I'll do some. Of course, you already know I'm not a scientific genius and will be following you around like Columbo asking about "One more thing," Except I won't be faking...I really am that ignorant.

I'd like to help, but I'm swamped this month and I already have a backlog of beta reading.

I've reached the half-way point of my current revision. This is the revision where I'm evaluating the comments from people who've read it. After this revision, it'll just a sweep to fix errors and writing the synopsis.

Ideas are starting to snap into place for my next novel, The Shore of Night. It starts before the events in 'Discipline' (Still up on my website, password: foamy) where I establish the common people of Lexi's home aren't so bad even if they have some draconian rules that the leaders ruthlessly enforce. Lexi will probably get strengthened up a bit and the reader will get to see her father and the contempt he holds for his bastard daughter.

Then it moves into 'Discipline' were she's in exile and meets up with the eccentric Old Tom and his flying machine and then Devon and his crew. It won't be all the same as the short story but similar. She still murders Devon at the end.

Lexi has to figure out how to navigate back to the night-side civilization. I have some ideas about that.

Then she meets the night side of the planet. The place Devon is from is the most sun-wise of the night towns. It's a mining town, extracting coal for the power hungry night-side settlements. It's a company town, workers are paid in company currency, the government is bought and paid for by the company, and whole thing is run by Devon's father. It turns out that he's trying to collect the old advanced technology from the past to both suppress and exploit.

As she learns the situation, Lexi decides on a plan of action to thwart Devon's father, but every goes wrong. A friend betrays her (not in malice), her plan is destroyed, Lexi is arrested, Devon's father finds out what happened to his son and he comes into possession of the notes of the eccentric man that Lexi met way back in the beginning. The notes detail information of the day-side people and Devon's father is coming into the technology to travel there and exploit the mostly defenseless daysiders.

Lexi has to start a movement to rise up against the powers that be and overthrow Devon's father, the nasty native life and ecosystem will play a role in this, but not in a taking sides sort of way, more in a Lexi cleverly taking advantage of it. The ending will probably feature Lexi deciding to return to her home to change things there as well. The development of Lexi from naive and somewhat primitive to a leader is at the core of the story though there is a bit of socio-economic commentary as well.

No sex or graphic violence to make it possible to be YA. A prostitute might play a role, but I think that would be okay with the lack of actual sex.

Or course, I still need to finish the first novel, but I'm starting to get itchy about starting the next.

James Frey's Fiction Factory

In exchange for delivering a finished book within a set number of months, the writer would receive $250 (some contracts allowed for another $250 upon completion), along with a percentage of all revenue generated by the project, including television, film, and merchandise rights—30 percent if the idea was originally Frey’s, 40 percent if it was originally the writer’s. The writer would be financially responsible for any legal action brought against the book but would not own its copyright. Full Fathom Five could use the writer’s name or a pseudonym without his or her permission, even if the writer was no longer involved with the series, and the company could substitute the writer’s full name for a pseudonym at any point in the future. The writer was forbidden from signing contracts that would “conflict” with the project, without specifying what that might be. The writer would not have approval over his or her publicity, pictures, or biographical materials. There was a $50,000 penalty if the writer publicly admitted to working with Full Fathom Five without permission.

Some writers consulted lawyers; some just signed on the dotted line. “It’s a crappy deal but a great opportunity” is how one writer put it.

I'm pretty sure that future generations will regard that contract as James Frey's greatest piece of writing. It manages to combine the worst aspects of spec work along with the worst of work-for-hire.

Weren't some of the pulp series written factory style? Doc Savage or one of those series, where the head writer would outline a plot, and then a stable of writers would write the story, one chapter per writer? Then on to the next novel in the series?

And I'll bet whoever I'm thinking of did not invent the writing "factory" system.

It's not an uncommon practice, it's just that the terms of Frey's contract are outrageous. Rather than a fixed rater per-word, the writers here are basically getting paid in vague promises of future revenue.

The Stratemeyer syndicate [link] which gave us the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, the Happy Hollisters, ad infinitum, is the most notable example. I'll note they paid $125 flat fee per book in the 1920s, dropping to $75 for most authors during the Depression.

Legend has it that Edward Stratemeyer, who wrote hundreds of books, started each book Monday morning and finished it on Friday.

Even James Patterson's current machine is more ethical than Frey's. He at least gives his co-authors billing on the jacket covers.

I would never work for him anyway...he proved himself to be a lying sack of shit. I'd rather be *surprised* at least.Frey, not Patterson.