Galactic Lore

The first scene in Starfire is one of the places in the novel that was re-written the most. I had a lot of information to convey about Rathe and the world he inhabited all while trying to set the tone for things to come. The original opening line of this scene was a highly clichéd “A storm was brewing.” Not exactly attention grabbing, eh? But it was a good reminder to me that I wanted this opening scene to begin laying the foundation for so many things yet to come. A big piece of writing advice is to start your story off in the action! Grab your readers by the throat and don’t let them go! I didn’t really follow that advice. Instead I wanted to start planting questions in the reader’s mind. Make them as curious about the world as they were about who this strange Yanguch named Rathe was. Apart from all the craziness of an alien storm with exploding plants, I wanted to plant the seed of the Saurians being something of a cursed race by touching on Rathe & Rakjear’s reaction ...

Starfire didn't originally have a prologue. I had planned to start it right off in chapter one with Rathe standing on the transport ship and let all of the world & motivations be unveiled from there. However, as a side project during the writing of the novel, I took some time to write a short story looking into the key event from Rathe's past where he first gets the jerkrenak fang. The short story was mainly a way for me to see how the events happened and lay out some groundwork for understanding Rathe's feelings about the event. Eventually though I decided that the story was quite integral to the novel and to letting people get an early understanding of Rathe's motivations and so I merged it into the story as the prologue. Adding the prologue did create some big changes in the story as I wrote. For instance, I never really intended for the wounded hatchling to play any real kind of role in the main story. But when Rathe entered the merchant's shop and the B...

Galactic Lore - Starfire - The Mending: Book 1 That's quite a mouthful for a title, and has raised some questions as to what the "real' title of the book is from time to time. But maybe that's because the title took a circuitous route to being created. And in honor of that I'll start in the middle. Starfire, the official title for this book wasn't it's first. During the earliest days of brainstorming and story discovery it was simply "Rathe's Tale". Mostly because I didn't know what the Macguffin for his journey would be. I knew I wanted it to be an object of power. But when I finally settled on the Starfire as the ultimate goal, the end title was just a no-brainer. Sure it doesn't imediately bring visions of weapon wielding dinosaurs to mind, but it does have a good air of adventure and science fiction goodness. With Starfire taking over the main title spot, Rathe's Tale fell to being the series header for a long time....

In just a few short months, it is going to be four years since my novel Starfire was published. I could chase away the few who stumble across this once-abandoned locale with a litany of excuses as to why the sequel has not yet materialized. Let’s suffice it to say that I simply have not been the writer I should have been and that the fires that forged Starfire had been neglected as I cared for the needs of my fledgling family and adjusted to being a husband and father, seeking out “easier” distractions than crafting alien cultures. Much to the detriment to those fans who charged into the fight with Rathe and were enchanted by the strange innocence of Karey Or. I apologize to all of you that it is taking so long to continue the adventure, but I am beginning this series as a way to ensure that your wait will not go unrewarded. Over the next many days I will be revisiting Starfire by posting behind the scenes thoughts and stories about the scenes and characters from the novel. As much ...

It's a new year, and time for me to return to this blog. I've spent enough time lost out in real life. Time to jump back into the lands of fiction. But first I have to share a little bit about the new gadget in my life. I've been watching the e-reader scene for the last few years, staying out on the sidelines thinking how they could be cool but not quite enough for me to put my money down on one. That changed once I discovered the NookColor. It's more of an e-reader/tablet than the Kindle or older Nook with their e-ink screens. (Those are neat in their own right, but don't quite capture my inner-geek). The nook features a bright LCD touch screen that is easy to read from and is glare resistant. So far I've read a couple magazines and one complete novel and I'm really enjoying it so far. I especially like the ability to stream music from Pandora through the device while I read (it has both a speaker and an ear-phone jack). The book reading is very...

Looks like it's that time of year when Christians who are fans of the stranger genres begin asking why their favorite genres aren't represented as much as women in bonnets in Christian bookstores. I stopped asking that question years ago.  In the end, unless you're a publisher, sales person, or the buyer for a bookstore you're just yelling into the void. There isn't much point in constantly asking "where is it?" And really, in most of these conversations I hear, people tend to lump everything into one big pot. But I rarely hear people say exactly what it is they are looking for. It's one thing to say "I wish I could find more christian science fiction."  But it doesn't really help the point when what you really mean is "I wish I could find more hard sci-fi that focuses on Christians living in a scientifically advanced world that may include realistic space travel." It is time to stop waiting for stores we don't buy boo...

I've just launched the re-design of my website www.ritersbloc.com . It is a bit more focused than my old site, but also includes a nifty contact form in case anybody wants to get in touch with me.  Tweaking & more content will be added as time allows. Also, in even bigger news, Marcher Lord Press titles are now available at ChristianBook.com .  This is a big win for Jeff and all of the MLP authors as it will help more people discover our books. Time to run off to my day job.  It's been a crazy week there so far, but fun too as we're in the middle of launching two new curriculum lines!   Tru and Rio  If you're church is looking for some curriculum that really emphasises a relationship with God and looks to go beyond the Church and into the home, you'll want to check these out.