Lafayette Street Books

CONTENTS

01: Fanzer: Fanzer Stip has a serious fear of metal men, which has deep roots in his childhood, because of the family robot, Eggensotz.
02: General Quock: Forget Fanzer Stip, this chapter introduces a second set of characters in this massive, insane universe: General Quock and his communications officers, Jeeps.
03: Morpher: This chapter introduces the third character in this massive, insane universe: Morpher and the mysterious quest granted by the Andle-avian King Gavery III.
04: Bilford Clarigone: This chapter introduces the fourth character in this massive, insane universe: Bilford Clarigone imprisoned in a cell for reasons unknown, tormented by a large, lizard-like being, Rogetto, for reasons partially known.
05: Fanzer: This chapter returns to the unintentionally murderous Fanzer Stip, who comes up with a plan in which he can present to the world his Plan without saying a word.
06: Jeeps: This chapter finds Jeeps on her own, commanding the troops and dealing with the moronic bio-robot, Bizme, whilst General Quock hides off in a closet somewhere.
07: Morpher
08: Bilford Clarigone
09: Fanzer Stip
10: General Quock
11: Morpher
12: Bilford Clarigone
13: Morpher
14: General Quock

etc

About the author, Stuart Bedlam

Stuart is the author of odd but humorous science fiction -- in the vein of John Sladek or a more violent Lewis Carroll. Stuart has been a writer since the early 80s. In his own words, he's a great starter of books. Finishing them, however, has been his undoing. While "A Faint Glimmer of Metal" is technically finished, he is still working on polishing up the latter half of the book.

Here's what Stuart had to say about the origins of this disabled masterwork.

M2: The Story of the making of Metallic Genealogy

"This book, Metallic Genealogy, has become a part of me in more ways that I can even fathom. It started out as a lark, something to pass the time away. One moment I was raking the leaves in the backyard and the next I was coming up with alien ruling drinks, and the evil plans of metal men (which probably only exist in the minds of fearful little boys and in the masochistic machinations of malefactors.)

My idea in writing this was simple, I would neither plan nor outline as I wrote, and just type out the things my brain told me to type. This might seem like some early version of NaNoWriMo [Stuart says this referring to the website and personal competition which encourages people to simple write and write and write basically without thinking too much about the thing you are writing about.] I did this by building four distinct characters sets, each with a different struggle, moving, hopefully, to the same end.

The book begins with Fanzer Stip. He's a simple man, some might say bizarrely witless, who believes wholeheartedly that he is destined to destroy all of robot kind (robots, whom he insanely believes are both creating and destroying reality on a daily basis) by using the mere sound of his voice. In these early writings, Eggensotz had not yet existed. I had envisioned Fanzer as almost an escaped inmate from an insane asylum or something along these lines. I added Eggensotz more than a decade later, and this added a bit to Fanzer's backstory and impetus for Fanzer's actions.

Next comes General Quock, also crazy, but this time a villain who has visions that inform him what he must do next. He shares Fanzer's view, though not quite as perversely, that metallic men are out to destroy all of humankind.

Morpher is who I imagined the voice of reason. Even though he has been tasked with a the murder of someone important by King Gavery III of his home world, and along the way is taunted, belittled and eventually stalked and attacked by his fish-like manservant.

Billford Clarigone was the wild card for me. For the entire volume, I was never quite sure where he was going or what he was all about. A prisoner on a transport ship bound for some ice world to spend out the rest of his days. Was he a hero or a villain? Or a villain who would become a hero. Billford surprised me the most.

And this was how the novel was written. I would blindly come to the computer, write a Fanzer chapter, and then follow up with a Quock, Morpher and a Billford chapter, one after the other, hoping that things would magically merge together. And they really did. It was a magical experiment and experience. Once I was done, and had everything printed up, I basically just put it in a box for forty years, bring it out every so often, spitting on it, polishing it up in places, but basically leaving it's original form unchanged.

Now, this isn't to say that the concept was my "One novel" that all people are purportedly to have inside of them. On the contrary. There are several books in the Metallic Genealogy "series". It's at least a trilogy. (I'm still attempting to find some of the original pages, and get this thing compiled.) Also, I have written at least the large beginnings of a spin off series called "Metallic Criminology".

I also have several other unrelated series that I've been working at off and on.

I often wonder why I write. I'm not sure if I like doing it, and I'm not entirely sure anyone cares if I do or not. I'm not very dedicated to the craft. Not very prolific, picking it up, writing frantically for a week or two and then doing something else. Maybe this is how many writers work, maybe I'm unique. Maybe I need a writer support group. [laughs]. In fact, the entire reason I joined patreon for this revival project was not to hold the last 20 chapters hostage, but to give me an impetus to finish these up. Like if someone gives me a dollar a month, it's like a trigger that tells me that someone actually cares to keep this story alive, and it will encourage me to continue on. This seems to be true, as Bernie has complimented me several times the last time I dragged this old dusty tomb out of the box and showed it to him, and it was this encouragement that got me to get the book to the stage that you see it today.

Read his book "Metallic Genealogy, Book One: A faint glimmer of metal" NOW CURRENTLY on Kindle Vella

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