“The Trajectory of Johnny Winger”

In my series Tales of the Quantum Corps and in my serial Nanotroopers, the main character is a fellow named Johnny Winger.  With the next novel in Tales, the story of Johnny Winger will be coming to an end, excepting Nanotroopers, which ostensibly ends at Episode 22, early next year.

This post will look at the trajectory of Johnny Winger’s life during this series.  We’ll call him JW, for brevity’s sake.

JW started out as one of three children to Jamison and Ellen Winger, of Pueblo, Colorado.  This is detailed in Episode 1 of Nanotroopers.  When JW was a child, Ellen Winger died in a terrible car accident.  Jamison Winger became depressed and withdrawn after this and Johnny and his siblings had to take over operating the family ranch, the North Bar Pass ranch.  But JW wasn’t really cut out for ranch life and so when an opportunity to do something more adventurous came along, like join a new organization called Quantum Corps, he jumped at it. 

Finishing nog school (Quantum Corps Academy) as a newly minted Lieutenant and nanotrooper, JW dived into the world of warfare at the scale of atoms and molecules.  He also got to become acquainted with a highly capable nanoscale robot called ANAD.  Over the course of (soon to be) seven novels and innumerable serialized episodes, ANAD evolved to become a friend, a competitor and in some ways, the companion that JW never had growing up.  All this with a bot some sixty nanometers tall. 

One of my strongest memories as a child was how much I enjoyed the series Tom Swift Jr.  When I sat down to outline what I wanted Tales and Nanotroopers to become, I had Tom Swift in mind: a young scientifically-oriented explorer who gets into all kinds of adventures, in exotic locations, against nefarious, vicious and devious adversaries, and who overcomes them with pluck, luck and sound knowledge of science (or pseudo-science).  Plus there were lots of neat gadgets as well.  A ten-year old boy’s wet dream come true. 

Jonny Quest was also an inspiration for ideas, plots and locales for this series.

But during the story arc of Tales, JW evolved, sometimes in ways I never expected.  He did all the things I originally envisioned, battling a cartel called Red Hammer, winding up in exotic locations on and off-Earth, using his abilities as a nanotrooper (atomgrabber) to overcome these adversaries, using neat gadgets in the process and learning and interacting in more and more complex ways with his robotic sidekick ANAD.  Think of JW as Batman and ANAD as Robin.  On second thought, don’t think of that.

During the story arc, the growth of molecular assembler technology around the world and all that could mean was a major backdrop to the stories.  I tried to show that such technology would have problematic impacts on society,that Humans would have a love-hate relationship with their bots and that at the very heart of this relationship, there lurked an existential threat to Humanity that would require some very hard decisions by JW and others in the end.

The nature of this threat has become, by the time of Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary, very evident and very menacing.  It will play out fully in the final story, Johnny Winger and the Battle at Caloris Basin.  An outgrowth of ANAD technology has been the development of a social-political and philosophical movement called Assimilationism.  In this movement, adherents believe that the Old Ones (the main bad guys) are truly coming (back) to the Earth and it’s our job to be ready to be taken up and absorbed into the Mother Swarm.  Moreover, this development has left JW with a real conundrum of a decision to make.  Also, Assimilationism has developed and evolved in concert with the spread of angels, swarms of nanobots configured to closely resemble humans and the rise of these angels as a nearly parallel civilization alongside our human civilization has introduced additional conflict to the story and into JW’s life. 

The decision JW faced in Europa Quandary was whether to allow himself to be disassembled into a swarm of nanoscale bots, knowing that returning to his natural form was unlikely, so that he could battle the approaching menace of the Old Ones more easily.  Or as ANAD itself put it: to become a multi-configuration entity, to go anywhere, be anything you have configs for, rather than stay as a single-config entity like us humans.  Winger makes this decision and as Battle at Caloris Basin opens, we shall see how his decision plays out. 

The trajectory of Johnny Winger’s life spans his beginnings as ranch hand and neophyte atomgrabber, to his growth as an officer and commander in Quantum Corps, eventually to the top position of Commander in Chief, Quantum Corps, and ultimately to his decision to let ANAD disassemble him into something like an angel so he can work against the Old Ones and help defeat this existential threat to Earth. 

This decision is in some ways similar to that made by OSS agents and Resistance leaders in WWII Europe who worked behind Nazi lines to defeat Hitler from within.  Winger’s idea is to defeat the Old Ones from within, literally from within the Mother Swarm.  The big difference is that, in order to do this, JW had to assume the form of the Old Ones, assume the form of a swarm of nanoscale bots, yet somehow retain his identity and memory enough to complete his mission of espionage and sabotage.

