Iskander: Blog

I have uploaded a repost of Through my Eyes. Again. This was my first writing attempt and needed some attention, despite running through the hands of an editor.

It has been re-edited - losing 10,000 words in the process. The story remains the same - except for a few subtle nuances.

The current version on Bookapy is the same as this re-edited version.

I hope you find this reads better than the original.

Things have been pretty quiet recently, but I will soon start posting snippets from stories set in my new SF universe.
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A human colony ship jumping to the Gleise star system goes seriously awry - arriving 1000 light years beyond the galactic central black hole. Unable to return to earth and with no other survival option, the crew and colonists settle a habitable planet.

Their struggle for survival on an alien world becomes more acute when giant naturally star-faring insectoid worms arrive.

This is one of their breeding planets and humans are not welcome. 

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!