No particular news for Tantalus Depths itself right now. I’ve not heard anything from Inkshares about the next step in the production process, but it’s still early and I hadn’t expected to yet.
I am currently working on the promised prologue chapter, but I’m toying with the idea of making two smaller ones instead of one larger one, as I have two interesting ideas that can’t be easily combined. We’ll see how that goes.
My main purpose for this update is not for me, or even for Tantalus Depths. I wanted to take an opportunity to show my heartfelt appreciation for a good friend. 
I met Tahani Nelson through Inkshares during our mutual pre-order campaigning period. Her book, The Last Faoii, caught my attention quickly. Kaiya, her resolute protagonist, has a knack for overcoming impossible hardships without giving up even in the bleakest of circumstances, and is exactly the sort of character I strove to depict with Mary Ketch. I kind of see the two characters as cross-genre sisters.
As I’ve gotten to know Tahani better as a person, I’ve learned the true extent that the character imitates the author. She’s overcome no small number of impossible obstacles, and though they continue coming her way, she resolutely pushes through them without giving an inch of ground. She’s a real-life Kaiya, and so, in many ways, a real life Mary.
I felt a person like Tahani deserves to be immortalized in writing. The universe of Tantalus Depths is an unforgiving, dark place. Human civilization is a constantly imperiled thing; a child swimming obliviously among sharks. Yet, one of the core tenants of Tantalus Depths and any associated stories, is the notion that, in spite of these dangers, humanity endures. We may always be at the brink of destruction, but through determination and sheer force of will, we survive against the odds.
Tahani represents this to me, in life. To properly show what that means to me, I’ve named a planet for her, which I will include some capacity into the Tantalus Depths universe. If I can sneak it into Tantalus Depths somewhere during the revision phases to come, I will. If I can’t find anywhere to slip it in where it feels natural, it will be referenced at some point in the upcoming sequel. Either way, the presence of this planet in the Colonial Hegemony is now and forever canon.
Shields up, Faoii.  

 

Dear friends and followers,

It’s been a while since my last update. As I’ve said, it’s mostly a waiting game right now. Things are beginning to move, however: Inkshares has me reading up on various works of writing theory and working together with a few other authors to share and learn from each other. This is in preparation for the developmental edit round, perhaps so we’ll understand better how stories work and be better able to handle the developmental edits. It seems like a lot of additional effort, but I guess it’s in the interest of putting out a quality product ... and, perhaps, to groom a stable of talent? Does that mean they want me to write a sequel?

You know you want me to.

I’ve also been busy with another writing project, for Choice of Games: that’s been taking up all my attention for the past several months. I just submitted the completed draft for that project yesterday; it’s very exciting, and I expect there will be a lot of developmental edits on that front as well.

Looking around (because I can now afford to be distracted again)  a couple of works here on Inkshares have definitely caught my interest.

First off, there’s "The Rise and Fall of Gods and Housewives", by Zachary Sergi. Apparently the ancient mythological gods are alive and well, incarnated as ... reality show housewives? If that premise doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what will. Sergi is also the author of the highly successful "Heroes Rise" series for Choice of Games, so this should be of additional interest to all those Interactive Fiction buffs among you.

And second, there’s "Lost in the Fog", by Michael Ostrowski. It’s a caper in which a down-on-his-luck journalist is recruited to steal a bunch of sculptures, only to have someone else beat him to it. And no, the people who recruited him don’t believe a word of it. I firmly believe that we need more madcap mystery capers in the world, and this promises to deliver.

For now, though, I’m going to sit back and relax. I see a lot of developmental editing in my near future, so I better grab my binge-marathons of "Masterchef" while I still can.