tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post4179148979068311578..comments2024-03-26T18:28:06.391-04:00Comments on Evil Editor: Face-Lift 1022Evil Editorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03879826770199639420noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-59703007324483903462012-05-02T11:29:27.302-04:002012-05-02T11:29:27.302-04:00IMO, a possible reason for why our buddy Everett c...IMO, a possible reason for why our buddy Everett cannot prevent large-scale atrocities would be due to the extensive disruption of the timestream, too many unintended consequences. (And one of those consequences could be the elimination of the time traveler themselves, preventing them from going back in time...)<br /><br />For example, if some time-traveler decided to shove Cpl. Hitler into the path of a trench mortar, I wouldn't exist, my paternal grandparents wouldn't have met. Hence, the current-me would be peeved at being blasted from existence.<br /><br />So, if I get time travel capabilities, I would be the last person to be doing that.Golfballhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13731697239330750313noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-85522356312099143202012-05-01T21:34:41.486-04:002012-05-01T21:34:41.486-04:00This is pretty solid, but I feel like you end the ...This is pretty solid, but I feel like you end the query just as it's getting interesting. You set up a serial killer with an interesting sci-fi element... but then the last line about Duncan's coffee-loving partner and Everett's therapy makes it sound like Wacky Hijinks (tm) will ensue. It drains the tension you just introduced with the idea that Duncan is a target.sarahhawthornenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-30713999632111174272012-05-01T21:12:11.773-04:002012-05-01T21:12:11.773-04:00Well, I'm just never sure if you understand th...Well, I'm just never sure if you understand these simple concepts.AlaskaRavenclawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-69068999613562758282012-05-01T20:47:22.451-04:002012-05-01T20:47:22.451-04:00I actually pulled this from my false-starts/practi...I actually pulled this from my false-starts/practice folder when I saw the Editor's "entries wanted" post, but the reception (and the brilliant ideas!) have me putting this onto my to-do list.<br /><br />Buffy, the title is *definitely* temporary. <br /><br />I really liked both Editor's idea of the killer using his knowledge to commit his crimes better, and Alaska's idea of Duncan blaming Everett. I'm going to play with this idea for a while now....thanks!!Rachel6https://www.blogger.com/profile/15138745237488029817noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-24682724494899829102012-05-01T18:11:34.006-04:002012-05-01T18:11:34.006-04:00Yes, yes, Alaska. Calm down. Obviously records can...Yes, yes, Alaska. Calm down. Obviously records can be contradictory and confusing, even if people do use them all the time for purposes as diverse as tracing their family tree or writing a history book and somehow manage to hack their way through the maze.<br /><br />And if bad information is the reason Duncan and Everett can't do the obvious, then that's fine. But it needs to be in the query. Otherwise it just looks like they're idiots.nonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415222406280230021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-71117456653235806982012-05-01T17:54:23.190-04:002012-05-01T17:54:23.190-04:00Buffy-- Sure, all the records could have been dest...Buffy-- Sure, all the records could have been destroyed, or, even more confusingly, they all could have survived. <br /><br />Then the time traveler could have read all the available reports and gotten seven different locations for the murder, fourteen different times, the name of the street where it happened misspelled sixteen ways, the names of victim and perp confused with similar names of people in no way related to them... etc. <br /><br />But more likely... say I go back in time to prevent a murder I read about happening in NYC in 1843. Once I get back there, I realize you can barely turn around in NYC in 1843 without stepping on a murder victim (that's how the contemporaries saw it) and I didn't bother researching the other 186 murders, and I have no more idea what's going to happen next than what Connie Willis calls "the contemps" did. And I could spend the rest of my life shuttling back and forth from past to present researching each murder, only to find that some of them had never been recorded anywhere at all.<br /><br />Waste of my valuable time-traveling time. Better to go back to WWI and shove Corporal Adolf Hitler into the path of an obliging trench mortar.AlaskaRavenclawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-74695846295195430522012-05-01T14:40:43.078-04:002012-05-01T14:40:43.078-04:00Exactly. But we don't know what the rules are ...Exactly. But we don't know what the rules are for this time travel novel, because the author omitted to send the rest of the query.<br /><br />Author, you need to at least hint at the compelling reasons why Duncan can't just stake out the next victim and catch the killer that way. Or at what goes horribly wrong when he tries.<br /><br />What's at stake apart from Duncan's own life? What will happen if he and Everett change the direction of the timey-wimey thing?<br /><br />Also, the novel needs a better title. Really.nonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415222406280230021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-73560152146800839552012-05-01T14:11:37.808-04:002012-05-01T14:11:37.808-04:00It's impossible to write time travel without p...It's impossible to write time travel without paradoxes. Addressing them in the book by creating rules is a good idea.Evil Editorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03879826770199639420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-51981811843189239262012-05-01T13:46:11.571-04:002012-05-01T13:46:11.571-04:00I suppose all the court records and newspapers cou...I suppose all the court records and newspapers could've been destroyed in the time between the murders and the time traveller setting off, but then how could he know about them at all? If he knows there were four murders and that Duncan was one of the victims, it's reasonable to assume he can know *more* than that.