Hello, dreamers. Last week, I knocked out Ganymede (at least for now). Overall, I’m happy with what I did, likely because I liked the story to begin with. But now, I get to return to one of the best things I’ve written in the past few years. And I’m very excited to share this with you.

Fantoms

When I began writing the stories that would become Turn of the Century last year, they just kept getting better. That progression led to Fantoms, which has become one of my favorites among the stories I’ve written.

Fantoms was an interesting concept for me. As readers will soon learn, asteroid mining plays a crucial role in the Dotiverse: the almost innumerable mineral wealth of the Asteroid Belt is what allows humanity to become a true spacefaring species, providing the raw materials for everything from enormous wheeled space stations to the fusion reactors that make interstellar travel possible. Despite the critical role of asteroid mining, however, I’d never really looked much into its actual process.

Thus, Fantoms became a sort of “seedy underbelly” story: one that follows the lives of the men and women who make all the wondrous stories of space exploration possible. I approached it with trepidation; mining the Belt played a pivotal role in The Expanse by James S.A. Corey, which became a television sensation. Thus, when I first came up with the idea for Fantoms, I was writing into a trope that was fresh in everyone’s minds.

But, to my delight, I managed to create a delightfully original story, by working asteroid mining into the framework of the Dotiverse. In Fantoms, the miners aren’t quasi-slaves worked to death by evil corporations. Rather, they’re scientists and engineers, who take pride in their role in humanity’s expansion into space. The “Fantoms”, as they call themselves, are fiercely dedicated to their work, and look out for each other.

As I began writing, I found the story flowing seamlessly. And it brought more than a few surprises. Perhaps the biggest was Donald Kiel, the chief geologist aboard the RCV-14 Aberfan. Don was originally intended as sort of a filler character, but turns out he had other ideas. Over the course of the story, Don took on a life of his own. He was an arrogant, irreverent, foul-mouthed curmudgeon. He’s socially awkward, abrupt, and somewhat clumsy and cowardly. As most of my work deals with humanity’s best and brightest boldly going, Don was a breath of fresh air. And he did a great job answering the obvious question: while all the fearless astronauts are exploring space, what is everybody else doing?

I began the process of expanding Fantoms last Friday. As of today, I’m nearly finished, and happy to have the opportunity to expand this story even further. I can’t wait to share it with the world, and hope everyone will enjoy reading Fantoms even half as much as I enjoyed writing it. – MK