The Horror Adventure Novel

Before I dig in to my Easter blog post, I'll give everyone the update on the Spinward Fringe books. Both of the books I"m working on right now - Spinward Fringe: Expendable Few (the novella), and Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework - are finally going smashingly well. I wrote a ton of material for Broadcast 7, including two previous drafts. A lot of it was tossed out so I could deliver a denser, tighter book plot wise. I'm near the end.

The novella, Expendable Few, is almost finished. It's really helping me develop the ending of Broadcast 7 while delivering a type of story that is vastly different from the existing Spinward Fringe series. Test readers will see chapters by the end of the month.

Now, on to the topic I planned to bring up here. The Horror Adventure Novel. That's what the Dark Arts novel will be. I've written three and a half Spinward Fringe books in a row, without a break, so Dark Arts will be a very good palette cleanser between Broadcast 7 and Broadcast 8. The reasons why the Dark Arts novel is being written are few:

1) Horror Adventure novels seem sort of rare. I remember the choose your own adventure books from my youth, and there's H.P. Lovecraft. I'm sure there are others, but in a market awash with Young Adult, soft horror, I don't see much. Oh, and before someone asks: no, Dark Arts will not be a 'Choose Your Own Adventure'

2) I love the idea behind Dark Arts, and there are some compelling characters living in my head that don't want to exist in any other world.

3) The Dark Arts experimental short has its own dedicated fans. I have received emails form people who actually accused me of having the finished novelized version, or extra chapters. They made it perfectly clear that I MUST release them, or something might happen to my house pets, I might even get something nasty in the mail. Thankfully, I don't have any house pets at the moment. Sadly, I don't have a completed novel or finished extra chapters to release to the public either.

4) Even though the experiment was completely unedited, the major complaint about the short was that it was.... too short. That tells me that there was some content in there that was worthwhile to someone other than myself.

So, it's time to approach this book seriously, and write a one shot horror adventure novel. By the time I'm done, I'll be able to approach Broadcast 8 with a clear head.

I know I'll enjoy writing the Dark Arts novel. Writing the experimental short was a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to finishing Broadcast 7, then taking a break in a different world.

RL

[If you want to see the Dark Arts experiment page, click this link.]

[You can also grab the newly formatted ePub version here. Right click & choose save.]

The Kindle Version is coming, just waiting for word back from Scrivener support.

Predicting the Future, Social Media Megalomania, and Being Nosy

Recently a reader asked me why I included Crewcast in the latest books. He didn't like the fact that there was any kind of social media reference in Spinward Fringe. it's not traditional, I'll admit, but I think it's essential. As I was writing my response, I realized it would make a better blog post, so here it is.

First, let's take a quick look at Crew Cast. It's a fictional information management system that is used by Spinward Fringe characters to find each other, see what people are doing professionally and personally, organize medical information, schedule gatherings, duty shifts, communicate, and much more. I'm sure you get the gist. It's the everything of social media, supervision software, and entertainment.

I included Crew Cast because it didn't make sense that they wouldn't have that sort of thing all figured out in the distant future. it also made more sense than the original concept in the First Light Trilogy - that our personal and professional lives would be managed by an artificial intelligence. That would be like having the voice of your mother, or little sister with you 24/7, telling you where to be and when. I love my mother, don't get me wrong, but she doesn't have to tell me when to brush my teeth or when to see my doctor anymore. An artificial intelligence nagging you on a fairly constant basis would drive me to drink. A lot.

While thinking about how we would be connected to each other in the future, I was obviously led to ponder how we're connected now. I very quickly came to a few realizations.

I'm convinced that the reason why I don't have a flying car, a Swiss Army knife with a fold out lightsaber, or the option to buy a condo on the moon is at least partially due to the fact that we're too busy looking at each other. I'm not talking about hanging out with your friends or loved ones in person. I'm talking about those disappearing minutes and hours when we open our email, check Facebook, LinkedIn, or are busy Tweeting, , or tweaking the knobs on our HAM radios. Okay, maybe not checking our LinkedIn accounts, no one really does that, do they?

The moment I start looking at social media my productivity begins swirling down the drain. I've seen it happen in to so many people now that I believe writers, hell, content creators and developers of all kinds, shouldn't turn their routers on until 4pm. These days, I try to avoid my browser completely until I have two thousand words down.

Since my brain is at least one quarter megalomaniacal villain, I immediately realized that it was all about the illusion of control. I love socializing on Facebook sometimes, even Twitter can be fun. I have some readers who message me sparingly these days because they're afraid that they'll slow my productivity and further delay the release of my next book. I hate to admit it, but they're at least a little right, but they're not part of the problem. Not even a little.

