…that you guys like my books.
Yes, I have a new release coming soon so this is the gratuitous marketing post.
I first pitched the Interstellar Medic series to Toni Weisskopf three years ago at LibertyCon. The idea of a paramedic who’d been swept up into an alien civilization and longs for home had taken root in my brain, and that generally means it’s time to start writing. Thankfully she agreed, but with one condition: this story needed to be two books. Before I could write the one I’d pitched, I’d first have to establish the character and do some serious worldbuilding.
She also said there had to be real aliens, not OG Star Trek types with people in blue body paint and colanders on their heads.
Okay, fair enough. Except I’d never really been into space-alien sci fi, so I had some work to do. Fortunately there was already a lot of existing material to work with, starting with standard abducted-from-my-trailer-park UFO stories. Grays, Nordics, Insectoids, and Reptilians all made for great character fodder, and that’s when I realized I could have a lot of fun riffing on those tropes. And since it was going to have a medical angle…well, we all know the Grays have a thing for rectal probes.
Side note: I promise I had never seen Resident Alien before writing these books.
I didn’t just rely on UFO legends; there has been plenty of speculation by real scientists as to what kinds of strange life forms might be waiting for us among the stars. In some cases, possibly within our own solar system. The idea of giant balloon-like creatures floating among the clouds of Jupiter and Saturn had stuck with me since reading about it in high school (back in the days of cutoff jean shorts and hot-rodded ’63 Impalas).
Those were aliens populating The Long Run. The upcoming book, The Long Way Home, features beings we can’t see without going through some complicated interdimensional jumps. Also space pirates. YARR!
This is all a roundabout way of saying The Long Way Home is the original book I pitched three years ago, and I’m excited to finally bring this story full circle. Will there be more to come? Oh, probably. Melanie Mooney’s adventures could easily become an open-ended series, and there’s already an idea in development (The Long Way Back? Maybe…). There will also be a short story featuring Melanie for a Baen anthology coming out next summer. Besides that, I’m currently outlining the final installment of the Eccentric Orbits series, Terminal Orbit.
Until then, The Long Way Home will be out in paperback and ebook on July 1st wherever fine books are sold!
The Chiles Files 