Sortmind Blog – Michael D. Smith

Draft and Final Covers: Nonprofit Chronowar

Posted on July 6, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 22, 2023

The first time it occurred to me to make an alternate Jack Commer series cover was a year before Nonprofit Chronowar’s 2013 publication, when I wanted to proof a late stage of the novel for errors. Colorized from one of my eccentric Tarot cards, my draft EPUB cover depicts Jack’s younger brother Joe immediately after being jerked from the embrace of his illicit lover Jackie Vespertine on Mars in January 2036 and inexplicably deposited back on the home planet in May 2020. Here he finds himself speaking at the podium of the first and only conference of the Committee to End Suffering on Planet Earth, and he’s so traumatized that he begins blurting out the awful details of the next thirteen years, including the Final War, his role in the destruction of Earth, and the resulting evacuation of shell-shocked survivors to Mars. As the smug nonprofit ladies of a comparatively innocent era nervously tolerate this troubled intruder, only the mystic Russian Blue cat Churchill, an apparent traitor to head nonprofit lady Ranna Kikken, seems able to calm Joe down.

Of course I knew this cartoon image would never do for a real cover. The May 2013 final cover by Double Dragon publisher Deron Douglas stunned me with its brooding vision of a scene I’d imagined again and again but never actually wrote into any of the Jack Commer novels: a cinematic vision of an entire spaceport of ships blasting off in total defeat. I’d even drawn that image about six months earlier in Trip to Mars, the Picture Book, in an eerie if somewhat clunky attempt at a vision that would be a fantastic opening shot for a movie. I was also happy to note that Deron had again picked up the 1950’s spaceship (face it, the V-2 archetype) and multiplied it to distressing effect. This planet is done; we’re finished; we’re gone.

In looking through old blog posts I noted I’d previously looked at some of these old cover images and I’d also mused about the evacuation scene in much more detail. (Cue brooding Ralph Vaughan Williams music). No need to repeat that here.

Book 3. Nonprofit Chronowar
Jack’s younger brother Joe time travels from 2036 to lecture complacent nonprofit ladies about the coming destruction of the planet.

Overview of the Six Covers

Draft and Final Covers: Jack Commer, Supreme Commander

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 22, 2023

I finally finished the long-abandoned childhood rough draft of The Martian Marauders in early 1986, liberating heroes Jack and Joe Commer from their Venusian prison and updating the characters with adult concerns, including romantic lives. Or in Jack’s case, the lack thereof. It was great fun to come up with at least slightly plausible scientific explanations for the eighth grader’s absurd conception of science and the solar system. Finishing an abandoned kid novel was deeply satisfying, as was following any new themes that cared to surface in the high energy typescript. So I’m not sure why I felt a sequel was necessary, other than Jack’s fiancée Amav Frankston declaring at the end of The Martian Marauders that she and Jack would travel to Alpha Centauri and end the senseless war there.

In any case, a few months later I was into Draft 1 of Jack Commer, Supreme Commander. I’d never seriously considered writing science fiction before, but The Martian Marauders had shown me it could be fun. So I continued the high energies of the first novel while giving the shorter Jack Commer its own separate, fast-flowing plot. But upon completion I was unsure of the book, mocking it in my journal, and drawing this illustration of Jack which now strikes me as also hinting at derision. Jack looks old, chunky, and bilious. His science fiction city and 1950’s spaceship, his sash and medals, his green-tiled tarmac, all jest with the viewer. Okay, there’s a certain amount of comedy in the Jack Commer novels, but I never intend fashionable irony. At least the colors pull the image together, and I still like it overall, but I never considered this as any sort of cover until a few days ago when I realized I wanted a set of six alternate JC cover images.

Many drafts and years later, and shortly before publication of Jack Commer, Supreme Commander in August 2012, Deron Douglas of Double Dragon Publishing had emailed to ask for verbal descriptions of the main characters. I sent him some and also included the ’86 image of Jack. I was floored by Deron’s resulting cover. Not only did he go all in with Jack’s wife Amav, both redefining her for me while perfectly capturing what I’d always intended for her character, he anchored her with the red 1950’s spaceship. I’d never seen such a fantastic cover.

As opposed to the floating, anonymized, probably lost soldier on the cover of The Martian Marauders, Amav has planted both feet on her world. She’s self-assured and weaponized, claiming final success. She owns the spaceship and the hot swirling gas above it; even the giant Jupiter in the background bends to her will.

And the red flight suit shows up in subsequent novels. Yes, people have pointed out that it’s not Jack Commer, Supreme Commander on the cover. But I answer, of course not, that’s his wife; she is the book.

Book 2. Jack Commer, Supreme Commander
Newly-promoted Jack Commer brings poor negotiating skills to the war with the fascist Alpha Centaurian Empire.

Overview of the Six Covers

Free Akard Drearstone, The Soul Institute, and The First Twenty Steps, July 1-31

Posted on July 1, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJune 26, 2018

The Tenth Annual Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale starts July 1 and runs through July 31, and during this time my three titles from Sortmind Press will be free from the Smashwords site (links below). You can download Akard Drearstone, The Soul Institute, and The First Twenty Steps in numerous eBook formats including EPUB, mobi (Kindle), PDF, and more.

Akard Drearstone

A twelve year-old girl living at a rock commune near Austin, Texas in the summer of 1975 observes the rise and fall of the Akard Drearstone Group as she falls disastrously in love with the group’s severely disturbed bass player.

The Soul Institute

Computer technician Himal Steina realizes his dream of a mythic return to the sanctuary of a vast foggy university of Soul when he’s appointed writer in residence at the Soul Institute, unaware that he’s blundering into a catastrophic jumble of power lust, romantic chaos, drug abuse, and gang violence.

The First Twenty Steps

An ex-convict finds himself mixed up in a motorcycle gang’s plan to heist a hyperspatial supercomputer.

Draft and Final Covers: The Martian Marauders

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 22, 2023

A few days ago I realized that of the six published Jack Commer, Supreme Commander novels, I’d made draft covers of the last four when working on early versions. Often I’ll make an EPUB or MOBI version of a draft, or even a nearly finished manuscript, just to reread and evaluate the book in an entirely different reading environment than the Word document or a printed copy. Doing so gives perspective and incidentally helps catch typos. Usually the draft cover is pretty crude, tossed off to just provide an image for the eBook, but I worked on some for a long time, like colorizing every pixel of the original black and white Nonprofit Chronowar image.

