Forlorn Hope - Afterword

An After Action Report and Announcing the Next Season

Thank you for reading Forlorn Hope, it means a great deal. With the novella of the Winter Season of Ixonia complete it is time for reflections.

BUT FIRST

AN ANNOUNCEMENT

SPRING DRAWS NEAR

A SEASON OF SCIENCE FICTION DAWNS

The regular format applies, One Shots on Tuesdays, Novella chapters on Thursdays.

ONE SHOTS

Expect ships, blasters, droids, vibroswords, haunted moons, long lost starships, Lovecraftian horrors beyond comprehension, intergalactic shapeshifting assassins, and more!

NOVELLA

A Droid's Tale (working title) follows the life of a mercenary band aboard the Firethorn as they are hunted across the galaxy, become entangled in a war, and are shocked to discover a metal stowaway.

CHAPTER 1 - 21^st March 2024

---

Reflections on Forlorn Hope

Many thanks to those who have read the whole novella and to those who have yet to finish. It will remain free-to-read till the end of March, get reading!

Thank you for all the kind and generous comments left along the way, praise, corrections, and commentary. All marvellous.

This tale began at the end. I wanted to write a massive siege battle and have it be an absolute bloodbath that plumbed the depths of hope. Yet big set pieces only work with good characters and so Tebin son of Tegar appeared. Yet he could not do it alone, the vast plains of the Silician peninsula required a vagrant prince seduced by the spoils of fame and rank and the luxuries of settled living. Prince Lothan, the disfavoured son, has a lot more wordage devoted to him. His chapters are more involved, he has more to do, more to prove, more to lose. Tebin's story felt fairly linear and there was little danger for him between the raid and the siege. I am not one for long, drawn out training going on for chapters and chapters. Tebin's story thus was shorter but no less personal, I hope.

With Lothan's return to Silicia to answer his father's summons there is Chancellor Jifan, a suspicious character to say the least. If I were to add to this story it would be here, whether it be from Jifan's point-of-view or someone else at court. I included a web of court intrigue but only for a chapter and while the hint is fine, and necessary to make the court convincing, there is a huge potential for story there. There was also the interplay between the two ethnic Silicians. One is an older population, Xun-Ma Rei, Si Loma, for instance, while the King and the rest represent the previous invaders and have more in common with Gor Khan than they would like to admit. Here to there is room to expand the story. There simply wasn't room for all of this extra plot and complexity in what was meant to be a 10 chapter novella. Had I included it there is the risk it would have taken away from Lothan and Tebin too.

The decision to set the story within Ixonia came later. I had a hankering to commit the whole season to one world, one genre, and 'play explorer'. I'm quite pleased with the result but Ixonia needs a novel, a full fantasy adventure, and while I have the first draft of book one I am rather unhappy with the book 2 plan, which is a problem given I wrote the ending of the story years ago and just have to get there. The next visit to Ixonia will include a novel.

IXONIA WILL RETURN.

Forlorn Hope chapters 1-6 were written in November 2023 while 7-12 were written one week ahead of publication. I felt a difference between the two halves but I don't think it showed, except, perhaps, in typos. I prefer writing weeks/months ahead but find it more difficult as there isn't the pressure of a deadline.

Illustrations. Oh the illustrations. Certainly biting off more than I could chew with that idea. I paint and draw on occasion but completely underestimated the time required for drawings outside of my comfort zone. My expertise is in portraiture and so landscapes and buildings were a slog. The view over the parapet (Chapter 9) required finding concept artist's work to see how they drew so many people so small and packed while having them stand out. Some of the drawings took many hours but don't look like it, this was a disappointment to me as the quality was not as high I would have liked. Lessons learned.

The next novella will have a single cover painted by me, probably a portrait/s. Which is ironic as I typically don't like characters on front covers but portraits is what I can do so may as well utilise my strengths. It might work, it might not, we shall see.

Thank you all for the continued support and if you have any questions, comments, jokes, please post below!

See you next Tuesday for an Ixonian Myth of Dwarven dragon hunters.