"Lucas Martin Durand is a part-time science-fiction author and the creator of the Yalandeyan Odyssey, an epic space-opera saga."That is how these paragraphs are supposed to begin. It sounds almost too neat - and it would be a fine thing to call oneself a writer. But here is the truth: I have never thought of myself as a writer. A storyteller, perhaps. So, here is a short story behind the story. The Odyssey was born from a lifelong love of astronomy and the night sky, and a deep fascination with the origins of the universe, strange worlds, intelligent life yet to be discovered, and the technologies that might one day carry us to the stars.
It came to me one night close to midnight, twenty-five years ago, as a single scene. That scene lit something, and out of it came the Known Galaxy. Soon after followed the first timelines, events and civilizations, and the first characters - among them Eliyar, a refugee's son who longs for the stars, while the shadow of the oppressive Darantian Federation falls across a once-peaceful galaxy. And then I wrote nothing at all.
For sixteen years, life took precedence. Jobs, careers, family, the ordinary shortage of hours. But the Odyssey would not go and would not be forgotten. It grew instead - with every month and every year, more scenes, more events, more characters stepping out from behind the veil. Timelines lengthened. Cultures acquired histories. My notes became almost books in themselves. Eventually it was obvious that the story wanted out.
So, sixteen years late, I wrote the first chapter in pencil, and promised myself that if I finished it, I would not stop. By Chapter III I moved to a laptop, because by then there was no chance of leaving the story alone. Eight months later the first draft of Book I, all three parts, was done. I began editing - and life rolled in again and pushed the Odyssey aside for another eight years. Still, it did not go away.
It kept growing, kept revealing new worlds, until it became loud enough in my mind that there was no option left but to finish the edit and publish. So here it is, dear reader: The Starfall, the opening act of that saga, with more of the Odyssey to come. Whether you find something in it for yourself is yours to decide.
It came to me one night close to midnight, twenty-five years ago, as a single scene. That scene lit something, and out of it came the Known Galaxy. Soon after followed the first timelines, events and civilizations, and the first characters - among them Eliyar, a refugee's son who longs for the stars, while the shadow of the oppressive Darantian Federation falls across a once-peaceful galaxy. And then I wrote nothing at all.
For sixteen years, life took precedence. Jobs, careers, family, the ordinary shortage of hours. But the Odyssey would not go and would not be forgotten. It grew instead - with every month and every year, more scenes, more events, more characters stepping out from behind the veil. Timelines lengthened. Cultures acquired histories. My notes became almost books in themselves. Eventually it was obvious that the story wanted out.
So, sixteen years late, I wrote the first chapter in pencil, and promised myself that if I finished it, I would not stop. By Chapter III I moved to a laptop, because by then there was no chance of leaving the story alone. Eight months later the first draft of Book I, all three parts, was done. I began editing - and life rolled in again and pushed the Odyssey aside for another eight years. Still, it did not go away.
It kept growing, kept revealing new worlds, until it became loud enough in my mind that there was no option left but to finish the edit and publish. So here it is, dear reader: The Starfall, the opening act of that saga, with more of the Odyssey to come. Whether you find something in it for yourself is yours to decide.