My Last Summer Job is DONE
This summer, I set three goals for myself: lose some weight and get back in shape, polish up After the Sky and get it out to agents, polish up BackTracker and get it out to agents.
As I mentioned last week, After the Sky is now making the rounds amongst various literary agents specializing in science fiction & fantasy, and I'm close to being 15 pounds lighter + tighter. This past week, I finished revising/editing/proofreading BackTracker, and at 12,000 words lighter, it's ready to go out on the query circuit. What's this novel about? I'm so glad you asked.
For your consideration, my novel BackTracker (144,000 words; future noir). Harry Muldoon, hard-boiled detective, must travel back through time to save two colliding worlds – before he loses his head.
Muldoon has a big problem: he's dead. Twenty years ago, a monk with a samurai sword cut off his head. Now Isis, his widow, is searching for him. So is Ian Lennox, power-hungry owner of The Pearl, the hottest night spot in all of NewCity. Cyrus Horton, an eccentric inventor, has also joined in the search. They're all looking for the BackTracker, a time travel device that has caused divergent realities to spiral out of control. In one of them, Muldoon is still alive.
He was a private investigator, the best at what he did. He solved his cases 100% of the time. Hindsight is, after all, 20/20. And the BackTracker allowed him to change the past. But in the process, without ever knowing how or why, his travels through time have unraveled the universe, stretching, tearing the fabric of space-time and sending his own mind into oblivion. He can no longer distinguish between true and false memories. He no longer knows who he was.
BackTracker is a novel about a hero dealing with the consequences of his actions. It's about second chances. It's about what makes us human despite technology's power to shape society. But at its core, it's a story about a man and woman who won't allow anything to stand in the way of their love – not space-time, not even death.
The complete manuscript is available upon request (if you're an agent or publisher – everybody else may have to wait a while...)