Post #180 August 12, 2019

“Quantum Troopers Return”

In a few months, I will be beginning a new science fiction series of 10 episodes called “Quantum Troopers Return.”  This series is a continuation of my original series Quantum Troopers (formerly Nanotroopers).  Why this series?  In a word…numbers.  I’ve had over 14,000 downloads from the original series and some 46% of my downloads since I first went online are from Quantum Troopers.  My readers seem to like this series and want more. 

The series will feature the same or similar settings and most of the same characters but will be comprised of all new adventures.

Toward that end, here’s a brief excerpt from my outline notes on the first episode, entitled “Fab Lords.” It is scheduled to be available on February 7, 2020….

Chapter 1 “Nano Monsoon”

1. UN Boundary Patrol geoplane Mole, on patrol a few kilometers below Tunis, Tunisia detects an unknown, subterranean vehicle nearby. It’s not a UN vehicle.  Captain Will Mack tries to follow, but the target eludes them.  Mole surfaces outside Tunis, contacts UNIFORCE.  Capt. Mack ordered to fly to Paris.  UNQC called in as well, to UNSAC briefing.
2. Q2 and other intelligence agencies (as well as WHO) have determined that the cartel Red Harmony has entered a new business in a big way: manufacturing and distributing illegal nano, twist and unlicensed matter compilers (fabs).  Intel from jungles outside Jakarta is suspicious.  UNSAC forms a special ops team with 1^st ANAD in the lead, to investigate strange goings-on in and around Jakarta.  The Indonesian capital is being overrun by rogue nano, fabs out of control and a twist epidemic. WHO and BioShield can barely keep up.
3. At Table Top, General Kraft summons Colonel Johnny Winger to a briefing, where he lays out UNSAC’s orders and the mission details: Find out what Red Harmony’s got going in around Jakarta and if possible, render their supply networks inoperative.  A lot of rogue nano is turning up there and BioShield needs help.  The task force (Detachment Alpha) will be comprised on specialist atomgrabbers from 1^st ANAD and BioShield. 
4. The Detachment sets off by hyperjet to Singapore, where they will meet with Boundary Patrol crews to recon the area. 
5. Straight away, Detachment Alpha encounters Red Harmony bot swarms and drones making illicit deliveries to mules inside Jakarta from somewhere in the nearby jungle.  A 2-geoplane mission is formed to investigate.  But on approach to the coordinates Q2 has identified, one geoplane is attacked and rendered inoperative.  When Prairie Dog investigates, they find a wrecked geoplane on the surface (under jungle canopy) and the crew missing.   Detachment commander Col. Winger was among the missing crew.  Where are they? Are they dead, imprisoned, hostages? Detachment command falls to the exec, one Quantum Sergeant Al Glance.
    
   This should give you an idea of what’s coming.  There are both advantages and disadvantages in doing series fiction.  I’ve covered this before, but I’ll reprise some of my ideas on this again here….

Many science fiction writers do series stories.  There are some definite advantages.  One is that you can ‘amortize’ your research and development of fictional worlds (very important in sf) across many titles.  It takes time and hard work to develop an alien world set in a galaxy far, far away and be consistent and somewhat scientifically accurate.  Series writing in sf enables you to have a ready-made setting to drop your story into…all you need is a plot line.  Usually, series also have continuing characters.  You don’t have to re-describe Flash Whizbang each time, since presumably the readers already know a lot about him.  Think Tom Swift, Nancy Drew or even better, Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. 

But there are definitely challenges and pitfalls in writing a series too.  You’re constrained (to some degree) by what you’ve written before.  The longer a series goes, the more detailed your notes had better be, since nobody can keep all those myriad details in their head…except your readers, who will surely let you know that in story #1, Flash was blond with two heads and in Story #5, you describe Flash as brown haired with tentacles.  Take notes.  Consistency is vital in series writing.

That said, you’d like to have a character who can meet challenges and grow and change in resolving them, as real people do.  Which means, you can either plot this growth out ahead of time or just write the stories and be surprised by what Flash develops into as he evolves in your mind and on paper.  Actually, I do a little of both and I suspect many authors of series do as well.  Ideally, your main characters have enough imaginary room to evolve as the series goes on.  We see this in TV as well, which lends itself well to series stories and characters.  When developing and writing series fiction, know your main characters well.

Another issue in writing series fiction is coming up with ideas for plots.  This really should be pretty well thought out ahead of time.  There should be an overall story arc for the series, into which your individual stories will fit, perhaps chronologically or in some way thematically.  The story arc should be something that can be stated in a single sentence

Sometimes series just develop without authorial intention.  That’s what happened to my series The Farpool Stories.  Originally, there was only The Farpool.  But the reader response was sufficient for me to consider writing another story with the same characters and same setting, with some expansions and adjustments.  After the second book, I decided to make the Farpool stories a formal series and plotted out a story trajectory that would make sense.  Now all books have been uploaded and there may be more someday.  And, through the wonders of wormholes and time travel, the series could come back to the place it originally started, albeit in a different time stream.  You gotta love science fiction.

 

Interestingly enough, due to what happened to my main character in Quantum Troopers, I will have to do some serious finagling in Quantum Troopers Return to make his comeback believable.  More on this later.

 

The next post to The Word Shed comes on August 19, 2019.

 

See you then.

 

Phil B.