ROWELIT
Author's Commentary: "Legacy"
Oh, “Legacy,” this has been an interesting week. There’s a lot I could say about this one. Some weeks I have a better gauge for what the story is, but fiction more than any art is difficult for the creator to see. I guess that’s what an editor or workshop is for. That’s a luxury I don’t have time for in this project, though, so I’m grateful to rely on the wisdom of the audience.
I dipped back to a previous story “The Rings of Floriston” that had discussed a planetary terraforming process that was nearing its completion. The narrator briefly described Heder Floriston and his expedition stopping at the planet, setting the process in motion and then continuing on their way. I think if I had to critique that story in hindsight, the author 😊 was a little too smitten with the “thing” (the theme that week was tethered rings—a very cool thing), and the result was a bit more exposition than I think most fiction readers tend to be tolerant of, but even that’s debatable, as each reader is different. In any case, the case of Heder Floriston was interesting to me then. Who would do that; just spend six years terraforming a planet his people didn’t intend to live on, and how do you get a group of people to go along with that plan? And with the topic of planetary terraforming bubbling up again, I decided to go back to Heder’s story in much greater depth. Only, I found out it wasn’t really Heder’s story alone.
I’ll see what people think about this story and see if it’s worth checking in on this group in the future, but I feel like this crew may have more to reveal when they get to the Battery, especially Victoria. What an epic thing it will be to be a worldmaker in real life.
Here’s hoping we get there! I hope you enjoyed the fictional version.
See you on Floriston.
Rowe