I have really enjoyed writing Barghest, and I think a great deal of that enjoyment comes from serialized nature of it. That additional feedback, the anticipation of waiting to see what readers will think of the latest installment, is addictive. I write ahead of what I am posting, so although Chapter 16: Nosey Neighbors went live today, I have actually finished through Chapter 20. I am so excited to hear what you think of it. I already love some of these characters, and there are so many more that I think I will grow to love. Love to hate. Hate to enjoy writing about.  I want you to feel that way too, and I occasionally have to remind myself that you have not read everything I have put down – and certainly not everything I have imagined about these people that are beginning to make Barghest seem more real.

I hope you enjoy Nosey Neighbors, and let me know your thoughts. Happy #tuesdayserial!

As I learned with Second Alliance, writing in a serial format can be extremely gratifying for an author. Not only does it keep me on a manageable schedule, but it provides for constant input and encouragement as well. Barghest is being written and posted this way. The chapters are short enough that I can spend one day writing and one day doing rough edits, and long enough that I feel the reader can enjoy a meaty scene as well as some background or an info dump. There is enough there to sink your teeth into, and still leave you wanting more.

Serials aren’t a new idea. Radio programs like The Shadow, Newspaper and Magazine serial stories such as Pickwick Papers and Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and even soap operas on television today are made available as sequential releases. This format has seen a comeback for written works that are published strictly on the web or for e-readers. Amazon has even developed their own Kindle Serials to sell this specific kind of story.

Today is #tuesdayserial, and so I have posted a new chapter of Barghest. I hope you enjoy it! Please leave your thoughts and suggests in the comments!

I have had requests for media related to the Barghest universe. Although I will keep working on the ship classification chart, for now I have uploaded a map of the star systems referenced in Barghest. Hopefully this will give readers a better idea of the distance and relationship of other stars to Earth in the Sol System.

Creating this map was more fun – and more challenging- than I had thought it would be. The Barghest universe is as large (for the moment) as our corner of the Milky Way. That is a sphere of roughly 3,500 light years in diameter. Imagine the area as a peach, with Earth at the pit. It would take the space shuttle Atlantis 72 million years to get to the outside edge.

That’s a lot of Tang.

Of course, science fiction being what it is, Sergeant Maker and the Legion do not have to rely on traditional rocket fuel as we know it today. In their time, the Sol Coalition, and civilian human space craft, rely on two main types of engines: sublight and ISG.  Sublight engines are exactly what they sound like: a propulsion system designed for travel below the speed of light. They cannot break that speed barrier, and are designed for travel within solar systems.  Interstellar Gravity drives, or ISG, are not precisely faster-than-light engines, but they do have the effect of allowing travel to places too distant to reach at sublight speeds. This technology was reverse engineered from Culler ships after the invasion and Repulsion in 2056. It utilizes gravity to bend space, shortening the distance between two points.  The effects at either end can be disastrous to anything that was already occupying that space, and any objects that exert a gravitational force on a ship should be avoided when entering and exiting ISG. Safety standards adopted by the Sol Coalition and most reputable corporations dictate that ISG should not be used within a solar system.

Chapter 13 is posted, and I hope you enjoy it. Please, let me know if you have questions or thoughts about the story. I would love to hear from you!

This is for you people.

That is a about half true. It is also for me. As I have mentioned before, I like to write a little bit ahead of what I am posting online, just in case I need to go back and fix some minor thing. (Like someone having a conversation a chapter after I knocked them unconscious. It’s a real problem.) Also I like to give myself the opportunity to go back and reread a day or two later and make edits when I am no longer actively creating a scene.

To keep you on the edge of your seat, I really shouldn’t post so quickly. But I couldn’t help myself! I’m on the edge of my seat! I just finished writing a new chapter, and it had me so excited, I had to post something else for all of you. Please. Read. Enjoy. Comment. I hope you are on tenterhooks too.

Figuratively, of course. That would be gross.

I have posted the eleventh chapter of Barghest, which can be read here.  When I write, every story usually starts with a few key scenes in mind.  Most of my favorite authors do not write in that manner. They have a story arc, a grand plot scheme, which they then fill in the details of. I love those authors. I love reading their work. But I find that more difficult to do. I generally spend several months, sometimes a year or more, thinking over a story idea. I have one or two key scenes laid out down to the last detail, and then I start to write. I do not begin with those scenes. I begin with the backstory – everything that is going to get me to that point. Sometimes it takes longer than others, but by the time I finish writing that first key scene, I have usually figured out where I want the story to go. I have planned the main arc and have a few subplots in mind. As I write, I am going back and filling in some details, taking out some other extraneous information, so that what you read here is truly a work in progress. Barghest, like anything I write, is changing as you read it. You, the reader, are seeing ideas as I develop them. And once the story is complete, you can go back and reread it as though it were a new tale. That is how I feel about my own stories. I want to read through them after I am done and be just as thrilled, angry, frustrated, in love, and moved as if I was reading it for the first time.

This chapter of Barghest is the beginning of that. It contains slivers of that first key scene – that moment where it is all beginning to come together for me. I have a plan now. I know where this is going, and I am excited for it. Please, take this journey with me.