Gaia Nova – Page 3 – One Thousand And One Parsecs

Heart of the Nebula 2.0 is finished!

That’s right: the second draft of Heart of the Nebula, direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home, is now finished. Here are the stats:

words: 90,081
chapters: 20
ms pages: 426
start date: 7 Nov 2011
end date: 4 Dec 2011

And the word splash:

This was just a quick draft to fix some of the known problems before sending it off to my first readers. I’d thought that it was missing a whole bunch of stuff, but I ended up taking out more than I’d put in. Still, it feels like it’s missing something, and I’m not sure what. Hopefully, my readers will be able to help me figure it out.

I’m starting to notice a pattern with my writing. The first draft is always the hardest, fraught with all sorts of frustrations and setbacks. In contrast, the second draft is usually pretty quick, and involves fixing the problems without making any drastic changes. The third draft is where the story really comes to life, as I start to make connections and tap the latent possibilities. This may continue in the fourth draft, but anything after that is usually just a matter of polishing the prose.

For those of you who’ve read Bringing Stella Home, this novel takes place five years after and centers around James McCoy and Lars Stewart. Stella/Sholpan makes a brief appearance, but Danica and the Tajji mercenaries do not; I plan on writing more about them (a LOT more about them) in Stars of Blood and Glory.

I’m going to send this draft out to my first readers and let it settle for a couple of months. Once I’ve gotten their feedback, I’ll undertake a thorough revision, possibly with some drastic changes to the story. I don’t want to commit myself to a specific date, but if all goes well, I may publish it sometime next summer.

In the meantime, if you’re interested in beta reading Heart of the Nebula, shoot me an email–but please, only ask if we know each other IRL. My next big project is Star Wanderers, which should hopefully be finished by mid-January. And of course, there’s Desert Stars–I’m in the process of getting the cover art, so it shouldn’t be more than a couple of weeks before it’s up!

So much going on…it’s good to get something finished.

Kickstarter update, new blurb, and cover art for Journey to Jordan

First things first: with sixteen days to go, Desert Stars is currently about 36% funded. If you haven’t picked up any of my books yet, this is a good place to start: I feel confident that it’s my best work yet. $10 will get you a copy with your name in the front under “special thanks”–$25 will get you that plus everything I’ve published so far. So check it out!

To keep the kickstarter campaign moving, I decided to update the blurb for Desert Stars. Here’s what I came up with:

He was the sole heir to the Najmi camp, a young man raised by tribesmen after falling to the desert from the stars. She was the sheikh’s most beautiful daughter, promised his hand in marriage–if she can convince him to stay.

Together, they must travel to a land where glass covers the sky and men traverse the stars as easily as tribesmen cross the desert. Here, at the ancient temple dedicated to the memory of Earth, they hope to find the answers that will show them the way home.

But when love and honor clash, how can they face their destiny when it threatens to tear them apart?

So what do you think? Does it grab you, or do I need to change anything?

Finally, I’m currently in the process of preparing my travel journals from the 2008 BYU Jordan study abroad trip for publication. This is one that I’m doing 100% by myself–editing, cover art, etc. If anyone wants to volunteer to make a proofreading pass, I would greatly appreciate it. Currently, I’m about 1/3 of the way through; I hope to finish putting it together by December 1st.

In the meantime, here’s the cover art:

Pretty nifty, eh? What do you think?

Just following my bliss

They say the way you know you’re a writer is if you can’t not write. Well, last week I had the gratification of experiencing that again firsthand.

For all of August, I was more or less betwen projects and not writing a lot of new material. I’d just epublished Bringing Stella Home and was busy getting Sholpan ready for epublication. Then Worldcon happened, and my writing dropped off precipitously. I tried to get back in a groove, but found it difficult to choose between projects, none of which seemed to fit my writing schedule.

And then the creative half of my brain said “screw it” and ran off on an idea that came from practically out of nowhere.

It all started when I was taking a power nap after a long day at work. For some reason, my mind wandered to Jeremiah Johnson, an old Western with an awesome love story.

