Five Book Series (maybe +1)

Posted on November 24, 2013 by BR

I’ve known now for quite some time that This Corner of the Universe will be a five-book series, and I may have casually suggested it in an earlier post but never truly announced it.  So, I’m announcing it.  I don’t want to become an author that gets stuck, milking a series and eventually having the entire saga take a nosedive.  I love these characters enough that they deserve to have an ending (good or bad).

I figure I can always write a spin-off series as the crew of Anelace has certainly met enough interesting people that could warrant their own stories (some of them have even survived!).  I have nothing really concrete on who or what I would like to spin off because I’m very focused on writing the best TCOTU series I can, but it’s always been in the back of my mind: “What will I do after the series is over?”

One thing I think I do want to try is a single book fantasy story but that is way out on the horizon.

So, what’s the “+1” in the title of this post?  When I wrote No Way to Start a War, I was very conscious of Lombardi, even when she was just in the background.  Mostly this was because I knew she would develop into a main character near the end of Book Two, but also because as I wrote No Way to Start a War, I realized just how much she was going through.  That got me thinking that it might be interesting to write a novella that follows Book Two but from her perspective.  It would be short and priced appropriately but it could make for some interesting reading.  Of course it will have to wait at least until I’ve written and released Book Three, The Wrong Side of Space, because it could give away some major/minor plot lines otherwise.

Let me finish by, once again, thanking all of you who have read the books for your support.  The reviews are truly humbling to read and I’m grateful and inspired to receive them.  Honestly, a lot of the reviews make me re-double my efforts because I realize that the hard work isn’t going to waste.

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Thanks for the Great Support!

Posted on November 16, 2013 by BR

This weekend marks the one-month anniversary for the release of No Way to Start a War.  I’ve been extremely happy with the reception the book has received.  I’m very grateful to each of you who have given up valuable free time to read the second story, and even more so to those who took the extra time to give it a favorable review.  I’m very happy with the reviews so far.  I think I’m the luckiest author in the world to have readers that are willing to overlook my shortcomings and concentrate on the good.  Don’t think I don’t appreciate that!

Book Three (The Wrong Side of Space) is still being written, and it’s going slow.  This book has two major story lines and the surviving characters need to be at a certain point in the story for Book Four.  Getting each character to that point is proving challenging but certainly achievable.  I’m trying to keep the book (and series) streamlined; I don’t like reading filler and I expect most of you don’t either.  So, it’s a tough balance between ensuring the characters’ reactions are believable/understandable without overkill on why a certain character may feel a certain way.

My goal is to have the rough draft for TWSOS completely finished by the new year.  That will give me plenty of time to go back and rewrite spots that obviously need it.  Then begins the long, but necessary, process of editing.  I’d like the book to be released next Spring but I don’t know early or late Spring yet.  My gut tells me I may need to work into January to get the first draft complete.  It’s just going slow and I care about the characters and story enough that I don’t want to rush; I want to get it “right.”

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Starting the War

Posted on November 7, 2013 by BR

I took some pictures of a few opening notes I made while beginning to outline No Way to Start a War.  If you look at the pictures, sorry about my handwriting; it’s awful.  Also, these are preliminary notes, and some of the information/concepts weren’t used or were changed.  Don’t let that confuse you where the details differ from the novel.

The first picture is the first page of my notes.  It was actually written before the final editing of This Corner of the Universe (Book 1).  You can see I am going through all the possible names for BRS Kite.  I did a Google search for names of shields and looked for a name I liked.  Originally, Heskan was going to captain Aspis; however, I figured Aspis was a little too close to Anelace and I ended up choosing Kite.  I still liked Aspis though, and Lt. Gary got that one.  By the way, Kelly Gary is a very respectful homage to author Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet series’ “Blackjack” Gary.  I love that series.  In the picture, you can also see my crude “To Do” list.

The first notes for No Way to Start a War

The first notes for No Way to Start a War

The second picture is the actual Task Group’s organization.  I knew the story would focus on it and it was one of the first things I created.  As you can see, originally I thought about having three carriers.  However, in the end I realized that adding the additional crew and carrier could be confusing since there were already enough characters in the story.  Plus, it contradicted the story that the Brevics were very short-handed during this book and playing “catch-up.”  You can also see that I broke down the CortRon into divisions (which was written into the story but later taken out because it was only mentioned peripherally and again ended up possibly just being confusing).

Task Group 3.1 early conceptualization

Task Group 3.1 early conceptualization

The third picture is figuring out the weapons each ship in the TG would have as well as the fighter squadrons.  I am an Air Force guy so I bastardized Avenger’s/Eagle’s fighter squadrons into a Navy/Air Force kind of organization.  You can see each fighter originally could only carry two missiles but that wasn’t effective enough and I ended up I doubled it.  You can also see that the CVA Avenger is a “Yorktown” class heavy carrier (that was later changed to Vindicator class) and Eagle was going to be a “Ranger” class (whereas it is Raptor class in the final book).  Both Yorktown and Ranger were meant to be homages to WW II carriers, and the class names were changed to remain consistent with my convention that each ship of a class is named similarly to the lead ship in the class.  Bulwark–> Bastion, Chariot/Coach –> Carriage, Curator/Sentinel –> Champion.  Ship speeds were totally reworked.

Ship details and classes

Ship details and classes

Anyway, that’s some insight to the very beginning of the creation process for No Way to Start a War.

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