Ask the Author: Alex Hughes
Answered Questions (9)
Alex Hughes
I usually use an outline, at least in broad strokes, though the outline changes several times during the writing when I get a "feel" for the story. I prefer to write where the story takes me, but I know that it's also hard to hit a target you can't see :). I put the work into chapters, and I try to choose good cliffhangers. I absorb all I can from real life, but I also deliberately choose to make my work as much a work of fiction as possible. Meaning, while I may be inspired by stories I've heard, I never directly work from real events.
Alex Hughes
Most of my characters start out based on someone I know or have seen on the screen, but by the time I've spent enough time in their heads, they become their own people. Adam began as partially a guy I knew in school and partially Cat from Joan D. Vinge's Catspaw, but he's been through at least eight iterations along the way. The defining moment for the character for me was when he told me he used to be a professor, and a good one. Education was important to him, despite everything he's been through. Maybe even more after everything he's been through.
Alex Hughes
I'm currently working on Mindspace Book #5, which I'm excited about. As usual, though, Adam is pouting in the early stages of a manuscript which is slowing down the process. I may need to add an extra grisly murder... :)
Alex Hughes
Short answer? Yes, absolutely, you're dead on.
Long answer? Ability is a hereditary trait for certain, which is why the Guild highly encourages strong telepaths and other Abled folks to procreate. (Note: with the exception of certain odd ones like firestarting, all Ability seems to start from the same general sets of genes. A telepath and a teleporter can have a telekinetic child with neither of the parents' gifts, though it's not as likely as inheriting a similar gift as a parent.) If Cherabino's nephew has a strong ability, then there is a gene or gene trait that runs in the family, though it may be a recessive trait. Ability is also a continuum, with very few true "nulls" and the majority of the population on the very weak Abled side, with fewer and fewer people from the population registering as the Abled scale gets into stronger numbers. To have created Jacob even from recessive genes, Cherabino's family is likely to have several people with weak Ability, who live as normals with occasional hunches, intuition, or strong empathy for other people. This also helps explain why he's relatively well-adjusted considering his other challenges, since the family does understand some of what he needs on an intuitive level. Cherabino isn't a null, which as you point out we definitely know from the Link she and Adam were able to make. She's able to "borrow" some of Adam's mindpower on occasion to read him through the Link, so she's also slightly stronger than your average normal. But she's still definitely in the weak scale, nowhere near Guild ratings. Her strong reaction to Adam reading her probably has more to do with her refusal to accept her own small intuition/Ability than it does anything else. You'll notice that the characters in the book who are true nulls rarely have a strong reaction to Adam one way or the other, unless it's philosophical in nature.
Long answer? Ability is a hereditary trait for certain, which is why the Guild highly encourages strong telepaths and other Abled folks to procreate. (Note: with the exception of certain odd ones like firestarting, all Ability seems to start from the same general sets of genes. A telepath and a teleporter can have a telekinetic child with neither of the parents' gifts, though it's not as likely as inheriting a similar gift as a parent.) If Cherabino's nephew has a strong ability, then there is a gene or gene trait that runs in the family, though it may be a recessive trait. Ability is also a continuum, with very few true "nulls" and the majority of the population on the very weak Abled side, with fewer and fewer people from the population registering as the Abled scale gets into stronger numbers. To have created Jacob even from recessive genes, Cherabino's family is likely to have several people with weak Ability, who live as normals with occasional hunches, intuition, or strong empathy for other people. This also helps explain why he's relatively well-adjusted considering his other challenges, since the family does understand some of what he needs on an intuitive level. Cherabino isn't a null, which as you point out we definitely know from the Link she and Adam were able to make. She's able to "borrow" some of Adam's mindpower on occasion to read him through the Link, so she's also slightly stronger than your average normal. But she's still definitely in the weak scale, nowhere near Guild ratings. Her strong reaction to Adam reading her probably has more to do with her refusal to accept her own small intuition/Ability than it does anything else. You'll notice that the characters in the book who are true nulls rarely have a strong reaction to Adam one way or the other, unless it's philosophical in nature.
Alex Hughes
Great question! The tech that they've banned is all computer-based. The flying cars work by largely mechanical means, with most of the parts being like the mechanical parts for cars in the 60s & 70s before computer chips were incorporated. There are two "futuristic" additions though: (1) the small fusion reactor, which supplies a large amount of power very cheaply, and is contained and controlled by electrical fields, and (2) the antigravity unit, which gets power from the fusion reactor, and produces anti-gravitrons in a uniform way to "cancel out" the gravity field of the earth in a variable way to allow the car to "fly." The second is incredibly power-intensive, but the fusion reactor makes a lot of power quickly and cheaply. Both are known technology in this world, and both sets of fields are regulated through very low-power computer chips no stronger than you'd find in an oven timer. Both have safety systems designed into the hardware that, in the absence of the computer chip regulation, will slowly lose power and then "die" naturally rather than blow up. In other words, the vast majority of the technology here is in physics--fusion reactions, electrical fields, and antigravity (the last of which is only an unproven theory in our world at the moment). It's not a computer-heavy technology, and so it's not something that makes the population scared. Ditto for biotechnology and such in that world.
Alex Hughes
Writing is hard. It will break your heart a hundred times, show you mountains and valleys and the glories of other worlds before dropping you back down to earth, different than you began. It is a hard path, and one I would tell you to turn back from if you can. But if you can't be turned back, write, write a lot, and write from your heart. Then join a critique group and learn to bear fair criticism of your work--a lot of criticism. You'll learn what parts of your heart translated on the page and which didn't, you'll learn your own strengths and weaknesses, and you'll hone your internal editor through analyzing other peoples' works in progress. Expect it to be a long, hard road, and use the moments of heartbreak along the way to fuel your drive. Hold to the moments of joy and the reasons you set out. And lastly, and most importantly, I'll paraphrase Apex Magazine's guidelines from awhile ago: "If you get rejected, don't get angry [Alex adds: or stay depressed], become more awesome. Become so awesome that we can't help but publish you." Because the struggle--and the journey--is well worth it, for its own sake if not for the destination.
Alex Hughes
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Alex Hughes
It sounds corny, but honestly? Emails from fans. I love the moment when it all comes together in the text and I'm deep in the story. That doesn't happen all the time, and it's glorious when it does. But the emails from the fans telling me they liked the work--especially on a rough day when the writing isn't going well--those make it all worth it.
Alex Hughes
Writer's block is hard, because it's always my brain telling me something I don't quite know. Either it's an issue with me (I'm anxious or sad or not sure I can write for whatever reason) or it's an issue with the book (plot not working, characters not acting within motivations, for example). The first step is to stop and figure out which of the two options this case is. For issues with me, it's time for a treat and some time with a good book to rejuvenate me. For issues with the book, it's time to spend at least an hour in front of the whiteboard with a marker in hand, working through what's wrong, what a solution will look like, and how to solve the problem. Then, go back to the manuscript and start tearing things up so I can lay the new words down.
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