https://wadefrancis.com/blog/ Recent content in Updates on Wade Francis | Science Fiction Author Hugo -- gohugo.io en-us Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +1000 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/book-two-draft-three-title/ Sun, 05 Apr 2026 10:00:00 +1000 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/book-two-draft-three-title/ Book Two has a title and Draft 3.0 is under review. The structural work is done. What’s left is finesse. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/when-things-work-before-elegant/ Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:00:00 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/when-things-work-before-elegant/ Draft 2.0 isn’t about elegance. It’s about getting the structure to hold so you can see what actually needs fixing. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/what-hard-scifi-means/ Sun, 08 Mar 2026 16:00:06 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/what-hard-scifi-means/ Hard sci-fi isn’t about equations or technical manuals. It’s about consequences, constraints, and what happens when you can’t cheat your way out of a problem. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/t-minus-three-days/ Sun, 08 Feb 2026 23:12:52 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/t-minus-three-days/ With Whispers in the Dark three days from release, a brief reflection on finishing the work, letting go, and what it feels like when a story is about to stop being yours alone. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/research-you-never-see/ Thu, 22 Jan 2026 07:16:17 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/research-you-never-see/ A look at the research that underpins Whispers in the Dark — and why most of it never appears on the page. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/working-on-the-next-two-books/ Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:36:31 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/working-on-the-next-two-books/ While Whispers in the Dark moves toward publication, work on Book Two is nearing version 2.0 and the high-level structure of Book Three is already in place. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/opening-paragraphs/ Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:12:49 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/opening-paragraphs/ Opening paragraphs carry an unfair amount of responsibility. This post looks at what they’re meant to promise, where refinement stops helping, and why alignment matters more than a perfect hook. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/how-many-drafts-does-a-novel-take/ Sun, 28 Dec 2025 09:01:54 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/how-many-drafts-does-a-novel-take/ Counting drafts after the fact reveals how a novel really evolves — through iteration, discarded assumptions, and structural rewrites. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/engineers-writing-fiction/ Wed, 17 Dec 2025 19:04:44 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/engineers-writing-fiction/ Do engineers approach fiction differently? A look at how systems thinking, constraints, and failure modes influence the way stories are built. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/frozen-foregone/ Thu, 11 Dec 2025 08:04:29 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/frozen-foregone/ A man chooses cryofreeze to survive his illness, only to wake decades later in a world where the rules — and the ethics — have shifted beneath him. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/my-writing-process/ Fri, 05 Dec 2025 11:15:51 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/my-writing-process/ How AI Fit Into My Writing Process (and Why the Story Is Still Mine) There’s a lot of conversation around AI and creative work right now. Some people are excited, some are cautious, and some want nothing to do with it. All of those reactions are valid. I’m not trying to sway you one way or the other—I’m aiming to be open and transparent about how I did things so you can make your own informed decision. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/whispers-update-2/ Wed, 26 Nov 2025 21:53:03 +1100 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/whispers-update-2/ When Physics Says No: The Idea That Broke My First Chapter Every author eventually kills a darling. Sometimes it’s a clunky paragraph or an unnecessary character. In my case, it was the entire opening concept. Originally, Whispers in the Dark began with an ambitious idea: an advanced telescope system capable of chaining gravitational lenses together. The goal was simple and wild — to “untangle” light bent around massive objects, reconstruct it with staggering computing power, and see further back in time than ever before. https://wadefrancis.com/blog/whispers-update-1/ Sat, 15 Nov 2025 09:00:00 +1000 https://wadefrancis.com/blog/whispers-update-1/ I’ve been keeping this one under wraps for a bit, but the concept cover for Whispers in the Dark is finally ready — and it looks incredible. Mahid, the designer I worked with, absolutely nailed the tone I was going for: cinematic, mysterious, and grounded in the kind of hard sci-fi that could almost happen. The way the city lights form subtle circuitry lines was the perfect touch. Book 1 is now going through its second round of beta reads while I polish the final manuscript.