Starting Over...

I’m trying to remember how to groove.  What I mean by that is that I’ve finally started a new novel.

I haven’t written anything new in years.  I have lots of stuff ready to go or be edited, but I haven’t started an entirely new project since 2015, so I’m trying to remember what to do.  It’s thrilling to remember having so many ideas about a story that I just want to get them down, and frustrating to remember the need for patience so that I plot properly and outline what I need so that the story flows rather than moves in stops and starts.

The new novel is a sci-fi/fantasy mashup where far in the future(millions of years), humanity finally discovers how to create wormholes and move to other stars in a realistic timeframe.  Until this point, mankind terraformed other planets in the solar system and used gravity tractors to move Earth, and others, out of the sun’s expanding orbit so that life can survive.  However, the limited space means that strict population controls are in place.  By being able to expand to other worlds, we can finally loosen those.

However, humanity requires pretty specific conditions to live, and there are less than 500 planets in our galaxy that are true candidates for colonization.  The first mission is headed to the first candidate – a similarly sized world orbiting a K-type star about 100 light years away.  We monitored this and other stars for centuries and never found any signs of life(as evidenced by technological activity).  We assume we’re the sole humanoid-type lifeform that is around, although we continue to look for other life.

Unfortunately, we find surprises on the new world.

It appears a human civilization is alive and well on the world we found.  Unlike ourselves and our civilization, this one uses magic and other fantasy elements, demonstrated by the first probe sent being destroyed by dragons.  Exploring further, we find dwarves, elves, goblins, and other races sharing this world in various empires.  They compete against each other, even occasionally going to war, but there’s one piece of land they cooperate on – a small island where wizards and warriors watch over several pits leading to the underworld.  Our technological adventurers decide to explore this, and they upset a delicate balance.

I hope to have the first draft done by next summer, but we’ll see how fastidious I can be.  I’ve got a group of beta-readers, and I’m hoping that by the time you read this, they have the first chapter…