State of Change Part Five: The Silver Machine

I've posted part five of my short novel State of Change over on its own blog. This episode sees some plot hints being dropped at Zac's part, and then Dylan decamps for home only to discover a party going on at his house.

The description of the party at Dylan's house is pretty much like the sorts of parties I used to go to at about this time, a couple of hundred people squeezed into an Edwardian weatherboard house up in the hills of Brooklyn, Newton, Rosenheath or Thorndon (in fact, while the scene takes place in Brooklyn, the header photo is of Thorndon... it's hard work finding CC licensed photos that fit!) The line about being the oldest person there is an actual conversation I had one night with my friend Peter Campbell at a party in a warehouse space around the top of Willis Street one long ago Saturday.

This marks the halfway point, more or less, of the story. I've established Dyaln's situation and the problem he finds himself in - he's a fading TV star, basically, trying and experimental new technology which may be more than it seems in the hopes of reviving his career. In a longer work, I'd say we would have been just entering the central part of the novel where the characters and questions would be developed and the shape of the key concerns would begin to emerge.

Well, it doesn't quite end up that way and I'd say the work's biggest problem - aside from the prose, which is a little rougher than I'm happy with, generally speaking - is the structure. There's good stuff yet to come (and I think the prose improves too!) but I can see the struggles I am having with plot and structure.

But keep reading, lots of funny sex and violence yet to come!