WELCOME TO NOWHERE BACKSTORY

It's interesting how the different books take shape. I started Secrets of Starpoint Mountain by just sitting down and writing. I had a few basic ideas about the characters and the history of the land but that was it, just winged it from that point on.
This one is starting completely different. It takes place on a space station and I started by deciding what kind of crew this station would have. I figured out the organizational structure of the station from the captain and his command crew down to the individual science groups. It came out to 32 different stations but I felt that was to much so I streamlined and reorganized the staff down to 23.
Deciding to stick with that I worked on the characters. I gave each of them a name, age, ethnicity and a brief paragraph description of their character, history and relationships with other crew members. It turned out to be quite a diverse group and I made sure some of them do not get along very well, actually, they hate each other. Some of them have very nasty secrets as well.
Then I went back and wrote a history of the space program from 2030 to 2075 when the story takes place. Then went and rewrote it with more details including a technological war with China and failed mission launches. Also worked out some of the station lingo.
Next week I'm planning on doing more character details.
It's funny how the creative brain develops this. I don't really think about it or plan it it just plans itself. I suspect it's because canvas for this book is so different from Starpoint Mountain. In the books I had a whole world to travel through with lots of opportunities to introduce new characters. This one is a closed space with limited characters so I think I have to know them from the start. I'm also going in to this as a one book project. The first book I wrote, Timelash, I looked at as a trilogy, so was the Dr. Who book, and Starpoint came out at four books and twenty-two short stories with opportunities for more. I really don't see this going for more than one book.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK AFTERMATH

What an odd time it's been. I finished the fourth book ten days ago and I realized this week that I was actually missing it. I missed the characters and the world and it felt so odd not to be thinking and creating events there. I still have all the rewrites to do but, as satisfying and as proud as I am, it's just not the same.
I went back and realized that from the start of the first draft of the first book to the first draft of the fifth book was 258 weeks. Holy Cow! I lived in that word with those characters for almost five years. No wonder it felt depressing not to be there anymore. Don't get me wrong! It's not like I am giving them up forever and will never go back, the seeds are there, but I was so engrossed in that world it feels like post partum depression not to be going there.
I figured there are two things I need to do to get out of the slump. The first is to dive in to the rewrites and really work hard on them. I've slacked on the rewrites while doing the original work and the book I originally said was going to be ready this year is far from it. Time to get to work.
The second things is to get writing new stuff again and I've done three short stories this week. The first one, Death Plus 25, has been an idea I've been thinking about for a long time. It's a very dark and serious story. After that I wrote Final Thoughts of a Dying Astronaut. I've been thinking of that for a long time as well and it is, no surprise, also a dark and serious story. After that I wrote a completely new story that just came out of the sky this week. It's called The Cedar Rapids Doll Collectors Club which is a bit creepy but was great fun to write. It was the first time since finishing Starpoint that I had the excitement of doing new work.
It's also an ego thing but, until I finished the fourth book and the story was done, I never really thought of myself as an author. I finally feel comfortable referring to myself that way.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 24

On November 24th at approximately 5:30 p.m. I finished the first draft of the fourth and final book in the series. I spent a lot of time the few days leading up to it in tears when some characters had to die but I also felt really good about things. I'm incredibly proud of it. I spent the rest of the day just smiling.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 23

It was quite an odd week writing this book.
On Monday I had to kill off a character. It was one that I had originally introduced as just a one shot in the first book cause I wanted to use a cool name and ended up being one of the few characters that shows up in all four books. They just took on a life of their own and became more important as the story went on. I felt kind of bad that I had to kill them off but I felt it was necessary to keep the drama and the threat strong. I wanted to make sure that the character wasn't just a red shirt so I had to think back and will strengthen a few things on the rewrite. I also made sure that the death had an effect on Gallif and Luvin. It hurt them and, at the same time, gave them strength.
Sometimes it feels weird to be upset about the death of a character. I asked a few friends about it and was relieved to find out I'm not the only one who's had that experience. I also remembered a guy in a writing class that I took when I was at UI who made it clear he didn't give a damn about his characters. It made the stories difficult to read and there was no emotion to it. I think if an author doesn't care about their characters then there is no reason the reader should.
There are two big finales in the fourth book. One of them I've been prepared for since the first book, I knew how it would end, but the other one has been itching me and coming together a bit at a time as the story developed. It's a do or die scene and I knew if it didn't work the whole thing would fall apart.
Friday, however, the sky opened again and all the elements fell in to place. The characters were in the right place at the right time. I wrote 8 pages, about 3200 words, in a six hour period. It felt great. It all came together so well I bet I spent an hour just smiling and it felt really good. I looked back at it today and feel it's some of the best writing I've ever done. It's still odd to think of myself as an author.
I'm really thinking I'll finish the book next week. It'll be just in time to celebrate at ChicagoTARDIS.

PUBLISHERS

I met a owner of a small press publishing company at Icon and talked to her about selling the publishing rights for my books to her. She was very nice and we really hit it off. Spent a lot of time talking about it at ICON and have to wait a few months for her and one of her editors to really take a look at it. What impressed her the most was that I had done so much to promote the book instead of just writing it and hoping someone might buy it. I've submitted it to contests, charity auctions, and newspapers for review. We are putting together a recording if me reading excerpts from the book and adding visuals for Youtube. We are also putting together a video trailer. It's just waiting andkeeping my fingers crossed now.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 22

Had another good week writing. Though I didn't turn out as many pages as last week I still covered lots of territory. I had some important combat scenes to deal with and it took a while to set up even though I didn't completely write them out. I worry that if I write the fight scenes out in detail the first round that, when I do the final draft, the action will get stale. What I do on the first draft, the, is write down just the important points and a few details. The stronger points about what happens to who, who gets wounded, who works well as partners, who fails, etc. In the first book I even went as far as to go through each combat scene and make sure I never used the same verbs twice in combat. I didn't do it in the second one and I think it kind of hurt the scenes in the long run. When I can I'll take time to go back and do that.
The other thing I did is decided which of the main characters in the books will die and how. I spent a lot of time working it out and chose carefully the fate of the characters. I want to make sure that there is some meaning and drama in their deaths. If I'm going to kill them off I want to make sure there is a reason or their deaths effect somebody in some way.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 21

Another very successful week. It's very exciting the way things are coming together with the mix of characters, story and combat. The real challenge I'm having is how to build up the tension before everything is revealed. I keep in mind for there to be any real drama and suspension that I have to keep a credible threat. The hardest part of that is it means that someone's going to have to die. It was hard enough killing of some of the characters in the first book when I'd only known them for a short length of time. Doing it now won't be easy.