Meanwhile, things I struggled with morally while writing:

Glorifying piracy
Killing government personnel

There is no overlap in thst Venn diagram.

Anyway, I don't think we're at that level of notoriety yet. You can help change that: www.kickstarter.com/projects/157...

#HockisMissing #selfpublish

Omg YUS!!!! The cover took over a YEAR to paint. Please support our #kickstarter #booksky #HockIsMissing #coverart

An easy way to pass the Bechdel test is to have your three main characters be in a lesbian love triangle.

(This wasn't the intention from the get-go, but you know, it kinda just happens when that's the cast you set yourself up with.) #HockisMissing #NewBook #selfpublish #spacepirates

The Light of Unfamiliar Stars is in #Kickstarter Pre-launch NOW! Follow to get updated on the project, including when we go live and how you can help Liz's crew save Captain Hock!

www.kickstarter.com/projects/157...

#scifi #HockIsMissing #spacepirates #NewBook #BoterBugBooks #selfpublish

Food offers a great “second thing” for characters to be doing in a scene, helping flesh them out into complex, multitasking characters. I also really like food. #HockisMissing #NewBook #selfpublish

In Destroyers, I intentionally avoided specifying what kind of weapons exist in the Subspace setting. Ballistic/bullets? Laser beams? Plasma bolts?

In The Light of Unfamiliar Stars I decided, screw it, they all exist. #HockisMissing #NewBook #selfpublish

An earlier draft of the cover art that @molotovmina.bsky.social sent me had a skull on the prow of the Alabaster Shrike. It didn't feel right to me - not very Liz, too generic. I asked if it could be something avian.

She came back with this Shrike logo. Nailed it, first try. #HockIsMissing #scifi

Subspace works by tunneling a portal to a parallel dimension, following a predetermined path using the faster speed of light there, and arriving hundreds of light-years away nearly instantaneously. #HockisMissing #NewBook #selfpublish

Happy Autumn Equinox, fellow Earthers! As we celebrate a celestial milestone in our planet-based calendar, it’s time to LORE DROP how calendars work in the multicultural galaxy of the Subspace Saga!

(Throw to public Facebook post because LONG.)

www.facebook.com/share/1HoDMY...

#HockisMissing

Avast, space scallywags! Happy Talk Like A Pirate Day! May the spacelanes grace you with bountiful plunder and you always remain two subspace jumps ahead of the law.

Enjoy this memento Hock keeps of happier times. More coming soon on how to get that smile back! #HockIsMissing #NewBook #selfpublish

When writing Destroyers in 2022, it didn't occur to me to have an artificial lifeform or entity; it just didn't come up.

Writing The Light of Unfamiliar Stars, it became a more conscious decision to exclude AI from the universe. It just wasn't a topic I felt I could do justice to. #HockisMissing

Of HUGE importance to me was making sure that The Light of Unfamiliar Stars would look good on the shelf next to Destroyers! Even though it has a different artist (lovely and talented @molotovmina.bsky.social), I wanted the same layout designer (Jeff Brown) to unify the look! #HockisMissing #NewBook

What flags would ships fly in Destroyers and Unfamiliar?

Wadja: 🏴‍☠️

Alabaster Shrike: 🇨🇽

Exo Sovlin Hygeia: 🏳️

Swiftpack: 🇺🇳

Galtean Duchess: 🇵🇦

Bonus - what flags best represent who runs the ship?

Wadja: 🚩🚩🚩

Alabaster Shrike: 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

#HockisMissing #NewBook #selfpublish

So, without a "How We" title, how did I come up with "The Light of Unfamiliar Stars"?

Well, call it silly, but the original outline was for "Untitled Destroyers Sequel". As a gag, I came up with "Unfamiliar, Distant Stars" with the same initials, and it developed from there. #HockisMissing #NewBook

"How We Saved My Idiot Captain" is, I think, a good title for a book, particularly as a sequel to "How We Stopped the Destroyers". But after the first beta readers took to the manuscript, it became apparent that it wasn't a good fit for *this* sequel. #HockisMissing #NewBook #selfpublish

"Why did you write The Light of Unfamiliar Stars as a sequel? Wasn't Destroyers a standalone?"

It was! Then I was listening to the audiobook and the Intelligence agent said that when he caught back up to the pirates, he'd be more worried about Liz than Hock. #HockIsMissing #NewBook #SelfPublish

The Light of Unfamiliar Stars is the next sci-fi novel from Andrew Bugenis, the author of How We Stopped the Destroyers! Follow Liz, Åsa, and the rest of the crew of the Alabaster Shrike as they seek to recover Captain Corven from the clutches of... ??? #HockIsMissing #NewBook #SelfPublish

The fan-favorite alien pufferfish pirate captain Hock Corven has gone missing and it's up to his former protégé Liz Bewick to track him down. What dangers will they face? Can her new crew pull together, or will they fall apart? And what is that chasing them down? #HockIsMissing #NewBook #SelfPublish

Say hello to the Alabaster Shrike! After the events of How We Stopped the Destroyers, Liz Bewick got her own ship and her own crew. With its own stolen subspace drive, this pirate ship is nigh-unstoppable. But wait... is it running from something? #HockIsMissing #NewBook #SelfPublish

You've heard me talking about my next book; now it's time to get OBNOIXIOUS with it! Tomorrow is the cover reveal, bit-by-bit to the full title and more information tomorrow evening! Check back in the morning for the first big piece! #HockIsMissing #NewBook #SelfPublish