I wanted Music of the Stars to explode today

August 15^th was the date I had set for myself to complete the story of Music of the Stars, which I had published in advance one year ago.  As the day drew nearer, I had planned out the end of the novel in broad outlines, but did not have the details fixed.

I had bought a copy of the software called Scrivener, which is an organizing tool for writers undertaking large projects.  Scrivener both helped and hindered me, mostly because I did not read the documentation in detail, and did not know how to use it.  Still, I boldly went where I had not gone before, and early this morning uploaded the conclusion to the story to the Smashwords server.  I am very unhappy with the end, but I am also amazed that it is as good as it is.  It could be so much better!

For those who aren't familiar with the story, The Galactic Voyager is a sort of space ark, with several hundred colonists who have been sent off into the unknown, to find a habitable planet.  The Voyager itself is in some ways an artificial planet, and the book explores how it starts out with an awkward militaristic governance, and evolves as the needs of the population changes, and the project matures.

The central character is Helen Nordstrom (no relation, or not much of a relation, anyway), a multi-talented musician and teacher and lesbian, who is put on board in a state of hibernation.  The Voyager administration is faced with deteriorating social situations, and revive Helen on route.  The early part of the story has to do with how Helen affects the mood on the ship, and certainly the tone of the leadership.  This is obviously new ground for me, because my focus has been, thus far, personal relationships, romance, and gender issues.

The second part of the story is driven by the pivotal fact that Helen Nordstrom was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes before being put on board.  But the colonists--the regular people on the Voyager--have all been selected to eliminate known genetically transmitted diseases, to maximize the success of the project.  So Helen finds herself the only diabetic on board.

In spite of the fact that the premisses of the story are so mundane, I think the story is interesting, not least because of several fascinating characters I invented --or who invented themselves-- and their relationships.  One of my favorites is Summer, a button-nosed, freckle-faced little blonde girl who is a character in every sense.  One of my greatest regrets is that I did not create a satisfactory conclusion to the story that gave her something interesting to do.  Lena is another one.  Lena is Summer's little buddy, but Helen adores little Lena, who is a classically lovely brunette.  But being just about 9 years old at the start of the story, Helen relates to her as to a beloved niece.  But for various reasons, Helen is put back in hibernation, when they run out of ideas to stabilize her health, and she is revived twenty years later.  You see the possibilities?

There is not what I would call a strong plot, but there are story elements that are (in my humble opinion, of course) very creative.  I'm convinced that if, someday, such an exploratory vessel were to be populated and sent out, things will happen very much as I describe them, except that, of course, what they actually find cannot be predicted.

Kay