I've belatedly started watching Star Trek: Lower Decks, only a few episodes in but enjoying it so far.
This is going to sound overly specific, but the moment I became optimistic about the show was the end of the opening credits. Haha the ship hits an icicle, haha it's getting eaten by an alien, haha it runs away from a fight - but then the last shot is a classic Star Trek "Ship whooshes off at Warp Speed" shot, played completely straight. It's not undercut by anything, there's no gag where the ship zips back the other way immediately, or it's in reverse, or anything like that they just decided "Yeah, we can let this one just be straight up Star Trek".
It displays a level of confidence in Being Star Trek that I really appreciate.
This took freaking ages for my PC to render, but here you go: A nice big group photo of characters from my novel Irongate. Not all of the named characters are here as I haven't made models for all of them yet, but who we do have is:
At the back, Pythia - or at least the holographic avatar of Meridiem's AI. At the front are the kids; Perpetually pissed off tween Tenley Tych and her friend Jake.
And the rest from left to right: Titania, her henchwomen Lilian then Ella. Sir Klaus Ragin, Doctor Jana Sarkis, Jennifer Airhart, Kaya Cade, Sayuri Oshiro, Chauncey Delainy, Francis Daramy, Hiroki, Samuel Pope, and Alvin Stag.
"What are you doing?" Cepheid asked, looking over her propped up feet and her knitting--she was flopped in their collected hodgepodge of bed furnishings completely clothed with her coat and shoes on for some reason, like she'd missed a step coming in--and there was genuine curiosity in her question, not reproach. She was one novilunium back on board. There had been progress in the swarm--concessions made; people, once used harshly, vindicated--but she had let Lux know the first ten days in a row that she was a sight for sore eyes.
"Trying to think," Lux answered, closing her own eyes, against which she still saw the advancing stars of the six-hour manual flight out.
"Lux, I've known you a few turns now and it seems to me you're always thinking, even when you're actively trying not to. Why don't you come over here and maybe it'll happen organically."
Lux obliged like a person in a position to oblige, bending close to whisper in the pool of blue on her wife's head: "I don't believe anyone thinks clearly, this close to you."
The June patreon story is here! Click through the image or click through this link--and sign up to be a patron if you haven’t--to read this and 16 other short stories from the SC universe.
I made this one available at the dollar tier (which unfortunately still doesn’t have a ton on it, it’s basically a way to support my tumblr content at this point) because it’s kinda short. It’s set during the early years of the Revelator’s main voyage and it’s heavy on cuddles and poetic syntax analysis (just bear with me on this).
If you’re new to the SC universe, start here! And as always, reblogs are greatly appreciated!!
Unless you are extremely lucky, as an author, you will be expected to do a lot of legwork to promote your books. In this video, I talk about using conventions to promote a sci-fi or fantasy book, with some tips that I’ve found work for me, or that I’ve seen work for other authors.
I am a writer of sci-fi mystery and adventure, diagnosed with autism. The diagnosis came as an adult so I didn’t receive much support in school. Bullied and not fitting in I decided in my mid-teens not to go, instead daydreaming to myself as I went for walks or spent time in the library reading about physics, history, psychology, and philosophy.
But sci-fi, fantasy, and the paranormal are the interests I always return to. My inspirations include The X-Files, Doctor Who, Scooby Doo, Star Trek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more.
Although I’m quite a private person and not active on social media all the time, I am actually very nice and very thick skinned, so feel free to message or ask any questions. I won’t bite or get annoyed or upset or anything - I promise even if you think that’s happening, its not. I might get tired sometimes but that’s about it.
A tween terror on a quest for revenge, punk lesbians, evil corporations, fights, action, mystery, drama, robots and monsters; this hits hard in every way!
Astral Strays: After an encounter with a singularity, an ancient space probe returns to Earth. But this is not the world it left. All traces of Human civilization are gone from the surface, but even so it might not be alone on this wild planet.
Basically I like space opera. I like speculative zoology. I like the idea of writing a story with no Human characters and a hero who’s almost completely silent. So why not combine all of them?
