Fractal Legacy and Confluent Fealty Update

Today is the perfect day for an update on my current and next works-in-progress. Let's start with Fractal Legacy first.

Later today, I should receive detailed feedback from my son on the current draft of Fractal Legacy. I'll also spend the next few days with him for his thirtieth birthday (I feel old), giving plenty of time to discuss his complaints. Then, next week, I'll decide on my plan of action and set out on the next draft, however long it takes. That'll be my top priority. I'll provide an update, along with my publication plans, when that's complete. I really need to stick to a final decision on that.

With excellent timing, I've just completed the initial planning for the novel that is yet to be, currently called Confluent Fealty. Yes, I know that's a rubbish title. Hopefully a better one will emerge in the telling.

I'm at the point where I'm ready to start writing, but that now won't be until Fractal Legacy is complete. I'll do my usual trick of writing the opening chapters and then take a step back to review how it's going. This one's a little complicated in structure, so it's likely to take a couple of attempts to get it right.

What's it about? Well, this is the draft blurb:

The exotic world of Pantheon was colonised well over a century ago by three generation starships from Earth. The early colonisers were surprised to develop mild psionic powers thanks to streams of energy running beneath the planet. Healing powers were prevalent thanks to the nearby health stream. They soon became part of life.

On the island continent of Anatol, fealty to his leader is everything to Steffan. He would give his life for Rurik, Anatol's authoritarian ruler – indeed, he expects to do so, despite being the heir apparent. Nevertheless, he feels the need to justify his existence as the transfer of power approaches.

Eccentric expert Katsu Keating is part of an expedition sent to study the first signs of telepathic powers emerging in the wastes of the northern continent of Kitara. His viewpoint on the discovery of the mind stream adds critical texture to Steffan's tale.

Cynical investigator Tomlin Gaudy is sent to track subversive elements along the borders of the kinetic stream on the southern continent of Temani. The knowledge he uncovers changes Steffan's narrative.

The confluence of their perspectives reveals a threat to Pantheon's future that only Steffan can counter – if he can work out what to do. First, he has to decide who he is.

Unusually for me, I started my planning with a map of the world of Pantheon. It helped me get my thoughts in order and work out how I could reveal the secrets of the world:

The story's evolved a little from my original concept of Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day meets Frank Herbert's Dune, but the kernel of the idea is still there. The primary protagonist, Steffan, is the loyal heir to the authoritarian ruler of the continent of Anatol, Rurik. It's told from his first-person perspective in the days before his succession.

However, he intersperses his narrative with two other first-person accounts from acquaintances from the two other continents on Pantheon, the academic Katsu Keating and the investigator Tomlin Gaudy. Their experiences have a direct impact on how Steffan sees his future.

Below are the currently envisioned characters, some of whom will only feature in single chapters. Steffan, Ona, and Rurik are the critical characters from Anatol, as are Katsu, Faye, and Scanlon from Kitara, plus Tomlin and Sorrel from Temani.

Unlike my usual approach, this novel will not be split into parts, instead comprising a series of 28 chapters (for now). The narrative alternates between Katsu and Tomlin, with shorter chapters from Steffan's perspective holding everything together in between. This should be fun – if I can get it to work.

That's all I have to say on the matter for now, other than yes, that's a draft cover above, and no, it won't stay like that. Right. Must go. I have a birthday cake to bake.