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K. D. McAdams

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Archives for January 2018

An unwise distraction

January 29, 2018 By K. D. McAdams

Photo by Daniel Frank on Unsplash

Last Tuesday I had my wisdom teeth out. It totally kicked my butt. I wanted to talk about artificial intelligence in medicine and robotic dentists, but I’m in scramble mode so I’m just whining instead.

I knew having them pulled wasn’t going to be a vacation, but I thought I was lucky and smart. There were only 3 teeth to pull, and they were fully in, nothing impacted. The dentist didn’t even recommend anesthesia, just novocaine was fine. The plan was to go in at 8:00 in the morning, have them yanked, spend the rest of the day recovering and then an easy next day.

My luck started slipping before 6:00 am. There was a cold rain falling and the streets were covered in black ice. School had a delayed start. Instead of the kids being out of the house at 6:45, the bus wasn’t coming until 8:45. I asked to push the extraction back until 11:00. This left me much less kid free recovery time than I as planning on.

Apparently I have strong bones. The dentist said this was good in case I slipped on the ice, less chance of breaking a bone. Not good for getting wisdom teeth out. She was awesome, as gentle as possible and doing her best to not make it drag on longer than necessary. But I swear at one point she had a foot on the arm rest to get more leverage.

Also, two of them were on the bottom. There was a significant amount of torque on my lower jaw as she battled to free the teeth from their bony grip.

In all the process took less than forty five minutes. On the way home I stopped at CVS to get prescription pain killers and I was back in the house before 12:30. I rested and watched a movie that wrapped up just before the first kid got home at 2:35. My mouth was still numb and there was drool running down my chin but I was up to greet him.

While the teeth holes were uncomfortable it was all of the side effects that I hadn’t anticipated that caused me so much distress. Mostly the jaw pain, and not being able to sleep. I’m a stomach sleeper and usually lay my head on the part where the wisdom teeth used to live. Trying to sleep on my back had me waking up every forty five minutes.

After two nights of poor sleep I was just exhausted and even though I was getting better I was feeling worse. On top of all that my diet was naturally messed up from not being able to eat my normal foods. The weight loss was great, but the headache that clouded my brain made it near impossible to think for more than a few minutes. Virtually impossible to come up with thousands of words of fiction.

Anyway, long story long, I was not productive last week. Based on all the things around the house that fell through the cracks I doubt my writing work will be productive this week either. But I am going to try.

For those following along for the numbers update on the Off Earth Series progress –

Book 1 – They Awake
Target release date – 4/13/2018 Behind schedule
Last weeks word count/target – 6,440/22,000
This weeks word count target – 22,000 words
Total words/projected – 66,148/95,000

 

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Filed Under: For Readers Tagged With: falling behind, scramble mode, wisdom teeth

An old timer stops in

January 26, 2018 By K. D. McAdams

Standret | Dreamstime.com

Grep felt her heart racing. This wasn’t the first time they were heading out on a dangerous job, but it still wasn’t easy.

The Cthulhu ships were strong and the team was clear on the technique, but it was still risky. Flying into the vacuum of space to retrieve an oversized delivery pod sounded like a standard operation for the salvage crew. But the pod was experiencing a thruster malfunction and orbiting out f control.

Salvage bots were refusing the work because the odds of a successful capture were below sixty percent. A failed capture would result in collision that would generate even more debris which could easily cost Off Earth Salvage more money than a successful capture would generate.

Tanner insisted on stepping in and going for this job. When they salvaged a cargo pod they owned the contents. So not only were they getting paid to eliminate the threat, they would be able to profit from the contents. A double win.

Grep also knew that as they closed on the cargo pod, the odds for successful salvage would change. Hopefully they would increase and the bots would take over and complete the salvage. If not, Tanner and the other ship commander Lyra would manipulate their navigation systems until they were in synch and the odds improved.

But this was the most difficult time, standing in the salvage bay waiting for the ships to be ready.