That’s the story of Battle at Caloris Basin. 

The trajectory of Johnny Winger ultimately takes this former ranch hand and rookie atomograbber to a point in his life where he has to fight to keep his very identity, memory and personality intact against overwhelming, unearthly odds, and in the process, he has to learn just exactly what it is that makes Johnny Winger…Johnny Winger.  It’s a form of self-learning and maturity that none of us will ever face, done in extraordinary circumstances where his very survival is in question.  All of this: identity, memory, courage, survival, loyalty and curiosity mingle together to create what I hope will be a memorable reading experience…and has been a memorable experience over the course of the six previous stories in Tales.

And you can read even more exploits of Johnny Winger in Nanotroopers.

 

Word Shed will take a short hiatus over the Labor Day holiday.  The next post will be on Monday, September 12.

Until then, have a great holiday.

Phil B.

“Update on Nanotroopers: Halfway Through!”

I have just posted Episode 11 of my series Nanotroopers to Smashwords a week ago.  Already it has garnered 50 downloads (after 3 days) and this milestone means I’m halfway through the planned 22 episodes of the series.  Episode 13 goes up September 2.

First, some statistics.  All episodes uploaded together have achieved over 2400 total downloads since January 2016.  I assume many of these are the same readers, checking out later episodes.  Which means they liked what they read enough to download future episodes.  By the way, all episodes of Nanotroopers are free downloads.

One of the challenges of doing a series is just keeping the series going.  I do have detailed outlines for each episode but I’m finding that I need to veer away from the outlines more and more.  I have tried to end each episode with a sort of cliff-hanger ending, hoping to attract additional readers for the next episode.  This means I have to resolve the problem at the end of one episode at the beginning of the next one.

Writing a series story has a lot of constraints that the storyteller has to deal with.  You’re constrained by what has gone before, what has been written before.  You have to check back and write the next episode in a way that is consistent with what you did three episodes before.  This involves a lot of fact-checking and some occasionally twisted transitions.  I spend a lot of time planting little hints and motives that will play out in later episodes. 

One of the original desires I had in doing Nanotroopers was to be able to use snatches of text, dialogue and story from my larger novels in Tales of the Quantum Corps.  I had hoped to be able to cut and paste, do a little modifying and be able to move the individual stories along with a little less writing on my part.  By and large, this has worked pretty well, but this also brings up another constraint.  I have self-limited myself in Nanotroopers to stories and scenes and locales set on Earth of the mid-21^st century.  However, much of the latter part of Tales is set off-Earth.

Halfway through the series, I find that I’m running out of settings and locales and conflicts.  In Episode 13 (’Small is All”), I’m going to take a deep breath and venture off-Earth for the first time.  Johnny Winger will lead his nanotroopers on an expedition to investigate some strange goings-on on the Moon.  Red Hammer is clearly up to something no good and the Corps has to find out what.

The general plot line that drives Nanotroopers, as stated in the introductory page of every episode, is this: UN Quantum Corps must defeat the cartel Red Hammer’s efforts to steal or disable their new nanorobotic ANAD systems, so as to have a free hand on Earth (and the Moon) to pursue their criminal enterprises. 

Which leads me to think that one story line I could pursue would be to follow the Red Hammer side of things and show how they go about their nefarious schemes from their point of view.  Hmmm….

Another possible source of new plot lines, as needed, would be to concentrate an episode or two on nanotroopers other than Johnny Winger and tell the story from their perspective.  People like Deeno D’Nunzio, Mighty Mite Barnes, and An Nguyen surely must have an interesting take on what it’s like to serve under Lieutenant John Winger. 

But as always, my cardinal desire in each episode is to have lots of action, the more the better.  I want each episode to drop the reader right in the middle of some furious, fast-paced action and then explain things later.  So any plot line or conflict I choose has to enable this approach.

More on Nanotroopers to come.  Keep downloading!

The next post to The Word Shed will come on August 29, 2016.

See you then.

Phil B.

“Getting Paid vs. Driving Downloads”

Every author wants to get paid for their work, if for no other reason than to pay bills and have your work validated by fattening your checking account.  But a few months ago, I set most of my science fiction ebook titles available at Smashwords to free.  Why?

