Constellation & Compendium

Greetings traveller!

About Me:

She/her, early 30s

PhD graduate working in heritage

British (obsessed with tea), also sings and crochets

Occasional NaNoWriMo participant

Fanfic writer of 15 years making the jump into original fiction (find my fandom blog @thetamehistorian)

Happy to take asks / play tag games etc.

Has a habit of designing covers rather than writing

Second attempt at this blog (main blog this time, cha cha real smooth)

Tends To Write / Read

Sci-Fi & Cyberpunk

Urban Fantasy & Fantasy

Historical

Comedy (yes, this surprised me too)

Introducing My WIPS

With a strong sense of justice, and a track record of rooting out corruption, Sebastian is recruited to the Bureau from the Isle of the Vale. A former police officer, Sebastian married into the Isle of Sol's political class and now has an eight-year-old daughter to keep out of trouble.

Summary

35, 6'0', Bisexual, Brawler

Occupation

Bureau Field Agent (current)

Police Officer (previous)

Favorites / Strengths / Loves

Living in the upper realms of society has not changed Sebastian all that much. He was born poor and has never forgotten his roots. He loves a bout in the ring to work off energy (much like his scraps in the streets as a kid) and his hand-to-hand skills are well honed as a result. He's family focused and would consider himself an optimist. One of his favourite things is making his wife Karasi and daughter Bria laugh, though he also enjoys annoying his work partner Elias with his terrible puns. Sebastian is a good strategist and thrives when working under pressure. He has faith in justice and believes in repairing broken systems from the inside.

Dislikes / Weaknesses / Fears

Sebastian is afraid of fire, having lost his younger sister when his family's apartment block burnt down. He also has a bit of a temper, a hangover from the hot-headed youth he once was, which tends to flare up when he is let down by those he trusts. He dislikes mushrooms, the cold (having grown up in the sunny valleys of the Vale) and he strongly dislikes being kept in the dark or being lied to. Sebastian is incredibly protective of his family, especially as Karasi's occupation as a politician often puts her at risk.

Character design inspo:

“Is that your father?” Maral asked, back still ramrod straight despite it being two hours into the post ceremony mingling with no end in sight.

Aster sighed. “Yes.”

“You’ll have to introduce me once he’s finished up there.”

Aster had spent the last three years doing everything in her power to avoid precisely that. Much like her father, Maral was aggressively friendly and Aster had been concerned that if they were ever in the same room for too long it might just be the end of reality as they knew it.

Maral was her second roommate. The first met Mr Kobor once at the end of orientation week and had been so overwhelmed that they’d transferred back to Lunar Two. Maral, however, was Mongolian and made of the sternest stuff Earth could offer. In their second year she had once eaten Liridian gel for a dare and hadn’t been phased by either the taste or the mild toxicity.

Across the hall, Aster caught sight of her father making his apologies with an excessive amounts of handshakes and – Sol save her – a single hug for their astrophysics instructor.

Mrs Kobor, thankfully, was busy integrating herself with the other parents and guardians and had blended into the crowd so completely it took Aster several scans to spot her in spite of the bright yellow sari. But it wasn’t her mother who was filling her attention at the moment, it was the rapid approach of her father with the crowd parting before him like the red sea before Moses.

“No need,” she told Maral. “Brace yourself.”

“Aster my little starlight,” Mr Kobor wrapped her in a bear hug and lifted her straight off the ground. Growing up on Titan didn’t come with many advantages but the lower-than-Earth gravity and regular space trips had prepared Aster for life aboard the Fleet station in orbit with its artficial Earth-standard gravity better than those who had never been to the planet.

There was a reason orientation week was also known as barf week.

It also meant that when her father heaved her up, he didn’t get nearly as high as normal, saving her uniform from becoming too badly ruffled.

“Major Daws was just telling me about all the exciting new projects the Fleet has planned,” Mr Kobor said as he finally put her down. “Did you know that - ”

“Baba,” Aster pitched her voice low so as to not have it carry, and to prevent her father from accidentally announcing what was probably Fleet secrets to the entire room. “This is Maral.”

Mr Kobor’s gaze turned to her roommate and it was like two magnets coming together.

“Maral! How wonderful to meet you, we’ve heard so much about you.” The words came with a pointed look that Aster equally pointedly ignored.

“Thank you Mr Kobor.”

“Oh please, call me Vikram.”

“Vikram, the pleasure is mine.”

Aster was quietly impressed that Maral wasn’t bouncing with the force of the handshake.

“You are an engineer, correct?”

