Welcome to the World of Scions of Oth

How it Started: The Conception of a Series

I was brainstorming some ideas for new books I could write (as young, overly-ambitious writers tend to do) when I stumbled upon a question:

What would a chess game be like in space?

And not just two people playing a futuristic game of chess in space. Someone already made that (look up 3D chess if you want). Bur rather, what the question was something more like: 

"How is space warfare like chess?"

From there, my mind took off. I already had some ideas for a group of different factions that I'd been tinkering with, as well as some previously scrapped characters from my first series that were ready at my disposal. And with that one question, all those pieces seemed to come together.

I wrote my first series, Clan of Embers, starting when I was 15. Like many young writers, I struggled to keep my focus on one thing, always adding new characters, new ideas, and expanding the scope of the book I was writing until it encompassed too many genres to count. Needless to say, I had to cut a lot of that stuff from that series.

But some good came out of all that. Namely the malevolent alien race called the Grakhon. They were the perfect fit for this new universe I was crafting, and what would eventually be called Scions of Oth.

So, I set off to plot some chapters and start writing. At that time, I intended to produce the series as a serial, with short episodes ranging from 8-12 thousand words. The idea in my mind was to write them in a fast paced fashion, both in terms of the plot and the time it would take me to produce them, which at the time was motivating for me.

I wrote the first 'episode' and dubbed it Bad Bishop, a fitting title given the main character's conflicted nature. He was always meant to be a little unlikeable at the beginning. A bit of Captain Kirk and Commander Adama rolled into one. A man who had yet to have his icarus moment. That was by design.

And then I shelved it. For awhile. Life got in the way.

But a few years later, I reached out to a friend of mine who I'd collaborated with in the past. He'd had some ideas for the series, and we had always talked about working on something together. So we took up the task of completing what I had started, plotting out a full 'trilogy go trilogies' as we called it, and what would eventually become the 9 books that are published now.

The idea that the two of us arrived at was to tell a story about humanity's encounter with a superior alien race. A story that would start out in the aftermath of the initial conflict, some 30 years later. But then things would change, and humanity would have to adapt to what was in front of them, facing victory and defeat, experiencing a rollercoaster-like journey that they'd have to struggle through every step of the way.

My friend contributed a lot to the series, particularly early on. He also bankrolled the cover designs, copy editing, and pushed me to finish writing the series until it was complete. But you'll notice, there's only one name on the covers for each book in the series. He eventually had to step back from the project because of work, something I don't begrudge him for (he runs a successful software company), and I think he may have recognized that I had a passion to carry the series on in a way that he didn't.

So, I pressed on solo, eventually doing a soft release of the series in fall of 2022. I got some feedback from folks, made some tweaks here and there, and finally worked up the nerve to publish to Amazon on October 6, 2023.

And that's where we are at the time of this post. I have plans to continue the series to its intended end goal of 27 episodes across three 9 episode seasons, and expand the universe with side stories, bonus content, and spin-off series. And all of it started with a simple question.

The Conglomerate: A Vision of Future Humanity

The Conglomerate (or simply 'the Glom' for short) was one of the earliest elements I conceived of. The Conglomerate is both a quasi-federal space government of 6 human factions. The factions of the Conglomerate each have their own sovereignty but share a common set of laws for the purposes of conflict-resolution, commerce, and stability.

Dividing humanity up into factions is a common story-telling device, and for good reason. Each group has their own characteristics, customs, cultures, and motivations. It makes it easy to understand what a character is about on a surface level, though some characters are intentionally the antithesis of the faction they belong to at times. All of this creates contrast in a vast universe, where it could easily become difficult to track which character was from which planet and what group they belonged to.

Characters

The Crew of the Intrepid

Other Characters