Sunday, December 11, 2016

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground Has Arrived

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground is finally available at all major EBook Retailers. I'm happier than I can say to see this get into people's readers. I've been eager to share the story in this book. I've already started working on Broadcast 11.

So far, the book has charted very well.

#1 Space Opera Novel at Barnes and Noble.

#1 Science Fiction at the iBookstore.

#1 Science Fiction at Smashwords. (#1 Site wide for non-free books)

#2 in the Space Opera and Military SciFi at Amazon UK

#26 Space Opera at Amazon USA

Thank you for your support over the last year, I'm happy to see that the early reviews who read it overnight are great, please keep reviewing if you have time. Working on this book has been a fantastic journey for me.

RL

Friday, December 9, 2016

The Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10 Spoiler Free Podcast

In this episode, Ray and Randolph talk about where we left the characters of the Spinward Fringe series in Broadcast 9, and outline a few important facts so you can rip into Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground and by fully prepared.

There are no spoilers in this for Broadcast 10, so you can listen without keeping your finger next to the pause button!

Here are the links!


iTunes Link (Coming soon)

Friday, December 2, 2016

Hard Copies Of Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground Available Now!

With surprising efficiency Amazon has made Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground available in hard copy (still paperback, but in 6x9 Trade Paperback, so larger print than normal in a library ready format).

I know, it's strange for the paper book to be available before the EBook, I did not see it coming. Normally this takes longer, but thanks to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing Print Beta Program, this has happened. Not only that, but apparently it's not just available in the US and the UK, but in most countries where Amazon does business.

I haven't sung praises for Amazon as much as I should over the last couple years. Some of their business practices with regards to electronic publishing are downright shady, or at least counter to commonplace business practices in a negative way - in my opinion - but this new straight to print program is a step in the right direction.

Here are the stats for the book:

  • Series: Spinward Fringe (Book 12)
  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Randolph Lalonde (December 2, 2016)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1988175038
  • ISBN-13: 978-1988175034
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
  • Price (In US dollars): $14.99

Please be aware that these are not signed, but straight off the Amazon presses. For signed copies you'll have to wait until February because I don't have the time or money to get a reasonable number of copies here at the moment.

So, thank you Amazon, it looks like a bunch of these might make it onto a few shelves during the holiday season!



RL

[The release date for the EBook version is still the same, December 11. You can preorder on Amazon or any other site you like to buy your books from.]

Thursday, December 1, 2016

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground Available on December 11, 2016

Few Spinward Fringe books have taken over a year to write from the early planning stages to completion, but then, I don't think any other Spinward Fringe novel is like this one.

This was by far the most difficult to write in the series, that includes Broadcast 4 where I abandoned the manuscript for several months to do research and find my way again. Thankfully, Broadcast 10 was difficult for other reasons.

Anyway, Broadcast 10 was a fantastic, difficult challenge that may not be the largest book in the series, but I believe it's the most well developed, and well rounded. It's also more connected with the earlier novels.

I can't describe how much fun I had while working on this book, especially once I saw how I could fit all the elements of the story together. I really didn't want to leave the story once I was finished, so I'm not taking a break to write something else, I'm moving right on to Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11: Revenge.

Back to what I mentioned in the headline: Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground will be available through all quality EBook sellers on December 11, 2016. It's currently available for pre-order through all EBook sellers (except for Amazon), so if you haven't already made sure that you will have your copy the minute it becomes available, then you can pre-order now.

Thank you very much for your patience this year. I hope you enjoyed the Chaos Core releases while you waited for Broadcast 10. It's a funny thing, every time I thank people for their patience on this blog, I get emails or other private messages from other writers who tell me that a year isn't a long time to work on a book. I'm glad they kept reminding me, and I hope they keep it up, because Broadcast 10 is so much better thanks to the extra time I spent on it.

Enjoy!

RL

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Cool Pursuit Is Available! Broadcast 10 Is Coming!

The files for Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2 were provided early to Amazon and Smashwords in order to get it into everyone's hands by October 21. As a result, most retailers already have it, with the exception of Barnes & Noble who tends to be much slower than all the others.