As the conversation devolved into discussions around the technical construction of carbon dioxide absorption plates and artificial gravity circulation without the universe imploding Aster gave herself a mental pat on the back.

One more disaster averted.

Taglist:

Novel Page

Genre | Historical Novel

Status | Inital Brainstorming

Summary

Bea had always been fascinated by the railways, but her dream of driving one of the locomotives always seemed out of reach. Working the trains is dangerous, dirty, and completely off limits to girls.

Then the war came.

Answering the call to help, Bea and her fellow volunteers find themselves with an opportunity of a lifetime. Obscured from judging eyes by steam and smoke they shadow the veteran drivers and stokers with keen eyes and restless hands.

The trains need to run, they are vital to the war effort. All it would take is one rogue bomb, one bad night to take out a driver and the wheels stop spinning.

Or at least, that's what the station manager thinks.

Some Key Characters

Beatrice Swift - Headstrong and stubborn, Bea is the daughter of a former railway worker. Tends to get fixated on certain goals and is not afraid to challenge the status quo (to the frustration of her mother who fear marriage prospects will fade into the distance). Accidental womens right activist.

Ray Potts - Veteran locomotive driver. Refuses to retire. Has a soft spot for railway enthusiasts. Will happily let young ladies ride home on the footplate in exchange for gossip.

Sophie Bannerman - Railway volunteer, welder, and mischief maker. Good at seeing the big picture. Makes a mean cup of tea.

This has taken me so long to get to but thank you @mthollowell-writes for the tag!

I've actually been writing a bit on my second project - A Screw, Loose - this week so have some sci-fi comedy chaos!

There was nothing like a two week trip with only the stars for a view to give you a sense of perspective. For example, it gave Aster a very good perspective or how far away the Archimedes was from, well, anything. Considering the patrol ship had one of the shortest turnaround rates in the Fleet, it seemed to Aster that they should make an express transit to the area a priority. Or maybe the long journey time was part of the punishment, to be caught in limbo and get new crew members prepared for the monotony that was to come.

Novel Page

Genre | Sci-Fi

Sub Genres | Comedy / Mystery

Status | Planning, Inital Drafting

Summary

The United Earth Ship Archimedes patrols the border of charted space. Beyond it - the vast and unexplored reaches of the universe.

It’s an exciting prospect for Aster Kobor, newly graduated from the fleet academy and hoping to make her mark upon the stars. Unfortunately, it only takes a few weeks for Aster to realise that the Archimedes is nicknamed ‘the screw’ for a reason. It’s a ship for the rejects and misfits, those deemed unfit to serve in the frontier ships and command never lets them do anything exciting. Still, Aster is determined to make the best of it and, unbeknownst to her, her meddling Captain is about to give the crew of the Archimedes their chance to show command what they're made of.

Soon a bad reputation is the least of their troubles and, whether the crew like it or not, they’ll have to learn to survive in deep space - where their only certainty is each other.

Some Key Characters

Aster Kobor - Enthusasitc, if clumsy linguistics officer from the Titan colony. Comes from a loving, if overbearing family. Determined to make the best of a bad situation. Would love it if she could not put her foot in it for a hot minute. Keeps stumbling across things beyond her pay grade.

Maeve Sheridan - A promising young officer with an unfortunate disdain for the chain of command. Assigned to captain the Archimedes in the hopes it would temper her (spolier alert: it did not). Blunt, ballsy, utterly untamable hair.

Hana Wayra-Eld - One of Aster's cabinmates. Spends half her time recruiting for her worker's union. Uniform rules and regs? She never met them. Will ramble on for hours unless someone stops her.

La'Xia - Mistling, partially non-corporeal. Spends most of their time in the engines (yes, literally in). Has a bizarre relationship with the concept of time.

Remi Duroche - Softly spoken medic from the lunar colonies. Possibly the only sane person on the ship. Fan of deadpan humour.

Taglist

Novel Page

Genre | Spy / Thriller

Sub Genres | Cyberpunk, Crime

Status | Editing / 1st Draft

Word Count | 98,000

Summary

Solaris is a city divided.

Haze, a dangerous drug, has spread unchecked in the Undercity, the sprawling mine levels beneath the metropolis. Up above, a fractured and fearful government struggling to prevent further damage enforces a lockdown of the Undercity, splitting Solaris in two.

Whilst a few visionaries work to reunite the city, down below a generation has grown up under gang rule. Yet, sometimes, all it takes to make or break a revolution is a single, definitive act.

