lucbyard

A small excerpt from Boxrunner, the first book in The Deep System.

Ellie is an idealistic engineer, working in Tycho on Luna at the start of Boxrunner. When she sees a message about a hidden alien signal from Alpha Centauri, her life will change course and send her on a journey to the outer planets... But she is not the only one looking for answers out in the long cold dark of the Deep System.

My friend
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Almost half way through Red Tempest and a nice quote from Ellie.

As 2023 closes, I have three books from the same series in development.

If you're wondering why... that's a good question. In reality, the first two could have been published by now and I could be sharing the links and telling you about how the third instalment is going...

But I see a lot of authors rushing to self publication. I think they see other
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First Codex: Boxrunner. Currently with an editor for improvements before I resume querying. In the absence of interest, I will likely self publish at some point but I am undecided on when that would be.

Second Codex: Proteus Rising. First draft is complete and I hope to start editing it in the new year.

Third Codex: Red Tempest. I am currently 35,000 words into the
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So... an A.I. chatbot challenged me to a poetry battle.

No, I shall not back down from this. You want me to bring it, Clyde? You want me to bring it?

... Consider it brought.

"The line between courage and idiocy is painted with the blood of fools."

Sometimes, you create a character and something about them just... sings to you My story has heroes - Yseult and Ellie are close to my heart but Asatei... there is a special place for Asatei. She began life as 'the dangerous woman', a cold, calculating character, feared for what she is capable
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With Riddaeon's unique perspective, I try to infer to the reader that traditional ideas of good vs bad do not apply in The Deep System. We can be quick to takes sides and slow to realise whose side we have really taken. Riddaeon's ideology is that the system is more complex and the issues are deeper than that.

I have intentionally written The Deep System
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Tempestuous Yseult is used to a solitary life in the freight lanes. Her ship, Brawling Beauty is her companion and her home. They share a connection that is rarely seen but often spoken of - like soul mates, and she often refers to Beauty as 'mon âme sœur'

She made a reputation for herself flying contracts for a man known as 'The Forwarder'. The ship
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Riddæon is an agent of Eclipsis, an underworld organisation that hold a lot of power among the more distant planets where the. resources from Earth are more scarce. He believes that Eclipsis do good things like make medicines available and support education which the corporations refuse to pay for. His belief was shaken during an incident when he was almost killed and he saved a
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Ellie is a talented flight engineer posted to the freight terminals of Tycho Station on the Moon. She is idealistic and believes in Incorporated Space Operation's mission to keep Earth fuelled and fed. But as she experiences bias and poor decision making by senior officers, she will question the integrity of ISO which will open the door for her to take a chance unlike any
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I'm having a go at creating some greyscale pages to insert into my first novel and I though it might be useful to use one to try and help teh reader get used to Beauty not being referred to a 'the' in front of her name.

Her being a spaceship, even I have had difficulty avoiding the tendency to say 'The Beauty' but I keep
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