A sneak peek at The Magnificent Moots
October 14, 2009
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Last week the Parlor reading series kindly hosted me reading from my work-in-progress, The Magnificent Moots. (The audio is online; see the bottom of this post for details.)
The Magnificent Moots is a science-fiction comedy that’s like a combination of Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, Douglas Adams’ The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and the movie The Royal Tennenbaums. With a generous dollop of the 1970s television special Battle of the Network Stars thrown in for good measure.
(Check out this amazing clip from Battle of the Network Stars, which culminates in a footrace between Robert Conrad and Gabe Kaplan—you know, the teacher on Welcome Back, Kotter. The cigarettes! The track suits! The insane political incorrectness! And the come-from-behind Cinderella moment at the end! It’s priceless!)
Anyway, I’m about midway through writing Moots. The story follows the adventures of the brother and sister of the Moot family when they are invited to compete in an interplanetary Olypmics. This story is woven together with legends about various historical Moots from bygone eras.
The most exciting thing, to me, is that Paul Hornschemeier is on board with illustrating it! I’ve sung Paul’s praises before; he did the brilliant cover for the upcoming paperback version of The Order of Odd-Fish.
The illustration at the top of this post is of King Cornelius Moot, whom I mention in the prologue. Here’s another one of King Cornelius. I can’t wait to see what else Paul comes up with!
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So at the Parlor, I read the prologue and the first chapter of The Magnificent Moots. Then there was a question-and-answer period. Most of it is captured on audio, and you can listen to it here. It’s a rough draft, and much too long. But if you’re interested in what a work-in-progress sounds like, here it is!
Due to technical difficulties, only the prologue is available for listening, because chapter one didn’t record well. So some of the questions in the Q&A might not make much sense.
Thanks to the Parlor reading series for inviting me, the Green Lantern Gallery for hosting us, Terri Griffith for recording, Joanna MacKenzie and Caroline Picard for organizing it, and thanks to everyone who came and asked questions! I had a great time.