In the movie, Robert Redford unkowingly insults an indian chief by giving him several captured scalps. The chief must return with a gift of equal or greater value, and so gives Redford his daughter, who doesn’t speak a word of English. At first, things are hilariously awkward, but over time they grow into a beautiful and touching relationship.

Well, as I lay there thinking about the movie, I wondered: what if the same basic storyline were set in space? Instead of a mountain man, the protagonist would be a space explorer / interstellar merchanter. Instead of an indian chief’s daughter, the female protagonist would be the daughter of a station master whose colony is facing severe famine and widespread starvation. When the merchanter boy unwittingly shows up at the doomed colony, the station master coerces him into taking his daughter to save her life. And so, for the next two months, the boy finds himself crammed into a tiny little ship with a girl who doesn’t speak his language. Hilarity ensues.

At first, I thought I’d keep it as a short story, but…yeah, that didn’t last long. The more I run with it, the more ideas keep coming to me–ideas that I haven’t played with in a couple of years. The story is set in the same universe as Gaia Nova and Bringing Stella Home, but about a thousand years earlier, back when things were, shall we say, more primitive. I still don’t know where this story is going to take me, but I can tell it’s going to be a lot of fun.

The best part is that even if I expand this into a full length novel, the first part stands on its own so well that I could probably submit it to Writers of the Future. That never happens! It’s been years since I submitted to the contest; I always wanted to send something, but all I could ever write was novels with long, complex beginnings that couldn’t be cut off at the 17,000 word mark.

Anyhow, the working title of the novel is Star Wanderer (I can’t believe it’s not already taken), and it’s probably going to end up around 80k words or so. I only have a vague idea at this point, but it’s much more intimate and personal than epic in scope, so I don’t expect it to go much longer. I’ll probably finish the first part sometime next week and start looking for some first readers. I’d like to finish the rough draft before I start the Desert Stars revision in October, but we’ll see whether that works out.

As for Edenfall, don’t worry, I’m still working on that project too. One of the advantages of writing longhand is that it’s much easier to pick up and just go; instead of having to stop and think about what needs to happen next, the physical act of writing is slow enough that the ideas come much more organically. I might not finish it before October, but if I can juggle it with Star Wanderer, I can probably juggle it with Desert Stars. In any case, it’ll be good to work on new material and keep my writing sharp while I’m doing the revision. We’ll see how it turns out.

So that’s what I’ve been up to in the last week. I only wish I were doing this full time, so that I could spend all day working on these stories. Soon, inshallah.

Plans for Edenfall

I’m trying something a little different with Edenfall: I’m writing the first draft entirely in longhand.

I first got the idea a couple of years ago, when I was camping in Moab. The beautiful landscape of southern Utah made me realize that I wanted to write Edenfall while experiencing that sort of connection with nature, and pen and paper seemed to be the best format in which to do that. This year, when I decided that I’d definitely write it, I ordered the notebook on the left and fitted it out for the project.

With every novel I write, I like to challenge myself in some new way. In Genesis Earth, I tried out a first person POV with an unreliable narrator. In Bringing Stella Home, I tried to write a believable female viewpoint character. I also like to experiment with my writing process, trying out different outlining techniques and writing schedules. Sometimes, these experiments fail spectacularly, but they also teach me a lot and keep me sharp.

The goal with this experiment is to see how divorcing myself from my computer (with all its myriad distractions) and getting out in nature changes my writing. I live a short bike ride from the Provo River Trail, and weather permitting, that’s where I’ll probably spend most of my writing time in the next few days. Besides, I want to see how much of a difference the format makes.

Books existed long before word processors, so I have no doubt that writing a novel longhand is entirely possible. How much of an adjustment it will be remains to be seen. My handwriting is messy, and I can’t write as fast as I can type, but that hardly matters since rough drafts are slow going for me anyways.

In any case, it’s going to be interesting to see how it turns out. It’s been a little slow so far, but that’s mostly because I haven’t settled into a routine yet. By the end of this week, I hope to be fully immersed in the world of this story.

In other news, I sent off the manuscript for Sholpan to my editor, and he just got finished with his first pass, so I’m hoping to get the edits back in a couple weeks and have it epublished by mid-September. More on that as things develop.

Also, an old friend from Brandon’s 318 class posted a favorable review of Bringing Stella Home up on Amazon. He was one of my first readers back when the story had a lot of problems, so I’m glad he enjoyed the final version. Thanks Stephen! And yes, I’ve got a lot more novels forthcoming in the Gaia Nova universe, including a direct sequel to Bringing Stella Home. Will the McCoy family save the universe from the Hameji? Well…you’ll see. 🙂

Finally, I plan on participating in the Out of This World blog tour being organized by the SFR Brigade, which means you’ll be seeing some guest posters in the near future. That’ll probably wrap up the Genesis Earth blog tour too, since it’s been winding down for the last month or so. If I agreed to write a guest post for your blog and haven’t done so yet, let me know and I’ll do my best to get that out to you. Sorry to be a bit of a flake these past few weeks; I’ll try to organize my next tour a little better.

And that just about does it for now. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on how things go with Edenfall. Until then, take care, and thanks for reading!

Quick update

Just an update before I go to bed (and hopefully don’t sleep in like this morning).

My writing’s tapered off a bit this past month, partially because I’ve got a lot on my plate (Worldcon, online TEFL course, moving apartments, working full time, etc), but also because I’m between projects and not totally absorbed in any one.

I’m hoping to finish Sholpan by the end of the week, but that isn’t going to require more than 8k words total. At the same time, I’m finding it hard to keep myself engaged with that project. Today, for example, I rebelled a bit and worked on the next Gaia Nova book instead, which doesn’t yet have a title. Had a blast, but only managed about 800 words.

My writing productivity took a huge dip in the end of July as I got Bringing Stella Home ready to publish, dropping down to between 500 and 1,000 words per day. I probably won’t be able to raise that significantly until after Worldcon, and even then, I’ll have to juggle a full-time job for probably another month or two (but hey, a job’s a job; I’m not complaining).

Thing is, I really, really, REALLY want to work on this untitled project–so much that I’m treating it as procrastination when I have other stuff to write. I’m also worried that if I leave off on that project for too long, I’ll lose sight of it. That’s why I’m juggling it with Sholpan right now, but I think I can handle it, especially since Sholpan should be finished in just a week or two.

I also got an email from a fan (a fan!) asking about Edenfall. Right now, I don’t have any concrete plans, but I’m hoping to finish the first draft sometime in October/November (after polishing Desert Stars), and have it ready for publication sometime in 2012. If enough people ask about it, though, I may bump it up in the queue; it all depends.

Other than that, I had a great idea yesterday for a blog series. It came while I was thinking about my dreams for the future, and the thought came that I should blog about them But I don’t want it to be just about me; I want to share my thinking about the future and how I’ve come to develop my goals and plans, so that my many friends who are in similar circumstances can glean something useful.

I’ll probably start that in a day or two. But now…sleep.

Bringing Stella Home is now up on Amazon!

That’s right–after a whole lot of work, my novel is now up on Amazon for $3.95. Check it out!

This novel is the first of a much larger series that I have planned. It’s not a series like Ender’s Game or Song of Ice and Fire, though; all of the novels are supposed to stand alone, though they share the same setting and feature recurring characters. In that sense, it’s more like Gemmell’s Drenai series.

Even though the series is space opera, I tried to keep the science plausible at least on a high school level. So while there’s “magic” like FTL and artificial gravity, I’ve tried to bend rather than break the laws of physics.

At its core, the story is more about the characters than the setting or even the plot. It follows a young boy who is determined, at all costs, to save his brother and sister, even as his world quite literally falls to pieces all around him. Along the way, he meets up with a mercenary captain who is running from some demons of her own. The way they help each other overcome their personal challenges is a major driving force throughout the book.

Anyhow, I suppose that’s enough. I could ramble on forever, but I don’t want to get in the way too much. Thanks so much, and I hope you enjoy it!

You should check this guy out

As some of you may know, in 2008 I traveled to Jordan with the BYU study abroad program. One of my friends from the program was Joey Anthon Jackson, pictured here.

When we got back from Jordan in August, Joey graduated and promptly went back overseas. Ever since, he’s been traveling the world, spending no more than a week or two in any one place. He’s been from Korea to Iran, down to Ethiopia, up to Italy and Norway–seriously, I think the only place he hasn’t been is Antarctica. He blogs about it, too.

