Started a thing over on Substack. It's a work in progress but thought it might be a good time to monetize my weekly writings and give you, the readers more content! Have a look, there's a free option also. As always I appreciate your support!

There it is, another award for The Sequence! A Silver Medal for Suspense/Thrillers in the 2023 Annual IPPY Awards! Work continues on the sequel, and while I intend to maintain this website, I have also moved over to Bluesky and will be stepping back from twitter. Not entirely but I see my fave authors heading that way, so that road seems well populated with my people. You can find me there at @lucientelford.bsky.social 
I'm also trying my hand at Substack which is a paid service, where I shall endeavour to provide serialized fiction and backstory for this quadrilogy I began with The Sequence.

Quick review here I recently read and feel that the reviewer nailed what I was hoping to achieve with this book.

"A combination of the old school sci-fi classics that fans grew up on and a new story never seen in the genre before. The Sequence follows three POVS Dr. Kit McKee, Dallas Ward, and Detective Woo. We read as their individual stories develop until they all eventually connect with each other in an exciting climax. Telford does an excellent job of crafting each character and making them feel well-rounded. As a reader, you will enjoy your time reading from their perspectives and learning how each of their stories connects to the larger plot.

An unexpected, but possibly my favorite part of the story was the focus on the ethics of biogenetics. The character of Dr. Kit McKee allows Telford to explore the moral dilemma of altering the genomes of the human species. The reality Telford presents in The Sequence where the process of altering human genomes is normalized is terrifying. It's where most of the horror lies in the book. The Sequence will have you weighing your conscience regarding biogenetics while still having you be on the edge of your seat with the twists and turns the book takes.

The Sequence is the fast-paced and page-turning sci-fi novel fans of the genre have been waiting for. Telford has built a universe where the setting, characters, and plot feel so well realized and lived in. By the time you finish reading the book, you will be hoping for a sequel. There are so many stories left to be told from this universe if it does become a series. A series that dives deeper into the world of Kit, Dallas, and Detective Woo, could potentially make for a new classic sci-fi trilogy if comes to fruition. Here's hoping we get it."
– Dominique Davis

Meet the newest Telford family member. He arrived by emergency C-section April 24th. Both Mum and he are doing great, and I'm pulling night shifts so his Mum can heal. Been quite a ride to finally meet him, and I hear it's just the beginning :)
I have become that father with a million photos of his child, but he's just so cute I can't help myself.
Writing has taken a small pause while we adjust to being a household of three.

Oh man.
Baby Telford is due tomorrow, although I am advised by my female colleagues who are mothers, that first babies, and specifically male first babies are always late. My mother-in-law, who may be the funniest person I know, next of course to my wife (her daughter - of which there can be no doubt), made a racial joke, of which she is a member, that I cannot repeat in print. Rest assured, she thinks the boy will be late and we can leave it at that.

What about the work?

It continues. Impeded at times by aviating, family care, and the occasional game of hockey, or time spent skiing. Both seasons of which are approaching their ends.

Some samples? Two completely different scenes, from two different characters, describing an onlookers interpretation of augmented reality glasses, from the outside.

Woo
"High intensity beams of Hong Kong Police Department light sliced through the evening's South Asian sub-tropical mist, illuminating the swirling humidity with the burning blue tint of hot tungsten. Fong's bot hovered above, cataloguing the victims, his gaze defocussing into the night's darkness from behind department-issued glassware, his iris's glittering with pastel neons, refracting the lens' projected holographic light."

Orlando
"Optic flickers twinkled like summer fireflies, dancing all around her. Ascending crystalline digital artifacts that spun into helical tornadoes, mirrored reflections of fibre-light in the data stream's projected holoflow of data. Orlando woke into that unsteady moment between dream-state and conscious thought..."

So it's just a rough mockup, using an image I have yet to pay for, using no AI whatsoever. But I'll take any commentary either here or via a direct email which you can find on my contact page. Progress continues to be made on the finale, albeit at a much slower pace than I had thought I was capable of.
But for the record this book is going to BLOW YOUR MIND.

Much love,
Lucien

I've been bummed since being cut from the #spsfc2 (Self-Published Science Fiction Competition) but while studying for work I dropped in on Amazon to do some shopping and found The Sequence at #37 in Genetic Engineering Science Fiction - On the Bestseller list! And 37000 over all is a big jump from my usual bounce between the 300k-500k mark.

​Recently I've submitted a 250 word micro-fiction story to @NYCMidnight. First romance I've ever attempted and while trying to fit an entire story into 250 words is a challenge, fitting a romance within that restriction was...brutal!
But judging my last official review, I need to add some love to my novels. So watch for that. As always, I continue to write the sequel to The Sequence, hoping to have a completed draft before the end of 2022.
Cheers for now,
Lucien

Revisiting Covid all over again.

​​Was a fun day when my pregnant wife sent me a text from the bedroom of a photo of a positive covid test. We’d attended a wedding three days prior, one of my wife’s friends apparently brought a viral hitchhiker along for the celebration.
I remained in denial.
The entire day and night was spent outdoors, we weren’t allowed inside the house. There were porta-potties. In any case we became infected, brought the pathogen home. It lived in my house now, and there is no escaping the contagious spread of SARS 2.0 it would seem.
I slept in the crawlspace to try to avoid it. Held my breath while bringing my wife food. None of which worked, and I refused to leave her.
I will not, leave, my wing-woman. Or wear a mask, as it were.
So I’m on the other end now, still a bit snotty, still sleeping twelve hours a day, but I feel like this is the last day. I have self decreed that I will no longer succumb to this bullshit disease. Looking forward to getting some writing done next week. Covid booster here we come…
Meanwhile…
It’s the Whistler Writers Festival starting tomorrow and I’ve got a couple of events booked. Workshop #3 - Preparing to Promote, which I’m excited for, as I genuinely don’t know how to effectively promote myself and my work, and Reading #1, where we get to meet some fellow independent authors. #Indieauthors!

OH! And here's a little snippet from the sequel I'm working on.

     She opened the box, extracted her new glassware. Nokia frames, glossy, the colour of aged ivory licked with a faint patina and curved like bone, no straight lines. She jacked the supplied holomem, booted code, installed the cipher and got to the business of beginning.