NO ANGUISH WITH ANGUS: HITTING CLOSE TO HOME WITH THE CONFLICT
Posted on February 12, 2015
It's a matter of magnitude.
I found with my new book, Angus Farseek: Untimely Agent, that I had a great science-fiction hook, but was uncertain where the exact conflict would come into play. Yes, I created an evil group bent on throwing time and space out of whack in the nasty Absurdists, but I wanted Angus to have even more to overcome. Scrubbing paradoxes out of existence and pickpocketing anachronisms from the time stream would be cosmic tasks on Angus Farseek's dance card, but I also needed him to face something bigger while still keeping the stage on which he stood firmly grounded in humanity.
Then it dawned on me. What if his motives didn't jibe with the Untimely Agency? What if what he wanted didn't align with keeping all of reality humming along? If his most fervent desire would bring on a cosmic apocalypse if he acted on it, would he act on it?
This epiphany resolved the story in so many ways for me. I knew the crux of the conflict would force Angus to choose between family and the fate of everything.
And here's where it gets tricky. I'm writing Angus as if he's 100% me. His actions are how I would react. I am basically putting myself in the lead and slapping a much cooler last name to the character than Clopper. Trust me, no one is going to pick up a time travel book about Brian Clopper: Untimely Agent. In this way, the decisions are authentic.
This threatens to be a wild, convoluted ride, and I'm eager to see it through to the end. I'm just hoping when I say that, it doesn't mean the end of time.