I am excited to take part in The Next Big Thing: Authors Tagging Authors!  I was tagged by RJ Sullivan, who has been an excellent peer mentor for me for two years now.  It may show the auspicious company I keep, since I attempted to tag 5 author friends, and all of them had participated in this already.  I just didn’t get to them first.

Reality Check is the name of the science fiction novel I have in the works with Hydra Publications.  No release date is set, but it’ll be out this year sometime.

I had this idea rattling around in my head for a few years, after hearing about quantum computers. The idea is that the “qbits” in a quantum computer actually use those possibly cat-killing indefinite states to reach into alternate universes, but only the part that is the right state ends up resolving in our universe.  This implied to me that there were other computers in other universes that got different answers, but that were right for that universe.

So, I thought, what if you had a computer that could swap your identity with the identity of someone very much like you, in a completely different, but parallel, world?  And from there, I thought, what if the people around you were there as well, including your closest friends and loves, but in those places, everything could be different, including the relationships you have with people there?

It was one of those ideas that nagged at me a long time, then crystallized into an actual story concept that demanded to be written… it even took precedence over a sequel I’d been writing.

It’s a science fiction novel, but it’s got fantastic elements (the main character visits a steampunk world, for instance).

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Oh wow.  Hmm….

Lee Green, the MC, is a stocky redhead who can fix anything.  Seth Green keeps coming to mind, not just because of the last name coincidence, and not just for the red hair, but because he could deliver the fun dry lines Lee gets in the book and keep a straight face.  Maybe Seth Rogen, to fit the body type better.  Hmm. Maybe Felicia Day, for part of it, but that’s a spoiler.

Cecil, Lee’s best friend, could be played by Kal Penn.  He’s dark and can be hilarious or deadly serious at times.

For Dionne, Lee’s brainy close friend and love interest, I’d need someone with Jennifer Aniston‘s hair, but  Emma Watson would portray her personality better.

“Lee Green is switched into alternate versions of his life by a quantum computer, and he must save those lives as he becomes entangled.”

Okay, it needs work, but will do for now.

I’m thrilled that it’s being published by Hydra Publications.  So far, I’ve very much enjoyed working with those folks.  It’s like being part of a new virtual family of authors, editors and artists.

The rough draft was born in a furious month of frustration and creativity, National Novel Writing Month, November of 2011.  I spent the next 6 months revising and rewriting and editing and polishing it, with the help of many friends and other alpha- and beta-readers before submitting it to Hydra.

That’s a tough one.  I wrote the story because I felt I had a unique concept, or at least one that hadn’t been beaten into the ground.  It’s a real “what if” story in the grand tradition of science fiction.

There’s a long tradition of alternate history science fiction out there, like H. Beam Piper’s Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, but this is much more personal than that.  It’s the reverse of Doctor Who… instead of all of time and space, this takes place right now, in one person’s life… just in different circumstances, different realities.

Well, I had that idea rattling around, but it was my friend and mentor Sara Larson who encouraged me to branch out in my writing, since my self-published novels had all been in the same urban fantasy series beforehand.  She encouraged me not only to write something new, but to take my work more seriously and find a publisher for it.

Here are some points, complete with exciting exclamation points, provided to me by marketing: