General Updates

Well, I haven't actually said much about what I've been doing lately, so it's time for a little update or two...

1.) A Fox's Tale: The Smith's Son - The second book in the A Fox's Tale series is done... all that's left is a bit of editing and cover design.  Unfortunately, my sister was the one that produced the cover for A Fox's Tale, and she's in the middle of a rather heavy semester in High School, so it may be some time before it's actually released.

Sorry...

Also, I've taken A Fox's Tale off the KDP select system and will soon be releasing it through Smashwords as well.

2.) VALKYRIE: Into the Heavens - I've started initial work on VALKYRIE #3 - Outer Reaches.  At the same time I've started learning both Blender and Sculptris... My plan is to port the models I've made in Sketchup to Blender, give them proper textures and use Blender to produce new covers and trailers for Youtube, but that's slow going.

3.) THE GREATEST GAME - Sadly, this series is on the back burner right now, as interest has been relatively low.  I do have plans for the series, but with so few people reading the books and my already full work load, it's probably better if I focus more on VALKYRIE: Into the Heavens and a couple projects I have going for more traditional publication.

4.) PROJECT ROLL-PLAY - Development is still ongoing, and I've become fairly active on the Giants in the Playground's Homebrew forum discussing various elements of RPG design.  Right now I'm focused on providing enough magical spells and rules to roughly equal that which you'd get in the 'core' rulebook for a game like Pathfinder or DnD.

5.) Traditional Publication Projects - I've been actively working on a book meant to be published through traditional channels, as it's a bit more mainstream in SF content then VALKYRIE: Into the Heavens.  This book is being developed under the provisional title 'Midshipmen', and, much like the Honor Harrington series, is largely being inspired by the old Horatio Hornblower stories.

Unlike Honor Harrington, I'm not going out of my way to use such things as 'broadsides' and so forth in the stories, but real world physics and a sort of twisted reflection of the way officers were trained and worked in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars.  In some ways it might be closer to the whole Master and Commander series in it's depiction of midshipmen and apprentice officers.

The story will revolve around the careers of two midshipmen: Astra Tanaka and Miles Ambrose while on their first shipboard assignment to Peregrine-class Gunboat Swift Fox during the initial lead up to and outbreak of hostilities between the United Empires of Anglica and Nihon (UEAN) and the Imperial Republic of C'Hall (IRC), essentially playing along the same historical roles as the UK and Republican France.

As the UEAN is settled by colonists from Britain and Japan, there are a number of direct references to the period.  The main UEAN naval facility in their home system is known as Spithead, and so forth.  The IRC is made up of former colonies of France and Russia, with French being the official language.

A large number of other nations will also make their appearance, echoing the multiple powers involved in the period.