There have been several questions about my progress and my future books.
I have a lot of books planned, and a many are in various stages of completion.
Here are the books for the Federation Universe.
The Federation Universe is broken into 4 story time periods. (arches)
Founding of the Federation:
Just what is sounds like, this series deals with the founding of the Federation. It will touch on a lot of various subjects. Here are the titles:
1 First Steps -completed
2 To touch the stars (Forthcoming, 1% complete)
3 AI war (Forthcoming)
4 First Contact (Planned)
5 We the people... (Planned)
6: Short story book (Forthcoming 10% complete)
Twighlight of the Federation trilogy: (Gottenburg)
These books take place during the Xeno War. None of these have been written, just blocked out.
1 Sparks
2 Inferno
3 Embers
4 Bonus: short stories book (Forthcoming 1% complete)
Wandering engineer:
This is the main series (for now)
1 New Dawn New Dawn -completed
2 Fools Gold -completed
A: Jethro goes to War -completed
3 Destiny's choice -completed
4 Ghost Station (Rough draft complete, currently undergoing corrections before 2nd proof read)
5 Plague planet (Forthcoming, 25% complete, undergoing research)
B: First to Fight (sequel to Jethro, currently in production, 25% complete)
C: Short story anthology book Currently in production, 12% complete)
6 Pirates Bane (Forthcoming, 10% complete)
B: Jethro 3 No place like home (forthcoming)
7 Ghosts of the past (Forthcoming, 5% complete)
B: Jethro 4 (Forthcoming) Recruiting drive
Federation reborn:
(books 8-12 of the preplanned Wandering Engineer story arch, and then others)
These books take place right after book 7 and Jethro 4 (no timeskip) and will detail the new Federation and the start of the Horathian/Federation intergalactic war. I had planned them as part of the Wandering series but then broke them off when the focus changed to the bigger picture.
8 New beginings, POV book (Forthcoming)
9 Pirate Rage (Forthcoming)
B: Jethro 5 Ares god of war(Forthcoming)
10 Enemy of my enemy
B Marines of the reborn Federation (2-3 stories)
C: short stories (Forthcoming 10% complete)
11 Federation Academy (Forthcoming)
12 Short stories (anthology) 2% complete
13 spec ops
The short story books are recent additions. (well some are, book 12 and the marines were planned) I've been juggling them around to the right time periods and breaking them down in order of priority of writing. (right now I'm focusing on those that take place in or right before established books or before book 6 and 7)
If you are wondering about my system, it's just something I made up to keep me going. Anything as a treatment is 1-2%. Usually that means it's at least a page or 2 of plot with a bit of dialog as well as notes. Anything above 15 pages is 10% (that means I've got a handle on the plot and am comfortable enough with it to proceed further), 75 pages or more is 25%, above 150 pages is 50-60% and rough 1st draft is 75%. The remaining 25% is me editing, cleaning things up, doing rewrites, and doing my own proofing and spell check passes before I pass it on to the proof readers. (yes this is where I am having trouble, I'd much rather write then edit!)
Other books:
I recently came up with a book (sequel/parrellel) idea for Bootstrap, and a couple other series down as treatments as well as a bunch of short stories for various universes. I also wrote a Terminator Salvation book I submitted to Titan publishing that probably needs to be resubmitted... to who ever owns the rights now. lol
Lets see, the Forgotten Heroes series... The star Empire at war... um... Who done it(working title), Penence alien (working title), Elementals, Last assault of the Emperor, the cull... ugh the list goes on and on.
Don't even get me started about the other series I started writing! lol Let me stay focused on the Federation if you want them done soon!
If you are wondering what the release order... um... I'll get back to you on that. What I can say. Here is what I'm currently going off of:
Ghost Station: Gord (Thank you!) has passed it back to me and I've finished the basic corrections he sent me (the last this morning while also helping my landlord replace our leaking hot water tank) and I've started looking for any additional errors. I'm going to make a few story corrections he recommended (minor things and a loose plot point to clean up) before I pass it on to other proof readers. Hopefully we can see the book hit the stores by the end of the month. (Yeah, hopefully!)
Untitled Wandering engineer short story book: currently I've got 10-12 short stories in various stages of completion for this book. This project has exploded in the past 2 weeks. I've got 2 short stories done and off to the proof readers, with another 2 I'm working on. If all goes according to plan I'll have this done by the end of the month. :) (Hopefully!)
I've been coming up with short story ideas for all 4 (yeah all 4!) story arches every other day it seems. Last week I came up with 7, 2 in one day.
Afraid of the Dark: Mechmaster is currently working on proofing it. He is on chapter 27 of 63. (yeah, my longest book to date!) When he passes it back to me I need to reformat it and add a few bits I've thought of before I pass it on to anyone else. I'd say don't expect this book anytime soon.
Princess Rescue inc: Mechmaster has had it since last summer. I'm dangling it before the other proofers. :)
Plague Planet: Um... I need to do a bit more research here. Still working on it. Hopefully I'll have it off to the proofers by March or April. (Hopefully sooner!)
