Blog
New Novel Release Day!
Today, my newest novel goes live.
As the pandemic locked the world down all too briefly, my employment ended. Fortunately, I used this time to take my writing path to the next level.
At the time, I’d been working on a sci-fi series for about 5 years. It would be named Void Incursion, and I started publishing it in 2020. However, before completing it, an idea for a different storyline popped into my head.
This requires a little background. In 1977, my parents took me to see Star Wars for the first time. This deepened my already burgeoning love for outer space, sci-fi, and fantasy. When Luke remarked to Obi-Wan, “You fought in the Clone Wars?” my imagination conjured visions of a war between factions of clones (rather than clones versus droids as it turned out to be).
Years later, that notion led to another idea. If there was a war between factions of clones, and it came to an end, what would become of the remaining clones? What would happen to them if they no longer had the war they were created to fight?
This idea would spark something new and different for me and my writing.
A planner for the first time
I started writing when I was 9 years old (so somewhere around 1981). For the next nearly 4 decades, I did 99 percent of my writing work as a pantser.
A pantser is a writer who writes by the seat of their pants. You sit at the keyboard and write as the ideas come to you. This can make for some amazing content creation, but it can also cause a lot of pointless rambling. Still, there’s nothing wrong with writing as a pantser, as I created 8 novels that way.
The idea percolating in my head about clones created for war, suddenly without a job, intrigued me. I started writing out ideas for what that might look like. This would evolve into details about human colonies some 550 years in the future, their governments, how they differed, and the creation of specialized clones on both sides to fight a war between them.
After that war ended, clones became an underclass. An underclass below any normal human in poverty or considered in any way undesirable. An idea about a clone witnessing a murder that turned out to be connected to a far broader conspiracy formed.
Before I knew it, I had started to plot that idea. Soon, the idea began taking form, and I plotted books to encompass it. It wasn’t long before I found myself with a chapter-by-chapter plan for 4 books.
Thus, Forgotten Fodder, my crime, clones, and conspiracy sci-fi, was born. For the first time, I wrote a novel from a plan and loved what I came up with. And I found that this made for the most coherent plot I’d ever created.
I also left room for more. Which brings me to today.
New novel release day
Today marks the publication of Forgotten Fodder Book 5 – Turncoat’s Gambit. This is the first new novel of The Turncoat Conspiracy saga.
The blurb:
Rats have a way of finding their way back home.
When the war between the colonies ended, the clones who had fought it were discarded, forgotten cannon fodder relegated to second-class citizens of the new Confederation. After uncovering a plot to topple the Confederation, infantry clone Jace Rojas joined Marshal Onima Gwok’s team and helped bring down the conspirators. For his selfless service, Jace was made the first clone deputy marshal in the CBI.
Now the turncoat cryptanalyst who betrayed his team is back, threatening the very existence of the Confederation with another convoluted conspiracy to overthrow it. Onima, Jace, and the team must find the traitor before his hacks irreparably harm the hard-won credibility of the Confederation.
What is the turncoat’s gambit? Will this undo clonekind’s gains for greater acceptance? Most importantly, are they already too late to stop the rat and his associates from destroying everything they hold dear and have sworn to defend and protect?
Turncoat’s Gambit is available on Amazon for paperback, Kindle, and audiobook, and in all three formats from other distributors like Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple Books, and more. This saga will be 4 books total.
Forgotten Fodder Book 6 – Shell Game – will be published on November 18 or November 25 (it’s completed now, hence the possible date change for its publication).
Books 7 and 8 – Conspiracy Theory and Shifting Sands – will be published in January and March of 2026, respectively.
More work underway
I look forward to publishing this first new novel in my Forgotten Fodder series since 2021. As I complete going over the edits and recording the audiobooks for the rest of the books, I’m working on writing my next series. Recently, I finished plotting the Gentleman Space Pirate Saga and have started writing book 1. This is not the last you’ll read of this.
I’m glad I have this opportunity to share my work with you. Thanks for reading. As I share my creative journey with you every week, please consider this: How are you inspired and empowered to be your own authentic creator, whatever form that takes?
You must be logged in to post a comment.