I’m proud to announce that Candlemark & Gleam will be publishing my fourth novel, the space adventure The Daughter Star. Here’s the blurb:

Marta Grayline has problems: her stable, fulfilling life as a freighter pilot has been yanked out from under her, she’s stuck on her miserable home planet with her obnoxious family, her beautiful girlfriend’s now on the opposite side of an interstellar war, and, worst of all, she’s bored to tears. When her enigmatic sister Beth offers her a way out – enlisting in the Novan Emergency Fleet – she jumps at it.

Now Marta has questions: Why was her ship attacked and destroyed? Who are the strange people who rescued her, and what’s their connection to the mysterious alien Abrax? What’s the seven-note song looping endlessly through her head supposed to mean? And, strangest of all, why is there a door to a dead planet in the science lab of a hidden space station?

Marta’s quest for answers will take her to the frozen dark side of a faraway planet, into the tense politics of an armed rebellion, through vast subterranean caves, and into the heart of the enemy’s defenses. She’ll have to face ancient forces, her own doubts, and the inside of an alien mind if she wants to save her sister, find answers to the questions burning in her mind, and unlock her own potential. The Daughter Star, the red beacon in the night sky, could either see the genesis of a startling new future for humans and Abrax, or Marta and Beth Grayline’s annihilation…

This story is set in an entirely new universe, in which humanity lives in a ternary system (three stars) hundreds of years after Earth’s destruction.

I originally wrote this book as a “pace book” for The Spark, meaning that when I got stuck on the other book I’d go work on this one instead for a while. I haven’t done anything like that, working on two books in tandem, either before or since. It was a very unusual way to write two books that really had nothing to do with one another. I actually finished this book earlier than The Spark, but the revision process turned out to be ten times more difficult as I struggled with where I wanted this book to go.

I originally intended The Daughter Star to be a light, fun adventure story. It kind of hasn’t worked out that way. With every revision the story got darker and more complex, as Marta Grayline has to deal with big issues of war, loss, transformation and what it really means to be human.

I have kept in the jokes about how heavy gravity affects bras, though.

This is the first in a planned trilogy about the Grayline sisters. The second one will be about Marta’s younger sister Violet, who manages to Ruin Everything for the people who deserve it most.

Stay tuned for more Daughter Star news!