Justice Lost--new on Smashwords!

Justice Lost, science fiction adventure. Buy on Smashwords: Justice Lost

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I fell from the sky, lightning flashing all around me, zapping into me. Bursting into the ridge where my thigh met the metal of my artificial leg, the white-hot agony of it slammed me into blackness.

I woke up with my cheek lying against damp grass, facing the morning light spread across the eastern sky. As soon as I moved, sparks danced across my skin. I stayed on the ground as still as I could, dreading the moment when I would have to move my leg. In front of me, strapped to my arm, the Channel device snapped with blue fire.

At least I made it through alive, I thought. And more importantly, I've stolen the Channel back from the Conglomerate. The mission wasn't a total failure. Except that the Channel malfunctioned between our worlds, and I have no idea which world I've landed on. This is definitely not Mag City.

One thing was for sure, a professional spy wouldn't stay lying here, no matter how much it hurt to get up. Dad would give me an earful if he saw me 'not taking the initiative'.

I gathered all my strength and pushed myself onto my knees. There. Not so bad. My leg was almost numb. I breathed a sigh of relief, and looked around. Behind me, in the early morning light, stood a grove of trees—no, what was the word? A forest. We didn't even have forests on our world; neither did the Conglomerate—a choking mass of smoke and dark buildings clustered together in the rain, gray streets with soldiers always marching through them—the opposite of my world, City Magnificent. The sheer number of trees here astounded me. And in front of me lay a vast plain, the dark silhouettes of large animals of some sort moving across it near the distant hills. We didn't have many animals on our world, but I felt a twinge of longing for Sabra, my saber-toothed cat. I had been going home to see her, and Dad, and my sisters and brother, and Mom, and now—this detour.

stories-journal

I've written 2 short stories but I'm not sure if they're any good or if they're just background. I'm going to write at least 3 stories and see if they're salvageable. If not perhaps I'm just working on something that isn't going to work. But if I don't work at it it won't get anywhere either. So how do I know when enough is enough and to focus on something that can get somewhere?
You never stop evolving as an author. At least I hope so. I hope I have not hit my pinnacle of ability to write. I often think this and then a good story will hit me and I'll have to write it. But those bits of inspiration which result in GOOD stories don't come often enough, and I plug away at mediocre ones. I need to be able to write a whole bunch of good ones and sell them! 

BOOK $2.99

Buy Justice Lost!
Justice March crash lands on a parallel world. Before he can find a way home, he encounters dangerous inhabitants who want to know his secrets. Will he be able to escape, or will this strange new world destroy him?

Justice Lost--first chapter on HubPages!

http://ameraka.hubpages.com/hub/Justice-Lost

Update--editing

I am editing Lightning War (or whatever its title ends up being). I had to cut out the whole first third of it because it wasn't getting into the action fast enough. Now I'm not sure how I'm going to fix it. Or if it even makes sense.

Lightning War finished!

Finished a little while ago. 91,000 words. Now I have to go back and edit it--which may take a while.

I'm ready to start the next book!

You can buy the first book, Justice Lost, on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JM1XFCI

Lightning War, working title

Is this a good title? It kind of fits with who the Marches are, and that they are starting a war. And that they expect it to be a fast war, but this may or may not be the case....

I got to 90,000 words today! It's really close to the climax now. It would be nice to get to 100,000 words, but that may not be the case, since there may only be one more chapter. Or less. I'm at Chapter 21. And a lot of words will be cut, so it may only end up 50 or 60,000 words anyway.

Heading toward the climax!

Today I got to 80,000 words! It's heading toward the end. I'm having such fun writing this part. It's going to end on a cliffhanger....Because that's what happens in trilogies!

It might take a while to go back and edit it, however. Hopefully not too long! I hope to have it out by summer. 

Word count surpass first book

I've written a little more than 23,000 words--the amount of words in Justice Lost. And this story is just beginning, so you can get an idea of how long this will be. More like a proper novel. Justice Lost was an experiment, a prelude, if you will, the spark that sets everything off. This will be a trilogy of sorts, with this one (title?) as the beginning. I've been writing quite a bit; hopefully I can keep this up and have it done by spring.
The only thing is, the word count will go down as I inevitably cut a lot when editing. And we'll see how this book turns out. I'm a little apprehensive that I have written my best and I won't be able to write anymore good books. But that's a silly attitude. I don't want to stop. And I'm not going to, especially since I've been having such fun writing this. That's the main thing. If you have a good time writing a story, there's a good chance your readers will enjoy it too. 