Most recently, he’s joined up with a team from Oxford University to film a documentary about the nomadic Danakil people in western Ethiopia. It looks like a really fascinating project, and Joey is definitely the right person to do it.

From his site:

In August and September of this year, I’ll join two young travelers (one the Chairman of the Oxford Exploration Club and another from Addis Ababa University) on a 6-week camel journey through the remote Afar region of eastern Ethiopia. Already sponsored in part by Oxford University, the Danakil Expedition aims to follow the footsteps of famous British explorer Wilfred Thesiger on his 1933-34 Awash Expedition.

We hope to develop a similarly involved relationship with the Afar People, becoming their guests in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments. Most importantly, we intend to document their threatened nomadic lifestyle with writing, photos and especially film. A travel writer and photographer, I will shoot the film entirely by DSLR. My colleagues and I are determined to reach the Afar lands by August, although I am still seeking support to cover the costs of suitable gear.

He’s buying supplies and leaving on August 8th, but he needs a little help with funding. Towards that end, he’s put together a site on gofundme.com, where he’s giving out a bunch of really cool stuff for donations. The deadline has technically passed, but anything you donate from now until the 8th will get to him in time.

I only promote stuff on this blog that I truly believe in. I know Joey personally, and I know he’s got what it takes to make something amazing here. Those of you who’ve read my books (especially the forthcoming Gaia Nova series) know that I have a thing for the Middle East and nomadic peoples, and this documentary looks to be not only timely and important, but downright fascinating as well.

Man, I wish I could be out there traveling the world like Joey does! As he would probably say, “it’s easy–just buy a planet ticket.” One of these days, I just might…

Deciding on the next project

First, you know how I said I’d raise the price of Genesis Earth as an experiment? Well, after thinking it through a little more, I figured that it’s more important at this point to build a following, and to do that I should probably have at least one novel at the $2.99 price point. Since Genesis Earth is the only novel I have out right now, I decided to drop the price, where it will probably stay for a while. Flakey, I know, but so be it.

More importantly, I’m coming up on the end of the third draft of Desert Stars. It’s going to be a push, but I hope to finish it by the end of the week. It’s an awesome book and I’m way excited with it, but it leaves me wondering: what next?

I’m currently torn between two projects. The first one, Edenfall, is the sequel to Genesis Earth, and the second in the trilogy. It’s been kicking around in my mind for a long time, and I’ve already got it all outlined and ready to go.

But…the flashier, more exciting project to me right now is the next book in the Gaia Nova series, an indirect sequel to both Desert Stars and Bringing Stella Home, which I hope to epublish later this month. Even though I have a ton of ideas for it, I have absolutely NO outline whatsoever. Nothing. All I know is that it’s basically the Battle of Ain Jalut in space, with Rina from Desert Stars and Danica, Roman, and the other mercenaries from Bringing Stella Home. Oh, and Stella and Qasar’s son, a Hameji prince who makes an appearance in Into the Nebulous Deep. That’s it.

And yet…I am sooo excited to work on it. You have no idea.

So…should I go with the safe, reliable project? Or the sexy, mysterious one? There are good reasons to go with either. Edenfall should be fairly straightforward, taking no more than two months. With the first in the series already out and selling, I should probably write it sooner rather than later. However, the Gaia Nova series is much more expansive, and since I’m already immersed in that universe from working on Desert Stars, it would be much easier to jump right into it.

Right now, I’m leaning more toward the second project, but knowing my personal writing process, I’ll probably get stuck somewhere in the middle and switch to Edenfall. But hey, if it works, it works. That’s how I’ve written all of my other books so far: start the rough draft with a frenzied burst of creative energy, then let it sit for a while and move on to other projects before coming back and finishing the first.

Either way, I’m not going to pull a Rothfuss or a Martin. My goal is to finish my next project in 8 weeks or less, which will be tough with my current job, but not impossible. Which reminds me of yet another reason why I never want to be salaried (unless I’m the one running the business). Not that I plan on ever being pregnant…

Another publication in Leading Edge!

