The Summoning Stars

Author's Note

Thank you for reading The Summoning Stars. This was originally published on the @Epifiction profile on Wattpad, and it's been a joy for me to write Science Fiction again after quite a while of not writing any. But it was also a real experiment as the original version was published by Epifiction as a choose your own adventure style story for Texan school kids. This meant that I had to write a chapter a week for 8 weeks, based on the favoured choice of the kids reading my stuff in Texas. It was a great experience.

I'd just like to say a heartfelt thank you to David Mark Brown (@LostDMBFiles) for giving me a kick in the creative firmament and challenging me to do this. Also thanks to Mike for being such a stalwart on the editing, and putting up with my general abuse of all things comma related.

This has been the first longer piece of Science Fiction I've ever done, but was inspired by a short story I wrote about 3 years ago called Mindscape. That particular short story was written for one of the Science Fiction smackdowns run by the ever inventive Dan (@AngusEcrivain), so thanks to you too old son, I owe you a pint.

An edited version of the original short story that inspired The Summoning Stars - Mindscape - will be added to the end of this one so you can see where the idea came from. It's surprising what a simple little contest can give rise to, and Wattpad as ever proves to me that collaboration of ideas, feedback, and creative discussion can give you as a writer a truly wonderful experience. And I hope I've passed some modicum of that experience on to my readers too. 

Thank you for reading, for without readers a writer is merely a lone nutjob hammering away in a secluded corner hoping he's doing something vaguely constructive.