How did the book come about? For those who may be interested, I had the idea for several years, it was inspired by tv and movie stories of machines that were designed to be benevolent and they usually had a counterpart that was malicious in action. It was a well-used plot, common to various science fiction concepts.
The idea of a talking gun–I can’t remember if Judge Dredd’s weapon had influenced that at all. Knight Rider was probably more of a direct inspiration. Robocop was also a major role model for the story. I had intended that the gun would be given to a standard street cop but there was little personality to that approach–and someone I was telling the idea to assumed it was a Dirty Harry kind of character. That immediately sounded more interesting to me and made writing the book much easier.
When I write a book like this, I tend to think very visually, cinematic in presentation, as if it was a film playing out in my mind.
It also serves as a demonstration or a personal challenge to try to showcase the potential that still exists in standalone storytelling within well-explored genres–that something can be created in a style and/or realm of familiar ideas that will feel recognizable and yet not a cheap obvious copy of something already in existence. It is an important goal for me–to try to forge something that fits into a type of story without being too repetitive. Ideally, it is the type of story where you could believe it was written in the era alongside other works which had inspired it.
Also, I don’t have a desire to do sequels or a series of works. At least not at present. It is much more rewarding for me as a creative person to develop a story that is meant to exist on its own, without any need for further exploration. One should be able to get satisfaction from the work and not feel obligated to read another volume. I believe the serial/soap opera approach that became so widespread can diminish the potential for suspense and dramatic intensity in a story, especially if you know in advance there are ten more books to read. I can’t imagine forcing myself to water down and stretch out ideas. I have too many other story concepts that I would prefer to develop.
Fortunately (or maybe not), I don’t have the kind of selling success where I would need to entertain the idea of churning out sequels for regular money. I only feel compelled to write little articles on my writing process (like this one you are reading now) in order to have greater marketing visibility and counter the tendency for creative solitude.
K.G. Godel 