Right… now what?

Okay, second attempt at writing this entry after accidently kicking the plug out of the computer – twice.

I haven’t been very active on the blog front of late; this is because over the last six weeks I have been busy, very, very busy. This busy-ness has come in the form of attending Loncon, making my panelist debut at Shamrokon, taking on new duties in the day job and of course doing final preparation for Book Three of the Nameless War – The Last Charge, which goes live tomorrow morning – in fact the paperback is already available. That last point I really didn’t think I was going to achieve on time, but I guess practice does make perfect.

Tomorrow morning the book will hit the digital shelves, the six hundred odd people who have pre-ordered will receive their copy and I – at risk of sounding over dramatic – will finish what has over the last ten years, become a fairly major part of my life. So I suppose the question becomes what do I do now, now that I have completed my side of the bargain and finished the series?

Well I can tell you one thing I am NOT going do: that is follow the suggestion of one friend who has put forward the idea that I should write trilogy in four parts. No, NO, NO! I am not Douglas Adams.

I will continue write. Writing is and remains a pass time I enjoy (the money angle doesn’t hurt either), I enjoy the process of getting the collection ideas down and linking them into a coherent whole. I enjoy the creation of my characters, I enjoy building the worlds they inhabit. I enjoy self-publishing with the challenges and opportunities it brings.

I have ideas for the future; readers of this blog will be familiar with my Ships of the Fleet project, its future depends on how the first one is received. There is also a long parked side project which I have begun to look at again and perhaps longer run the Battle Fleet universe has more tales in it.

When it comes to the immediate future one thing is for sure though. I’m taking October off and booking a holiday – Malta looks nice.

See you.

Oh PS, for anyone who hasn’t yet read The Nameless War, on the 1st October to celebrate the arrival of Book Three is it going on sale.

Book Three – The Last Charge is now available for Pre-order

If the end was near in my last post it is getting nearer. Book three is now available for pre-order on Amazon.UK and Amazon.COM. Publication date is now set for the First of October. (Yippeee)

Those of you on my mailing list will be getting a sample chapter later this week just to whet your appetite.

The End is Near

Last weekend was a busy one with final changes to the text, finishing touches to the cover art and tweaking the blurb. This evening will see the first attempt at uploading the text to the Amazon system. I thought I was going to get to it last night but then found that a few things have changed in the upload procedure and decided this was not the sort of thing to tackle 10pm. I’ll go in fresh this evening. I haven’t done a new upload in two years and a couple of things on the Amazon system have changed. There now appears to be a pre-order option which is interesting – watch this space on that. The end however is definitely hoving into view.

I have now have a mailing list, if interested read here

Announcement – I’ve set up a mailing list.

I’ve been asked a few time whether I have a mailing list and up to now the answer has been no. But with the final run up to book three underway I have decided it is time to get one started. If you would would like to receive email updates from me, please leave a comment at the bottom of on this posting. All postings on this blog have to be moderated by me before they become visible to anyone else. So please put your email address in the comment, which once I have taken a note of it, I will then delete so it doesn’t become visible to anyone else.

 

Regards

 

PS: A number of people have expressed an interest in being added to the list but haven’t given an email address, so don’t forget to leave me an address – I need something to work with!

Book Three is coming – update on the Last Charge

Okay, update time.

The Last Charge has now returned to me from my editor. No clangers like the infamous Thurder incident – overlapping names appears to have been my error of choice this time round. Now I have to do another complete read through, just to make sure no problems have wriggled their way in before I start preparing the file. Work has begun on the blurb, with suggestions being bounced off various friends, family and associates. Cover art – still on the to do list.

On the subject of Ships of the Fleet, I’ve rejigged and expanded the histories of the Fortitude and Resolutions to make them line up better. Wrote from scratch the history of the Contact War era battleship Resilient, two never-was designs and I’m now working on the write up for the Titan class. The models for Resilient and the Titans are done. That leaves between now and October, finishing the write up, a couple more basic models for the never-was designs, doing the artwork, pulling the file together. Which will be tough.

On a mildly related note I am now on Goodreads, so feel free to drop in and ask any book related questions that spring to mind.

Update on The Last Charge – Book Three of the Nameless War and other news

The Last Charge

Okay, so where are we up to?

Despite a dose of food poisoning this week saw the hand over of the manuscript for The Last Charge get handed over to my editor so unless he picks up something that has gone horribly, horribly sideways, the October release date is still looking good. In terms of tasks to be completed that leaves me with:

The Blurb (already wip)

The Cover Art (not started but I have some ideas)

Reading the manuscript again once I get it back. (I don’t remember writing this sex scene)

Preparing the file for the various electronic platforms. (Why won’t you work you stupid piece *************)

Preparing the file for the paperback.  (Why won’t you work you even stupider piece *************)

Preparing for the release.

But like I said – looking good.

