Just a light one today. I wanted to talk a bit about some future projects as well as the currently running Star Wanderers campaign. We have a bit under a week left to go so I wanted to give another solid push to get more backers to help us reach that stretch goal in order for everyone to receive more goodies. What better way to do that then to talk about the stories themselves?
There is also not too much else to talk about this week. Summer is almost on the way and the energy in the scene seems to be getting more heated and excited, which is always fun. New projects are starting to pop up, as I mentioned last time, and all in all its just a fun time to be doing what we do. I always quite enjoy this time of year.
Anyway, today I mostly wanted to show off some more of the AI images I played around with, especially since they pertain to the Star Wanderers campaign (less than a week left!) as we strive to hit the stretch goals before time runs out. After that, stick around for a little surprise at the bottom of today's post!
I'll also use this opportunity today to say a little bit about each story in the collection, and maybe even hint at what is to come in the future. So let's have some fun and get into it!
Here are the stories of Star Wanderers.
Ronan Renfield lands on a swampy world that has been overtaken by death and decay-worshiping cultists! [First Published in Cirsova Magazine of Thrilling Adventure and Daring Suspense, Vol. 2 Issue 11, 2022]
This is where it all begins, at least as far as Detective Renfield goes. This wasn't the first Galactic Enforcer story I wrote, but it is the one that accurately lays out what the series is all about. In the distant future, when humanity has broken up and divided in a universe of fragmented islands, someone has to make sure it's still safe from what waits in the dark.
And what is it that waits in the dark? It's not quite what you'd expect, or at least it's not something that will leave you alone because you either don't believe in it or want to think its on your side. No matter how advanced you think you are, some things will never change.
"Dead Planet Drifter" was inspired directly by CL Moore, specifically her story "Song in a Minor Key" which is more of a fragment. It is also the last story she wrote featuring her hero Northwest Smith. The general gist of it centers on a break in the action of some other story where Smith remembers where he came from through shaken memories that are long ago from another person he no longer is. I decided to use that as a springboard into this Galactic Enforcer story, but with a quite different twist.
I've actually heard different theories in regards to what actually happens in this one and what is real or not, to the point that I've been asked if it's "reality" myself, but I can't really answer that. Not because I don't want to, but because I can't in the context of how this works. Humanity went off into space and broke off, and when you do that you can't help but lose pieces and fragments along the way, slipping through the void. Renfield is a "Dead Planet Drifter" in the sense of the plot events, and even what happens in later stories, but the story is not just named after him here. How he is able to succeed at all is because he brings with him what this world in particular as forgotten.
But that's enough of that. This is where we truly begin our journey.
The Agent travels to the ice planet Ouranos in pursuit of a genocidal mad scientist who has holed up in a lost city! [First Published in Planetary Anthology Uranus, 2020]
The Agent, on the other hand, is a related but quite different beast. He was also published first. I had long pictured a lone warrior with a flaming sword hopping from planet to planet and scorching out the rot in his quest across the galaxy, though he was always a separate person from the above Galactic Enforcer. The main difference is that we do not know his name or who sent him (though we might learn some of that eventually) and that his journey follows an arc that mimics our own seasons on Earth. In other words, Star Wanderers contains his complete arc.
Our hero floats about to burn the dead wood and replant the surviving flower bed in more fertile soil. This is because even in the future man is still prone to killing itself even with technology that would make those of us living today jealous. Evil doesn't just get grown out of--but then again, neither does Good. The future won't be as different as materialists used to claim, at least on that level. You can never outrun your sins, after all.
"Cold Heart of Ouranos" involves our hero descending into the dark of an ice planet and finding just what happened to a world that once held promise ages ago. Is it too late for Ouranos and those who still live there? You'll just have to read on and find out.
This one set up a lot of what I would do later, both in these particular Star Wanderer stories and otherwise. I am pleased that it is finally back in print again because I still remember how happy I was when I first finished it up and submitted it (and got accepted!) to the original Planetary Anthology a few years back. Funny to think its already been some years since then.