Status: Pretty much just started, so titles, names, species, etc, are subject to change.
Many fairy tales begin with a child. Rejected, orphaned, broken, then found by a seemingly magic being that will grant them any wish. For eleven year old Tenley Tych, that wish is the power to exact justice on her mother’s murderers. But there is always a price; terms, conditions.
Tenley is not the only child lost. Kaya Cade lost her dreams and self to the struggle of surviving an apathetic world. Jennifer Airhart retreated from that world, building a barrier around herself and forgetting her dream to roam and explore the mysteries of the universe. Yet, amid the machinations of corporations and the appearance of monsters hunting men, the universe conspires to bring all these souls together.
In Irongate dreams are being made into reality, but dreams can become twisted into nightmares.
This is a fairy tale, but do not trust your eyes. All is not what it seems.
Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery, Action, Adventure. Elements of horror, plus a lot of inspiration and reference to fantasy, folklore, and mythology.
Inspirations: X-Files, Doctor Who, Scooby Doo, and basically all the sci-fi & fantasy I read or watched as a kid.
Warnings: violence, death, an abused child, some mild swearing.
Themes: Found Family, Friendship, Change, Growing Up, Revenge, Lost Childhood/Innocence, How everyone’s relatives screw them up in one way or another (including AI and synthetic life).
(Note: This is a masterpost for a story in development. It will be periodically reblogged when things are changed and added).
Chapter One - Boys & Girls Come Out to Play
Chapter Three - Monsters
I won’t post all of the current draft on here. But here are some more excerpts:
B-Naturals, Determinism, Dibbles, Looking at the past, Hiroki, The Mill
Tenley Tych: Perpetually angry tween. Tenley has never known happiness outside of storybooks and has never been strong enough to please her mother who spent every day training her to fight. When her mother is taken from her a mysterious woman in the forest grants Tenley the power to act on her turbulent emotions.
Jennifer Airhart: A very smart dumb person. Very gifted at science and engineering, but will got lost trying to work out a bus timetable. Jennifer has always struggled to connect with people, having had only one good friend in her life. She is however in a fortunate position in that she can chose to withdraw from the world and indulge all her special interests. But is she really happy on her own, and will the promise of a mystery be enough to draw her out?
Kaya Cade: Rebellious new adult and guitarist of the Killer Aqua Bunnies. Also a pickpocket and thief. Facetious and daring, she nevertheless regrets some of her life choices, in particular abandoning Jennifer in favor of a clique who really only brought out the worst in her.
Sayuri Oshiro: Drummer in the Killer Aqua Bunnies, but by day she works in her family’s general store. Since her brother ran away to be an eco-warrior, she’s taken on most of the responsibility of running her family business. She reads horoscopes, meditates, and grinds a lot of stress balls. She also has a crush on Kaya who alas has so far seemed oblivious.
Doctor Jana Sarkis: Former adventurer now Bio-engineer at Stag Corp who knew Jenn’s father back when she was just an intern. She now manages the ELF project, seeing in it the potential to end pollution, famine, and eventually help humanity to the stars. However her boss has very different ideas.
Titania: A woman with seemingly supernatural powers who is better than everyone and she knows it. Her skin glows and has patterns on it that are constantly shifting like sand. She also has the ability to change humans to make them more like her. But at what cost?
Pythia: An AI created by the mega-corp, Meridiem. Originally her purpose was to simulate and predict changes that would affect investments, but she has grown beyond her original programming and is now consulted on a number of matters. She may, however, have her own plans.
Meridiem: A mega-corp with an interest in a large number of businesses, including research and development firm Stag Corp. There are conflicting accounts of their history, with some saying they’ve existed thousands of years. They have definitely existed at least since the 1600s, but most of its directors have always remained secretive. They employ their own private military to protect their interests.
The Witch Way: A kind of hyperspace discovered by Meridiem that, if it were possible to traverse, would allow almost instant travel across vast distances, and access to virtually unlimited resources. Unfortunately it is hostile to almost everything from our realm, bodies becoming twisted then annihilated, minds consumed. Yet there is the possibility that new tech may make it possible for there to be a navigator.