“Okay, Grep and Stew are with me. Chance you’re with Lyra. Remember that you don’t want to make contact using a tip. If you attach to this thing with a tip it’s over for you and my problems expand exponentially.” Tanner reminded them.

If the tip of an arm from the Cthulhu ship latched on to a tumbling cargo pod, the body of the ship would wind up whipping through space and wrapping around the pod. Ending in a violent collision. That was how Tanner lost Cthulhu-3 and a veteran commander.

“Tanner I still think we should hold off until it burns off more of it’s fuel.” Maddison, the operations manager checked her tablet.

The bean counter wasn’t going to be out there risking her life, what did she care.

“The sooner we capture it the more we get paid. You know how it works, the longer this thing is out of control the more risk the launch company faces. They can’t finance new projects or conduct any other launches while this is in orbit.” Tanner pointed out the driver for taking this risk.

“Excuse me, Tanner?” A young man approached the small team.

“What?” Tanner asked.

“I was told to let you know that we just received a distress request and granted permission to land.” The young man said.

“I don’t need to be involved in that.” Tanner dismissed the information.

“They said to tell you it was a very old signal and the ship appears to be an antique. They don’t think the salvage bay is a safe place to stand while it’s coming in.” The messenger explained.

“These distress calls are going to ruin our business. Maddison, make a note to bring this up next time we talk to someone from the Planetary Operating Alliance.” Tanner assigned an action item.

“Got it.:” Maddison replied confidently.

“Sir?” The young man checked timidly.

“WHAT!” Tanner replied.

“Shared logs show that this ship was launched before the POA existed.” He explained timidly.

The Planetary Operating Alliance was formed shortly after the first orbital war. It crafted, enforced and adjudicated the rules for all of Earth as well as the growing community orbiting the planet. They were the ones that conceived and enforce the restrictions on returning to the planets surface while one still maintained debt. They also defined the requirements for assisting vessels in distress.

Whenever one ship approached another in space they would share logs to understand compatibility between technology and cargo. The dangers of operating in space required the craft to keep track of localized resources and potential safe places in the event of an accident. It was important to know if you could dock with another ship or if it was only available for umbilical connections.

The fact that this ship was sharing logs meant it’s owner made updates to stay current with the laws. It did not mean that the ship had been retrofitted to modern equipment.

“Fine. Clear the deck. But I want to see the owner as soon as they are docked.” Tanner turned and led the team off the floor of the salvage bay.

Grep felt bad for Tanner. If he didn’t have bad luck he wouldn’t have any at all. They needed to get out and salvage that cargo pod to maximize the reward. But now they had to wait for this crazy old ship to land. For free.

The group turned and looked through a window in the conference room where Tanner led them.

A small ship appeared in the entrance to the salvage bay. It waggled slightly and Grep thought for a second that it may not be under the control of it’s AI pilot.

After a big, dramatic dip of the right side of the craft it spun so that the thrusters were pointing towards the back wall of the salvage bay. It was all very showy and not how an AI was trained to land a ship.

“Do you think that was done by a human?” Grep asked Tanner.

“Sure looked that way. I can’t imagine what that felt like on the inside though.” He smiled his reply.

Once the ship settled on the floor of the salvage bay the room went silent. They were waiting for a door or a ramp to appear. No signs of life were present.

“This is Tanner Nazca and you just landed  on my rock. State your name and your emergency.” Tanner was speaking into a communicator along the wall.

“Can’t believe there’s still as Nazca on this rock. I thought for sure Kai was going to find a way to get himself killed.” A tired old voice came back.

“He did, this is his grandson. What is your emergency?” Tanner was not ready to reminisce.

“My oxygen reclaimer quit on me. No way I could have made it to the next station, you saved my life.” The voice explained why they needed help.

“What’s your name?” Tanner asked.

“Wilbur.” The tired old voice did not elaborate.

“Do you have a ramp or a door or any way out of that old bucket?” Tanner’s tone began to soften.

