Tag: No Loose Ends

Earlier today, I posted my thoughts about Ashwin’s Hit the Ground Running, and now I get the fun of presenting this Q&A with the author Kate Ashwin.

Why don’t you take a moment to introduce yourself to the readers, and tell us about your comics, before hitting us with an elevator pitch for Hit The Ground Running?
Heya! I’m Kate Ashwin, and I’ve been getting away with putting stories on the internet for over twenty years now. Comics-wise, I’ve worked for UK kids’ comics such as The Phoenix and The Dandy, and my (award winning!?) Victorian-era wizardy adventure webcomic Widdershins is entirely free to read online at https://www.widdershinscomic.com/ !

Having worked on a bunch of goofy caper comics, I fancied trying my hand at writing a goofy caper novel, and that’s where Hit The Ground Running comes in! It’s an offbeat cyberpunk heist novel about robbing a megacorp’s Christmas party, and it reads kinda like Leverage, but gayer and with more cyberarms.

I can’t/won’t be the first to ask you about the difference between what you’ve been doing for years and novel-writing. Nor the last. So while apologizing for that, I have to. What was the hardest part about the switch and was that what you expected it to be? Is there a different kind of internal reward to it? (if there’s anything else about the differences/similarities you want to ramble about, go for it.)
Hey, it’s a good question! The biggest thing I kept getting tripped up on was dialogue length, oddly enough. When you’re working with comics, you really have to consider how many words fit in a speech bubble and how many bubbles you can fit onto a page. There’s a real economy of space going on to prevent clutter, so I was finding myself automatically “clipping” dialogue to fit non-existent spaces. Didn’t see that one coming! It’s also difficult to adjust your sense of comic timing to no longer include the visual, a lot of the anatomy of how I traditionally crack a joke is in the break between panels, or the facial expressions of the character, so to switch to using turn of phrase for that instead required some thought.

One of the most rewarding parts was the one I was expecting and hoping for–it’s nice to be able to get into a character’s internal narration a lot more, y’know? When you’re drawing out a scene, unless you’re doing something high-concept, a setting will look the same to the character as to the reader since you have to convey a readable sense of space. But when you’re writing it from a character’s perspective, you really get to play around with what they’re noticing in particular, any internal judgments they may be making, and such. This also applies to how they see other characters, too. Happy to report that it’s exactly as fun as I was hoping!

I could probably talk for days on this question in particular, but I’ll save that rambling for another day.

What was it about this idea—out of all of the dozens likely flitting about your mind—that made you say, “yup, this is what I’m going to spend years(?) and thousands of words on.”
Might be kind of a simplistic answer, but I just love heists. I could write heists for years and never get tired of ’em. There’s something in watching a plan come together (or fall apart) that really tickles my brain nicely.

What came first—these characters (or at least a couple of them) or the world/story?
Renji in particular has been kicking about in my head for quite a while now. I love an impulsive rebel, I love a fast-talker, I love someone who notices something is wrong with the world and sets out to do their bit to change it, and that’s all him! A guy who is going to have to shake off a lot of bad habits, but is sure as hell willing to try.

Hanging the series on a heist crew means you already have roles that need filled–the hacker, the bruiser, the stealth expert- so it’s all about building it out from there. Creating an idea for a character, then layering up little quirks and foibles like a love of plants or zines or french press coffee is one of my favourite things to do. I got to write a scene where everyone’s having tea while planning their heist, and deciding what each of their orders would be is how I get my kicks, it turns out.

The setting came kinda naturally–a cyberpunk version of the UK felt like a fairly obvious leap to make, since that’s pretty much just a step or two away from where I live anyway, and while the ol’ “vertical city as class signifier” deal is not uncommon, it’s still a fun one to play with, and there’s just a hell of a lot to say on that front, unfortunately.

