Iskander: Blog

It's been a while since I posted a new story, so I thought I'd update the current writing progress. I have two works in progress - Myr and Mossie Girl.

Myr is Science Fiction, set on a world close to the galactic core where stars average about 0.5 light years apart. A human colony ship suffers a malfunction and ends up at one of these stars, thousands of light years from earth. Unable to get home, they settle on a planet. But the planet is 'owned' by naturally star travelling insectoids, called Wyrms by the humans. Unable to communicate, the two species fight until a girl communicates telepathically with the Wyrms. She becomes the first Mediator.

Myr is a village girl who becomes the Mediator several hundred years after this. Some humans are looking to amend the treaty to give them access to new lands and a Wyrm faction wants the humans off their planet.

I am four chapters into Myr with much world building and planning complete. I'm hoping to have a draft of this ready by Christmas... but life keeps interrupting writing.

Mossie Girl is set in England in WW2 and tells the story of a girl growing up and becoming a draftsperson at de Havilland, working on the DH98 Mosquito. This is an aircraft that has always fascinated me; not as famous as the Spitfire, but the most versatile aircraft in the RAF - one version carried a Molins "6-pounder Class M" cannon fitted in its bomb bay!

This book is on hold as I need to complete quite a bit of research - and that means obtaining quite a few out-of-print books.

I have several other ideas on the back burner (including a much expanded story based on my SoL story After).

Thank you for reading my stories and take care of you and yours,

Iskander
(Robert Hart)

I am dividing my writing time between two novel length projects - the first set in England during WW2 (working title Mossie Girl) and the second is Science Fiction, set on a planet close to the galactic centre (working title Myr and the Wyrms).

Both of these are now about three chapters in and it's time to get some feedback. I hope this will help me decide which one I should prioritise. So, if you sign up to my newsletter, you'll get access to these early chapters - and I'm looking forward to your feedback.

So get yourself a quick Christmas read - sign up to my fortnightly newsletter using the link in my profile!

Both of these will end up here on Stories on Line in the fullness of time.

Do you read prologues and epilogues to stories if there is one?

I've been reading an article about this and the sentiment seems to be that readers don't like them much.

Whilst I've not written prologues for any of my books, there are epilogues to Colette and Through different Eyes. From the feedback I've received, the epilogues rounded the stories.

The epilogues to these two stories mostly describe the same event - a rededication of the Ravensbruck concentration camp memorial - but from different perspectives; the epilogue to Colette is written from her mother's perspective and that for TDE is written from Col's mother's perspective (Mutti Frida).

Both epilogues run high on emotion which I found difficult to write with conviction but not overdo things.

I think I succeeded - but I'd love to hear your perspective, so please send me an email or a comment in the stories.

This weekend I'm off to my first ever writer's convention - and I've book a publicity table as well... I'm both nervous and excited as I don't really know what to expect!

Wish me luck, please!

My recent novel Through different Eyes is scoring well at 8.74 (and still rising).

So it's well worth a read! It's a Premier members only story - but it is available on Bookapy as a complete eBook (and as a paperback elsewhere)

Why not check it out!

I'm now working on several new projects - join my newsletter (link in my profile) to stay up to date, read excerpts and extras!

As always, take care of you and yours,

Robert
(Iskander)

With Through different Eyes complete, it only remains for me to thank you for reading. It's pretty hard for a Premier members only story to gain enough readers to feature in the top lists - but thanks to your votes, Through different Eyes is now #4 in the Top 50 Completed Serials, by Rating, in the Last 30 Days.

I'd love for Through different Eyes to make it into the Top 50 Long Stories This Year (it would be #13 at present) and even the Top 50 Classic Long Stories - but to do that, it needs 100 votes - and it's not there yet although it's scoring high enough.

Interestingly, 202 people have put it into their library - so it would be tremendous if some more of those people would vote.

If you would like a peek at what I'm working on next (three projects but I've not yet decided which to prioritise), hop over to my profile and join my mailing list using the link there. You will get some previews over the next few months and a chance to have your say.

Once again - many thanks for reading, and please vote if you haven't already done so!

Robert Hart
(Iskander)