Crafting the Celestial Saga: Halls of the Ever Star

Welcome to this entry of Crafting the Celestial Saga where I give you a behind-the-scenes look at the series. This entry is all about chapter two of Dawn of the Seekers, Halls of the Ever Star. I am someone who hates spoilers so I would like to warn you that spoilers for Dawn of the Seekers follow. If you have not finished reading Dawn of the Seekers, or plan on reading it in the future, you may want to avoid reading Crafting the Celestial Saga until you do.

In chapter two, things slow down just a little bit. Nova Team has returned from rescuing Senator Robert Hensley from the Kaltari Empire, and we learn a little bit about the team. There aren’t many changes to the story overall here compared to the second draft because this chapter was not originally in the second draft. A very small portion of it was included after the events at the Kaltari weapons facility. Despite how much I wanted to include this chapter, there is a reason I did not include it in the second draft, and this is why.

- Section One: Originally planned as a video game -

The Celestial Saga was originally planned as a videogame. Specifically, a first-person shooter. When I look at any FPS that I have played in the past, a lot of times the cutscenes aren’t very long and you don’t get many romantic moments in those cutscenes. At least out of the ones that I have played, and I have honestly stopped playing them if it’s just run and gun and no story. I’m sure there are examples that can be found that feature cutscenes on the longer side and lean more on the character side of things versus the action side. Two examples that come to mind are Halo and Titanfall 2. Halo has done a great job of furthering the story as the series progressed and has started to explore the human side of the Master Chief. Titanfall 2 has one of the greatest campaigns in any first-person shooter I have played. These are examples of FPS games that have a good amount of character development and action. However, knowing that most FPS games stick more to the action side, I kept that in mind when developing the second draft which was in script format to keep an FPS player entertained. This unfortunately meant I originally kept a lot of scenes I wanted to include on the cutting room floor.

As I had mentioned in the previous entry, exploring the characters is the heart and soul of the Celestial Saga. When I was looking at things from a game perspective, I had to make sure everything was heavy on the action and low on some of the more relaxed moments. It was important to me to have a character driven chapter here that specifically showcases the relationship between Ethan Richards and Jennifer Anderson. In the script I had a short conversation between the two and later on had a line pointing out that Jennifer and Ethan were together. Once I started writing the book, having a chapter like this became possible.

When I was in the mindset of making it a game, a scene like this wouldn’t have been possible. It would have taken away from the action of an FPS and I figured it wouldn’t have kept the attention of the players. Once I turned the story into a book, I got to keep this like I had always wanted, and I was very happy about that. This is why it’s my favorite chapter of the book! I also ended up taking it a step further later on in the writing process and included some backstory on the characters of Nova Team as a whole. I realized that I had the opportunity to do that here and it didn’t fit in casually with other chapters in the book as well as it did for this one.

Being able to have a chapter like this where we take a moment to step back and see who the characters are, what they like to do, and who is important in their lives is important not only for learning about who the characters are, but it also makes more sense on how they react to things going on with other characters throughout the book and in the future of the series. Not to mention since this is the first book in the Celestial Saga, I needed a space to give the characters a more personal introduction.

- Section Two: Ethan Richards -

While I treat Nova Team as the main characters of the story as a whole, similar to how you have the trios in each Star Wars trilogy, at the core Ethan is the main character. He leads Nova Team and I put a lot of my personality into him. One of the main things, and this is how a friend of mine linked the character to me, is my management style. I mentioned how Ethan would never ask someone else to do something he either hasn’t done in the past or wouldn’t be willing to do himself. This is a core principle of my management style and I wanted to bring it to my main character as well. He also gets my sarcastic sense of humor.

I would love to live in Washington state one day. I think it is an absolutely beautiful place, so I had Ethan live out those dreams by making him from Washington.

- Section Three: Nathan Ward –

Nathan Ward is Ethan’s best friend and someone that Ethan can always trust to tell something to him like it is. I didn’t have the best relationship with my father, and I mirrored that with Nathan not having the best relationship with his and never feeling like he was good enough in his father’s eyes. I mentioned how Nathan likes to watch movies, play games, or read a book, activities that all of Nova Team enjoys doing. This was important to add to further show how those in the special operations of the United Celestial Alliance military are just regular people.

