Where it all began
During the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking a lot about where my novel-writing journey started, and there were a few reasons for this.
First, I was writing a short story related to Wraith and the Revolution, my upcoming space opera. There are a couple characters in Wraith that first made their debut in the very first novel-length book I wrote. Thinking about their origins naturally made me consider the journey those characters have taken—and how far I’ve come as an author.
Then we installed our new bookcase. It came with a “fake book” used to activate a lever that allows the bookcase to swing open. It is by far the coolest piece of furniture I’ve ever owned. I took a short video of how it works. You can watch it here if you’re interested:
I wanted to make a dust jacket for the fake book, because it’s a little plain. I wasn’t sure what book of my own I should use…and then a thought struck me. The very first book I ever wrote should have that honor: The Space Bandits: The Adventures of Brad and Kris.
The trouble is, that book will never see publication. I wrote it when I was 13, and while it was a big feat for a 13-year-old, it has its issues. I could revise it to death, but the storyline is so bizarre and disjointed it wouldn’t be worth the attempt. It’s a memory, nothing more, but it’s where I got my real writing start. I drew up a quick cover to use as the dust jacket, and since it’s only the spine that will really be visible, it isn’t anything fancy. But it will do.
Twenty-eight years later, I’m preparing to publish a book that features two of the characters from The Space Bandits: Sorin Johnston and Reginald Zylar. They’ve both changed a bit over the years; Sorin’s older, but he’s still the leader of the Resistance, and Zylar isn’t a tyrannical monarch, but the CEO of a megacorp responsible for everything from the tech that powers public transportation to cybernetics to the AIs that run the galactic government.
The rest of Wraith’s cast are mostly brand-new characters, with the exception of Zinn Jarek. She made an appearance in a sci-fi book I tried to write several times fifteen or so years ago. I liked her character, I needed some mercs for Wraith, and that other book won’t see publication either. So Zinn found her way into Wraith too.
But back to the original topic: The Space Bandits. It was a crazy mashup of Goosebumps-inspired YA horror, space opera, and apocalypse via contagion. There wasn’t a clear plot, Brad and Kris found themselves in some really bizarre situations, and it was just all around weird. But I had fun writing it and it will always bring back memories of how I got my start. The only person who has ever read The Space Bandits is my brother, and I doubt that will change.
While Wraith and the Revolution stole a couple characters from it, the storyline is vastly different. I’ll start to share more about this project in the coming months and plan to reveal the cover artwork to my newsletter in December. I will post it here on my blog sometime in January.
If you’d like to learn more about Wraith and the Revolution, a synopsis is available here: WRAITH AND THE REVOLUTION