The Lastliners

AFTERWORD: AUTHOR'S NOTE

As I write this on April 9, 2021, I reflect on the story you've just read. The LastLiners was a complete experiment on my part. I wanted to try an ensemble cast story (much like Guardians of the Galaxy, which I'd just seen at the time), which didn't too much revolve around the main city-planet of Celestria. You might see some inspirations to Guardians in some of the characters (Crysis like StarLord, Gurgaston like Drax, etc), and the opening chapters.

The story has taken roughly (give or take a week or two) four years to finish. In that time I've completed three degrees, had lockdown and COVID (which is still going on as I write this), started and ended personal relationships, read hundreds of books and watched thousands of films, and more and more factors besides. I hadn't had a piece of writing published in any form (aside from Wattpad) when I started the story; I've now had nearly 20 pieces published in various online zines, print zines, anthologies, websites, some of which I've actually been paid for (not much, but a writer must take anything they are given in this day and age, especially where short stories are concerned). I've written hundreds of articles, reviews, analysis pieces, opinions, ranking lists, and other non-fiction bits and pieces, for four different groups and websites. I have, I hope, developed tremendously as a writer. I started this story as a Creative Writing & Film And Television Studies undergraduate; I received a Masters degree in Creative Writing a year and a half ago (graduation still postponed because of Covid).

I mention all this for several reasons. Firstly, I hope you will forgive the somewhat strange pacing to the plot, as I wrote this in fits and starts (sometimes five or six months between parts). I hope you will forgive the occasional plot thread which doesn't quite match up. I hope your forgive the odd moment which doesn't perhaps pay off in the way it should. Most of this will be because, quite frankly, I probably forgot they existed, or I changed my mind on it a year later and haven't been back to re-edit it. I'm one individual trying to keep track of an ever-expanding, ever-evolving set of interconnected story lines, over multiple stories, sometimes with months in-between writing parts because I'm busy trying to write other things and work on other projects and earn a living and have a life. I've got a big fact-file of stuff from all of the stories that I've had to make, which I'm sure is woefully inadequate at this point. I hope you'll understand this very much.

I am reminded of a story I believe Stephen King relates about Raymond Chandler. When someone asked him what happened to the chauffeur in his novel, The Big Sleep, who disappears from the main plot thread halfway through the book, Chandler replied 'You know what? I completely forgot about him.' It goes to show that everyone does it, though I hope I haven't done something as badly as that in here. One day I may redraft the story and tidy it all up, but as it goes, until there's a big 'EDIT' section at the bottom here, it is the way it is.

Secondly, I mention this as a hopeful inspiration to others, and especially readers and writers who have perhaps just started putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard. My style and understanding of the writing process had changed dramatically since the opening chapters of this story. Sometimes it's slow and hardly noticeable, and sometimes it's like reading a different writer from one part to the next. I hope that, in some way, it proves that one can evolve, change, and hopefully become better as they read and write and learn. Think of it like one of those carbon-dating tubes they dig out of Antarctica, where they can read the development of the world in the minerals of the rock, mud and ice. If I can do it, so can you.

There are some parts I really like (splitting them up and bringing them back together again really works on driving deep conflict into the family-like group of characters), and other parts which I would only dare to attempt again with much more practice (note to any budding writers out there; part 7 of the last chapter was awful to write. Split up your ensemble cast so that you don't have to try and juggle ten characters around in a single location in the middle of a big-old sci-fi gunfight. It looks awesome in a film; it's horrific to keep track of in prose and try and keep somewhat entertaining and with any degree of momentum). But, you know what they say; you live and learn.

There were plot-threads that I thought of years ago (I wanted a kind of seven-samurai ending, inspired by Stephen King's Dark Tower Book V: Wolves of the Calla, and there was going to be a part where we bring in the Brykthylosians properly and take a dip into their Empire), which I didn't end up using. Learn to adapt and change as you grow, and follow where you think the story wants to take you. You can only do what you feel is right at the time. And anyway, I might keep these ideas for future use.

I hope myself to look back on this in months, years, maybe even decades, and think it decent, but aspire to do better. I hope never to remain stable in my writing abilities, and always strive to make it even more dynamic, more powerful, more emotive. I strive to learn more about how to grab the reader and keep them hooked. I hope to learn how to use literary techniques in different, more effective ways, to sink a story into people's hearts and minds. I hope that one day I won't consider myself a complete novice; just a practicing amateur.

Despite all this, I've thoroughly enjoyed writing The LastLiners, and I hope that you too have enjoyed, or will enjoy if you've skipped ahead to read this first, my story in some small way. I've loved some of their antics, their moments or heroism or failure. I've loved exploring new planets, new streets of Celestria, and meeting new characters. I hope something from it sticks with you. I hope a turn of phrase makes you chuckle, or shiver. I hope it helps you pass the time when you're trying to escape an argument that's bleeding through the wall beside you from another room. I hope that in some small way, it encourages a love of fiction, of sci-fi, of books, of the written word, of stories.

I thank each and every one of you for checking out this story, and especially those who've made it to the end (perhaps over several years). If you're an old-time reader who started out when there was only a chapter or two uploaded, you're slightly insane and I love you for it. If you're reading this in years to come, thanks for digging up this old fossil and having a blast.

And for those wondering about our heroes, and if they'll ever return, I present to you a slightly modified quote from Doctor Who.

'This song is ending, but the story never ends.'

Celestria - Journey Ever Onwards