I’m excited to announce the launch of The Stalk, the next in my series of science fiction fairy tales.
This is actually the book that inspired the whole series. I wrote it as a short story submission to a science fiction anthology a couple of years ago, published by Amphibian Press. I wrote the entire thing in an endorphic haze, and loved the final product. That said, it was supposed to be a short story, but ended up being 18k words (a really, really, really long short story). Amphibian Press still published it.
I realized then that novella length was a really solid length of book for me. I enjoyed writing them—simpler plots but plenty of room for prose. So, I went back to this story, lengthened it to be closer to 30k (the typical length for a novella), then drafted Midnight Wings, and here we are.
In this version of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack has emigrated from Rove City to a planet in a star system the city has passed through called Jord. It’s main claim to fame is a space elevator called the Stalk.
Every year, members of Jack's community are invited to meet with the wealthy founders of the Stalk, the living space elevator that casts its massive shadow over every part of her life. Every few years, one of the chosen is a Digger like Jack—who returns to the community only to throw themselves to their death.
Jack doesn't want to think about the Stalk. She doesn't want to think about the friends she's lost. But this year, it's her turn—and refusing the invitation isn't an option.
When she arrives, she only has one goal: stay alive. But as she encounters a mix of ordinary citizens like herself and people in the highest positions of power, she begins to realize that the truth about the Stalk is bigger than all of them—and darker than she could have imagined. And she's the only one with the power to stop it.
This was a ton of fun to write. Super scifi, a little creepy, I think the closest I’ve ever gotten to some of the older 50s scifi writers, like Asimov. Not anything like him, of course, but closer than my other work. I really enjoyed writing this, and I even enjoyed the editing process (which involves reading it over and over and over again).
Grab your copy here, and, if you haven’t already, check out the first book in the series, Midnight Wings. (It’s worth noting that these books can be read in any order! Each book in the series is a retelling of a different fairy tale character, so if one appeals to you more than another, read that one first.) Also, they’re both currently in Kindle Unlimited!
Coming up next in the series is The Silver Arm, a retelling of Beauty and the Beast.