How did Adrift begin?
Here’s a question that I get asked often- How do your stories begin? The answer is not cut-and-dry. Each of my novels began differently (some of them vastly so), but Adrift began as a scientific question:
Considering the vastness of our galaxy and the time is would take to traverse it, how would we- or races from other planets- explore it?
Most people like to ignore the fact that we will someday die. Even with “modern medicine”, which will continue to advance, our human bodies can only last so long. Certainly not long enough to explore the reaches of our galaxy. We’re going to need help; to either develop a means of travel that’s nearly instantaneous, or we’re going to have to prolong our lives.
I’d already focused on folding space as a means of travel for the Arathians, and wanted the Sirilians to go about it differently. Instead of advanced propulsion drives, I decided to put their bodies into stasis chambers. These regeneration chambers would allow them to transverse the galaxy, sleeping during the long stretches of empty time in between star systems.
That piece of sci-fi technology was the jumping off point for Adrift!
Once I had that, I had to figure out my characters. Who would use this? Who would want to leave their planet for that long? Why would they volunteer? Why would they be sent? Those kinds of questions are what I spent 75% of my time thinking about, and eventually, I came up with Karo’s character. A man who is self-sacrificing and determined to help his people.
Once I had Karo, I focused on his female. While I felt like Karo’s characteristics were easy for me to figure out, it took me a while to uncover Aevum. Eventually I found a woman that could put up with Karo’s stubbornness and pride, and the more I wrote, the better they clicked.
This next book has begun very differently- instead of starting with a sci-fi concept like Adrift, this one is beginning with the characters. It will be unique, but hopefully just as compelling!
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