“Is this cave really pressurized? Can’t always trust these old sensors.” Wilbur answered.

“Yes, I’ll come meet you.” Tanner let a small smile creep across his face.

The team filed out of the conference room and made their way to the base of the ship that just landed in the salvage bay.

Several meters about the floor of the bay a door slid open. The rungs of a ladder rose from the skin of the ship.

Up at the door they first saw a boot and then a puffy pant leg. The toe of the boot probed for the top rung. Slowly a complete body emerged and Wilbur carefully made his way down the ladder.

Grep and the others stood in silence. When the man was down the ladder and standing securely on the floor his arms went up over his head and stretched to his right.

The man turned and they could all see his mouth moving through the visor of his helmet. When the man noticed that they were not wearing helmets or suits he smiled broadly and reached to the latches around his neck.

It was a far more complicated system than their modern suits. By the time he unfastened the last latch they could hear a faint hiss of air escape the joint.

“Last time I was here, this cave was smaller than my ship and you could not stand out here and breathe.” Wilbur explained.

He didn’t look old enough to have been in space before the POA was formed. Which would also mean he couldn’t be old enough to have visited Lagrange-4 while Kai was still excavating the salvage bay.

“Your shared logs say you launched before the POA was formed. Is that true?” Tanner challenged.

“Give or take. The ship was assembled before the POA existed. I activated most of the systems on the surface almost  a year before launch. Wanted to make sure I could be grandfathered into any rules meant to proceed the orbital pioneers.” He looked like a cat who had swallowed the canary.

“How old are you?” Maddison could not resist asking what they all must have been thinking.

“Late seventies I suspect, what year is it?” Wilbur was not phased.

“2092,” Grep answered quickly.

“Then yep about seventy-six or seventy-seven years old. I’m telling you, last time I was here, Kai had me tether my ship to an anchor out there. Had to do an EVA through a tiny hole and into what must have been the very beginning of this cave.” Wilbur turned to survey the salvage bay.

“And where have you been since?” Grep would have known if there was a ship this old living and working in Earth orbit.

“Out and about. Went to check out Mars and then the asteroid belt. Thought that if Kai could wrangle one of these things then so could I. There’s more than one Lagrange point you know.” Wilbur answered like he had been just down the hall.

“What happened?” Grep hoped there wasn’t an asteroid making it’s way towards them.

“Landing on one of these things that doesn’t already have systems is not easy. I could never find a way to touch down.” Wilbur frowned.

“How did you get supplies?” Grep was fascinated with the old timer.

“We have to get on with our project. You can stay until we get back. I think Grep would like to have dinner with you and pick your brain.” Tanner wanted to move along.

“Appreciated. Is there someone I can see about repairs for my oxygen reclaimer?” Wilbur asked.

“Maddison can help you. We might even have some spares of your vintage.” Tanner nodded to his operations manager.

“Do you have modern currency?” Maddison asked.

“Last time I had any money it was on the chain. Guessing that approach is gone?” Wilbur was referring to the old block-chain currencies.

Maddison looked worryingly at Tanner.

“We’ll figure out payment later. Get his reclaimer fixed and find him a place to relax. We have a cargo pod to go recover.” Tanner shook his head.

For a guy that was so intent on paying off his debt and setting foot on Earth Tanner didn’t seem to care much about getting paid sometimes. It was an odd discrepancy and likely a big part of the reason that he was still in debt.

Grep suddenly realized how minimal the scope of their risk really was. Wilbur and Kai had been out here in space when AI was still learning and making mistakes. They were pioneers and had no safety pods or other ships that could help them in the event of an accident.

It wasn’t that their hearts didn’t beat fast or they weren’t scared. They were probably terrified at times. But they pushed through and made progress. If it wasn’t for humans pushing ahead and trying things that AI’s deemed too risky they might still be bound to the planet below.

