Hello,

I am Hamish MacColl. I’m a university student who despises the thought of having a day job and loves to write. I also occassionally make soothing music videos for those who need help sleeping.

This website’s purpose is to be the place where I put up my web serials, and where I sell the completed, edited and published works after they’re completed.

I’ll also put up lore and illustrations/images when I can, have the time and the inclination.

But, if you’re here, you’re most likely here for my writing. Thank you for that, I hope you enjoy reading it as I enjoy writing it.

If you wish to begin reading A Conquest of the Stars Book I, start Here.

If you’re more interested in a short story within the A Conquest of the Stars universe, you can start I Am Sethkari Here.

If you like what I’m doing and want to support me on Patreon: you can find my Patreon Here.

If you’re still reading this, I guess I’ll tell you a bit about myself and the A Conquest of the Stars series/my journey writing it.

I am Hamish, a university student and a medical receptionist. I study Politics and History, have a deep love of both, and bugger all interest in university beyond getting my degree. I started university in 2018, loved it very much. Then COVID hit, I went back home, and things have just been… mediocre since then. All of that is my own fault, I will add. I’m terrible at making decent life choices. There are a few bright spots in my life, like my absolutely brilliant partner who is the most supportive human I’ve had the pleasure of meeting.

And I have wanted to be a writer since I was 10 years old. I had a parent-teacher conference and my teacher talked about how I was great at reading and writing etc etc. What actually made me want to be a writer was the curiosity as to whether or not I could write well enough to bring out emotions in people.

I want to be able to tell a story that resonates with some people, that gives them a surge of emotions and brings them to tears. I want to have an impact.

I wrote the outline for A Conquest of the Stars when I was 17, then I wrote the first book in a trilogy. Overall, it was about 300k words that became almost entirely useless. Aside from names, everything had been changed within two years. The outline was re-written, and then I decided that wasn’t good enough and that three books just wouldn’t cut it.

Nine books in the main series with another eighteen short stories. Two per main-book in the series. The first book, simply called A Conquest of the Stars and the first short story have their outlines completed. Writing those stories begins today 11/9/2023.

You see, I realised something. I am not a perfectionist. I mean, I am, but when I can’t make something perfect I find that horribly frustrating and then go in almost the opposite direction. But, this series was something I wanted to make perfect. I kept spending time editing outlines and changing different sentences or chapters.

I realised that a reason for this is that I was trying to tell too many stories within a short span of books. Growing up reading web serials has rubbed off on me it seems!

So, I set out allowing myself to write all the ideas I had and what I wanted added. And then deciding what would be best for the main series, and what could be used as a short story. Many of those ideas were born from little snippets of lore that I thought of and fell in love with, but quite a few of them are also related to main characters and what happens to them in between certain books.

Maybe this plan will change, maybe everything will change. But I realised if I keep rewriting and changing things, I’d never get anywhere. I’d be stuck in a loop of not being satisfied with an outline and so never writing a story.

So, I’ve signed up for The Write Practice’s 100 Day Book program. The idea is rather simple: write your book in 100 days.

I’m going to succeed at this, and I’ll post it here as well. And then we’ll move on to Book Two.

Thank you for joining me on this journey, I do appreciate any and all of you.

Kindest regards,

Hamish