about Doc Savage’s daughter occurred to me. With all the natural ability, skills and training of her father. The same itch for adventure. And a rather tight-jacketed life, too: Her “uncles” Monk and Ham, being skirt-chasers themselves, would make things really, really hard for any guy who tried getting to first base with her (let alone further).
But I had no idea what to really do with the idea, beyond fanfic. Then, a while back, the concept resurfaced with a more definite cast. Doc has a baby in 1950. She turns 18 in ’68 and heads off to find adventure in an America in upheaval.
Somewhere in San Francisco, she meets Secret Service Agent Art West, descendant of Wild Wild West‘s protagonist, who works as an occult investigator for the government (he takes after his ancestor, but also after his crazy sorcerer great-great uncle, Herbert). And trouble starts …
And then this weekend, a voice in my head said it was time. So this morning I started on the first few pages, almost immediately developed a villain and had a monster fly through the window (the fantasy equivalent of Raymond Chandler’s “When you can’t think of anything else, have a man come through the door with a gun.”). Hopefully I’ll finish the first draft and eventually have a workable story (that doesn’t violate anyone’s trademarks). Workable meaning that it would be a good story to read even if you’ve never heard of Jim West or Doc Savage.
Wish me luck!