The Word Is Given

The File Has Been Created, and the first words of the first chapter of Book 09 have been written:

“In nine days time, this entire planet will be a molten sphere of fiery hot magma,” said David Alkema.

Keeler breathed a heavy sigh and considered the enormity of what he had just heard. He turned and addressed his crew. “All right, shore-leave is limited to one week for everybody. No exceptions!”

Book 08 Part II

I anticipate this is going to be a 50-60 pp story, and I am on page 30 of the first draft. Considering it's not a tightly woven ball of plotty wotties like some of the previous stories, its moving along pretty briskly. For WA, this is one of the lamer plots, but I am having fun with the characters and cultural refs.

Like I said, Part II will focus on minor characters.

-Specialist Atlantic
-Flight Lieutenant Arambaruzabala
-Doctor Skinner
-Technician Savagewood
-Warfighter Herrald
-Specialist Brainiacsdaughter

All of whom have popped up in earlier stories.

I must remind myself never again to pick a main character with a difficult-to-spell 14-letter last name.

Update One of my characters just started unexpectedly ranting like a 9-11 Troofer. That caught me by surprise.

Meanwhile, Some Book 08 Trivia

I've put Hellfire Part 1 on the website. It can be accessed through this link: Hellfire Part 1.

The novel Technician Jeff is reading, Lord of the Hissy-Fit, is a reference to the Longmire Does Romance Novels web page.

• The Hellions were inspired by characters in bad Japanese space operas, like Fugitive Alien.
• Solarites is a reference to MST3K Episode “Phantom Planet.”
• Max Jordan bouncing the ball against the wall of the shuttle parallels Eddie Roebuck doing the same thing in Book 01
• Driver’s reference to “self-lives” is a nod to George Orwell’s 1984.
• Driver’s quote “He said ‘Gurp’ and then he said ‘Good’ and then he died” is a reference to The World According to Garp.
• Quiet City is a reference to the 1940’s radio serial Six-Shooter.
• Goldeneyes Dactylos is a reference to Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld” books.
• Ludicrous Speed is a reference to Spaceballs.
• Once again, a term from the 20th Century is given a new meaning. Much as “landing gear” refers to the clothing and equipment used by away teams when exploring a new planet is a re-use of “landing gear” meaning the wheels and stuff underneath a plane, here “catalytic converter” is used to refer to equipment used in Tritium refining, and has nothing to do with pollution control devices on 20th century cars.
• Matthew Driver and Trajan riffing on the “Hellfire: Wonder of the Galaxy” video was inspired by the MST3K shorts “Assignment Venezuela” and “Progress Island USA.”
• Atlas Colony (from Fiddler’s Green) is referenced again.
• In Chapter 6, Change tells the Hellions, ““You wouldn’t say that if you knew Flight Captain Driver…” In Chapter 9, Driver says, “You don’t know Lieutenant Commander Change like I do…” I didn’t notice this bookend until I was going through the final edit. I think these two still like each other as friends even though the romantic thing didn’t work out for them.
• When Max Jordan responds to “Are you all right?” With “I’m Super, Thanks for Asking,” he’s using a line from South Park, Bigger Longer and Uncut.
• Note the company the Hellions work for is ‘Crucial Space Fuels.” The abandoned building the crew explored in Crucible had a sign in front reading ‘Crucial Hydrocarbons.’

Book 08 Hellfire Part 1 now on line

I've put Hellfire Part 1 on the website. It can be accessed through this link: Hellfire Part 1.

It won't be visible on the website until I complete the facelift that I do every time I finish one of these. The new look for worlds-apart.net is going to be much more spare and minimalistic in acknowledgement of the simple fact that I suck at web design.