Monday, August 21, 2006

SoaP2: Snakes on Apollonius of Perga

OK, so I've been saying for a while that I'm going to write an international thriller in which Michelangelo is found to have hidden a secret message in the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel or something. It's totally a coincidence that whatshisname came out with TDVC (or as I call it, "Tom Clancy Goes to a Museum") before I could get my draft done.

However, I have now noticed that someone is coming out with a book called "The Machiavelli Covenant" later this year, in which the president of the United States flees a secret White House cabal that has ordered the assassination of some European heads of state. Regarding this cabal, it turns out that: The group’s origins go back 500 years. In the 16th century, the dying Machiavelli fashioned a sinister work entitled, The Covenant—an ominous plan for gaining true power and keeping it. For centuries this wealthy, despotic order has hidden the plan away, inspired and emboldened by its bloody insights and near-preternatural power. Bonded by vicious rites and ritual slaughter, dedicated to their vision of global rule, they have over the centuries prospered beyond dreams of greed and domination. Three people now stand between the Brotherhood and its final apocalyptic conquest.

Hmmm... It looks like I need to rework my whole paradigm here. I think I'm going to have to draw from The Great Books of the Western World to do what I really have in mind... It could be a series, and each volume in The Canon could hide a different conspiracy.

I haven't got all the details down yet, but it opens with a plays-by-his-own-rules Chicago homicide detective (his ex-wife has a Ph.D. in Humanities) pulling up to the scene, and finding Mortimer Adler with his throat cut, alone in a room locked from the inside. The rest writes itself.

1 Comments:

Blogger J.C. Loophole said...

There is one really big question I have about a lot of these historical conspiracy books and thrillers (and perhaps one of the things I can't get past to enjoy them for what they are- entertainment). Why do these secret orders wait for so long to pull off any type of takeover? Surely there have been easier times in history, without so much technology,etc. in which to enact their plan. I mean there have been other times in which choas ensued, which would have allowed them an opportunity.
I mean if a guy like a Machiavelli, created a secret society and then presented his plan, I'm not sure his membership would stick around.
"Here's the plan guys...we're going to take over the leadership of the world! Bwa, Bwa, Bwa Ha Ha Ha."
"That sounds great Mac! When do we pull it off?"
"Oh. Well, here's the thing. We make the plan, then we keep the group going. All we have to do then is wait 600 years..."
"What! 600 years! What are you talking about! We'll be dead by then!"
"Hear me out! Conditions will be just right!"
"C'mon boys, we're leaving. I hear the Florentines have a better health plan."
Annnddd scene.
Sorry, that last line was a Renaissance joke.

8:18 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home