Writing LONDINIUM, Part I: Maps and the first chapter!

 Finding time to write has been the difficult part of getting going for this book thus far.  And when I have a bit of time, I can sit and stare at the screen.  Sometimes I'm just not "feeling it" for whatever reason.  That sucks and there's little to be done for it.

Another obstacle?  What to listen to as I write.  Readers know I listed to the thirteen-plus hours of the Galactica/Caprica soundtracks over and over, totaling thousands of hours, but what to listen to as I write a story set in a modern Roman Empire?  Well, I started by listening to Roman and Greek music (or at least recreations thereof).  Eh.  Then I moved on to movie soundtracks, but those weren't terribly inspiring and I often got distracted thinking about the movies and scenes I was listening to.  I ended up back in the Galactica-verse.  Yeah, I'm listening to Bear McCreary's great music, over and over again, again, as I write.

Longtime readers know I love to map things.  It helps me immerse myself in the worlds I'm building and maybe it helps readers, too.  If nothing else, it shows the readers that I actually put some thought into the bullshit I write.  This time, since I am writing about our world in a different dimension, mapping our world with Roman lines and names on everything would be helpful.  So here you go:

 

Click to embiggen

 

I had to do a lot of reading on Roman history and indigenous languages to understand how the world might look.  Europe was called "Europe," the Atlantic "the Atlantic," and "Africa" to the Romans is what we would call "north Africa."  "Oriens" is Latin for "east" and I chose that for Asia's name; thus also the "Eastern Ocean" aka "Oriental Ocean" ("Oriental" not having been used as a slur in that universe).  Some of the other continent names come from an ancient map of the world by Crates of Mallus.  He called the land south of north Africa "Antoeca" while he also hypothesized a pair of continents on the other side of the world, Perioeca and Antipoda.  Thus, when my Romans went exploring, that's what they called these lands in the "New World."  Australia gets the name "Marege" from the Makassar people of Indonesia, who, centuries ago, spoke of the land to their south as "Marege," the "wild country."  

I had to map Londin a bit, too, so I started with the various police districts and I imagined greater Londin as a bit bigger than the London of our universe:

"Southwark" is a name used in London today, but it's a quite ancient name, so I kept it for the book.  Newfield and Broadhand are based on ancient Roman settlements in those areas and I just translated their Latin names into English.  If you Google "Londinium," you'll likely see a polygon settlement on the north side of the Thames; that's the "Old City" in the above map.  The "New City" is the provincial and city buildings (the governor's palace, the Senate house, magistracy, etc.) that function today on the south side of the River Tames (no "h" in that universe, and it rhymes with "aims").  "LIC" is the "Londin Intercontinental Skyport"; "The Star" is the massive railway and subway (called "underway") complex that got its name because the converging rail lines looked like a star.  "Portaper" is a neighboring city that handles a lot of cargo because it straddles the Tames; name derives from Latin for "port" and "opening."

The story of Londinium is set today, but in a world where the Roman Empire didn't go away.  (I wrote out a very detailed history of the world that I'll probably include in the book as an index.  I did it mostly to keep things straight in my head as ideas came to me and to provide backstory to the various cultures.)  The world is governed from Roma and all people born on Earth are citizens of the Roman Republic.  Londin has been associated with Roma for almost two thousand years.  The Normans never invaded, England never had its own kings or queens, English isn't spoken there ... neither is Italian, for that matter.  The language of the Republic is called "Roma," and it's probably some flavor of Italian, but not exactly.  (This is why some cities may sound Italian to our ears, like "Bonaventura.")  I'm writing in English because that's what I know ... I'm not JRR Tolkien over here inventing a whole new language.  Well, at least not this time.  The people of Brittan are not reserved ... they are wholly different than the people of Great Britain.  That's something I wanted to communicate in this first chapter.  These aren't Brits, so don't imagine them speaking with a Cockney accent or something.  Slang "yes" and "no" comes from corrupted Germanic, "ya," "na."  There's no "OK"; these people are more apt to say "Aye" in its place.  The Republic has existed in one form or another for almost three millennia.  It is ever-present in the people's lives and no one questions it.  It's a different world.  I'm curious if all of this is conveyed.

Read the chapter after the JUMP:

Writing the Special Editions Part VI: An Unseen Pic and Commentary

 I'm currently in the middle of the Cylon War on my first pass through the Special Edition of Colonies of Kobol.  I'm having a lot of fun rereading this and writing my thoughts in there, including pics and other stuff, references to the shows, translating the Tauran dialogue, ...

At any rate, I thought you might enjoy a sample piece of the commentary, along with a map I created while I wrote Book Thirteen: Caprica, but didn't end up publishing in the final version of Volume Three.

In this chapter, we have the first mention of specific sectors.  On screen, the only sector mentioned was Sector Twelve, which included the location of Djerba in Blood & Chrome.  Due to its proximity to Scorpia and the blue interstellar gases visible, I determined that Sector Twelve was in or near Helios Gamma.  I doodled and scribbled for a while and eventually came up with a rudimentary map:

Let me state up front that I didn't want to publish this in the final book because I wasn't happy with the way it looked, plus I couldn't figure out how to deal with overlapping sectors between systems, how far out from each system the sector should spread, would there be sectors in the Gulf?, and so on.

