The sci-fi saga is over

After six months of frantic writing, Alive! finished this week. Reading back through it there are several things I'd change if I'd been writing it as a straight novel, not in parts, but generally I'm pleased with how it's come out.

For those who like stats, it finished at 34,500 words, was completed in 25 installments, filled 75 A4-type pages on the net and would be 189 pages of an 8.5"x5.5" book (I'm looking into editing it properly and making print copies available via Lulu or some other POD publisher).

If anyone wants to read the finished story click here - it's going to stay up on The Novel Factory site for the immediate future at least.

Character profiles: Jackson Brown

Name: Jackson Brown
Age: 35-40

Position: Inventory & logistics and assistant engineer, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Can seem to be quite inapproachable at times as he prefers to keep his own counsel. He is always certain of his own mind and isn't slow to tell other people if he thinks they or a situation is wrong, bad, or being handled wrong.

Misc: A mixture of hired muscle and a steady mind, Jackson is in charge of dealing with port authorities, sourcing cargo, and dealing with any problems that arise. One of Dak's most trusted friends, he is also the one the captain turns to when something needs to be done.

“Jackson seems to be alright, and judging from the language he used when I told him he was restricted to the medical bay this morning I would say he’s well on his way to recovery,” Dr Rivers said, smiling slightly.

Inspiration & character creation: Jackson began as little more than an additional crew member but has become more and more part of the plot as the story has progressed. He has a sense of mystery around him in the story - partly because sometimes when I write him I'm not even sure myself what's going on. It was fun to give him a more key role in discovering the saboteur on board the Crazy Horse - especially as I'd noticed his main role up to that point seemed to be to get injured!

I didn't base his character on anyone in particular, and although I'd had his name in the back of my mind for use in a story for a while, he hadn't really got any personality to go with the name before Alive!.

Finishing a story

I'm reaching a few deadlines during the next couple of months. First, I really need to finish editing my NaNoWriMo story from 2008, The Dark Lady.

Lavender crept out into the passage, trying to ignore the feeling that the pictures were watching her. At the end of the passage she found a large round room, lined from floor to ceiling with shelves containing jars, scrolls, bottles, small wooden boxes and dusty old books.

Fascinated, she went closer to see what was in the jars. She reached out a hand towards one when a voice stopped her.

'I wouldn't do that.'

She turned to see Columbine standing in the doorway, arms folded across her chest and black and green wings held out wide, blocking the exit.

'Columbine!' she cried in relief. 'I know you said you want to be here, but this place isn't good for you!'

Columbine shook her head slowly. 'I wouldn't expect you to understand,' she replied. 'You have never been afraid of your own magic, scared that it will run away with you, and worried that you might do something terrible.'

'No, you're right,' Lavender replied. 'But there still have to be better places to learn how to control your magic than here, with that dark faerie.'

'She is my friend,' Columbine returned, coldly.

'I thought I was your friend too,' Lavender replied quietly, looking Columbine straight in the eyes.

Columbine paused, and for a moment Lavender thought she had got through to her. But before she could be sure, another voice cut in, and Lavender wheeled round to find the dark faerie had somehow appeared behind her.

'I'm impressed you got out, but you've caused enough trouble now,' the dark faerie hissed at Lavender, throwing a bolt of black magic at her.

This story has been lying around not doing very much for the past year. I did get it proofread, but never really got around to editing it. Now I'm finally getting the chance to edit, and I'm on the second read through now. On the first go through I fixed a section that didn't make sense and took out a large chunk that was really just waffle. Now I'm onto more nitpicky things. I'd like to get it finished by the start of June - I'll keep you posted...

The other story that's coming to an end is Alive. I've been doing weekly updates since January on this story and it's due to come to a close in July. There's no fixed date yet, but I'm already starting to tie up loose ends.

I reckon I've got about 6-8 more installments to find out the truth behind Delta the cyborg and figure out why she was sabotaging the Crazy Horse, figure out whether or not to leave Colonel Leonard and the missing child unsolved, and help Dak get out of trouble for taking a drug mule on board.

100 pages in 30 days

I know I've been quiet for a while, and I'm very sorry about that. I've been taking part in Script Frenzy during April, trying to draft out a comic book script based on Alive! And finally, today, I managed to hit that magic 100 pages... then I validated the page count and found it was 135 - how did that happen?!

Of course, the story's not finished yet and so the comic script isn't either, but I'll try to get it finished once the story ends, and then maybe try to find an artist who'd be willing to draw it for me.

Not enough hours in the day

Why is it that when you think you've got everything sorted out and you know exactly what time you're going to have to spend writing (or whatever else you choose to do) something comes along to change all your plans?

