Christopher B. Wright's Blog, page 40

A Rake by Starlight - Chapter 07

WHEREIN Our Hero Finds a Thing

An hour and a half later the body was stowed in their medibay, encased in a stasis field to prevent deterioration, and the squib was towed into Bay Three. The entire crew was on hand to see it: Amys, Morgan and Faldyth were standing to one side, talking with Cyrus, who was busy securing the crane he’d used to drag the squib into the ship. Standing near them were Cutter and Hari, Cyrus’ gunners.

Cutter was a lean man—tall for a Terran, but still half a head shorter...

A Rake by Starlight - Chapter 06

WHEREIN Our Hero Stumbles Into the Thick of It, and Finds the Experience Regrettable

Ogo was the Invagi word for pretender, and the description was apt. It was much too small to be considered a proper moon: it was, more accurately, a fragment of an asteroid that got caught in Uru’s gravity well and wound up taking a stable orbit around it. It was classified as a moon because the unmanned probe that first mapped the system experienced a programming error in the algorithm used to differentiate b...

Let the Record Show

Last night on Twitter I found myself in a state of what might best be termed "in high dudgeon."1 The dudgeon relates to a particular theory concerning writers and their priorities, and the dudgeon was high enough that I felt it appropriate to declaim, in 140 character snippets, the following:

I'm not going to tell writers how to live their lives, or what their priorities should be, but I'm getting tired of this comment: #rant

— C B Wright v42 (@ubersoft) November 13, 2013

"Writing needs to be th...

NaNoWriMo Update

In the past I've been better about these, but this has been an uncomfortably hectic November so far.

At this point in the game I am about 8,000 words behind. I've been 8,000 words behind for the last few days. It's frustrating, but I can still catch up. I just need a few good writing days and I'll be back on track.

What about those of you poor, brave souls who are also NaNoing this year? Where are you at? Discuss!

A Rake by Starlight - Chapter 05

WHEREIN Motive is both Rigorously Examined and Studiously Ignored

“…so there’s enough power to copy the ship manifest and some of her logs, but not all of them. We’re making our best guess as to what you’ll find useful, but we can’t make any promises. We’ve got most of the captain’s logs that we can find, but they’re encrypted and may only be partial files. We can’t tell.” Mac sounds slightly defensive over the comm channel. “We’re going to wrap up in another ten minutes. I don’t want to be he...

Now Available: Curveball Year One: Death of a Hero

Curveball Issue 13 isn't quite out on sale yet, but I'm pleased to announce that Curveball Year One: Death of a Hero is now available in both eBook and Trade Paperback form.

What is this, you ask? Well, for those of you who have been following the serial since its inception, there's not much new. It's issues 1-12, collected into a single volume. The trade paperback even includes the covers for each issue (in grayscale--color interiors are expensive).

The trade paperback weighs in at 363 pages,...

A Rake by Starlight - Chapter 04

WHEREIN A Search For Hidden Treasure Produces Uneven Results

Mac Wallen was a short, stocky man. It wasn’t a build most people associated with zero gravity work, but his heft was deceptive. Mac had been an asteroid miner before embarking on a life of crime, and he and his crew were old hands at working in zero gravity environments.

That was what convinced Captain Vindh to bring them on. It hadn’t been an easy decision, from his perspective: he didn’t know anything about them, Mac and his crew h...

Shadows: Part Four

Somewhere Underground

Holt wakes up with a sudden, sharp surge of adrenaline, his mind screaming. Danger! Danger! Over and over again it screams, urging him to move, urging him to flee, and he’s absolutely convinced it is giving him the best advice he’s ever received.

It’s advice he can’t take. He can’t move.

He’s lying on his back, staring up into darkness. He can’t see anything, but he’s lying on something cold. Stone, he thinks—it feels like he’s lying on smooth stone, maybe concrete. It’s co...

Shadows: Part Three

TriHealth Executive Suite

Ronald Holt sits in his office, stares out his window, and sips his coffee with a contented sigh. The TriHealth building isn’t the tallest in Farraday City, not by a long shot, but it’s the only building on its block, and the top floor gives him a good view of their part of the Uptown business district. The rain disappeared at dawn, but everything is still quite wet, and the streets glisten in the early morning light. It’s quite pretty: the sun shines off the water li...

Shadows: Part Two

The Swordfish

Rain turns into torrential rain, torrential rain turns into a tropical depression, and Jerry is having one of his best nights in a long time. The bar is packed with people willing to pay good money to stay dry. The solid, reliable roof of the Swordfish has, for the duration of the storm, become one of the most popular attractions of the boardwalk. Jerry’s been making money all day, and as the storm increases in strength, so does his business.

It ought to make him happy. At least,...