For as long as I have been uploading titles to Smashwords, I have been using download volume as a basic indicator of how successful the title was.  Downloads going up means people are interested enough to take a closer look at your work.  There had been some sales as well, although not that many.   And like most ebooks, following Smashwords recommendations, I had priced my works around $2.99 or $3.99, even $1.99.  Not a lot of money.

Then download volume began to plateau out.  Flatlined in some cases.  I wondered what I should do.  Smashwords is pretty good at offering suggestions on how to drive downloads.  New and better covers.  More intensive marketing efforts.  Crash social media to get word out of your work.  This blog is actually a result of Smashwords recommendations.

But one recommendation stuck with me.  When sales and downloads are flat, Smashwords recommends setting all your titles with prices to zero.  No cost.  The rationale is that this may tempt more people to take a closer look at an unknown author: “Hmmm, this looks interesting…and it’s free…maybe I’ll download all or part of it and take a look.”

I’m happy to report that this worked, even better than I expected.  While some of my titles are still priced at around $2.99, all of my science fiction is now free.  And when I did that, there was an immediate spike in downloads and it’s pretty much stayed that way from the time I did it.  I now plan to continue making my science fiction available for free downloads for the time being. 

As of this post, I am getting about a hundred downloads a week across all titles.  So there is some interest out there.

Fortunately, I don’t need the money.  It’s not that I’m independently wealthy.  It’s just that I have other sources of income and I write stories now because I love to do that. 

Smashwords is a big promoter of doing whatever it takes to supercharge your downloads.  In fact, they have a book marketing guide with 39 tips on good marketing practices for ebook authors.  I’ve taken many of their ideas to heart and tried to put them into practice.  I now work with two blogs, this one and one directly related to my series Tales of the Quantum Corps.  I have a web site on wix.com, though it needs updating.  I’ve set my sf titles to free.  I’ve got a new series called Nanotroopers going, with mentions of upcoming releases and schedules in the front and back matter of the book file.  And I’ve started to add mentions of related or upcoming titles in much of my work, at the end of the book file.

One thing I haven’t done is invest in some new covers, especially for Tales.  I’m sure that would be a good investment and I’m sure I’ll do that pretty soon. 

So for an ebook author interested in gaining an audience, driving downloads is really more important than sales and dollars, important as those may be.  It’s all about getting noticed and gaining an audience, then making it as easy as possible for an interested reader to link to your book and make the sale…or the download.

The next post to The Word Shed will come on August 22 and will cover an update on my Nanotroopers series…where it is now and what’s coming up.  Also, what’s it been like to do a series that uploads a new episode every 3 weeks.

See you on August 22.

Phil B.

“The Old Ones and the Coethi: One and the Same?”

The villains of Tales of the Quantum Corps are called the Old Ones.  The adversary in The Farpool is called the Coethi.   I have used similar descriptions for both.  Should I make them the same entity?  For a storyteller, what are the advantages and disadvantages?

Here are some details about the Coethi:

1.     The Coethi are (thought to be) a race of sentient semi-robotic aliens whose main weapon against Uman forces is something Umans called a starball.  It is directed against the sun or star of a targeted Uman planetary system.  The only known defense is a Time Twister.  When a starball enters or is pulled into the twist field of a Twister, it is flung out of local space-time into the farthest reaches of the Universe.

2.     Umans and Coethi are contending for influence and territory in a region of the Milky Way known as the Galactic Halo.

3.     The main-sequence star Sigma-Albeth B is near the center of a key sector of the Halo.  It has four planets, one of them Seome.  Seome is an ideal site to build and operate a Time Twister to defend this sector, known to Humans as Halo-Alpha.  The sector is above the plane of the galactic Orion Arm, in which most of Uman space is located, including the solar system and its strategic timestreams T-1 to T-99.

4.     The Coethi originated in the Perseus Arm and view the Halo sectors as convenient ways to expand their territory and influence into the Orion and other arms in this quadrant of the galaxy.  But the Umans are in the way.

5.     The Coethi are a distributed intelligence.  They are a swarm of nanoscale robotic elements several light years in extent, drifting through space.

6.     The basic element of the Coethi is a nanobot.  An autonomous, nanoscale assembler/disassembler of incredible sophistication and complexity. 

7.     Nobody knows how the Coethi came to be, even the Coethi themselves.  As an organized superorganism of bots several light-years in extent, they have existed for a substantial fraction of the age of the Universe.  Best guess by Earth scientists is 4-5 billion years old. 

