by Sean Platt
theBEAM was left behind as the old project. The Beam became this new one. Both had the same characters and both had The Beam, Noah West, the Enterprise and the Directorate, Respero, and all the big touchpoints… but beyond that, everything changed. The original project was a kind of futuristic thriller, whereas this version became much more about the nature of thought and consciousness, the lines between biology and technology, the nature of identity (philosophy nerds like me would call it ontology), distribution of power under extreme circumstances, and the all-important question that I personally feel humans do a terrible job of answering: “Now that we can do something, should we?” The story became an adventure and a nail-biter as well as an exploration of consciousness and an exploration of human nature. It’s ironic. I was telling someone recently that I had “wasted” five years in college (molecular biology and philosophy) plus a year working on a Ph.D. (genetics) — but here I am, using all of that stuff on my first big science fiction opus.
So as we worked — as we explored; as Sean and I met over and over again to try and keep pace with where The Beam was taking us (because trust me, the writers aren’t always in control) — the project morphed before our eyes. Sean threw away most of his original story beats… twice. The ending of the season changed so much as to be unrecognizable. A major storyline revelation in one of the flashbacks (one we didn’t know was coming until it hit me in the face one day while writing) altered the entire course of the project. We learned about Shift and what it meant, Renewal (the second big human Renaissance) and what fueled it, why the world changed in the ways it did during the global calamities in the 2030s, and what advantage the NAU had over the Wild East when the world crumbled. We learned about the origin of The Beam and why it was called “The Beam.” We learned why nanobot and human enhancement grew in tandem with The Beam, and which was the chicken versus the egg. We learned about the history of Noah West, about the team behind him and the revelations he had about how the world could be changed.
None of those things existed in the original story beats. Some of them didn’t even exist the day before I wrote the rough draft. Yet taken together, those things are what make The Beam amazing… and let me repeat just so we’re all on the same page: Sean and I were as surprised to learn those things as you may be to read them. Our work here makes us feel thrilled. It makes us feel proud. And it makes us incredibly eager to see what else is out there, in Season 2 and beyond.
The good news is that The Beam is the largest world that either of us have been a part of — a world so large, in fact, that we’ve invited some of our writer friends to write ancillary “Beam World” fiction that will explore places that our canon doesn’t reach. There is plenty here for everyone. In this first season, we have told maybe one percent of the story that exists to be told — at the very most. But what happens next? What happened in the years between the present and the beginning of this narrative in 2097? What happened in the Wild East, given that we’ve only focused on the NAU? What happened during the fall in the 20s and the slow reconstruction in the 30s? What happened in the rest of the NAU, outside of District Zero? What happened in the poorer quarters of the city during this same timeline? How were all of the biological enhancements people take for granted today developed, and how did they inculcate themselves so smoothly into everyday life? If you feel like you have more questions about this story and world than answers, then we agree with you. We have those questions too, and we really have no idea — yet — about their answers.
We’re on this journey to explore these catacombs and fossils from the future with you. We may be a few steps ahead, but really, we’re not much further down the tunnel. So stay in the glow of our lantern, if you would. You don’t want to get lost down here.
I’d tell you that if we get separated, we’ll see you at the other end.
But I can’t, because I really have no idea where that is.
Johnny B. Truant (and Sean Platt)
July 15, 2013
THANKS FOR READING
Did you enjoy reading The Beam? Indie authors survive by the strength of their reviews. If you enjoyed The Beam, please leave a review and let us and other readers know!
To leave a review, visit: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DZXH21Y/
Leave a review for The Beam: Season One and get a FREE REVIEW COPY of Plugged: How the Beam and Hyperconnectivity Changed the Way We Think.
Get Plugged For FREE HERE: http://realmandsands.com/get-plugged/
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Johnny B. Truant is an author, blogger, and podcaster who, like the Ramones, was long denied induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame despite having a large cult following. He makes his online home at SterlingAndStone.net and is the author of about a zillion books.
You can connect with Johnny on Twitter at @JohnnyBTruant, and you should totally send him an email at [email protected] if the mood strikes you.
Johnny, along with co-hosts Sean Platt and David Wright, host two podcasts: the horror/comedy show Better Off Undead and the Self Publishing Podcast. Both podcasts are available on iTunes and the other podcast directories, as well as on Stitcher Radio.
Sean Platt is speaker, author, and co-founder of the Collective Inkwell, home to breakout indie hits like Yesterday’s Gone, WhiteSpace, and the traditionally published titles, Z 2134 and Monstrous co-authored with David W. Wright. Sean is also co-founder of genre hopping, reader loved Realm & Sands, with the spiritual epic Unicorn Western, future history of The Beam, and the revenge thriller, Namaste.
You can find Sean at SeanMPlatt.Com, Follow him on Twitter at @SeanPlatt, or email him at [email protected].
Johnny and Sean, along with David Wright (the guy whose curmudgeony stance on western research inspired the Unicorn Western series) host two podcasts: the horror/comedy show Better Off Undead and the Self Publishing Podcast. Both podcasts are available on iTunes and the other podcast directories, as well as on Stitcher Radio, and both are for mature audiences only.
