Yes, I’ve been a bit quiet lately, but I’ve been working hard.
And Here The Wheel has been out for nearly two months now. It was the last of the five Fantastic Elite Fiction books to receive a major publicity push and this has resulted in some good sales and 7 Amazon reviews (3 on the .com and 4 on the .uk sites). That is quite a bit behind the other titles, but I’m not complaining, I am very thankful for every review. To every person who has taken the time to write about how they have enjoyed the result of 18 months of sweat and tears, thank you.
What is the future for And Here The Wheel? Well at the moment it’s sharing the Garry Clan lore with you, building it together as part of the newsletter and the Robert Garry ‘Decision Times’ In idle moments I think about sequences for the possible future sequel (All depending on whether Frontier Developments wish to offer another license). There were a few relationships left open at the end of And Here The Wheel and these will continue to progress through the next novel. The focus will also shift slightly and bring about some serious ass-kickery.
All the storys that I have written start in my head as little snippets of dialogue, of imagined filmed scenes, highlights from a movie trailer. A novel I was working on prior to And Here The Wheel stayed in my head as a single video sequence for many years before it became the novel that I wrote. Right now the sequel for And Here The Wheel is in that area and I”m happy to let it stay there, picking up what it will from my subconscious. The genesis of And Here The Wheel was very abrupt and forced to a degree – I didn’t have the lazy blue sky thinking time that you would like to have. I had a deadline and I forced the evolution of the plot and concept through professional services – story coaches and the like. I’m quite looking forward to having And Here The Wheel II take its sweet time.
Of course none of this is what is taking up my time. No, I’ve been filling my time with a heady mixture of overtime at work, gym work (and coping with a twingey shoulder) and my next venture the writing for an upcoming computer game called Shallow Space.
SHALLOW SPACE
As part of my background development for this computer game, I wrote a serial short story that has been released in sections on the Shallow Space website. I’ve now compiled the various sections into one story, expanded and enhanced it, created cover art and turned it into a shiny ebook free for everyone to enjoy.
It can be found at Smashwords for download in all kinds of different formats. It is also on Amazon for 99c but I hope that I’ll have that down to free soon as well.
Alternatively you can download the .mobi format right here
Its a small story, about 3,000 words, following the exploits of mercenary Marlon Kurtz as he attempts to pull off the biggest heist in human history. The story is set a few years before the beginning of the game and leads into the planned alpha release that will be out later this year.
I’ve embedded the latest video clip of the in-design game. More can be found at our Youtube Channel
With that wrapped up my next few jobs will be the script for some more pre-alpha stuff and getting back to universe and lore creation. It’s quite fun because I have a lot of ‘plot stuff’ to plan for and these need to come about organically from the backstory. Thus, I have to work backwards and plant seeds that grow into what you will see in the game (and sequels).
But before I do that the Garry Clan needs a bit of love…
THE GARRY CLAN
Those of you that have read Elite:And Here The Wheel will know what the Garry Clan has been up against. The future? If I am able to write a sequel, you will find out. What about the past? The lead up to the novel? That is still in our hands. The second ‘Garry Clan’ newsletter continued the ‘Commerce Disruption’ storyline, ending on another ‘Decision Time’. What would Robert Garry do to the Lakon Captain? You have voted and the answer is:
b. Punch the Captain. Get into a fist fight – burn off that adrenaline.. This time the poll was very even, compared to the first poll which was pretty one-sided.
So now the story must go on. The next newsletter of the Garry Clan will be out this week (hopefully) jam packed with extra tidbits about the Clan. If you have read And Here The Wheel then you are practically family and absolutely must be registered to be part of the clan. Click here to sign up.
I’ve had a few issues with Commander names in the Beta so I am currently flying a random numerical number as a name, but hopefully soon you’ll see Robert Garry flying the stars. If you do, please hail me to say hi (and not ‘surrender or die’ – I’m playing with a mouse and combat is beyond me at present!)
FANTASTICON
Pretty much everyone involved with Fantastic Books Publishing has been pushing this event for the last month or so. I’m not going to repeat it all here again but click on the link to check out what is in store (pretty much geek overload) but in addition I will be streaming via skype or similar at around 1AM my time. Yay for timezones! So if you are going to Fantasticon make sure you get some screen time with me and say hello!
Out of the Darkness
T.James, another Elite author (self publishing with editing assistance from Allen Stroud) has recently released his cover art and it looks pretty gorgeous. He is pretty close to release so if you haven’t had your fill of Elite fiction head to his website and wait for the signal!
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And now back to the grindstone for me. If you’ve read And Here The Wheel or you read ‘The Gift’ I’d love to hear what you think. Both are up on Goodreads and Amazon and waiting for comments or reviews. Or if you want to send me your thoughts privately, please email me at john_at_andherethewheel.co.nz
Thanks for stopping by.
Cheers,
John