Go Quantum! (You’ll be glad you did)

Hello, friends and fans!

It’s high time I told you something about my Quantum Series. It started out – a little confusingly, I admit – as part of my first sci-fi series, Galaxii. But wait, I’m getting a little ahead of myself here – let me start right at the beginning.

I was born on the first of February, in 1973. It was a Thursday.

What’s that? Too far back? Er. Okay…

*Garbled fast-forwarding sounds*

Back in 2014, I was fortunate enough (or so I thought) to have caught the attention of a Texas-based small press publisher, and was offered a contract for all my books – specifically the Galaxii Series. At the time, that was my only series of sci-fi novels, and it consisted of the first three present Galaxii novels, and also the three novels that make up the first four titles of Quantum today.

To shorten what is a very long story indeed, after being held over a barrel for two years while I impatiently waited for the publisher to catch up and publish more of the Galaxii Series – they had by 2016 only published two – I became frustrated because I’d given up self-publishing in order to give them that exclusivity, and was losing income. At that time, I had about 8 completed books, and they were being held in a holding pattern while the publisher allowed itself to be distracted by a series of anthologies and the company’s officers promoting themselves instead of their writers. After much hand-wringing, I finally reached breaking point. I was contracted for the whole of the Galaxii Series, fine and dandy – but I decided which books were in that series, not them! Using my own initiative, I took those four books from Galaxii, and based a whole new series off them instead!

What inspired the name? Quantum was sort of a private joke between myself and a former girlfriend. We used to talk about physics a lot, and whenever someone or something bizarre caught our attention in our surroundings – or on TV or social media, it was mirthfully pointed out as “hey, that’s really quantum!” Anyway, for some reason, that popped up when I was pondering a name for the new breakaway series. Also, there’s a minor character who’s a quantum physicist in some of the stories – a funny little chap – German accent, wild hair and no eyebrows because he loses them often in failed experiments! And so it was. Thus, the Quantum Series was born – with the prime novel being “Black Sunrise”!

Coming back to that publisher, it wasn’t long after that, a shit-storm broke loose within the untidy house of the publisher – although I doubt this action of mine had anything at all to do with it, even though I’m sure it didn’t improve my unpopularity with certain staff members! In retrospect, the staff had many problems to deal with – mostly of their own making – not the least of which was the identity crisis their brand found itself in. Were they a horror publisher? If so, where did all this sci-fi and historical stuff come from? Again, this is a much longer story than these two brief paragraphs can relate, but suffice it to say, by March 2016 I was one of about 30 writers cut loose from our contracts by the publisher as they sought to re-establish their identity as a “pure horror” publisher. Not that it bothered me one bit! They’ve been very quiet ever since – and I haven’t seen them release a thing since 2016 – so, karma.

So, what’s Quantum really about?

Quantum is set in the same ‘universe’ or timeline as the Galaxii Series, but somewhat later, and centers around an entirely new cast of characters and settings. Unlike Galaxii, which is darker and grittier for the most part, Quantum is sci-fi with a dash of fantasy and a pinch of thriller thrown in. Its main setting is Deanna, a backwater Terran colony in the Outblack – basically on the fringes of known space. It orbits a star named Ramalama, and has two mad little moons named Ding and Dong (this is a local joke). Life out on the frontier of space isn’t always easy, and there are things that make living on the planet Deanna a mite more interesting than on more civilized Human colonies – including the unique locals, the weird wildlife – and diverse alien tourists, immigrants and refugees – but also elements like time travel and, from time to time, Deanna’s secretive underground vampire community.

A cast of recurring characters must overcome diabolical schemes, sinister villains, invading aliens – Human nature – and whatever daunting obstacles they encounter in their adventures together – y’know, gender dysphoria, time travel, bigotry, civil war and genocidal dictators – little things like that.

The main character of the first book (Black Sunrise) is one Cindy-Mei Winter – who, until recently was an agent for the Colonial Intelligence Agency – and one of their best agents… that is, until they threw her out for coming to work in a dress.

After that disappointing and sudden end to what had been a promising career, Mei rewards herself with a long relaxing vacation in the Outblack to celebrate her gender reassignment and her new start in life. The first stop on her journey turns out to be a holiday resort on a little backwater planet called Deanna.

That, pretty much, is where everything changes. And together with a whole cast of new friends and aquaintances (and a few enemies), Mei gets a thorough background tour of the weird little planet she comes to call home. Among the characters responsible for her decision to stay on Deanna, are: Beck the Badfeller, a.k.a. Gary, whom she forms a relationship with, Peg – actually Peggy-Ann Muller who is the Sheriff of Atro City, and Fred – a sentient alien plant who walks around on his lower branches while carrying his own pot.

There are nine titles in the Quantum Series: “Black Sunrise”, “The Time Saving Agency”, “Dead Man’s Hammer”, “Loderunner”, “Prodigal Sun”, “High Steaks”, “Underground Movement”, “Xanadu” and “The Last Hurrah”. There’s also a ‘children’s book for adults’ called “Bang, Splat!” which is also available as a 13 minute movie, and two guide books you can see at the bottom of this post.

Also available as audiobooks!

If you’re interested, you can check out the three books below that give more detail (and diagrams!) of the characters, ships and tech you’ll see described in Quantum. You can also find (and enjoy) the books of the series by clicking on the buttons below as well!

The series was received pretty well I think, and it’s been available in various forms since 2006 (and with tons of gradually improved covers over the years). They’ve been turned into audiobooks, narrated by Darla Middlebrook.

So, come on – go Quantum! You’ll be glad you did!