5:58 a.m. - 2021-06-29
trilogy
Concept for a trilogy of Alternate History novels:
A rewriting, re-imagining and reconsideration of James Michener's three epic tales of American expansion: Hawaii (1959), Texas (1985) and Alaska (1989), that presumes the Earth's magnetic field NEVER REVERSED POLARITY 780,000 years ago (during the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal). So in ANY and EVERY scene that involves a compass, its needle would indicate southward! Our stories' protagonists would of course find this normal, but for the reader? Vertigo. A sense of the surreal. The same epic sweep and compelling characters as Michener's versions (damn that guy could write) but experienced through a new lens...a lens tinted by the anxiety of imagining a world turned literally upside down.
This will of course require a close-reading through the three novels' 2,901 combined pages (although maybe I can just get them as PDF documents and search “compass”? That would be great.). Also - it IS possible that in one or more or any of the books no one directly mentions a compass. In this case I could write and insert the missing dialogue (as long as it didn't interrupt Michener's flow of course...but really, I think the premise stands on its own. You don't gotta beat people over the head with it.)
Envisioning a very limited edition here. Handsomeness of leather binding to be determined by pre-sale.
