"The line between courage and idiocy is painted with the blood of fools."
Sometimes, you create a character and something about them just... sings to you My story has heroes - Yseult and Ellie are close to my heart but Asatei... there is a special place for Asatei. She began life as 'the dangerous woman', a cold, calculating character, feared for what she is capable
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With Riddaeon's unique perspective, I try to infer to the reader that traditional ideas of good vs bad do not apply in The Deep System. We can be quick to takes sides and slow to realise whose side we have really taken. Riddaeon's ideology is that the system is more complex and the issues are deeper than that.
I have intentionally written The Deep System
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Tempestuous Yseult is used to a solitary life in the freight lanes. Her ship, Brawling Beauty is her companion and her home. They share a connection that is rarely seen but often spoken of - like soul mates, and she often refers to Beauty as 'mon âme sœur'
She made a reputation for herself flying contracts for a man known as 'The Forwarder'. The ship
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Riddæon is an agent of Eclipsis, an underworld organisation that hold a lot of power among the more distant planets where the. resources from Earth are more scarce. He believes that Eclipsis do good things like make medicines available and support education which the corporations refuse to pay for. His belief was shaken during an incident when he was almost killed and he saved a
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Ellie is a talented flight engineer posted to the freight terminals of Tycho Station on the Moon. She is idealistic and believes in Incorporated Space Operation's mission to keep Earth fuelled and fed. But as she experiences bias and poor decision making by senior officers, she will question the integrity of ISO which will open the door for her to take a chance unlike any
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I'm having a go at creating some greyscale pages to insert into my first novel and I though it might be useful to use one to try and help teh reader get used to Beauty not being referred to a 'the' in front of her name.
Her being a spaceship, even I have had difficulty avoiding the tendency to say 'The Beauty' but I keep
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You have to put the work in.
I keep telling my self 'Just get your fucking book written' and it must work becasue now I have two behind me.
Like many first novels, Boxrunner was nearly a decade in the making - full of ideas that gestated and evolved over time. When it came to the sequel, Proteus Rising, it was a different matter. The
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Brawling Beauty in Jovian polar orbit, popular with smugglers and pirates to keep their destinations difficult to determine.
For this render, I reduced the ambient light to zero and only used an rig built inside the 3D space. The result was deeper dramatic shadows than I've achieved before so it's been a success.
With better lighting and more customisation of parts, I'm finding myself leaving
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Brawling Beauty carries two containers in an asymmetrical 'dog leg' load out.
I've been practicing my lighting with this one, trying to get more dramatic contrast.
Beauty departs Enceladus, bound for Tycho on the Moon with three ISO containers. It's just a run of the mill machine parts supply run... what could possibly go wrong?
Follow The Deep System on twitter to find out more about Beauty, her captain and to follow the progress of the books..