The problem is simple, sort of. I think I'm subconsciously trying to be as close to omniscient as possible. I don't think I'm the only one, either. I want to know what's going on with my fellow Tweeters, what's scrolling on Facebook walls, and who most recently stepped in to say hello on the Goodreads Forum. It doesn't stop there, but those are the biggies. Like a nosey suburbanite, I'm peeking over your fences, looking in your yards because I just can't help myself.

Ever since I had the notion that social media was a blue and white productivity vampire, writing and creativity have been going a little better. Day by day I'm creeping up on the average word count I had going three years ago, when I was putting a book out every four months.

So, back to the question that started all this. Why is Crewcast in the series? The answer can be summed up very simply. I predict social media will be with us for as long as we can produce the devices that facilitate its function. That's hundreds, maybe thousands of years into the future - I hope. I'm not going to say that social media is completely bad, either. Like most fixtures of the digital age, we are still learning about it. So far I think it's becoming obvious that there's a time and a place for its use.

As a side note, if James R Berry knew we'd have social media when he was writing about life 40 years in his future, I think he would have taken things down a notch. He got some of it right though, we love our gadgets.

RL

Monkey photo credited to: Leo-Avalon

A Return to Freeground In The Expendable Few Novella

The story in Broadcast 7 outgrowing the confines of one book has become a calling to tell a story that was left out of the Spinward Fringe series. Normally, when I cut a story out of a book it's because the book is already dense enough, or that story wasn't good enough to run as a sub-plot.

When I cut this recent story out of Broadcast 7: Framework, I did so knowing that I would still have to tell it. I still had to develop that plot line. More importantly, I had to tell it before the current Spinward Fringe series came to an end.

That plot line has become the upcoming free novella called The Expendable Few. If there was to be a fourth book in the old First Light Chronicles Series, this would be it. For all the readers wondering whatever happened to Freeground, here are your answers. As a further nod to the three novellas that started it all, Freeground, Limbo and Starfree Port, the new novella - Expendable Few - will be free.

There is a testing group already mostly in place, the novella is half finished, and if I've done everything well enough, someone could read this book without reading the rest of the Spinward Fringe series. It's far more interesting if you read it as part of the series, particularly as Broadcast 6.5, however. I'm offering it for free, AND it will be included with Broadcast 7 when it is released.

Here's a brief synopsis for The Expendable Few:

Freeground has changed since the return of the First Light. Instead of re-integrating with the rest of humanity, the Freeground Nation has become more xenophobic and Isolated. The Puritan Party has assumed control. Censorship, social engineering, and xenophobia are even more common, and thousands of citizens who have the means and opportunity to leave are doing so. The dream of living in a secure and free culture hasn't died entirely, however.

A few Freeground Citizens opposed to the Puritan Party put plans into motion that will either bring liberty back to the Freeground Nation or send the entire culture into a downward spiral. This tale is told from the perspective of a politically contrary Fleet Commander, Clark Patterson, who is obsessed with the adventures, intrigues and antics of the First Light crew. He knows everything one can about their short service aboard, and has every piece of contraband footage of them after they departed. He's even investigated the terrorist, Jacob Valance, whose very name is a curse according to the Puritan Party. His life, his world and those he holds most dear are shaken when he has a direct run in with a West Keeper - a spy working for a galactic cult called the Order of Eden that is bent on controlling industry and the natural wonders with their reach and beyond.

--- Synopsis Ends ---

The real thrill for me in writing the first half of the novella was writing Freeground as it was originally conceived. I honestly didn't have the patience to demonstrate the xenophobia and censorship that surrounded the Freeground culture before. I was too excited about telling the Jonas story, and I don't regret it. I don't regret it because in The Expendable Few the problems of censorship, control and xenophobia drive the story in the first half of this novella. A return to first person perspective after a million words or more of writing is also very interesting to me.

How far away is the release of The Expendable Few? We're talking weeks if the test group enjoys it. Only two members of the test group have read the Spinward Fringe series, the rest are new to it, so it's getting a trail by fire.

Work on Broadcast 7 continues, and that book will only be delayed for a couple of weeks because of The Expendable Few. I believe this is a necessary book to developing the final act in Broadcast 7, however. I'd much rather write the Expendable Few in its entirety rather than write it up as twenty pages of developmental notes and shut them away after Broadcast 7 is finished.

I hope you agree.

RL

[If you have no idea what I'm talking about in this post, then you should go download a copy of Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins. It's free, and the download links are on the right hand side of this page.]