After finishing my first novel, Viral Agents, I went through the full cycle: writing, revising, querying. It didn’t land. That happens. But the novel is complete, and I learned a lot from it. It’s still in my back pocket, and I might reach for it in the future when the time is right.
But for now it’s on the shelf while I focus on what comes next.
Project Drake is my second novel, and it’s already deep into the drafting phase. I started writing in December 2023 and expect to type “The End” before the end of September. I’m currently at 125,000 words, aiming for a polished final version around 100 to 110K. Compared to my first book, this one is longer, more complex, and far more cohesive. The characters, structure, and ideas are clicking in a way that makes this the strongest thing I’ve written.
Low Earth Orbit is the new frontier. It’s a place of science, industry, and culture. Space elevators exist and offer humanity a means to reach the stars. But at the center of it all is the Steggles family.
Think Contact meets Succession. At the top is Ord Steggles, a self-made titan who pioneered the space elevator industry. He is brilliant, forceful, and obsessed with legacy, and casts a long shadow over his three children that threatens to blot them each out in turn.
The novel is divided into four sections, each from a different point of view. Drex, the youngest, is an engineer still seeking his father’s approval. Sasha, the middle child, is sharp and unflinching in her defiance of her father. Lucien, the eldest, is a physicist who builds a machine to scan the galaxy and ask: Who’s there? The answer he finds changes everything. Finally, in Part IV, we see what remains of the family, the world, and the future they’re left to shape.
This is a story about science, ambition, value, and inheritance. It’s about building meaning in a universe that won’t offer it freely. And it’s about the people who try to find it anyway.
I’ll be sharing more as I go. If this sounds like your kind of story, follow the blog for updates or leave a comment. I’d love to hear what you think. I have a mountain of content I’ve built for worldbuilding and character development and other such “preproduction” work that will never see the light of day.
More soon.