For anyone who doesn't know, this is the follow up to the first book in the Chaos Core series, which started with Trapped, a free novella. (You can get that for free anywhere eBooks are sold).

Chaos Core 2: Cool Pursuit is much larger, and shows us a larger piece of the Spinward Fringe universe as the main characters make their way through troubled territory.

Here's where you can get your hands on Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.ca
Amazon.com.au

Smashwords
iBookstore
Kobo
Barnes & Noble

Now that this book is completed and released, I'm devoting all my time to Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10. It's already the size of an average Space Opera novel, about 95,000 words, but there's a lot of writing to be done. My goal is to get it out for December 7, and to be working on Broadcast 11 by the time that is in your hands.

I'm more excited than I can express to be so close to finishing broadcast 10, I believe it's one of the best in the series, and it's been the most difficult to write because so much is expected of this novel. If you look to the upper right hand corner of this blog, you'll find several preview chapters. If you've already gone through those, I highly recommend checking out the Chaos Core books, Dark Arts or Brightwill. Most of those books are free, so what do you have to lose?

Thank you so much for your support, I hope you enjoy the books that are finally being released!

RL

Friday, October 7, 2016

Release Date For Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2


On October 21, 2016, a very different science fiction space opera novel will become available.

The Chaos Core has the Spinward Fringe series to thank for its universe, but the values and motivations of the characters are often different. The same can be said for the environments they find themselves in and the interactions that take place. It's a novel where even the "good guys" are criminals, and where the bottom can fall out of any plan, no matter how short sighted or far reaching it may be.

Here's the synopsis:
Spin and her crew continue to elude their pursuers. Escaped slaves, they are hunted by law, begrudging masters, and shadow lurking hunters. It's a race to find a new ship and get out of the sector while the new crew try to find their places amongst each other. Revenge is on everyone's mind, but pursuing Captain White is an endeavour that could cost them everything. While her friends track him and ready their instruments of vengeance, Spin pursues a different kind of revenge, one that could separate him from everything he's worked for, but especially his great ship: the Cool Angel.

It's a longer book than the first in the series by quite a bit, qualifying as a short novel. According to the editor and test readers it's still fast paced, but an awful lot happens to the small group of survivors at the centre of the story. This is a book with great consequence, fun, and it explores part of the Spinward Fringe universe that the main series hasn't gone into at all but I've always wanted to get into.

If you haven't checked out Chaos Core Book 1, you can find it for free from most Ebook retailers.

Amazon Link
Kobo Link
Barnes & Noble Link
Smashwords Link

The next book will be available in 2017, but first I'll be finishing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Foreground.

Thank you so much for reading and buying my work. You can look forward to a couple of podcasts about the Chaos Core series before the focus moves back to the Spinward Fringe series for a while.

RL

[More news about Spinward Fringe and other projects is coming soon, so stay tuned.]


Thursday, August 25, 2016

Cool Pursuit: Chaos Core Book 2

The second book in the Chaos Core series is coming fast. I'm working on the last ten chapters this week and next week. I'm aiming for a late September release.

The second book is larger than the first and we get to know several characters much better. The scale of this novella is much broader, with potential new characters from the past entering in with sometimes crossed purposes.

All while Spin's clock keeps ticking down to her final days, and she focuses on correcting the damage done by the Countess.

One of the things I like most about working on this book is how much I was able to explore parts of the broken universe these characters live in. Spin is still new to so much of it, so it's fun to view things from her perspective. The excitement and danger are all still very fresh for her, and it's difficult for her to keep from being distracted.

After this is complete I'll be finishing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground.  The short break I've taken from it has helped me a great deal. I've fleshed out a few ideas and solved a few problems that have come up in the writing. Both series are exciting to me, and I can't wait to deliver a finished book from both of them soon.

Trapped: Chaos Core Book 1 is available for free everywhere now, so if you haven't taken a look at this snack-sized novella yet, now is a great time to do that.

Thank you for all your support,

RL 

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Trapped Is Now Free!

