Friday, January 12, 2007
Rev Up the Robots
From the recent issue of Publishers Weekly comes this snippet of a recent signed deal: Harper has bought world English rights to David Levy’s nonfiction work, Love and Sex with Robots: Artificial Intelligence, Automatons, and the Evolution of Human-Robot Relationships. According to the article, Levy will “explore the burgeoning sexual subculture of companion robots and offer a prediction for the way our personal interactions with technology may soon evolve.”
There’s a burgeoning sexual subculture of companion robots? Man, where have I been?
Got me to thinking. Why couldn’t this be turned into a premise for a novel in the Christian market? Now there’s a challenge for you, BGs. Here’s mine:
A female robot, maid and companion to a stuffed animal salesman, kills him in a fit of jealousy. When she tries to hide his body in his favorite stuffed animal—the life-size gray gorilla in their TV room—she discovers the corpse of the salesman’s human wife inside—with the same face as her own … Sold to Karen Ball as her first acquisition for B&H.
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18 comments:
"Sold to Karen Ball as her first acquisition for B&H."
K: Then you gotta' add:
A female SOUTHERN BAPTIST robot, maid and companion to a stuffed animal salesman...
Haha. Just kidding. Can't wait to read your interview with her to see what she's looking for. Haha.
Brandilyn,
Your brain astounds me! Are you sure YOU'RE not a maniacle gorilla-stuffing robot? Where do you get these things?
Thanks for the humor...
I knew if it was left long enough to simmer in your brain, you'd come up with a gorilla story.
"Now tell me again, Mrs. Collins," the cop will ask, "just how is it that you knew about the gorilla?"
Can I get an ARC to review? :D
Wow! And I thought my imagination was creepy.....LOL
Sounds great B!
Sorry it's been so long since I've written, but I've had a terrible cold!! Thank God for Advil!
An AI story...hmmm, I'll have to think about that one.
Is this real? Did you really just sign on to write for B&H?
I'm screaming here. No matter what I try to come up that is new and different. . .someone else beats me to the punch. I am working on a robotoics project now:(((((((
Beth.
Oh, Beth, so sorry! Tell you what, I'll give you my premise. You're not gonna find another story out there with robots AND a gray gorilla.
Thank you for the humor! I really needed it.
I love how your mind works!
And what that guy at the beginning of your post is exploring is gross.
I know one thing. Gorillas can't swim. Ben, the gorilla, in our zoo just drowned. He was only 21. In a bizarre accident, Ben, who was playing with Quito, chased after him and slipped and fell in a shallow moat. It was sad.
Mega-robotics corporation, LoveBots, has a corner on the Call-Bot service industry, except there seems to be a change in their clientele. Joe Shmoe is the first to notice when his boss shows up to work with an unexplainable tick. Events propel Joe into a battle of time and wits when he stumbles onto synthetic DNA evidence alluding to a plot to switch humans with bots.
This is just to much fun!
Brandilyn, stories of sex-bots and fully human mimic androids have been around a long time in in SF and Japanese manga/anime. I try to avoid them as most are too immoral to recommend. Do you think the Christian market has a place for adult-only stories about free will, societal change AI's may bring and the consequences of humans emotionally bonding with machines?
Allie loves her android Ronald. He tutored her through college, saved her from two muggings, and has been helping her as she explores the meaning of her Presbyterian roots. But when she attends church for the first time, they won't let Ronald in, and afterwards he is nowhere to be found. Her only clue is a single page of a Spurgeon sermon she finds beneath her pillow.
Who would publish a story that is fully Christian and fully adult SF? Seems you have to water down one or the other to sell these days.
Grady Houger
Yeah, the sci fi genre has had a tough go in our market. I do know publishers are targeting 18-34-year-olds these days--the "emergent" church age. Mostly through nonfiction, but I'm thinking that will spill over into fiction. And I think it's at this age that sci-fiers fall in love with the genre. So I'm hoping we'll see it open up. But it's hard--esp. after Bethany tried it a few years ago with talented author Kathy Tyers but didn't see great sales.
It may be too much Stepford Wives for the CBA clientel. I know that book scared the begeebers (no offence to BeeGeers on this blog) out of me back when it first came out--yeah I'm old. I remember when the first Stepford Wives movie came out--I couldn't watch it since I'd read the book.
Brandilyn, I love the humor of your post, and I even enjoy your scary books, but I know that scary or no, God's mercy and grace comes through your story. I don't think I'd pick up another robotic book even in the CBA without knowing the author first. Burned too bad the first time. Just my $.03 (cost of living increase).
Abundant blessings,
Jenny Cary, the wimp
Burgeoning sexual subculture of robots? Man, WHERE have I been? Guess the same place as you, B.
Funny post about the murderous robot companion.
:) Rachel
Brandilyn, that story is a little too wild for me but if it floats your boat, enjoy the ride.
Kristy, that's real sad about the gorillas dying...
And Grady: WOW! I'd read your story in a heartbeat...it sounds really interesting, as long as its done in good taste. I say go ahead and write that bad boy!!!
Hm. Might a few of you BGs be taking this post just a little too seriously?...
Gotta love y'all.
B - Just catching up on posts, Bonnie asked the question that popped into my mind re: creating distinctly different voices for characters. I struggle with that as well. Can't wait to hear how you remedy that problem.
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