Some news this time of a more personal nature: I’ve moved to Colorado! After 30+ years in Syracuse, my wife and I have taken the leap, sold our house and 2 cars, and moved to Colorado Springs.
We’re still looking for a house here, so we’re in temporary quarters for the time being. I’m continuing to work remotely part-time for my previous employer. And, of course, writing sci-fi.
The move put a big dent in my schedule for completing the novella, but I’m back on it now. I’ve set up my workstation here under a window with a partial view of America’s mountain: Pike’s Peak (see the hand-drawn yellow arrow).
If you’ve been waiting on the edge of your seat for the novella, I apologise for the delay. And if you didn’t know, it will be free to all my email subscribers. So click the “Email Signup” button nearby to join the list, and when it’s done, you’ll get a link to a free e-copy. It will also be available on Amazon in Kindle and paperback versions (but not free).
The novella, titled The Worth of a World, is a prequel to Star Riders, concerning a historical event mentioned in that novel. Since it takes place about 80 years before the events of Star Riders, it’s got all new characters: an Of-Shren named Labinthia, an Achaylan named Sherise, and an Emdannen named Finnvan. The setting is Wingt-xem, shortly after that world connected to the Star Rider network which was just the three planets of Shren, Achaylah, and Emdann.
I’ve enjoyed writing this story, and I received many helpful suggestions from both my editor and my writers’ group (which I am so sad to leave behind in Syracuse). All that’s left is a final rewrite pass, then proofreading, and it will be ready to go.
And then I’ll be back to working on the sequel to Star Riders. I plotted it all out in Scrivener before I decided to do the novella, so now I can jump right into writing. I’m really looking forward to it. It will have two main Points of View, with very separate story lines that eventually converge. In Star Riders, it was almost all Bacary’s PoV, except for a few scenes from Moovik’s PoV. So this will be different to write. And those two main characters will be females, so that will be a new challenge for me (spoiler: one of them is Lauren).
I’ve also been reading a bit, so my next couple posts will probably be book reviews. See you then!
Rick A. Allen - SciFi Author 