A little ship called the Lyra

The adventure continues

I set myself a near impossible task to get book 3 of The Lyra Cycle ready for Armchair Alien’s October celebration … with a title (A Broken Fighter on Bloody Sands) … and even a cover:

It was touch and go but the adventures of the little cargo ship Lyra continue.

When I published the first book, I made things challenging for my future self.

For one, I gave it the title “A Dead Ship in the Deep Black”. It’s long. It takes up a certain space on a cover. Future books needed to toe the line. Sometime I hate past self.

I also started the blurb with a rule. Rule #1 in fact. Whatever you do, don't open the box. Now every blurb needs a rule. Book 2’s was number 27: Don’t trust the weird Sisters. For book 3, I’ve jumped to #68 — don’t accept a jewelled egg from a Rhombian. Words to live by, I tell you.

However, writing this last book made me realize I needed to track the rules in my series bible.

I haven’t created a series bible for previous series, but I’m really glad I did for this one. If I mention a character or a creature or a planet, they go in the bible with a brief description. I want to write more in this universe, and now I have whole slew of people, places and things I can do nefarious things with next.

That’s actually what happened with our card challenge, where I wrote a story from a set of cards drawn from a pile. I turned those into a story involving a walk on character in book 2, Echo Eris. After writing that story, I have more of her history and I introduced Laramy Singe, who may end up being the hero in their own story one day.

A Broken Fighter on Bloody Sands is available now from our store — use code OCTBOOKOFMONTH for a 50% discount. You can also find it on all the main online bookstores.

Of course, paid subscribers get the book for free!