J is over 10,000 words. NanoWriMo is coming up. Jim is in a major rewrite of his novel. I have been sitting on my hands and not doing much of anything.

So, a couple of days ago I started to knock around a story concept. I am in nearing the end of Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandrian Quartet. One scene that is repeated is the Carnival in Alexandria. Even though Alexandria is mostly a Muslim city, they had a Mardi-gras type festival each year and in the book everyone wears the mask and Domino, a long hooded cape. Stations in life, gender and all identity are masked by the Domino. In the book, people fall in love with total strangers, people are murdered and secret liaisons are made and kept. There is even the story of vampire who leaves its tomb once a year to find a victim during Carnival. Durrell is a wonderful writer. His words flow beautifully and he paints vivid pictures. The plots can be a little silly eg: in one thread, a doctor falls in love during carnival and chases the woman down only discover that when her mask is removed she has no nose. He spends the next year searching for the perfect nose. I am deep under the spell of the books and I am hoping some of the atmosphere of Alexandria in the 1930s can be transfered to a Martian city in the year 2050.

My story is basically a Turing Test during carnival. In the future, how do you tell who is human and who is not? A person in the Domino can be a man or woman or a remote controlled puppet. If it is a puppet, who controls it? Can an AI pass for human? Can a human pass for an AI? Is the person you are making love to real or a simulacrum driven by a person or computer a thousand miles away? The idea is very P.K. Dick-ish.

I am now writing it as a detective story, but the idea can go many ways. Every few hundred words I have to go back and cut out the technical jargon. It is near 3500 words long and I am only half-way through. The theme is my usual one about technology as an impediment to human relationships. I am not certain where the plot will go. It is leading me right now and I expect to be surprised by how it ends. When I am done, I will have yet another story too difficult for the average editor and reader.

I did hear from Tales of the Talisman that my story was short-listed. They say that they have a bunch of good stories, but they have to pare that down a bit for the issue. Keep your fingers crossed for me.