I’ll be going to a seminar at UCLA in a few weeks, a whole weekend of talking about story and marketing to publishers and other media (notably movies.) So I’m working over the synopses and pitches. One tool I’ve never used is the logline, a single-sentence description encapsulating the setting, protagonist, story problem, antagonist, and goal.

Here’s what I’ve come up with for the Substrate Wars series:

RED QUEEN: In a near-future US surveillance state, college students invent quantum gateways and have to fight Homeland Security to gain their freedom on a new planet.

NEMO’S WORLD: From their base on a new planet, rebels use their discovery of quantum gateways to steal all of Earth’s nuclear weapons and bring down Earth’s oppressive governments.

KALIKANS: As humanity expands to new colony worlds and enjoys an era of peace and prosperity, the new government has to fight a fleet of robotic destroyer ships to save humanity from extinction.

If you haven’t succumbed to my relentless marketing yet, you can still start reading it here.