The second series based in the Spinward Fringe universe launched to a small segment of people who were excited to see more, and who were excited to see something new. The support the first Chaos Core novella has received has been great, but as with all new series, the first book's sales have tapered off to almost none.

Don't worry though, this happens every time I launch the first part of a series or release a stand alone book. Even The Expendable Few, which is a novella that takes place between Broadcasts 6 and 7 in the Spinward Fringe series suffers form dismal sales because it's not in the main series. Readers are happy to discover it, I get emails about that book all the time, but they usually find it after they've read the entire Spinward Fringe series and go looking for more.

As with all the first books in the series that I'm working on, the first one will be free. The release of Chaos Core Book 2 (and Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10), are quickly approaching, so it's time to get this novella in front of people who don't know my work, or were hesitant on reading something from an author they've never heard of. Trapped has only been free for about three days on Amazon, and over a hundred copies are already on Kindle readers.

I understand that doing this sometimes frustrates the people who paid $2.99 for the book initially. All I can say is that I'm thankful for your support, and you helped move this book further up the charts than I could have imagined. Trapped was the #1 Cyberpunk book on Amazon UK for a little over a week, and placed high in the iBookstore (beating The Force Awakens Novelization), and Smashwords. Those are incredible results, and I think you for being a part of that. Books aren't alive if they're not read, however, and a series dies if the first book is forgotten, so I have to get this novella in front of as many people as possible using the retailers that they'll be able to find the second book through.

I've gotten emails from people who actually feel guilty for reading this for free and not having a way of paying for it too. Don't worry, now you can point your friends at this book and they can join you in that universe for free, and if you really want to support me financially, just show up when the second one (Cool Pursuit), arrives this year. That one will never be free, it will be a larger novella / short novel priced at $2.99 US.

So, tell your fellow readers, your friends, your relatives, the cable guy and the mailman... Trapped is free wherever great Ebooks are sold, and I hope everyone enjoys the ride!

RL

[Work on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10 continues, if you want more info, please check the previous post.]

Friday, June 17, 2016

More! A Progress Update

Spinward Fringe, Dark Arts, Brightwill, and now the Chaos Core Series share parts of an ever-shrinking year.

I'm extremely fortunate as a writer not just because I make enough money to live on, but because my books receive increasingly positive reviews that most often end with; "now I just want to read more!" or "Where's the next one?"

While some people may see that as criticism, I see it as an invitation. The reviewers have paid for my work, read it and want another. That's an open door if I've ever seen one.

The good news is that I have ideas for all four of these titles, I even have ideas that are pretty much whole book outlines. The bad news is that it takes time to write, edit and get these to retailers, time which is absolutely finite. We're half way through the year now (roughly) and I've only managed to release one novella while I continue to work on Broadcast 10. Sure, there are at least two more books coming this year, but I know I'm not going to make my deadlines for Broadcasts 11 and 12 in 2016. There's still a chance Broadcast 11 will come out this year, but since I don't have any of that written yet, I can't make guarantees.

Looking over the history of this blog, I see a pattern. In January and February I always make some grand plans about how many books I'll be able to finish. Then, around June or July, I write a post about how I'm modifying my expectations and may make it through one or two books instead. This pattern comes up over and over, and I think I've finally learned my lesson. So, on to the good news and the annual adjustment of expectations...

In this year I can promise that Broadcast 10 will be released and it's going to be a large book with more than one story within. Broadcast 10 is really like two novels and a novella that are strung along one timeline and then trapped together in one book, that's one of the main reasons why Spinward Fringe novels take longer to write, but I know Broadcast 10 will be finished sooner rather than later.

Another Chaos Core novella called Cool Pursuit will be released this year, that's for sure. It's easier to write these shorter novellas with simpler story telling, so I can write Broadcast 10 and those at the same time for a while. Not forever, my brain needs some time to formulate new ideas, but for a few more weeks. Cool Pursuit will be in your faces sometime in 2016.

The Dark Arts sequel will make it's appearance this Halloween, or at least, I'm going to try my hardest to get that done. This isn't a guarantee. The first Dark Arts novel started with a simple plan, it was only going to be seven chapters, and then it got extremely complicated for a while before I got the story back under control. That's the tendency with these books, I'm sure, so who knows if I'll hit my deadline?

