Fanboy paradise.

The writing of "Time In/Time Out" seems to be mostly about maintaining tone.

Linda's comment when I said this: "Aren't all stories?"

Well, yes, I suppose but that isn't usually the first thing I think about when I write a book. Plot, characters, action; all kinds of things come to mind first.

With this book, the first concern is the keep the breezy, irreverent tone, the character's voice. Zachary Spence, otherwise known as the mysterious Que, an average guy who also happens to be the world's richest man.

He's got to keep his humility at the same time he grows into the power he is given. What keeps him sympathetic is his ethical grounding, his always looking for the moral high ground, his unwillingness to simply buy what he wants.

It's probably stupid to have such a character--a guy who wins the lottery. I suspect that publishers get this kind of fantasy all the time.

But at the same time, plot-wise, it opens the story up to anything I can conceive of. The fact that so much is at stake, that anything can happen.

I make a comment in the book about how limitations are what make art, with the example of George Lucus and the first Star Wars and how his limited budget and the state of special effects forced him to make decisions that benefited the story.

And yet, here I'm doing the opposite. It's twenty years in the future, Que and the other characters have unlimited resources, and so if I can imagine it, it can be done.

Which is very freeing and fun. Wish-fulfillment in a big way. Fanboy paradise.

At the same time, though, I'm bringing a lot of writing experience to this book so I think the plot and all is working.

At least, I'm having fun imagining it all.