Writing Rogue

Happy Monday!

Hope you all had a fantastic 4th of July weekend. We certainly did--with equal parts excitement and leisure time. Can't believe the Fourth has come and gone already.

Today I'm in the midst of wrapping up my latest story, another Inherited Stars Series tale that will be part of Pets in Space® 4 coming in October. Like the two stories I've written for previous Pets in Space volumes, this one is also a StarDog story, but with a major twist.

My first story, StarDog, took place six months (moons) before the anchor novel, Inherit the Stars, and my second story -- Courting Disaster -- took place about three years after the novel. This story, though, put a whole different spin on things.

I titled my blog today Writing Rogue, because SpyDog is to Inherit the Stars what Rogue One was to Star Wars: A New Hope. The story takes place simultaneously with the novel, but it's an all new, original story introducing new leading characters and a separate plot that dovetails (and sometimes collides) with the events in the novel.

Was it a challenge to write? Unbelievably so.

SpyDog is actually sparked by a situation that happens in the novel. Though it's only touched on briefly in Inherit the Stars, the chain of events it sets in motion becomes a matter of life and death in SpyDog. 

(You can get a sneak peek by clicking the Pets in Space® 4 Sampler link below.)

When I started writing, I kept a print copy of the novel handy to reference everything from the time line to language used to characters involved to the escalation of events, in an attempt to keep the story consistent with the original work. (I must have done a dozen checks after the initial read-throughs, but even so, one misspell of a minor character's name almost got by me.) I did some time comparisons to ensure my story "clicked into place" with the original novel, all while managing to avoid--or at least tap dance around--any major spoilers.

Though the MCs in this book are new characters, they have ties to established characters, and there are a few appearances by some of the major players in the novel. I also had to take care to craft the story so it wouldn't reveal suspenseful events and revelations in the novel, which resulted in having to rewrite (and rethink) one entire chapter. (I ended up liking the new version even better.)

A fun aspect in penning the tale was to show a little more of what my bio-engineered SpyDog--Maura--could do, and how she's different from the other StarDogs -- Luna and Katrina -- in the previous stories. Both of those stories alluded to StarDogs that were used as spies by the Network, but this is the first chance readers will have to see a SpyDog in action.

Am I happy with the end result? Oh, yes! In spite of realizing at about 20K mark that this was a much "bigger" story than I'd anticipated, I had 30K to work with this time around which turned out to be entirely doable.

That said, I do plan to expand and re-release the story as a novel after the exciting Pets in Space® 4 run is over and my rights revert.

For those familiar with my series, this story springs some fun surprises, including tying Farewell Andromeda a bit closer to the series. (FA is one of several stories that take place in different timelines, but within the same universe.)

Readers familiar with the novel may learn a few fun secrets in SpyDog, and those not familiar with the story may be intrigued to pick up Inherit the Stars to discover the epic adventure that unfolds off screen in SpyDog.

If you'd like a glimpse of the opening of SpyDog and the scene in Inherit the Stars that triggered it, you can read it in the FREE SAMPLER available here.

Pets in Space® 4 Sampler

This sampler also includes original stories and artwork from the authors of Pets in Space® 4 and has been quite a hit with readers.

Have a wonderful week!