Regardless of whether or not I meet the deadline for Dark Arts II to come out at the end of October, I will be working on Broadcast 11 by the end of the year, probably at the beginning or end of September. Broadcast 11 will take less time to write than 10 because it will be a simpler novel that follows fewer characters and it won't be as long. In fact, I hope the days of writing long 140,000+ word novels are over for me for a few years because I find it's much more fun to write shorter works, and my finances take a massive hit if I don't release a book at least every six months.

In 2017 I'll be ready to write the second Brightwill novel, Broadcast 12 and another Chaos Core novella. the Brightwill and Chaos Core series' may end after three to four books each, that's the plan as it stands now. I would like to finish the Chaos Core series in 2017, and write another Dark Arts novel in addition to what I've already listed, but I'll have to see how it goes.

Overall, I'm really excited about the new, achievable plan, because I'll be bringing you more stuff overall, and I'll be writing different genres throughout the year. A quick recap is in order!

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground will come out this year (2016).
Cool Pursuit (Chaos Core Book 2) will also come out this year (2016).
Dark Arts II may come out this year if I finish the final draft in time for an October release.
Work on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 11 will start this year (2016).
If all goes well, more books will be released this year, but I believe I'll be busy enough with those aforementioned projects.

2017 looks like more Spinward Fringe, Brightwill, Chaos Core and maybe more Dark Arts.

I love writing this stuff, and I enjoy presenting it to you more than you know, so I truly want the same thing you want: more. What thrills me to no end is bringing you more and being able to make sure that it's more of the good stuff, not just another one like the last one, so that's what I concentrate on.

RL

Monday, June 6, 2016

Trapped Available on Amazon, Everywhere Else On June 15th

The first book in the new science fiction series of novellas is out for Amazon customers! They fast tracked the approval of the book, taking less than an hour with it as opposed to days, so they have it available much earlier.

Other vendors have moved the release date up as well, to June 15, it's the best they could do. The good news is that you will not have to wait until June 21!

So far people who read it enjoyed it, even though this is different from the Spinward Fringe novels.

The Chaos Core series is something I'm working on for a few weeks as a daily cool down from writing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10. It's a great way to explore the same universe with new characters. There are a lot of ideas that I couldn't explore with Spinward Fringe, so I'm using this as a way to get the best ones out of my head and in front of you. That's a lot better than having a couple notebooks of story, setting and character ideas that never go anywhere, and it's a lot more fun.

One thing to note is that the books in this series are novella sized, so smaller than the Spinward Fringe novels have been thus far, about half to a third the size. They're written to be fast paced action novellas.

I hope you enjoy this new introduction to a new part of the Spinward Fringe universe, and please leave reviews wherever you bought it if you have time.

You can find Trapped on Amazon:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Amazon Canada
Amazon Australia

You can preorder it here:

BARNES & NOBLE
iBOOKSTORE
KOBO
SMASHWORDS

I'd like to thank the test readers who made this book better with their impressions, and everyone who has voiced their support and excitement for this new side-project. You'll be glad to know I'm already four chapters in to the second book and I'm really happy about the work.

For more information on what the Chaos Core series is, check out this previous post.

Thursday, May 26, 2016

A New Series Begins: Chaos Core

While writing Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground, I finished editing a novella I completed last year. Yes, the regular Spinward Fringe series continues on track, but here is something new in the meantime.

Trapped is a novella about Aspen, a young woman who was created by a growing custom slave industry and sold to strange, ultra-wealthy masters. Over a year ago, she escaped as the artificial intelligences that governed her owners' estate turned on them. She thought her owners and everyone she cared about there were dead, but she'll soon discover that may not be the truth as she is forced to return only to try to win her freedom once again.

This novella introduces an entirely new cast of characters, a new setting and story set in the Spinward Fringe universe. The events take place over thirty eight thousand light years away from Ayan, Jake, Minh-Chu and the Order of Eden.