This is the point where I like to ask about a supporting character or two that caught my attention. But I can’t pick just one. Truly. So, if you’re in the mood, you pick one that you want to talk about to highlight for a paragraph or two.
I’d be remiss if I didn’t pick Cadence, really. She and her sister Melody are, through circumstances they don’t wish to explain yet, stuck sharing the same body, and neither of them are having a good time with this arrangement. While Melody is the laid-back type, a hacker with a love of 90s pop and garish clothing, her sister Cadence is a furious mess of energy and punches. Her scenes were fun as I do love to write a good punch-up, and her two cyberarms were a fun addition to the usual brawl, but mostly I enjoyed writing her and Renji sniping at each other. Renji has come from a far more privileged background than Cadence, so she very much views him as some rich boy playing at rebel, fully expecting him to cut and run at the first sign of trouble. Renji doesn’t quite grasp the intricacies of this beyond “the mean lady is yelling at me” which leads to some of that good conflict where both sides have a point, which is always the best kind of conflict.

The core of Cadence is her big tangled ball of feelings- she isn’t some cold combat machine, she’s a conflicted mess in this situation where she isn’t even in control of her own body half of the time, stuck with strong desire for vengeance with nowhere to park it because her enemy is an entire city, and she can’t even talk it out with her sister since they physically can’t inhabit the same room.

It’s no wonder she punches so many people.

In lieu of asking questions about a character, I want to talk about two non-characters a. At what point did you start thinking that Renji carting around a potted plant with him everywhere was a good idea (it was, btw)? Is there, in your mind, a point to it?
Oh man, the plant ended up as more of a running theme than I’d intended. While he wouldn’t admit it, Renji steals the thing from the airship because he’s burdened with an inconvenient amount of empathy, and sometimes that peeks out in unexpected ways. He steals it from the airship, where it ought to be doing well enough in the care of the company, and totes it down to the dark lower levels of the city, where it ends up thriving and cared for in a place where society does not expect things to be able to grow. So, yeah, I never met a phor I didn’t like..!

The plant actually nearly made it onto the cover–one of Ben’s sketches included it, but I decided not to go with that one as it made Renji look like he knew a single goddamn thing about plant care.

The sword—primarily the one Renji carries with him, but beyond that, the culture around these people carrying them. It seems so out-of-place, yet so fitting. Where’d that come from?
Searching for a better answer than “Swords Are Cool”, searching…

Ah, there we go, found one. I had the upper class of this setting carry swords and enact duels because it’s such a ridiculous bit of history that seems to happen whenever there are people with too much cash and not enough to do. There used to be something of a trend for “dueling scars”, to the point where people would even have them added intentionally to their own faces, and that’s just an intoxicating bit of nonsense, isn’t it? It felt kinda right to have that included, but based more around cyber arms, implants, etc. It also leaves a little more room for close combat than an excess of guns might, and simply feels like a more natural fit for a city-state that’s physically attached to the UK.

As for the sword Renji had in this book, it mostly just tickled me to have him steal the thing despite having little to no idea how to use it. Will he get better at swordfighting? I’m led to understand that it takes years of diligent practice, so the odds… are not great.

What’s next for Kate Ashwin, author? Does that depend on the reaction to Hit The Ground Running or are you already neck deep in your next project or five?
The reaction’s been good, but a little quiet- part of that is my insistence on writing for a very quiet genre, though, so that’s on me, but getting an independent book in front of people is even harder than getting an independent comic in front of them, it turns out!

All the same, I have another book or two planned out for this series, and would very much like the encouragement to get stuck in on those. The second one will be from Melody and Cadence’s point of view, and would include corporate espionage, cyborg assassin romance, and infiltrating a robot wars tournament, so obviously I very much do want to write it..!

Otherwise, I’ve been picking at a standalone spy vs spy romance novel; and my webcomic Widdershins is going to be wrapping up in the next year or two with its eleventh and final book, so that is going to be a hell of a feeling. Which feeling in particular, I am not sure, but it will very much be felt.

Thanks for your time and participation! I hope Hit The Ground Running finds its audience—I had a lot of fun with it!
Thank you! So did I!

A Few Quick Questions

Hit The Ground Running by Kate Ashwin: 2 Jailbreaks, 1 Heist, 1 Outrageous Utility Bill, and 1 Potted Plant.

By HCNewton

On March 3, 2025

In Fiction, Science Fiction

Be sure to come back in a couple of hours for a Q&A with Kate Ashwin.