Taking risks was part of being human. It was why the AI’s were never going to rule them all. Her heart pounding in  her chest wasn’t a warning sign, it was a sign of hope and possibility.

“Let’s do this!” She cheered and marched off toward the Cthulhu ship she was assigned to.

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Filed Under: For Readers, Off Earth, Short Stories Tagged With: Grep, Lagrange-4, science fiction, scifi, short stories, Tanner

3 steps for validating your series idea

January 24, 2018 By K. D. McAdams

© Ivelinr | Dreamstime.com

Coming up with ideas isn’t a challenge for most writers, myself included. The actual challenge is picking a single idea and following through on it. I must have 2 dozen novels started but collecting dust in the cloud because I decided to shift gears to the next great idea.

Deciding what ideas are good enough to pursue as a series is mostly instinct, peppered with a few data points. It can be a tough notion to explain because there is no single item to indicate a great series idea. Almost all of my ideas initially feel like great series concepts. Many of them aren’t.

So how do you validate your idea to see if it’s worthy of planning a series around? In an effort to document how I decided to pursue my Off Earth Industries series, below is is my answer to how I played with the concept to make sure I could develop it into a series.

Start by asking why and what, then become a genre junkie.

I wanted to write about an asteroid miner, so why would a human ever need to land on an asteroid? I knew there were three compelling reasons – power, money, or love – for anyone to do something foolishly risky.

When I played through a few power and love stories they didn’t excite me.

The money angle was different. If the main character was taking this huge risk for money he must have some deeper desire. Any obstacle that would get in the way of him earning the money would also get in the way of him achieving his true goal.

So I played the three why’s game.

Q: Why would this character risk landing on an asteroid?
A: To earn money.

Q: Why did this character need money?
A: To pay off a debt.

Q: Why was it important for this character to pay off a debt?
A: Because he wasn’t allowed on Earth while he carried a debt.

At the start, my main characters driving goal is to be allowed to set foot on Earth. In the beginning, money looks like the primary obstacle to achieving his goal (it’s not).

To see if this idea could stretch beyond one book, I asked what.

Q: What could alter my main characters goal of setting foot on Earth?
A: An alien attack that threatens Earths survival.

So now my main character has to shift his goal from earning money to pay off a debt to some how saving Earth from total destruction. That feels like a pretty momentous change, certainly worthy of more than one or two books.

It also presents a drastic shift in my initial story idea. No longer is this a series about an asteroid miner. To justify my characters goal and struggle there needs to be a complete ecosystem of humans living and working in space. That ecosystem feels strong enough to support a series.

Now that I knew this was turning into an alien invasion series, it was time to head over to Amazon and do some market research. The goal of researching other books in your genre is not to copy them, it’s to understand what readers are enjoying and what concepts they are paying money for. What do the covers look like, how do the blurbs read, what kind of titles do they have? Even if you intend to shock your readers and do something completely different, you need to know how to reach them.

You should try and become a genre-junkie for the sub-genre you are targeting for this series. Whenever you have free time, read reviews, blurbs, list covers you love and generally surf the shelves of this genre.

When researching a sub-genre I like to look at the top twenty paid books and focus on those that are $2.99 or more. These books are popular because of their quality, not due to a price discount or marketing push. In many cases I’ll buy the book and read it, but sometimes if it doesn’t sound appealing I’ll stick to the look inside feature.

It’s important to understand readers expectations and what they’ll be comparing your work to. At some point you’re going to doubt your project and convince yourself it might never sell. Knowing that there are other books in your genre that are doing well can help motivate you to keep going. Your book won’t be the same, but it has the chance to be just as good if you keep writing and working.

In my next post I’m going to talk about how I took this idea and expanded it to come up with the building blocks of a series.

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll share with you my thoughts, notes and tips for each step. You can easily follow along by joining my mailing list. In return I’ll send you a copy of my Successful Series Writer Manifesto and a weekly digest of posts.

