About Mac

I want to talk aboutMac. Colleen “Mac” MacDowell is a character I’ve been working with sporadicallyfor the past 20 or 30 years. But the last couple of years, I’ve been workingpretty intensely on getting her story written. I’ve still got a long way to go.(I’ve got about 9 volumes written in the series, but I’m thinking it will be atleast 15 volumes long, maybe more.)

Colleen—

Nobodycalls me that. It’s Mac.

(Sigh.) Mac is a girl.Or rather, by the time we meet her, she’s a woman. She was born and raised on aheavy-world planet, namely Gaelund, so she has more strength than it seems shewould have. She’s also fairly short, about 5’2”. She has fire-engine red hair,typically only found on Gaelund, and emerald-green eyes.

She was raised the onlydaughter, with 7 older brothers. Their father instilled in those brothers thatthey would protect their sister’s ‘innocence’ no matter what the cost. Shecarries a lot of baggage with her.

Icame here with 1 regulation duffel bag!

I meant psychologicalbaggage.

Oh,that.

Anyway, after 4 yearsat the Fleet Academy, and roughly 5 years bouncing from one tug to another, shesomehow finagled a promotion and a transfer to the FSS Fireballfrom her former captain. She’s the 4th communications officer on theFireball, and she’s assigned to the midnight shift.

Tellthem about Bugsy.

Stop interrupting. Shewas happy to get to the Fireball because she knew the senior helmsman,Bugalu, who she considers an adopted brother. Bugalu was two years ahead of herat the Academy and was roommate for her youngest brother, Matthew. It took the2 of them to keep Mac out of trouble, and to get her trained to get along inFleet society.

Trained?You mean, like a pet?

You’re interruptingagain.

Youtalk too slow.

I type even slower.Now, let me get along with this. When Mac arrived on the Fireball, alongwith 2 other beautiful women, the captain wondered which of the 3 would turnout to be trouble. Capt Jane Burke couldn’t tell from her first introduction tothem, but they all seemed to have personality quirks that could mean troubledown the road. Still, she sent the ladies off to their assignments and hopedtheir supervisors could nip any potential problem before it got too big.

Mac had a tumultuousprobation period on the Fireball. Between not being able to pass herprobational test and arguing with men who want to date her, it seemed Mac wasgoing to be the problem. Meanwhile, the Fireball had some adventures,and somehow, Mac always seemed to be in the middle of those adventures. Andthen Mac came up with a problem that she couldn’t solve.

You’regoing to end it there?

I have to leave somemystery to it. I can’t give away all your secrets.

Now, all of that, I’mthinking, will be in the first 5 volumes. And I’m thinking that Volume 1 will getpublished on 9/16/2025. That should give me time to get it edited, formatted, anice cover for it… all those things that go into publishing a book.

That’sover a year away, even on Gaelund.

We’ve been working onyour story for decades, what’s another year?

Ithink that’s what my fiancée thought when he…