Tell us a bit about the creation of
Ulysses King.
I started watching the classic
Doctor Who serials and I began with Hartnell to see the beginning of the
series. I really liked the big ideas
they had in those stories. The special
effects would often let the stories down, but if you could see past the low
budget, you could see they had some really great ideas. While working my way through Hartnell,
Troughton, Pertwee, and Baker I started to really want to write those kinds of
stories. This was the impetus for
Ulysses King. However, I didn’t want to
deal with time travel. It could get too
messy. I also wanted a set of companions
closer to what Hartnell had with Ian, Barbara, and Susan. I didn’t want to have
those specific characters types, but I thought it was a pretty good starting point
to have 4 people who served different roles. The know-it-all, a fighter, a
scientist, and then Jake is along for the ride to be the guy that needs
everything explained to him.
Since I had ruled out time travel, I
figured it could be more fun to go with alternate realities. This allows us to
see any type of world the writer wants. For example, I’ve written 3 stories
where the characters have traveled to a world that has lizard men, another
where the Japanese took over the world after World War II, and an old west
where the Aztecs are fighting a war in North America against the United States
of America. For the last two, I wanted to have a Godzilla-like
creature fight Dr. Who and in the second I wanted werewolves in the old west.
I should mention I’m a big fan of
alternate history literature. I really
liked Eric Flint’s 1632 and his 1812 books.
And even though I think the 1632 series loses something as it
progresses, that first book is a great read. I’ve also enjoyed a number of
Harry Turtledove’s books. Thus, bringing
in alternate realities plays to one of my interests.
Once I got to the alternate realities idea, I needed to flesh things out. The characters were set pretty quickly, and I’ll discuss that for question 2. The toughest part was creating a ship like the TARDIS. How were they going to travel from reality to reality? I had asked some friends what would be inconspicuous in today’s world and initially their ship was going to be an ATM or vending machine, but that never really grabbed me. Ian Watson (who writes the great “Absolute Control” story in volume 1) recommended an antique store. That seemed perfect to me. We could switch the knick knacks out based on what world they were on. And it’s quirky.
Can you please fill us in on King's cast
and crew?
Ulysses King is an Olympian. Olympus
is the original Earth. He’s a professor from Olympus that ran the dissertation
projects where students would study the effects of various factors on different
worlds. In simpler terms, each of the
alternate realities is really a dissertation project. Ulysses King created many of these worlds
himself. He’s currently on the run from
Olympus because he has created a device, NotTA, that can carry more than one
person at a time through foldspace to any point on any world. Prior to NotTA’s creation, the Olympians
either had to use Ascension Gates that can only connect one point of each
reality to another and require large amounts of power or PDAs (Personal Delivery
through Ascension) to travel from one world to another. PDAs can only carry one person and some
technologies don’t travel well through this method.
Ulysses also carries a green glass
tuning fork that allows him to transfer commands between his mind and his
PDA. PDAs can do much more than simply
help you travel and they look like electronic tablets (think iPad).
Pandora is our fighter. While working out this character, I wanted
someone like Emma Peel from the BBC Avengers.
She’s cold and has a dark sense of humor. I’ve also thought Steed and Peel were
sociopaths since they joke around the dead bodies of their former friends. While Pandora isn’t a sociopath, having been
brought up on an arena world she knows life is short and intends to fully enjoy
it. She has a sense of humor that the
other characters don’t always get and is often times inappropriate. She considers herself King’s bodyguard.
Pandora feels she owes Ulysses a debt that needs to be repaid. Ulysses is just happy to have her around, but
doesn’t argue with her about her motivations.
Crystal was targeted for
assassination in the first story (“Fire From Above’) by another Olympian named
Darwin. She gets saved, but due to the
invention she had created, with the help of Darwin, she can’t go back to her
original world for fear of being killed.
She’s a reluctant traveler.
She’ll lose herself in the moment and while working on technology, but
she can be a bit petulant. She’s also a
prude as is very evident in Mark Bousquet’s story.
Jake is a reporter that was going to
interview Crystal about her invention.
He comes along because his life basically sucks and he sees this as his
chance to do something worthwhile. He’s
a bit of an irritant to Ulysses and often questions Professor King concerning
his attitudes toward other realities.
Crystal does this too, but Jake does it more. Jake goes from schmuck to heroic and back to
schmuck.
What would be your vision for how King fits
into the pantheon of pulp sci-fi?
This is a tough question for me
since I’ve not read a ton of pulp. Barry
Reese’s The Rook got me reading new pulp.
While I’ve read John Carter, Conan, and Tarzan books, I haven’t read a
ton of old pulp. Though as a kid, Tarzan
of the Apes changed the way I read books.
I only wanted good action stories.
