Halcyone Space Writing News: Progress Report Even while I've been writing, I've spent at least part of the past several months beating up on myself for getting behind on my (mostly self-imposed) deadline for A STAR IN THE VOID, which will be the 5th and final novel in the Halcyone Space series. The other day, I had an epiphany (which will probably seem like a 'well, duh' moment to you): Of course it's hard to write this book. It's the culmination of 6 years of dreaming and planning and expanding the story of Halcyone's accidental crew and the conspiracy they inadvertently unearth. This 5th novel needs to bring the events of the past 4 to a satisfying conclusion and I need to say goodbye to the characters who have shared my imagination for so many years. In a very real way, I've been mourning their impending loss during the work on the story. It's no wonder my subconcious has been draging its (metaphorical) feet. But I have a clear path to the end of the novel and series and I'm nearly there.
Finding New Stories to Tell So, perhaps this is a cheat, a way to keep the universe of Halcyone Space alive, but in drafting A STAR IN THE VOID, what I thought was a throwaway line of dialogue has become the idea for a stand alone novellla. This is a scene snippet between Barre and Dr. Damiano Land - who we met in book 2 - the doctor who did Jem's black market neural implant. * "So I take it you had no idea about her little secret project?" Land's eyes widened as Barre told him about their conjectures about May's jaunt, Targill's disappearance, and a brief overview of their discoveries on the Reaction Chamber. "Ada May. You clever, clever woman." Well, clever, yes. Manipulative? Infuriating? Secretive? All of the above. Barre sighed. "Can I ask a personal question, Dr. Land?" "Certainly. And please, call me Damiano." "How did you end up here? What did she say to convince you?" The neurocyberneticist could have gone anywhere. He would have been welcomed at the finest facilities in the Hub. In another multiverse, he'd probably have an institute with his name on it. There was a long silence before he answered. "I was young. Ambitious. Driven. When I was still in my post-doc, I wrote a series of white papers on cyberneurolinguistics that got me noticed by a certain branch of the military. And since I owed the Commonwealth the equivalent of several years in kind for my education, I found myself in the middle of a research protocol that warped every one of my theoretical constructs." He stared past Barre as he spoke, his eyes clouded by memories he clearly didn't want to relive. "I let myself believe I had no choice. That if I didn't run the experiments, they would just bring in someone who would and I thought. . . " Land paused. Grimmaced. "It doesn't matter what I thought. I was wrong. "But Ada also read my papers. And she came to a different set of conclusions. She offered me another option." Land shrugged. "It wasn't all that hard to choose to vanish." Barre looked away from the anguish in Land's eyes. "Thank you. If it weren't for you, I don't know what Jem would have done." Land smiled gently, painfully. "It doesn't absolve me from my past. But I am glad I could help him." * And now I have a plan for a standalone novella that tells the story of Ada May's founding of Ithaka and he recruitment of the top troubled minds of the cosmos. Thanks to my subconcious planting backstory wherever it can. Stay tuned!
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