Dwelling in Probabilities

Hi everyone! I’m Susan Jane Bigelow, and I’m here today to talk about my new book, The Daughter Star. It’s the story of trade ship pilot Marta Grayline as she tries to care for her sister Beth, get answers to her questions, figure out her relationship with her long-distance girlfriend, and find the freedom she so desperately craves against a background of interplanetary war and alien intrigue.

 This book is the first of three focusing on the three Grayline sisters, Marta, Violet and Beth, and their roles in changing and shaping their world. It’s also about truth, tenacity, faith, growing up, family, love, and a whole host of other things. It’s been an amazing and challenging series to write so far, and I still have the third book to write!

 This story started out as a “pace book” to The Spark, which is the third book in the Extrahumans series. See, The Spark was a very stressful and emotionally draining book to write for me, and every once in a while I felt like I needed a break. So I started working on a fun space adventure story to distract myself when I felt burned out on The Spark. I created the character of Marta, who so enthralled me that I soon found myself lost in her world, and the character sketching I was doing soon began to stretch into a full-fledged novel. I worked on both books concurrently, and actually finished the first draft of Daughter Star before I finished The Spark.

 However, it turned out that The Daughter Star needed a ton of work. This was partly because of the somewhat odd and offhand way in which I’d written it. I wrote at least five different endings before I found one that really worked for me, and led into the next book in a way that made sense. I eventually tightened the story up, made it more serious in places, and gave both Marta and her world a lot more depth.

 I learned a lot while writing this book. I’d probably never do the “pace book” thing again, though it was fun and gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I also learned that there’s nothing like a massive load of revisions and a looming deadline to focus my creativity. But what I learned that I value the most is that I can still write the kinds of books that I really want to read and share with everyone else.

 The book releases on 5/28, and will be available on Amazon, BN.com, the Candlemark & Gleam website, and retailers both electronic and physical worldwide. I hope folks check it out!

 Thanks to the amazing Catherine Lundoff for having me on!