Jethro 2 First to Fight: I was working on it but then I switched to editing and Plague Planet. I may switch to it since it's a lot less complicated to write. (and there is a ton of action in it!)
Pirates Bane: This is where everything changes for Irons! The begining of the end of the wandering... I've been working on it, Ghosts from the Past, and Pirate's Revenge off and on. Hopefully I'll get it off to the proof readers by the end of summer. The others I dunno. We'll see.
To Touch the Stars: I started it last year but then I put it down in order to do some much needed editing and fixes to other books. Hopefully I can pick up where I left off and get it off to the proofers by the end of the year.
That's it for now! The rest well... we'll see how the next 3 or 4 weeks go!
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Noah's Ark has published
Yep, Noah's Arks has published! About: The world fell into despair when an extinction level event was confirmed. However Doctor N...
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Plugging away on Ghost station. I just finished Chapter 5 and I'm on to Chapter 6. 6 will be slower going, I'm pretty sure we're... -
Sorry for the delay! I goofed on the spelling of 'Separation' (separation) on Amazon, I'll correct it shortly. The manuscript...
And I thought i was the only one to have so many irons in the fire...no pun intended...lol. If you need any assistance give me a shout...
ReplyDeleteJust a quick comment... Chris, this blog post caused three things:
ReplyDeleteFirst, it set of my freaking ARRRRGGGHHH reaction yet again. I put part of that in an Amazon review of Fools Gold, but I'm putting the other part of it here. You keep insisting on just using the wrong freaking word and your beta readers don't catch it. In this case, you used "intergalactic" to describe a forthcoming war between the Federation and the Horath.
Intergalactic means between two galaxies. Never-the-less, the story to date, at least through Fools Gold makes it clear that the Federation / Xeno war was INTRA-galactic, that is, between star systems situated in a single galaxy.
You do this a lot. It drops sensitive readers right out of their reader's trance. In completing Fools Gold yesterday there were not less than six occasions in the last 10% of the story where I wanted to come, find you, and slap you silly.
Second, it reinforced my thoughts that you are really good at party-pooping my book lust. In writing the Amazon description of Destiny's Choice, did you really NEED to tell me the fact that the Admiral falls in love, and then looses her? Really? I had to know that BEFORE I read the book? Thanks so much. It really makes it possible for me to anticipate the blooming romance. How truely good. You did it again here.
Third, you need to get off your horse about trying to do your own proofing and editing. It's not what you're good at. As a matter of fact, it's entirely likely based on a quick read through the last 10 blog posts, and the three books I've read that you're actively bad at it. Please stop. Expand your circle of alpha readers and give them the book -as it is written-. Give them the raw output chapter by chapter. There are two -completely- separate issues here. a) grammer/spelling/word choice -- this is totally unimportant, and can be handed to a book prep person when the book is done. Then, there is the far more important b). Your alpha readers need to pay attention to PoV and to plot and to making sure that what you're handing them makes sense.
You're trying to combine those two things. It doesn't work. As a result you have a bad case of PoV shift. In Fool's Gold I even encountered the classic "Unintentional momentary shift of PoV". That is, a shift of PoV occurring WITHIN A SINGLE SENTENCE. There were many cases of PoV shifts within a single paragraph. Again, I kept being dropped out of the reader's trance by trying to figure out who the HELL was talking.
Your books are currently about 80% of the way towards being "commercial quality." You're within striking distance of a book that could actually get a traditional publishing contract. I am not saying that's the be-all end-all, I think for you the indy route is far better a choice. I'm saying, the difference between what you're writing and what you need to write to make an upper-middle-class income from writing it is about 20%. Keep working, and TRAIN your beta readers to feed back to you the far more important issues of PoV and Plot issues.
Next to last, if I read this blog right, you're parcelling your beta readers the stories one reader after another. I strongly suggest that you take the advice of most of the pro's I know and dump the text to the entire set at once. If I was wrong about that, I apologise.
Finally, I strongly urge you to go read Sarah Hoyt's blog posts on Beta readers and editing, and Katheryn Rusch on the new paradigms of the publishing business.
Good luck. I'll keep buying these, I'll keep reading them, but you're so CLOSE it's exasperating.
Rick Boatright
http://www.grantvillegazette.com
http://www.1632.org
http://rboatright.blogspot.com
It occurs to me that I failed to give an example of my biggest complaint, and without that, it's unjustified and unfair. Please consider this one tiny example of many.
ReplyDeleteThe following comes from about 99% of the way through Fool's Gold...
======================
"My marines are ready and waiting captain, just give them the word," the Major said, giving the captain an imploring look.
"And do what? Go in and shoot the Representatives of the colonies? That would go over SSSOO well with the public," Dan said with a shake of his head.
"I frankly don't care," Mayweather said quietly.
"You can't do that," Dan said surprised and agitated. She looked at him.
"As you were lieutenant commander. I'm in command. Or did you forget that?" she asked. He blushed and looked away.
