Skylark in the Fog – Book Excerpt

Welcome friend! Today, I am excited to chat with Helyna L. Clove, author of Skylark in the Fog, a scifi space opera that is on my TBR. Let’s welcome Helyna and learn about the book.

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Get to know the author: Helyna L. Clove

Hi Helyna! Welcome to Armed with A Book. Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!

Hi! Thanks so much for having me here! I’m Helyna L. Clove, a science-fiction/fantasy writer orginally from Hungary. I’ve been living in Wales for a year now along with my partner and Puddle, the tortoiseshell cat, the cutest tyrant that ever was. My day job is astrophysicist; I research all things that is connected to the birth of stars in our galaxy (and sometimes even beyond). When not writing, commandeering radio telescopes or staring at pretty spectra on my computer, you can find me playing video games, cooking, cross-stitching, or reading. Skylark in the Fog is my debut novel, a space opera I held in my heart (and in several-dozen files) for a long time before releasing it into the world.

What inspired you to write this book?

It’s been more than ten years that the idea for Skylark got stuck in my head. The direct inspiration was, interestingly enough, the cover of Dead Reckoning, an album by English prog metal band Threshold. Yes, the first draft of the book involved zeppelins! Apart from that, my obsession with Star Wars and the books of Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke definitely left their mark on my ideas. Half the storyline in the first section of the book was also originally supposed to be part of some planned, grand epic fantasy. I’ll let you all figure out which parts!

How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?

I started writing the book for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) 2012; before that, I only had half a page of incoherent “what if”-s for it, probably from around 2009-2010. The last editing session happened in the fall and winter of 2021 and I received the proofread version from my editor in the March of 2022. So, you know. A good amount of time! I think I’m a bit faster now, though.

What makes your story unique?

The best answer to this is probably the personal stuff I included in it. Sure, I’m proud of the sci-fi setting and I think I managed to convey a living-breathing future universe where some parts are just par for the course for your usual space opera galaxy, but some parts are kinda cool and particular to my world. I’m also proud of how much I evolved style-wise: being an ESL-speaker and writing in English is hard! But what’s really unique, I think, are the characters and the journeys they go through. All of them struggle with lots of baggage and trauma, or at least unfinished business, and I gave them a lot of my own battles, losses, and wins trying to find my place in this world. They’ve got all my darkness and light and while carrying them with me for years, trying to do them justice, I grew beside them and dealt with a lot of my own stuff as well. That must count for something, and I really hope it will resonate with my readers.

Who would enjoy reading your book? 

You’ll like it if you enjoy getting immersed in expansive, only slightly scientifically-described worlds (I never go full hard sci-fi but traces of it probably slip through) populated by a colorful medley of characters and factions. You’ll also like it, hopefully, if you enjoy reading about characters going through lots of Plot and external conflicts (shootouts, brawls, escapes, plans going horribly wrong) but inner ones too (dealing with childhood stuff, parental conflicts, loss, mental health issues like anxiety or PTSD). Or if you just want to see some BFFs (the platonic relationships rule the book) adventuring through deep space and getting their asses kicked.

What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?

Hope. For the future, for themselves, even when everything seems rotten. A tiny beam of light in this big empty thing we’re all in together.

Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?

There are a few! Without going into full spoiler territory, there is a scene in the middle of the book with one of the main characters coming to terms with stuff she’s been ignoring and lying to herself about for a long time. She starts from the deepest deep, mentally, and begrudgingly talks it out with some new-found friends, and I love that conversation from beginning to the end.

Another good candidate is towards the end where our wayward group is on a sort of time limit and it’s intense, the pace fast, the scenery quickly changing from one section to the next, but it still manages to capture small character moments I am just so happy I was able to write in.

Regarding quotes, there’s one that always makes me laugh. In the middle of an emotional scene about hope and human connection:

“We always reach for the closest light,” Jeane said, her stare fixed on something invisible. “That’s what Hollis said. And I was like, what are we, plants? Old fool.”

