Nothing beats a great conspiracy thriller, and I’ve read some great ones over the years. One of my favorites used to be Empire, by Orson Scott Card…until the premise totally became a reality. That sorta took the fun out of it for me.
At least I can still enjoy the fictional nature of the conspiracy put forward by The Killers, an Amazon Prime Original TV series, that explains how high fructose corn syrup was a biological weapon cooked up by the Nazis to kill off poor, urban children in the US. Oh wait, on second thought, it’s true! Why didn’t I see it?! We finally really did it. [screaming] You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! Damn you all to hell!
Ehem, sorry about that. It’s just that I miss the days of conspiracies being dirty, little secrets mentioned in passing or in back rooms with hushed tones. Turn on the scrambler so Alexa can’t overhear and report back to our robot overlords (who I highly respect, by the way). What ever happened to the good ole conspiracy days of tin foil hats and crazy old men shuffling around in bathrobes?
How did conspiracy go so mainstream? Now every politician, soccer mom, and sideshow psychologist is stealing my thunder by announcing the veracity of the craziest conspiracies from every social media mountain top. It makes my job as a fabricator of fiction that much more difficult. What’s left to theorize about? Secret political cabals extending their lives by drinking the blood of innocents? Nope, that’s just Tuesday morning on Facebook.
How about communist sleeper organizations pulling the strings behind US elections in order to unravel the American tapestry of Capitalist Individualism? Meh. It’s hard to even raise the nation’s blood pressure with commi conspiracies these days.
I suppose I should in part blame all the bad actors and lying jerks from the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s who have contributed to today’s problem of widespread conspiracy theories by, you know, actually doing terrible things and covering them up for decades. Perhaps it’s inevitable when people learn the truth about things like MK Ultra, the Gulf of Tonkin, illegal government surveillance, paying off the Dalai Lama, Project Sunshine, the lunar landing (just checking to see if you are paying attention with that last one…or am I?) for those people to accept the everyday reality of smokey, backroom shenanigans.
We’ve been desensitized to dirty, little secrets so much I propose we try something new: clean, little secrets. I say we start provoking the public by leaking conspiracy theories based around individuals and organizations doing good deeds behind the scenes. What if it went viral that Donald Trump was secretly liberating young girls from the sex trade while working from his batman-esque compound? What if Bat-Trump’s Wonder Woman was Nanci Pelosi? What if Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J were secretly slipping a wonder drug into their Covid-19 vaccines that would end the need for modern medicine once and for all?
What if a government agency (just pick one) suddenly did something true and good for the benefit of the people? Ooooh, now we’re talking crazy! This is some juicy fiction I can sink my imagination into! Pardon me, but I’ve got some conspiracy thrillers to outline.
At the Desk This Week
I’m ALMOST done with episode 5 of the Green Ones. Of course, it turns out that the ending requires a couple more scenes than I thought. I never really plan these things out beyond having a vague idea of what threads need to be tied off and which ones need to be created. I highly suspect this episode will get trimmed down significantly once I loop back around to it. I’m at over 12,000 words at this point and not quite done. I try to keep episodes around 10,000 words. The average reader takes around 40 minutes to finish 10,000 words, so it feels pretty close to television show type of commitment. I introduced another of the main characters this week, and I’m having fun with her. It’s nice to add a talkative member to a group who typically measures everything they say.
In case you missed the post last week, Amazon announced a VERY interesting new platform called Kindle Vella. Vella is to be Amazon’s second attempt at serial fiction. And…since I am a serial fiction author, this is a HUGE thing for me. I’ve already started working on a project for Kindle Vella. (I’ll still finish Season 3 of the Green Ones first.) It might amount to a bunch of rainbow-colored fart gas, but I’m hopeful it will be a path for the mainstreaming of serial fiction in the Western Hemisphere.
If You Wish to Start Reading The Green Ones…
[Click here to start at the beginning.]
Thanks so much for taking the time to read these scenes of Boundaries, Season 2 of The Green Ones. I’ll be publishing FREE daily scenes from The Green Ones until…I die…or something terrible happens. Seriously, I’ve got over 100 scenes written so far, and I’ll be writing more until the story reaches its natural ending. You are totally welcome to read the entire story for FREE! If at any point you decide you would rather finish the story in ebook or print format, just click the buttons below and you can do that as well. If you enjoy reading the serial releases, BUT you would also like to support me as a writer (my kids need wine!) please subscribe to my premium content for bonus scenes, exclusives, and insider access to my process. And of course, I’d be grateful if you would share this post with any of your reader friends who you think would enjoy The Green Ones. Happy reading!