For two Bureau agents caught in the middle, the repercussions will change everything. Elias has so far escaped the consequences of his shady past, Sebastian’s faith in the good of people, and the law, seems unshakable. Both men will be challenged by the painful truths that come to light, what they mean for the city, and each other.

Some Key Characters

Elias Al-Karim - Undercity gang leader turned mostly honest gym instructor turned Bureau agent. Asexual disaster. Sharpshooter, recovering addict, motorcycle enthusiast. Accidental father figure to street kids. Took a calculated risk or two and boy was he bad at maths.

Sebastian Castello - Police officer turned Bureau agent. Married (to the annoyance of many hopeful singles), brawler, appreciates a good bit of literature. Deadly afraid of fire. Tends to take the moral high ground but not afraid of causing unmitigated chaos to get there.

Kez Maidstone - Amateur medic and hacker. Seventeen (but not sweet). Dreams of seeing real sunlight. Totally up for adopting two down on their luck Bureau agents if it means she might get out of the Undercity. Tendency to get in over her head.

Hugh O'Brannon - ??? turned Bureau agent. Smooth talker and mystery incarnate. Has fingers in many, many pies. Might be on your side, might not be, who knows?

Taglist

Thanks for the tag @theeccentricraven!

Rules: Search your writing for the colors of the rainbow and post the excerpt.

These are all from It All Falls Down, my chaotic spy/thriller with cyberpunk themes (which is very much still a first drat!)

Please note: these excerpts includes references to drug use and addiction.

Red - so, Sebastian's daughter is an adrenaline junkie in the making and Elias has a motorcycle.

“Look it’s fine, really, I’m not getting anywhere with this.” Sebastian sighed. “If you’re sure.” “And I’ve got to maintain my position as favourite honorary uncle somehow.” That earned him a smile. “Fair enough.” Elias shut down everything carefully, deleting any remaining evidence of his activities from the server. When he stood, it was to chorus of cracks from his back that made Sebastian wince in sympathy. He was regretting not running through the stretches after their bout earlier, he wasn’t a young man anymore. Grabbing his coat and the small, bright red helmet that lived at the bottom of his locker for precisely one purpose gave him a chance to stretch the sore muscles out further. Then Sebastian caught sight of the object in his hands and groaned. “You should have thought of that before you agreed,” Elias said, swinging the straps between his fingers and revelling in the disgruntled sounds his colleague was making. “I hate you,” Sebastian grumbled. “No you don’t,” Elias called back as he left.

Orange - in which Elias battles a gunshot wound

Flipping the catches open, the first aid box fell open and he fumbled through the packets one handed, pressing the other against his side in a vain attempt to apply pressure. Fighting against the light-headedness that was making itself known, his mouth formed the words of half-remembered prayers. His fingers closed around a familiarly shaped package with a spongy texture and he could only hope that the Buearu had kept their stocks up to date. There was morphine too, but he didn’t want to have to resort to that unless he had no other choice so he kept digging. There, right at the bottom of the bag, was a wrapped syringe identified as a painkiller by the standard orange label. Although it took his eyes a second to focus on it, he was relieved to see that it was one of the non-narcotics. Hardly strong or long lasting but it would have to do.

Yellow - featuring Sebastian experiencing life in the Undercity

Sebastian waited for his partner to take a few more drags before he pocketed the lighter and move to lean against the rail beside him, gaze fixed on the lights illuminating the square in a clashing mixture of bright neons and the dull yellow of simulated dusk. “Better?” he finally asked. “Not really,” Elias said with another puff. Sebastian tracked the progress of the lit cigarette out of the corner of his eye, “Should you really be smoking so soon after a Res shot?” “Probably not,” Elias admitted, examining the smoking bundle of chemicals in his hand. Though, Sebastian mused, it was hardly as though one more drug in the messy cocktail that was his partner's bloodstream was going to kill him, at least not straight away.

Green - from chapter one, Elias meets the spooks of the Bureau

“Sure, my office is out the back.” He indicated over his shoulder at the doors behind him, distinct only from the other entrances and exits by the small ‘staff only’ sign illuminated in flickering green. “Excellent,” Hugo replied, gesturing for Elias to lead the way. His office wasn’t much to look at; it was hardly nicer than the rest of the gym. It wasn’t run-down, exactly, but much like the building itself it had the tired, worn, and rain-damaged look that characterised the area close to the storm.

