To explain what the Rogue novel is, I have to go back to the beginning, when I was writing Spinward Fringe Broadcasts One and Two. Originally, the Spinward Fringe series novels were going to be about 40,000 to 70,000 words each. As an unlimited series, I planned to gather books into boxed sets or collections with themes and story arcs.
The idea of a small crew on a ship with a captain who had a mysterious past was a good starting point. The difference was that I wrote his backstory, Broadcast 0: Origins, first. Anyone who read that would know (or think they knew) what his backstory was and characters from that would start joining the cast of the Unlimited Spinward Fringe series.
The Spinward Fringe Unlimited Series grew in complexity and it worked well with a large cast of characters. As a result, the books got much longer, each became a greater undertaking and the series became what it is. I love it, and there’s no going back to that simpler, shorter format with the main Unlimited Spinward Fringe Series.
Then we come to the end of Spinward Fringe Broadcast 16: Hunters and the origin of Rogue. I had a lot of fun creating that character for the book, so I decided that she’d wander off at the end instead of sacrificing herself. That was the way it was going to go originally. Until I started writing the chapters featuring Rogue, she was going to blow herself up to accomplish her goal. That changed early on because I saw potential.
I wanted to bring her in as a guest in several Spinward Fringe novels, but as I tracked what she was doing along with the timeline, I saw that she was busy. What was she doing exactly? Getting to know Tabrus, building wealth in the wasteland while avoiding most people. There were other things going on too, but I won’t go into it because I don’t want to spoil anything.
Considering the timeline and the fact that I wanted to write the character again, I decided that it was a good time to dust off the short novel concept, especially since I would be writing her in the first-person perspective. This would be her experience, her adventure, and it would take time for her to get her crew, her gear and other trappings together. It helped that she was having a problem too.
The first adventure would have a cyberpunk flavour. It would be a good test, a pilot episode if you will, and I would include some surprising characters.
I’m afraid that’s all I can say about it until you’ve finished reading the novel, but I’m happy to share this experiment with you.
Rogue: Ascending will be released on December 14, 2023. You can read the serialized version on Ream if you don’t want to wait.
Randolph Lalonde 