What is something you have learned on your author journey so far?

The biggest thing is that yes, I can indeed finish a book. I can write one! I don’t only have ideas and no perseverance to finish. The second thing is, writing is a lonely endeavour, but seeking and finding community around it is essential. Not just for commiserating and feedback, but to speak to other writers, hear about other journeys and experiences, get out of my own head a little bit. It changed everything for me.

If you could give a shout out to someone(s) who has helped in your writer journey, please feel free to mention them below!

There are so many! You’d better read the Acknowledgements section in Skylark, but just to highlight the most important ones: my sister (also writer) who got me into NaNoWriMo, the old ghosts of Wattpad with their invaluable feedback and all my smaller writing communities all around the internet for existing and being awesome; Sean Browning and Dave and Jessie Schmoekel from Story Well Publishing for helping me hold a real life book of mine in my hands; Charlie Knight, the best editor in the world; and Harkalé Linai, the best cover artist in the world.

Where can readers find you on the Internet?

• helynalclove.com – my website, slightly out of date but I’m working on it
• X / Twitter & Bluesky – I’m most active in these places day to day
• Ko-fi with free chapters and extra stories: https://ko-fi.com/helynalclove
• Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/22473650.Helyna_L_Clove

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Book Excerpt from
Skylark in the Fog

Context: The crew of the Skylark—Jeane, Kliks, and ALU—exchanges some first words, worldbuilding and banter, with the two refugees they’ve just accidentally saved from a warring planet, Sofia—a.k.a. Queen Maura Tholis incognito, and Damian, her bodyguard. They’re on their way to a safe planet to reach out to a contact of the Skylark-crew.

They took the long way to Duplex. Leaving the binary system, Jeane crossed a lane only to come right back and choose another one. A few systems later, they did the same thing, then coasted about inside a dust cloud with a peculiarly strong magnetic field to cover up their engine signatures. As they turned towards their destination, they avoided the larger hubs and, of course, kept the manipulator turned off the whole time.

Duplex wasn’t an openly lanehunter-friendly world, but it didn’t belong to the Union either. Agents left it alone because controlling it was more hassle than worth; there was nothing to conquer there except wilting lands and dirty towns. And the Window.

“What is this?” a voice spoke behind Jeane as she verified the computer’s calculations and set the Skylark onto a descending trajectory around the planet. Glancing back, she saw Sofia standing in the door, looking at the view on the front screen, wide-eyed.

“This is Duplex,” Kliks answered before Jeane could yell at the woman for leaving the living area when she’d specifically told her not to wander around on the ship.

The Miyozan stepped closer to stand between her and Kliks, keeping her eyes on the strange world in front of them. “But what happened to it?”

“Nothing. Or rather, the same thing that happened to everything else.”

“It’s like it was mirrored.”

Kliks nodded. “All thanks to the crack. Those are two different worlds in two different regions in space.”

Duplex looked like a planet that grew a weird lump, which was also a planet. The one on the far side appeared only in part, a portion of its green-gray disk cut off by the image of space, its surface peeking through a moon-sized triangular hole at the plane of intersection. A nebulous blue glow blanketed the sight of that second world which disappeared when the eye focused on it.

“Conjoined twin planets,” Sofia murmured. The curious glow in her eyes made her face look alert and alive for the first time since Jeane had met her.

As they descended into the atmosphere, the surface of Duplex-1 spread out under them with black blotches of towns spattered in between sallow fields, the populated areas growing in size closer to the Window. And when the eye wandered toward the other side, the scene tilted in a dizzying way. The horizon curved more and was weirdly inclined, the ground dark, the vegetation lusher.

“If we approached the Window from the other direction, you wouldn’t see anything. A planet like any other,” Jeane said. Watching Sofia’s fascinated expression, her anger evaporated. That did annoy her too, but memories of her first visit on Duplex beckoned at the edges of her attention—it wasn’t only Kliks who loved this place. “From here, though, you can travel to the other side.”

