Ghost Fleet may have started with a song, but I won't sing to you, I promise. I have no desire to lose my audience so quickly.
Lieutenant-Commander Mart Britlot wants to save the human Confederation from the Tlartox by enlisting allies that no one else believes in; Tlartox Admiral Tlomega desires to destroy the Confederation in retribution and thus restore her people's dignity; and the Tlartox underground conspirators—well, no one knows what they want, but everyone will find out.
Ghost Fleet: Military Science Fiction / Space Opera 104k words.
Novels come about in many strange ways. The road to Ghost Fleet is no exception.
Back in 2000 my girlfriend from the East Coast visited me, and I sang to her a few words of the song "Wasn't that a Party" by the Irish Rovers. She didn't quite believe there could be such a song and so stated. My injured dignity (for how could she impugn my good word) drove me—and us, as it happens—to a used record/tape/CD store, where I searched through the "I" section and actually found an Irish Rovers tape which had that precise song on it. I bought it and promptly put it in my truck's tape-player.
She was forced to apologize, abjectly and profusely. ["Okay, I guess you weren't lying
this time"—which is about as abject and profuse as she gets in her apologies to me.] Vindicated, I proceeded to listen (and force her to listen) to the rest of the tape and came across another song—one which I'd never before heard—that quite caught my imagination.
Imagination works in weird and wonderful ways. Occasionally there is a straight-line progression but more often there is a jump. Thus, the old sailing vessels of "The Day the Tall Ships Came" turned into my Ghost Ships.
The idea of ghosts has a profound effect upon us. Perhaps their existence gives proof that death is not the end of everything and though many of us 'believe', there is no proof. Ghosts could be that proof. Images and items from the past carry power. They show that we are part of a continuum, that others truly existed before us, and still more will exist after us. From these we get a sense of belonging, and little is more important.
Thus, the idea of Ghost Ships held a fascination for me. "What if?" my mind said to me, and I listened. This particular 'What if?' called forth a single scene and, from that, the reaction to the event from different viewpoints, and I knew I had a novel on my hands.
I knew where I was writing to, now I only needed to get a starting point, a set-up to what I considered a powerful scene. I began writing and, in the following 58 days, I played "The Day the Tall Ships Came" at least 500 times. I even made a tape which had that song 10 times in a row. I arrived at that scene and then wrote on, not knowing just how this story would end. Yet, 58 days and 85,000 words after beginning, I had my first draft. The second draft grew it to over 100,000 words and I've been tweaking it ever since.
Now, I turn it loose for those of you who might to judge for yourselves whether or not it's worth looking at. Please, download a sample and then decide. Warning: Those who hate multiple viewpoints and 'head-hopping' might want to pass this one by.
Inspiration comes from odd places and I find lyrics to songs a particularly potent area to mine. So, my thanks to The Irish Rovers and to you who take a look at
Ghost Fleet, even should you decide against it.
Synopsis from the Product description, which isn't up yet.
Ghost Fleet - military SF 104,000 words
The superstitious call them Ghost Ships. Experts say they are scanner echoes tossed out of the past by the Phenomenon. The rumors and a cryptic entry in an ancestor's diary propel Lieutenant-Commander Mart Britlot of the Confederation navy into the dangerous Sivon sector of space. There, Britlot hopes to find help for the Confederation, now facing a two-front war.
As the last living Confederation descendant of the Adian nation, Britlot is obsessed with finding the ghost ships, believed destroyed during a mass emigration 300 years in the past. He dreams of riding to the rescue at the head of the never defeated Adian fleet; he dreams of finding family after the death of all his near relatives at the hands of the Combine. He'll drive his ship and crew beyond endurance to achieve this.
The felid Tlartox Empire, eager to avenge their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Confederation, has voted to annul the long-standing peace treaty. The glory of The Hunt beckons. Admiral Tood Tlomega has focused on the human planet Lormar, with its great naval base, as a fitting target for retribution. She will return dignity to the people of Tlar. She will return them to the path that Tlar illuminated so many centuries ago.
But a small band of Tlartox underground conspirators intend to rake a claw across the plans of the war-mongers, and give both the Empire and the Confederation something they hadn't counted on.
Dilber MC Theme by HarzeM
