The Story Behind the Story: Not In Our Stars, But In Ourselves

As I mentioned yesterday, the eighth in my Applied Science series is now up on Big Pulp.
One of the supporting characters in Brain From Outer Space is L.G. “Elegy” Walker, a Science Investigator from the TSC’s Cape Canaveral branch. I thought I had his character clearly fixed in mind: An ambitious Southerner of redneck stock who’d improved himself into a professional position. Competent and able, but he and Gwen, as a daughter of Southern aristocracy, distrusted each other on sight (while Gwen is very liberal for the time, classism is something she can’t quite get over).
As with several other characters in the story, giving him a spotlight in the series seemed like a good idea. Plus it would give us a look at the joint Soviet/US space program, which by 1958 is preparing to establish the first moonbase.
I soon came up with my core concept: Someone frames L.G. to get him out of the way in order to … what? And when I got the first glimmer of an idea, I had to ask why? What was L.G. Walker doing in particular that would make him a threat to the plan.
Eventually I figured them out, but in the process, Walker changes. He’s much less professional than the guy you’ll meet (someday I hope) in Brain From Outer Space; a guy from a poor family with a bad reputation whose overriding drive is to establish himself as someone to respect, whether or not he’s really worth of it. Image is everything.
Another development was that … well, most of my protagonists have been on the ineffective-liberal side of civil rights (the movement is doing a lot worse than it did in the real world): Yes, Negros should have equality, but we’re at war, there are higher priorities, they’ll just have to wait until things improve. In the real world, I suspect they’d probably be a lot more racist, so this is a compromise: Someone I can write about without hating them, but not too contemporary in their outlook.
But a redneck from the back woods? In the fifties? True, there were Southern whites who supported civil rights, but it seemed like a huge coincidence that my protagonist would be one of them.
So he isn’t. Instead, he’s a guy whose terror over being framed for murder isn’t anywhere near as intense as his horror at being accused of crossing the color line. Hopefully an acceptable hero despite that, but no question his attitudes are not attractive.
Another development I didn’t expect was Eisenstein. Valentina Eisenstein is a Russian security officer who formed up almost instantly in my mind, a no-nonsense professional, much more dedicated than Elegy, a former World War II sniper on the Russian front (the Russians used women for snipers, bomber pilots and more during the war). As most Russian characters seem to love being away from home and in the USA, I decided to go in the opposite direction: She hates Florida, hates the heat, hates the humidity but sticks with it out of duty. And one particular mission you’ll learn about if you read the story …
I liked Eisenstein instantly, and I’ve been working hard to bring her along into Brain From Outer Space (I think it’ll work).
So that’s the story behind the story. I’ll let you know when #9, Mayhem Ex Machina hits the web.