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sci fi books, sci fi ebooks, science fiction books, science fiction ebooks, Space Opera, Stellar Flash The Robots of Atlantis

Robots of Atlantis: Stellar Flash Book Four Updates

By Admin

Hi. Many thanks for subscribing, and for your patience waiting for The Robots of Atlantis: Stellar Flash Book Four. I’m aiming for a October 2020 release for that one. I plan to include a lot more esoteric information regarding the ‘true’ Atlantis so in my spare time I’ve been researching this. I’m thinking that the storylines will follow one from 12,800 years ago (10,780 B.C.) , a storyline from 2053, and our current Stellar Flash storyline of 2133. Still working on how these are all going to come together. 

I took a break for most of this year to focus on my Creative Writing Degree. Just a few more assessments to go, and I’ll get back to writing Stellar Flash Book Four.

As you might be aware, I edit Alien Dimensions. Well, to help raise funds for issue #19, I’ve collected a number of my short stories together into a single 800 (5″ x 8″) page volume called Hoganthology. It’s now available in digital and in print formats through Amazon. It’s also available via Kindle Unlimited.

The news for Stellar Flash readers is that I’ve included a rough synopsis for… Book Seven! Tentatively titled Stellar Flash 2135 A.D, (considering it as a potential high concept movie), along with some excerpts from a rough script.

Hoganthology Digital

Hoganthology Print

So, Hoganthology will raise funds through page views in Kindle Unlimited, and commissions through sales to help launch the next issue of Alien Dimensions. Sales from this and other titles will then help me write more Stellar Flash novels. If you know of anyone who might be interested in the title, please feel free to pass on this email to them.

Many thanks for your support, and interest in the Stellar Flash series.

All the best

Neil A. Hogan

Update July 2020 – Due to the COVID-19 situation, and my city being under lockdown for months, I haven’t had any chance to focus on the book, what with worrying about where my income is going to come from, and being in a one bedroom apartment with my family 24/7. Lucky we’re introverts, but not being able to go to a cafe and have a couple of hours every day in silence to write has meant there’s been no progress on the Robots of Atlantis since January.

I’m really sorry to let everyone down about this. I’ll just have to delay it until 2021.

I hope you’re all safe and well, and hope the rest of the year will be better for you.

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Stellar Flash Alien Frequency, Stellar Flash The Andromeda Effect

Strong Female Characters in the Andromeda Effect

By Admin

Strong Female Characters in The Andromeda Effect

While I still like the old science fiction space opera series of the 20th century, I always felt that the female characters were a little too one-dimensional for it to be completely believable, so I make sure all my female characters are well-rounded and have various, albeit a bit macho, backstories.

My main issue though is needing to forego some of the story I want to tell, just to introduce some populist notions to make it more appealing. For years my female friends have told me I must always include some kind of romance, some sort of emotional attachment, some little flirtatious interaction, to make it more interesting. I avoided this idea, believing that the style that writers like Isaac Asimov employed, namely epic scientific ideas with far reaching consequences, pushed along by two dimensional characters, was a lot more appealing than creating a story focused on emotional interactions that may or may not lead to romance, leaving the discoveries in the background.

Several years ago, I finally decided to employ this idea of including a romance in my young adult book Gabriel and the Resurrection of Maldek, after seeing the phenomenal interest in the TV series Doctor Who after the main character started having a romance with his companion (1000 year old alien that looked 35, and a 25 year old human. Hmm!) As soon that Doctor Who romance was over (she got trapped in a parallel universe, and he changed into an even younger but different persona) ratings began a decline that haven’t risen again. TV shows want romance! Romance sells. Most people watching are between 13 and 25 so it’s the main focus of their existence.

But, I finally came to my senses, and realized that writing romance has never been my market, never been my tribe, and even though Alien Frequency has a suggestion of a possible romantic connection between Captain Jonathan Hogart (approx 46yo) and Admiral Victoria Heartness (Approx 55yo) there is no intention to continue this with these important characters. After speaking with a female friend of mine who pointed out that I probably weaken my strong female characters by giving them a romance, I’ve completely thrown this trope out the window. It may mean less interest from readers, publishers and less sales, but at the end of the day we should write what we enjoy writing, and including a romance in something I write feels like selling out. (The same feeling I had when the Doctor fell in love with his assistant. Like WTF?)

So, my latest novella The Andromeda Effect, is going through another rewrite. Probably my 20th so far. I realize that is nothing. Some writers go through 200 rewrites as a normal process of ‘getting it close to right’ but my main rewrite is to add a new character to the Stellar Flash series. A fun, friendly, and hard working individual who is in charge of the State of North Australia’s Space Port, and will be called upon whenever both Admiral Victoria Heartness and Doctor John Patel are taken away from their duties on Space Station X-1a. Welcome Admiral Wei Zhou to the Stellar Flash Universe. I hope you surprise me, and everyone else.

(Yes, Wei Zhou is a popular English transliteration, which I why I chose it. Apologies to the millions of Chinese writers who might already have an Admiral Wei Zhou in their stories. On the plus side, as far as I know, this will be the first female Admiral Wei Zhou in fiction. Chinese written characters of the name would likely to mean either ‘small’ or ‘fern’ and, using the plant theme, I’m thinking of the ferns of Australia that grow 1 meter every 40 years, and there are some that are hundreds of years old. Small, but tough!)

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Stellar Flash Alien Frequency

Thank you for your interest in the Stellar Flash series

By Admin

Thank you for your interest in the Stellar Flash series.

WARNING: SPOILERS

I was originally planning to release the first novel in September but with the launch of both The Orville and Star Trek: Discovery featuring a couple of situations and characters that were quite similar, I’ve done some rewriting to make it a little bit more unique. While there are some scenes to help ground human readers in alien situations, I’m pretty sure no one has ever written a series with this kind of technology before, (well, I haven’t found it so please let me know if someone has) though I think you might find some vague similarities to early Andromeda and Farscape.

Like Discovery, the first story in the Stellar Flash series is set in a system with binary suns. I’d already established that in Stellar Flash: The Pilot, a short story which was released in August, so that wasn’t going to change. However, unlike the suns in Discovery which were backdrop, these play a major part in the plot.

Like The Orville, Captain Hogart has a scene introducing all the crew members, though this piece was more to convey the relationship between Hogart and Heartness, and the alienness of the situation, rather than a simple intro.

Like Discovery, the crew of the Stellar Flash end up in conflict with some black and brown aliens. Though, mine aren’t Kiingons. They don’t have a name and are simply referred to as ‘mushroom bugs’

Stellar Flash also has an amorous blob on board interested in some of the crew, though my amorous blob is female, and she is the doctor, and one of eight main characters.

I was surprised there were toilet jokes in The Orville. I thought I was being original having a few scenes resulting in some alien embarrassment, but no, The Orville beat me to that one, too. *sigh*

So, I just wanted to connect with you here in the blog and say, hey, yeah, we came up with the same ideas at the same time. Isn’t that great! Sci fi writers thinking along the same lines, knowing what viewers want.

Actually, it was more like this:

Stellar Flash The Orville Star Trek Discovery

Thanks for reading. Alien Frequency will be out next week.

And then I’ll start writing book number 2.