<br /><br />Further, unless it's a single or one-way trip, he can hop forward to a time when the records haven't been destroyed, get the info there, then bring it back to where it's needed.<br /><br />Time travel doesn't allow you much leeway to pretend something can't be known, really. Look at how hard Willis has to work to keep her travellers from getting home or contacting anyone.nonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415222406280230021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-90991853046794354702012-05-01T13:39:45.174-04:002012-05-01T13:39:45.174-04:00Or-- and Connie Willis used this nicely in her mos...Or-- and Connie Willis used this nicely in her most recent books-- what if the time traveler comes from the future insufficiently supplied with info about the past? After all, murders as such are seldom history. And once the time traveler's prevented the first murder, everything's changed and nothing he knows counts anymore.<br /><br />Plus, of course, there are difficulties in arresting a murderer who hasn't killed anyone yet. Even more difficulties in keeping him locked up. The stories (set in Alaska) I could tell you.AlaskaRavenclawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-72257752532385239752012-05-01T13:29:58.718-04:002012-05-01T13:29:58.718-04:00Interesting plot but I suspect you haven't see...Interesting plot but I suspect you haven't seen the movie 12 Monkeys, which was basically the same plot but done on a somewhat larger scale. Get a copy of that with the commentaries, watch it about 20 times, listen to all the commentaries, and then rewrite.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-54094644296720827712012-05-01T13:16:39.215-04:002012-05-01T13:16:39.215-04:00Not necessarily. What if the "time traveler&q...Not necessarily. What if the "time traveler" was just trying to get the detective out of the way so he could commit the real crime. What if the killer gets arrested, but one of his future victims was the next Hitler? What if the stakeout works but the killer, who's also from the future, focuses his time travel device on the detective and sends him back in time where he falls out of the sky on top of his great grandfather, killing him? What then?Evil Editorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03879826770199639420noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-52825034912265314662012-05-01T12:35:49.038-04:002012-05-01T12:35:49.038-04:00If he's from the future, presumably he can nam...If he's from the future, presumably he can name the next victim and the time and place where they'll be killed. Stakeout, arrest, sorted.<br /><br />Short novel?nonehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00415222406280230021noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-61994821895824314822012-05-01T12:27:47.144-04:002012-05-01T12:27:47.144-04:00Arhooley-- agreed. But I'm thinking like Dunca...Arhooley-- agreed. But I'm thinking like Duncan. The poor sap doesn't know he's in a novel, and he's having a hard enough time believing in one time traveler. So to <i>him</i>, Everett is the obvious perp.<br /><br />I agree that an explanation of Everett's motives wouldn't hurt-- I assume it's big-picture, and contains some tacit explanation of why he's preventing the murders but not the Rwandan genocide.<br /><br />Queries don't have to be perfect, though, to land a terrific agent. Am living proof right here. But it's probably better if they are perfect.AlaskaRavenclawnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-2695421863158530282012-05-01T11:38:50.325-04:002012-05-01T11:38:50.325-04:00Alaska, you ask: Who can disappear better than Eve...Alaska, you ask: Who can disappear better than Everett, if he's really from the future?<br /><br />Answer: another time-traveler -- the perp. Maybe Everett is bobbing and weaving through time to evade him or her.<br /><br />Anyway, author, I'm with giving a little more info. I get the feeling the murderer is coming back to our present to settle some scores and to undo or prevent Duncan's busting him or her. Whatever's going on, I'd like to get a feel for the game of cat and mouse.journeytogaohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12708633194344557042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26791026.post-58558328709126479582012-05-01T11:09:57.367-04:002012-05-01T11:09:57.367-04:00Not bad. Not bad at all.
I had a little logic bli...Not bad. Not bad at all.<br /><br />I had a little logic blip with this one:<br /><br />The murderer, according to Everett, will kill four more people before disappearing. And one of them is Duncan.<br /><br />Disappearing? Who can disappear better than Everett, if he's really from the future? That would be my thinking if I were Duncan.<br /><br />Then of course there's the question of what motivates Everett to come back and change the past by preventing the murder of Duncan, instead of changing the past by preventing the murders of 10 million Ukrainian peasants, 6 million European Jews, 1.5 million Armenians, 1 million Cambodians, 800,000 Rwandans ... okay now I'm depressing myself.<br /><br />Anyway, presumably that question is dealt with in the manuscript, perhaps by some Connie Willis style explanation-- "slippage".<br /><br />It's also a feature of time travel stories that the person from the future doesn't generally 'fess up, because (much like turning into a giant snake) it never helps.<br /><br />On the whole-- pretty solid query. One of the better ones I've seen.AlaskaRavenclawnoreply@blogger.com