“How can something like this exist?” Sofia marveled.

“How can a lane exist?” Kliks answered. Sofia stared at him with interest, so he went on. “The Window co-moves with these planets, both here and there, like the lanes with the solar systems they’re born in. The intersection is more or less stable, but things turn bottom-up quite frequently around these parts.”

“Does this happen a lot? Windows like this?”

“Not exactly. Cracks, sure. They pop up on stars more often than planets, though, and those things will blow up on you real fast. The material can’t stabilize, and when the star’s gone, you’ll get a big ol’ crack in the middle of empty space again.” Jeane peered at the girl. “You honestly haven’t seen stuff like this before?”

Sofia shook her head. “I saw films, but it’s not the same. I didn’t travel much because of the war.”

“War, huh?” Jeane grunted. “There’s nothing else you people can spend your precious time on?”

“Like grave-robbing and pillaging?”

The three of them turned around at the same time. Damian stood in the entrance, leaning against the frame with one hand. His face was a healthier color, but he was bent over, exhaustion radiating from his body. The bandages Kliks had applied to his arm and broad chest had started to come off in loops.

“You were not supposed to get up yet!” Sofia exclaimed. Damian glanced at her, but his eyes went back to Jeane and Kliks.

Jeane stood, staring him up and down. “Ah, so you’re one of those guys.”

“I call what we do salvaging,” Kliks said with a pedantic expression. He rose from his seat as well and sized the man’s bandages up, reproachful. “And Sofia is right. You shouldn’t be walking around yet.”

Damian’s drained face twitched, looking at the Talalan. He moved toward Sofia as if wanting to shield her. “And who are you supposed to be?”

“He’s Kliks, my partner.” Jeane took a step forward, placing her hands on her hips while brushing the gun holstered on her belt. Damian was barely conscious during their escape, and there hadn’t been much time for introductions on Miyoza, but his hostility was alarming. He must have put two and two together about what kind of ship he’d boarded and was clearly not satisfied. “He’s also the one who healed you up, so I recommend a friendlier tone.”

“It’s true.” Sofia placed a placating hand on her friend’s arm. “They saved us both.”

Damian turned to her. “Did the others make it? Where’s Nasir?”

Sofia hesitated, and her companion clenched his jaw.

“Your friend stayed behind,” Kliks said. “He’s the reason we’re alive.”

No one spoke for a few seconds. Sofia’s fingers gripped Damian’s arm in an imploring way. His square jaw tensed, his face stony as he seemed to swallow with difficulty.

“Where’s my gun?” he asked in between deep breaths.

Jeane fought off the sympathy stirring up in her at the man’s subdued grief and shrugged. “I stashed it. When we’re done here, you can have it back, and the less trouble you make, the sooner that will happen. I’m not ecstatic that you’re stuck on my ship either. I usually don’t do human cargo—”

“—or ever,” Kliks cut in. “You never do human cargo.”

“And this was definitely not what I expected.”

“What did you expect?” Damian asked. His tone was calmer now, but Jeane felt his piercing gaze stabbing through her skin, taking apart her every word and move.

“Not important,” she snapped. “We’ll do a short detour. You stay on your backsides on the ship, and I’ll solve the problem.”

“They’re going to talk to Nasir’s contact at the Net,” Sofia added. She was clearly taken aback by her companion’s heated reaction.

“We’re going with you,” Damian told Jeane.

“No, you are not.”

“Then you’ll have to shoot me.”

Jeane inhaled slowly. Her glance wandered to the front screen, getting lost in the view of the fields and forests of Duplex. And who the hells is going to pay me for all this?

«No one, kid. No one.»

She exhaled. “I don’t give a damn. Just don’t get in my way, or I might take you up on that.”

She sat back, turning her attention to the screens, and a few moments later, the door clicked shut as both Miyozans exited.

“Exhibit A of why I don’t do human cargo,” she groaned. “Too much fucking trouble.”

