Novel Sale: SPACE TRUCKER JESS Coming in 2025 from Fairwood Press
SPACE TRUCKER JESS will be published Fall 2025 from Fairwood Press
And here’s the other thing I’ve been vague-blogging about: I am supremely excited to announce that my novel Space Trucker Jess will be published by Fairwood Press in the Fall of 2025!
The book takes place in my Numenverse series of connected stories. For a good background on the story, you may wish to read my short story “Now We Paint Worlds,” at Reactor (formerly Tor.com).
About Space Trucker Jess
Jessian Urania Darger is a kick-ass take-no-shit foul-mouthed too-smart-for-her-own-good sixteen-year-old girl with a chip on her shoulder. She and her daddy have been grifting their way across the verse for years. They were supposed to stop at Chadeisson Station for less than an hour. But when her daddy gets arrested for running crypto-credit scams in the gas bays, Jess is forced to get a job as a roachrunner, fixing starships to survive. She dreams of a better life away from her corrupt daddy, so she's been saving up to buy a CCM 6454 Spark Megahauler, a huge cargo ship, ever since she saw one in a printer catalog. She wants to run the long hauls, to sail alone into the black and never look back. But when her daddy goes missing from prison, Jess realizes she just can't let him go, and she makes it her life's mission to find out where he's gone. In an odyssey that takes her across the galaxy, Jess will encounter vanished planets, bizarre human societies, inscrutable alien gods, and mind-bending secrets that will change humanity's path forever.
Quick F.A.Q
Q: Is this related to the 1996 film Space Truckers with Dennis Hopper?
A: Not in any way whatsoever. (The only similarity between the two is there is space, and there are space trucks, aka cargo ships.)
Q: I noticed you used ‘verse’ as shorthand for universe and ‘the black’ as a shorthand for space. Did you take those terms from the Firefly TV show?
A: No. And those terms predate Firefly. However, I am a fan of Firefly, and I’ll take the comparison!
Q: How would you describe your book in one sentence?
A: Imagine Natasha Lyonne narrating 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Q: What is one thing about this book you are most excited for readers to discover?
A: That a gonzo fun adventure story and a profoundly moving exploration of human consciousness aren’t mutually exclusive.
That’s all for now. Can’t wait until y’all read this one!
Matt