B is for Black Monday #atozchallenge

Black Monday is one my series’ that I wrote, starting in 2004. It span off into Salvagers and some other books, but at it’s core, it was the first place – ever – I found and created Farran.
It’s a book though I can’t really talk about right now. Mostly because it’s a bit hard to write about the Apocalypse when you kinda feel like you’re loving through it in some ways (see A for Almost, or A for Are we there yet?)

Talking about why the earth still ends…

I gotta be honest, the core premise for Black Monday is an actual explosion on Earth that wiped it out…entirely.
So. One of the major things that I discovered, is that I didn’t want to write about it when I was worrying about Tom and his kidney surgery. Then…well, the world did kinda go into various versions of lockdown.

It’s been tiring and scary the last few months especially, so I thought I’d ease back into Black Monday and talk about the Captain and 2IC.

Captain Gedren and Lt Farran

One of the main character pairings in Black Monday is Gedren and Farran. Gedren is the Captain of the Grey Shadow, which is one of the five ships in the colony group. That colony group was originally set to inhabit a new part of the universe, knowing they could come home. So when the earth is destroyed, as they leave, the reactions of Gedren and Farran are almost polar opposite.

Gedren is more than a little over the top in his reactions, and basically becomes the worst of whatever he had been before he and the ship left. Slightly controlling before, he becomes a despot, and creates the beginning of the flotilla split. the worst of his character flaws lead to the destruction of not only the earth but one of the landing sites for the original flotilla, and sets up book 2 of the series, though as both the destruction of the Earth and the original flotilla spot is discussed in flashback, it’s not too much of a spoiler :).

Farran, on the other hand, basically ends up convicted of the destruction of earth, and becomes less cocky and sure of himself. Before where he was a fine, if flawed second in command, he becomes someone that needs to make things right. Farran’s story ends in the middle of Black Monday, as he’s placed is Stasis, and is picked up again in Salvagers.

I guess Black Monday will be back on the docket soon – we do have a cover for it after all, but it’s still a story I’m struggling with. Ending an earth that had a near miss isn’t really something I’d like to do right now.