My Cozy Sci-Fi Comedy series: Intergalactizen’s Guide to Taming Earthlings
(The series is complete with 2 Seasons.)
This story was liked by author of games, books, TV, film, comics + Co-Director of Narrativia Rhianna Pratchett on BlueSky!
What this Sci-Fi Comedy is about:
Most of the galaxy wants to destroy Earth for being an utter nuisance – except for one group of Intergalactizens, beings who thrive on betting against unpredictable odds and disguising themselves as cats.
They’re running experiments to test if Earthlings can be controlled. If these fur-clad intergalactizens succeed in proving to the United Intergalactic Commission that they've tamed the planet, then they will forever retain custody of Earth. They're currently logging their difficulties and successes in a famous Guide Book:
“The Intergalactizen’s Guide to Taming Earthlings”
No humans have ever known about any of this nor The Guide – until Jerry.
Jerry is a Londoner who fled the city because he hates cats, people, and wants to get rich winning Blackjack games online with his knack for always calculating the odds correctly … in peace and quiet.
Yet his solitude was shattered upon hearing the transmission from The Guide that he accidentally hacked into.
Now the only person Jerry does care about, his best mate Declan, is a target of these space cats for “training” to surrender his free will amidst a house demolition gone wrong. Plus, a space cat discovers Jerry is spying on them.
Worse still, this Intergalactizen space cat has become obsessed with taming Jerry.
List of chapters for I.G.T.T.E.
(or as others call it "Planetary Domination Made Easy")
Want to read this on your Kindle or iBooks? I’ve added a new option through a handy Ko-Fi store integration, so click on this button ⬇️
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(Plus you get full access to all the bonus content behind my paywall.)
(Free subscribers get previews of all my writing upon monthly releases, book reviews, whatever fun things I can send you, & my gratitude.)
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Season 1
Episode 1: Meet Jerry, who will likely never sleep again. 😂 **FREE to everyone**
Episode 2: Meet the pursuer whose home was wrecked, Ever-Ready Freddie.
Episode 3: Meet the “book” that Declan thinks can help un-fuck his marriage.
Episode 4: Welcome to the “shortcut” quest for the stick that “makes your spouse believe everything you say.”
Episode 5: When the Quest just made everything worse…
Episode 6: Meet Shanta, wife of Declan with some powerful spy 🪄
Episode 7: Shanta returns & faces off with the murderous Ever-Ready Freddie
Episode 8: Meet Jerry’s stalker who’s been watching from the roof: Ferdinand.
(Season 1 FINALE) Episode 9: Jerry finally starts losing his mind & finds a hole in his reality.
Season 2
Episode 1: The world behind the A.T.T.I.C. door opens…
Episode 2: Lost under the wrong bed
Episode 3: Say hello to the dragon with the craziest backstory
Episode 4: When the closet's not actually empty...
Episode 5: Attack of fur
Episode 6: When Jerry taps into his inner “Super freak”
Episode 7: Jerry learns about the 3 levels of the W.I.T.C.H. society
Episode 8: Introducing the W.I.T.C.H. hat interface
Episode 9: First spell of a new W.I.T.C.H. to create a little dragon slayer
Episode 10: Cat fight > A Wager of Souls
Episode 11: Affrettarsi! Attacco!
Episode 12: FINALE > Everyone hates THOSE PEOPLE
What inspired this?
I like to think of it as what would happen if I took notes while Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett decided to write a story together during their time locked up together in something like a space station with only their cats for company.
I’ve been writing short comedy stories on the side in addition to my novels for several years now. I recently realized in the last month that all of them are set in the same alternate universe. After I already spent some time getting great feedback on these tales and revising them for publication separately, I’ve now decided that I’d rather have them all published consistently on the same platform. In this series of episodes, you will discover worlds within worlds.
**Note: This is an entirely human-generated story, written by me, myself, and possibly by the influence of the cats in my life.
When and how often is it coming out?
Episode 1 launched on Friday, July 12, 2024.
The first post is completely free to read for everyone, and you’re all welcome to please share it!
After that, new episodes were emailed to paid subscribers on three Fridays of each month, with one Friday monthly as my brainstorming time and reflection post time in the Novelist Uncensored section of this Substack.
Paid subscribers get all of the new installments of this Sci-Fi Comedy series and all my work, plus full access to all of my insider tips on novel revisions.
Free subscribers to my Substack will get the occasional “first episode” posts of this story whenever it moves into a new part, “season,” or major subplot, plus all the fun of my regular monthly posts.
Why did I launch on July 12th?
July 12th is in fact, an incredibly important day because that was the day of ultimate victory for Douglas Adams, the day when his biggest dream came true at age 25.
In the book titled “42” that has much of Douglas Adams’ old diary entries, he wrote:
July 12, 1977:
“They loved The Pirate Planet…and suggested the…should be a film. Loved H.H.G. One of the best days of my life. I shall be released… Phone John Cleese.” – a touching reference to wanting to let his comic hero, who he had met, know of his good fortune.
Quote from this article in The Mirror:
Kevin recalls how his friend was living in a London flatshare at the time, saying: “That was the day they were reading the Doctor Who script he’d written and they loved it. At the same time he heard that the programme review board at the BBC Radio had also approved Hitchhiker’s. Douglas had almost given up on everything and nearly took a job for P&O in Hong Kong as a shipping clerk to get a proper job. So I guess it was the beginning of everything.”
Douglas Adams wrote the funniest books I have ever read, and I’m thrilled that his work was recognized before he gave up on his dream. He has inspired me so much that it’s only fitting that I should dedicate my launch as a tribute to him as well.
(In case by some small chance you aren’t familiar with his work, then please go read this review I wrote on “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” to get a taste of it.)
For all of you who are Douglas Adams’ fans, there are some Easter eggs you’ll recognize in my series that are nods to his work in HHGTTG. 😉