–The Last Emperor’s Scepter –
The
Back Story
The Last Emperor’s Scepter kind of
started as a challenge as I am wont to do.
I found several compelling story line with absolutely no connection to
each other and decided to weave them into a story. If you’ve read the book, you might recognize
similarities between the story of the Allosaurus as the tale of Sue, the T.
Rex. This is a thinly veiled retelling
of the theft of Sue from its discoverer and one of the most egregious abuses of
power I’ve ever seen by the U.S. government – and that’s saying a lot. I ran across it in one of my many and varied
readings and it made my blood boil. I
felt a special kinship with the accused in the theft of Sue saga, having
endured myself similar accusations motivated by political machinations in a
“previous life.” That’s the nice thing
about writing: in the world you create, occasionally justice prevails. Every
book I write has a science theme to it and the dinosaur bone theft subplot fit
the bill.
I also like to throw in gadgets,
not the James Bond types, some impossible gizmo that can blow up an elephant
with one drop from a fountain pen, but real world machines. In this story I used the Innespace Seabreacher. I
called Dan Piazza at Innespace Productions, Inc. and told him about the story
and he was kind enough to walk me through the handling characteristics,
controls and cockpit layout so I could put you behind the controls with Buck.
I’m a voracious reader, and I read
a war diary of “string bag” pilot many years ago where I learned that those
cheeky Brits had actually run an airbase behind enemy lines during world war
two. This again was another way building
the royals theme and British involvement.
In each book of the Neptune’s Trident series, I try to put a spot light
on one of the Project Neptune team members.
This was Tadhg’s story from the beginning, when the concept of
back-channel royals scratching each other’s backs was developed. Who knows, maybe someday I’ll do a one-hour documentary
on trying to find this base again and tell its story for one of cable TV’s
science or history channels.
I see my audience as an
international one. When I think about writing a story I try and create plots
and characters that will appeal not only to North American readers but those in
Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Australia.
Now granted, the Middle East is not interested in the American justice
system, but they do have a very vested interest in pirates and pirating. In fact, pirating occurs everywhere, in all
waters, even North American waters. This
is part of the reasoning for having the polyglot of characters in Project
Neptune’s make-up. If you’re going take on pirating as a topic, you’ve got to
have constructs that will let you go anywhere in the world and have the core
framework of your plot work within the politics of that region.
One of the universal themes to
people everywhere is the notion that the wealthy can get away with murder. In a globally linked economy, wealth has
become the new muscle of thuggery. And
so Maleos was born. Wealth and
corruption go hand in hand, which is the reason for the caution on the title
page at the beginning of the book. I was
struck by the parallels between pirates in general who generally kick back part
of their booty as payola or patronage the power structure or politicians that
control the land they operate out of, because all pirates, while seafaring in
their activities, are land based. Is
there any real difference between pirates that pay patronage and the wealthy
that take by force? It was an
interesting point for me to explore in crafting the plot.