(1261.23) “This Side of Hibernation”
Due to a number of seasonal events taking place on the home front, there has been very little progress on any of my projects lately. However, I was able to sit down with the laptop for a few hours whilst doing the laundry over the weekend and complete Chapter 23 of Twelve Sixty-One. The new chapter has now been posted to the Library under the title of “This Side of Hibernation”.
The re-write of Chapter 21 (which is mostly a personnel background section) has stalled, but this will not prevent you from continuing on with this new one.
Lady Margaret’s List
Although Blue Horizon has been my primary project since 1996, there are times when my creativity just doesn’t want to focus on it. As I get older, I have discovered that Writer’s Block seems to hit me more often than it used to do, but instead of sitting back and letting Lady Margaret (my Muse) take a vacation, I have several other projects to make her focus upon. I believe I’ve mentioned one or two of them in the past, but here are the writing projects that occupy my time when Margaret is around.
- Blue Horizon (anthropomorphic space freighter crew)
- Twelve Sixty-One (early days of Blue Horizon)
- Treasure Hunt: Flight of the Zephyr (psionic time-travel space adventure)
- Sunset of Furmankind (anthropomorphic transformation and colonization)
At the moment, the words for Twelve Sixty-One are not flowing, so for the past couple of days, I have been working on Sunset of Furmankind.
The Interstellar News Network
For many years, the message board / forum for Blue Horizon has been called the “Interstellar News Network” (INN) after the primary news feed in the stories. Due to moves between webhosts, server disasters or other events, it has gone through several formats and incarnations, the last back in 2005.
Since most of my own posts to INN were of news, updates and announcements, my own involvement in the message board has lessened since moving those topics to this weblog application. Although still active, member discussions there have trickled down to occasional posts by a loyal few, so I had posted a query there on the possibility of shutting it down altogether. A few responses convinced me to leave it in place for current and future members, but a little renaming has taken place.
Following the original description of INN, that name has been tranferred to this weblog site, and the forum is now “The Recreation Deck” — a place for the friends and fans of Blue Horizon to discuss the stories and/or general topics. You may find a link to The Recreation Deck on the right side of this weblog page for future visits.
Commenting has also been enabled for this site, but you must be registered and signed in to do so.
Welcome to the new Interstellar News Network.
Trade Paperbacks Discontinued
Due to nonexistent sales, all four of the smaller trade paperback Blue Horizon collections through our bookstore with Lulu Press have been discontinued. Although the trades are smaller and easier to carry around for reading and commuting, the larger collected volumes have always been more economical and have been the only volumes sold in a long while.
I have my private collection of the trades, each containing a separate Season from the Captain’s library, but for now the only hardcopy books of the Blue Horizon adventures will be available in the large 2-volume collected set.
Thanks to those who have long expressed an interest in the books. The stories are still available online and in hardcopy, whichever you prefer.
“Sunset of Furmankind”
Although the chapters for Twelve Sixty-One are not yet completed, you may read the opening prologue and first chapter of a new novel-length tale I will put into full production during 2009 / 2010. The story will be set in a different reality than Blue Horizon and will be unrelated to other projects I have previously written. You can find the preview chapters through a link on the Blue Horizon Library page
(1261.22) “Chilly Down”
I am currently stalled working on the re-write of Chapter 21 of Twelve Sixty-One, but I decided to go ahead and post Chapter 22 to the Library under the title of “Chilly Down”.
Reflections & Combinations
Nearing the end of Chapter 22, I had a sudden memory resurgence that reminded me I had missed a chapter! Something I had planned apparently never made it into my story notes, so it slipped by me during the writing. Since Chapter 21 (”Sticks & Stones”) turned out to be a rather short section, I am going to combine it with Chapter 22 (”Chilly Down”) and then insert a new Chapter 21 (tentatively called “Spatial Reflection”).
(1261.21) “Sticks & Stones”
Chapter 21 of Twelve Sixty-One has been posted to the Library under the title of “Sticks & Stones”. This is an extremely short chapter that only adds to the story a few elements previously mentioned in the original series. No real firecrackers, but more of a bridge between chapters.
(1261.20) “Apparition”
Chapter 20 of Twelve Sixty-One has been posted to the Library under the title of “Apparition”.
(1261.10 — 1261.19) Posted
Change of plans. Rather than post the chapters once every two weeks, I have decided to post everything I have written so far, and then will post new chapters as they are written. I tried to maintain a chapter buffer so I could write well ahead of what was posted online, but looking at the posting schedule, this would put the end of the story posted online sometime in August of 2009. While it might take me a while yet to finish the story with all its proposed chapters, I did not want the Readers to have to wait quite that long to make it through this tale.
It was also my original intent to produce a hardcopy publication of this story on the Lulu Press storefront after it was completed, but after extended consideration, I have decided that this story will be an online-only reflection upon the original beginning of Captain Sinclair’s business. It does not have as much action as the original Blue Horizon stories, and is merely presented for the Readers as an account of those early days.
For those who are reading it as it is posted, please keep in mind that this is a work-in-progress, and that until such time as the whole story is completed, chapters already posted may be altered if the need arises to align events with later chapters for continuity.
Posted:
(1261.10) “Bookends”
(1261.11) “Shared Heartburn”
(1261.12) “Personal Preparations”
(1261.13) “The Human Adventure”
(1261.14) “All for Nothing”
(1261.15) “Who’s Giggling Now?”
(1261.16) “Worth it All”
(1261.17) “Second Thoughts”
(1261.18) “Portrait of Nine”
(1261.19) “Thrust into the Path”