It’s been two weeks since my last post. The holidays are coming fast, and it’s a busy time of year. In fact, it’s busier than I remember this season ever being. RUSTY is moving along, though it’s going slower than I had expected, mostly due to things that have come up, taking me away from my writing desk. The story is progressing well, though. I like the way this came out so far. As of this post, the rough draft is around 42k words. That’s 60% complete, based on the estimated 70k total size. I’m still on track to finish the rough draft within the first week of December, though I expect that might slip. I want to have the book published before Christmas, so that’s my current goal. As soon as I publish it, I’ll crank up some Ads to ensure it gets noticed.
There is still one other Daphne Blazefire series plot thread that is dangling out there. In several of the current books, it is mentioned that she had a family, and nobody knows exactly what happened to them. There are hints that her family met with an accident, maybe something to do with the military. Lowell has been looking into this using secret military channels that he has limited access to. This is one of the many stories I thought up when I wrote the first five books, and I intend to finish this book as well, though it probably won’t happen until summer or fall of next year. The title is tentatively named “Family.” I know the title is not terribly creative, but sometimes it’s better to be on the nose.
I may have mentioned this in the past or not, but I sat down and created 15 story concepts. I wrote five of them, and I’m working on the sixth. Here is the list of story ideas I had in mind (just to show that writers have an endless idea generator):
Hired Help
It’s dangerous in the outer worlds, but the payoff is much better. Daphne works out the business case and decides to hire a crew of mercenaries so she can safely navigate the outer planets and sell expensive cargo. But things don’t run as smoothly as she imagined. After operating a ship with just her and her robot, having extras onboard starts to feel rather cramped. After a few conflicts with the mercs that she hired, she suddenly realizes that the people she thought she could trust have a shady past and an agenda of their own.
Case Closed
RUSTY is scanning the galactic net when he discovers a treasure trove of unsolved cases. He stumbles upon one in particular that Detective Ramsey had investigated. The case went cold when he reached a dead end. A young girl had gone missing, and her rich family had put up a reward worth millions. Nobody has yet claimed the reward. When Daphne reads about this case, she suddenly realizes that she may have the missing piece of information needed to solve the case.
Alien Device
Daphne agrees to deliver a large container to a lab on a remote planet. She is warned that there is a strict time limit to deliver the device. When her ship breaks down in space, the time limit expires. She is distraught about the loss of a payoff and assumes the cargo has spoiled. When something inside comes alive, she and RUSTY discover that they must now fight for their lives.
Robot Hackers
A group of computer hackers have a business of their own: they hack other people’s property and steal it. When RUSTY becomes their target, Daphne has to get her robot back. But getting RUSTY back is not enough. She discovers that this group of people have been taking advantage of innocent people for years. Now it’s time to turn the tables on them.
Doctor Hayden
Doctor Hayden’s identity has been leaked. He is no longer safe on the planet he was assigned to when he moved into witness protection. Who would want to abduct Doctor Hayden? Who wouldn’t? When Daphne discovers he has been missing and the military is on a massive mission to hunt him down and execute him, she decides to find out who is involved. When she finds him, she is suddenly in the cross-hairs of a terrorist group, the military, and others who would stop at nothing to get to Doctor Hayden.
Revolution
Daphne takes a job to deliver medical supplies to a planet inside the warzone. When she delivers the cargo, she is captured by the revolutionaries fighting her government. She and RUSTY attempt to escape from the dystopian planet, running into various people caught in the war. As they spend time with these people, they discover that the war is based upon a lie that a faction in her own government has told citizens for years. Now, she is on a mission to expose this lie and, hopefully, end the war.
Robots Not Allowed
Daphne delivers cargo to a primitive planet of people who have ancient beliefs and rules that nobody outside of their society knows of. RUSTY is taken away, and she is detained. It isn’t long before she discovers that robots are illegal on this world and RUSTY must be melted down. She manages to escape with RUSTY, and they find a massive cave system to hide inside. After wandering for hours, they stumble upon a secret underground military facility with weapons that are beyond the estimated technological abilities of the natives on the planet’s surface.
Outpost
When Daphne’s Nav computer malfunctions, her ship is sent to an uncharted location in the galaxy. She and RUSTY discover a world that has a small colony of humans. They explain that they are the descendants of a generational ship that was sent from Earth in the 22nd century. Their ship is long gone, and they are stranded on the world that they inhabit. When the inhabitants trick her and RUSTY and steal the Waterfowl, Daphne does some research of her own. That is when she discovers that these are not descendants but the most dangerous prisoners in society who were on a prison ship that they hijacked while being transported. Now, she and RUSTY must find a way to contact someone who can stop the prisoners from reaching an inhabited planet.
The above eight stories, plus RUSTY’s memories (the one I’m working on) and Family, make ten stories, or fifteen total (when included with the existing five). Many of these stories will change a little if I decide to take them on and write them. Right now, I’m only committing to RUSTY’s memories and Family. However, if there’s interest in any of these, then I’ll tackle one or two sooner. Otherwise, I might put out one a year until I complete the whole set.
There is also the possibility of thinking up new stories. I only stopped because I had other projects that I wanted to work on (The Escape from the Abyss series and The Traveler Trilogy). After RUSTY’s Memories, I’ll switch back to The Q Mysteries (by Elliot Droit, my mystery pen name). I have four more of those books to complete to finish the initial series.
Amazon is ending Vella
I read that Amazon is winding down Vella. I am quite relieved that I didn’t jump into Vella head-first. I had looked at it quite a bit when it first came out. I had a story idea, and I actually wrote a few scenes before setting it aside. The working title was “Dark Storm.” It’s a story about a group of college kids who are camping in the mountains when aliens invade. At first, they survive the initial invasion, then they make their way back to town where they discover that everyone is gone. There are some bodies, but most are just missing.
This story was going to be a long, winding story about the group of young adults that navigate through their broken society and discover clues about who these aliens are. They meet others along the way and piece together a story about an alien ship that landed in a remote location in the U.S. They make their way to the alien craft and discover that it landed and set up a portal that allowed them to pour into Earth’s atmosphere and attack with vast numbers of ships.
This is where they get the brilliant idea to go through the portal and rescue the people who have been captured…
As a Vella story, I planned to publish a small set of scenes each week (if I remember right, each segment should be around 8k words max). My only angst was that I would have to somehow have everything pre-planned or pre-written to guarantee that I could publish the next piece of the series on time. This, of course, went on the back burner when I got deep into the Escape from the Abyss series. Now, I’m relieved that I didn’t put too much effort into it. I could, however, change the structure to fit a trilogy or maybe a series. Ah, if only I had infinite time and nothing else to do.
Well, back to my writing…