Authorpreneur Dashboard – Daniel Sherrier
RIP vol. 1: Choices After Death
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Ghosts are people, too, but not all ghosts choose to be good people. Rip Cooper must overcome his fears and kill dead people to prevent them from corrupting the living. This young loner learns he can perceive ghosts with his five senses as if they were flesh and blood, and he's just as solid to them -- pretty much the only solid thing, in fact. He works alongside an impure "angel" and his ex-best friend's ex-girlfriend as they teach him how love can lead to strength.
Book Bubbles from RIP vol. 1: Choices After Death
Rip's dead guest
Rip's a loner. He's used to having his personal space, not company. But it looks like he'll be having a lot less personal space from now on. Uncomfortable characters are fun, aren't they?
Where it started...
When I first came up with the RIP concept, I pictured this scene, and then I knew I had a series. The fights are fun, but this sort of friendly intimacy is what it's all about.
Fun with a dead person
In a series filled with dead people, you need someone capable of lightening the mood, and that job often falls to one particular dead person -- Serissa. Here, while Rip and Kalli discuss serious business, Serissa gets defensive, and I had fun with her getting defensive.
Gluttony
Here, Serissa is helping a new ghost get acclimated to life after death, and she explains her opinion of what separates the good ghosts from the bad. All ghosts have desires -- even physical desires they can no longer act upon -- but do they let their desires control them?
Dialogue
Given my background as a playwright, I'm much more comfortable writing dialogue than descriptive prose. However, I didn't want to settle on my comfort zone, so I tried to spice up "talking heads" scenes with little actions -- like Serissa walking across the ceiling or banging her head through it. In any case, Serissa's dialogue was especially fun to write. She's a nut, and her circumstances as an intangible ghost are always threatening to send her over the edge.
Earths in Space vol.1: Where Are the Little Green Men?
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Amena wants to find something amazing. And then something else amazing. And something else... Okay, she wants to find everything that’s amazing, and she’s sure to find lots of exotic wonderfulness traveling through outer space...right? Well, it turns out there are no aliens. No talking squids. No sentient kittens. No little green men. But there are people — countless people comprising a multitude of unique civilizations on myriad Earths scattered throughout the universe. Earths in Space vol. 1: Where Are the Little Green Men? contains the first two novellas in this exciting science fiction series. Amena and her team of explorers learn that life out there is much like life here — and just as unusual. In the first episode, “Liberty or Death,” the team faces a group of hi-tech tyrants who pose as gods. Then, in “The End of an Earth,” they travel to an ancient world that has less time than they think. So maybe there aren’t any little green men, but people can cause plenty of trouble on their own. Earths in Space. They’re already out there. You just haven’t discovered them yet.
Book Bubbles from Earths in Space vol.1: Where Are the Little Green Men?
Bechdel Test -- passed
I recently learned about the Bechdel Test, which asks, “Does this work have (1) at least two women (2) who talk to each other (3) about something other than a man?” Earths in Space passes many times over. This is just one small example. Amena and Mariana have come across half-buried pyramids, and while Amena speculates, Mariana tries to ground her in reality. It's not all about the boys here.
Just how ridiculous?
The first novella is basically the series pilot, so it was important to establish just how ridiculous I'm willing to go with the advanced technology. This is how ridiculous. But no more ridiculous than this.
Meeting the "gods"
Amena hopes to meet exotic alien races. Supernatural entities would be an even bigger plus. Nevertheless, she's realistic enough to suspect something's fishy with these so-called "gods" right off the bat. Maybe next time...
Familiar new world
People make any place. These other Earths would be nearly identical if not for the different people inhabiting them, and those people are what make them interesting to explore. That's the main idea behind Earths in Space. So, we start with a familiar forest and an archer in a spacesuit -- she's the one making the place interesting right then.
The Silver Stranger
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Alyssa Henson hates that super-powers have become real. She had once dreamed of exploring outer space but kept her feet on the ground and settled for a more conventional life. And now, people are soaring overhead, outracing sound, transforming into photons, and so much more. It’s unnatural. It’s weird. It’s dangerous. And it needs to stop. The villainous Doctor Hades agrees. When Alyssa acquires power of her own, she joins forces with the Terrific Trio’s archenemy to erase all superhuman abilities—even those of her heroic best friend—in order to save the world. In this exciting sequel to The Flying Woman, a new vigilante emerges as The Silver Stranger, a mysterious mind-reader who would rather spy on the thoughts of others than examine her own.
Book Bubbles from The Silver Stranger
Ridiculous?
One thing I wanted to do in this book was explore what being a superhero is all about -- and do so from the perspective of someone who hates the whole idea of superheroes and supervillains. Alyssa is no super-fan. She feels obligated to find super-people ridiculous at best and dangerous at worst. And yet she can't help but be fascinated by them.
On Writing Sequels
An interesting thing about sequels: Some scenes in Book 2 can read a little differently depending on whether you've read Book 1. Certain moments acquire more subtext if you've read the first book, but more surprises may be in store if you're starting with the second. Writing a sequel that can work for both returning and new readers was a fun challenge. This particular scene is one that likely works differently depending on whether you've read The Flying Woman.
The Flying Woman
Science Fiction & Fantasy
The impossible has become reality! A masked man possesses extraordinary powers, and he’s using those fantastic abilities to fight crime and pursue justice. Meanwhile, Miranda Thomas expects to fail at the only thing she ever wanted to do: become a famous star of the stage and screen. One night, Miranda encounters a woman who’s more than human. But this powerful woman is dying, fatally wounded by an unknown assailant. Miranda’s next decision propels her life in a new direction—and nothing can prepare her for how she, and the world, will change.
Book Bubbles from The Flying Woman
Miranda Is a Superhero
In writing a female superhero, I had an important distinction in mind. The book is not about Miranda being a female superhero; it's about Miranda being a superhero. And part of being a superhero is growing up into your best possible self.
Choosing to Help
I wanted to make sure Miranda didn't acquire her powers passively because of some random accident. They had to result from a decision she made. So when she encounters a wounded person in a park late at night, Miranda has a choice: give in to fear and run away, or stay and do what little she can to help. That decision, made as an ordinary person, is what sets her on the path to becoming a superhero.
With great power...
Stan Lee created a famous, brilliant line in the early Spider-Man comics: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility." What if we take that a step further? What comes with great responsibility? Terrific terror. Super-powers are amazing, but the responsibility they entail can be frightening for a young person who's still figuring out her place in the world. So how does she accept the responsibility despite her fears?
Cartoons and Professionalism
The old "Superfriends" cartoons can be good campy fun. But what if those stalwart, straightforward superheroes were merely conducting themselves in what they considered a professional manner while they were "on the job"? What if they had full lives outside of their cartoonish exploits? That's the basic idea behind Fantastic Man, the world's first superhero in this story. He acts like a cartoon character because he feels that's the proper way to go about being a superhero, and he expects Miranda to follow his lead. But will she? Would that even be healthy?
Theater
A theater seemed like an appropriate place to begin a superhero novel. After all, secret identities are a rather theatrical concept. Regardless of whether the superhuman persona or the regular-human persona is closer to the truth, at least one of those is a performance. Or maybe, to some extent, they both are.