Words

Over 4000 words today! And it wasn't all that hard to write them, which is a good sign. I wanted to know what happened next, so I couldn't stop writing. That's the best kind of writing in my opinion; it also produces the best writing. Because if you want to know what happens next, the reader will too.

Of course I have to go back and edit it. So the words will diminish. And I don't know whether what I wrote actually makes sense, because I didn't go back through and read it. I just had to get the words down. Having a lot to say is also a good sign. You just have to be careful that the result doesn't seem too rushed, though. But that's less of a problem in an action story anyway; you don't want long flowery passages. You want quick, sharp successions of words. 

Desert Rescue

One of my short stories has got accepted to a magazine!

I sent it to at least one other magazine, which rejected it. But I sent it again, apparently to the right one.

"Desert Rescue" will be published in the February issue of Frostfire Worlds.

setback

Well, set back 3000 words. That scene wasn't working. I was losing the tension and urgency of the situation, which must be there in order for anyone to want to keep reading. We don't want pages of people talking; it has to be interspersed with action. It at least has to do directly with Jet and what he's facing. Immediacy. His problems.
And focus on one thing at a time, otherwise get bogged down in the complexity and lose Jet and the whole tone and focus of the story.

At least that's my rationalization for why the scene wasn't working. Mainly it wasn't something that made me want to know what happened next; it was an overall feeling more than anything, so it had to go. 

Future

My book has no title yet. But it is part of an overall series that I have an idea for. Justice Lost was the introduction, the prologue if you will. The next three will be part of an epic trilogy....and after that, there is a possibility of an ongoing series.
I have to write this one first. Because it's more epic in scale, the plot is complex and can be harder to keep track of. But I do have 6,000 words so far. And I have the general idea of where it's going. Jet's new adventure is just beginning. 

Journal

This story is already way more complicated than Justice Lost. I wanted it that way, because I want a longer story. I just hope I can bring everything together, and that Jet doesn't get lost in it all. 

Milestone

I wrote the first (almost) 2 pages of my sequel to Justice Lost today. That's happened before--but this time I think that I have the right direction. Last time, I started a little prematurely, before all the pieces had fallen into place. It's taken almost a year (which I did not expect, considering how fast I wrote Justice Lost) but maybe I had to step away from it, see it from a different perspective, and discover more details before I could move forward. Writing from different POVs has helped, as has developing other stories, and perhaps also my detour into fanfiction--if nothing else, it's given me writing practice.
I've had the basic idea for a long time, and some of my main ideas are still in place. Despite the NaNo novel last year, and the rather uneven short story, and the false start of another first chapter, Jet won't let me give up on him.
The solutions were under my nose; I don't know why I didn't think of them in the first place. They discovered an abundant source of orikal, so of course they'd decide to invade Con. Looking at it from Ash's POV helped me see a radically different side of Mag City, which Jet can't see yet. The same with Sol's POV. Jet has never been able to go down and mingle with the people; he's always had to maintain his distance, like royalty on any world. There are other things which I can't think of right now.
Now, I think I can start writing, and the rest of the pieces can fall into place as I write. I'll be able to see things from ground level, and any future knots will hopefully untangle themselves as I go.
I'm never quite comfortable, always slightly on edge, until I start a writing project and it begins to consume me. That can be hard too, but it's preferable to not writing.

journal

A couple things I have learned today:

My NaNo project from last year isn't as bad as I thought. Although it was very hard to write. Something was wrong with it. I'll need someone to look it over. But it may be salvageable after all.

The story I'm writing has a protagonist that is basically anti-Harry Potter. She grows up in a magic academy, but she doesn't have magic, and she feels inferior to the wizards. It's only when she gets out of the magic school that she finds acceptance. 

Reviews

Justice Lost has another review! I was so happy. Three people think that it deserves 5 stars! Thank you, those who have reviewed! I'm glad you enjoyed the book!

I really need to work on the sequel now. I have so many projects....

For some reason, it's harder to write the sequel. I had the idea and character in my head for several years but the book I just jumped right into and it sped along till the end. A little short--yes. Perhaps a consequence of how it was written. But if it were longer, it might have been slowed down.

Hopefully it will not be another 2 years before the next book. Although it's already been a year....and I haven't started it yet. I have the ideas. Hopefully I'll be able to take them and run with them.

Justice Lost is supposed to be the foundation of a longer series, with Jet as the hero.