Liner Notes 2
Some background information on my story Poor Losers (on the Patreon) and The Event (on this blog).
Liner Notes 2: Poor Losers
There are a couple of ways of looking at this. Quite a few of the stories in the first half of the run are about getting someone to actually talk to the Deep Patrol in one way or another. This is a minor note in Partial City Diplomacy – the Grindlord won’t listen so Gunn looks for allies elsewhere. Here it comes to the fore; if the patrollers won’t play the game, the government of Diss won’t give them a hearing. Of course this makes no sense, but simply turning up and declaring what you’re doing doesn’t mean you’ll be taken at face value.
Secondly I raise the stakes, even while lowering the risks. Why are the Deep Patrol out here? They’re looking for threats. And if they find them, things will get nasty. I also foreshadow the Secret History of the Deep Patrol which is revealed in a later story.
Our heroes getting trapped in a game is a fairly classic adventure story plot. Often a gladiator type affair, Star Trek has done it, Dr Who has done it, Tron, Saw, Jumanji... ah I could be here all day. Is it uninteresting here because it’s not deadly? This is a question I come back to when we find out about life and death in the Deep Patrol.
We also get an introduction to the crew and what happens next to Ella. I meant to have a full meet-the-crew scene in Partial City Diplomacy but Gunn’s entire motivation was to rescue them, which kept him away from them, and then the ending happened very fast, so there was no room for it. Hence here, where they all get a chance to say and do something. They at least sketch their role and their character out in this story.
Dr Perky’s Refreshing Beverage came about in this way: I wanted someone to be team accountant, because you may be having swashbuckling adventures fighting space pirates and rescuing galactic princesses, but someone has to pay the bills. This lead me to consider the economics of the gameplayers of Diss, a topic I swiftly decided to gloss over. The simplest way to deal with the problems of currency exchange between the Patrol and an uncontacted society was to have someone else cover their costs. Riffing off current sports, I made up a sponsor as a placeholder; when I came back for the second draft it made me laugh so much I had to leave it in.
There is no Dr Pinky, and even if there were, they don’t have any products for sale.
Gunn’s game is Canasta, mostly because it’s funnier to have something slightly unfashionable than if it was a well known wagering game.
Liner Note 2a: The Event
The Event is the prelude, or perhaps the overture, to The Wavefront, the phenomenon that created my space opera playground. I probably got the name Minerva from A World of Difference by Harry Turtledove where it is his alternate Mars.
My Minerva is not Mars however. It’s Earth’s twin, a planet clearly, yet mysteriously linked to Earth. Where has it been? When did it diverge? What are the links? And of course, Why...
I don’t answer any of those questions in this series. Sorry about that.
(If you like this post you can encourage more like it by subscribing to my Patreon)
There are a couple of ways of looking at this. Quite a few of the stories in the first half of the run are about getting someone to actually talk to the Deep Patrol in one way or another. This is a minor note in Partial City Diplomacy – the Grindlord won’t listen so Gunn looks for allies elsewhere. Here it comes to the fore; if the patrollers won’t play the game, the government of Diss won’t give them a hearing. Of course this makes no sense, but simply turning up and declaring what you’re doing doesn’t mean you’ll be taken at face value.
Secondly I raise the stakes, even while lowering the risks. Why are the Deep Patrol out here? They’re looking for threats. And if they find them, things will get nasty. I also foreshadow the Secret History of the Deep Patrol which is revealed in a later story.
Our heroes getting trapped in a game is a fairly classic adventure story plot. Often a gladiator type affair, Star Trek has done it, Dr Who has done it, Tron, Saw, Jumanji... ah I could be here all day. Is it uninteresting here because it’s not deadly? This is a question I come back to when we find out about life and death in the Deep Patrol.
We also get an introduction to the crew and what happens next to Ella. I meant to have a full meet-the-crew scene in Partial City Diplomacy but Gunn’s entire motivation was to rescue them, which kept him away from them, and then the ending happened very fast, so there was no room for it. Hence here, where they all get a chance to say and do something. They at least sketch their role and their character out in this story.
Dr Perky’s Refreshing Beverage came about in this way: I wanted someone to be team accountant, because you may be having swashbuckling adventures fighting space pirates and rescuing galactic princesses, but someone has to pay the bills. This lead me to consider the economics of the gameplayers of Diss, a topic I swiftly decided to gloss over. The simplest way to deal with the problems of currency exchange between the Patrol and an uncontacted society was to have someone else cover their costs. Riffing off current sports, I made up a sponsor as a placeholder; when I came back for the second draft it made me laugh so much I had to leave it in.
There is no Dr Pinky, and even if there were, they don’t have any products for sale.
Gunn’s game is Canasta, mostly because it’s funnier to have something slightly unfashionable than if it was a well known wagering game.
Liner Note 2a: The Event
The Event is the prelude, or perhaps the overture, to The Wavefront, the phenomenon that created my space opera playground. I probably got the name Minerva from A World of Difference by Harry Turtledove where it is his alternate Mars.
My Minerva is not Mars however. It’s Earth’s twin, a planet clearly, yet mysteriously linked to Earth. Where has it been? When did it diverge? What are the links? And of course, Why...
I don’t answer any of those questions in this series. Sorry about that.
(If you like this post you can encourage more like it by subscribing to my Patreon)
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