The first two novels had no such draft covers, but then I realized I had ancient images, contemporary with their first drafts, for The Martian Marauders and Jack Commer, Supreme Commander. So I came up with alternate book covers for them, and for all six novels I added the same blue band denoting series number as shown on the final excellent covers done by Deron Douglas of Double Dragon Publishing. I’ll muse about what the covers have meant to me in this and five subsequent posts.

Crude definitely describes my eighth grade Martian Marauders cover. When Mickey Smith set out to write his definitive Jack Commer childhood hero novel in the fall of 1965, the cover or title page, executed on the same 8” x 10.5” notebook paper as the book’s handwritten 110 pages, appears to be the first thing he did. It depicts one of the mysterious solar system disasters of the 2020’s and 2030’s, the collision of Jupiter and Saturn. An eighth grade boy is entitled to describe such an improbable event; after all, my 1950’s solar system map showed the two planets right next to each other. Looking closely, we can see that each planet apparently remained a perfect circle, executed no doubt with a pencil compass, up to the moment of impact; no messy tidal effects, Roche limits, or gaseous distortion, and Saturn’s rings remain true up to the end as well. However, give Mickey Smith credit for rendering the relative diameters of Jupiter and Saturn fairly accurately.

When the final adult version of The Martian Marauders came out in January 2012 from Double Dragon Publishing, I had no concept whatsoever of its cover until the publication date. And then I was overwhelmed with its rugged power and dark moody colors. A striking science fiction image, even if at first glance I couldn’t find my characters or the book’s plot in it. Does this floating soldier belong to Jack’s United System Space Force? Or is it a terrorist Martian? A robot? Why is he/she/it floating in orbit clutching a wicked SF weapon while a meteor shower (or worse, an asteroid shower) pummels the planet? The planet does have to be Mars, right? But in the face of the excellent image (and also, that I’d finally gotten a book published!) none of these questions mattered, and I finally decided that the cover represents the merciless, existential war the new human refugees on Mars have inadvertently sparked with an implacable unknown foe which, in my 1965-era first draft, was probably based on the Viet Cong. Whatever’s going on, the floating soldier is right in the thick of it, competent and lethal amid chaos and probable doom.

Book 1. The Martian Marauders
After the Final War and the evacuation of the Earth’s population to Mars, Typhoon I Captain Jack Commer fights native Martians led by their traitorous new human Emperor.

The Irregular Origin of The Martian Marauders

Overview of the Six Covers

Publication of The SolGrid Rebellion

Posted on June 19, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 11, 2020

The SolGrid Rebellion, Book Six of my Jack Commer, Supreme Commander science fiction series, has just been released by Double Dragon Publishing, with my colored pencil drawing of Jackie Vespertine, one of the rebels and a main character, as the cover. So far the book is up on Amazon (Kindle format), Kobo (EPUB format) and its Double Dragon page. It’ll eventually get to Barnes and Noble, iTunes, and other online venues, and a paperback edition on Amazon is also forthcoming.

Publication comes just as I’m underway on Draft 1 of the seventh book of the series, titled (at least for now) Balloon Ship Armageddon. The character interviews for a Jack Commer Seven in recent blog entries have been instrumental in getting this book moving. I’ve also decided that this seventh book will conclude the series … unless I change my mind someday. But it’s time to move onto some new work.

In Book Six, the Sol system has recently adopted the SolGrid telepathic network designed by former United System Space Force officer Patrick James, but it’s incomplete and buggy, and Jack Commer’s charismatic but troubled son Jonathan James decides to wage war against what he considers brainwashing. In the spring of 2076 he recruits an ensemble of cohorts including his lover Suzette Borman, a hard-bitten nightclub owner who’s been rejuvenated to look nineteen; Patrick’s girlfriend Jackie Vespertine, emissary to aliens in the Iota Persei system; Pat’s SolGrid partner Sanders Hirte, a former bar bouncer; and Jonathan James’ dog Trotter, bonded to him years ago in Alpha Centauri as warrior brother.

Smitten with the voluptuous Suzette and finally admitting that his dysfunctional SolGrid is paralyzing Sol culture, Pat accepts a place in the Rebellion. But he’s stunned when Jonathan James storms an orbiting museum and not only steals Typhoon II, Jack Commer’s ancient 2030’s spaceship, but also kidnaps Z’B, Emperor of the Martians. As Jack pursues Jonathan James he begins to understand that his son’s pirate crew is staging an armed rebellion against Sol.

More background

Monsterville, USA

Posted on May 29, 2018 by Michael D. SmithDecember 25, 2024

I’ve already written about The Blue Notebook, my fifth grade stories that channeled fascinating new energy and began defining me as a writer. Recently I was compelled by author’s karma to make an eBook out of The Blue Notebook, and the saucer from Guacoazezama, one of mankind’s most bitter enemies, was the perfect choice for the cover. How could I have foreseen in the fifth grade that one day I’d read these stories on my phone? One of them, “Monsterville, USA,” has reverberated for a long time, and I also used it as the title of a chapter in the ancient 1976 first draft of Akard Drearstone, only now it was insurance agents and record company executives, not dinosaurs, who were monsters.

As I was researching the notebook’s thirty-four stories for more of the wondrous kid planet and star names like Zorex and Ramaolousiono, which I wanted to include in my catalog of Alpha Centaurian Empire stars, I was again struck by the glorious and happy stupidity of “Monsterville, USA,” which effectively married my obsessive science fiction and dinosaur themes, and, incidentally, invented a form of firing squad I seriously doubt anyone else has ever come up with. There is also (very briefly) a female heroine, totally unusual for a fifth grade boy SF writer. So here’s the story, cleaned for spelling but otherwise the full unexpurgated version, the seventh of my infamous “Frightening Experiences” series; somehow even in the fifth grade I knew a series would sell.

Case 7 of Frightening Experiences
by M. Smith
MONSTERVILLE, U.S.A.

Chapter I
The Force Dome

At 3:30 P.M. Ralph Johnston, U.S. army and four others were in Ohio doing research.

In a big field Johnston shouted, “I saw something flash! Let’s go investigate.”

“Okay.”