- Section Four: Daniel Robinson -

The character of Daniel Robinson got my introverted traits. He prefers to keep to himself, and only prefers to have a small, close-knit group of friends. I also decided to make Daniel aromantic as he is not interested in a romantic relationship of any kind. Unlike Nathan, Daniel has a very good relationship with his family. He often calls home especially to talk to his younger sister who he is very close to. Now, I did give Daniel above average intelligence. He has three PhDs in electronic engineering, cybersecurity, and ship mechanics. There is a reason for this. At a young age it was discovered that Daniel had allergies to antibiotics. They almost killed him, but he was able to recover. Doctors feared that he would have some long-term negative side effects such as developmental issues. They feared it was taxing to have to fight through that as a five-year-old. Daniel had a chip on his shoulder as a result of that. He began tinkering with electronics during his recovery, developed a passion for that, and carried it with him. He always kept what the doctors had said in mind and wanted to prove them wrong. His academic feats and overall intelligence is how he did that.

- Section Five: Jamie Harper -

Jamie Harper, I made the comic relief of the team. He’s quick with a joke and those at times land him in hot water. I myself like to joke around a lot, but I also know when to get serious. This is a quality I passed onto this character where he provides the serious moment to help convince Ethan what to do later on in the book. Nova Team is Jamie’s found family. He grew up in foster care and bounced around to different families because he had high energy that the families couldn’t handle. He never felt connected to any of those families, he was accepting of his situations, but he never let any of that break who he was and stayed true to himself and his personality.

One of my favorite relationships to see with characters is a person who is heavily introverted paired with someone who is highly extroverted. I had that dynamic with Daniel and Jamie. The two are polar opposites personality wise, yet they are best friends. Jamie kept Daniel occupied when he would answer service requests around the Ever Star. Towards the end of the book, you see how Jamie’s death starts to affect Daniel and you will see how that goes further in the sequel.

- Section Six: John Banks and the rule of five -

John Banks is the newest member of Nova Team, and he doesn’t stay with the team long in the book. Just like the second draft, John will join Eagle Squadron fairly early on. Writing a book allowed me to do this more organically versus how I did it in the second draft. Keeping in mind that I initially planned this as a video game, I had a rule of five. The rule of five is that playable character teams had to consist of five characters so that you could consistently play the game by yourself or with four additional friends for a total of five. You’d also be able to use the d-pad to issue commands to the other team members if they were not being controlled by another player. Five always seemed like a fitting number to me, plus you can do the cool team photo of the leader in front with two to either side. I also just like multiples of five and you can thank Xbox achievements for that.

Chapter two of the second draft was the mission to the Kaltari weapons facility and John ended up leaving Nova Team for Eagle Squadron following that mission. Ciro Ruiz was then his replacement that was pulled from somewhere in the UCA military to fill John’s spot. I never liked doing it this way, again, this was my mindset for keeping the gameplay and game mechanics consistent. In the book, I allowed myself to break this rule of five because I was no longer limited to the rules of making a game consistent throughout. I was able to organically have John leave the team for Eagle Squadron and have Ciro follow his sense of adventure to join the team at Jumper 9. I had some fun with this later on by splitting up groups of five, adding some extras like when Julal traveled with Nova Team. Julal originally had a much smaller part in the second draft and it ended up growing when I allowed myself to not be limited by this rule.

Now back to John, I made him a skilled pilot who spends too much time with his head in the sky versus focusing on the battle on the ground. This was something that Ethan had been working on teaching him and a lesson he will learn later on. John always spent time talking to other pilots and is now getting to live out his dreams by flying with the legendary Eagle Squadron.

- Section Seven: Nova Team -

In the story I have Nova Team originally being started by Ethan, Nathan, Daniel, and Jamie. Ethan meets Daniel during officer training school and after Ethan finishes the program, he brings Nathan and Daniel to discuss joining special operations. Daniel of course brings Jamie along and the four excel through the program.

John ended up joining the team later on after Ethan catches him eavesdropping on a conversation. John filled the spot of the original fifth member of Nova Team, Tom Ferguson, who had retired. I included that part of the story to honor my friend Thomas Ferguson who left this world in July of 2022.

I wanted there to be a long history of Nova Team which you can see is evident with how long the individuals have known each other, and also how long the team had been in operation for. I do break my rule of five here a little as technically Nova Team runs as a unit of four or three for the majority of the book. John leaves and I use Ciro to fill his spot. Ciro officially joins the team later on in the book. Jennifer had always been considered a member of Nova Team which gets mentioned at one point, she finally gets to step into the team’s shoes towards the middle of the book.