In my case it's been a change of workplace that's added to my commuting time, giving me less time to spend doing other things, including writing.

I have still been able to keep up with Alive! though, and that story is due to end in July. I think the Crazy Horse might just have reached Mars by then...!

Character profiles: Elliott Macintyre

Name: Elliott Macintyre
Age: Early 30s

Position: Second in command and helmsman, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Fairly laid back and experienced in startship operations, Elliott is the one Dak relies on to make sure paperwork is in order, timetables are kept and the ship is all working properly.

“Hey, Brown, open your eyes, look at me, Jackson.”

The voice sounded far away and Jackson wished it would go away. His head hurt like the worst hangover he’d ever had, although he couldn’t remember drinking anything.

“Brown,” the voice wouldn’t shut up, and now whoever it was talking was shaking him as well.

“Go ‘way,” he groaned, keeping his eyes shut.

“Hey, you scared me for a minute, Brown,” Macintyre said, sitting back on his heels as he opened the first aid kit he’d grabbed from the bridge. “Hey, stay put,” he added as Jackson tried to get up. “You’ve got a gash on your head and you’re leaking red stuff all over the place. Keep your butt on the deck ‘til I’ve cleaned you up a bit.”

Jackson made a noise which could have been taken as a grumbling assent or as a swear word. Elliott ignored it as he poured a liberal amount of coagulant powder onto the three inch cut on the hairline of the other man’s head, then wrapped a bandage around it.

“There was a hull breach,” Macintyre continued. “Looks like you were in your bunk when it happened, and you got thrown out and hit your head on that cabinet there,” he pointed to a low cupboard with a brown-red stain on the corner. “Don’t you remember anything?”

Jackson shook his head then winced in pain.

“You sit there a while longer before you try moving,” Macintyre told him. “You’re not bleeding any more, but you’d better let the doc see you to patch up that cut. If you can stay put for a minute I just need to check on Anna. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Character profiles: Dr Connor Rivers

Name: Connor Rivers
Age: 45-55

Position: Senior doctor, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Serious, intelligent and with a weakness for a good whisky.

Dr Rivers sat upright studying a hand held computer pad. He looked worried, but he often did when he had patients, thinking through every possible complication and treatment.

Inspiration & character creation: Dr Rivers was one of those characters that was necessary to create for reality's sake but didn't have a fleshed out character when I started writing. I knew it would be likely that people would need a doctor on a several-month-long interplanetary trip, but I wasn't sure how much he'd get involved with the rest of the story.

Of course, after Pilar Perez got ill, he became more central to the story, providing background information and eventually turning into something of a sounding board for Dak. He also seemed to be quite fatherly towards Anna, which was a nice development.

Character profiles: Anna Smythe

Name: Dr Anna Smythe
Age: 25

Position: Trainee doctor, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Quiet and caring, Anna is a thoroughly nice person. She can be quite shy in large groups but she makes friends easily.

Misc: Not long out of medical school, Anna is working on the Crazy Horse to get experience in the field. She is eager to learn and very competant at what she does.
Although she is fully qualified she very rarely introduces herself as 'Dr Smythe', although she has been known to take refuge in her professional standing if she feels unsure or nervous in a situation.
She seems to be comfortable on board the MF Crazy Horse, although at first glance it would appear to be a station entirely unsuited to her character. Much of that seems to be down to Dr Rivers, who treats her with an almost fatherly manner.

“Mr Perez? It’s Anna Smythe. Are you alright?”
“Señorita Smythe?” Carlos went to the door and put his head against the cool metal. “My wife – is she...?”
“She’s doing just fine,” Anna replied. “I just thought you’d like to know Dr Rivers says she’s stable, though he doesn’t think she’ll be waking up before we reach Mars.”
Carlos breathed a sigh of relief. “Then... Can I see her?” he asked.
There was a pause before Anna answered. “I’m sorry, I can’t let you in to see her. Not without someone else to watch you. Captain’s orders, sorry.”
“But she is alright?” Carlos asked again.
“She still needs to get to the proper hospital facilities on Mars, but don’t worry, she’s fine at the moment,” the trainee doctor reassured him.
“Thank you, Señorita. And you will take good care of her?” he asked.
“I will, I promise,” Anna answered seriously.