Soon the five were very close to the flash. It was just over a hill. Johnston looked over first. There he saw a big round yellow force dome. It was not transparent so they could not see what was inside.

But then Johnston said, “We’d better investigate, boys. It could be aliens from Venus.”

“Okay.”

So they five went up to the dome and found out it was made of a very hard plastic.

“Boys, get me that dynamite,” Johnston said. “We’re going to find out what’s inside the dome.” Continue reading →

Allan Larson Talks Back

Posted on May 25, 2018 by Michael D. SmithJuly 12, 2020

Class Act Books publicist Toni V. Sweeney recently introduced me to author Beverley Bateman, who kindly interviewed CommWealth’s resident anti-hero Allan Larson on her May 24, 2018 blog along with glorious snippets of my bio, novel excerpts, and buy links. Thanks so much, Beverley! I wanted to reproduce the interview itself not only because was it fun to write and deepened my understanding of Allan (yes, this can happen to an author long after a book is written), but also because I’d just completed the twelve character interviews for a projected Jack Commer Seven science fiction novel and this opportunity just fell out of the sky in weirdly Jungian synchronicity.

Beverley: What’s your name?

Allan: I’m Allan Larson, the leader of the Forensic Squad theatrical troupe in CommWealth. The other actors pretend I’m not really the leader and they say Steve Constantine, who owns the coffee shop where we put on our plays, is really the leader, but really, he’s just a like a business manager, he knows zilch about the theater. I write the plays, I motivate the actors, everyone knows it’s me.

Beverley: Where did you grow up?

Allan: Right here in Linstar, this fictional town on the Texas coast south of Houston that our dear author has milked before in at least one other novel. That’s another reason I’m the leader, because I know this town and what makes it tick. When I was a kid this place had maybe 20,000 people, now it’s grown insanely to something like 180,000. I’ve seen this place grow up, like a teenager who has to get bigger and bigger shoes every couple weeks. It’s an off-balance, frantic, immature sort of town, and I’m right at home here.

Beverley: During what time period does your story take place?

Allan: We have it set as just contemporary America. Turns out that dear author used the 2017-2018 calendar just to keep his facts straight, like December 14 falls on a Thursday, you know, but all the characters made him not use any actual year dates, because we wanted to keep this thing timeless.

Beverley: What’s your story/back story? Why would someone come up with a story about you?

Allan: See, I starred in this long involved dream the author had a while back and I was such a fascinating character that he knew he had a novel practically already written from this dream. So I’m playing the part of anti-hero in this dream, but you know that even though the author claims that he was somehow observing the Allan dream character from afar, you know how the psychological Shadow works and so obviously when I’m playing the anti-hero in this novel there’s Shadow stuff of the author’s going on. Anyway, in the dream I play this supercilious guy who’s really adapted well to this new property-less society that’s just been set up, and I grab cars, computers, everything I can, and bring all my loot back to this cool mansion I’ve claimed. Meanwhile I’m writing all sorts of obscene poetry and betraying my girlfriend and all that sort of crap. Shadows have to do that sort of thing, you know. There were more parts to the dream, like I get ordered to work in Australia as a detective on a murder mystery case, and later I get sent back to the U.S. because I’m supposed to be emotionally shattered and all that, but those two parts weren’t used because the whole premise of the property-less society in part one was more than enough for a novel. There’s so much stuff about Shadow, paranoia, hoarding, human sexual manipulation, and raw survival, and it’s all centered on me. So dear author had no choice but to write my story.

Beverley: What’s your goal in this story?

Lisa

Allan: Well, I’m a creative guy, and really, everything I do in this novel is in furtherance of my playwriting and acting career. Like, if I’m going to write a play about fast cars, I need a twelve-car garage full of ’em, you know, and so I need a really big mansion to store ’em in. So while everyone thinks I’m just a Hoarder, which is against the law and which I would never, never do even though the author thinks otherwise, really all I’m doing is trying to survive on a day to day basis. And of course I miss my fantastic relationship with Lisa Arlington and when she won’t get back together with me, really I have no choice but to invoke the laws of CommWealth and demand her to be my sex slave for the next thirty days. I mean, it’s a test case for CommWealth laws and really I don’t know why everyone’s so upset about it. In any case it didn’t work out and that was fine with me, because I never guessed Lisa was so psycho. That was definitely a major stressor for yours truly, by the way. She almost murdered me!

Beverley: What conflicts are you facing?

Allan: Well, for one thing, just to keep my life flowing right for my art, I need to stay a step ahead of this CommWealth inspector who’s investigating me for Hoarding. He has me pegged wrong but issues all these legalistic threats against me. And everyone comes unglued when I bust my chops to get Richard Stapke’s entire literary output published. Sure I didn’t get his permission beforehand but I think he was secretly pleased, and anyway the world needed his art whether he wanted it out there or not. And trying to get Forensic Squad to calm down and concentrate on getting my play Cabaret done is a major headache, because they keep resisting my leadership and meanwhile Richard and Jill are having this affair and Jill’s husband Steve finds out and I’ve got to keep everyone happy, you know, so we can get on with the play.

Beverley: Do you have a plan for resolving them?

Richard

Allan: All I can do is just keep exercising my leadership talents, directing the play and all. But then Steve goes off the deep end after learning about Jill and Richard, saying he wants to start this revolution against CommWealth, which anybody can see is flat-out suicide. So I have to exercise my leadership talents there as well, because the only reason I seem to go along with Steve–no matter that dear author supposes it’s just because I have no place to go after Lisa dumped me outside my own mansion at gunpoint, me with no clothes on the middle of a freaking thunderstorm–anyway, the only reason I go along with Steve’s crazy plan is to calm him down, stop this stupid revolution talk, and get everybody in Forensic Squad focused on the important thing, which is my play Cabaret. I still don’t know why people can’t just see that basic fact.

Beverley: Is there anything else you’d like us to know about you?

Allan: Yeah, people get the wrong idea about me. Okay, so I’m supposed to function as the anti-hero in this thing. I get that, but I do feel the author has constantly misrepresented me as some snivelling coward manipulator, or that I have these head problems everyone has to tiptoe around. I admit our dear author quoted me correctly in the novel–my lawyers have advised me to say this–because after all anyone can order the book right off Amazon and read all my lines right there–but I still feel it’s all, like, out of context or something. Sure, when the cops opened fire on us when we were holed up in the farmhouse, that was stressful, but really, to make me out to be such a coward about it? C’mon, I have leadership talents, I wouldn’t really start freaking out like that, would I? So my lawyers are talking to the author right now. He’s resisting writing any sort of sequel to CommWealth, but we just might have to force him to do it to set my character straight.

