Minh-Chu Buu was dead. No one could survive being that close to the churning asteroid field and imploding station. He said something before we left through the wormhole. “A bird does not sing because it has an answer.”
It's only the first half of an ancient Chinese proverb. The end is, “It sings because it has a song.”
Twelve Months and Twelve Days Later: an Afterword
By Randolph Lalonde
I wanted to write a science fiction novel. I had written several unpublished fantasy, horror and suspense novellas and novels but never had I stepped into science fiction. It was like the temple in which I worshipped, but wouldn't preach in. After independently publishing an ambitious fantasy title (Fate Cycle Sins of the Past) and a simple romantic novella (Fate Cycle Dead of Winter), and meeting with limited local success, I took a break from writing to try and make a better living.
Years later, as I considered my career path in November and December of 2007, I decided it was time to do something that was truly important to me, something that might just bring real happiness into my life. I made the new-year's resolution to write every day for the entire year. I started a blog to talk about the journey and decided that my first book would be a novella that only a few people would see. It was just going to be practice, back story and a way to experiment with a few concepts I had been developing since I was a child. I had wanted to write science fiction for over twenty years and had been thinking about it the entire time.
So, on January 1, 2008 I started work on Freeground. I didn't think there was a good chance of there being a sequel. In fact, I hadn't planned how the book would end. All I wanted to do with this test novella was to experiment, and boy did I ever. It would be my first piece of long fiction written in the first person, my first science fiction piece. I wanted the experience of reading it to resemble that of watching a television show or movie, and there were specific goals I had to meet by the end of the small book. I had to have a twist, a love interest that developed into a specific scene (see the Pilot's Ball chapter), and I needed to include some kind of fulfilment for the lead character, a clear indication to the reader that he felt like he had found his calling and was ready to start a new, bolder chapter to his life. I also wanted to include personality traits from several friends I had known for a couple of years online, and those of some long-time friends I hadn't seen in years. I wrote the whole thing in four days, three of which were shared with my full time job at the time; working as a customer support representative for a New York Cable company.
I didn't think Freeground was the best thing I'd ever written, and the twist in the middle (see the chapter; Dawn), didn't have the impact I wanted, but it was there, it was necessary, and in a minimalist sense it worked to further the story in a more timely way. I didn't want to change it or take it out for fear of slowing the pace down right in the middle of the story, so I didn't. After doing a quick round of editing and contacting several self publishing companies, I decided on a temporary printer so I could share the work in printed form and test it on people I had only just recently met at work and a few friends.
While I waited a month for those books to arrive, I continued to write, as was my goal. I enjoyed writing Freeground so much that I had to write the follow up. The adventures had to continue. I had some plot ideas for the First Light Chronicles Limbo that were huge risks, and instead of being careful and limiting myself so it was easier for me to make things plausible I decided to work harder. I'd keep all the plot risks (there are at least two that come to mind), and do my absolute best to ensure that they were believable and it was easier than I expected. The hardest part of Limbo, as it turned out, was writing the incarceration and interrogation of Jonas and his friends. Writing about a long, unexciting stay in a small, brightly lit cell turned out to be a kind of mental incarceration unto itself, but the longer I spent on those scenes, the more I understood what Jonas might be thinking. How he might be suffering in not knowing what was happening outside. Getting into the headspace of someone who was gradually losing hope was a challenge I didn't expect and once I had accomplished it I realized the heart of Limbo rested inside that cell and the interrogation room. Jonas Valent needed a chance to grow, to question himself, and I needed villains. Names and faces that could play counter to the needs and desires of our heroes. The Overlord II became an extension of General Collins and Major Hampon was the scrawny, wormy offspring of that intermarriage.
The grinding corporate machine took on a personality for me, a personality that would become the model for something else. Suddenly Limbo was also about building something; a dark, overhanging villain that the reader and I could start to understand and dislike.
When I was finished I discovered I liked Limbo a great deal. It had been completed in seven days. Editing took longer but that was because I knew there was a good chance that the First Light Chronicles series might be more than practice, more than simple back story. Someone might actually enjoy reading it almost as much as I loved writing it, but once again I had lost my objectivity and until I could get a second and third opinion, I wouldn't know if I had something good on my hands or just the beginning of an idea, something that needed to be pounded into a mould through successive drafts and editing.
Meanwhile, the copies of Freeground I had ordered arrived. I left a small stack of seven on my desk at work and sold a copy. A couple days later comments from that reader to my co-workers brought on the sale of the rest. People enjoyed it and very nearly demanded the next. The point wasn't to sell the books, but to get them to people who weren't afraid to offer an opinion. The books sold, and I got several opinions from people who weren't afraid to share constructive criticism. My writing wasn't up to the quality I wanted, so I wrote a short self help book for more practice before starting work on the First Light Chronicles Starfree Port and did an extra editing pass on Limbo. I was still having difficulty making the transition from a more technical style of writing to a less jagged style of fiction craft so I read several highly acclaimed novels from Romance, Drama, Fantasy and Science Fiction genres over the next few weeks. Taking a few days here and there to read several books from different genres is something I've done several times since I started this journey; it's a habit that'll stick.
