Tuesday, November 24, 2009

So what am I writing about?

Well to start with, I'm a sucker for science fiction and fantasy stories and always have been. I guess it comes from having an active imagination that is best played out in worlds where you can break through all of the limitations of our own. I read lots of different works throughout my teenage years and am always open to new stories and imaginative writers.

My writing started shortly after I picked up Grey Knights by Ben Counter. It's a great story set in the Warhammer 40000 universe and I loved it so much I wanted to emulate it. I started writing on the Black Library publishing forums and got a lot of help and advice on what needed work from the people there. After a long stint of writing in the Black Library settings (and nearly getting a short story published) I started to get more interested in creating my own worlds rather than being tied into the warhammer setting.

Currently I have one novel in the works which is about 80-85% finished. It's a fantasy steampunk-ish sort of setting, though I don't like to label genres too much. I've also got two strong ideas for other stories that I will get to work on once I finish the first. The loose summaries are below:

'Wind and Steel' (working title) - While traveling to their new home in Brunswich, a horrendous accident tears apart the Stentleton family. The son, David, is killed and the youngest daughter, Janie, is believed to be dead. The story follows the older daughter, Catherine, as she struggles to become a female engineer in a society that does not tolerate women in men's roles and Janie's tale to become part of the desert-dwelling tribe who rescued her from her fate after the accident. Unfortunately for both sisters, their two different cultures are set on a collision course and they will play key roles in the conflict.

Ghost Stars - An alien-human conflict that grew out of a misunderstanding has boiled over into a war that threatens the fledging human expansion into space. The alien's superior technology is too strong of a factor to defeat until a spy mission determines that it is an automated spacebound forge, a remnant of an older civilisation, that is making the advanced ships for the aliens. The Stiletto, a converted deep space scientific vessel, is the only vessel with the range to reach the isolated Ghost stars where the forge is. Deep in the Eagle Nebula, the crew know they will have nobody else to rely on in their quest to destroy or disable the forge. But when a traitor in their midst kills two key members of the command team, Lieutenant Galdamez must take command of a frightened and stressed team and guide them through the cold reaches of space or there will be no hope for humanity in the war.

Untitled - In the not too distant future a global war, allegedly over alien technology, has shattered the world as we know it. The remnants of the United States have fallen under control of the totalitarian Vocare Dei (VD) Christian party. Their manifesto tolerates no deviance from the word of the lord and certainly no mention of aliens existing. The war was punishment for a lack of faith and to deviate from the strict VD line will bring about another apocalypse. Unfortunately for Dana Swyler, a cleaner at the VD headquarters in the former Capitol, when she takes a wrong turn in the inner sanctum of the headquarters she finds solid evidence of alien technology on earth. Now, as a person wanted both by the government and by the resistance (to whom she the only witness to proof of alien influence on Earth), she is put on the run, questioning who she can trust. Will her knowledge help the resistance to finally bring down the oppressive government or will Dana shy away from the harsh methods that the the resistance will employ?

4 comments:

  1. It's interesting to see the number of people who have been inspired by writing 40k fiction to start writing original fiction. I hope your efforts are as rewarding as they sound :) Are you just going with novels or do you also write short stories?

    What was your nic on the BL forums?

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  2. Hey Sholto. All of the ideas I've put down here are likely to be novels (or novellas perhaps). I've not got anything against short stories, but the ideas but all of the ideas that have hit me (save one) feel more like novel length.

    I'm glad I started with 40k, for the fun, but I'm also really enjoying having the freedom to create everything. I learned so much from the BL forums on how to write and structure things and doing the competitions definitely helped really tighten up my work.

    I went by the nickname Little Pete on the forums and my most well known work was called Illuminus. It was all about a Grey Knight Illuminatus and featured lots of fun fluff bending like Sensei and Primarchs. I will probably post it up on here when I figure out how.

    Thumbs up on the writing part of your website by the way. I've followed your work for quite a while (since I joined BL) and it's great stuff. I think my favourite still has to be the short story about the warboss in captivity. Excellent way to turn the bullied into 'Da Boss'.

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  3. Cool ideas, Pete. I am curious how Wind and Steel turns out. Do you find it hard to write from a woman's perspective? I would. I can't even figure out my own wife's perspective sometimes...

    With your blog are you going to start to post pieces of fiction following a character or storyline, with each post being a new chapter?

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  4. Hey OSH, I'd be happy to send you some of the chapters if you'd like to have ar read.

    Writing from a female perspective is really interesting and I hope I've done a good job at it. I'm always asking for friends and family to read through because I suppose I'm still unsure if I've got it right. Mostly I think I'm there though.

    I'm not sure how (or if) I'll post any of my novel fiction. I'd love to get them up for publication someday and so I'm reluctant to expose them too much for free online. It was certainly the case with Black Library that they wouldn't publish any 40k fiction that had been posted up on the forums so I want to stay away from that. I'll definitely put up my 40k pieces as and when I get the time to do so. Not sure whether it would be better to put them all on the website or whether I can host them for download.

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