Ronan faces down a diabolical terrorist leader who uses illegal technology to carve a mystical paradise out of reality itself! [First Published in Storyhack Action and Adventure, issue 7, 2021]
Now we're getting into the weeds. "Golden Echoes" is one of those pieces that I really think I pushed myself to a new level in order to complete. It was also published in the last (to date) issue of Storyhack magazine, which I still recommend heartily to this day.
This is the first Ronan Renfield story I wrote, it is also the one that took the longest to get out of my mind and put it down to paper. Before this, I didn't really know how to process these bizarre future stories I had in mind, my short stories mostly being the magic against powers tales of Someone is Aiming for You & Other Adventures. Once "Golden Echoes" came out, however, it changed a lot of the ways I approached writing and storytelling.
Despite that, it's still a weird adventure unlike any you've come across with quite the bizarre ending. I never skimp on the action, and this story is no different in that aspect.
For those curious, the title was taken from a Gerard Manley Hopkins poem called "The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo" which struck me when I first read it. That poem is what helped the story come into focus.
A quote from the poem:
O then, weary then whý should we tread? O why are we so
haggard at the heart, so care-coiled, care-killed, so fagged,
so fashed, so cogged, so cumbered,
When the thing we freely fórfeit is kept with fonder a care,
Fonder a care kept than we could have kept it, kept
Far with fonder a care (and we, we should have lost it) finer, fonder
A care kept. Where kept? Do but tell us where kept, where.–
Yonder.–What high as that! We follow, now we follow.–
Yonder, yes yonder, yonder,
Yonder.
Alchemy, turning lead to gold, is the theme of this poem, but what if the gold being sought was not . . . quite right? This is the story that solidified a bit of the early formula of Renfield's missions, though they would not all go this same way.
Essentially, Ronan Renfield is a space cop meant to stop terrorists and dark art users from breaking the fabric of reality and turning it into their own playground. But, as the expression goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Different motivations, different end goals, and different plans, all of which are destined to end in disaster because the natural order is not meant to be trifled with. Galactic Enforcers are not miracle workers or all-knowing. It's a big universe out there.
Renfield, despite it all, is not a superhero. He does not have powers. He is just a normal man with a gun and a license to stop lawbreakers from across the stars--some of which do not even recognize his profession. The law he serves just happens to be of a higher kind . . .
A cursed sorceress queen is doomed to conquer and seek revenge her wrongs, driven by a mysterious entity known as the Artisan! [All New Story!]
This was actually one of the last stories I wrote of the eight in this collection. It took me awhile to figure out just how to process the framing of the story and the implications it had on the wider world of both The Agent and the Galactic Enforcers while also showing there is much more going on than just their battles in the wide open stage that is the galaxy. In fact, there is an entire universe outside of their struggles.
I had also written an entire story with this same title that I scrapped for the reason that it just kind of felt like it had no purpose aside from being there. The final result is much different, and better, than the original one that's been recycled into better parts elsewhere. It's also now more relevant to the other tales in the collection.
Of all the stories in Star Wanderers, this one is the most traditionally Sword & Sorcery, though the ending reveal might challenge that assertion a bit. Regardless, this one continues the trend of every story of The Agent not being directly about him (even the first, told from his perspective, is mostly about his observations of Ouranos), which will continue in the next story. He is just an agent for a Higher Cause.
It should also be mentioned that "Armageddon Spring" is one of the stories in the collection that struck Alex from Cirsova the most.
As he said on Twitter/X:
"This is one of the most fascinating in the collection to me; while it's only loosely connected to most of the other tales of Ronan and the Agent, this sword & sorcery fairytale provides a lot of deep and greater context for the world of the Star Wanderers!"
It's also all brand new and exclusive to this collection. You're only going to read it here!
A young woman barely escapes the twisted human experimentation of the supposedly peaceful Plateau and it is up to Ronan to keep her alive! [All New Story!]
I had a really hard time putting this one together. In fact, for whatever reason, it's probably the short story of all I've completed that has had the most rewrites, entire gutting and excising of passages and events, and even perspective changes. Of any I've ever actually put out, this is the one I struggled with my muse the most. I couldn't even really tell you why because the story itself has never really changed, but it just never came out right. Obviously, I started on this one when I was a younger and less experienced writer, and it's not something that happens so much anymore, but it did eventually solidify into what it is now.
