The Balcom Dynasty, how it all began.
Way back in autumn 2014, I was on sick leave from my job. It turned out that I had a bone spur in my shoulder, to spare you all the details, I had surgery, a long recovery and ended up retiring early.
While I was inactive, I took part in NaNoWriMo, where I wrote a science fiction story called Ribbonworld (as you do). It was based on an idea that I had during my stay in a cheap hotel in Portsmouth. My boss had sent me on a training course, before my sick leave. The hotel was his idea of a suitable resting place for his employees. I won’t say too much about it, apart from the fact that it was the sort of hotel where a body in the bathroom would not raise eyebrows! I used that thought as the start of the adventure and tried to put myself in the discoverer’s shoes.
If you’re reading this post, Peter; look at what you started.
I set it all in the far future, made my hero a journalist. He called himself Miles Goram (which is about as Sci-fi as you can get!). As his character was revealed, it became obvious that he was a man down on his luck. He had been recently released from prison; incarcerated for a crime that he hadn’t committed. He had been the fall guy for a corrupt politician (I’m sure that they will have them in the future).
He was given a job by his ex-girlfriend, as a way of helping him get his life back after his release; when nobody else would help him. “Go and review a hotel for me,” she had said, “it’ll be easy.”
Ribbonworld.
Miles Goram has a problem. All the down-on-his-luck journalist planned on doing was writing a hotel review and now there’s a body in his bathroom. Far from home on a strange planet, Miles must deal with the fact that somebody wants him dead.
Welcome to Reevis, a planet without days or nights where life is only possible under a vast pressure dome. It is on this airless wasteland that Miles finds himself caught up in a mystery involving a huge interplanetary corporation, a powerful man and his ambitious PA, and a beautiful young heiress who has been missing for years.
Crossing the galaxy in search of answers, Miles begins to uncover a web of deceit that stretches further than anyone could have imagined. With his life becoming at greater and greater risk, he realises that there is no one he can trust. Will he discover the truth and finally come to terms with his past? And, if he does, will it be enough to save his future…?
I loved the characters and the world I’d created. Fortunately so did readers, the story was well received and had some good reviews. I had ideas for more adventures for Miles. There was nothing for it, I had to write a sequel. Jungle Green was set shortly after the events of Ribbonworld.
Jungle Green.
TC is the wonder drug. Manufactured in secrecy on a remote planet at the edge of the galaxy, it makes worlds inhabitable; and Balcom Industrial lots of money. Then, suddenly, the people who need to take it to stay alive start to die!
For Layla Balcom, fresh from wresting control of her father’s inheritance from those who would have destroyed it, the news is devastating. Can the drug be flawed? Or is something else going on?
It ended on a sort of cliff, people pestered me to carry on with the story. I had to wait to begin it, as other projects took precedence.
I’m now in the process of writing the third part of the story, as yet untitled. All may be revealed, or not, my characters haven’t really decided what they want yet.
Then I had another idea, to tell the story of what led up to the events in Ribbonworld. How Miles ended up in prison, the corrupt politician and all the rest. A novella, The Lost Princess, is the result.
The Lost Princess.
Where is Layla Balcom? The most famous woman in the Galaxy, heiress to the Balcom empire, has vanished. Has she simply exchanged her celebrity life for peace and quiet or has the unthinkable happened? In the midst of the search, where rumours and speculation are rife, journalist Miles Goram thinks that he’s found the answer.
A girl on the run suggests that Layla could be a hostage, in a club where the rich indulge their fantasies. It’s located on Dalyster, a corrupt and secretive world. A place where his status as a reporter will do him no favours in his efforts to uncover the truth.
With his world falling apart, Miles is caught in the rivalry between politicians and businessmen.
After edits and a lot of positive beta comments, the novella will be released on July 14th, to pre-order, click the button.
I’ll be back on Thursday with another Indie Showcase, see you then.
