Monday, April 01, 2013

A-to-Z Challenge Day One: The Letter A


Sigmund Alexander
The Dark Side of Space 
Space Corps Book 1

One of the things I did early on with the Space Corps saga was begin developing the backstory, a process that ended up informing far more of the evolving story itself than I ever intended.  Space Corps is an epic science fiction saga.  Sigmund Alexander rebelled against humanity's entrance into the Galactic Alliance.  He first appears in The Dark Side of Space in a capacity very similar to what might be seen in an episode of the original Star Trek series, and as such is indicative of how the Space Corps saga began.  Yet the more Space Corps progressed, the more it diverged from the Star Trek template.  It's fair, therefore, to represent the first A-to-Z entry in this Space Corps primer with a character who evokes both the derivative and original aspects of the saga.  If you know Star Trek much, Alexander might be considered the Space Corps equivalent of Colonel Green (or John Frederick Paxton, from the excellent "Terra Prime"/"Demons" Enterprise two-part episode).  Sigmund Alexander becomes much more significant in Book 4, The Feud We Keep With Space, when it becomes apparent that his legacy very much lingers in the form of the xenophobic Alexandrians, who continue to infest Earth centuries against his failed efforts.

The Assassins Guild
Yoshimi and the Assassins Guild
Yoshimi Trilogy Volume 2

Central to the overall story of warrior orphan Yoshimi is the matter of who murdered her parents.  In Yoshimi and the Shadow Clan she's told that it's Ronan Quinn, who runs the Assassins Guild.  It's not until the second volume in the trilogy that we encounter the Guild, in a whirlwind tour around the world that was among the most fun elements to write.  Of course, I can't tell you too much about the Guild itself, since that's also among the most fun elements to read!  

We've also been requested to give a shout-out to Challenge co-lead Arlee Bird today.  Honestly I know very little about him, and based on the name alone my early impressions were that he was a she!  But Arlee is in fact male, and thanks to an introduction recently on the A-to-Z blog itself (which runs year-round even though the event of course only takes place in April), I know a little more.  Follow his blog for yourself!

14 comments:

Michael Abayomi said...

Sweet. The A-Z challenge is here again. Hard to believe it's been a year already, since the last one. I'm looking forward to stalking your blog all month long once again. He he.

Oh, yeah, and your stories sound awesome, not that I'd expect them to be anything but awesome. :D

Tony Laplume said...

I hope the month also means a whole month of Abayomi!

Al Diaz said...

I am not an expert on Star Trek to tell differences or similitude between characters. But that Assassin Guild of yours sure sounds appealing!

Tony Laplume said...

The first thing you need to know about the Assassins Guild, other than what I've already said, is that its members don't go around assassinating people...at least in the Yoshimi books!

mshatch said...

I can relate to having to write a backstory - it was a lot of work but I know all those details are going to come in handy...

Tony Laplume said...

The way I write, the backstory always comes in handy!

MOCK! said...

I, too, thought Arlee was female!!!! Are you doing A to Z on all your blogs or only here?

Tony Laplume said...

I actually had considered doing that, but I still consider Scouring Monk to be my "home" blog, so I'm doing the challenge here. I still naively hope that if people find what I prattle on about here interesting they will check the others out.

The Armchair Squid said...

Hi! Pleased to meet you. Thanks for following. I'm delighted to return the favor.

Tony Laplume said...

Squid, I don't know why it took me so long to follow your blog, but I finally did. Happy to do so!

Bhavya N said...

Hi..
It's a pleasure to read your blog. I'm from the AtoZ Challenge, and its my first time.
Bhavya from Just Another Blog

Tony Laplume said...

Glad you like what you saw!

Cygnus said...

Aha... Paxton (Peter Weller!) as Colonel Green. You're causing my Trek synapses to fire on all fronts! :-)

Enterprise got a bit of a bum rap. It was no worse than half of Voyager or most of DS9...

Tony Laplume said...

I've discovered that each of the Star Trek series have their own distinct flavor.

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