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I like it and I read/ review across genres for over a decade. I want to read more

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Thanks so much Andrea. That's an impressive career! I've technically been writing 26 years now, if we imagine I was writing solidly since that sci-fantasy poem I wrote when I was five.

I'm really pleased with Earthloop thus far. In fact I am glad the funding didn't work out last year because in this extra year of quiet development, I've been able to work out the knots in a more meditative way. It's a beast of a trilogy now. This first scene is also a final scene in a way, and it was an enjoyable challenge getting all the key themes into that singular passage.

I had to know how book 3 ends to write the first part of book 1.

Would you like a free trial of the paid side of this Substack? More Earthloop, sometimes a bit of comedy. I won't be offended if not.

- Phillip

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more is now on the way!

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I liked the story, with it's dark ending, although I was a bit puzzled by the last exchanges. "which one are you" and the monkey reference. I re-read everything to see if I missed some important clue. I like the mystery but I felt a bit left out all the same.

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That's a good thing, from my perspective. The 'which one are you?' line is cleared up later in the trilogy when it becomes apparent Lax has looped back through time on at least one occassion, so she's asking if it's his first time round, if he's Lax1 or Lax2. I could have just had "Are you Lax1 or 2?" as dialogue but I felt it was a bit heavy on exposition for this first scene. The next scene is an alien abduction and some talk of time travel, so it comes together.

It's a central plot to the trilogy as well so will come up in marketing materials. Each of the three books follows Lax at a different age, each time trying to loop back yet again to fix things.

I like the monkey bit too. I'm a big fan of Fixer. Going to be buying a giant corkboard soon so I can get ahead with the plotting.

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