Space Opera With a Twist

Month: July 2018

Moving Right Along

I’m pleased to say Without Mercy (Siobhan Dunmoore Book 5) has reached the 2/3 completion mark.  That means all things going well, it’ll come out in mid to late September, unless I put on a sudden burst of productivity in the next 2-3 weeks.  It being mid-summer, with life slowing down for a little while, I rather think steady as she goes will remain the order of the day.  After all, even a full-time writer is allowed a few weeks off every year.  At least work on the old homestead is pretty much done for the year, what with me putting the final touches on regrading the ground along a section of foundation so that torrential rain flows away from the house instead of into my basement workshop.  With a nice layer of decorative stones and a few garden-style “objets d’art” that section of the backyard looks pretty spiffy.  But since it involved moving almost half a ton of drainage gravel and the aforementioned stones from the garden center to my back yard over the weekend, I’m ready to take a break from anything physical this week.  But not from writing.  Dunmoore is about to fight her old foe Brakal, though neither knows yet the other commands the opposing force.  That should change once I pick up the story later today.

 

I Did It Again

I suppose it was inevitable.  After having so much fun building a scale model of Siobhan Dunmoore’s current command, the Q-ship Iolanthe, I had to go back and build a scale model of her previous ship, the frigate Stingray.  Here she is in all her glory.  I’ve tried to build her to the same scale as Iolanthe, and eventually, I’ll post a picture of both together, but not today (by the way, that clear plastic thing underneath is a stand and not part of the model).

Stingray copy

And with that, I have no more excuses to play around while Without Mercy (Siobhan Dunmoore Book 5) remains unfinished.  Unless I start trying my hand at green screen photography and Photoshop both models against a starry background, something Mrs Thomson is encouraging me to try.  In any case, I’ve passed the halfway mark on Dunmoore #5, so I’m still on target.  In the meantime, if you haven’t read Ashes of Empire: Imperial Sunset, do yourself a favor and get it.  So far, the reviews have been uniformly positive.

Productive Procrastination

Like most authors, I’m prone to bouts of procrastination, especially after publishing a novel.  Never fear, Siobhan Dunmoore’s fifth adventure is still proceeding, if at a slower pace right now – I’m almost half-way done.  However, I decided to give myself a few days off from writing, since Imperial Sunset seems to be doing so well, but this time, I used my spare hours more productively than surfing the internet or binging on Netflix.  In fact, I build myself a little piece of inspiration, which is now sitting in my office.

Iolanthe SM

It started life as a kit for another star ship altogether, but with a bit of bashing, a bit of rummaging in my spare parts bins and a lot of imagination, I turned it into the Q-Ship Iolanthe pretty much as I’d imagined her from the start.  As you can see, her gun turrets are deployed and she’s in full “Furious Faerie” mode, ready to take on any Shrehari, pirate, reiver or marauder.

Looking at the model, I can now see everything as I write: the bridge and combat information center, along with crew quarters, messes, etc, in the forward section; the shuttle hangar and cargo holds in the middle section (you can see the space doors); the missile launcher bay, which is on the middle section’s underside (the black stripe); the Marine barracks and brig which are immediately aft of the middle section; and of course, engineering with the reactors, environmental scrubbers, antimatter fuel containment units, etc, etc, etc, in the aftmost section.  As you can see, the model is resting on her hyperdrive nacelles while up top there are two sublight drives, one on each side, and two decoy sublight drives which hold the massive aft plasma guns.

I need to take a better picture, with a suitable background and all, but I wanted to share my newest project – finished earlier today – with all the Siobhan Dunmoore fans who are awaiting her latest adventure.