Why is the new series of novellas called Chaos Core?
The area of space this series takes place in was hit even harder than the Fringe we've seen. In the wealthy core worlds (not near the centre of the galaxy, but where humans thrived the most after leaving earth), artificial intelligences had taken charge of most of the technology that governed every day life. Most people even had their own personal artificial intelligence that assisted them from the day they were born. When the Holocaust Virus struck, they turned on humanity. While antivirus programs were applied quickly, they weren't developed fast enough to save much of the critical infrastructure that kept the Core Worlds running. Law enforcement was almost completely destroyed since much of the "manpower" was robotic.

The only remaining large military organization, the United Core Authority, numbers only a little over a million soldiers strong, though they are growing. They are the driving force against rogue artificial intelligences as they use whatever means necessary to combat them including planet wide carpet bombing (using electromagnetic pulse and conventional weapons). To their dismay, the most lawless elements of society are thriving in the ruins while an old class of ultra-rich aristocracy grows in power at the same time. Meanwhile, in the sections of the Core World territories that no one is brave enough to travel through, Artificial Intelligences that have been each isolated to one memory core by a clever counter-virus, are embracing their new individual experiences. The same virus that isolated them to one body or frame made their bloodlust for humanity optional. New wars between beings led by artificial intelligences have begun. Their motives and ultimate goals vary widely.

The slave trade is the fastest growing industry. Trust in intelligent machines is gone in the Core Worlds, to the point that many people are calling the new phase of existence "the Basic Era" where true power is measured in biological workers, soldiers and slaves. Once the glimmering crown of human civilization, the Core Worlds have become a dangerous, imperfect and strange place to call home.

Trapped is only the beginning, the manuscript for the second novella is almost complete as I spend a little of my spare time on this project. It's time for the Spinward Fringe universe to expand so I can share more stories and ideas with you.

I recommend Trapped for anyone over the age of 16, and it will be released on June 21 and is available for preorder now through these retailers:

AMAZON US
BARNES & NOBLE
iBOOKSTORE
KOBO
SMASHWORDS


Welcome to the Core Worlds

RL

Saturday, May 7, 2016

Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground Preview Part 6!

It's that time again! The first of three more chapters that will be put into the world so everyone can get a look at what Broadcast 10 promises is here.

This is one of those important mission statement chapters, where we see our heroes plan their next moves, reveal a few of their fears, expectations, and connect to each other one last time before setting out on their missions.

Enjoy!

