What inspired my Sci-Fi Novel Stuck Over Heaven

I've talked a little bit about the craziness that was the creation of my Sci-fi Novel, Stuck Over Heaven. But I've never really talked about it as a whole. With the book going up for pre-order today, it felt like a great time to do that now.

Dispair to Sci-fi dreams

Back in November 2020, I was sitting at DragonSteel Nexus, wondering what my writing career was going to look like. My publisher had just officially collapsed due to business complications from Covid and my first two books had flopped. To make things worse, I was suffering from some severe medical complications that would likely kill me if a miracle didn't happen.

That conference proved to be the pivotal moment in my writing career, where little comments from people I held in high esteem. It even pushed me to write Sci-fi. I've talked about a few of them in other blog posts, on panels, or in reviews, but this one hasn't been detailed before.

As I sat waiting for the next writing class to start, only four people sat waiting as the panelists (Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, and Janci Patterson) came in early and started talking to us. This conversation led to some basic advice that shaped me and this story. In short, writing short stories helps improve writing faster than any other way possible, and submitting that story to contests helps you discover where you stand as an author long before novel reviews will.

This drove me to write "Salvaging Heaven", a Sci-fi Novella that takes place in the early history of the world that becomes the Over Cities of Yvy. Later advice from Brandon also told me to limit "Write what you know" to little pieces of my life that build the foundation of me. So this is exactly what I did.

The Story is Born

Just 3 months later, I'd managed to go through life-saving surgery, and "Salvaging Heaven" was a Writers of the Future Honorable Mention. I found that I was a good writer and my books hadn't been my fault. When I took over the publishing and marketing of those books, I managed to drive readers to them, and I was quickly becoming a recognized author.

I had to take this opportunity and run with it, but I wasn't done with Yvy. So as I continued to write and publish books and short stories, I wrote and edited another book in secret. That book was "Stuck Over Heaven". This passion project has been so worth the effort and changes!

For this, I wrote a Science Fiction Thriller about a grizzled veteran who decides to take on the gang-controlled Over Cities to hunt down the people who murdered his pregnant wife. He does this by becoming a vigilante by night and a restaurant owner by day. All while taking care of two exciled goddesses and concealing his tech-based magic.

For the next several years, I wrote this story in between other books. Sometimes I used it to keep me sane while I edited. But throughout all of this, I tried to keep refining it and making it as good as I could. So for me to be able to finally share this with the world is so exciting.

This story has been through the hands of 4 publishers, not counting me. I had reasons for walking away from each of them and I still wish it would have worked out with a few. But today we've finally crossed the finish line on this one.

It's now available for you to pre-order this Sci-Fi novel on this website www.tylertarter.com or other places where books are sold!