The 4400: Welcome to Promise City

[BrotherBenny]

Just starting reading this and I love it, by our very own Greg Cox.

Just one question, is anything described going to be fleshed out like the Marked taking over Tom Baldwin? I don't remember that in the last season or the previous book.

And WOULD YOU TAKE PROMICIN???

I would.

 

[Greg Cox]

Just starting reading this and I love it, by our very own Greg Cox.

Just one question, is anything described going to be fleshed out like the Marked taking over Tom Baldwin? I don't remember that in the last season or the previous book.

.

I'm confused. Tom getting possessed by the Marked was a major plotline in Season Four. Remember how the evil personality gradually took him over? Maybe you missed those episodes?

Glad you're enjoying the book, though. The story continues in Dave Mack's book PROMISES BROKEN . . . .

 

[BrotherBenny]

Just starting reading this and I love it, by our very own Greg Cox.

Just one question, is anything described going to be fleshed out like the Marked taking over Tom Baldwin? I don't remember that in the last season or the previous book.

.

I'm confused. Tom getting possessed by the Marked was a major plotline in Season Four. Remember how the evil personality gradually took him over? Maybe you missed those episodes?

Glad you're enjoying the book, though. The story continues in Dave Mack's book PROMISES BROKEN . . . .

I remember that, but in the book, it says "last week, when Tom was taken over by the Marked" and yet the book is supposedly set months after The Great Leap Forward, which I thought was in the series finale.

 

[Greg Cox]

Just starting reading this and I love it, by our very own Greg Cox.

Just one question, is anything described going to be fleshed out like the Marked taking over Tom Baldwin? I don't remember that in the last season or the previous book.

.

I'm confused. Tom getting possessed by the Marked was a major plotline in Season Four. Remember how the evil personality gradually took him over? Maybe you missed those episodes?

Glad you're enjoying the book, though. The story continues in Dave Mack's book PROMISES BROKEN . . . .

I remember that, but in the book, it says "last week, when Tom was taken over by the Marked" and yet the book is supposedly set months after The Great Leap Forward, which I thought was in the series finale.

That "last week" business (on p. 9, right?) is a flashback to an event months earlier. Tom is recalling an incident right after the series finale, but then snaps back to the present, which is indeed three months later.

Perhaps we should have put that flashback in italics to make that clearer . . . .

 

[BrotherBenny]

^I think that was the bit. But I believe there is a part later on where those events are mentioned, but it would have been clearer if it was in italics.

Isn't that standard convention these days depending on the length of the flashback?

 

[Greg Cox]

It's judgment call. I threw in a line break before and after the flashback, but balked at putting an entire four-page scene in italics.

 

[BrotherBenny]

It's judgment call. I threw in a line break before and after the flashback, but balked at putting an entire four-page scene in italics.

OK, guess for me it's a question of aesthetics. For short flashbacks I use italics, but for long flashbacks I use chapter breaks.

Let's see what my agent says when I have finished my novel.

I'm loving the book though and have Mack's one lined up next. Then it's a couple of CSI books before going back to Trek.

Are you writing another CSI one as you mentioned in another thread?

And do you know if there are more 4400 books on the horizon?

 

[Greg Cox]

In this case, the flashback takes place in the middle of the first scene, so I didn't want to break it into two chapters. Basically, Tom is sitting in his car in a traffic jam, his mind drifts back to that earlier incident for four pages, then snaps back to the present where he's still sitting in traffic. I think I considered putting the whole flashback in italics, but decided against it.

Sometimes I'll put a flashback or dream sequence in present tense to set it off from the main text, but that didn't seem appropriate here. (Plus, sometimes editors and/or licensors object if you write a long scene in present tense.)

Glad you're liking the book, though. Dave and I really tried to wrap up most of the loose ends left dangling when the series was prematurely cancelled. As far as I know, though, this is the end. It was a four-book contract and the editor who acquired the series isn't even with the publisher anymore. I can't speak for Pocket Books, of course, but I suspect there won't be any more 4400 books. Too bad. I enjoyed writing them.

In the meantime, I'm about 36,000 words into a new CSI novel . . . thanks for asking!