If you want to follow along from a readers perspective, you can jump over to that section of my blog, or sign up for my Sci-Fi mailing list.

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Filed Under: For Writers, Successful Series Writers Tagged With: Gener junkie, Off Earth Series, research, three why's

Space fighter pilots and artificial intelligence

January 22, 2018 By K. D. McAdams

I’m having my wisdom teeth out tomorrow. This is a bit of a short update, but I’m trying to get a little ahead on the word count for the week in case I don’t feel much like writing tomorrow. I also wanted to mention that last Friday I released Book 5 in my Seamus Chronicles sci-fi series. It’s called Exploration and is on sale for $0.99 for a few more days.

My Off Earth series is coming along nicely, I’m past the half-way point! One of the things I’ve been thinking about recently is how fighter ships will work in space.

From an action and excitement perspective I love space fighters and the cool pilots that fly them. As a kid I had X-wing and Y-wing fighters to play with. The BattleStar Galactica vipers were on almost every drawing I made from third through fifth grade. Afterburners, thrusters, and the control stick hard right or left inducing a roll is an adrenaline pumping scene.

Unfortunately, from a reality perspective I doubt that humans will be sitting at the controls of s a space ship with windows and guns. It makes sense to me that artificial intelligence will handle the bulk of flight control in space (and soon on Earth as well). And a big part of me thinks that artificial intelligence won’t want to conduct combat missions that have a real possibility of failure.

So where does the space battle action come from? For me it comes from an alien encounter (new data set) and AI instances struggling to learn. The humans are urging them to make exceptions to both comfort and safety protocols but the ships are reluctant to listen.

In the Off Earth Series I’ve decided my ships have commanders, not pilots. The commander directs the AI flight control and at times is required to persuade the AI to go against it’s programming. For example, if the odds of success are below twenty percent an AI flight controller might refuse to do a maneuver that could stop or destroy and alien star ship. It’s up to the human commander to override that decision, because the fate of the human race rests in their hands. This is a gray area that comes into play in other places.

As for the windows I don’t feel like those are going to be common in space. More likely are monitors that show a visualization of what the ship perceives to be outside the hull. They are already talking about doing this in airplanes and I think it makes even more sense in space. For my characters in They Awake, their salvage ships, the Cthulhu ships, have a small circle of port holes around the body. These are because the ships were designed and built by an Earthling who had grown up driving cars. He didn’t trust AI or computer representations to be one hundred percent reliable so there were small windows built into the ship, though rarely needed. Except of course in an emergency.

For those following along for the numbers update on the Off Earth Series progress –

Book 1 – They Awake
Target release date – 4/13/2018 On schedule
Last weeks word count/target – 25,723/22,000
This weeks word count target – 22,000 words
Total words/projected – 59,708/95,000

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Filed Under: For Readers, Off Earth Tagged With: Artificial Intelligence, commander, Exploration, pilot

The Chondrule Club

January 19, 2018 By K. D. McAdams

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

One of the longest running jokes on Lagrange-4 is that when Kai Nazca excavated through the first vein of DeGrassium and revealed the Chondrule Club, Kinkaid was already behind the bar.

Of course the Chondrule Club didn’t actually exist until it too was excavated but the joke gets some funny looks when a newbie first hears it.

Maddison Holtz was not a newbie. It was more than two years ago that she accepted her job with Off Earth Salvage and moved here to Lagrange-4. She was a quick study and learned early that you don’t ask Kinkaid questions and if you ever hope to enjoy a cocktail you avoid pissing him off like you avoid the airlock.

Suddenly Maddison couldn’t remember if the joke was because of how old Kinkaid was or the fact that he never seemed to leave the bar. Probably a little of both.

“Hey Kinkaid how is everything in here?” she leaned through the door.

The Chondrule Club was technically closed, but as the operations manager for the whole rock Maddison had business being just about anywhere. She needed a drink, but hoped she wouldn’t have to ask.

