When I wrote The Music of Mars, I looked to America’s colonial times for inspiration. I wanted to tell a story where Mars’s culture was starting to deviate from Earth’s, allowing for plenty of tension. While I allow for instantaneous communication, to get anything physically between Earth and Mars requires about one month.
I specifically looked at the time leading up to the Revolutionary War. Not to spoil anything, but that may be a hint at where the story goes after The Music of Mars concludes.
I came across the quotation below from Samuel Adams.
If ye love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Naturally, I can’t have anyone speak these words–the quote is too long. I decided to place it on MarsVantage CEO’s wall and allow Gretchen, an archaeologist, to notice it an react. Later the CEO, Chuck, mentions a couple of phrases while arguing with a board member.
The quote itself sets a mood that I intended to convey. It perfectly exemplifies Chuck and Frank’s attitude. When I came across it, I had to use it somehow.
For the quote below, I had already finished the first draft and was hip deep in revisions when I came across it.
We might have been a free and great people together.
I read about Benjamin Franklin editing this line from Thomas Jefferson’s draft of the Declaration of Independence. While it’s true, the statement didn’t fit the tone of the Declaration so they wisely cut it.
As soon as I read it, I knew where I needed to use it. It comes up in conversation during a tense time between Gretchen and Frank. I won’t say more, but the quote and how it’s framed highlights a dimension of MarsVantage’s situation that otherwise might not be apparent.
If you like to learn more about The Music of Mars, check out The Music of Mars page, or go here to buy the paperback or here the Kindle.
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I’m an author living in northern Virginia with a wife and a cat. In the late ’80s, I worked on the International Space Station project. I recently retired from managing a group of software engineers to focus on writing science fiction and speculative fiction. Learn more.