#SciFi

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6 Nov 'How is the antagonist’s community perceived'

Sea Battles come with the job!

Pirates!

The Second Battle of Fflint
The Second Battle of Waterloo
The Second Battle of Hastings

is up the coast from , not , not , not

A picture of three pirates Slender (Lieutenant) A smartly dressed, pretty young lady aged about 20, wielding a rapier BlackCloud (Captain) A short, slim smartly dressed man with a moustache, wielding a rapier BlackDog (First Mate) A big, ugly man with a full beard, wielding a broadsword copyright © Scott Rochester 2025
A three quarter rear view of a fully rigged man o war on a rainy night. (Allied forces, not pirates) The sails have been hoisted, the stern and the cabins and brightly lit, the remainder of the ship is dark, there are three gun decks, the lower two of which have the hatches open. The image is labelled An Colgán Cróga - The Gallant Swordfish. copyright © Scott Rochester 2025

Slammed into a writing wall of my own making today and won't be making my 2k word goal.
Despite being a hardcore plotter, I tend to not plan out my sci-fi tech enough in the outlining phase, and force myself to figure it out while drafting.
That happened today. Oh well.

Research time!

5 Nov 'What community or group does your antagonist belong to?'

Pirates in 2450AD

All is not what it seems, and there's a weird history. Captain BlackCloud is the BlackCircle's chief, Bruno is the RedCircle's quartermaster.

This part of the story is centred on , , , and . It starts with WallyLa explaining who Schrödinger was.

see Alt Text for more

“The ships didn’t last long though, because there was no fuel. From what I know the next thing that happened was an internal conflict in the BlackCircle, and then it split in two. One group wanted to keep the metal Royal Navy ships and stayed in Boot. The other group embraced old fashioned sailing ships and moved to Wally to set up the RedCircle.” “And that’s how we ended up with two groups of pirates at the mouth of The Merse!” “Pretty good,” says Bruno, “except for the bit about Schrödinger!” “He was a Royal Navy rating in his younger days. An engineer, he worked on diesel engines, electric generators, and solar power. When he was demobbed he decided to go to university and he started studying properly. He never left!” “Well he did leave eventually! But not until after the Second Battle of Waterloo.” “And you know there’s a difference between destroyed in a fire and destroyed on a fire. I’ll explain.” copyright © Scott Rochester 2025
A watercolour painting of a pirate Captain. A 40 year old man with short dark hair and dark hazel coloured eyes. He is a short, slim, smartly dressed man with a moustache, and a calm expression on his face. A tactician not a warrior. He has a blue jacket with gold buttons, over a plain white shirt and he’s wearing a black tricorn hat with gold edging. Out of shot, his weapon of choice is a narrow rapier. The image is labelled BlackCloud. A watercolour painting of a well built man in his mid forties. He has short, well groomed dark brown hair and rich chestnut coloured eyes, and calm yet serious look on his face. He is wearing a navy blue polo shirt. The image is labelled Bruno. Book extract SlenderWolf Conflicts and Alliances Chapter 23 The War of the Wor When Waterloo vanished beneath the sea, the WaterMil fell apart, and the old local militias became the new local mafias.” “The LoolMil split three ways forming the LoolMaf, the BootMaf and the BlackCircle. The BlackCircle became the most powerful group, because they had the ships and the weapons that they’d poached when the Royal Navy collapsed.” copyright © Scott Rochester 2025

Wanna see a snippet of Gas Giant Gambit's best review so far?

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
"Raye isn't afraid to dabble in the whimsical side of a space cowboy adventure, nor does he shy from the realities of what an old fashioned shoot-out entails. He finds a way to balance grit and goofs and holds that line without flinching until the last dot on the page."

Exactly what I was aimin' for!

November 3: What was your MC’s childhood like?

Born o. A planet circling Centauri Prime, raised one a interstellar space craft bound for Earth, joined the military under his Grandfather's Barony, and met a doe. John Sandwolf childhood from his perspective was mostly unremarkable. Though, some would disagree entirely.

3 Nov 'What was your MC’s childhood like'

Constable Walker is giving CandiCrush some background on the men who make explosives.