“Fine Ms. Holtz,” Kinkaid studied her face int he dim light. “Come on in and have a seat.”

He read people better than most. Only those that ‘did it right’ became a friend and Maddison hoped that she was one of them.

Maddison walked past the tables with their chairs upside down and on top. At the corner of the bar she bent over and lifted the case of beer off the floor. Placing it gently on the top, she slid it down the entire length and pressed it neatly against the wall. The lessons her parents taught her on Earth served just as well here in space. If you see something that needs doing, do it.

“Thanks. The ore sorting team Mike brought in near cleared me out.” Kinkaid explained his need for restocking beer.

In truth there was always someone new cleaning him out. Maddison almost never saw invoices or cargo manifests for alcohol and didn’t know where most of it came from, but Kinkaid kept the place stocked.

“No problem. Don’t see too many beer drinkers these days.” She couldn’t help but think about the water used in making beer.

“Ore sorters are the greenest of the green. If they stick around they’ll learn. Speaking of, any word on that A.I.? Paying these guys can’t be good for Mike’s bottom line.” Kinkaid wondered.

“Still in therapy. It is convinced that was a human hand it saw. It won’t even sort simple finished pieces.” Maddison smiled at the fact that a computer program wouldn’t work because of an image.

“Well I suppose most of us wouldn’t be out here if those instances always did what they were supposed to.” Kinkaid chuckled.

Maddison sighed deeply. It was unintentional and she hated that it was going to look like she wanted to talk about a problem. Even though she really wanted to talk about her problem.

“You ever been around for a lighting?” Kinkaid pretended to ignore the sigh.

“No, I hear it’s amazing.” She answered quickly.

“Hold on,” Kinkaid disappeared around a short wall.

Moments later the walls came to life. Little bits of color shone in the black stone surrounding it. The glass chondrules refracted and bent light into colors people on Earth could never imagine. It was more colorful than a perfect rainbow and more dazzling than a sky full of stars.

Maddison left the bar and walked to a wall. She gently touched one of the pieces of glass. The elements in this crystal may have been around when the universe was formed. That made them even older than Kinkaid.

Everything glowed. The walls, the ceiling, the floors, even the supports underneath the bar had chondrules in it lighting up. Someone told her that it was all from a single laser beam and somehow each orb was connected by fiber optic strands winding their way through the rock. Different colors came from the bend in the fiber optics, not the chondrules themselves.

Then the room went dark. Not exactly dark, but back to it’s traditional level of dim.

“Can’t leave the laser on too long. One of the structural A.I.’s says it heats the fiber optics and could allow for a fissure in the stone.” Kinkaid explained why the light show wasn’t a permanent feature.

“Thank you for sharing. I’m glad I got to see that.” Maddison replied gratefully.

“But it’s not what you were looking for. Can I fix you a drink?” The bartender always understands.

“You don’t have to do that. I was really just looking to clear my head and this helped.” She regretted poking her head through the door.

“I only offer once.” He shrugged his shoulders.

“Got any vodka handy?” Maddison stopped waffling.

“ZG or terrestrial?” Kinkaid naturally had vodka.

Maddison knew there couldn’t be a difference between vodka distilled in zero gravity and vodka distilled on Earth or the Moon. Still something about terrestrial vodka was better than it’s ZG counterpart.

“Terrestrial please,” she moved to a stool at the end of the bar.

A small glass of clear liquid was placed gently on the bar. Kinkaid kept his hand over the top and slowly slid it in front of her.

“This is distilled in the Mariana Trench. They use nearly frozen sea water and geothermal heating. It is remarkably pure and about as opposite ZG as I could think of.” He smiled.

Maybe if she had gone ZG it would have been a bigger pour. The liquid swirled around the cup and she sniffed to detect a complete lack of smell. Then her lips parted and the ice cold liquor flowed easily into her warm mouth.

The contrast was startling but the purity obvious. Her chest filled with warmth which slowly radiated out to her limbs and the rest of her body.

