A little about myself to help explain some of the things
behind a story which began in November 2013 and ended with the first draft in
October 2015. I have a combined eighteen years of Role-Playing Game and Writing
experience. RPG wise, this involves Play by Email Sims set in the Star Trek
Universe, Site-based RPG’s set in the Marvel and Harry Potter Universe, and
Tabletop: AD&D, D&D3.5, and Pathfinder, and finally Mind’s Eye Society:
Vampire the Masquerade, Mage the Ascension, Vampire the Requiem, Mage the Awakening,
and Accord the Combined, and have served as storyteller in all those venues at
one time or another.
Writing wise, it includes fanfiction set in the Doctor
Who universe, A Players Guide to Role-playing the Battersea Family (for a
Hogwarts RPG), and a major bio encompassing fifteen centuries of history. My
other writings have included: miscellaneous short story work, Camarilla
Newsletter Articles on game perception (Metagaming), and Short Story (Vampire: Dark
Ages based.) Lastly, prior to this, I been interested in writing a Doctor Who
novel, with the 7th Doctor as the main. I had already had a 3800+ synopsis
written and just needed a sample chapter, all of which was to be submitted to
the BBC.
The first flicker of inspiration for this novel began
roughly far back at 7-9 years ago, after a series D&D related jokes with a
buddy of mine, culminating into a cliché idea discussed involving a paladin and
a lich forced to join forces for the greater good. It sounded a little ‘out
there’ at the time, but for some reason I dwelt on the idea longer than what I
intended.
A few years forward and I had already been introduced to
National November Writing Month from someone I followed on DeviantArt. It
looked interested, and I even checked out what it was about; write a novel
within a month’s time. 50,000 words isn’t hard… right? Well, it sounded like an
amazing challenge and the idea for the Doctor Who novel began to come back to
the fore. All I needed was a couple of pages from completing a synopsis,
following it with a sample chapter, submission, and hoping for the best. But…
the other idea called to me. And to be fair I had, since early childhood
imagined other worlds and other skies. Maybe it was from watching too much
Science Fiction—Doctor Who, Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly—but something
else called to me.
Originally, it was going to be high fantasy; I even had
retinue of fantasy races laid out to be used. I even had the idea settled on: a meeting of
nations, with the lich as a ruler of one of them, and the paladin a human prince.
Other ideas within this had stirred; plots, subplots, metaplots, and themes.
And yet… I was unsatisfied. I love fantasy, but something told me I could do
more…
October 7, 2012 I introduced a Stellar System in a Play
by Email Sim I wrote for, the USS Galaxy-A, the Ledyion System, and one of the
world orbiting a G8 variable I named Ardis. To my recollection, I had written
up this system only a few years’ prior for a plot that never came to fruition,
and decided to use it here. However, instead of a race of regular humanoids,
the species that once inhabited the planet were a race of seven-feet-tall
humanoid arachnids. Why I decided to go ahead to use the system when I could
have saved it for another time I don’t know, only that I thought it would work
well for the story I was telling.
The high fantasy idea was then distilled into a more
science-fiction-like form; a race of Tetrachromats with a dual cardiovascular
system and magnetoreception. Their technological progress and achievements came
from a combination of a dream which inspired some of the ideas [the flying
ships, the gathering, locations, etc.…] and an inspiring idea of environmental protection
with a reality-alteration twist. The system itself was renamed ‘Dorastis’ with
the parent star changed to a G3V, with the Thread being inspiration adapted
from M Theory. Everything else remained the same.
Beyond this, some of the idea from the fantasy idea were incorporated
into the story. Magic altered into preternatural manipulation/reality
alteration, and what would probably have been a meeting between a few kingdoms
or city states, turned into a meeting of nations across the planet, taking
place near the end of their nineteenth century.
Lastly, as the race changed, so too did the original
pairing changed. The lich became a Grand
Prince and the young prince retained his aristocratic characteristics,
remaining the son of one of the leader in attendance.
The length of time it had taken was a combination of many
things: procrastination, meditation, and computer meltdown [thankfully saved
most of the information of my hard drive,] but I got it done, sent in, and
published! I’m sure there is a lot more I could include, ranging from scrapped
subplots, scenes that never came to fruition, and even explanation on a few
scenes and comments in general, but that about sums it up!
Tracy L. Reeves
"I believe that when we leave a place part of it
goes with us and part of us remains. Go anywhere in this station when it is
quiet and just listen. After a while you will hear the echoes of all our
conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged. Long after we are gone,
our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains. But I
will admit that the part of me that is going will very much miss the part of
you that is staying." ~ G'Kar, Objects in Motion: Babylon 5