If you're going to have explosives experts obviously it has to be MaxChaos and HayWire. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

(MaxChaos and HayWire are not present.)

see Alt Text x3 for more

Four watercolour paintings superimposed on a book cover. CandiCrush - a smart, attractive 33 year old female military officer with chestnut coloured eyes, and medium ash brown hair. Her hair is brushed back into a tight bun behind her head. There's a look of concentration on her face and she has a hint of a smile. She's wearing gold stud earrings, dark eye shadow, and pale pink lipstick. Over a dark olive T shirt Commander Crush is wearing DPMs (Disruptive Pattern Material, AKA camouflage). Constable Walker- an attractive British police officer aged about 25 years old, looking smart and authoritative in her summer uniform. She is wearing a peaked cap with a chequered band, and a silver badge depicting a wolf's head. White blouse, no tie, and black epaulettes with silver numerals saying 49. She has simple silver stud earrings. MaxChaos - A bearded young man aged about twenty posing for a headshot - he has long hair down to the top of his shoulders with a colour that varies from brown to light brown - the beard is well groomed and his hair is neat if a bit long - his eyes are blue - his face has a neutral expression and it looks as if he has the merest hint of a frown - he is wearing a white T shirt. HayWire - an 18 year old young man - he has fly away blonde hair and blue eyes - in this relaxed pose he has a thoughtful and neutral expression - he is wearing a white T shirt - the image is labelled HayWire copyright © Scott Rochester 2025
continued … other game. He’s tried inventing booby traps to catch bigger animals like wild boar.” “He lives in a shared house with other dockers, but he doesn’t drink much, so he has trouble mixing with them. You’ll rarely find him in The George Tavern, and he spends most of his time in the woods tracking animals. Or he’ll be socialising with a small group of friends. He’s dependable and he’ll go out of his way to protect his friends.” “But he’s scruffy, and he looks like a rebel. He’s basically had a tough life since the age of ten, but he’s warm hearted, he’s big and strong, and he’s done well to get some stability in his life.” “Interesting character! And HayWire, who’s he?” “Samuel Clark. Also known as HayWire. He’s eighteen years old with no police record. His parents both work in the tanning industry. At school he was both brilliant and awful. Excelling in some subjects and bottom of the class in others. He graduated two years ago with a DOD.” “Brilliant at what?” copyright © Scott Rochester 2025
Book extract SlenderWolf Conflicts and Alliances Chapter 26 Fate Rewards the Brave CandiCrush nods. “You’ll remember I mentioned Max to you before. He’s the one who disabled the Bandersnatch with a flaming arrow.” “Yes. Tell me more about him.” Walker takes a sheet of paper from her pouch, and reads from it. “Maximillian Armstrong. Also known as MaxChaos. He’s twenty years old with no police record. His mother died when he was young and he was brought up by his father who was a dock worker. Owing to work, his father wasn’t always around and Max had difficulty studying. He gave up on school when he was thirteen years old. He has no qualifications. It was agreed that it was in everybody’s best interest, including his, to let him be.” “He works on and off in the docks, and sometimes aboard ship. His father vanished when he was sixteen. Nobody knows what happened to him. Max is a highly accomplished, self taught archer. He hunts deer and he has an exceedingly good diet. He also snares rabbits and continued … copyright © Scott Rochester 2025

Who counts as human? Throughout history, one all too common thread is that groups of people often do not believe that other groups of people are also . If we evolved apart so that we were different species, would we recognize our shared humanity? For this years I’m offering free copies of my just released novel HUMAN to all . Just go to https://bretthodnett.com/FreeHUMAN.html and use the code ‘fedihuman’.
https://bretthodnett.com/HUMAN.html

QSFer Abigail Taylor has a new FF sci-fi romance out, Dimensions of Love book 3: Her Final Phase.

Secrets are dangerous, and the choices of the past refuse to stay buried.

Julia and Jules are finally discovering their places in their new worlds, while Denise and Andrea are being their supportive partners, helping them build the lives ...

https://www.queerscifi.com/new-release-her-final-phase-abigail-taylor/

@LGBTQBookstodon @diversebooks @bookstodon

I've got several books out, a mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Last Train Home is my fave, a portal fantasy focused on exploration, quests, and adaptation. It's got two books, but is also an ongoing web serial.

https://www.siennaeggler.com/last-train-home/

Early Adopter is a sci-fi detective series, featuring a cyborg PI. They specialize in fidelity cases, but get pulled into investigating missing people, or in the latest book, a beloved doggo.

https://books2read.com/b/EarlyAdopter

You can find the rest of my backlog in the links below:

https://books2read.com/ap/xdwWOJ/Sienna-Eggler
https://payhip.com/SiennaEggler

The ebook of my debut novella, "The Warrior Within", has just dropped in price to $0.50 at Amazon. I don't think it's ever been on sale before.

If you like far-future science-fiction with tidally-locked worlds, mysterious ruined cities, and a hero who just wants to be left alone, this might be the book for you.

https://amzn.to/47jX4Y1