ARBY

Synopsis

In a remote desert service station sometime in the future, when Earth's resources are drying up, a washed-up novelist adapts his home-help robot to help raise his young daughter. The robot develops a creative quirk, turns an unfinished manuscript into a novel, and runs away with the little girl to collect a literary prize.

Option

I wrote early drafts of this story in England, working on an electric typewriter, splicing sections with scissors and tape. I brought that with me to Los Angeles, and handed my Frankenstein manscript to a Hollywood typing service known as Raging Fingers. They questioned my grammar, produced a clean print, and gave me a five-and-a-quarter-inch cardboard floppy. How futuristic! I sold the script as a 12-month option to a special effects man who built the robots for the Short Circuit movies. It also got me my first attorney, and meetings with literary agents in tall towers in Century City.

Arby reborn

After I regained the rights, I gave my little robot a makeover as Arby. I have Part Two of his story (Arby Deluxe) waiting in the wings and often thought of writing both parts as a novel. But for now, here's my little robot available for the first time in his entirety online.