Guest blog on the concept behind "Killing Max," a short story by S. Wolf

My short story Killing Max arose from the popular concept of going back in time to kill Hitler before he rose to power.  I wanted to write the story from Hitler's point of view, where these random people are showing up trying to kill him, but something always happens to save his life.  


I decided there was too much baggage with Hitler, so I created a new character, Maxwell Madison, who is a teenager in 2010, but will grow up to be the worse dictator the world has ever seen.  I always thought of it as a short story, but when I presented it to my writing group, they suggested it could be made into a novel.  Perhaps sometime in the future I'll expand it.  But the way the book is structured now, it works better as a short story because the fact that he's a future dictator is kept secret from the reader, which creates a mystery as to why these things are happening to him.  This actually makes the book hard to market, because I can't tell potential readers the most interesting thing about the book.


For a limited time, you may download this story on Smashwords for free by entering this coupon code:  ZQ67L

Comments

  1. shanaJune 4, 2011 at 5:47 PM

    But now you've told me, S. Wolf, and I'm intrigued!


    Shana Hammaker

    ReplyDelete
  2. Alain GomezJune 5, 2011 at 12:32 AM

    He's hosting a giveaway. I'm definitely giving it a shot =)

    ReplyDelete
  3. James EveringtonJune 5, 2011 at 11:58 AM

    Wow, that's a great concept for a story!

    ReplyDelete

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