The Michael Collins' Anthology
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The Michael Collins' Anthology was born on December 25,
1999, as I had little to do that day; having just recently moved,
and occupying an apartment with someone who was Jewish. It
wasn't like she really wanted to celebrate Christmas. :-)
So, I sequestered myself in my home-office and began writing.
There was a lot of talk at that time regarding the Y2K scare,
and people were prophelatizing on television that all hell was
going to break-loose come January 1, with planes falling from the
sky, and our nuclear missiles accidentally launch because of computer
systems failing to cope eloquently with a four-digit year.
I had been a fan of science-fiction, and the idea hit me like
a ton of bricks! What would happen if an android were
to suddenly go bezerk right as its internal clock rolled past Dec 31 1999 23:59:59;
and well, since this is ASSTR, it did have to have a sexual
element to it, I suppose, otherwise what's the fun in writing it,
huh? After all, Y2K was less than a week away, and I'm sure
somewhere, in some parallel universe, something like this was bound
to happen!
So, The Michael Collins' Anthology was born, and consisted
of only a few short chapters at first, but as I began to write
more; I realized that there was some frightenly interesting aspects
about the cosmosis I've created that begged for more of the story
to be written, and for it to be continued.
Science-Fiction buffs may find it interesting that there were
actually several stories which inspired me both while writing this
story. An episode of the (now cancelled) T.V. Series Sliders,
called
State
of the A.R.T.; the young-adult science-fiction story
Not
Quite Human
, by Seth McEvoy, and several episodes of The
New Outer Limits, especially
Glitch
,
with small influences from
Valerie
23
;
I,
Robot
;
Resurrection
;
The
Hunt
; and
In
Our Own Image
.
Writing this in retrospect, in July, 2004, after recently watching
a documentary on Harry Potter, and J.K. Rowling: in it,
Rowling's biographer relates to us that she (Rowling) had been
working through the H.P. series of stories for fourteen some-odd
years, and as someone who has created a cosmos himself, of a fantasy
world where one is entitled to a little artistic license, I can
certainly relate!
Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be finished with this story. There's
so much left to tell, and so many more adventures which the characters
could find themselves in, that I doubt I ever will.
But, after reading over this story again, some 4½ years
later, I must admit, I'm a little bit embarrassed by it. This
story could have been so much better ... no should have
been so much better, that I'm almost sorry I released it to the
world in the current state that it's in.
So, I've embarked on a monumental task to re-write The Michael
Collins' Anthology, so it could be re-born, and become as
it should have been.
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