I did want to keep some aspects of how college and the military works in real life. The characters did attend a four-year college and later on you see real life military concepts such as officer training school. I did change some lengths of time for the military schools as it is the future and things work a little quicker there. One thing I did was make it that special operations teams could bring on whoever they wanted once the team was formed. The initial special operations requirement is to graduate from the program and form the team. The UCA military needs to see you are capable of working as a team in dire situations. Afterwards, you can recruit to your team as you see fit. That’s how Ciro joins Nova Team in the field towards the end of the book. I also thought it would be a waste of time to have individuals or entire teams go through the program again if they were bringing someone new on.

As I had mentioned in the previous entry, Nova Team compliments each other. Ethan is a natural leader but can at times have tunnel vision for his particular viewpoint. The rest of the team helps him to see a different point of view or to provide a convincing argument to counter his initial thoughts. Nathan is there to be the muscle of the group and to serve as a backup should anything happen to Ethan. Daniel brings the tech expertise to the group which isn’t something the others are particularly skilled in. Jamie brought the charismatic energy that kept team morale up and could talk them out of a sticky situation. Later on Ciro provides the ability to get into places that other members of Nova Team would not have had as easy of a time getting into. He is also skilled in hand-to-hand combat and can consume information quickly as he did with the Kaltari ship schematics.

Jennifer is a levelheaded and well-rounded individual who brings a calming presence to the team and has a knack for getting them out of trouble. She has a line in this chapter where she says, “One of these days you’re going to get yourself into trouble and I’m going to have to get you out.” I used this to foreshadow the events at the Arashi tower where Jennifer arrives to rescue the members of Nova Team. She also has a kickass scene in the sequel which I’m not going to say anything about right now.

- Section Eight: The Ever Star –

There is also another character who is prominent throughout the book and that is the Ever Star which is the main ship of the story. You may have noticed that throughout the book, I only refer to the Ever Star as “the ship” twice and both of those occurrences happen in this chapter where I say that the Ever Star is the prettiest ship in the UCA and when I mention how the Ever Star’s designer designed the ship. This was something important to me because after all of these years of coming up with the story, I love the Ever Star and I wanted to make sure that the reader knew it wasn’t just a ship. I don’t always refer to other ships in the book by name, but I do with the Ever Star.

The Ever Star is home to Nova Team and those who are on it. Ethan mentions how he considers the Ever Star his home. I made sure to only refer to the Ever Star by name unless it just truly didn’t flow well with the sentence I was writing. Even then, I would try to restructure the sentence to mention the Ever Star by name.

When I think of the Mass Effect Trilogy, there is the Normandy. When I think about Star Trek, there is the Enterprise. If you ask a fan of one of those two franchises to name a ship, odds are those are the ones they will name. In science-fiction, a ship can truly become a character. When you’re playing Mass Effect, you care about the Normandy. When you’re watching Star Trek, you care about the Enterprise. When you’re reading the Celestial Saga, I want the reader to care about the Ever Star. That is why I treat the Ever Star the way that I do, saying the name and having the characters feel a personal connection to the Ever Star.

To characters like Nova Team and Captain Stanton, the Ever Star is more than just a ship. To me personally, the Ever Star is more than just a ship. It’s a symbol in the Celestial Saga and to many in the story. So, I hope that my writing will be evident of that and that readers will think of the Ever Star as more than just a ship. It’s home, it means something to the characters, and this is only the beginning of the Ever Star’s journey.

That will wrap things up for this entry and I hope that you will come back for the next. The characters of Jennifer Anderson and Ciro Ruiz will be discussed in a later entry when their characters get their time to shine. The next entry will be about chapter three of Celestial Saga: Dawn of the Seekers titled Ithaca. We are introduced to a new special operations team that sets off the events for the rest of the book. If you have any questions, please feel free to use my website’s contact form and I will address them in a future entry.

I do want to add one last thing to this entry. I had mentioned earlier how John was living out his dream of getting to fly with Eagle Squadron. Following your dreams is something I actively encourage. I followed mine by writing and publishing Celestial Saga: Dawn of the Seekers. It can be scary to follow your dreams, especially if they seem daunting or impossible. My favorite quote is something I think about on a daily basis and helps me get through whatever I am working on. The quote was said by Jeff Rubenstein on an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, “If you dream it, you can do it.” I live by that quote and made my dream a reality. I hope that you will too.