Hit the Ground Running

by Kate Ashwin

DETAILS:
Series: No Loose Ends, #1
Publisher: Kate Ashin
Publication Date: November 11, 2024
Format: eBook
Length: 314 pg.
Read Date: January 25-29, 2025

You, like me, may assume that all Cyberpunk novels are set in joyless dystopias, where the neon lights and other brightly colored signs shine out against a gray and raining night (like every scene with Rick Deckard walking on his way to get some food). You’re largely correct. But what if I told you that didn’t have to be the case? Well, read on…

It was around 10 p.m. on a Thursday when Renji thought he might have a go at breaking out of prison. This idea was terrible for several reasons.
One, the prison in question was an Imperium International Forces Containment Facility, the kind widely reputed for being near-impossible to escape. Two, said facility was an airship in flight some fifty storeys above solid ground. The third, and perhaps most important reason was that he wasn’t even a prisoner, he was a guard.
But to I.I. Forces Cadet Renjiro Starkweather, the young man leaning out of the mess hall kitchen’s window to sneak a crafty cig, these reasons didn’t seem quite good enough to not at least have a try.

What’s Hit The Ground Running About?

Renji really doesn’t belong in the Forces—he doesn’t have the mindset, the discipline, any interest at all in serving, But he does have an Aunt who did most of the work in raising him. She’s rich, she’s powerful, she’s overly-indulgent of Renji, but she also has expectations. Hence, his presence in the Forces (which he probably would’ve washed out of already, if not for her influence).

But Renji’s at his breaking point, and he probably would’ve made an attempt at escape if not for the fact that he quite inadvertently interrupted an attempted jailbreak. The downside to this is that he ends up in custody with the jailbreakers—who turn out to be affiliated with a group Renji has been cheering on. They’ve recently released a lot of really embarrassing information about the Imperium International Corporation and other leaders of the city of Unity, in a WikiLeaks-type move. It didn’t do the damage anyone was really hoping for, but it did make a splash and get some people talking.

Okay, I’m taking too long here—Renji and the others (with some help from a super-competent hacker/”gal in the chair”) do eventually escape from the Facility in quite the flashy way, but without everyone they hoped to bring along with them. And Renji ends up visiting a part of the city of Unity he’s not that familiar with, Buried—it’s the part where the workers that support the corporation and government live (as well as their families, the unemployed, and whatnot). If you think of the city of Unity as The Titanic, this would be the third-class passenger area, but not as nice.

Renji wants to throw his lot in with the group, the Loose Ends. He wants to fight back against I.I., not out of any real outrage against them. But he thinks it’d be a fun adventure, and he does want to see things get better for the citizens down below—and to take I.I. down a peg or two. They’re leery of taking him on (mostly because they can tell his motives are shaky and he’ll probably get going when going gets tough—and not in the good way). But when a crisis hits, Renji comes up with a plan that just might work.

It’s nutty, it’s risky (mostly for him), but if he can pull it off with a little assistance from the Loose Ends and an older, battle-tested temporary ally of the Loose Ends, a lot of good can be done and the crisis could be averted.

The Characters and World

So the villain of this book is really “the System” as represented by Imperium International Corporation (and as you get to know them, you’ll be able to imagine any number of mega-corps of today turning into them).

But we get a few representatives of The System to focus on—nothing more than low-level hench-persons really. But higher-level reps will have to wait for the sequels. Primarily, we’re looking at Renji’s sergeant and three fellow-cadets who absolutely are not Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. But they do fit the same character types that those three do. All four of these antagonists are the kind you will enjoy seeing foiled—even if they are the bottom of the rung, you’ll have a lot of fun seeing Renji go up against them. Especially when he comes out on top.

The heroes—sort of a rag-tag rebel group (who really aren’t trying to overthrow anyone, just trying to survive). They’re a hodge-podge of ages, temperaments, and skills. You will almost instantly like them—while wanting to ask so many questions about all of them. I’m tempted to talk about all of them for a sentence or two, but that would get old. But I like their internal dynamics, I like them as individual characters and cannot wait to see Ashwin develop them all. They also have a number of allies—from people who work in food stalls, to a club owner, to a strange medic/tech repair duo. Really, the Loose ends and the allies we meet in this book deserve a short story or two each, just to give them a chance to shine. (Ashwin, if you see this post and run with it—no need to cut me in, the results will be reward enough. Unless this lands you a TV deal or something.).