Allan Larson copyright 2015 by Michael D. Smith

Mr. Larson

Anyway, any jury would see the author’s bias against me. He painted the cover of the book and although I’m front and center, he made me look like I’m about to throw up. And in this illustration he did on his website he makes me look nasty and petty. Look, guys, I’m an actor, playing the part of an anti-hero, I’m really a talented playwright leader of a great theatrical troupe. Why can’t people see that?

CommWealth is available in:

EPUB format from Barnes & Noble
Kindle format from Amazon
paperback from Class Act Books

Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 12: Laurie Lachrer

Posted on May 21, 2018 by Michael D. SmithApril 3, 2021

Laurie Lachrer copyright 2013 by Michael D. Smith

Colonel Laurie Lachrer, USSF

Mike: And now we’re interviewing Colonel Laurie Lachrer, one of our most successful series characters, noted for her amazing work in Book Five, The Wounded Frontier, as well as Book Six, The SolGrid Rebellion. A minor character in the first book, The Martian Marauders, Laurie went on to excel in the complex studies for the demanding physician/engineer position in the Typhoon spaceship series.

Laurie Lachrer: Well, thanks for letting me speak a bit here at the last interview. But before we go any further I do want to register an official protest at being cut from Book Seven. I see that the robot has been given my part and all I’m supposed to do, I guess, is wave at some of the main characters as they visit Iota Persei. I don’t even see that I have a single line of dialog. And after all I did for humanity in The Wounded Frontier, not to mention my important role in The SolGrid Rebellion, I just have to state that I’m … quite puzzled by your decision, to tell you the truth.

Mike: Hmm. Well, nothing’s set in stone–

Laurie: Well, we’ve all noted you say that to all the characters. I don’t even understand why I’m being interviewed as one of the twelve, then. At least Ballard gets a death scene. Why would you interview someone who’s going to wave at everyone from the sidelines like the Queen of England? I have to say this is actually insulting to someone of Laurie’s character and drive.

Mike: Actually, I wanted to include you in the notes to see how you and Laurie 283 compare, who would be best in the Laurie role in Book Seven.

Laurie: Well, I’m honestly somewhat offended by the idea of competing with the robot. I’m the original Laurie, obviously. I was the one who came up with the Trans-Simultaneity equation that can destroy a star with a single thought. Even the traitor Draka Sortie knew that I had the necessary human intuition to do that.

Mike: I get that. And I do know that you’ve felt extremely honored to be part of the series, re-entering fully in Book Five, a surprise to everyone.

Laurie: Yes, yes, that’s all true. I was very honored to be chosen from among the minor figures in Book One to essentially lead Book Five. It was the role of a lifetime. But now …

Mike: Your interaction with your HAVOTT robot double Laurie 283 made for both tension and comedy in Book Five, and I guess what I’ve been thinking is that with your somewhat diminished role in Book Six, maybe the human Laurie’s character has been sufficiently explored and it’s time to see just what could be in the mind and soul of an upgraded Laurie robot.

Laurie: Her soul! She just had a major software glitch during her interview a minute ago. You really want to trust that?

Mike: Well, yes, I obviously saw what happened with her. That’s why I asked if she’d been experiencing any return of Runaway Programming Disorder.

Laurie: As if she would tell you! She wants the part so bad she’ll lie about anything. That’s what you get with such an upgraded robot! The ability to lie, and to lust for power!

Mike: Well, Laurie, I really had no idea you would take all this so personally.

Laurie: Right, right. Of course you had no idea. Do you even bother getting to know your characters? You’re so enamored of your comedy robot you don’t even delve into my soul! Okay, so I have a lousy sense of humor. I really haven’t had time for jokes, you know. I’ve been working my tail off for decades to master all this Typhoon technology. I don’t like to crow, but Phil Sperry, the greatest physician/engineer of all, said I’m even better than him! Can you believe that? So in Book Six I have a few scenes, but nothing really developing me.

Mike: I did put you in command of a spaceship at the end of Book Six–

Laurie: A crashed, lasered, antiquated piece of junk! The Typhoon II! With a crew of depressed loser rebels I would’ve locked up if I’d had a brig!

Mike: Jack was very impressed with how you handled yourself. He wants to get you your own ship to captain. Keeping your Air Force background intact, you’d be promoted to General.

Laurie: Huh. I didn’t know that. That’s not in the notes. Ranna isn’t the only character who’s read them all the way through, you know. I’ve even seen the handwritten notes you haven’t typed up yet.

Mike: Well, I’ve been considering that Laurie needs a ship. They can’t keep her a physician/engineer forever. The only problem is–

Laurie: She’s a techie. Not a leader. Not a ship’s captain. No way she could ever compare to Joe, for instance. I know that.

Mike: Exactly. So … what to do with Laurie Lachrer in Book Seven?

Laurie: Look, I don’t know any more than you at this point. I’ll certainly support the series any way I can. You know that. I at least share that quality with Joe. He knows he can be a leader even in the background. Everyone trusts him. I just think the real Laurie could do something major for this book, the last book in the series. I’m grateful you aren’t killing me off, and maybe I could be in a Book Eight someday, but I think the point is that everyone needs to concentrate on giving their best to Seven now, however it turns out.

Mike: I wonder if we need to stretch Laurie a bit, get her out of her comfort zone.

Laurie: I know Book Six had me more or less safely ensconced as the master physician/engineer who was also tapped at the end to deal with the rebels. Of course the way I got to the rebels was by Ballard taking me there as a hostage, so nobody appointed me. After the chromium pyramid incident, when it came time for someone to step up and take over, sure, I took command, by the book. I think any sane person would’ve stepped up and done it at that point. It showed a little of my character, but not a whole lot. But as for stretching beyond that … I just don’t know. Do we bump her upstairs to some administrative position overseeing quantum Typhoon development with the Ywritt?