 

Other News

As regular visitors are likely aware I have had an ongoing blog project call Ships of the Fleet. Up to now it has been done mostly for my own amusement but I am planning to formalize and expand the material into a short ship guide which I intend to release as an ebook along side Book Three. I don’t know whether there is a market for this kind of material so this project is me testing the water. The subject of the book will be the ‘Battleships of the Fleet’. So far I already have one new model done up with another about a quarter done and the write up has begun. I’ll need to do two more models and go back and look at the three which have already been displayed to freshen them up a bit*.

This does mean that bits of Ships of the Fleet might be disappearing in the future so enjoy them now. However, this is a side project, which means of secondary importance. If time starts getting short, then Book Three comes first.

Okay that’s the new round up complete.

 

 

 

* I recently and finally got round to obtaining a new PC. In the past I would decide a model was done when it got to a level of complexity that caused my old computer to basically stop and have a little cry every time I asked it to do anything.

Announcement: Book Three of the Nameless War – The Last Charge

So if you have clicked into this post, you are likely a reader of the first two books of the Nameless War. Having presumably enjoyed them you are now wondering when book three – The Last Charge will be out.

The answer is two years – October 2014 to be more exact. Why so long? Well as you maybe aware I am an amateur writer, I have a day job, so writing has to fight for space in my ‘hobbies’ time slot.  Believe me if I could release book three next month I would. But that isn’t an option and in my opinion it is very bad form to promise a delivery date you know you can’t meet. Whatever else I am proud of my first two books and I want to be equally proud of book three, that means writing it well rather than try to write it fast.

In the mean time I plan to continue to put up background information here and I welcome any comments anyone would like to make.

Thank you

 

NOTE: Just bumping this one up to the top in case people are having problems finding it.

This is not the end

So this evening I have finished the first draft of Book Three. Which is to say I have got to a point where I have felt able to write what I believe are the two word that a writer always need to be aiming for: THE END

So what next?

Well between now and next October I need to:

1. Write the second draft
2. Edit
3. Proofread
4. Edit some more
5. Get it edited
6. Tweak
7. Write the cover blurb
8. Prepare the file for publication on Amazon, Kobo and Smashwords.
9. Come up with cover art
10. Prepare the paperback file
11. Launch.

…

[whimper]

 

Well thank god I took the ‘lazy’ route of self publishing.

I think I’m going to take this even off though and drink that beer that been in my fringe since August.

When to let go of the setting

Recently a reviewer commented about that he would like to see the Nameless War/Battle Fleet setting go on beyond the Trilogy that is currently WIP in progress. Certainly friends and family have joked about me writing a trilogy in seventeen part (which I am categorically NOT doing) but when should a writer walk away from a setting?

Now to my mind a setting where as a reader you can only imagine it supporting one story is not a very good one (a statement some of you may disagree with) a setting should have space in which other stories can happen.  That being said I don’t like stories where it is the same character(s) saving the world again, and again, and again, and again… which is probably one reason why I never got into comic books. However I don’t mind where the writer reuses a setting with new characters; in fact I’ve come across writers who as one hero rode off into the sunset, moved a new character or a previous sidekick centre stage and have made it work very well. Even so every setting will I think soon or later hit the wall. Whether because events have altered the setting or characters so drastically that further adventures will seem forced or the need to do something new, makes the later works so different from the first they really should be separate setting.

Of course I am – and am content to be – an amateur, not a professional[1] writer. The money I make is a supplement to rather than my income and I don’t have a publisher on my back demanding that my next book reuse my most popular character or setting. Walking away from a successful setting means rolling the dice in terms or whether you can bring your readers with you. Stay in the creative comfort zone however and a writer may go stale (how often have you through: I loved his/her early stuff but the new is rubbish) So the decision for the professional must be a desperately nerve-racking one.

As I mentioned in a previous post the Nameless War  was not the book I set out to write. What would now be a prequel was in fact the story I intended to tell. Since I know how book three and the trilogy as a whole will end, I know the Battle Fleet Universe has a lot of room for further stories. I have some rough ideas for further events and perhaps even side events, which could fill anywhere between one and three books. But only rough ideas since I’m not going to waste thinking time which could be more productively used on the book I’m actually writing. Beyond that however I have at this point no real desire to go further because I think the setting would have gone as far as it could do. Anything more would be at best the lesser son of a greater sire.

Also like a good entertainer I believe you should leave your audience wanting more[2]

[1] My definition of Professional being anyone who relies on writing as their primary revenue source  (if that seems a little clinical I would remind that a work in accounts so I’m never going to take a fluffy view of money)

[2] although not too much more – I don’t want to be lynched.

ON AN ENTIRELY UNRELATED NOTE

I haven’t forgotten about Ships of the Fleet. I started work on the Luna Class Cruisers (Deimos) but then the muse clocked on and frankly when she say jump, I say how high?