From Start to End
I typically have a lot of projects going at once, and since I published The Recognition a few years ago, I haven’t actually come to the end of a story. The only stories that have gotten endings are The Plight of Steel (the first novel) and The Recognition, and so to cap off another novel was an incredibly rewarding feeling – especially one that I love as much as this one.
I set out to write a Sci-fi novel that I would personally find interesting enough to pick up in a book store. The past couple months have seen me looming around my local Chapters, scouring the Sci-fi section for stuff to read. Most of it, in all honesty, is quite dull. “Space princess (insert name) has to overcome her terrible living situation and discover her inner strength to stop the alien invasion” – or something of that nature. Not sure why this is the typicality now; maybe I’m just picking up the wrong books.
Anyway, I sought to write what I would personally want to read – something with a synopsis just odd and unique enough to draw my attention. Ceres, I believe accomplishes this.
It’s heavily inspired by the works of Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, and many others I’ve been reading recently. In comparison to The Plight of Steel, the book is short, but packed with enough interesting content to make up for it. I wouldn’t want it longer, or shorter – it’s just the length it needs to be; no filler or bullshit.
This book also marks a big step in my writing career. I’m going to try and submit it to some publishers and see what happens. The problem with that is: most publishers I’m looking at (ones who don’t require an agent) want books over a certain word count. Ceres doesn’t hit most of them, but there are certain publishers who will take manuscripts anyway. I can’t begin to guess whether they’ll still reject it based on the length or not.
If so, I can lick my wounds and self-publish as I usually do, though I would love to try and get it through someone like BAEN, who would get the book into stores.
The cover above is temporary, as well. If a publisher accepts the manuscript, then the design is mostly out of my hands. If not, then I have plans to contract an artist in designing a really stand-out cover. If you’ve been following my social media, then you’ve likely seen my little figurines. These are really cool. I modeled them in Blender, then 3D printed and painted them. I now have some of the characters from the book sitting on my desk, which, aside from satisfying my desire for little statuettes and figures of things, was incredibly helpful when writing. I can look down and see a character in enough detail to aid in description writing.
I am incredibly excited for the release of this book. All that’s left at this stage is to get the manuscript read by multiple pairs of eyes – a kind of trial reader base to detect any common issues, then a final couple edits by myself to tie everything together.
This book is odd, unique, and incredibly thought-provoking. It gets you to think uncomfortable thoughts about strange situations – and trust me, these situations are strange. I’ve never read anything like this, myself, and have therefore accomplished my task of crafting a book I’d be interested in buying at the store. Hopefully, you will agree.
A trailer is also made, and should be coming out at some point, perhaps in conjunction with the release of the book.