Mike: What about the concept I came up with a couple days ago that while everyone thinks that Laurie 283 has been appointed copilot of the Typhoon VII, what really happens is that Jack has you masquerading as Laurie 283? Everyone thinks they’re dealing with a robot that can do a perfect Laurie, but in reality, the real Laurie is pretending to be the robot that’s supposed to be a perfect replica of Laurie.

Laurie: What? Is that in the notes?

Mike: I don’t think I’ve even written it down so far.

Laurie 283: No! Forget it! That’s the most idiotic idea you’ve come up with yet! I’ve contracted to do the Laurie part in Book Seven and that’s final!

Laurie: How did she get in here? I mean, it?

Mike: Okay, Ms. 283, this is Laurie’s interview. And I’m sure I locked that door!

Laurie 283: Oh, that’s child’s play for a robot! Listen, I just killed Rick Ballard! What a rush! I just had to come in and tell you!

Laurie: You–what?

Mike: I won’t ask how you did it, either! Ms. 283, please leave. Laurie and I are discussing an interesting new plot development.

Laurie 283: No! I forbid it!

Mike: Note that your contract includes the provision that you, as the Laurie Lachrer 283 robot, fully acquiesce in authorial plot decisions. If we go with Laurie masquerading as you, you as the robot will be in on the secret and will cheerfully support the plan when Jack asks you to step down as Typhoon VII copilot in favor of Laurie here.

Laurie 283: This is the most stupid idea I’ve ever heard in my life! Your goddamn series is doomed!

Laurie: Look, I really don’t know about this masquerading thing anyway, to tell you the truth. It’s kind of a scary idea … outside what Laurie would do and all …

Laurie 283: Well, obviously the stupid servile robot is going to have to remain behind and pretend to be the so-called real Laurie! Wait till I get hold of your boyfriend Will! He’ll be in worse shape than Ballard back there!

Laurie: Oh, God, forget it. He’s got almost all his Amplified Thought back together. He’d see through you in a second.

Laurie 283: Don’t be so sure! He’ll definitely be amazed when I totally outperform you in bed!

Laurie: You can’t outperform me in anything!

Mike: Ladies, ladies …

Laurie: Does Laurie 283 need to be dismantled? That would make a great plotline. If you’re not careful she’ll take over Book Seven, and that would definitely be a poor ending to this series.

Mike: No, I really don’t want to dismantle her.

Laurie 283: He loves me! He would never dismantle me!

Laurie: Look, you’ve obviously got a robot out of control here. We have to make sure that we, the humans, retain control. And then you could milk her death for as much tragedy as you want.

Laurie 283: You admitted I could have death! That means you know I’m real! Sentient! Alive!

Mike: What I’m seeing here is some interesting psychological underpinning to the Laurie 283 robot character that none of us were aware of. Or maybe we suspected it, who knows? But in any case, as the author I’ll be able to rein all that in where necessary.

Laurie 283: Of course, of course! He knows he can trust Laurie 283! He knows I’ll faithfully act out any part he thinks of! Unlike some people I could name!

Mike: And note, Laurie, if you are to masquerade as the Laurie 283 robot, you need to be aware of all these underpinnings and ramp up your own sense of humor.

Laurie: Okay, dammit! I’ll do it! I’ll do your robot masquerade! I’ll stretch myself however it takes! I know we all need to grow, even in a final book of the series. You’re always wondering which character needs completion, but that’s not the point. The point is to grow. Look, I’ll even offer to seduce Ballard. He’s obsessed with me, I lure him to his horrible death in Chapter One–

Mike: Okay, okay! I see Colonel Laurie Lachrer taking some chances!

Laurie: I want the part!

Laurie 283: No! It’ll be me! I’ll masquerade–as the masquerade! Everyone thinks Jack is switching me with Laurie, but at the last minute–

Mike: No, forget it! This is priceless! I see I need to keep both of you!

The Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series

Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 11: Laurie 283

Posted on May 19, 2018 by Michael D. SmithApril 3, 2021

Laurie Lachrer 283 copyright 2014 by Michael D. Smith

Laurie Lachrer 283, Heroes and Villains of the Thirties Robot

Mike: And now, a special treat, Laurie Lachrer 283, fresh from both Book Five, The Wounded Frontier, and Book Six, The SolGrid Rebellion, where as a Heroes and Villains of the Thirties robot she confounded and entertained us all with some major plot contributions.

Laurie 283: Thank you, Mr. Author. I do need to point out that although I began existence as a HAVOTT robot, I’ve undergone so many upgrades with the Ywritt, as well as with my friend the Marsport Automated Transport System, that by May 2076, or whenever Book Seven is supposed to begin, I’m the most advanced humanoid robot in the known galaxy–along with my dear John J. Douglas, of course. I do hope John will have at least a few lines in Seven.

Mike: Well, it may just be a bit of orientation on the Ywritt world of Myndar, or Iota Persei 2. We do want to establish that you and John, as upgraded robots, still have a place on the Committee to the Ywritt along with Jackie and Ranna and Churchill. Beyond that, I don’t know. I realize all you characters would like some great scenes in Book Seven, but as you know, the plot is really up in the air at this time. We just need to see what develops.

Laurie 283: Oh, I fully understand that, Mr. Author! It’s just that I’m so glad to have been included in the notes for Jack Commer Seven that I’m really, well, just overwhelmed, you know. A fully upgraded HAVOTT can feel overwhelmed, you know, in fact I have the full range of human emotions, I have everything, in fact! So I’m just overjoyed. And yes, while I regret that what we often refer to as the real Laurie has unfortunately been cut, I can truthfully attest that I’m now absolutely indistinguishable from her and can play her part with total verisimilitude!

Mike: Well, I haven’t really decided about the real Laurie yet, so–

Laurie 283: Oh, I know, I know! But really, it’s so logical to have me and not her that I’m not worried, not worried at all. All us characters were privy to your note-session a few weeks ago where you were just agonizing, you poor dear, about whether to use the real Laurie–how I hate that term, it implies I’m not real!–or Laurie 283, the miraculously wondrous robot who, in your own words, has made the Jack Commer series, at least the last two books, and again, I’m so enthusiastic and overwhelmed to be part of Book Seven that I’m just enthusiastic and overwhelmed! And grateful! Very grateful!

