Some stories are determined to be more than I originally think they’ll be. I expected An Endless Dawn to be a short story. It was a fairly straightforward story line. The first alien life form discovered and brought back to Earth was a plant. The focus was on a single character. It didn’t take me long to reach a point where I knew it could remain a short story and it would be an enjoyable read or it could become a novel. Something better and more complex than what I had originally imagined it to be. It took me a few weeks to decide if I wanted it to be more than the five to ten thousand word story it had started out as, but the new ideas intrigued me and I couldn’t resist following them. New characters joined the originally limited cast and other plots formed, taking Piper down paths that hadn’t been available to her before.

This also meant I needed to do more research and I once again delved into the world of science, figuring out what was and wasn’t possible in the many ideas that bombarded me. Occasionally I became lost in my research, finding fascinating bits of information both for this story and for future stories. Ones set in other worlds and with other characters that are in completely different situations.

After a rather small beginning, An Endless Dawn has grown beyond my expectations, taking Piper on a journey I hadn’t excepted her to go on. In some ways that is very much like life. Plans are frequently interrupted, changed or modified. Sometimes becoming better than what we expected.

An Endless Dawn is now available on Amazon. Longer and more complex than it’s humble beginnings indicated it would be.