Ah, yes, those big plans. I always have big plans and no time to wrap them all up. The problem is that I have too many book ideas and insufficient time to write them all. Well, technically, I can get them all written eventually. One of the series I really want to do right is the Clavius Moon Base series. I wrote two short stories, Rogue Phoenix and AI Patch. At one time, Rogue Phoenix was a free giveaway for the newsletter sign-up, but then I moved it to Smashwords. Now I’m seriously thinking about turning it into a real novel and making it book 1 of the Clavius Moon Base series (Like it was supposed to be). In order to make the series match, I’d have to rewrite or expand AI Patch as well. For now, I pulled down the Smashwords copy of Rogue Phoenix. However, if you’re itching to get a copy, you can click here and download a free copy from Story Origin.
Another story I took down from Smashwords was called A New World. If you’d like to read that story, you can click here to download a free copy from Story Origin.
I also removed Daphne, which was a poorly constructed detective story (now I recognize it wasn’t constructed right). The structure of the story didn’t fit the murder/mystery structure, and it didn’t fit the tropes of murder/mystery. Not even a cozy mystery. Now that I’ve written a set of cozies under my pen name (Elliot Droit), I know a lot more about writing those types of stories. So, plan to rewrite that book and make it fit tighter with the Daphne Blazefire series. Then I’ll put it up as an enticement to sign up for the newsletter.
More about the Clavius Moon Base series
I have a ton of story ideas for the Clavius Moon Base series. These stories were originally going to be all short stories (maybe 10k words) like Asimov’s I, Robot series. The plan was to write stories about a moon base and its construction from the point of view of various different people that live there. However, I have a lot of material to work with, and I could technically change it around so that it would be a collection of novels. Rogue Phoenix is a murder/mystery type of story about a microwave energy satellite that gets taken over by a computer hacker. AI Patch was another hacker type of story, but in this instance, the entire base was being shut down by a remote hacker. The protagonist is in a race for time to shut down the hacker before the air runs out on the Clavius Moon base.
I had a trip to the moon story about a family on their way from an orbital hotel to the moon where they were going to visit relatives. The moon transfer vehicle experiences a malfunction, and the story turns into a life-or-death struggle to save their ship. This short story was written in 2020 but was never published.
Another story I wanted to work on was one dealing with a guy who wanted to raise cattle on the moon so he could sell fresh steak. He worked out an idea to transport frozen embryos to the moon, then grow the calves in a machine until they could live on their own. Otherwise, transporting a cow to the moon would not be easy. This book’s premise gets into a dual between the protagonist and a rich guy who sells freeze-dried meats at a premium price.
To top it all off, I have about a dozen other story ideas that could become real, or maybe not. If I dive into this series, I’ll do a five-book set, at a minimum. That would set the stage to see how the series performs and determine if I wanted to add to the series or not.
Other Projects
As of this writing, I’m working on the last Q-Mystery book of a five-book series. These are cozy mysteries written under my pen name (Elliot Droit). I expect that series to be edited and fully published by May. Then, I’m committed to the seventh Daphne book, called Shadows in the Bloodline. I want to get that book written to see how it performs in relation to the rest of the Daphne books.
I also have a potential rewrite of Novis Terminal. If this gets finished, it’ll be a 2nd Edition book, and I’ll end up delisting the current one. I actually have 16k words written for this book, and Daphne has some serious attitude in this story. The hazard of completing this book (which is very likely going to happen) is that it could take off like wildfire. Then, the read-through would drop off after Dangerous Cargo. You know what that means, right? Yes, you do. If a second edition book becomes popular, I would be forced to rewrite the remaining 2022 books to bring the quality up to the newest books. Of course, no promises on that one.
Well, back to my writing…