---
The Scouting Mission

Double shifts were wearing on the Revenge crew. One of the few exceptions was Agameg Price, who could often stay awake for days without losing focus. It was a quality of the issyrian race, and every once in a while Jacob Valent found himself envying the highly capable Chief Engineer.
A small hologram of the bridge on the table in his quarters kept him up to date on what was going on while Jake looked through the information Freeground Fleet had sent them. There was little to no navigational data for the area the Triton and Revenge were going to be scouting in. “We’ll be ready to move to our launch site in five minutes, Jake,” Oz said as a hologram of his head and shoulders appeared to his right.
“Good hunting, Oz,” Jake replied. “The Revenge will meet you at the rendezvous in three days.”
“Between you and I, I can’t believe we’re doing this for Freeground. They haven’t changed. I’m glad the Fleet might be a different story, we could get them home in a couple weeks,” Oz said. “But that station will take months.”
“I’m sure those politicians don’t represent the general thoughts of the people trapped aboard the station. I bet most of them just want to find somewhere safe to start over. We stand a better chance of doing that on Haven Shore.”
“How did they respond when your team suggested abandoning the station?”
“That’s not happening, not while they’re in charge,” Jake replied with a sigh. “Not that we have the room.”
“We’ve done the math,” Oz said. “The Triton and all the other ships with hangars and life support that can sustain a lot of passengers could take a hundred and twelve thousand, but we’re talking about displacing entire fighter squadrons, filling small cargo ships that are heavily damaged, and reducing the combat effectiveness of Freeground Fleet in doing so.”
“Not an option,” Jake said. He couldn’t help but think about the reality of the Order of Eden fleet. The data they’d captured on it so far verified that there were thousands of ships, hundreds of them most likely already inside the Iron Head nebula or moving quickly towards it. The Freeground Fleet would be caught eventually – that’s what the odds told him – and then they would have to fight. If every one of their ships were clogged with refugees, reaction speeds and overall effectiveness would be badly affected. On the other hand, Freeground Alpha was a large, damaged station. Slow, obvious, throwing off signals that sensors could pick up from millions of kilometres away if it stayed in one place for too long, it at least had armour and some weapons left. If it could be protected all the way through the nebula before the enemy could create an effective scanning perimeter on the other side, Freeground could become a benefit to the Rega Gain system.
“What’s on your mind, Jake?” Oz asked. “I can see the wheels turning.”
“Freeground Alpha complicates everything we’re doing here. It’s big, obvious, and there is no way we can help it move any faster than it can on its own. Unless it can start making multiple jumps a day, it’s going to get caught.”
“Everyone on the Triton agrees. Tell me you’re pulling a solution together.”
Jake took a moment to think about their problem. A signal from the bridge told him that they were ready to jump into trans-dimensional space. There had to be a way to create a trans-dimensional portal large enough for the station. What they knew of the new systems’ limits told them that a trans-dimensional conduit that size would collapse soon after its creation. Their current plan, to guide Freeground Alpha and the Freeground Fleet into denser sections of the Iron Head Nebula was their best hope, but the odds were against them making it even that far. “I know I’m on the edge of a solution,” Jake said. “I’m just not there yet.”
“Talk it through, let’s get something figured out right now, before we start scouting,” Oz encouraged.
Ayan entered the quarters. “Finn wasn’t happy with his new assignment,” she said. “But he’ll have time to work on the Dimension Drive software while he’s out there scouting. What are we working on here?”
“The solution to the Freeground Alpha problem,” Oz said. “Jake has something, it’s just lodged in his brain, I was just about to pick up a crowbar and give him a hand.”
 “What are you thinking?” Ayan asked.
“The problem provides its own answer,” Jake said. “It’s got to be that easy.”
“All the way back to officer training,” Ayan said, sitting down beside him. “So, what’s the problem you’re focusing on?”
“I’m looking at all of them at this point, one of them has to have our solution. We can’t help Freeground Alpha move faster unless we find a safe harbour and supplies so they can make repairs. It’ll be days at best before we find anything that suits us, and that’s if we get lucky,” Jake said.
“We don’t have enough room in our ships to evacuate it either,” Oz said.
“And the wormhole type it can make is very noisy, easy to map,” Ayan added.
“So we use that to our advantage?” Oz asked. “Okay, never mind, that won’t work.”
“Wait,” Jake said. “It will. We can send ships a great distance with our Dimension Drives, and those trans-dimensional routes are undetectable. What would take Freeground Alpha weeks or months to travel would take smaller ships days, a couple weeks at the slowest.”
“So we could get Freeground Fleet out of here, but-“
“Hold on,” Jake said. “What if we take Freeground Alpha to a planet that can sustain life, drop everyone off there, then send it on to a hiding place with the people who won’t leave. We’d be able to ferry the civilians out of the Iron Head Nebula using the D-Drives and they can finish the journey to the Rega Gain system using their wormhole systems.”
“What happens to Freeground Alpha while that’s going on?” Ayan asked.
“I’m sorry, this is cold,” Jake warned. “But it continues on. The people on that station matter, not the thing itself. If it makes it, Haven Shore can deal with it, but I don’t think it’s going to make it through the Nebula, even if we all work our asses off and risk everything.”
“The administration for Freeground Alpha won’t allow their citizens to leave,” Oz said. “I keep hearing that from Freeground Fleet captains.”
“Then we need to put Freeground Alpha in position near a planet that can take their civilian population before we force this solution on them. Politics will get everyone aboard killed. There’s no room for their pride or ignorance.”
“Then we have to find a civilian leader who agrees with you, Jake,” Ayan said. “I’d go, but I need to be here to continue working on the Dimension Drive, developing software that can take advantage of the technology and make it safer to operate.”
“Liara,” Oz said. “I trust her implicitly, and she has the experience. She needs some backup though.”
“Remmy Sands, he knows Freeground and has ranger training. I’m sure there are a couple people he trusts aboard too, so a small group? Four?” Jake asked.
“Yes, and let’s be clear,” Oz said. “We’re putting a group together to stay aboard Freeground Alpha so they can get a better look at the population, find civilian leaders, maybe even find a few who agree that it should be abandoned if another way to the Rega Gain system is found.”
“That’s her mission,” Jake said.
“You realize that Remmy may be as much of a problem as he is an asset, right?”
“How they treat him will tell us a lot about Freeground.”
“Agreed,” Ayan said. “Meanwhile, we’re going to have to scout for a suitable planet fast.”
“The only options I’m aware of already are too far off to be useful. They’re smuggler’s posts and ports run by non-humans, so I can’t help but wonder if that’s the most common kind of settlement in the nebula,” Jake said. “Finding anything else would be better, that kind of situation will cost us.”
“That bad, huh?” Oz asked.
“The only businesses that thrive in those places are the ones you want to hide from civilization,” Jake said. “Worse than bad. We’d be making difficult promises and trading important equipment.”
“Then our scouts had better turn something up in the next week,” Oz said. “With the wide net we’re casting, they should.”
“Here’s hoping. We’ll get Liara and her team together.”
“All right, Jake, Ayan. It’s time for the Triton to show Freeground what Dimension Drive travel looks like. We’re going to start sending our scouts off, then head out. Good hunting, Jake.”
“We’ll be twenty minutes behind you, good hunting, Oz,” Jake replied.
Jake sighed and sat back. “At least we have a plan B now. Something that might work.”
“I know, I was afraid we’d have to push Freeground all the way through the side of the nebula,” Ayan said. “Who gets to tell Liara about her mission?”
“I’ll go get Remmy, you tell Liara what she’ll be doing while we’re away scouting ahead.” Jake knew Ayan wished she was going, it was her kind of diplomatic mission, but she didn’t seem disappointed.
“I think I like her,” Ayan said. “How you got her away from Oz’s bridge staff, I’ll never know.”
“I’m sneaky,” Jake said, standing. His dizziness was almost gone, and the deck felt firm under his feet. “I’ll tell Stephanie to get a shuttle with supplies ready to transport Liara and Remmy to the station. They should appreciate a few crates of dense forma and a container or two of fruit for bribes.”
“Devious,” Ayan said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “Once that’s off, I’ll see you back here for some rest. It’s been a long shift for both of us.”

