I’m back to finishing up the first book of the final trilogy in the Starship Series. This takes place long after Armon Vance retires from the military. Life in retirement is peaceful, but ultimately uninspiring for the former space captain. He’s contacted by Selene Boxer and offered a chance to return to space to mentor a civilian captain on a new civilian exploration starship.
Book one is about coming back to space for Vance and about passing on his knowledge and experience to the next generation. I’m having fun writing this one and reconnecting with Vance, Boxer and Cullers. I would like to wrap this novella up in a month or so and start in on the second book. Finishing this trilogy is my top writing priority and I expect will take me into next year. When they are all written, edited and built, I will release them all together. I’m also thinking about offering a three book compilation of each trilogy, so you could get all nine novellas for the price of three regular ebooks.
Then it’s back to the Star Saga and working on Book Five, XiniX. Some time in 2024 we’ll see the release of XiniX. Then it’s just a book a year until the middle section of the Star Saga is complete. Before working on XiniX, I intend to clean up Starstrikers and re-release it with a new cover. The old coin cover was cool back in the day, but it’s dated now and needs a cool spaceship on its cover. Oh yeah, I guess I need to finish building that model don’t I?
An update on my writing process. I’m still working from a simple outline and pantsing the details. I still use LibreOffice in Pop_OS on my old HP Spectre laptop, which has a new battery. This is how I write now and this is how I’ve written for several years. Fashion a proper outline with clearly defined acts and then start from chapter one and write linearly. My brain is accustomed to working this way and has no trouble ending a chapter after roughly ten pages or until a scene completes. I have started to bookmark each chapter so that I can skip back and forth within the manuscript. My font is not always serif, but I change it to serif when I’m done to get accurate page counts.
I still prefer writing at my desk with headphones playing instrumental playlists, usually from film scores. I develop a playlist for each novel to set a tone that I’m after. The desk is the same one in which I work from home, so sometimes it’s hard to come back to and sit in the same seat to write novels, but I manage.
Until next post, keep writing!