I used several literary tricks of the trade to write Project Sidekick. I’m not a conventionally trained writer, but I’ve attempted to copy some of my favorite devices to help tell the story of Phineas Brand and his sidekick. Here are a few of my favorites.

Non-linear Narrative: I loved the way Tarantino tells the story in Reservoir Dogs (Tarantino, 1992) and Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994). I loved Cloud Atlas (Wachowski et al., 2012), Magnolia (Anderson, 1999), and 2 Days in the Valley (Herzfeld, 1996) where different characters’ stories eventually collide. Going forward and backward in time helped me lead readers toward an assumed conclusion only to find a flashback in the next chapter reveals their assumptions were wrong the whole time. One of my favorite revelations was in Reservoir Dogs when it is revealed later in the movie that Mr. Orange is an undercover cop. I loved how Tarantino made us all think for a time that Orange was a career criminal who easy won the trust of several bad actors in the Los Angeles underground. I also loved the idea of giving the characters colored names that secretly revealed character’s personality and motives.

Name and Agency: Again, another trick I stole from Tarantino (1992, 1994) and Wright’s (2007) movie “Hot Fuzz,” was the use of names. In Hot Fuzz, each person’s surname revealed a tiny bit about how they fit into the story. (EG: Skinner was the killer, Messenger was a writer, Porter was a bartender, Tiller was a gardener) When our heroes are in the Organization, they’re given codenames by one of the other characters. Each codename was somehow connected to the character, but not obviously. I gave Phineas several names, hoping not to confuse readers. In each stage of Phineas’ life, he had a different name and a different outlook on the world. I used each name interchangeably, depending on the situation. When Phineas was following orders without question, I would use the phrase, “Said Mr. Green” to draw the reader back to his days in the organization when he was young, naive and fell into line without question.

Real Events: The world of Phineas Brand is identical to our own until about 1979, when Mr. Neptune reveals himself to the world. However, very few people know what he really looks like. That’s how a comic artist depicted him as a blond-haired white man when in the book, he’s a Pacific Islander. Heroes and Villains in Project Sidekick are myths and legends. They lead secret lives and only work in the shadows. I used real natural disasters and gave them a superhero/villain cause. In the world of Phineas Brand, the disasters were caused by the heroes and villains themselves instead of being natural occurrences. I liked to blend real events and add an undertone of fiction to them to give the world a more believable flavor. But: in 1994, the world of Phineas Brand and our own world diverge drastically. In Project Sidekick, the Great Confluence takes place in 1994, which would drastically change world events. No internet, no Y2K, no 911. As far as the reader thinks, the world is actually our own with an unseen element of heroes and villains at work until 1994, when it branches off.

Themes: Each of the six parts of Project Sidekick has a theme that is described in the title of each part. For example, in Part Two: The Good and Evil Kings, I stole from the bible. If you read the book of Kings I and II, you’ll notice each chapter reveals if the King of Isreal and Judah described in the chapter was a good or evil king. I used the same wording from the bible to reveal if a character that died during the chapter was good or evil. I did the same thing in Part Four where I used the term, “Weird shit was about to happen,” and “More weird shit was about to happen.” In part Three, “Darkness surrounded,” a specific character. This was inspired by The Big Lebowski (Coen & Coen, 1999), “Darkness warshed over the Dude.”