The above is an attempt to bail me
out if I word this wrong. I’d say it fits in nicely with old style science
fiction stories. I think the plot drives
most of the stories, but character development does happen. This is particularly true for Crystal who
doesn’t yet realize she’s not the first Crystal Lee to travel with Ulysses
King.
I also think Dr. Who and Sliders
(though I’ve only seen a few episodes of Sliders and when they aired so I’m
going by very limited memory here) have pulp elements and these stories fit
nicely into a combo of those two genres.
How did you pick the writers for
the book?
Ian Watson and Mark Bousquet are
people I’ve known for about 2 decades and they helped me create the
concept. They were both no
brainers. I was happy they were both
interested. While I’m supposed to be
shilling my book here, if you haven’t read Mark Bousquet’s DREAMER’S SYNDROME,
get it. It’s excellent. Now let me get back on topic, both are Dr.
Who fans so having them write stories was a blessing.
Sean Taylor came along out of the
blue. I had answered some questions
about my Blackthorn (White Rocket Books, e-book only) story and I mentioned I
was in the early stages of this project and Sean said he wanted in. I said yes.
What can you tell us about the
stories in this first volume?
“Fire From Above” by me introduces
the characters and starts with the assassination attempt on Crystal Lee. After that we get our first glimpse of
Chancellor Darwin who believes in a survival of the fittest strategy. He’s dropping asteroids on a lizard man
planet. I wanted to start with lizard
men since it would immediately show the readers that we weren’t limited to
human history. Plus, The Silurians is
the best Pertwee serial. So this is my
nod to that serial though the stories have nothing to do with each other.
“Her Troy to Burn” by Sean Taylor
revolves around a civil war between two Olympian factions: the Darwinists and
the Helpers. It’s a really fun story
where we get our first glimpse of how the different factions fight things out
on other worlds (using what they consider to be lesser beings to do their dirty
work of course). The characters get caught between two factions and meet a
princess and a rebel that want to change the world. There’s something special about the princess,
but I’ll let you read the story.
“Absolute Control” by I.A. Watson
introduces a faction that the Olympians don’t know exists. The Controllers are basically our Daleks, but
they’re undead, robotic, insect men.
Their mad creator wants to use them to control all of reality. Ulysses King and company aren’t aware of this
faction and thus are caught off guard by their appearance. This story also provides some nice backstory
for Pandora and Jake. This was the first
Ulysses King story I saw that wasn’t written by me and it blew me away.
“The Nesting Dolls of Nova 6” by
Mark Bousquet brings in the Hedonists.
This is a tougher one to explain without ruining it, but the Hedonists
have set themselves up as gods on this planet and have set up a warped set of
commandments. This is the only story
that doesn’t take place on an alternate Earth.
Nova 6 is another planet, thus it’s more advanced than the Earth Jake
and Crystal come from. I think the
strength of this story is the dialogue between the characters and there’s some
really important material for volume 2 in this story. The plot is great, but Mark really nails the
fun you can have with the interactions between the characters. A very good job by Mark Bousquet.
What does the future hold for
Ulysses King and his traveling companions?
In the more immediate future, Pro Se
should be publishing the story “Dinosaurs and Nukes Don’t Mix” as a single
shot. This is basically my attempt to
write a Godzilla vs Dr. Who story.
In the fall, my story “Monsters in
the Monastery” should be coming out in a werewolf anthology from Metahuman
Press. This is the story with the
werewolves in the old west.
2015 will see the second volume of
Ulysses King.
Any other upcoming projects you would like
to plug?
Since I don’t have any of my own
stuff to plug except the e-book version of Blackthorn (http://www.amazon.com/Blackthorn-Thunder-Van-Allen-Plexico/dp/0984139265/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1401498798&sr=8-2&keywords=blackthorn+mars) I figure I’ll use this to shill books for my co-authors:
I’ve already mentioned Dreamer’s
Syndrome (http://www.amazon.com/Dreamers-Syndrome-Special-Edition-World-ebook/dp/B004YTPDGE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401498876&sr=8-1&keywords=dreamer%27s+syndrome+mark+bousquet ) I figured I could mention something else by Mark
Bousquet: Gunfighter Gothic (http://www.amazon.com/Gunfighter-Gothic-Under-Zeppelin-Skies/dp/1495350843/ref=la_B004WWUTNU_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401498941&sr=1-3 ). A very fun
book.
Ian Watson (who writes as I.A.
Watson) has done a number of things, but I think I’ll push his Robin Hood books
since that’s the first thing that comes to mind. Here’s the link to the first one: http://www.amazon.com/Robin-Hood-Sherwood-Ian-Watson-ebook/dp/B00BB40O1O/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1M3YEB1ABB4HBSD18A1F
Sean Taylor’s done a number of
things and here’s one I think of first when I think of his work: http://www.amazon.com/Show-Me-Hero-iHero-Omnibus/dp/0972019715/ref=la_B002QW6XNS_1_16?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1401499113&sr=1-16
