MATRYOSHKA update: 100 pages of solid/wonāt change prose. I've figured out the plotty things TODAY that will tee off The Warboy (the logistics of what is essentially a gangland spy novel did not come easily). Itās pretty much a complete rewrite at this point going forward from my first draft back in 2021. I feel good about it. šŖ The blurb:
Jascha Terisov and his broken family are refugees. At three years old, his mining colony was attacked by alien enemies and the destruction thrust his parents, older brother Yuri, and younger sister into separate relief camps on different planets. Though his sister was eventually reunited with him and his mother, Yuri was lostāsigned onto a merchant ship as a child.
Now eighteen years later, Jascha works long hours to provide for his sisterās medical care. Life as refugees on Mars is not the promise of stability they were told. When Jascha is approached by covert agents posing as officers from the Department of Justice, they offer him a deal he canāt refuse: go back to deep space to locate his brother Yuriāthe monetary compensation will set his family up for life and afford his sister the care she needs. The catch? Yuri is a pirate on the run and this mission threatens to place Jascha in his own brotherās crosshairs.
Photo from Unsplash public domain: Strvnge Films