8.     The Coethi are a true superswarm of vast proportions.  In size and extent and connection density, it exceeds the complexity of all the human minds that have ever lived on Earth combined.  It is a thinking sentience, whose true environment is now interstellar space. 

9.     There is an archive of knowledge within the Coethi, a sort of computational cloud or main memory, which retains all information ever created or experienced by the swarm. 

10.  Within this Archive is information indicating that the Coethi originated on an actual homeworld, somewhere in M75 cluster in Sagittarius.  The data show that the homeworld was destroyed by a nearby supernova and the surviving elements dispersed into space in a sort of interstellar diaspora.  As humans reckon universe time, this happened at least 4-6 billion years ago, at a time when the Universe was approximately 7 billion years after the Big Bang.

11.  There is no known head or leadership group or body.  The main part is called the Central Entity.

12.  Nanobotic elements of the Coethi engage in some specialization to ensure that the swarm survives and the Central Entity is maintained.  Bots can specialize in such tasks as logical processing, communication, maintenance, archiving and memory, internal transport, navigation, world-seeding, orientation, etc. 

13.  Part of the Coethi swarm is organized as a vast logic array or processor, capable of quantum computation on a stupendous scale.  Effectively, this could be considered the Central Entity.  IT people would call it a galactic scale CPU.   But the truth is that the Coethi are a true collective entity whose behavior evolves from relatively simple rules applied to a vast congregation.  Most sentience and observable behavior emanating from the Coethi is emergent from the complexity and scale of the nanobotic connections. 

14.  It’s not too farfetched to consider the Coethi as a sort of galactic brain, although it certainly doesn’t encompass the entire Milky Way galaxy. 

15.  But the Coethi have an Imperative of Life which compels them to grow and expand the swarm.  Ultimately, they want to unite all world-based instances of swarm life which they have seeded into a giant, galaxy-spanning swarm or hive mind (like a neural network or computational cloud).  To the Coethi, this is the Imperative of Life itself.  The Imperative of Life is that life absorbs chaos from the Universe and adds or builds structure or order.  Life is anti-entropic. 

16.  In order to get their heads around the idea of the Coethi, some descriptors Uman scientists have used have been: galactic brain, interstellar neural network, computational cloud, galactic internet, and universal web.  The basic organizing principle or topology of the Coethi is unknown and can only be speculated about. 

17.  The general physical dimensions of the Coethi swarm have been estimated to vary anywhere from a few billion kilometers in breadth to several light years.  Cosmologists say that a number of organized structures in the Universe are that big.  Astronomers point to some nebula, gas and dust clouds, even black holes as objects of that dimension or larger.  There are some cosmologists who question whether the Coethi swarm is truly alive in a traditional sense.  Even biologists say the proven existence of the Coethi stretches the definition of life and sentience nearly to the breaking point. 

18.  The Coethi can manipulate quantum states of the subscale fine structure of space itself to communicate and affect matter at great distances. As one scientist says, “If the Universe were a great quilt, the Coethi can yank on a fiber at one end and untie a knot at the other.”  Their ability to use quantum entanglement as a means of manipulation is eons ahead of Umans’ ability to understand, let alone emulate. 

19.  The Coethi launch a starball weapon by amassing vast, concentrated quantities of what Uman scientists call fusium.  They concentrate the fusium and focus it using part of the main swarm, then launch the starball at a star or sun. 

20.  The starball affects the balance between outward pressure of fusion in the star’s core and its gravity.  Basically, the starball slows down or inhibits the fusion reactions so that gravity slowly wins out.  The star collapses and may, if massive enough, go supernova. 

 

My descriptions of the Old Ones (from Tales of the Quantum Corps) are very similar.  What are the advantages of using the same adversary in both series?

 

Advantages:

 

1.     I don’t have to re-invent things.  Basic details are already thought out.

2.     Using the same adversary gives me the option of some day blending Tales of the Quantum Corps and The Farpool Stories into one story universe, if I want to.  That decision has not been made yet.

3.     I now even have the option of doing stories from the perspective of the Coethi/Old Ones themselves. 

 

Disadvantages:

 

1.     Is having the same or very similar villains in two different series plausible?

2.     Do the villains have enough ‘depth’ or can I develop enough to make it work?

3.     Do I really want to draw these two series together into one universe?  Yes, it adds many story possibilities and a lot of conflict potential, but still….there would be a lot of details and questions that would have to be resolved.

 

I leave the idea with you for the time being.  Readers of this blog should not be shy about weighing in on this question.  I’m open to suggestions.

