Return To New Ceres

Anybody who got a kick out of Angel Rising will be pleased to hear that my far-future swashbuckling cynic and Byron impersonator-hero George Gordon will be returning in a short story in the upcoming New Ceres Nights anthology from Twelfth Planet Press. Better still*, not only does he appear in my own contribution 'Debutante', but he gets at least a walk-on speaking role in The Piece of Ice in Miss Windermere's Heart, by the redoubtable Angela Slatter.

Actually, the roll call of writers who made the cut for this one includes a list of many of my favourite of the current crop of Aussie SF folk, and I'm really looking forward to reading the thing. New Ceres is a fun setting to work with. I had a ball with Angel Rising -- the story took off on its own, leaving me to chase the details. I didn't actually expect the revelation at the ending at all, right up until it occurred to me. So to speak.

Anyway, Debutante is the story of how George Gordon got the job of Proctor-In-Chief to New Ceres.** Writing it made me feel quite good, because it sort of completed the arc of character for the guy. Of course, being me it was all out of order.

The first George Gordon story I wrote was She Walks In Beauty, for New Ceres Online (I think it's still available as a PDF, by the way.) At that point, Gordon has already been doing the job for a very long time, and has really begun to lose his way, but he doesn't see any real alternatives for himself. Then I did Angel Rising, in which an artificial intelligence of sorts shows Gordon how to recover his own sense of humanity, and marks the end of his official tenure as Proctor-In-Chief. So naturally, the third story had to be the beginning, right?

Yeah, okay. I like doing things the hard way.




*From my viewpoint, anyhow. It's HUUGE fun watching someone else reinterpret a character you've created. And a tip o' the tricorn to Tansy RR, whose Lady Governor appears as the eponymous deb of the upcoming story... and another tip to Tansy for joining the roll in New Ceres Nights herself.


** That doesn't count as a spoiler, does it? I sort of figured it as more of a teaser, really. I'm not very good at this stuff.