Allison Zero is turning out a little longer than I expected. Maybe 35/40%-ish extra to get to the point Part 12 makes it now, at least according to standard sci-fi novel word counts. Although I have added some elements that should make the later parts of the novel more accessible, as well as to answer the primary medical transition questions — which I decided not to hold back on quite as much. Part 12 is, though, a significant turning point, something I’ll deal with later in this blog. I also really, really enjoyed writing this part; it answered questions I was posing myself earlier, while writing and plotting, in how such things would be addressed, and it became obvious seeing it finally on paper. Finding answers and enjoyment in two citizens and two voters interacting in a sort of social setting, as equals. That’s been something I’ve wanted for a while, although the effect wasn’t quite anticipated for this scene.

The end point of the book is still exactly the same, and anything earth shatteringly new (or station shattering) I’ve learned as I write could be fleshed out in further books. If I see the point of writing them. Book 1 will be 100% self-contained and it’s not going to be anything like the typical sci-fi standard of telling a story over trilogies, or longer. (In fact the ‘Book 1’ part was just taking some advice about the titling of stories from somewhere on the site in case I do more, to save myself hassle down the line.) Any further stories would be about adding something rather than answering a major storyline problem created in the first book. You could already be asking some of those smaller questions, and they might not be explicitly answered in Book 1, but any theories or head-canon, for now, are fine in answering (if they’re not answered once the book is finished.) They are not, and were never supposed to be, the focus of this book.

With Part 12 of Allison — this point we’re at now — we’ve reached the endpoint of Allison’s medical transition, at least as far as her expectations for the future go. She hasn’t been through very much of it, in a lived, experiential sense, but she knows where the medicine will take her, at least in theory; there almost certainly will be more about the medical side but for someone who was ‘a man’ a week prior in the story she’s been told she’s getting almost everything she could hope for. This does not mean it’s the end of her transition, just that she sees what the end of it is, medically, to a large degree. Her social transition will definitely be something she continues to experience — including in light of the grander sci-fi story — and her legal transition was pretty much finalised in Part 2, with the court ruling on a challenge to her ID right at the start of the story. Her understanding of her role and her situation on the station will continue to drive things, and her role and the societal story of the station is very much at the heart of the novel.

This is all to give readers some idea of where the story is, and where it’s going. I’m conscious that posting part by part is not typical for how people read novels. And the way I’m writing it isn’t typical for anywhere but sites like this. I’ve had a mention that reading the entire thing in a binge, or in my view like a standard novel, is something a reader thinks she’ll appreciate when the story is done. I think it’ll work very well that way. However, I write this blog because no-one has the opportunity to experience the story that way, yet. There are no reviews to give you an overview of the totality of the book, and there’s no-one for you to ask questions of as someone who’s read it all already and can say, “Keep reading!” with a sly, knowing look (bar me, who shouldn’t really count.) I really do appreciate all this, the loyal readers, as an author. So I wanted to write a little update at the point some elements of the story are shaking up a little, the societal aspects I mentioned, with some things being addressed and other things entering, or opening. You’ll know and understand if you’ve read to Part 12 of Allison Zero, which is very much addressing a broader point about the dynamics aboard the station, i.e. the splits in society between voters and citizens, and among citizens between men and women. Elements I raised right at the beginning of the story. Essentially it is the book, with a trans woman exploring these divides.