The last three weeks are a vague blur, mostly because I caught that damned zombie cold that was making its rounds in Seattle, with a tremendously bad batch of allergies on top. Blogging has fallen by the wayside, which is bad, because I try to put something up three weeks in four, mostly to give myself somebody to talk to.
Plus, I lose track of time, when we talk publishing.
From the point when I finish writing something, time passes. It goes to one or more first readers for review, usually at least Fabulous Publisher Babe™ and stays there a while. Then I fix all the mistakes she caught. After that, the big pieces go on to a proper copyedit by a fantastic expert.
Couple months have passed by the time I get it back from her, and then incorporate all the things she caught. From there, we produce a final edition that goes into the publishing schedule.
Those of you who have been paying attention at home should have added a reminder on your calendar that I will have something come out on the 10th of every month (not counting me screwing up her schedule). You can also go to my Amazon author page, sign in as you, and CLICK ON THE “follow me” button, middle left side, under my picture. When you do that, Amazon will send you helpful reminder emails when I put something up for pre-order, as well as when things go live. Usually on Saturdays.
You’ll get one shortly. Hint hint.
So it is the beginning of July.
I wrote the fourth Science Officer, The Pleasure Dome, in January, and she published it in May. The fifth Jessica Keller novel, Flight of the Blackbird, I actually wrote last fall, but the novels have a LOT of lead time built in. Fabulous Publisher Babe just put the fifth Science Officer book, The Doomsday Vault, up for preorder in all the usual places. It comes out in August.
The sixth Science Officer, The Last Flagship, is due back from the copy editor shortly, and is scheduled to come out in October. The seventh Science Officer, The Hammerfield Gamble, is in the can right now. I’m very close to finishing the eighth Science Officer, The Hammerfield Payoff, as we speak.
Those last two will most likely come out together, probably in the December timeslot. I write these things like television episodes, and that one is the cliff-hanging, season-ending, double-header. 5-8 are also a mini-series called The War of the Pirate Clans.
Meanwhile, the first four (The Science Officer, The Mind Field, The Gilded Cage, and The Pleasure Dome) are set to come out together as an omnibus edition soonish. Available in both print and ebook. That will be a good thing for you to buy for those friends you want to hook on the stuff. The next four will be Omnibus 2: War of the Pirate Clans.
And I haven’t even talked about audio books, yet. Matt Weight just finished the audio for The Pleasure Dome and it should be going up soon. And I think he just started on The Doomsday Vault this week. I’m hoping there exists some extra neat way we can take his first four audio books and also to do an omnibus audible edition. The Science Officer audio books don’t sell that well, but that’s due to length. People don’t want to burn free credits they get for signing up for Audible, on something short. If there is a novel-length omnibus, they might bite, and the first four combined come in at around 110,000 words.
You can see why I need a score card.
Do you want a scorecard? I could put together a page on my website that is configured to print easily, with titles, series, pub dates, and a check box for you to mark what you haven’t read yet.
Someone remind me to do that.
So then, Jessica.
I have a tremendous amount of notes about the sixth Jessica Keller novel, The Red Admiral. That’s the next major project, minor ones tucked in along the way. I won’t spoil Flight of the Blackbird by giving anything away, but The Red Admiral will be the first book of an interior trilogy (six, seven, eight) that picks up right at the end of Blackbird, and will set the stage for the ninth and last book.
I love Jessica, but I want to finish her story so I can go on and do other things. Some of them will occur in the Alexandria Station universe, but I also have some wonderfully fun other things I want to write. There is an epic space opera series I plan to go after next, on a scale that makes Alexandria Station look tiny and provincial by comparison.
I might have to write the first three novels back to back to back so I can drop them all at once. People tell me that some readers won’t touch a series until it is done. You can thank GRR Martin and a few others for that.
Moving on.
The first two short stories in Agent Kiesler’s Secret War (The Rescue and The Machine) are coming in July. Number three is just back from first reader and I need to fix it.
There will also be The Rangers: Tales From A Post-Apocalyptic America. It will come out in the fall and have the first five Dale Embry short stories (#1 being The Last Ranger in Alternative Truths Vol 1). I have already planned the next cowboy novel that comes after that in that world.
(If you people make me rich and famous writing cowboy stories, I might never forgive you. Just want you to know that’s on your conscience. Not saying I wouldn’t do it. Got a page of story ideas and themes to hit one of these day. But still.)
I’m also publishing a number of superhero pieces this year to go with White Crane. The Breakfast Dragon came out in “Steam. And Dragons.” Kid Lexington came out in Hiding Behind The Cowl. Have several others written and being edited. A sequel of sorts to Kid Lexington (set twenty years later) will be coming out in November as part of a bundlerabbit bundle comprised (I think) of around a dozen, all-new pieces, purpose-written for the bundle.
Busy, busy, busy.
And I’m finally mostly over that damned cold, even if I’ve been popping mentholated cough drops like candy to break up all the crap in my lungs.
So stay tuned. There will be more updates coming, once I dig out from under the mess. And you’ll have lots more things to read.
shade and sweet water
bd
West of the Mountains, WA