“Wow,” she acknowledged the quality of his selection.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re looking for, but my advice is to stop. If you’re meant to find whatever it is, you’ll come across it at the right time. If not, looking won’t do you any good.” The bartender explained.

The problem was that she thought she found what she was looking for. When she took the tablet off that freighter captain it matched Mike’s description of his holo-tab almost perfectly. There wasn’t much tech that age filling space on freighters and most of the stuff floating from that generation was already salvaged or burned up in Earths atmosphere.

It wasn’t the looking that bothered her, it was all the effort to repair that piece of crap. Effort that would have been worth it if the display showed Mikes dad. Instead she spent a month working on the thing only to have a series of crude sex acts projected when it finally booted up.

“You’re right. I just wish I could find nothing instead of tricking myself into believing I have what I want.” She explained cryptically.

“If it was found in salvage, it’s not what you want anyway. Most people are looking for a thing when what they really need is a feeling. When you find that feeling it doesn’t matter where you are or what you have, the feeling goes with you.” Kinkaid explained some more.

Of course he was right. She didn’t want the holo-tab. What she wanted was the good feeling she would get from giving it to Mike. That feeling she got when she saw Mike relaxed and happy was what she was looking for.

But even Kinkaid wasn’t going to hear that.

“How much for the drink?” Maddison asked.

“It’s on me.” Kinkaid smiled.

This wasn’t a bad feeling either.

“Thank you. I suppose I should get out of your way though. We both have work to do.” Maddison stood to leave.

“Don’t mention it.” Kinkaid replied bluntly.

“Okay I’ll see you.” She waved and headed for the door.

Facing the door it was hard to miss the massive arch of DeGrassium. Maddison had never seen it in this light before and it looked magical. She wondered what Kai Nazca felt when he first saw this vein of ore curving through his massive rock.

More than that, what was he looking for? She knew that he excavated most of the Chondrule Club by hand while the mining bots were focused on processing the ore filled with oxygen and elements used for fuel. The question she now pondered was why.

He must have been looking for something. And that may be where Kinkaid took his advice. Digging by hand though an asteroid in space is not done to find an object, it’s done to find a feeling. Accomplishment, knowledge, or fear could have driven Kai to dig. And one of those could just as easily have caused him to stop.

Kinkaid wasn’t a fixture in the Chondrule Club because of any material thing he had. He was able to stay in the role as long as he had because of his feelings. It never mattered if it was slow or busy, rowdy or subdued, Kinkaid worked the bar exactly the same. Somehow, he was able to find the feeling he was looking for and by staying here on Lagrange-4 he never let it go.

What was the feeling Maddison was looking for? And what feeling would make her stop?

There may not be one answer to either question, but for now she had to keep looking.

 

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Filed Under: For Readers, Off Earth, Short Stories Tagged With: chondrules, Kai Nazca, Kinkaid, Maddison Holtz, short stories

15 Steps for writing a successful series

January 17, 2018 By K. D. McAdams

Photo by STIL on Unsplash

After writing and publishing two series with 6 books in each I decided to look at the process and see if there were steps I could take to improve my odds of creating something successful.

One of my biggest issues has been reader engagement while I’m working on a new story. When I’m writing my head is down and I don’t have time to come up with ideas to share with my readers. Traditionally I have not shared anything with my readers until I have a book complete and ready for them to buy. Recent research has shown that readers want 2 main things from authors they like – more content and a peek behind the scenes. I was looking for a way to deliver those two things while I was working on a story. They had to be part of the plan.

In April 2017 I came up with a seed of an idea I thought could be a great series. I was working on finishing another project at the time and resisted the urge to jump in and start writing. In September I was wrapping up my other projects and started to formulate my plan for attacking the new series. Below are the 15 steps I came up with.
[Read more…] about 15 Steps for writing a successful series

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Filed Under: For Writers, Successful Series Writers Tagged With: manifesto, plan, series writing, successful series

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