 

The next post to The Word Shed will be come on August 15 and will cover a topic dear to any writer’s heart…getting paid vs (for an ebook writer) making your titles free. 

 

See you on August 15.

 

Phil B.

 

 

“Johnny Winger and the Battle at Caloris Basin”

The final title in my science fiction series Tales of the Quantum Corps is entitled as you see above.  I plan to start it in August or September 2016 and finish the first draft in late spring 2017.

What’s it about?  Here are my notes for the Prologue and the first 2 chapters…

PROLOGUE: (March 20, 2155)

Johnny Winger finds himself on the ‘planet of bots’ where he believes he has been before.  Is this a dream?  Is he disembodied, a virtual avatar?  The planet is covered with open fields of plants that are nothing but bots.  Winger is actually a swarm entity now. In the middle of this vast field, he comes to an open lake, with a small white wood frame bridge, where a whirlpool is churning.  Jumping into this whirlpool transports Winger to a time and place in his childhood when he and his Dad were at a fishing camp in Colorado.  Late at night, Johnny Winger and the other kids are supposed to be asleep. But they sneak to the edge of a room, where several tables are set up and Jamison Winger is playing cards with other men.  One of the card players is out of view, in shadow.  The kids call this player the Shadow Man.  For every question Johnny has in his mind, this shadowed player talks to Jamison Winger or the other men in such a way that it is clear he is answering Johnny Winger’s questions.  The questions have to do with who is The Shadow Man, is this fishing camp real? is this actually the ‘planet of bots?’, am I dreaming?

Remember that Winger’s original identity is maintained by the ANAD clone Doc III in a small, non-descript file in his swarm config buffer module. 

The Shadow Man informs Jamison Winger (actually Johnny Winger) that he has an important mission to perform.           

CHAPTER 1 (March 25, 2155) Farside Observatory, Korolev Crater, the Moon

The story opens in late March, 2155 A.D. as astronomers at Farside observe the approach of the Old Ones’ Mother Swarm with growing dread.

Astronomers Nigel Course and Lilly Fong received a Sentinel system alert.  It’s an all- sector alarm…something big has appeared in the outer solar system.  It’s billions of kilometers away but coming this way.  Course and Fong manipulate Sentinel to get a better view and discern the nature of the object or objects.  They eventually decide, from analysis of their readings and running the data through the computers (the system is called ALBERT) that the detected anomaly is a diffuse mass of small particle-size objects with a thermal signature consistent with a large swarm. 

ALBERT has concluded that the anomaly, provisionally known as KB-1 (Kuiper Belt One) may well be the leading edge of the Old Ones mother swarm, moving toward the inner solar system.  Course and Fong send an advisory to UNISPACE, per protocol.  The UNISPACE Watch Center, at Gateway Station, advises them to activate Sentinel defenses as a precautionary measure.  Course and Fong do this.  Sentinel Defense 3 is set (SenDef 3).

CINCSPACE General Mahmood Salaam, attending an awards dinner and function in Paris, is also advised.  CINCSPACE returns immediately to his suite of offices at UNIFORCE Hqs at the Quartier-General in Paris to monitor the situation and issue orders.

CINCSPACE orders immediate preparations be made at Phobos Station (Station P, Mars orbit) and at Titan Station (Station T, Saturn orbit) for two UNISPACE frigates to get underway.  The frigates were built, equipped and staffed for just this purpose: reconnaissance and initial probes into any swarm mass moving toward the inner solar system.

The frigates, UNS Korolev (from Station P) and UNS Tycho (from Station T), get underway. 

 

In another scene, outside Paris, reporter Dana Polansky is arguing with her daughter Jana about attending an Assimilationist rally in Paris.  Dana thinks her daughter has been brainwashed by the Assimilationists.  Jana thinks it would be cool to be deconstructed and become an angel, a para-human swarm of nanobots.  The argument grows heated.  Jana storms out of their apartment.  Dana is livid…and worried Jana might do something drastic.  She has previously arranged through contacts at UNIFORCE to plant a spybot on Jana, something she can’t detect and wouldn’t suspect.  Now, with Jana gone, Dana calls up the spybot and sees Jana is indeed heading right for an Assimilationist “church” in a Paris suburb.  She debates on whether to engage the spybot to morph and change configs to a personal MOBnet, containing her daughter where she is, until Dana can get there.  She decides to engage the MOBnet feature and watches from a dronecam overhead as Jana is ensnared right on the doorstep of the Assimilationist church.  She dashes out the door to retrieve her estranged daughter. 

