Here we are, nearly halfway through February as I type this, amazed at how well several of the other writers working on their Elite: Dangerous novels are getting along. There’s talk of outlining, approval from Frontier, plan-draft critique and all kinds of progress. You are lucky, lucky people because there’s a dedicated crew of word-monkeys typing madly to bring you a wall of Elite fictional goodness as you read this (between peeling the odd banana and picking insects from their armpit hair, but everyone is entitled to some time off). While their creativity flows in a torrential outpouring of brilliance, what have I been able to eke out of the unforgiving bedrock of my imagination? Nuggets. Thargoid shaped nuggets. The thing about aliens is that they are, well, alien, which means they need defining/refining if they aren’t to come off the page as humans in rubber suits. (I love the original 60s Star Trek series, … Continue reading →