Inspiration & character creation: Anna is in some ways a character who is still in development. Because I made her quiet and shy, she hasn't featured prominently in the story so far, and when she has it's been mostly professional.
Her inspiration was the traditional English rose - pale complexion, blonde hair, beautiful, refined and intelligent. I really don't know what path her character will take as the story progresses, but I like that. She's very much a predictable, stable character, whereas most of the other people in the story are liable to lose tempers, make rash decisions and get into arguements. In that way she provides the backbone and in some ways the conscience of the story, although the last thing I want is for her to become goody-goody.
In some ways she could be likened to KayLee in Firefly, but in other ways she's a very different character.

Character profiles: Shanran Dak

Name: Shanran Dak
Age: 45

Position: Captain, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Grumpy, stubborn, smart as hell and very determined.

Misc: The captain of the MF Crazy Horse isn't always an easy man to get along with. He's conscientious about completing a job, but always wants to do it on his own terms. Because of this he doesn't get on well with people in authority, which can occasionally get him into hat water, and isn't shy of telling people exactly what he thinks.
If he's given options he will always look for the one which will benefit his ship and crew the most.
He trusts very few people, and even among his own crew there are few that he completely trusts all the time. Jackson Brown is probably his closest friend, although he has also been known to enjoy a drink with Dr Rivers and John Park. His loudly professed opinion of women in general is that they cause trouble, but despite this he carries two women on his crew, perhaps suggesting that his bark is worse than his bite?

“Major, what the hell are these orders about?” Dak snapped, taking the seat as Macintyre closed the office door and leaned against the doorframe. “You want me to carry passengers on our next run? Are you out of your fricking mind? You know we don’t have the facilities to do that, not to mention the inclination.”

~*~

“He won’t change his mind,” Macintyre stated, folding his arms as he watched John finish transmitting Keller’s schematics to the stranded ship.

“How do you know unless you try?” Keller countered.

Macintyre laughed and shook his head. “I’ve been working with Dak for long enough now to know a hopeless cause when I see one. Even if he thought he was wrong – which he doesn’t by the way – then you’d be hard pushed to get him to admit it. Trying to change his mind’s nearly impossible.”

Inspiration & character creation: It was fun coming up with the character of the captain. He started out as an idea for a first officer on a much more classy ship than Crazy Horse - think more Enterprise than Serenity. Something wasn't quite right about him in that position though, so Macintyre became first officer and Dak got a promotion.
His character was partly inspired by Joss Wheden's Firefly character Malcolm Reynolds, but I also liked the idea of having a grumpy captain and the challenge of trying to make him sympathetic and likeable. I hope I've succeeded!
His ethnicity is a mystery, even to me, but his name seemed more Indian-feeling than western. I'm probably going to get complaints from Indian people about that now, so sorry in advance, but if you think I'm wrong just remember that this is the 22nd century and Keller is a made-up western name...

Character profiles: John Park

Name: John Park
Age: 38

Position: Odd job man, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Laid back and likeable, John is good at finding information and tracking down hard-to-locate objects - as well as talking his way into free drinks at the bar!

John went into the kitchen area and Dak heard him open one of the storage cupboards and open a can.

“That’s coming out of your rations,” he called, going over to join John in the kitchen.

John shrugged, taking a swig from the can. “I’ll get us more at Mars,” he told the captain.

Inspiration & character creation: John wasn't Korean until I decided on his last name. Park seemed to suit him, then I realised there seemed to be a lot of Korean actors and actresses with that surname - Enterprise's Linda Park and Battlestar Galactica's Grace Park to name just two. I Googled it and what do you know - it's one of the most common Korean surnames. You learn something new every day!

Sci fi web comic - Crimson Dark

I'd like to introduce you to the wonderful webcomic that is Crimson Dark. I only found it this week but I absolutely love it.

It's drawn by an Aussie called David Simon and the story revolves around a space ship and her crew in the 27th century. The crew are all a bit odd, each with their own quirks, and the stories are really good.

I think the reason I like it so much is that it reminds me of Alive!, or at least, of how I'd like Alive! to be - whether or not it actually comes across with the same feel I'll have to leave to you to tell me. Feel free to leave comments on here.

The graphics are partly 3D and partly traditional, and they are amazing. If I could draw like this, Alive! would be a web comic!

To read the comic click here.

Character profile: Keller Anis

Thanks to the brilliant character creator in Star Trek Online I can actually show you how I envisage some of my characters. First up is Keller Anis, engineer of the MF Crazy Horse in my seriel novel Alive!

Name: Keller Anis
Age: 30

Position: Engineer, Martian Freighter Crazy Horse

Personality: Stubborn, dedicated sometimes to the point of losing focus on other things, serious at work but relaxed off-duty.

