What's "The Fractured Galaxy?"

 One of my ambitions as a younger writer had always been to write official Star Wars novels. Having been a fan of the franchise since I was a little boy, Star Wars had always held a place in my heart. But as I grew older and saw what Disney was doing to the franchise that meant so much to me, I decided to do like George Lucas (personal idol of mine) and just make my own Space Opera. Thus was born the book I'd later come to call The Fractured Galaxy.

My desire to write my own Space Opera was born after reading some excerpts from Chuck Wendig's Aftermath series, a book series that purports to call itself the direct sequel to the original Star Wars Trilogy. As I read the excerpts, my eyes popped out of my head, my jaw hit the floor, and I thought to myself "someone got paid for writing THIS!?" And of course, we got the inevitable "I can do better!"

My first attempt at making a Space Opera was, of course, with a Star Wars fanfic. It was NaNoWriMo 2018 when I first got started, and in fact that fanfic was going to be my NaNo project. I managed to write twenty three chapters, totaling twenty eight thousand words, before finally calling it quits. I tried, I really did. Burnout is a pain.

But if I'm honest, the fanfic was a bit lacking in action. And of course I mean action as in things like shootouts, lightsaber duels, and daring feats. There was drama, of course, and character development. But it's simply not a Space Opera without some good action. 

So I dedicated myself to learning the craft of writing action scenes. After some years of learning and practicing, I decided to FINALLY put pen to paper and write that goddamned Space Opera I've wanted to write for so long.

My plot was very simple: a bounty hunter and a girl escape some criminals across the Galaxy. On their journey, they meet an old mystic who teaches the bounty hunter special powers. There are many fights, many daring feats, and in the end, the good guys win.

When I first came up with this story, I had it dubbed "Bounty Hunter Story" as a placeholder title. I knew I wanted this Space Opera to have something with "Star" in its title, like its biggest influences: Star Wars, Star Ocean, and Outlaw Star. By the time I had begun writing chapter 20, I chose the name: Astromance.

I personally thought the name was pretty cool, and thus I named the book, and subsequently the whole series, "Astromance." Once I finished the book, however, an idea came to me: it needed a subtitle to differentiate it from the rest of the series. But what?

That's when I decided to recycle an idea I had for a fanfic. I had wanted to write ANOTHER Star Wars fanfic, titled Star Wars: The Fractured Galaxy. I had written three chapters for it before losing interest, but the name stuck with me. So, I gave that subtitle to my Astromance book, and thus it was named Astromance: The Fractured Galaxy.

After the editing was done, I uploaded the whole book to Inkitt, with stars in my eyes. But a few weeks later, I made a horrible discovery: the name Astromance was already taken! I was so frustrated! So, I chose to just lose the Astromance part and keep the subtitle as the book's full title. Thus was finally born The Fractured Galaxy!

I'm quite excited for this series, and the next book has already been planned and plotted! Look forward to The Burning Galaxy coming to Inkitt circa January 2023!