Century

Welcome again to everyone new and old who travels on the adventures of this blog. Today we celebrate 100 posts! 😀

I was hoping to save this for the release of The Ares Gambit, but as sometimes said:

Everything in Siam, has its own time.

The King and I/Anna and the King

Well, I’m not in Siam, but you get the point 😉

Instead, I have as promised, tidied up all of the Azhov Novellas over the past couple of days, that’s 95,000 words give or take. Which is fine, as we have 95 fellow adventurers on this blog and toddling along on twitter with us. Not bad eh?

My first published work, Warlord of Azhov will also be a year old this month, and marks my first, professional (I got paid for it!) release, which means I have almost been doing this for a year now. That’s both depressing and heartening at the same time, in fact so much so, I will have to have a lie down on the Chaises-longues to recuperate.

To mark all these occasions, I have put Warlord and Wings up for a free book deal, I regret only on Kindle, as they have to be in KDP Select and I can’t scatter them to B&N, Kobo or etc.

I did say that I would never release Tides as a free book deal, but we are living in exceptional times and people need distraction – even if Tides deals with heavy stuff, it provides uplift for the spirit. I hope. So that will be on the free book deal as well for the first and last time.

So, that’s a thousand words for each of you. Read them! 😀

All these books/novellas will be free for five days from 08 June 2020 until 12 June 2020, but please mind your time-zones as people have been caught out!

It is against KDP T&C to ask for reviews, so I will say this – if you do pick up the books, please, please *consider* leaving a review – an honest one, I’m not asking for favouritism! It helps me grow both as a writer and a channel and it is totally not that I crave validation and need your adoration – er…I digress.

Everyone that already owns the kindle versions of these books will get the updated ones. They are better, and the revamp was long overdue, nothing is radically changed, just a few things cleaned up etc, so no-one loses anything. The cleanup marks an improvement in my writing and the progress from Journeyman to Author. They’re not perfect, no book is, but I’m happier and that means I’m better at the job.

I really don’t like using the word ‘craft’.

Anyway, that’s it for today adventurers, I hope you enjoyed our 100 posts and I hope there’s another few in us yet! 🙂

Would you like to Know More?

Everyone fights! No-one quits!

– Captain Juan “Jonny” Rico – Starship Troopers.

I’ve been working hard on The Ares Gambit, and I think today it’s ready for test reading and proofing, so will be going to Amazon first for Kindle mastication, then my tried and trusted gang to tell me how crud it is.

I had a bit of an experience finishing it off, with Children of The Glyph it kind of turned into an Adam and Eve subtext and with Wings of Azhov, it morphed into Moby Dick but with aeroplanes. I need to use that when I redo all the blurb for them…

With TAG, (we authors and military brats love our TLA’s or Three Letter Abbreviations, don’t you know), I came to the shocking conclusion that not only is it heavily chess based, it’s almost Macbeth, but everyone is from Starship Troopers.

The book, not the film…but I loved the soundtrack. Gets me fired every time.

I just need to polish the ending a little more, but I’m a lot happier with it now and maybe my editor and proof/copyeditor, will like it too.

Have a good day Adventurers! 🙂

Tighten Up

Got the Blurb for The Ares Gambit into shape. It sits at 150 exactly.

That’s bingo from where I’m sitting. Just a couple of tweaks here and there…

3025.  The Protectorate is on the brink of economic collapse.  In this fractious time, Captain Sean Egan is a disgraced soldier, chasing pirates out on the fringes of the Solar System, forgotten and ignored by his superiors.

When Mars leads the charge for Independence, orchestrated from behind the scenes by a political and militia leader with his own reasons for seeing the Red Planet freed. the Protectorate is challenged, and sensing opportunity to cement his position by making an example, the Regent of Terra proposes a daring raid, led by someone not afraid to dirty their hands…someone expendable.

Promised redemption, Egan volunteers, yet he discovers that someone else is playing another game, which will determine the future of all Nine Worlds.  Haunted by his past, and with enemies on all sides, Egan must cross a lethal chessboard, hoping he can force the checkmate – before he is removed altogether.

That’s it for now, happy adventuring! 🙂

Double Up

Twice in one day! Aren’t we all lucky? Just an update after speaking to a couple of the Dauntless Crew (my long suffering and supportive backing group) and thought it was fair to update you all on a couple of things.

The first is, I’ve never really been comfortable with the title “Rebellion of Mars” but as a working title, it really did it’s job. It focused me and kept me on track with where the book was set and what it was about – mostly. This is important because when you don’t have a blurb, you need to keep the core idea tattooed on your eyelids and keep chasing it.

As a cardinal compass point, a working title is solid.

Now, it’s time for the caterpillar to turn into a butterfly. My second novel and the first in the Nine Worlds series (Trilogy planned, two already written and a total of nine sketched out!) will cleave close to the chess theme found within the book and will now be released as:

The Ares Gambit.

I’ve also got a cover in mind, so I’m going to hit up Ken at Creative Covers and discuss the ideas. Blood, power armour and a fallen crown.

Keep going adventurers! 🙂

All in the Blurb

A Blurb is not a synopsis!

However, the one below is more of a condensed synopsis than anything else. The best blurbs are about 150 words long (I have mentioned this before, so apologies to the long-term followers – but hello to the new ones! We’re growing all the time! 🙂 ) and what follows is about 200, so I have some cutting/moulding to do, but here is essentially, the sizzle for Rebellion of Mars.

