The Phantom Fleet

Meet the maker

I hope you had as much fun reading this as me writing it. If you did, don't hesitate to send some love in the shape of a review wherever it is you downloaded the book from.

You might have noticed that I'm pretty anal over realism. But I still had to compromise on some elements. However much I'd like it for the stellar medium to glow when laser light is going through it, it. just. won't. Even gigawatt laser fire in space is invisible. But no one wants a space battle without visible lasers, do they? So go ahead and sue me.

The other detail I got wrong is the distances. In one scene the Phantom Fleet is billions of kilometers from Earth, the next it's crashlanding on the Moon. The Martian forces should need weeks at least to arrive in the vicinity. That would have thrown off my groove so I sat on it. Real-real space travel is way too boring.

Had you noticed? Let me know in the review. (No spoilers!)

I'm really looking forward to writing my first big space opera. What gives? I managed to put out six or seven non-science-fiction books on the market when I'm such a huge fan of the genre. I already have a kickass story in a frequent-WTF-inducing universe in the back of my brains. If you've been paying attention, you might have already noticed an unexplained non-triviality in this little story. It will be a central building block in above-mentioned universe. But big novels take long planning and I've been itching for realistic space battles for a long fucking time. This short story allowed me to get it out of my system. For now.

I'm a bit busy with other big projects at the moment. But as soon as they're wrapped up, I fully intend to throw myself whole into the writing of that galaxy-spanning spaceship-AI-and-marines saga of epic proportions. I promise to let you know when the time comes. I might even let the chapters out as they come in little episodes.

To help with that, I humbly suggest you sign up to my I-read-The-Phantom-Fleet email list. It's not for a newsletter (I have another list for that). I only plan on sending you a mail when I start working on the Big Thing, and another one when it's done so you can read it before anyone else. I might throw in a couple pre-launch specials, but only because I like you so much.

Follow that link:

homostupidens.org/phantomlist

Otherwise you can follow me on Twitter (sitarane). I'm also on the Facebook (gramoun-kal) if you want something more intimate. Or even better: send me a message!