A Roll of the Dice

MFA Fiction Alumnus Adam Kovac on His Forthcoming Novel, Haunted Space: Paradise for Extinction 

The inspiration for my latest novel, Haunted Space: Paradise for Extinction, began—literally—with a roll of the dice. A pair of six-sided dice, to be exact. It all started in the early stages of the pandemic when, like most everyone else, I was locked down at home.

To fight the boredom, I rekindled my childhood passion for tabletop role-playing games. One weekend, I started randomly generating characters—I rolled dozens—using rules for a classic science-fiction game I won’t name, selected the most interesting and thought: this bunch would make a fun crew of a spaceship.

I started thinking past the attributes generated by the dice, about personalities, backstories, how the characters would interact with each other. I’m a fan of pulp sci-fi, and for another pandemic distraction, began writing a novella set in the universe of that role-playing game.

I pitched the finished book to the license holders with no luck. There’s not a huge market for role-playing-game fiction, so I stashed the manuscript and moved on. Except Auggie, Fulch, Duval, Sidney and Harrington—that misfit crew of the merchant trader King Bat—refused to stay banished on my hard drive.

After a massive revision, stripping out all the copyrighted material, I shopped the book again as an original work. Still no takers. The novella/short-novel market is a tough racket. Publishers are scarce and even fewer accept submissions.

There was a Doctor Who episode titled “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship.” Somehow, monsters on a spaceship popped into my head and I began exploring the intersection of hard science and the supernatural. More revisions later, and I ended up with a book best described as The Expanse meets Lovecraft Country. Penny Dreadful—in outer space.

My plan was to write two more stories, combine them into a larger novel for a better shot at publication. Until I was at Printer’s Row last year signing copies of my recently republished debut, The Surge, and found myself at a table next to Mallory Smart, editor of Maudlin House.

I genuinely felt Haunted Space might be a fit for their press, so I introduced myself, and days later submitted the manuscript. Honestly, I didn’t expect a response, but here we are. Perhaps that’s what all this boils down to. Writing. Publishing. Role-playing games. A roll of the dice. And the trick is to keep rolling until the dice gods eventually smile upon you.