Blue - in the Undercity, Elias is confronted with his past

They were approaching another intersection, passing through a section of what Elias hoped were residences when it happened. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a kid, barely a teenager by the looks of things, slumped in one of the alleyways between the buildings with a tube of blue tinted liquid lying partially under his limp hand. It was Haze. Strange, how easily the hold it had on him returned. He hadn't been confronted with his one true vice since his departure from the Undercity, but down here he really should have been better prepared to see it. Elias felt himself stop dead in the street, distantly, as though it were happening to another person. There was a ringing in his ears.

Purple - introducing Shiloh!

“You ran a gang and then a smuggling ring out of an old industrial container?” Sebastian asked with a tone of bemused admiration. “Correction,” an lilting voice joined the conversation from a walkway above their heads, “we still run a smuggling ring out of an old industrial container.” Elias turned to meet the interloper with a smile, a warm feeling blossoming in his chest. Walking down from the office above was a woman with cropped black hair, a variety of concealed and not-so-concealed weapons, tattoos a-plenty, and an expression like stone. A responding smile cracked her stern face as she approached, and then her arms were opening in welcome. “Shiloh,” he greeted as they embraced. “Al-Karim,” she replied, pulling back to look him up and down, eyes catching on the barely healed cuts and bruises, and on the deep purple shadows under his eyes, “what on Sol happened to you?” “It’s a long story.”

Thanks for the tag @amaiguri for the tag!

The words are: drink, necklace, time, and scent

Drink

“I was ready, you know?” Elias said after several more cigarettes and after Kez had brought them warm drinks to cradle.

Necklace

After some deliberation she pulled out a delicate gold necklace and clasped it around her neck. It must have had some serious sentimental value for her to risk making herself more of a target.

Time

Although officially he knew nothing about any gambling at the Bureau, unofficially he knew that there were several bets revolving around him. This was the only one he cared for, and he’d been known to place a wager or two himself from time to time.

Scent

There was no need for words, they were long beyond that. Instead, he reached out and pulled her close. Inhaling the familiar scent of their shampoo, taking comfort in the sheer physicality of her presence, he clung tight for fear that if he let go, she too would be taken from him.

No pressure tagging: @apolline-lucy @desastreus @talesofsorrowandofruin @thethistlegirl

Thanks for these! 😊

2. What is your preferred writing beverage?

100% tea. Usually Yorkshire Tea (aka the superior tea) but I’ve got a growing collection of loose leaf teas from which my current favourites are a Sencha Vanilla Green and Strawberry & Lemonade.

5. What’s your favourite part of the writing process?

Hello! Thanks for these!

8. What writing software do you use?

Ok, I will confess that I have tried many (including Scrivener) and I always end up defaulting back to a Word document - though I often format it to match the size of a paperback as I feel it gives me a better sense of writing progress than a word count does sometimes!

10. What is your favourite time of day to write?

“How’s our new friend?” Elias asked, as Sebastian strolled out of the interrogation room.

“Pissed, but intact,” Sebastian said, joining him, “or possibly pissed at being intact. I’m not quite sure.”

Elias huffed, swinging his backpack off his shoulder, the slight clank of metal on metal the only suggestion of the custom weaponry inside. “Any ID yet?”

Sebastian nodded. “Max Wainwright, local. A loner by the looks of things, no known affiliations with any terrorist or radical groups.”

Not Undercity, that was unexpected.

“Wainwright,” Elias repeated, latching onto the aspect that had jogged something deep in his memory. “I know that name.”

“You’re probably thinking of Harper Wainwright,” Sebastian said, “also known as...”

“Splinter.” Elias remembered her all right. She was the reason he now had a lovely scar bisecting his eyebrow. “Leader of the Fourth Phase.”

He'd nearly lost his eye when that particular fight had turned close and ugly so as far as he was concerned, he had a right to hold a grudge.

“That’s the one,” Sebastian said, catching his gaze. “Should we be concerned about a conflict of interest before letting you in there?”

Elias snorted. “When have I ever been anything less than professional?”

Sebastian shot him a glance filled with exasperated fondness.

“Do you really want me to answer that?”

With a mock sigh of offense, Elias began to roll up his sleeves in preparation for what amounted to the light intimidation part of the interrogation routine. Really, it was a warning. If the threat of violence and little pushing around wasn’t enough to convince the suspect to talk then Sebastian would be back for some more polite chat and, failing that, then they reached the real dirty side of things - as long as they got permission to escalate from the higher-ups.

“No.” He paused, considering. “They’re not related, are they?”

“Not according to our records.” Sebastian said, taking his bag without prompting.

“Locker.” Elias requested as he loosened his shoulders, cracked his knuckles, and reached for the touchpad.

“Remember, we want him neutralised, not dead!” Sebastian called back.