Mike Shepherd's Blog, page 7

New Cover for First Casualty.

 

Here’s the draft cover for the reprint of First Casualty.  I understand that Mike Shepherd’s name will be on the final, and they’ll mention I’m the author of the National Best Selling Kris Longknife series.

 

First Casualty’s new cover.

New cover for The First Casualty

I got the first draft of First Casualty’s new cover. The artwork is spectacular. Ray Longknife looks like one hard case. A question for those of you who have read First Casualty, The Price of Peace and They Also Serve. What do you think is a good name for this series. I’ve called it the Ray Longknife series, although he’s not in The Price of Peace. I’ve also called it the Jump Point Universe. What do you think best tells you what to expect in these soon to be four (or five, six and seven) books?

Summer Fun

When I got back from WesterCon, I discovered a lot of changes in life. My 11 year old grandson had become a gamer, and my 13 year old granddaughter had discovered Filking.

And I had the galley proofs for Furious waiting in my in-basket. Furious was a great read . . . for about the 10th time, and also clean. It’s turned in and is ready for the Oct 30th release.

And I went straight into KL-Defender and added a second coat of polish and another 1000 words. And it was a long book before.

I think I’ll tackle another coat of polish for Hounds of War while Defender is out to first readers. Fun, fun, fun.

Travel plans and Cons

I’ll be spending July 5-9 in Seattle at WesterCon. I’ll be at SpoCon in Spokane WA 9-12 August. WorldCon is in Chicago, Aug 29 to September 3. I’m the Guest of Honor at Orycon Nov 2-4 and intend to hit TusCon, AZ the next week with my brother. In early 2013 I’m looking at CondorCon in San Diago, RadCon in TriCities Washington, NorWesCon in Seattle, and, of course, WorldCon in San Antonio.

Let me know if you can think of some Cons I need to hit.

Oh, and write. Note to self. Write! Kris Valiant, Vicky Survivor and the first book of the Iteeche Wars.

Vicky Peterwald – Target turned in.

This week I turned in Vicky Peterwald – Target to Ace. Since it isn’t yet under contract, I can’t offer any potential publication date, but it take place at the same time as Furious, so I can hope it gets out before KL Defender. I’ll keep you up to date.

Next week I’m off to the coast to finish Hounds of War. It is due to be turned in for Christmas and will be published early  in 2014 after the first three Ray Longknife/Trouble books come out next year.

Here’s the cover for Welcome Home / Go Away

Here’s the e-cover for the coming e-special Welcome Home / Go Away that gives Grampa Trouble’s take on how Kris got her welcome home from Daring.

You can pre-order it from B & N at

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kris-...

or at Amazon at

http://www.amazon.com/Kris-Longknife-...

Copy Edits for Welcome Home done.

May has been a busy month.

Monday of this week I found the copy edited manuscript for the e-special Welcome Home-Go Away in my in basket. It was clean and I sent it back today.

Last week at the Oregon Coast, I put another 141 pages and 28,000 words into Hounds of War. It’s up to 86,000 words and next month should finish it. All I need to do is storm Black Mountain and start the Iteeche War and I’m done.

I signed the contracts for Mutineer and Deserter to be published in both German and Polish. The money for Deserter and Defiant arrived from Japan. No doubt Deserter will show up in Japanese stores soon.

Vicky Peterwald — Target is out for a second read and I’m aiming to deliver it by Mid-June.

Republishing Lost Days is on my to do list for this summer. I hope to have it up in e-book by September.

Lots of fun reading headed your way.

Kris Longknife: Welcome Home – Go Away

Yesterday I finished Welcome Home – Go Away and turned it over to my second reader to comb out as many nits as possible.

For those of you who love Grampa Trouble and Gramma Ruth, this will be fun. Most of the story is in Grampa Trouble's view point, and what he's viewing is Grampa Ray, king to some, as he struggles to juggle the hot potato that Kris dropped in his lap toward the end of Daring.

This will give you the back story leading up to that disastrous meeting between Kris and the unholy trinity. You'll find out what Grampa Trouble thinks about not being there and what he and Gramma Ruth intend to do about it.

It's a great bridge between Daring and Furious, and you really want to read this e-special when it comes out in September/October of this year.

Vicky Peterwald — Target is done.

Over the last two days, I put the final 15,000 words into Vicky's book. It's in the first draft. Now I get to polish it. Great fun for a writer.

I've also been putting 3,000 words into KL: Welcome Home/Go Away, this years e-special for Sept/Oct.

Tomorrow, I restart writing Hounds of War with Ray and Rita, Trouble and Ruth and a whole lot of other fun folks from the first three Ray Longknife books. Nice to see them again.