April 2020 – Eric Thomson's Starship Stories

I just wrote the final word to Ashes of Empire: Imperial Night. I’d planned on being done at the beginning of April, not the end, but whatever. The world isn’t normal right now and I doubt I’m the only author whose timelines slipped as we watched reality become stranger than fiction. I’m giving myself tomorrow off, then on Monday, I’ll start the long and laborious revision process to polish the story before my editor sees it. That usually takes me about three weeks, so you can expect to see the pre-order go up on Amazon, Kobo, and Google Play sometime around mid-May with an early June publication date. It’ll be available through all retailers at that time, but those three are the only ones where pre-orders aren’t a massive pain in the rear end.

Imperial Night marks the end of the saga’s first cycle. The tale isn’t over by a long shot and there will be more stories in the coming years, set decades if not centuries later. To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, Imperial Night isn’t the beginning of the saga’s end but it is the end of the saga’s beginning. You’ll see what I mean when you read it in a few weeks.

In the meantime, winter’s back is definitely broken in our part of the world. Our ageing little dog has resumed his walks, brief as they are, Mrs Thomson has resumed gardening, one of her favorite activities, and I’m preparing my outdoor kitchen.

Stay safe and healthy wherever you are, fellow humans. Peace.

I just realized it’s been over three weeks since my last blog post. Like a lot of people, no doubt, I’ve been watching world events unfold with a sort of bizarre fascination. It’s a bit like living in a Michael Crichton or Stephen King novel. Here in the Great White North, we’re practicing physical distancing like there’s no tomorrow. Mrs Thomson is now in week three of working from home, while I venture out once a week to restock on consumables. But in many respects, my life hasn’t changed all that much, since I’ve been working in my home office day in and day out for over four years. Mrs Thomson and I are among the lucky ones these days, since neither of us was laid off (although I tried to get paid vacation from my boss – the bearded dude I see in the mirror every morning. Damned slave driver said no.) But as we’re in the latter part of our fifties, and I’m an ex-smoker, we’re also in a slightly more vulnerable demographic so we take our precautions. So far, so good. I recall having one or two brief bouts with flu symptoms back in January so who knows? Since we can’t go to the gym every morning nowadays, we try to take brisk 45-60 minute walks around our neighborhood, along with plenty of others doing their best to keep a two meter distance. But we seem to be exchanging greetings with strangers far more often than before. Go figure. It all feels a bit surreal, though fortunately, we don’t lack for humor, such as this example, which should amuse any of you who, like me, were trained in bayonet fighting at some point in your military career:

One of the side effects of watching all this unfold hour by hour is that productivity on Ashes of Empire: Imperial Night has suffered, just when my editor finds herself with plenty of spare time. Granted, I noticed only the other day that I had a structural defect in the story that needed correcting before it would work. It’s now fixed and I’m slowly inching up to 90% completion, but I can no longer promise a May publication date. June would probably be more realistic.

Stay safe and healthy wherever you are, fellow humans, and stay away from each other. Peace.