New opportunities
Mar 8th, 2006 by Sandra
Boy am I excited! I never thought I’d be asked to participate in a continuity, but stranger things have happened, I guess.
My editor called on Friday to ask if I’d be interested in writing for the 2007 Athena Force continuity. I was frankly torn, because I have my own stuff filling up my head, but after giving it a lot of thought, I decided to Go For It! Woohoo!
Mine will be due out in August 2007. It’s about a Coast Guardsman with a genetically-enhanced sense of smell. When I heard that, I thought, “Say what?!?” But then the more I thought about it, the more interesting and fun that particular skill seemed. That type of skill begs for a Jessie-esque treatment (a la The Orchid Hunter), so the whole prospect has really grown on me.
I don’t know the title, or the storyline, or the continuing elements to include, and haven’t seen the bible for the series yet, but I’m freakin’ over the chance to write for Athena Force. I can wait for this information. Sure, I can wait.
My only question now is, How can I possibly concentrate on my Intended Victim revisions?
How cool! Congratulations! And I have confidence in your “juggling” abilities. You’ll do it all fine. :)
Congratulations!!
Whoa. An enhanced sense of smell? Talk about an anti-superpower. My sense of smell is probably the one sense I don’t WANT enhanced because I’m already so sensitive to it. Smells have the ability to turn me on/off to a person, enhance a mood, and distract me to no end (I can tune out noise and visuals but not smells). I’m already betting that your heroine hates that particular superpower of hers.
Good luck and I can’t wait to read more of the Athena Class of ‘07!
Thanks for the votes of confidence, Laura, Mariann, and Karm! Whew! This is going to be tough — but fun.
Karm, you’ve got a great point there. One of my CPs suggested my poor heroine had to grow up playing “Name That Stink” and I almost fell on the floor laughing. Too right.
That one trait alone seems to include a lot of built-in humor… and angst. It’s our sense of smell that carries our strongest memories because smell bypasses our cognitive brain functions — goes straight to the emotional center.
So I’m seeing lots of potential there.
Hey Sandra, congrats - this seems like a big deal. What’s a continuity, though?
My son has a genetically enhanced sense of smell, poor thing. I thought mine was bad enough, but his is far more sensitive. I have been able to learn how to ignore things. For example, I can tell food is on its way to spoiling days or over a week before other folk, and I have learned that it isn’t spoiled yet and I should just shut up and eat it. My son can’t do that. So his food preferences are very simple flavors, nothing complex, no blends of foods, almost no spices — single items, single flavors, fresh, nothing strong. And talk about body odor? He can tell particular odors from far away, and can tell someone is going to, well, ahem (gas) before they even do the deed. He will walk with his head swathed in clean cloth as a way to filter what he is smelling. As a woman, I can get away with that a little easier — I wear scarves almost year-round, and will just lift them over the lower half of my face when necessary.