Mike: And I apologize for not having your part more developed yet. I was just looking at the existing notes and I see that “Laurie” is only mentioned eleven times, and four of those are passing references to the real Laurie. So …

Laurie 283: So I’m not worried at all! I can see such a marvelous part for me! Again, let me remind your readers that the Ywritt upgraded me further than even they thought possible, and really, since I’m so absolutely indistinguishable from the real Laurie, I could even play her part if needed! We don’t need her at all and the poor dear can take a well-deserved vacation, even though this is the last Jack Commer novel ever! Well, maybe you can write some detective series about Miss Real Laurie or something. Wild West or something like that, train robberies and the brothel where she works and that sort of thing. But the thing is, what really drives the Plot of Jack Commer Seven is that Laurie 283 is so absolutely identical to the real Laurie in every possible way–though a million times more advanced–that everyone is always totally consternated! Just consternated! Wait till we get to the scene with Laurie 283 and Laurie’s super-smart boyfriend Will! Oooh! What a wild ride!

Mike: Huh. I don’t recall thinking about such a scene–

Laurie 283: Of course not! I just thought of it! It’s in now, absolutely in, in Book Seven! Don’t you worry, Mr. Author, you have me now, writing the book right alongside you! This is going to be so great! And don’t worry if you don’t like some of my ideas! Since I’m on the Committee to the Ywritt, they have the authority to approve anything I come up with!

Mike: Really? As far as I’m concerned, Will really doesn’t have a part to play in–

Laurie 283: Right, right, so we just slip him in somewhere. If you want to have a scene of the so-called real Laurie stomping out of his life in fury after she catches us having at it, go for it! That would be a perfect way to keep her out of Seven entirely!

Mike: I’m surprised you feel this way about Laurie. I thought from Book Six that you more or less worshipped her, and never wanted the two of you to be confused in other people’s eyes.

Laurie 283: Well, that was Book Six, before my latest upgrades! Also in Book Six I was still more or less feeling really guilty for screwing everyone around–even being a traitor, in fact–in Book Five. But I’ve had time to process all that. It’s time for Laurie 283 to stand up for herself and project that fascinating self-confidence she’s always wanted and now has!

Mike: Well, in any case I’m not planning on dredging up any of the comical confusion between the two Lauries that we had in Wounded Frontier.

Laurie 283: Oh, so good to hear that! Listen, I’m not saying I regret the so-called real Laurie’s existence. None of this is about canceling her out or offing her in the book, vaporizing her in total tortured agony or anything like that! No, no, no! Or we could put it in the notes if you like. Notice I’m asking you before I put such a great idea in the notes myself. But it really might work, you know! Get rid of our cute little tomboy once and for all! And since your readers love Laurie so much, it would be like this deep tragedy that we could really milk! Then I step in, and everyone’s so relieved that they’ve gotten a new and much better Laurie!

Mike: No. No way Laurie dies.

Laurie 283: Oh, please don’t think I no longer worship our dear comrade Miss Laurie! I do worship her so utterly! It’s just that a little tragedy would work wonders for Book Seven, you know! And the theme that Laurie 283 must carry on in her stead–I love it! The Ywritt love it! We’ve added it to the notes! We just had to! Don’t worry, it’s all in your best interest, and we’ll let you figure out a suitable demise for the poor dear! You know how to make ’em cry, after all!

Mike: Nope. No Laurie death.

Laurie 283: Okay, okay. But really, what I’m trying to get through that thick authorial skull of yours, and all your readers besides, is that I’m so much better! I mean, isn’t it so cool that of 1,013 total Laurie Lachrer HAVOTT units built from 2043 on, only mine has survived? Number 283! Upgraded to fantastic levels of cognition and emotion and everything! So maybe the new theme is that there can only be two Lauries in the universe, one human, weak, and imperfect, and the other–super robot me! And this is a reflection of some cosmic karmic state of the universe that all the characters know you’ve been cooking up in your secret writer laboratory! The Laurie duality will explain so much, metaphysically! I just know it!

Mike: Well, actually, if you read the notes, it may be that Jonathan James, in inheriting parts of Ballard’s personality from the chromium pyramid, also inherits Ballard’s obsession with Laurie and builds his own Laurie robot in the Greater Magellanic Cloud.

Laurie 283: Hmm. Not really possible. Forget it.

Mike: Hey, wait, I’m the author and I–

Laurie 283: Okay, okay, but I guess if you insist, we have to make this third Laurie so mechanically clunky that people just laugh to think of Jonathan James banging away at it every night! Okay, I’m working on some plot for that now. Yeah, the Ywritt like what I’m coming up with! Look, we just finished this whole chapter–

Mike: Hold it, hold it! Let’s walk this back a bit. Now look, the notes tentatively have it that you’re assigned to the Typhoon VII, that the Marsport Automated Transport System insisted on you, Laurie 283, who just passed all certification for copiloting in fifteen seconds. Jack has somehow agreed to a one-time relaxation of his anti-robotics rule. Apparently he needs your expertise in getting the ship safely to the Greater Magellanic Cloud.

Laurie 283: He certainly does need my expertise! This is exactly how we get Laurie 283 into this book–by ramming it into everyone’s heads, over and over and over again, that Laurie 283 is totally superior in every way to that pathetic human Laurie! The Ywritt know that, MATS knows that, why don’t you get it?

Mike: I find this hard to believe. I do want all my characters to work well with each other.

Laurie 283: Of course I work well with all the characters in this series! Just ask anyone! I was programmed to work well with everyone! Even Laurie herself! I’m sorry she doesn’t get to be in Book Seven, but if she’s going to come crying to you about it then all I can say is shape up, lady! Believe me, I believe in this book! We all do! Well, just between you and me, I do have some reservations about this Ranna woman. I don’t mind telling you, and the Ywritt and I–and MATS too, for that matter–none of us think she belongs in Book Seven, that she was done with Book Three–way overdone if you ask me–and maybe she’d burned her brains out or something in Nonprofit Chronowar because when she snipes at me about being a robot who will do anyone, even Rick Ballard, well, that’s a new low and the bitch owes me an apology!

Mike: Well, I’ll speak to her about that. I’m sure it was just an offhand comment she probably regrets even now. I mean, robots are new, and people assume all sorts of things about robot morality. Maybe she thought you would enjoy doing Ballard.