If I recall correctly, I started this one after "Golden Echoes" and "Cold Heart of Ouranos" ages ago, but I didn't get it completely done and written the way I felt satisfied until before I started on the last story in this collection. Normally I would just abandon a story that doesn't work, but "Cold Finger Girl" is more important than I originally thought it would be, not just to the collection but for future stories in the series as well. So, in the end, I am glad it eventually came out well.
The titular character, Dana, is the result of a world that preaches peace and equality, but underneath the surface uses blood and bone to keep its machinery going. How does one justify that when every so-called human is equal? You just change what being human actually means and how you qualify for being one.
This is a bit of a theme in regards to the villains in Star Wanderers, a part of that piece of us we lost in our voyage to the stars. We had forgotten the beauty and lessons of the original Green Hills of Earth (The Moore version, not the Heinlein one) to help keep our bearings.
As for the title, it's the most obvious weeb reference I've ever done. It's named after the old Pontiacs song of the same title, specifically the cover by Chiaki Kuriyama which was used as the opening theme for the anime Level E. The imagery in the opening, for whatever reason, struck me and it actually did inspire a lot of the story, including the character of Dana herself.
The anime version (sorry for the image quality)
As an aside, I wouldn't recommend the anime if you're expecting it to be like the opening. It's more of a comedy and the opening is a goof on a story the main character is reading (which is a subtle visual callback to the manga artist's previous work, Yu Yu Hakusho) and not really about this at all. Despite that, it's still a great opening theme.
So now you know the secrets behind this tale! Regardless of all the above, I am more than pleased with how this story turned out.
The Agent fights to protect a wayward prince from the undead cyborg minions of a necromancer intent on breaking the royal line and dooming a world by fulfilling an ancient prophecy! [First Published in Planetary Anthology Sol, 2020]
If you know a story from this collection, particularly if it's one starring The Agent, it's almost certainly this one. It's been published the most times (in the original Planetary Anthology Sol and Sword & Maidens) and is unique in the fact that there is no dialogue in the story. The reason for this is multifold, but mostly because the story has a dream-like quality I couldn't betray by trying to nail it down to a more solid reality.
If I recall right, I believe this story was written in one sitting at my desk during a particularly hot summer afternoon. There wasn't an outline, just the general premise, and it flowed out of me and onto the page, telling the story of Prince Orion and the fall of his long forgotten kingdom, leading to the scorched world that had once been his home being made into a tomb for his love and a throne of corpses for his enemy.
Of the stories starring The Agent, this one might have his least personal involvement in the events that unfold, but it is probably the best example of what his job entails. He is the aide, the secondary to the one who needs him most, and then when his job is over he is gone over the horizon towards his next mission. And after this adventure, he has one more in the collection to go on.
But before that, one more Ronan Renfield story!
Ronan investigates a series of terrorist attacks carried out by exploding cyborgs, and the trail leads him to an apocalyptic transhumanist cult! [All New Story!]
This one was probably the most outright fun for me to write, though for whatever reason it also took me the longest (aside from "Cold Finger Girl") to actually get the ending right. Despite being an artificial world with backwards concerns, the plot of the terrorist cell in "Midnight Machineguns" is one whose concerns transcends mere violence and carnage into control from the shadows. And how easy it is on a planet that idolizes the supposed "Golden Age" of Earth!
I should state, because some might be curious, that this is the only story in the collection (and, so far, the only Galactic Enforcer tale at all) that is written in first person. I don't actually know why. It wasn't originally, but it didn't feel correct initially. For whatever reason, I rewrote it from Renfield's position to the point where it now sounds like he's telling it to someone or perhaps making it into a report for his job. This is a common perspective in old detective stories and even more modern series like The Dresden Files, but since these tales are more about the Unknown I tend to focus on that more than expected genre tropes.