As copies of Limbo were on their way to my home from the printers I started work on the First Light Chronicles Starfree Port. Decisions I had made at the beginning of Limbo ensured that there would only be one or two more First Light Chronicles books. The plotlines were growing, writing in the first person was becoming too confining to tell a more epic story and I was almost finished writing back story material.
It was official: the First Light Chronicles were just the foundation for a much larger story, but so much more than just practice. It took fourteen days to write Starfree Port then the refining began. Half the original draft was set in meeting rooms and quarters. A grand total of one hundred thirty one pages of exposition dialogue clogged the book up terribly. In the second draft I removed an entire plot line, cut eighty pages of dialogue by rewriting every meeting in the book and I added the first aliens to appear in the short series for comedy relief and a little more colour.
The third and final draft of the book was a half rewrite, the replacement of prologue and epilogue and the addition of another scene that was heavy on comedy relief (remember the “did he just say monkey?” bit? I'm sure I laughed harder than anyone who read it and kept it in at the last minute instead of going with my first instinct to cut it for being too silly).
There were a few plot risks in Starfree Port, but the biggest was the ending. I had been dreading and looking forward to writing the last chapter (which was moved to become the epilogue), ever since I started Limbo. It would be the end of the First Light Chronicles. It had to be powerful enough to not only inform the reader that the mini-series was over but it had to explain why. Those last two pages had to serve as a final statement by the main character as well. He was becoming something much more than himself, com
mitting a selfless act of sacrifice and demonstrating that he was no longer a self-centred individual but a man who served a greater purpose.
As I finished Starfree Port people started reading Limbo, and they were immediately excited to read Starfree Port which didn't arrive in the city until I had left my customer support job. Limbo was already an old novella to me, and I had lived with Starfree Port for over two months, writing, rewriting, editing and reading just that book. After all that time what stands out for me most is writing that ending. I was the perfect state of mind to write the short epilogue that brought the First Light Chronicles to an end, I honestly couldn't see the screen for the tears welling up in my eyes. Months later Geoff from SomaCow reviewed that book, and when he affirmed that those last two pages conveyed everything I had intended I literally leapt up out of my seat and did a happy dance that would put most football touchdowns to shame. There's nothing like taking a great big risk and finding out that it paid off.
By the time I started the first Spinward Fringe novella, Resurrection, I had been looking forward to writing it for decades, and with the First Light Chronicles providing a solid foundation I felt really good about penning a much darker, fully textured story about several characters that were making the best of a less than ideal situation right from the start.
Not long after finishing Resurrection, I began distribution of the First Light Chronicles series in an Omnibus through an eBook distributor in France, MobiPocket. After a few weeks it was the number one science fiction book on their site and I started to get emails, reviews and the dream of writing for a living drew nearer. As I write this I'm not quite there yet, but after hearing from people around the world who have enjoyed the First Light Chronicles and Spinward Fringe series books, I know there is a small following of fans that react to what I do honestly through the electronic wonder of the Internet. That following is growing, and I'm grateful to every one of them for following me on the journey that starts with the First Light Chronicles, a series of books that are back story, scene setters, the prequel I'll never have to write.
Now, with a wonderful editor, a couple proof readers and a year of writing behind me, I've gone through the First Light Chronicles books and refined the language, grammar, science and artistry of the work so it's all it can be. That's what you just read, and after re-reading and reflecting on it, I can still say I'm proud of what we've done.
With that work complete I can look ahead fully and continue writing science fiction with the Spinward Fringe series. I'll continue taking plot risks, developing new and old characters, and taking each and every reader into confidence as I tell them the stories closest to my heart through the wonderful universe of science fiction, where anything is possible.
Addendum: November 28, 2010
After a final, exhaustive edit for grammar and continuity conducted by Mr. Jason Black and I, the First Light Chronicles Trilogy was renamed Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins. I would remiss if I didn’t thank Mr. Black for all his hard work on this final edition and for working briskly even though I was paying him by the hour. In all seriousness, he helped provide the polish this book deserves. Without the support of readers across the globe, I would have never been able to afford a professional editor, or to continue to offer this book for free.
As of this moment, I’m making a living entertaining people by writing eBooks. I’m working on Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework, where so many things come full circle, reaching all the way back to what you just finished reading, Broadcast 0. I hope you enjoyed this book. Welcome to the crew.
The Story Continues
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 1: Resurrection
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 2: Awakening
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 3: Triton
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 4: Frontline
The Rogue Element Trilogy Includes
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 5: Fracture
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 6: Fragments
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 7: Framework
And In Other Spinward Fringe Books
Other Books By Randolph Lalonde
The Sons Of Brightwill
Dark Arts
For More Information Visit
http://www.spinwardfringe.com
Table of Contents
Books by Randolph Lalonde
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins Page 55