CHAPTER 2 (March 26, 2155)  UNIFORCE Hqs, the Quartier-General, Paris

            General Lamar Quint is in the middle of composing a report to UNSAC about what Sentinel has detected beyond Pluto when an apparition appears in the corner of his office.  At first, Quint thinks he is imagining this, but the apparition grows into a recognizable human form.  It’s clearly a swarm that has somehow breached UNIFORCE security screens.  That alone is cause for concern and just as Quint is about to sound the alarm, the form becomes recognizably Johnny Winger…a blast from the past.  Winger was thought to have died on Europa in 2121, during the Jovian Hammer mission.  But here is a swarm likeness, an angel, showing up 34 years later.

            The angel appears real and insists it is Johnny Winger, in fact.  But Quint is dubious, to say the least.  The angel reports that Winger is alive and well and working as a spy and saboteur inside the mother swarm of the Old Ones, to prevent the Old Ones from destroying or absorbing Earth .   The angel wants to deliver some intel on the intentions of the Old Ones in the coming months, now that the mother swarm has reached the outer solar system.  Winger describes the Prime Key and what it will mean for Earth and all life on the planet, and also describes the Old Ones’ plans to build a forward base on Mercury and a ring to intercept much of the Sun’s output to facilitate their disassembly and absorption of the solar system.  He indicates that he has some room to maneuver inside the mother swarm and that he can do things to sabotage these plans.  But the intel needs to get to UNSAC and plans should be gotten underway to equip and launch an expedition to stop these efforts.

            Quint is dubious, thinking he’s dreaming or had too much to drink, but promises the angel that he’ll pass this intel on to UNSAC.  When and how can he be in contact in the future? The Winger angel says he’ll let Quint know; he’s running a grave risk doing even this much, but he has to do what he can to stop the Old Ones.  Then, the Winger angel disperses and Quint is left wondering if any of what happened actually happened.

            He goes upstairs to UNSAC’s suite and requests a meeting with Angelika Komar, the Security Affairs Commissioner.  Quint is shown into the UNSAC suite of offices and Komar offers him a drink.  Nighttime Paris is on display outside and they step out onto a veranda, protected by the faint veil of a nanobotic barrier.  Quint describes what has just happened.  Komar is doubtful and thinks Quint has imagined the whole scenario.  She tells Quint it’s either a trap laid by elements of the Old Ones or a stress reaction to all that’s going on.  “Sign yourself into sick bay tomorrow for a checkup, Lamar,” she orders.  “We need our top staff whole and hearty for the days ahead.”

            Quint leaves.  He thinks maybe UNSAC’s right.  “I haven’t been getting enough sleep lately.  And with what Sentinel is now reporting, anybody would be spooked.”

            He resolves to do as UNSAC has suggested and returns to his quarters, intending to take something to help him sleep. 

            As this is going on, Dana Polansky has arrived at the doorsteps of the Assimilationist church to find her daughter, whom she thought was caught in a MOBnet, nowhere in sight.  She goes into the church, asks some questions, receives noncommittal and evasive answers, and comes back outside with the dawning suspicion that Jana has already gone off somewhere and been assimilated.  But how to find her?  How to find out?  Dana is frantic.  She decides to follow the recorded footage of the dronecam.  Studying this, she finds that several people from the church have collapsed the MOBnet, rescued Jana and taken her inside the church.  The church claims not to know anything about her.  But the video evidence proves otherwise.

            Furious, determined to get to the bottom of this and rescue her daughter, Dana barges back inside the church.

 

This story will bring Tales of the Quantum Corps to an end, at least for the time being.  As I indicated in a post several weeks ago, there are some loose ends that need to be tied up to successfully close the series…that’s the nature of series writing.

In this story, our intrepid hero Johnny Winger now exists only as a para-human swarm entity (this happened in Johnny Winger and the Europa Quandary).  What’s it like to live life as such a being…not human, but resembling human?  Read Johnny Winger and the Battle at Caloris Basin next spring to see for yourself.  And stay tuned to The Word Shed for notes and excerpts on this and other upcoming works.

The next post to the Word Shed will be on August 8.  In this post, we’ll take a closer look at the central enemy of my Farpool series…a race of machine entities called the Coethi.  They seem a lot like the Old Ones from Tales of the Quantum Corps.

Hmmmm….

See you on August 8.

Phil B.