Mop-bots

A few people have asked what the book is about, so…

It’s a dystopian/ sci-fi story with the tag line:

A brother in search of himself.

I’ve tried to keep it as balanced as a dystopian idea can be. There are no ray guns, precocious teenagers, space ships or aliens (that’s been done much better than I ever could) and it isn’t a whinge-fest ‘them and us’ tale of woe and grievances.

The elements that have wound up in the mix include; ancient Rome, technology, politics, deadlifts, some BJJ, Bucket Towns, The Gates and cleaning robots (mop-bots). Science vs. belief is a major theme and the main character is a soldier – Lieutenant Franklin.

To be honest it’s not the type of stuff I usually read (maybe that’s not the best thing to admit) but I had an idea, started writing and it grew. I’ve tried to keep the sci-fi aspect in the background, it’s part of but not the whole point of the story.

At the moment it weighs in at about 115K words, around 500 pages. I’m reluctant to split it but it needs shearing in a few places, something I’m finding very hard to do.

I’ve completed the first read-through and need a week or two to tidy up some loose ends (Dagmara’s out, Lenka’s in; there are a few too many ‘slightlys’ and ‘slowlys’) and then will be sending it to the beta readers who have kindly volunteered to indulge me in this.

From that point there will be more revisions and (assuming it comes back with vaguely positive feedback) I’ll hand the keys over to a pro to edit it properly.

I am starting to get a little nervous about exposing myself this way but that, in a nutshell, is Franklin (though the title may well change…).