the jupiter files – Sean Monaghan

I’m still learning so much about publishing, but working to get more ahead, especially with pre-orders. It’s helping me to keep a more regular schedule, without feeling rushed.

November 20th – The Great Wall of Endemo. This is YA sci fi, the third novel in the Matti-Jay and Dub adventures, fifth overall if you count the two short stories, and eighth overall if you count the first trilogy, “The Chronicles of the Donner”.

Visiting distant planet Endemo, with its mysterious huge alien wall, Matti-Jay and the crew of the Blue Defender expect some quiet sightseeing. But with hidden secrets, the wall, and the locals seem impenetrable. Matti-Jay struggles, racing to unravel the truth as things fall apart around her.

The Great Wall of Endemo – ebook $5.99, print 16.99 – available November 20th

November 25th – The Film Adjuster. This is kind of contemporary fantasy. When I wrote it, I thought it was sci fi, but a reader pointed out that there really wasn’t science involved, so fantasy it is. I don’t think it’s urban fantasy.

Cale loves the movies. Soda. Popcorn. Almost a ritual.
Action, drama, romance, arthouse. He has eclectic tastes. Very eclectic.
When he encounters Nicole, though, things change. Drastically.
It might take everything in him to keep a handle on reality.
A twisted story that rides right into the depths of manipulation, from the author of Life-Span.

The Film Adjuster – ebook $2.99, print $9.99 – available November 25th.

December 20th – Tritium Blaze. This is book two of the series The Jupiter Files. Adventure sci fi.

Piloting the Echo Star around Jupiter enlivens Live Dricoll’s senses in surprising ways. Gigantic and swirling, the planet reminds her of old conversations with her late grandmother.
But strange forces lurk, putting more on the line than just her grandmother’s legacy.
This shapes up like a battle for humanity’s future. With Liv stuck right in the middle.

Tritium Blaze – ebook $5.99, print $17.99 – available December 20th.

This year has been one for sci fi, with some literary thrown in. Next year should be more varied, still some sci fi, still some literary, but there will also be the third book in the Morgenfeld series, and a new thriller series.

Interesting note on my Morgenfeld series, Alex Pheby has a new book out called “Mordew“. A gothic fantasy, apparently in the vein of Mervyn Peake. I have a copy and I’ll be reading it soon. I wonder what I’ll think. Probably envy. Still, intriguing (to me, at least) in that we’ve both taken use ‘Mor-‘ as the start of the name of our locale, with a sound a bit like Peake’s “Gormenghast”. I’ll write another post about that when I’ve finished the book. Could be a while; the stack is tall and Mordew is hefty.

Deuterium Shine POD cover3 I’m deep in the heart of a writing a novel at the moment. Tritium Blaze, book two of The Jupiter Files series (Deuterium Shine, the first book should be out later in the year, then book two sometime next year. Cover image by Philcold | Dreamstime).

I write into the dark, as in, I have no outline (see Dean Wesley Smith’s take on this).

Smith talks about how the sub-conscious, having been exposed to ‘story’ since childhood, knows how story works. If a writer lets the sub-conscious out to play, it knows where the story is going. Even if the conscious mind doesn’t.

It seems, even, that it’s useful to get the conscious mind well out of the way. It can be a know-nothing spoiler. Even a saboteur.

I’ve written into the dark for many years now. Sometimes that means I have to go back in earlier in the story and add something. You know, if a character knows how to fly a jet, but it hasn’t been mentioned yet. A sentence or two in an earlier chapter can do wonders.

Now with this novel I’ve had to smile. Without giving too many spoilers, my character’s spacehip has been in dry-dock getting refurbished from the outset. Now that’s kind of odd, since this is hard science-fiction and my characters need their ship to, you know, do space stuff.

And then, last night, as I’m writing–40,000 words into something that will probably be about 60,000–the reason became apparent and clear and absolutely serving the story.

I am so looking forward to writing the next chapters.

My sub-conscious set it up from the very outset. It’s taken years of training my conscious mind to keep out of the way and last night I really felt like I’d made another little step toward that.

Tag: the jupiter files

Three pre-orders

Learning to trust my sub-conscious