Then there are the largely nameless and faceless people in Buried. They suffer due to what I.i. does. They have to deal with any retaliation that comes down due to Loose Ends. We don’t see much of them, but we get to meet their Community Council (even in a dystopia, lower-level government officials are petty and useless, good to know some things are constants). There’s enough citizens, and enough grudges, seen that Loose Ends will have a steady supply of potential allies in future books (and probably future turn-coats, but let’s focus on the positives).

Unity City, once-upon-a-not-too-distant time, was the city of Steelpool, which the corporation bought from a struggling U.K. government to act as its wold headquarters. It’s from Unity that I.I. can distribute it’s Internet programming, sell and market its products, and so on. Mid-level Executives on up, live there. The workers, support staff, their families, etc. are stuck in Buried.

Is This Actually Cyberpunk?

“Please, look at him. He’s even worse of a blagger than you. He looks like he’s gonna sell you life-coaching advice through the internet.”

“Does not.”

“Does too. He’s a budget vampire. That’s a bargain bin Dracula, that is.”

“You are not being a very supportive friend right now.”

“I’m not supportive. Or your friend. Besides, actual supportive friends would tell you when you’re dating an evil executive from a shitty Robocop sequel. He looks like he’s going to have his plans to bulldoze the zoo foiled by some plucky teenagers.”

It’s being marketed as cyberpunk. But I think a lot of readers are going to bump up against the tone—the humor, the snark, the optimism that Renji brings and wonder about that.

If you look at the tech (which I haven’t done a good job of describing), the merger of corporation/government/city-state military, the dystopian nightmare that most of these people endure. You’ve got yourselves the making of a decent cyberpunk reality. But what about tone?

But you’ll be grinning throughout this book, there’s some good laughs, there are some goofy moments, and so on. How does that fit with William Gibson and Bruce Sterling’s Mirrorshade vision? Can you do a non-noir cyberpunk? I think yes. Think of Snow Crash while Hiro is a pizza delivery driver (sure, that’s post-cyberpunk), some of Rudy Rucker’s work, and …a couple of others I suddenly can’t think of the names of. There are even bits of Gibson’s Sprawl trilogy that are about this amount of fun. So yeah, it’s an outlier, but it’s not without precedent.

I only bring this up because I’m pretty sure there are some purists who’d complain about this. People who ignore the whole “punk” part of the aesthetic, no rules, etc. I really don’t care what others think. I’ll take a cyberpunk that makes me grin any day (especially now).

So, what did I think about Hit The Ground Running?

“Stopping them.” The tired look in Minjun’s dark eyes seemed as though it came from a much older man. “This isn’t afable with some terrible dragon for the heroes to hunt down, or a magic combination of words that will break the overlords’ evil spell. This is a city, a society, an ecosystem with problems embedded in its very roots. How exactly do you stop a society?”

This is a heist novel and I wait until now to talk about a heist? What is wrong with me? It’s an audacious plan with a great and benevolent pay-off. Naturally, as any self-respecting heist story demands—it goes awry. The reader knows that even before Renji outlines his plan—the questions are: how does it go awry, and how do our heroes respond? All I’m going to say about that is that I’m eager for book 2 in this series.

This is a fast-moving story with a lot of moving pieces—Ashwin keeps the plates spinning just fine and moves the story along just fine. This is so hard to talk about without getting into the details of the heist, the character twists (of the two bigger ones, I saw one coming miles away and the other took me totally unawares) were revealed with panache, or anything else.

Ashwin’s been storytelling for a long time in graphic novels, she knows how to tell a story and bring characters to life. Turns out she can do that just as well with words as she can do with pictures and words (or so I assume, I haven’t dipped a to in to that yet).

There’s a bit of a budding romance (or is it just a lust story?) that acts as a great distraction for Renji, too. That didn’t do much for me, I thought we had enough other things to keep the story going—but it’s a good plot complication—and who knows, maybe it lays the groundwork for something better.

This is a quick read. A fun read. There are so many bits and pieces I’d call out here, but you should read them for yourselves.

If you’re up for a good time (even if cyberpunk isn’t your thing—just think of it as snarky SF), you’d do yourself a favor to give this a whirl. I need to see what comes next, and I expect after your introduction to the Loose Ends, you will, too.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.
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