Captain's Away! Master Index and iFAQ
Episode list and everything a new reader needs to get started
It’s one thousand years in the future. The Earth is a distant memory. And the Doucettes have seen better days.
It’s certainly not every day your space station is blown to bits beneath you in the opening volley of a senseless war. In the aftermath of this attack on their home, the Doucette family find themselves careening from one fantastic space adventure to another as their lives are upended in ways they can barely comprehend.
Technologist Yolande Doucette must fix the starship Beausoleil before its crew goes insane. Both Yolande and her husband Bertrand mourn their son, Alain, lost in the devastating attack. They pray that their seventeen-year old daughter, Marie-Josée, recovers from a mysterious illness while Marie-Josée herself, unaware that her body lies comatose, is forced to impersonate the captain of the Beausoleil. Meanwhile, the stuck-up daughter of the grieving emperor responsible for all this mayhem is kidnapped by a rude robot on a secret mission.
Hostile aliens, rebellious robots, murderous despots and more all stand in the Doucettes’ path as they try against all odds to reunite as a family while doing their best to help Akkadia win the war. Will they succeed?
Read the exciting space adventure Captain’s Away! to find out!
Captain’s Away! is classic space opera posted weekly as a serial adventure. I expect each installment to average 1500 words, though lengths will vary. The content is suitable for readers of all ages.
This is the Master Index.
To read the novel, click on the links below:
Act One: Refugees
Chapter One:
Sympathetic Vibrations It’s an ordinary day on board the Akkadian space station Evangeline for the Doucettes and the rest of the station’s ten thousand inhabitants until the station is attacked by a Realm battleship.
Chapter Two:
Life Pods While their space station Evangeline is under attack, the Doucettes wait for their chance to board an escape pod, but they’re last in line, and there may not be enough.
Chapter Three:
The Northumberland The Doucette’s escape pod takes them to another Akkadian space station, The Northumberland, where they join hundreds of other refugees. While exploring this new space station, Marie-Josée and her brother Alain have a strange encounter with a uniformed official.
Chapter Four:
Saito While the space station Northumberland itself is attacked by the same battleship that destroyed the Evangeline, Marie-Josée Doucette herself is attacked in the Northumberland's Great Hall.
Chapter Five:
The Medical Bay Yolande tries to find her missing daughter in Northumberland Station’s Great Hall.
Chapter Six:
Emergency Bunker Yolande leads her family to Northumberland station’s medical bay, toward potential safety… or certain death.
Chapter Seven:
The Procedure Yolande is torn between separating the emergency bunker from Northumberland station before it’s destroyed or waiting for other survivors to show up.
Chapter Eight:
Too Many People Alain Doucette decides to explore Northumberland Station at exactly the wrong time.
Chapter Nine:
Lost in Space Yolande grapples with the consequences of being forced to separate the emergency bunker from Northumberland station, including the devastating loss of her son.
Chapter Ten:
A Precarious Situation Bertrand struggles to accept his new, horrible reality: stranded in space with his son Alain missing and likely dead because he failed to keep Alain safe.
Chapter Eleven:
Marooned Bertrand and Yolande Doucette take care of their unconscious daughter and fellow survivors in the emergency bunker as new challenges loom, threatening their survival.
Chapter Twelve:
The Captain Although the body of Marie-Josée Doucette is undeniably unconscious and in an emergency bunker with her parents, another part of her is having an entirely different experience.
iFAQ (Infrequently Asked Questions)
What is this?
I am serializing my novel, Captain’s Away! here on Substack. New chapters come out every week (more or less). Comments and suggestions welcome as we go along. This page is the Master Index. It will include all published chapters of the novel as I gradually serialize it.
Why are you serializing Captain’s Away! on Substack?
I think it will be fun! It’s an experiment. I want to see how it goes. Whether anybody will read it. Whether anybody will like it. And I would like help making it better. I appreciate any feedback.
Do you plan to publish Captain’s Away! conventionally later?
Yes.
Is this version of Captain’s Away! a first draft?
Far from it. I would never inflict first draft material on anyone. I’ve laboured hard over this version. That being said, it’s not in its final form. I’m looking for your help with that. Help me make it better! Also, it has not been professionally edited yet. That will happen before it’s traditionally published.
How much of Captain’s Away! have you actually written?
I have several hundred pages written in what I would consider “almost” final draft form.
Why do you have an exclamation mark in the title?
I have just always visualized it that way. There are roughly 1378 books listed in Goodreads with exclamation marks. I feel like Ray Bradbury has implicitly given me permission to have a title with a question mark.
Do you hope to get rich and famous by posting Captain’s Away! here?
Nope.
Why isn’t Captain’s Away! behind a paywall?
I’m not comfortable asking for money for Captain’s Away! For one thing, it’s not even an entire novel; I’m just posting it one chapter at a time. And although I think it’s in pretty good shape, it’s not quite final draft quality. People can buy the entire properly edited book later, when I finally publish it, if they like.
Is Captain’s Away! your first novel?
A Time and a Place is my first published novel. I have also published a collection of short stories called Other Times and Places and a memoir about working for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation called Adventures in the Radio Trade.
No offense, but I don’t want Captain’s Away! How do I opt out?
No problem! Go to your Substack profile (top right corner). Go to “account settings.” You'll see your subscriptions. Click “edit” next to either Assorted Nonsense or Captain’s Away! Uncheck the box next to whichever newsletter(s) you don’t want, and check the box next to the ones you do want.
Help me make the best possible version of Captain’s Away!
What do you think of it so far? Let me know in the comments! Don’t be shy. :-)
Also by Joe Mahoney: A Time and a Place
An unlikely hero travels to other worlds and times to save a boy who does not want to be saved in this unique and imaginative adventure, by turns comic and tragic.
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Follow Joe Mahoney and Donovan Street Press Inc. on: Goodreads, Bluesky, Threads, Mastadon, Facebook, and Instagram
Hi! Have you edited your book?
I'm looking for editor options for serializing my novel on Substack