Misc: Keller is a very talented engineer and looks on her ship almost as her child. She believes she can fix anything, given the time and equipment, and so far hasn't been faced with a situation to prove her wrong.
She can be stubborn and hard headed at times, and often butts heads with the captain when she believes her solution is better. They have a love-hate relationship where they both respect each other and can rub along quite well, but often find themselves argueing. The captain reserves his favourite insult - 'damned woman' - especially for Keller.
Keller enjoys playing basketball and has rigged up a net in the engine room storage bay.

Captain Shanran Dak frowned and punched a button next to the speaker. “Dammit Keller, could you try not to scrape the paint quite so hard next time?” he growled into the microphone headset he was wearing. “She gets enough battering through the asteroid belt without you adding more dents.”

“I’ve told you before, Captain, I’d have no problems fixing the dents up if you’d get me a proper repair kit,” Keller replied. “Besides, don’t blame me – you were steering,” she added.

Dak scowled at the speaker and swore under his breath as he punched buttons on the control panels to shut down the ship’s engines. “Damned woman, got an answer for everything,” he muttered.

Inspiration & character creation: I really don't know how I came up with Keller's first name. It just popped into my head one day when I was thinking about Star Trek - I know, geeky, sorry! Her last name came from the 'star anis' plant.
Her original incarnation was as a half-Betazoid half-Romulan counsellor in the 27th century in a Trek fan-fic, which was never designed to be read by anyone other than me. I didn't really flesh out her character very much to start with, although she's always had a stubborn streak. When I started writing Alive! I was looking for a strong female character and she came to mind. A few tweaks later and she appeared in current form.
The quote above was actually the first line I ever wrote for her in Alive! and once she'd said that it helped set her character even more for me.
I think Keller is now one of my favourite characters - strong, clever, argumentative, stubborn - and I'm looking forward to exploring her more as the story progresses.

Writing with no idea where it's heading

I've started several new stories this week but have no idea where they're heading or what they'll turn into - if anything.

Well, that's not strictly true. One of them is going to be a short story about a teenage werewolf and her (yes, I said her) boyfriend, and I've got that pretty much mapped out. Now I just have to sit down and write it. If it turns out well then I might submit it for an anthology - I know Wyvern Publications is going to be doing a Fangtales anthology next year about creatures of the night, vampires and so on.

The other ideas aren't anything like as developed.

Oh well, on with Alive, where Dak is about to find signs of sabotage and Macintyre's tracking an odd smell...

Haiku and Alive update

Very quick updates today. First, a haiku that I threw together as an entry into a Star Trek inspired competition. (Excuse my Trekker-ness for a moment...)

Where I want to be -
Space, the final frontier...
Beam me up, Scotty!

In case you're not sure what haiku is, it's a three line poem with five syllables in the first and third lines and seven syllables in the second line. I used to really enjoy writing them when I was at school, so when I saw the competition I had a burst of nostalgia and decided to join in.

The second thing is that the third part of Alive! is online now - poor Pilar...

Alive - part 3...

Well this could be interesting.... As my editor said:

What a surprising turn and a bunch of dark readers :)

So what happens next? You'll just have to wait and see, and find out on Tuesday when the next part comes out!

Staying alive...

The second chapter of Alive! is up now - read the story and cast your vote on what should happen next by clicking here!

I'm really enjoying this way of writing a story. It's an interesting way of getting story prompts, but at the same time I know - and the reader knows - how the story is going to go in the big picture. The cargo ship is going to go to Jupiter to deliver its consignment and the passengers. But in the course of that happening there are nots of other things that could happen, and that's what makes it interesting.

A little hint of things to come at some point - look out for mining ships in the asteroid belt, Colonel Leonard's big secret, the real reason for Pilar Perez's journey, and find out more about the colonists on the Rim.

A new project

I've just started on a new writing project which should keep me busy for a few months. This week I submitted the first installment of a seriel sci-fi story called 'Alive!' to The Novel Factory - a new type of website that hopes to get people reading again.

As it says on the front of the site:

Have you ever read a book that made you feel so alive that you wanted to jump right in with the characters? Have you ever come up with a brilliant idea for a book you’re reading that never happens? Well this is your chance to dare the impossible leap, to dream the impossible dream.

The Novel Factory is an online serial publication. Each week a new segment of a book is presented for your reading pleasure. Whether you’re a casual reader or a serious imaginer, The Novel Factory can open a door into the world of your imagination. Each section of each weekly installment ends with a space where your imagination can roam free. You can take an active part in the creation process with a choice of multiple plot twists, or a personal input box where you can enter your own ideas.

Read my story and vote on how the plot will continue by clicking here.