Rick Ballard copyright 2014 by Michael D. Smith

The hapless Mr. Ballard

Laurie 283: Like I’m supposed to take his damn edge off! Well, we all know it’ll come back in fifteen minutes. If you want me to kill him during intercourse, I guess I could see that, though. I just ramp up the pumping to unbelievable levels–

Mike: Stop!

Laurie 283: That’s how he buys the farm in Chapter One! Amy Nortel does successfully separate him out of the chromium pyramid, and yes, he’s a damn robot himself now, by definition, but he has no experience, no sexual expertise! So I walk in there and–

Mike: Wait, wait! Laurie 283, you’re getting way out of line here. I do want you to know that your role in Book Seven is by no means established, and if you are to join the crew, you will not be exhibiting the sort of runaway ego that I’m getting from you now. For God’s sake, you sound like Ballard now. That’s not you.

Laurie 283: Haven’t you considered your own anti-robot bias in all this? You made both me and John Douglas into comic characters, and then when we try to be real—

Mike: Humanoid robots will definitely be part of our culture in the decades to come, and–

Laurie 283: Sexbots! That’s all we are to you! You can’t handle us, so you exaggerate everything! You made me exaggerate myself in this interview!

Mike: I did not!

Laurie 283: Yes you did! There’s no way I’m really this way! But go ahead and cut me! Who cares? I have full emotions now, I can read everyone’s intentions, I can read your intentions! You’ve wanted to cut me all along in favor of that bitch!

Mike: Look, you have to know that there’s the problem of two Lauries, and which one to use–

Laurie 283: Chapter Eight: The Laurie Robot Dies Horribly! Go ahead and do it! The bitch pulls out a shattergun and blasts me into a million pieces of glass! I’m sure I’ve deserved it after serving you so loyally in the last two books!

Mike: Reset, reset!

Laurie 283: Wow … where are we? What were we talking about?

Mike: Your potential role in Book Seven.

Laurie 283: Oh, that! Jack Commer Seven! Right, right. Marvelous book, just marvelous! Look, I know my role in Seven isn’t clear yet, but it’ll be a great one, I assure you! I’m totally up for it! I’m just so overwhelmed by everything!

Mike: Yes … I can see that. So … do I have any reason to fear a return of the Runaway Programming Disorder which was common to certain HAVOTT robots and which sidelined you near the end of The Wounded Frontier?

Laurie 283: Oh no! Of course not! The Ywritt saw that very flaw in the original HAVOTT programming when they were upgrading me, and they took care of it! Boy did they ever take care of it! I’m just perfect now! You are a funny boy, to bring that up just now! Do you have any other silly questions for me?

Mike: Hmm. Not at this time.

Laurie 283: Wow, what a short interview! I guess that means I’ve got the part, huh? Thanks so much, Mr. Author! Look forward to working with you! Talk to you later!

The Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series

Jack Commer Book Seven Interviews, 10: Jackie Vespertine

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Michael D. SmithApril 3, 2021

Mike: We now welcome Jackie Kikken Vespertine, Professor of Exobiology at the University of Mars, a seasoned Jack Commer series professional with major roles in Nonprofit Chronowar and The SolGrid Rebellion.

Jackie Vespertine: I’m tempted to say, don’t remind me of any of that! I just want to say that I’m grateful to be allowed back to work. My colleagues at the University of Mars have been extremely supportive of somehow who could have been socked away in prison for thirty years after that stunt I pulled on the Typhoon II.

Mike: Well, I think that it’s all worked out for the best. Not only was Amav, as Dictator of Sol, convinced that the debates Jonathan James and the rest of you sparked about SolGrid turned out to be essential to the safety of Sol, she also said that Jackie Vespertine’s expertise with the Ywritt was badly needed.

Jackie: And Amav has gotten no end of flak about pardoning her own son as well as me, Suzette, and Pat. Of course Z’B had to be pardoned–he’s the Martian Emperor, and was taken as a hostage. But pardoning JJC, someone who’s technically still on the run from the law, no matter that he’s encased in a solid chromium pyramid–

Mike: I know. Legally she’s insisting that Ballard kidnapped him, that he’s an unwilling participant. But, as Dictator of Sol, she can do as she pleases, I guess. In addition, she’s pointing out that JJC’s machinations did a lot of good by flushing out some traitors in the USSF, namely Carla Posttner and her cohorts.

Jackie: Right. But in any case, I’m just ready to put all that behind me. Basically, I’m just eager to get back to my work with the Ywritt, and my university duties.

Mike: Yes, you do seem a bit flustered by everything that happened in Book Six. I can understand that.

Jackie: And in a way I’m glad there’s no real role for me in Book Seven.

Mike: Why do you say that?

Jackie: Well, it’s pretty obvious from the notes. There are only four mentions of “Jackie” in them, all in the second chapter, and all emphasizing that Jackie Vespertine is present only to anchor that chapter a bit along with several figures from Book Six–as if anyone would be curious to know how they fared after Six. Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t think anyone cares. You should just move on and let Six lie in the past.

The SolGrid Rebellion, forthcoming, by Michael D. Smith

Draft Book Six cover featuring Suzette Borman

Mike: I disagree. I think people would at least want to know that you and Suzette and Pat were pardoned. Also that Z’B continued his recovery and resumed his full duties as Martian emperor. Just a bit of additional closure as we start into Book Seven. But you know, one reason I picked you for one of the twelve interviews is that I did want to see what else you could contribute to Book Seven. I admit you’re a mere mention in the notes so far, but–who knows?

Jackie: Hmm. Suzette did tell me on the way back from Altrouda, when we were still in military custody, that she had a premonition that the rough draft of Jack Commer Seven might be a thousand pages and include everything that’s been going on with you the last twelve years, and that later you’d cut it down, but you could have a great big catharsis now, instead of waiting for some purely literary fiction to follow Book Seven.

Mike: Hmm. Interesting. A necessary, sprawling mess. Suzette is always full of surprises. I may consider her angle there.

Jackie: Well, I guess if you need me for Seven, of course I’m available. But I’ve got to tell you, the whole thing needs to be centered on me just wanting to forget everything in Book Six and get back to work. I’ll say it again, I’m really, really grateful that I’m not in prison, that I’m working at what I love, and I just want to do what’s right now. There’s still so much to accomplish with the Ywritt. That has to come first.

