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.

10/11/2013 Update

Okay, so while it may appear that I haven't been busy, appearances are deceptive.  THE GREATEST GAME: Hunters is currently being edited while I finish the cover art.  It's a bit behind schedule, but I think it should be out within the week.

In the meantime VALKYRIE: Candidates is currently free on Kindle, so go grab a copy or two.  So far I don't have many sales this month (big sales last month though) so I'm a bit nervous.

Due to delays on the paper version of A Fox's Tale #1.  I will be doing VALKYRIE: Pallas first in the Winter Quarter (Yes I have my release schedule organized into quarters), meaning it will be available well before Christmas time (YES!)

Then I'll be working on A Fox's Tale  #2 for a mid December release (perhaps a week or two before Christmas) with THE GREATEST GAME'S second installation being released sometime in mid January.

VALKYRIE #1 - Progress Report

Huh, so I apparently am pretty good turning a reference picture into an anime like character... Who knew?  I think I might actually be able to do this book's cover art myself...

This is Michiko Hoshimoto, one of the protagonists from the book I'm working on.  She's the 16 year old pilot of the NIS-X Shinshin, one of two prototype 'interceptor frigates' which are piloted by a pilot by neural interface and hold the pilot in a pod filled with shock absorbent gel to allow them to withstand up to 80Gs of acceleration.

As for the book, well... It's sort of like what you'd expect a bastard child of Pacific Rim, EVE Online, and Ender's Game to end up being like.

I'm going to be writing the last chapter tomorrow from the way things are going right now, then I'll be polishing and editing it for another week at least.  I may have it ready by the end of the month.

Hmm, maybe I should give a bit more detail as to the story...

The VALKYRIE series focuses on the character of Michiko Hoshimoto, Daniel Logan, Rosa Lowe, and Svetlana Gurevich, the first four pilot's assigned to Project VALKYRIE.  The planet is under attack by an insect like race called the Ixo, who pilot ships that far outpace the abilities of conventional human vessels.  We can't simply upgrade these ships as the reason we can't build ships that would match an Ixo vessel's acceleration is that such a ship would kill the crew when it lit it's engine.

The answer comes in the form of pilots whose minds are hooked directly to the ships submerged in a pod filled with shock absorbent fluids.  As the immense difference between a human mind piloting a human body and a human mind piloting a starship, only teens and children are capable of adapting to 'being the ship' as it were.

Book #1 is called Candidates, and focuses primarily on the relationship between Michiko Hoshimoto and the protagonist, Daniel Logan.  They have to adjust to living and working together at Wolf Point Academy, base of the VALKYRIE Project, in the Galapagos (cool location, and there's a sensible reason they're there!)

So I better get back to writing and crank this thing out.

What's Next?

Now that I've got a book out, I suppose I should update this with what's on my desk now...

I have set aside the Ambrose Chronicles for now, as I am still waiting on Analog's response to my last story... so instead.

VALKYRIE #1: Candidates

Think the neural link and pod capsule from EVE Online and the basic plot of Ender's Game combined.  Four teenage geniuses are recruited to pilot a next generation of combat starships as Earth is under attack from the Ixo, a insectoid race which began attacking ten years previously.  The teens are three girls (Michiko Hoshimoto, Rosa Löwe, and Lana Gurevich), and one guy (Daniel Logan).  Each has to adjust to the others while training to command the most advanced ships developed by Earth.

That is what I'm working on now.  Or should I say, I'm almost finished with right now.  Basically, aside for the first three chapters, the rough draft is done.  I'm currently reworking the first three chapters so that they fit the rest of the book.  I've found that this happens quite a bit when writing a story, the earlier chapters tend to need revising to fit the rest.

Currently, I may have this complete (revised, polished, and edited) by the end of the month.  After which I'll be switching gears again to...

The Greatest Game #1: The First Five

On June 29th, 1919 the newly elected leadership of the Weimar Republic (formerly the German Empire) rejects the Treaty of Versailles.  As negotiations fall apart, President Woodrow Wilson withdraws all American support to the Allies in an effort to prompt the French and British to negotiate with Germany.

This fails, and the tired citizens of Europe find themselves embroiled in war once again.  This time, it is not Germany and the Central Powers that are the aggressors, but France and England.  The Weimar Republic fights a defensive war, dragging out the battles.  Losses on both sides force the conscription of women into the assembled armies.

Despite these measures, neither side can manage to inflict a decisive defeat on the other, as shortages of all things impact all walks of life.  The Allies often times can only manage a single offensive a year, thanks to shortages, industrial bombing, and the refusal of America to intervene once again.

By 1934, the war has ground on for an additional fourteen years with no end in sight, when the Soviet Union launches an invasion in the East, attacking German possessions in Poland and the Austro Hungarian Federation.

Follow  Unteroffizer Ernst Weissman and Leutenant Mira Marder of the 53rd Gruppe as they fight against the Soviets in the East, and Ernst struggles to survive his first five combat missions.

BTW: Thanks to everyone that downloaded A Fox's Tale: The Warden's Daughter.  It's peaked at #10 in one of it's categories, and #30 in another.

That's awesome guys.

What I'm Working on

What's on my desk, in the mail, and general progress reports on my original writing can be found here. Right now, I have one story in drafting and another that I'm sending around to various agents.  Both of these stories are designed to be a sort of 'pilot' for a series of books.

The first, and the one that I'm sending around to agents is called: A Fox's Tale: The Warden's Daughter.  It's a YA/Fantasy story revolving around the characters of Ember Wulf and her friend Jona escaping the clutches of bandits and an evil lord's agent named Rodric the Raven.  As a personal test of whether it'd be accepted by teen readers, I asked my 7th Grade Sister to read it. Once she got going, she burned through the book pretty fast and seemed to really enjoy it.

The second story that I'm working on doesn't yet have a title I'm satisified with.  The series revolves around the adventures of Midshipman Miles Ambrose and his friend Astra Tanaka in their naval careers.  It's a YA/Sci-Fi novel, and is probably the 'hardest' long piece of Science Fiction I will ever attempt to write, becasue, as the more research I did, the more difficult it seemed for any space opera to really work in a highly realistic setting.

I did a one off, in this universe called 'An Average Engagement' that I sent to Analog, thus far I haven't gotten any word back from them, but it's only been a few weeks.

If anyone has some suggestions for where to send these works too... I'm all ears.