==============================
Then, about a page later we get:
================================
"Bull. You said it wasn't supposed to happen like this," he snarled eyes glittering. Mayweather stood with a snarl of her own.
"You were in on this," she said, coming to a conclusion. "You were the one that fed them the Admiral's movements. That call you made," she said nodding. "You set him up. The logic bomb in the launch. XO check the boat bay records and see if the good lieutenant commander was there." “Son of a bitch! You’re the one who suggested he go explore the tunnels!” a crew member said suddenly.
=====================
So, First: Who is our PoV character? Whos eyes are we looking through? We have no idea. And the clues are confusing at best... in the first sample we get
"You can't do that," Dan said surprised and agitated.
Surprised and agitated is Dan's internal state. The only person who knows Dan is surprised and agitated is Dan. If he had said it "suprisedly" or "angrily" then we're not in his head, but he didn't. We were told his internal state. So, even tho it seems an odd choice, we assume Dan is our PoV character -- odd, but doable.
But then, about a half-page later we're told: "You were in on this," she said, coming to a conclusion.
Now, we have HER internal state. Uhhhh. So, we go back to the top of the scene and re-interpret it in a quick re-wind of the reader's trance in an attempt to put our eyes in the room in the right head; in this case the captain's. but there's that annoying bit from before about Dan's internal state. Damn.
Then... as tho that wasn't enough... we get this: "Son of a bitch! You're the one who suggested he go explore the tunnels!" a crew member said suddenly.
Wait a minute here... I though I knew who was in this room, of course, I don't know what room we're in, you didn't tell me. (I just went and checked back about 8 screens. Nope, I have no idea where we are... oh well... in any event, who is this random unnamed crewmember, and why is some random unnamed crew member suddenly in a session where the senior officers are discussing if they're going to commit mutiny against the elected government?
But oh well, let's go on. No, let's go back a sentence.
ReplyDelete=====================
"Son of a bitch! You're the one who suggested he go explore the tunnels!" a crew member said suddenly.
Firefly's avatar looked at him. His eye's burned red.
======================
Two problems here: First, whos eyes turned red. Oh, I get it they couldn't be BURNING red unless it was Firfly's eyes. But you've really slung a lot of him and he's around here in the last few paragraphs, and I had to stop and think about it. Ok, got it. I see Firefly turn and HIS eye's burn red. Ok, moving on.
Who did Firefly's avatar look at? Dan or the un-named crewman? Who was the first "him" in reference to? Ok, yes, in the next sentence I know you tell me that Dan is talking, so I presume retroactively that Firefly was looking at Dan, but I had to re-wind my head for a moment and un-look at the unnamed crewman, and look at Dan instead. It's confusing and interrupts the reader's trance.
What the heck, let's finish this scene. So, the Major picks Dan up, slams him against the wall. Mayweather says to brig Dan, the Major turns, Mayweather names his charges and then....
============================
Dan's eyes went wide. "You can't do that!" he said suddenly desperate. Treason was a death penalty offense. He looked around the bridge, but didn't find a single ounce of support in any of the people there. Cold accusing eyes stared back at him.
======================
And.... we're back in Dan's head. It's that nasty "he said suddenly desperate." (By the way, I think there's a comma missing there, but I could be wrong.)
If Mayweather (the logical choice) or Firefly (option2) is our PoV character in this little debacle, then how do I know Dan is suddenly desperate? He might SOUND desperate. He probably does. He more likely sounded flabbergasted or astonished.
OK, I'll stop. I wouldn't mind this so much if it didn't happen so darned frequently. I just wrote that it happened every time you had four or more people in a room, but I take that back. It may not be true. It happens a lot. I didn't go searching for this. It just happened to be close to the end of the book.
The best way I know of to think of this when you're writing (or when I'm reading) is as the camera angle." You want the camera angle to be "low" -- shoulder or eye level. In these examples, you broke that rule, and thus break reader immersion by suddenly "elevating" the camera way high up and interjecting authorial
commentary from above looking down.
Instead of SHOWING the reader what they are seeing/hearing, you start TELLING them what's going on in the minds of the characters.
Quick flipping didn't find an example of the other one, even though as I was reading I thought to myself several times about it when it occurred.
In general, it's better if you -never- tell me what's going on in a character's head. Ever. Show me. Don't tell me.
For God's sake, in the Admiral's case, you have his internal AI's, which allow you to turn anything into dialog, but even in the case of another character, you can simply turn it into INTERNAL dialog (as long as it's internal to the PoV character you've chosen for this scene. )
Just please, don't make me deal with
==="But..." he hung his head, knowing he was defeated. ===
If you just do away with "knowing he was" the line is so much stronger.
=== "But..." He hung his head, defeated. ===
Really stopping now. But I had to get this off my chest or I wouldn't have been able to work this weekend.
And feel free to trash these and ban me if you like. At least I got it said.
And feel free to trash these and ban me if you like. At least I got it said.
ReplyDeleteNot how I work. Thank you for your honesty. I'll look into some of what you said.