Mike Shepherd's Blog, page 9

Latest update 1/15/12

Since I've got KL-Defender in draft, I've started work on Vicky Peterwald — Target. This is Vicky's story after the end of Daring. I hope to have it out about this time next year in both e-book and POD formats. ACE has given me a due date for KL;Welcome Home — Go Away for April 15. Two big deadlines for one day. Oh boy. Starting in September or October of this year you should have something from Kris's world every other month or so.

Oh, and I've got up, some places, two more story collections. The Job Interview with war stories, and The Strange Redemption of Sister Mary Ann with interesting end of life stories. Enjoy

Something short for Next Year.

My editors think that Training Daze helped jack up the sales for Daring, and have asked me for a short something (Daze grew from 6,000 words to 18,000 in the writing)

I've gotten feedback that wonders why Kris got the homecoming she got. I'm thinking that a story set in maybe Trouble's viewpoint as he and King Ray get Kris's initial report and react to it and her coming home might explain a lot of questions.

Also, I'd love to write my take on how elephants make those 'great' decisions they come up with.

Any thoughts out there before I start this?

New Book and New Series started

I surprised myself last week at the Oregon Coast. I managed to put 26,000 words in Vicky Peterwald — Target. Like Kris Longknife — Furious, this will be a sequel to Daring. I figured Vicky faced enough problems coming home to have a book just like Kris. As it turned out, she does! This book will likely be an e-book independently published four to six months after Furious, so starting in 2013, you'll have two books to read each year.

Defender (formally Valiant) is done!

Today I finished Defender, the book for Oct 2013. It's only a rough draft. Now I get to polish it (wee)! It's 119,500 words in rough, so I need to cut it a bit, but it's so much fun it may be hard to pull much of it at all. Remember, Furious will be your Oct 2012 book. 40,000 words added this week at the coast. It was really rolling. Fast write and, no doubt, it will be a fast, fun read. Enjoy.

Latest Audible Contract

For those of you who like to listen to Kris's adventures, there is good news. I just signed the latest contract for Audible.com and it was for two books, not one.

They have put Furious under contract as well as Defender, (was Valiant). That means you can count on the audible.com version of both books being out as soon as the paperback, just like Redoubtable was.

No more mix-ups. Nice.

A question from a fan on Daring.

A fan, John, sent me an e-mail asking me about a problem he had with Daring. Why would the Bug Eyed Monsters rob a planet of its water and other resources when they have access to the resources already in orbit, e.g. mineral in asteroid belts and water in in rings like Saturn?

That's a good question, and I should have done a better job of addressing it in the book, but didn't.

First off, it's a good question. Many years ago while reading Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, Footfall, I had the same reaction. Why attack Earth when you have all the resources of the solar system at your finger tips. Well, part of the answer is obvious. If the aliens got smart, there'd be no story. I'd like to think my aliens are a bit less plot driven.

First off, as I've said before, all actions by us and I suspect all alien intelligence is not necessarily rational. The reaction that Kris faces at the end of the book meets my definition of that.

Thus, the action of the aliens may not meet our definition of rational.

There's a second source for what may appear to be irrational action. Ritual or tradition may dictate people do something that we find down right weird.

A case in point. I've heard a story of the disappearance of the Anasazi Indians from the four corner pueblo area. It's generally agreed that they had suffered from repeated droughts but the question remains why they suddenly got up and left. The report I read said that further studies found that many of the homes had human droppings in the hearth … and when those droppings were tested by modern means they showed evidence that someone had eaten manflesh for their last meal. My suspicion is that a war band of Aztecs from much further south had hit the Anasazi when they were down, and those that survived the attack fled. The Aztecs, to show their disdain for such a non-war driven group, not only ate the dead but desecrated the homes and hearths.

There's no rational reason for that action, but the evidence is there and the action was taken.

Kris doesn't know a lot about these aliens she's stumbled onto. What she has is data points that she's trying to connect. From where I'm sitting, Kris is likely to need the next three books to fit all the pieces together and get a working theory on these monsters. Sorry if you find that a bit long, but we don't do weird overnight.

If John had been one of my first readers, however, I would have had Kris and Penny at least talk about the strange behavior of the aliens on this point. Yep, it's not logical, though it did make sure no life regrew on this planet. Hmm, is that a data point as much as them taking the resources for themselves?

And, yes, John, I did have your question in the back of my mind as I was writing that scene. I should have added the Kris and Penny scene but I didn't.  Maybe that was an …  Oops.

Final Names for the next three books

I hope this doesn't confuse anyone, but I've renamed two of the next three books.

Furious remains Furious. It's turned in and the name just so fits.

Valiant is good, but not quite what I want for the book that is now 80% done. My editor and I agreed on my wife's suggestion Defender.

The third book is to be Courageous. I'd offered my editor Magnificent or Courageous. She said it was up to you readers to decide Kris is Magnificent, so Courageous it will be.

Now that the Naming is all done without me and John Hemry going to sword points, I can get down to writing them

Oh, by the way, the first book of the next contract is starting to come alive. Kris's story is no where close to finished.

Thank You!

I'd like to thank all of you who raced out to buy your paperback copy of Kris Longknife — Daring. The first week partial sales put Daring at 30 in the New York Times' extended listing of best selling paperbacks. This is the first time I've ever gotten close to being a Times Best Seller, so thank you all for your support.

Mike

Just how Daring is Kris?

I'll be spending this weekend in San Diego at World Fantasy Con, kind of a reward for getting all the books moving so fast. I'll also be doing drive by signings at all ten of the B&N in the area, so if you live in San Diego near a B&N, you might want to ask them to get the books out of the back room.

Feel free to use this space to comment on the drastic changes to Kris's world that Daring brings about. This is just the start. Furious and Valiant will mean even more changes. And Conqueror, if my editor allows it will be even bigger change.

Enjoy. Your comments may not be moderated until I get home Monday, but I'll try to do it on the road if I can.

Worldwide availability of Daring

Sorry, non-North American folks, it looks like we're in for another delay.  Daring is the 3rd book of the old contract.  Furious and Valiant are book 1 & 2 of the next contract.  Next contract gives Ace the Worldwide rights from the get go.  Training Daze also gave them the worldwide rights, but you've seen how that went.  I'm told that Ace is preparing a mod to the last contract to cover all Kris Longknife books and have them go worldwide.  I've asked my agent to put a rush on it as soon as it gets to them.

Problem is, the contract mod isn't out of Ace contracting yet and thus, the door is locked for now to worldwide rights.  If you think you're bugged by this, I'm right along with you.  Why this wasn't done back in April when I told both agent and Ace that I wanted to clear things up and go worldwide for everything shows that the Government Bureaucracy where I worked for 30 years  isn't the only place where things go sssllllloooooowwwly.

I'll keep all of you up to date on how this goes.