Once I let Detective Renfield take the reins, everything fell in place, including the ending that wasn't coming out quite right beforehand. It was as if he were the one correcting me on how the story actually goes and decided to take the keys away from me. If that sounds odd to you, I can assure you that it isn't uncommon for writers to be like that or have similar such moments in the creative process. Writing is a strange beast.
Regardless, this might be the most action-packed tale in the collection. Well, aside from one more story that we must go over . . .
Detective Ronan Renfield and the Agent team up in an epic clash against a rogue elemental Knight who desires to warp the soul of an entire planet! [All New Novella!]
I've stated before that Star Wanderers is a sort of "fix-up novel" without the "fix-up" part. That is because these stories were always meant to fit together like they do. How that happened was because when I was first putting together who The Agent and Detective Ronan Renfield were, I had the basic flow of the stories come to me, and one of the last and most daunting one was the last one I'd written in my notes. "Slow Death on San Sebastian" is a story I both badly wanted to write and was also hesitant to engage with until everything else was nailed down first.
In contrast to "Cold Finger Girl" this story is named after the classic movie Guns for San Sebastian, though it isn't as direct of an inspiration as you might think. There are thematic similarities in some of what occurs, but it is more in what happens to the town in the movie vs what happened to the planet in the story. It's not as obvious as other inspirations.
You'd probably have to have seen the movie and read the story to know just how they relate together. Regardless, I will link the trailer for the movie.
Here is the trailer to the movie
A lot of strands from previous stories come together in this tale, but it was also important to me that it stand alone on its own even without full context from previous stories. I very much try to make it that every story I put out can be engaged with without needing a complicated backstory or history to get into. At the end of the day, adventure tales need to be both accessible and punchy for anyone who desires that shot in the arm, and those are non-negotiables to me. Even though a lot of what happens in the earlier stories wrap back around here again, you can still read it without having engaged the other tales and it will still make sense to you. However, it will probably make you want to go back and read them anyway.
All that aside, I used the opportunity for this being the climax to really cut loose with both the action and the escalation. Of all the stories I've written, I'd imagine this one has the most explosions, the most intense and over the top swordfight, and the most bullets fired. there's even flamethrowers and grenades, I believe. You'll see just why there is so much carnage when you see what leads to it all happening, and where it ends.
There is also a surprise in this one for those who have been reading since I first started publishing, or maybe have read said older books. I've said before that a lot of what I write is more connected than you might figure, even if it isn't necessary to know that for full enjoyment, but I think this one might cause the most questions for anyone who has read me for any long period of time. What exactly is going on here?!
It all comes to a head in this one!
And that's where we'll end our discussion of Star Wanderers! As you can see, we have reached funding, but we are still currently on the way to our first major stretch goal. If we can hit it then that means more goodies for every backer who wants it, so be sure to tell everyone you know! I want to see it happen myself, after all.
Of course, as much as I am excited to get Star Wanderers out for you in as best a shape as it possible can be, I also have other projects I'm working on.
Though I don't want to fully reveal it until after the campaign is over, I can give you a short teaser of what's on the way. Not only that, I can do it in video form.
I shared with you some of the above AI images I played around with for the stories in this collection, but I haven't quite shown you some of the others I've used for my other works. Since there's so many, I put together a video, including a song I pulled out of Suno in order to match it called "Waiting for the Night." Yes, it's based on '90s House and old Eurodance. I think that's the genre that can best encompass the tone of most of the tales without jarring too much. Suffice to say, this was a lot of fun to put together.
You can see the full teaser here:
Feel free to download and use any images or even the song, if you wish. What is more important are the works themselves. I've got a few new things teased in the video that I cannot wait to show you in the near future.
As for the last revealed project in the video, it will come soon! The full unveiling will happen after the campaign. Until then, please help us to make Star Wanderers an even bigger success and the best it can be! You can back it here.
That's all for today! Thank you for all your support, have a good rest of your week, and I will see you sooner than later. You'll never quite know what is coming next!
Star Wanderers is just over $750 away from the first stretch goal! Back this collection of 8 stories of action and wonder today and help every backer get more goodies! Only 1 week left to go!
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