It is 3025 and the Nine Worlds of the Protectorate are on the brink of economic collapse.  In this fractious time, Captain Sean Egan is a soldier in a dead-end career out on the fringes of the Solar System, destined to chase pirates and raiders on account of past sins.

When Mars expels the garrison of Universal Armed Forces troops, and now leads the charge for Independence, it is orchestrated from behind the scenes by William Jeffries, a political and militia leader with his own reasons and agenda for seeing Mars freed.

Seeing an opportunity, the Terran Regent decides it best to cement his position by making an example of Mars and securing the vital resource upon which the Protectorate functions: Rosenium.  He needs a man to lead it, one who isn’t afraid to dirty his hands and yet someone expendable.

Promised redemption, Egan volunteers, putting himself and his loyal companions into the firing line, but as he discovers, the two sides are playing to another game, one that will shape the future of the Nine Worlds for centuries to come.

Forced to trust enemies now turned allies, trapped between duty and instinct, Egan must cross a chessboard as a pawn on his own side, hoping that he can force the checkmate, before he is removed altogether.

Of course, a more pithy take was provided by a friend.

It’s Dune meets Starship Troopers.

Bob.

And there you go.

I’ll be working on the Manuscript more today, but this needed doing, even if it too is a first draft. It’ll get more refined as we go.

Have a good day adventurers! 🙂

Trendy

With the launch of the Space X Dragon Crew mission, I had to smile. One of the mission launches previously testing the rocket was from a site called APEX One, if I recall correctly.

Now, the American Pioneer EXpeditionary (APEX) Corporation was a fictional company in my novel Children of The Glyph, providing Government/Commercial uplift to Mars, to escape the Hell On Earth created from…well, you’ll have to read it. 😉 It seems both APEX shuttles and Space X have a few teething troubles in their history…

The point is, life and art imitate each other and nothing is new under the sun. Some people might say my book was on trend, others maybe say it was no coincidence…that it was prescience…in fifty years, when I’ve actually sold ten copies, hushed voices may call me a visionary.

A man can dream.

Some dream about reaching Mars. Life imitates art.

Maybe one day, there’ll be a tiny crater up there, named after some idiot that wrote about jetpacks and machineguns and people shouting in Welsh.

Have a good day adventurers! 🙂

Next!

Rebellion of Mars has been finished to Second Draft and it’s ready for light Author Editing, some spit and polish, (mainly to clean the sweat and tears off) and it can go to Proof and Copyedit stage.

At least that’s what I call Second Draft.

It’s topped 105,000 words and it’s tighter than it was when my Editor looked at it. Gone are clunky framing devices, dream sequences, bagpipe gatherings (ok I never had those) but you get it. Now I have to leave it, re-read it and make sure it hangs together and follows the Structure Arc properly.

It’s kind of gone a bit Space Opera-ish in bits as opposed to power armoured death metal, so in the polish I may snip a little bit of that off.

Feels good to finish it to this stage and no, I am not re-writing it AGAIN, as it’s had three passes in total now and I’m getting it done and out! I don’t care anymore – it’s leaving the nest!

I’m a heartless author sometimes.

So, what’s next….? Got a sequel already. For now though, I’m going to put my feet up. Maybe for a day.

Take it easy Adventurers. 🙂

Thought for the Day

The heart of a Warrior fulfils the exploration of Conflict, the Soul of a Poet allows the expression of Love. Between these volatile masters, hovers the twilight of Pain and Pleasure, wherein lies the Human Condition, providing Inspiration for the greatest Tales, the most foul of Terrors and the most shocking Truths.

That’s fairly deep for me, this time in the morning and I don’t even have my polo neck on! (I’ll reclines on the Chaises-longues in compensation).

And that’s all I wrote! Have a great day adventurers. 🙂

Word Blind

Rebellion of Mars Take II is progressing well, but I’m going googly-eyed at it. Re-writing is an intense thing, because you’re trying to use what’s there on the page, as flawed as it is, trying to keep the meaning and the flavour it brings to your story, as told in your voice.

And yet.

You’re also trying to trash it, because it’s written in the way you used to write, the loose way. I’m not saying my writing is the best (I should, because self-promotion?) or the tightest (hey man, come on, brag!) but it’s good.

It’s a lot better. I’m seeing more and more how to fix problems, cut clutter (not that there’s much in my other stuff, I’ve reached that level), it’s moving forward and after 19 years of waiting, it’s going to go out. I just have 16k to re-purpose.

Just like Children, it’s going to go out, but now I have a quandary. I am wondering if the title is any good. Once I’m done with a couple of editing passes, I’ll get a print proof and throw it out to test readers, but it’s a chunky monkey.

I’ll just have to chivvy them along!

Two books in one year?

“Another one? You’re a machine. Keep going.”

– RJ.

Anyway, that completes the update for today, have a good one Adventurers! 🙂

Flash Diction

No, it’s not a superhero in Spandex!

This is just a a quick update to let everyone know, I am 75% through Rebellion of Mars and we’ve 32k words to refurb and it’ll be ready to go for proofing etc (1st pass).

I’m also glad to report that my improvements continue – I have thinned out a lot of the ‘purple prose’ from the novel/book and it’s looking a lot more sleek. Conflict in every scene etc. Just need to polish a bit of the structure now, but I feel it’s 85% there.

Well that’s all he wrote (here) – back to the grind for me, hope you’re having a good day adventurers 🙂