Back to Regular Programming

Whew, that was tough! Left writing my entry for the Pod and Planet fiction contest too far to the last minute this year.

Part of the problem was latching on to a good idea. I originally had an idea for a piece about a spy / agent breaking into a secure facility, but I quickly became bogged down in too many permutations and fear of the word limit. I felt I had a story to write there, but also that I needed a lot more room to do it justice.

So back to the drawing board I went and there I met a lonely soul named Sam and his charges, the mining drones of some nearly forgotten mining operation. The story flowed easily once that image was in my head, but I will admit that the ending changed drastically from when I first envisioned it to after I had started writing it.

I'm not sure the story will resonate with readers but I'm willing to take that risk. I almost submitted the story in the non-canon A Day In The Life category for fear that the judges would mark me down for perceived lore violations, but that seemed like fear talking and I felt like I wanted the story to be judged as cleaving to the lore. Still, the letdown that the Life of Nina Cruse fiction's failure to score well still haunts me, but at least this time I'm ready for the disappointment of failure.

Regardless, it is done and I can get back to regular blogging and working on v0.2 of my Industry Status Tool.