On Twitter, I posted a thread (archive) about the fact that The Perils of Sasha Reed has similarities to an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon called The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a show I watched when I was about eight years old.
I made the tweet below because I was thinking of how different my own work was from the pulps of the 1920s-30s. Unlike those pulps, where the hero set out to defeat an enemy, in Sasha Reed, the enemy came to Sasha and kidnapped her.
Then I realized that Sasha Reed had vague similarities to The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, a cartoon I saw as a kid in the mid 90s (it was old even then.) Then I read the TV Tropes description for Pitstop…and saw just how similar the premise was to Sasha Reed.
While I didn’t recall any specific episodes, and there’s no danger of infringement since there’s no copyright in ideas, I was subconsciously influenced by that old cartoon anyway.
This made me feel awful — here I was, writing an original IP that I had real enthusiasm for, and it turns out that my work has a plot structure similar to some Hanna-Barbera joint from back in the day!
Then I remembered something: in a way, I wanted this to happen. When I drafted “Raid on the Racetrack” back in early 2020, I was writing the type of story I wanted to read. I wanted a story of a beautiful damsel in distress rescued by her boyfriend, whom she loved very much.
I was *trying* to write a throwback, the type of story that modern writers would never do for fear of looking disconnected to the world of today. Is it any wonder that it happened to resemble a TV show from the past, even if the details are different?
Besides, Penelope Pitstop is *itself* a throwback to an old film called The Perils of Pauline. The point is, I shouldn’t view my story as some unoriginal hackwork, but as a unique take on an older structure. Besides, stories like mine are few and far between in modern times.
Nothing’s original anyway, and I’ll do my best to get over it.
At first, I questioned the worth of my story, but then I thought about it for a moment: Can anyone write off Sasha Reed as a copy of Penelope Pitstop?
Penelope is chaste and dresses modestly; Sasha is a sexpot who dresses provocatively. Penelope is a driver; Sasha is a pit girl. Penelope doesn’t kill people; Sasha does (if the Hooded Claw kidnapped Sasha, he would be dead!) Penelope doesn’t deal with genetic engineering, organized religion, or a global military force; Sasha can’t avoid any of them.
The point is, I have done an original take on Pitstop’s premise, expanding it far beyond what that old show was willing to do. A lot of beloved works are take-offs of earlier works: Star Wars imitated Flash Gordon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles imitated Daredevil, Batman imitated The Shadow — the list goes on. If anything, I’m in great company.
And now, you can see for yourself, because The Perils of Sasha Reed is now available in paperback! I didn’t plan to release a paperback version at all, but Twitter user @RevolverSolver convinced me that it was a great idea. Here’s what he has to say about the book (archive):
All of the parts are good, but with lines like “the first place bitch took it up the tailpipe” that by default makes it my favorite. I like the humor in it, but also that it was fast moving without glossing over things.
Right away you show what kind of a person Sasha and what her relationship is like. And I liked its uniqueness. This is literally the first thing I’ve read about a pitgirl, and you made it very entertaining. The action and humor go well together.
And bonus part 3, you took the damsel in distress and didn’t crap all over it and make it a man hating lecture like we’d have today, but she wasn’t helpless either.
Bonus part 4 (sorry, I’m cooking while I Tweet), a lot of stories today play down a woman’s attractiveness. You didn’t. Yes, “pretty lady” can definitely be a selling point for me, but there needs to be substance and personality there, all of which you delivered on.
One more 1/2: It’s very refreshing when a story these days lets women be women and doesn’t scold us because we appreciate their beauty. Her looks are good, and so is her personality. If it wasn’t we’d tell Redge not to go after her.
2/2 It ha a nice depiction of a monogamous couple that loves and is loyal to each other, which is yet another thing that is becoming less frequent these days. I really hope you get a paperback version up soon. The story and its cover are great as is.
So get your physical copy now, before Amazon declares it forbidden! Woke speech codes get more stringent by the day; when the worst happens, you do not want to be the one thinking “I should’ve bought it when I had the chance.” So don’t delay — BUY TODAY.