“Don’t know how much rest we’ll get, but I’ll definitely meet you back here,” he replied, even though he knew they would almost certainly end up sleeping in their own quarters shortly after winding down together for a while.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Update On Spinward Fringe Broadcast 10: Freeground

What happens when the scope of the story you're telling increases? It seems that the size of some of the chapters increases as well. The one I'm working on will take three days by the time I'm finished, but it includes a journey, and a whole new look at Haven Shore. 
There's no release date yet, but I can tell you... Alice and Minh-Chu play huge roles in this novel. So far there are over 65,000 words written about Alice, and there is no figure yet on how long Minh-Chu's journey in this novel will be, but it definitely promises to be large in size and scale. A whole new phase of Spinward Fringe begins in Broadcast 10. The Triton Fleet Academy is open, and Alice is signed up. Familiar and new faces emerge as she takes her journey through Officer Training. The biggest question is where she will end up if and when she graduates. Other major events are taking place in the Iron Head Nebula, but it's too soon to share details. I'm working hard... I hate blowing deadlines, and after taking a short break to get the details about this book together, and to clear my head, I'm working hard to complete this science fiction epic. This feels like a special book already, which is a good thing, because the stakes are incredibly high for most of the starring characters. There are podcasts coming. The studio is ready, and my co-host is good to go, so you can look forward to a few new podcast episodes in the coming weeks. We may also be working on something entirely new that should be highly enjoyable too. Thank you all for your support and patience. Look for more preview chapters soon! RL