Daphne Chronicles

Dangerous Cargo is being reviewed and should be available on Amazon at the end of the month or the first week of May. I am already 20k words into The Nav Computer. I anticipate that this book will be around 40k-50k. As soon as I finish the first draft, I’ll start the first draft of Stolen Property. I have an order for custom covers for both The Nav Computer and Stolen Property. Once “Stolen Property” is complete, I will work on “Super Computer.” By the time that happens, I should have a good idea of the sales for this series. If it looks good, then I have four more possible stories that will follow. That will bring the series to nine books and I’ll probably dream up a tenth, just to round out the numbers.

This is a fun series to write. It’s light-hearted, adventurous, and not overly complicated. There are only two main characters, plus a handful of reoccurring characters. I have a couple of chapters written for a reader magnet that I’ve tentatively titled “Daphne.” This book will be a story about her early years. Back when she was a radical teenager. I also have some small story ideas involving Daphne and RUSTY. I might write those on the side, then bundle two or three books into a reader magnet and post them on this blog.

Other Projects

I have another series that I’m dying to write, but it will need 20 volumes to complete the entire story and I know that the first book will be over 100k words long. It’s complicated, dark, and has a lot of characters. I have a preliminary blurb for the series as well:

A routine trip through the interplanetary jump gate proves to be disasterous as hundreds of ships are deposited thousands of light years from their home worlds. Captain Alastor and his aging starship must gather his flock of misfit civilian ships and lead them back to the colonies. When first contact with hostile aliens occurs, their success of return becomes uncertain.

I’ll probably rework the blurb, but the information will remain. The tricky part about this story will be a tie-in with a bible that their religious people use. Most people are non-religious and I may introduce people with competing religions, but the story will be based on a collision with an ancient world that is mentioned in their bible. This is roughly similar to Battlestar Galactica (the remake), but I’m going to tie the bible to the story much tighter and cause a lot of conflict with the characters. To make the series even more interesting, I’m writing their bible (it’s called “The Tome of Revelations.” This will be a free reader magnet and I’ll advertise it inside of each book before chapter 1, so readers will have the opportunity to download it before starting the books. There will be references inside the Tome that will give some clues about the story. Some back story of their civilization is buried in there as well. I have about 13k words of the Tome rough draft finished already. I also have almost 7k words written for the first novel (yeah, I know, barely started).

Every once in a while, I pull up Scrivener and type in some more words into the Tome or add an idea to my notes and outlines for the stories. Just chipping away at it. There are still a few things that are bugging me. I need to find a ship or create one. I thought about designing one and plotting it using Blender. That’ll take some serious time. If I do that, then I’ll have a unique ship picture for the book covers, which is what I’m aiming for. I could also hire someone to perform this task. I also need a name for the series itself. I have a tentative name for the ship, but I’m not really crazy about it. Usually, I can just jot ideas into a list and search through a thesaurus until I find something I like. Not this time! Nope. It’s just kicking my butt. At least I have a cover for the Tome:

Kind of has an “Evil Dead” vibe to it.

I’ve worked out some of the details of the alien race that has it in for them. There will be a power-mad government official that has it in for the protagonist (who is the captain of the ship). I have fighter pilots, engineers, bridge crew, and a few civilians that will have critical roles. I spent a lot of time working out their personality traits with a mind for how they’re going to get under each other’s skin in the story. Bad habits, personality flaws, and other issues that will make them broken humans. Practically nobody will be a saint in this book.

And… That’s my side-project.