So I've written an SF novel published on Amazon...

[Steve]

I've been writing a series of novels for Daniel Gibbs' "Echoes of War" setting, depicting a crew of independent spacers operating in the neutral systems outside of the war covered in the main series.

Well, as of today, the first book is now available on Amazon for Kindle download.

"Breach of Peace" will also have a paperback edition, although we're a week or so from that being available. The good news is that the bits-and-bytes version is only $0.99!

I hope everyone will give it a try and that I've made the characters and places interesting enough to get you to come back for the other books. Although I must warn Shroom this is fairly strait-laced. There are politicos and admiralissimos and stuff. But there's also a left-wing ex-revolutionary, a fooking Boer engineer, and some other characters he might enjoy.

Also, Russian Old Believer space pirates!

(Yeah, I'm kinda not very good at promotional stuff, I'm afraid...)

[wellis]

What are they about generally? How "hard" in science are they beyond the obvious superscience of FTL?

[Steve]

What are they about generally? How "hard" in science are they beyond the obvious superscience of FTL?

I'd say partway between Expanse and Star Trek. Their tech includes some energy weapons, energy shields, tractor beam-like tech, and a system for artificially reducing vvelocity without the "flip and burn" of harder SF settings. OTOH, their sublight propulsion is all basically from real life scientific theories and practice (ion, electro-plasma, and fusion-based rockets/drives). There are no replicators. Anti-matter-based power is cutting edge and nearly new. Interstelllar comms are a combination of tachyon stuff, IIRC, and quantum entanglement-based systems. Firearms, chem and magnetic, are still valued, although some hand-held energy weapons exist, including xasers (x-ray lasers) and plasma guns. Artificial gravity.

[Shroom Man 777]

Congratulations! I've long wanted to see what you could do when unshackled from fanfics with their conventions and the limitations of the settings and properties they use.

And nice pen name.

Although I must warn Shroom this is fairly strait-laced.

Hey! I love Expanse, Firefly, Mass Effect, they're pretty straight laced sci-fi but they've infused enough grit,viscerality, street-level cultural details and life how it's like and how it's different beyond the captain's bridge, etc. putting them above standard suburban sci-fi.

[Heretic]

Been busy so apologies for not getting to your superb stories, Steve, but bought the paperback edition and can't wait to read it!

[Steve]

Congratulations! I've long wanted to see what you could do when unshackled from fanfics with their conventions and the limitations of the settings and properties they use.

And nice pen name.

Although I must warn Shroom this is fairly strait-laced.

Hey! I love Expanse, Firefly, Mass Effect, they're pretty straight laced sci-fi but they've infused enough grit,viscerality, street-level cultural details and life how it's like and how it's different beyond the captain's bridge, etc. putting them above standard suburban sci-fi.

Yeah, sorry, I just mentally associate you with Jodorowsky and Moebius-style SF with bizarre elements it seems. Probably has to do with SOTS.

Also, I could always use more ratings, there's only like seven so far.

[Steve]

So, second book's been out for a week now.

[Siege]

You, sir, are a machine. The paperback version of your first book is on my to-buy list for the next Amazon order. I'm looking forward to reading it... Now to find a way to get your signature too

[Steve]

You, sir, are a machine. The paperback version of your first book is on my to-buy list for the next Amazon order. I'm looking forward to reading it... Now to find a way to get your signature too

The close release is because that's how Gibbs was encouraged by other Amazon-publishing authors to do it: you put a series together and release it quickly to maintain interest, something like that.

Plus there was the fact the first book, initially conceived as a stand-alone, went long and we decided to fission it into two books since cutting it down would gut the story.

[Steve]

Third book just went live as an eBook.

For anyone who prefers paperbacks, the second book should have that format available sometime soon, the cover design had to be completed and submitted and the holidays delayed that. I don't have an ETA though, it takes Amazon time to put it up even when the cover's submitted.

[Steve]

The fourth book, "Breach of Trust", is now out, concluding the series. Ebook format only right now.

[Heretic]

Just came back after a long hiatus (again) and want to say holy shit, you're on a roll, Steve. Tell me your secret to such a extensive writing spree.

[Steve]

Just came back after a long hiatus (again) and want to say holy shit, you're on a roll, Steve. Tell me your secret to such a extensive writing spree.

Well, it took me a year to write those four books, so it's not that much of a spree.

I find that I tend to pick up the pace as I near the end of a book or other work. For instance, that last book? I wrote 20,000+ words of it in the space of 48 hours at the end of February, and I'd been writing it since December. A seventh of the book in something like a thirtieth of the overall time I spent writing it.

[Heretic]

Damn that's impressive. Do you tend to write as you go or do you plan every little detail? The amount of stuff in the Undiscovered Frontier stories are quite detailed, so I'd be very impressed if you wrote this stuff on the fly.

[Steve]

Damn that's impressive. Do you tend to write as you go or do you plan every little detail? The amount of stuff in the Undiscovered Frontier stories are quite detailed, so I'd be very impressed if you wrote this stuff on the fly.

I used to be more the former, with broad outlines in my mind. But starting around 3-05 of the UF series, I've been more of an outline writer, I write a story's outline first then write the specific bits, changing things if I find new ideas.

With the "Breach" novels, the first two were not outlined, and the second two were. Given the first two were meant to be one and had to go through various adjustments and rewrites even before the first draft was done, the outline approach did wonders and I'll likely be sticking to it.

[Steve]

Dunno who's still paying attention to this forum, but I ended up doing three more books.

The first of these, "Spacer's Luck", is now available digitally and as a (pricey) print-on-demand paperback.

[Steve]

Book 6 is out, BTW. The series link also allows you to preorder book 7, the finale of the followup books.

[Siege]

God Steve, you keep writing 'em faster than I can read 'em

Seriously though, great work.

[Steve]

The final book-I-really-mean-it-this-time is now out.

Fans of aliens who have non-standard but comprehensible cultures may really like this one and the previous one, given how I establish the Jalm'tar.