That’s right! My poem “Zarmina,” dedicated to Gliese 581 g (the first exoplanet discovered in its sun’s habitable zone) is published on page 98 of issue 61 of Leading Edge!

Also included in this issue is an excellent essay by Brandon Sanderson, in which he introduces his second law of magic systems. It’s an excellent essay, and has made me rethink how I do FTL systems, especially for the Gaia Nova universe. I’ll have to do a post a little later on that.

Besides this landmark essay by Brandon Sanderson, this issue features stories by Dan Wells and Dave Farland, as well as an interview with Howard Tayler. And as always, it includes a number of excellent stories and illustrations. Check it out!

(Full disclosure, I volunteer as a slushpile reader and occasional copy editor for the magazine. However, my work always goes through the submission process under a pen name, where only the head editor knows who I am until the decision on whether to acquire the story has been made.)

In other news, Genesis Earth is now up on Goodreads, so go check that out as well! The nice thing about Goodreads is that you can give the book a # star rating without having to write out anything else. If you’re so inclined, I would very much appreciate an honest review–but if you do give it a rating, please be honest. Don’t worry; even if you give me less than five stars, I won’t hunt you down like this crazy author (hint: get some popcorn and read the comments).

So anyhow, that’s what’s been going on here. Desert Stars is coming along slowly but surely, and I’m working on getting some cover art for Bringing Stella Home. If you have any ideas or suggestions on the art, please let me know. I’ll probably go through my back issues of Leading Edge to search out good sf artists. For some reason, I’m having a hard time finding anything that clicks on deviantart. My goal is to epublish that book by the end of July.

First Radio interview and other such stuff

Dude, check it out–my first radio interview just went live on the Dungeon Crawler’s Radio website!

I met these guys at CONduit last month, where they had a booth and were recording all sorts of authors and artist. They were way cool when I talked with them, and when they found out I was a writer invited me on!

Hehe, considering how many big name authors they have on their show, I think I totally bombed–but it was still awesome. The guys who run the show were really great, too; it was a ton of fun hanging out with them. So thanks, guys, for having me on!

In other news, I just uploaded Genesis Earth to Smashwords, and I think it’s already live. So for all those of you who want to get it from somewhere other than Amazon, it’s now available! I’m still working through all the formatting kinks, so if you buy it and find some errors, let me know and I’ll send you a fixed copy.

Also, the cool thing about Smashwords is that you can generate coupon codes and even give the book away for free. What I’m hoping to do is print up a few business cards with the code for a free book, then distribute them at conventions like Worldcon. Hehe, imagine walking up to an editor and being like “hey, want my book? Here you go!” Or even just dropping off a stack at the freebies table; I think it could be an awesome way to get exposure.

Man, there’s so much exciting stuff going on! This is a great time to be a writer.

On the writing front, I’m making excellent progress on my current WIP (work in progress), Desert Stars. I’ve read through all the feedback from my first readers, and have a ton of fantastic ideas for how to make this story really shine. I revised through about 2.1k words this morning before work, and I’m hoping to do at least two and a half chapters before this weekend.

Also, a couple days ago at work, I was trawling through tvtropes (one of the advantages of doing data entry is that you can afford to feed the addiction, hehe), and I had a SUPER awesome idea for the next book in the Gaia Nova series.

Since Bringing Stella Home is basically the Mongol conquests set in space, the big story to conclude that arc would be the battle of Ayn Jalut, where the Mongols suffered their first decisive defeat. I did a little bit of setup for that in Into the Nebulous Deep, with the remnants of the Gaian Empire gathering at New Rigel.

Well, here’s what I’m thinking: I’ll bring back Danica’s team of mercenaries from Bringing Stella Home, make Roman a viewpoint character, and have Rina from Desert Stars join up with them as a quiet little girl in black who seems painfully shy, but is actually a deadly effective assassin whose weapon of choice is a bowcaster.

Oh yeah, I think this has some crazy awesome potential.

In any case, I should probably get to bed so I can get up early and write tomorrow. I hope to finish Desert Stars 3.0 by July 10th, and even though it’s going to take a lot of work, I think I can make it happen.

And after that…well, things just keep getting more and more awesome. I love writing!