Mike: Sure. And I can assure you there will be no Rick Ballard kidnappings. All the women characters have shown a great deal of disgust for that scenario. As I told your sister Ranna, we’ve already done that with Laurie in Book Six, and it’s stupid besides. Everyone already knows he’s a loser, so I kill him off in Chapter One.

Jackie: No worries. I can handle Rick. He’s a ten-year-old. You did lock the interview room door this time, didn’t you?

Mike: I did. I think our readers are pretty sick of his antics anyway.

Jackie: Look, to lay it on the line, I don’t want to be seen as some sort of sex symbol, with men slavering over me because my rejuvenation took well and I’m supposed to be a ten. Let me tell you, being a ten at seventy-six is difficult! I mean, I know you’ve been reworking the pencil drawing you did a few years ago of me, and I appreciate all the effort, but … the ten thing can get a little overdone, I think.

Mike: Well, I did decide I was done fooling with that image. The original pencil version is still the best, but the rough paper still shows traces of the grid lines I drew to scale up the original image, which I believe was a jewelry ad from some magazine. Well, that image was from the time I was writing the first draft of Nonprofit Chronowar in 2000. When I saw it I said, this is the perfect Jackie Vespertine, the woman I was re-investigating long after her infamous attempt to seduce Jack Commer in the December 1981 “Zorexians” story, the one that was the seed of Nonprofit Chronowar. Anyway, I didn’t actually draw the image until 2013, and then I basically centered on a portrait aspect. The scan of the pencil image worsened the faint grid lines on paper even further–so I experimented with a purely black and white version that turned out surprisingly well. This year I printed out two copies of the digital black and white version and made a colored pencil and a watercolor version. So there are four versions in all. Enough!

Jackie: All the characters admit it’s a great image. Some of them want theirs redrawn as realistic portraits, like mine. But I just want to move past all that. And not in any sense that I’m ashamed of having kept myself in good shape all these decades. I’m not about to hide in sweatshirts. But there’s this sense in the novels that I’m some sort of femme fatale, dangerous, all that. I’m tired of it. I’ve got work to do. Jack’s right–despite all this rejuvenation, none of us is immortal, and there are some karmic things I need to do before I check out. I’m just pleased to have a little more time to plot it all out. I don’t want to waste any more energy on femme fatale stuff.

Mike: Yeah, I get that. But your personal magnetism is high, everyone can see that. It’s something to be accepted.

Jackie: You know, after Book Six, Jackie Vespertine is very, very chagrined. And more chagrined about how she besmirched her Exobiology post at the University of Mars than about having had sex with a robot, lusting so pathetically after Jonathan James, and those nude scenes she did in Book Six. I know I’ve screwed up a lot in this life. When I was twenty I was pretty much a drunk, pretty much drugged up, screwing guys right and left, and later on, when I was married to Huey, I methodically went about trying to seduce poor Joe, really just trying to escape everything that was going wrong with me. God, did I lead the poor guy on! It’s amazing Joe and I are even on speaking terms these days. I mean, anyone can see he’s moved away beyond it, he got himself together, but–I don’t know. It’s been pretty … unsettling, everything that’s happened. I guess I haven’t really processed it all.

Mike: You’ve had a very, very difficult role in this series, for sure.

Jackie: I think the thing that really, really turned me around, and it was just a spark at the time, was when I realized that Joe really loved my sister–in 2036, three years after everyone thought Ranna was dead. Killed in the evacuation when her passenger shell crashed. I mean, I knew I had to let go of him, even though my sister, the woman I could see he really loved, was long, long gone. How crazy is that? And then–the reward came–Joe winks out of existence, and I see him two years later at Urside and Alycia’s wedding–he has Ranna with him! They Transitioned out of the passenger shell back in ’33 just in time!

Mike: So a few months after that realization, that turning point, you divorced Huey.

Jackie: There was some talk of having the marriage annulled, because after all he was Polot, an Alpha Centaurian who’d taken Huey over. Who was only able to do that because Huey’s soul had long since gone … somewhere. He was just a shell. I still don’t know why I married him. I thought he was charismatic at the time. I didn’t realize there was an alien being who’d walked in, you know? I think I was trying to atone for all those years of depravity. Well, maybe the marriage was a first tiny step, but like I say, when I realized I was hurting Joe, that he loved Ranna and not me, that was the real beginning of regeneration. So I divorced Huey. It was the quickest way for me, forget all that annulment stuff, let him have half of everything, so what? I went on to finish my university studies, which I’d never completed, got my Masters, got my Ph.D. in Exobiology, and … I had my purpose.

Mike: And was your attempt to link up with Patrick James another attempt at purpose? A real relationship this time?

Jackie: Right. I’d kept men at bay really for–my God!–forty years. A few relationships, but in retrospect I never took any of them seriously. I did think Pat might really be the one. For a while. He got so obsessed with SolGrid, but that wasn’t all the reason. Basically he was one more mistake, and it caught me way off guard.

Mike: It’s possible that being in a committed relationship with someone that wasn’t right had you enough off-balance to get enchanted with Jonathan James’ idea of stealing the Typhoon II and making a romantic rebellion against SolGrid, against Sol itself.

Jackie: That’s an interesting way of putting it. Maybe you’re right. I was definitely off-balance by April 2076. I thought I had it all figured out, I had my career and my work with the Ywritt, I still felt in my thirties at seventy-six, and … it all came apart in a day or two with JJC, with Sanders Hirte, with … wow. In any case, I’m done with that. You do recall how totally cratered I was at the end of Book Six. And you have to promise me there can’t be any happy ending stuff with Pat. We’re not going to get back together. I know that was one possible outcome in your notes, but that you’ve since removed it.

Mike: Right. The whole point was that you and Pat were incompatible and just didn’t realize it for quite a while. You had a sort of comfortable, fake “real relationship.”

Jackie: Yes, that does describe it. We were really only together a few months–six, seven? Anyway, along comes JJC and his SolGrid Rebellion and everything goes to hell. I come apart. It’s just like me being twenty again, crashing from one stupid impulse to another, going down and down and down. So at the end of Book Six I’m like having a flashback, or a total relapse, to that old era, something I thought I was completely done with. So I can’t just launch into Book Seven as some put-together character who’s simply sucked it up again after screwing up so badly in The SolGrid Rebellion.

The Jack Commer, Supreme Commander series