Chris Hechtl's Blog, page 50

Just a quicky...

A quick heads up on news:
Mechmaster sent me back Afraid of the Dark the other day. I'm implementing some edits in between getting ready for Thanksgiving and dealing with family. (who want to shop daily, ugh!)
I don't have a time table on releasing it yet. He's suggesting a bit of a rewrite plus deleting sections of the book that don't contribute directly to the story. (but explain some other things I wanted explained for the possible game or sequel) I'm still debating what to do.

Poon has started winding down on corrections for 13 Degrees. If he gives it a passing grade I'll try to run it through one last read through/spell check and then publish it this week. (in-between the 1,001 other things I have to do this week!)

Edit: Oops! Forgot this: If you haven't seen it in the comments, Jory has created a Facebook Group called Federation Military Network. Fans can see some stuff I haven't released here or in the books just yet, plus discuss the Federation series.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/582559128466667/

And finally, Jory is working on a short story. We're still discussing details. I'm open to some of the insiders to write stories if they mesh well with the main plot, don't involve the main characters, or are out in another sector... :) What can I say, it's a big galaxy. Hint Jacob, Thomas. ;D

That's it for now! I'll post again when publishing is imminent! Now I get to chase my nephew and his cousin around John's Incredible Pizza and then shop. Joy!

Because I can...

One of the great things about doing your own cover art... and in doing it in 3D is that you can change camera angles, lighting, or other things.
I was going to work on my notes or other things, but instead was distracted all day. So, I set a series of shots up and rendered them out. Oddly, the shots looked better with GI and AO off. With them on, Irons and the other people looked ghoulish.
If you were wondering about the layout: The design of the bridge is based on one of my all time favorite Trek ships, the Defiant. It of course has my own twists though.I should have changed the color of the Helm and 1 engineer to a yellow trim suit, they are ratings. I borrowed the characters (Ensign Patter and Lieutenant Nobeki) for the people in the back of the shots.If you were wondering, the screens are from the web and my texture files. :)

PB cover and ships

Okay, enough teasing, here it is!
Yes, that is the admiral, yes he's evolved a bit. It's not just my skills, there is a reason for it. :)

Here are the ships seen on the holotable. For the record, no I didn't make them, I bought them and repurposed them for me and my universe. Call me lazy. :)

Terran HK gunship:
A bit of a misnomer, really a broad class designation with tons of variations. A gunship is basically a fighter writ large, with a crew of 3-6 depending on the species and how friendly they are. This one has destroyer class weapons mounted in fixed positions.
The gunship has a short range, and very short life support. It needs a mother ship. But it is fast, and can hunt down helpless prey, herding them in a direction or swarming targets like giant angry bees...
Apollo class Corvette:
This is a popular corvette design that was mass produced in thousands of star systems before and during the Xeno war. This ship is extremely popular with Horath...

Manta class Frigate:
This is a slightly redressed design with my turrets on it. The wings hold extra fuel and hard points for weapons.
The above vessels were created by rj001 with textures from my library. They are cheap, so if you want to play with them, by all means go pick them up and have a blast. I'd love to make a movie or 2 on youtube with them. :)

Next we have the Antelope class Fast Attack Destroyer:
The Antelope has a battlecruiser spinal mount graser/force beam weapon and a bunch of small turrets. It's fast but lightly armored. Good for a first response in a system attack, or in a raiding scenario.And finally, we have the Cutlass class. (I think it is something else but I'm blanking out) This ship was on the cover of Jethro 2. (in the background) It is an ancient ship, a heavily armored destroyer. It has over a dozen turrets, but only a few missile tubes and lacks proper point defenses. It's slow, but it is just a few meters under a light cruiser class designation.
Both of the above ships were made by: skynet3020 and Simon-3D.

I have other models by these folks which you will see later... like on the cover of um... New Dawn... :)
I'm at ends on what to do right now, sort of spinning my wheels since I keep getting interrupted. Catching up on house work before Thanksgiving sounds ... okay, I admit, it's not appealing. :)But nor is scrambling at the last minute either. :P Maybe I'll spend a day or 2 catching up with Bill Baldwin's Helmsman series...

PB was going to the dogs...

I did say was. LOL
I've since moved on from that cover art idea, though I did toy with it for a bit, and I did redress my Blitz cyberdog for the scene I had in mind.

The above 2 are purely robotic dogs.
This is a cyborg Bulldog. He's supposed to be a bit steamerpunk, but I got lazy since he was going to be in the deep background. He's also supposed to be a bulldog with a flat face, but it wasn't working out right. Inside the funky Boller hat (it's a glass dome) is the dog's organic brain. He's a mascot of the Bounty. (More on that when you read PB)

With that scene... not quite discarded, but well, no longer the primary idea... I've gone back to my original one, a space scene. But the problem is, I've done a lot over the course of my books. I want to do something different. So I've got a couple candidates in mind... but both are... complicated. Hard to do. REALLY hard to do. GRRR...