Book Ideas: clones & cloning #amwriting #amwritingscifi

By: Meradeth Houston on 4:00 AM

Okay, who has managed to snag a copy of GHOSTS OF FIRE? :) My newsletter subscribers are in for a treat if they check theirs out!

Today my mind's on cloning. I know, that sounds a little odd, doesn't it? But I promise there's a reason: my current WIP deals with a host of clones who are systematically being eliminated. It's been a whole lot of fun (it's my BBC mash-up books: Sherlock meets Orphan Black meets Bond, which I know the latter isn't BBC, but he's British so I'm going with it). Anyhow, this was complimented nicely this week by talking about monozygotic twins in one of my lectures--twinning is cloning in a different way, but basically ends up with the same thing: two (or more) individuals with identical DNA.

The original idea for this novel comes from way back when Dolly the sheep was big in the news. I had several long discussions about the nature of what that might mean, and have had many since. It's actually quite fascinating. Not only is there the strangeness of discovering you've got someone who is your identical twin out there, but what does it mean for the soul? Personally, I don't think there's a rational difference to be found, but I must admit it's an interesting thing to think about: how does a clone come to have a soul? And this has led to a novel-length investigation into that question. Hopefully it's fun though--I promise there are many hot men and car chases, too! :)

There are a ton of scientific articles and books out there on the subject, but for fun, what sorts of books or TV shows have you enjoyed on this subject? There's a bunch! Personally, I love Orphan Black and the rather cheesy The Island.

What about you? Anything you'd recommend?