***

Blackbones looked the same up close as it had from above: a muddy town with low-roofed buildings made of dark wood and dirt roads plagued by deep potholes. Rain poured from the murky yellow clouds, and the streets were deserted despite the noon hour. In these parts, it was almost always raining, especially at this time in the local seasonal cycle, and the closeness of the Window could mess up the weather even more. Duplex was a disaster zone, one of the more popular holiday spots for lane researchers, but only those who didn’t care much about anything chose it as a permanent living space.

Or those who had something to hide. Like good old Wallace. Him, his paranoia, and all the unique equipment he’d stolen from the Union found a fitting shelter on this gods-forsaken planet.

“Where are we going exactly?” Sofia called over the roar of the rain as they waded through the sludge on one of the town’s main streets. Both the Miyozans had come with them, but Jeane had left ALU on the Skylark as usual.

Kliks wiped the water off his forehead and fixed the hood of his raincoat. “We’re visiting a friend who can communicate through lanes.”

“Is that such a rare thing to do?”

“Somewhat. The Union has many relay stations, but you won’t find equipment like that on lanehunter ships.”

“I thought you people could steal anything you wanted,” Damian said.

Jeane huffed. Her boots separated from the mud with an uncomfortable squelch every step. If she could steal anything she wanted, wouldn’t she have better rain gear?

“Most things we find are broken, or we have no idea how they work or how much they’re worth,” she answered. Why was she even humoring him? “If it’s something valuable, we’re usually only the couriers, not the buyers. Sure, there’s the occasional smuggling from the Union which has its charms, but it’s unhealthy in large doses.”

“Then why are you doing it?”

“Because adventure is my lifeblood, that’s why.”

She wished Damian would keep his trap shut. Since he’d gotten back on his feet, he kept scrutinizing and twisting her words like it was the only fun he had left in this world. Jeane suspected he was way out of his element and had no idea what to do now that they’d escaped the war, so he was compensating with a weird territorial game of bullshit, but that didn’t make him less annoying. If Nasir had any specific plans, he must have not shared them before he’d decided to blow himself up. But that was hardly her fault.

Sofia—or Maura, if Kliks was right—was more difficult to read. A suffocating sadness saturated everything she said and did, and she seemed to be just as adrift as her friend. But something drove her forward, and she seemed to hold onto it like a drowning man to the last planks of a sinking ship. Whether it was responsibility, guilt, or stubbornness, Jeane wasn’t sure, but any of those could yield some exquisitely torturous experiences if one tried hard enough.

“Either way, anything is in better hands with us than the Union,” Kliks spoke up.

“Let’s admit that bar is very low,” Damian said.

Jeane turned at a corner and heard the rest of them scramble to keep up with the unannounced change in direction. The rain poured down on them ruthlessly, and the cold wind crept under her leather jacket. She shuddered. Damn planets.

“If you’re so interested, you can try it out,” she said. “The world is your oyster. Be a lanehunter! You’ll quit soon enough. Most people like to be comfortable, even if they need to compromise. Ask the Union.”

“No, you’re right. Traveling around aimlessly and gloating about it doesn’t seem such an attractive life to me.”

Jeane spun around, and Damian halted, expectant. Sofia called out to them to stop, but in the end, the only thing that kept Jeane from jumping at the man was Kliks’ hand gripping her elbow.

“I believe we have arrived,” the Talalan said. A tall building loomed to their right through the curtain of falling water, an orange-flamed lantern flickering above its front door.

Jeane pulled her arm away from Kliks’ clutches, took a deep breath, and turned to the Miyozans. “Keep your mouths zipped. Wal doesn’t like strangers.”

Sofia and Damian nodded, the woman somewhat intimidated, the man sulky. Jeane grabbed the handle and pushed the door in.

“What are you talking about?” Kliks whispered. “Wal is friendly to everyone.”

“Well, at least they’ll shut up.”

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Interested?

Find Skylark in the Fog on Goodreads, Storygraph, IndieStoryGeek, Amazon . Thanks for taking the time to join us for this interview!

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