Hal Spacejock 5: Nearly Ready

The good news is that Hal Spacejock 5 will be released later this month (both ebook and print editions). It's been a long process, but I haven't spent the past three and a half years endlessly rewriting the same manuscript. Oh no, it's much more fun than that. I wrote Hal 5 FOUR times, with four different plots (and many other subplots), as well as a huge cast of characters scattered across the various attempts.

Do you want to know how many plots and subplots? Would it help if I told you I have Hal Spacejock books 6 through 20 half-written, partially written, outlined and/or plotted? No kidding. THAT many plots and subplots. Disaster plots, secret agent plots, big bad criminal plots, mistaken ID plots ... and others to boot.

Then, of course, there's the small matter of the Hal Junior series. When I got stuck with Hal 5 in 2010, I sat down and wrote three junior science fiction novels back to back. Last month I wrote another one, just because I could. Two are in print, the third should be out before the end of this year, and the fourth will probably be released March 2013, assuming the Mayan end-of-the-world prediction really is due to some jobsworth putting in a half-arsed affort when (s)he was finishing off a tricky calendar carving. (That's got my vote.)


So, what are some of the other titles I considered for this book?

Hal Spacejock 5: Let's start over
Hal Spacejock 5: Nearly Ready, I Promise
Hal Spacejock 5: I lied
Hal Spacejock 5: I think I'll tile the house
Hal Spacejock 5: How Many Blades of Grass in my Garden?
Hal Spacejock 5: Sharpen more pencils!
Hal Spacejock 5: I'd rather be programming
Hal Spacejock 5: About effing time

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