As this one just came out last fall in Metastellar, some of you may remember the following “how this story came to be” post from back then. But for those who came in late —
“Walking past a half-naked couple making out next to a picnic basket, Artemis West wished she could turn invisible. I never thought my first assignment would involve working magic in front of a park full of hippies.”
It’s 1968, Robert Kennedy has just been assassinated, and the country is mourning. And as Artemis soon discovers, her job as a Secret Service sorcerer is about to get much more complicated, thanks to a British black magician and a bronze-skinned, golden-eyed drifter, Diana Savage. Whose father is some kind of brilliant scientist and philanthropist, and everyone expects her to follow in his wake. So she’s run away for a summer of love before she heads to college. Only there are innocent people in danger, and in her heart she’s her father’s child …
Why yes, this is the story about Doc Savage’s daughter that I wrote about starting several years ago. As noted at the link, I’d wanted to write about her (or more precisely my version of her) since the early 1980s, but never came up with a story. Then I hit on teaming her up with Art West, great grandson of James West, the hero of Wild Wild West now following family tradition by working for the Secret Service, though as a mage.
When I reread the post at the link, it floored me: my protagonist has been Artemis West and female so long I didn’t remember ever considering a male lead (Jim West’s partner was Artemus Gordon. Descendants are stuck with the name). It’s not surprising though, as I write a lot of male/female teams. As to why I switched to make Artemis a woman … I have no idea.
The story idea beyond that shaped up early. Mages in the Secret Service actually have a dull gig. All they do is go around and touch up the bindings Native American shamans used to lock various
Lovecraftian outsiders away. As long as the mages do their job, the outsiders can’t get out.Except that when Artemis goes to check the local bindings (originally San Francisco, but it eventually shifted to the Midwest) she discovers someone is letting outsiders loose. Which is, of course, bad. Even alongside a bronze teenage tornado who fights like ten men (she’s Doc Savage’s daughter. She’s been well-trained) Artemis has her work cut out for her.
Refining the concept proved a lot tougher. I had no idea what the bad guy wanted, what exactly he’d unleashed and how the creature would help him achieve his goals. Nor did I know how to stop him. Eventually I figured it out, with the help of Lester Dent’s plotting formula — appropriate as he created Doc.
I also trimmed back a lot of the in-jokes, such as a reference to Artemis’ aunt Honey. I wanted to write the story so that someone who’d never heard of Jim West or Doc Savage could enjoy it, which meant avoiding any Easter eggs that would be more distracting than amusing.
When I was done, I presented it to the beta readers in my local science-fiction writing group. They suggested I needed to introduce the villain earlier to give him more of a presence, and that I needed to make the story weirder in a few spots. It was good advice. I followed it.
#SFWApro. Cover by Kemp Ward. Available on Amazon in paperback and available for ebook pre-order on some channels (more to follow).
(Wisp still has her cast on, but I like this shot from before her injury).
using her body like Bruce Lee — she’s not the athletic type — and incorporated that into Chapter Three. However when I reviewed the most recent chapter (ten) my brain wasn’t ready to start writing. Rather than just browse online, though, which has been my default since the injury, I worked on Savage Adventures, my Doc Savage history, instead.
I wasn’t impressed by DC’s 
We never learn At the end of the arc Doc heads out of town (leaving Pat Savage behind — she gets less play here than in most comics adaptations) to get captured by bad guys in a two parter by B. Clay Moore. The Crime College is forgotten. Then we’re in an adventure in a war torn area, “The Zone,” by Ivan Brandon, involving Doc’s long-lost best friend. This ran a half-dozen tedious issues; blank pages would have been more engaging. 
Things pick up in the final arc by Jeff G. Jones, who also provided the covers seen here. We have Johnny turning up an archeological relic sinister people want, Neanderthals and dinosaurs, a kick-ass Russian woman and it’s all good. Only the book ends with the penultimate issue, missing the conclusion. I won’t lose any sleep over it but it’s still disappointing.
MYSTERY MEN: The Golden Age by novelist 
Avallone and Dave Acosta did much better at capturing the pulp spirit. It’s 1938 and an impossible volcano has just wiped out an American naval base in the Pacific. Doc heads out that way but so does his cousin Pat, haunted by dreams suggesting her BFF Amelia Earhart is still alive long after her disappearance (their relationship is written to scream Gay as Hell!). Behind both quests lies John Sunlight; Avallone admits that’s a cliche (every comic but Marvel’s Bronze Age Doc Savage books has brought Sunlight back) but he still wanted to use him; he does a decent job though Sunlight is still too much 
unsure, I’ll have to forge ahead but the morning I sat down and worked on it …. it didn’t happen. Part of the problem is that (I know I’ve mentioned this before), Plushie likes climbing into my lap, then stretching out. This leaves me in an awkward physical position for writing, especially as he invariably squishes my crotch in the process. But he’s so cute and we won’t have him forever so I can’t say no.
What did fill my time? Well I finished the first draft of Savage Adventures, my book on the Doc Savage series. It took more rewriting of my blog posts than I anticipated and I have a bunch of notes where I’ll want to expand or clarify things for the book. I’d sooner have done fiction but it’s good I’m ahead of the game on this one.
And 
Once again 19-Infinity dominated my week but it paid off. I have the cover (reveal comes next week), the text is set so all I have left to do is figure out some promotional stuff and order some copies for the Con-Gregate convention next month. I’ve ordered one final proof copy to double-check all is well, then it’s a go. That frees me up to move on to my next project, Savage Adventures (the book on 
introduction of Sif.
Another week where things did not go as well as planned. But let’s start off with good news: I had my semi-annual checkup this week and all my signs (cholesterol, weight, blood pressure) are better than last time. So yay! This is good.
Does that look like a plain Jane to you? Another post looks at how often superheroes wind up fighting when 
Two of the Con-Tinual panels I’ve been on are up on YouTube, one on 
I wound up spending a lot of time on my Savage Adventures book about Doc Savage because polishing and expanding 
I got some more work done on my Doc Savage nonfiction book, including rereading The Red Skull; despite the relatively low stakes (land containing valuable deposits) it’s a dynamic, action-packed adventure and a pleasure to reread. There are no scenes as cool as the James Bama cover though.
Over at Atomic Junkshop I look at 
#SFWApro. All rights to images remain with current holders, Millie cover by Stan Goldberg, Undead Sexist Cliches cover by Kemp Ward.
Other than that panic, this was a good week for writing, though putting in 30 hours on personal projects is really exhausting by this time on Friday. Taking scheduled breaks would help but I continue to have a bad habit of forging ahead when things are going well, then wondering why I’m losing steam later.
Infinity comes out and I’m not sure I’m a good fit for any of them. More frustratingly, I’d gathered a long list of book blogs to ask for reviews of the book, plus a few to solicit for Undead Sexist Cliches. All but a couple are “too busy, no new reviews!” and the ones that didn’t flatly rule it out are “maybe, possibly, sort of” at best. Come to think of it, I had similar problems with Questionable Minds; I wonder how other authors manage it?
#SFWApro. Cover by Kemp Ward, all rights remain with me.
