--- blogpost: true category: Writing date: August 29, 2021 location: Earth --- A New Adventure Idea ==================== {sub-ref}`wordcount-minutes` min read {sub-ref}`wordcount-words` words I have been reviewing my story arc of [nanowrimo](https://nanowrimo.org/) novelas. Some are better than others. None of them are *The Great American Novel*. Being around 50,000 words, none of them are very complicated. At some point, the story arc sent our heroes into a different part of the galaxy where the different alien civilizations were at war. It was difficult for my heroes to navigate these old rivalries. I wasn't sold on any of them. Having gone from one group to another I finally came to a point where I thought my folks should just quit the whole thing and go home. Of course, they left home because there were problems. That's often why people leave home: * They need a job. * They need or want some education. * They want a change of scene. * They are running from or to something or someone. Whatever the reason, it seems like a good idea at the time and often is. I had this idea to drift over into fantasy, with a little dose of magic. I had some of the high level ideas worked out. *I had a villain. * I had my hero's character flaw to create a bind for her. * I had several very high level adventures figured out. I ran into problems putting the plots into play: 1. I really don't understand fantasy novels. 2. I don't usually like reading fantasy novels. 3. Do I need sword play? 4. Must I have dwarfs and elves? 5. Must everything be medieval? 6. Do I have to put up with kings and horses and knights with or without shining armor? 7. What is the cost of magic in this group of stories. I've learned enough to know that magic has a cost. My solution was barbaric and I couldn't come up with another one. 8. Is it enough for my hero to point out the cost of magic is too high and everyone should just knock it off with the magic already and modernize. 9. But you know, there's a war on and maybe the tech giants of this part of the galaxy are too busy reaping the benefits of wartime to invest in some out-of-the-way planets that most sensible people avoid and don't think about if they can. So it turns out there are four novelas in this group. That's a lot of words and a lot of hours. There may be a way to save them, but I'm not sure about that right now. What occurs to me is that my heroes need to have been off somewhere for some time and now they are being recalled. They accept their mission and I can be back with old haunts and familiar characters. The old tensions are there. The old rivalries persist and the political situation has continued to deterriorate. Our characters are still in danger but the crisis makes it worthwhile for them to return. Loyalty will be a major theme. Truth-telling will be another. *Getting Started with a New Adventure* It makes sense to start with where my characters are at. * Gyllian Romeres Lujo. I her married to a professor on Socrates. I think that should be deleted from any previous novelas. She is a better character as an independent woman. I have always written about her as an officer in the Ministry of Defense for the Alliance of Worlds. However, I uncovered an attitude she had in an earlier Ronnie Camberwell mystery that I never picked up on afterwards. It's important to the larger story arc I am proposing here. Gillian wanted the Solar League and the Northern Frontier to join forces to break away from the Coalition because she thought the Clouder was setting itself up for a power grab. As this story opens, that political attitude has forced her to resign. * Josh Hardy and Juliet Maxwell They got married. They have children (I don't know how many.) and they live in Ptolemy City. Josh's security business is thriving. Juliet has continued her historical investigations. Being married to a hacker who has a good relationship with the Fungusian Network, has allowed Juliet to continue pursuing her historical research into the Second Expansion. This is not part of the official story of how the Coalition came to be. It does not put the Clouder in a good light. But the Confederacy inhabitants have a different version of history and Juliet has documented it. * The Czarina and Captain Kidd The Czarina has continued her work as a gossip blogger. Her delicious innuendos concerned the rich and famous on Hypatia. Now she cultivates the same people on the Northern Frontier. Grand Central is their home. The Czarina is often seen at the Station Lounge. Of late, she has been hearing a lot of chatter about realignment, the code word for the Solar League to leave the Coalition and join with the Alliance of Worlds. Gillian's name comes up regularly. Captain Kidd doesn't travel much anymore but he occasionally can be seen at the Baker Street Lounge on Dirty World Station. The spacers there know how to reach out to him to connect with the League of Hypatian Pirates to work Argo's around the Coalition. * Tamara Tamara's lost her position at the University of the Gifted Mind after her work on The Big Dig. She is now privately funded and working on New Senegal. Word has it that her backers support Realignment. * Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson has been seen on Three Ravens Space Station on the southern frontier. As far as anyone knows, he's sober and may pick up a contract from time to time to keep him solvent. His political views are unknown, but he goes back a long way with Gillian and has no love for the Clouder. * Ronnie Camberwell and Captain Star Runner They have been working far afield. It is hard to say what their loyalties are and whether they would be willing to come back to the fringes of Coalition space. They would need a compelling reason. *Here are some points on how these last two would be pulled back:* 1. Tamara is in trouble. 2. Ronnie will not stay if Star feels compelled to return. 3. There is nothing keeping them away at this point. The Clouder threat to them personally has receded. 4. A mystery or a paid job would bring them back. *The* Mystery Tamara locates a jump gate near New Senegal. Its design does not correspond to anything in any database she can find. Juliet can't find any reference to it either. Tamara sends a message to Star to see if they can identify it. Star replies that it is a very old Clouder gate but in their opinion, it's in an area of space the Clouder never traveled in. Star asks for some specific scans and reports some very disturbing messages are on repeat at the gate. Josh is able to fully decode them. The group is now sitting on some very explosive information. If they want to go through the gate they will need all their resources to do so. Tamara's backers want this to happen but there is a real danger their findings will rock the Coalition. I have no idea what these messages are or what secrets lay beyond the ancient gate. I don't think the backer is benevalent. Perhaps this person wants to take control of the Coalition for their own gain. Or perhaps, and I like this idea better, the backer is a dreamy-eyed filanthropist.