Just a quick check-in.  NaNoWriMo is going pretty well so far.  I’m staying slightly ahead of par in terms of words written.  Current word count: 5,623.

But then, we’re still in week one, also known as the easy week…

The novel is called (for now) Sufficiently Advanced, which is a reference to an Arthur C. Clarke quote: “Any sufficiently advanced form of technology is indistinguishable from magic.”  It’s a subject I’ve broached before on this blog.

Here’s the synopsis I wrote for the novel info page:

The Dulcimer Colony was an experiment in reunification.  Crewed by political dissidents fleeing the newly reorganized planet Earth, they were sent into deep space to try to create a productive life together.  Or so they were told.

Now, a distress signal has been received, sent by one of the artificial intelligence constructs who were the colonists’ stewards.  The deep-space rescue team dispatched to investigate doesn’t know what to expect when they arrive on Dulcimer, and things are quickly revealed to be even stranger than they could have guessed:  Someone or something has altered the colonists’ memories.

The team finds themselves surrounded by a primitive society who believe that their ancestors brought them to this world on a great Ark.  What’s more, they have come to worship the increasingly-malfunctioning artificial intelligence stewards as gods.  

In order to help the colonists, the rescue team will have to expose the dark truth at the heart of the expedition, a secret that others might kill to protect.

Stay tuned for more updates, and maybe even an excerpt or two.  Or twenty.

Thank you for reading.  More to follow.