In the end, I decided that there were twenty sectors overall.  Sectors Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta are comprised of the main planets of each respective solar system, but a solar system is much bigger than just the orbits of its planets.  There are Kuiper Belts, Oort Clouds, and more.  Simplified for the purposes of this book, however, I primarily worried about the Outer Belt (aka Kuiper Belt) where dwarf planets, tylium, ores, water, etc., can be found. 

So why are the other sectors numbered that way?  Well, for Sector Twelve, I knew it had to be in Gamma and I knew I wanted it closer to the Gulf so Husker and Coker's Raptor could reach that sector in something approaching a reasonable amount of time.  As for the rest, I dunno.  It made sense to me at the time I made it.  I recall thinking the first sector of each system would be anchored to its "corner."  (For example, since Alpha is in the lower left from this perspective at this time, its first sector is in the lower left corner, and the others go from there.)

Let's just say the military likes to complicate things and move past it.

Thanks for reading.

Writing Colonies XLVII: A New Chapter

"What?  You published these books months ago!  What do you mean 'new chapter?'"

Yes, yes.  That's all true.  There was, however, an unfinished chapter in Volume Two that I left on the shelf when I published it last April.  I had the germ of a good idea but I couldn't make it grow ... until I had another good idea a month or two later and knew they would go great together (like chocolate and peanut butter, I suppose).  Too late to write and publish a chapter once the book it goes in has already been released, right?

Well, I decided to go ahead and write it anyway.  I believe I'll save it for the Special Edition of Colonies, still slated to be released in March 2024.

"So what is it about?"

The first story germ I had was that this chapter would be a old timey spy tale centered around the production of the first battlestar-like space vessel.  That sounds all well and good but I couldn't get into the characters' heads until I had the second idea a while later: this takes place at the time of Virgo's "Catholic/Protestant" split, if you will.  If you're familiar with the English Reformation, you know that a key player in that split was Henry VIII and his desire to marry again and again.  The queen of Virgo is a key player in this chapter, too, but her desire is just for more power ("just").  With the political backdrop in place, I felt I had plenty on which to build the story.  I finished over the weekend and it's another fifty pages in the epic that is Colonies of Kobol.

You can read the whole thing next year, but I'll give you the first look at this proto-battlestar after the JUMP.  (Well, not so much "look" as it's a bunch of words from the scene.  It's a sample, everyone.  And, no, it doesn't look like that Ralph McQuarrie concept art above.  I just thought that painting was cool.)

"Colonies of Kobol - Volume One": DOWNLOAD NOW!

 

Two thousand years before the Cylons destroyed the Twelve Colonies and the Battlestar Galactica led a ragtag fleet to Earth, the Lords of Kobol fell and mankind fled for the Colonies.

In Colonies of Kobol, you will learn what happened next.  In Earth, you will behold the end of that world and the flight of the Final Five.  In Gemenon, you will see Kobol's exiles make landfall, as well as strife between believers in the Pantheon and believers in The One True God.  In Leonis, you will witness the beginning of a thousand-year war between that world and their enemy, Virgon.

Fans of Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, and Lords of Kobol can't miss the first volume in a trilogy detailing the history of all the Colonies of Kobol.

There is a Plan and questions will be answered.

REVIEW:

"Having already read Lords of Kobol, I’d been anticipating this series since it was first announced, and downloaded it from Smashwords the day it was released. WELL. It was everything I’d hoped for, and more. Edward T. Yeatts certainly knows his source material, and he tells an amazing story with that knowledge. The next book cannot come fast enough for this reader. 10/10." -- Dee

Available for FREE:

Download from Smashwords HERE (in all file formats, including Kindle)
Download from iTunes HERE
Download from Barnes & Noble HERE
Download from Kobo HERE
Download from Scribd HERE

PLEASE, rate and review where you got it!  

Thank you and enjoy.

Writing Colonies XLII: SITREP - Phase II editing done, release date announcement soon, and an IMPORTANT request

Graphic:

So I've finished two read-throughs, editing as I went.  Largely for spelling, word choices, clarity, tone, etc.  Next, I'll be printing out the books and reading them, marking errors and such with a red ink pen.  Good ol' fashioned editing, that is.  (With about 2,100 pages, I fear for how much that'll cost me in toner.  If you'd like to make a donation, here's my tipjar.)

In other news, I think I've settled on a release date for Volume One and a schedule for the remainder.  Assuming my editing continues at the same rate, it should work out, but I'm not going to reveal it just yet.  Maybe I'll post it next week as a Christmas present, of sorts.

Lastly, over the last couple of years, I've sent out PDFs of various parts of Colonies to winners of contests and so on.  If you were a recipient, PLEASE email me at ety3rd@ety3rd.com to let me know what you think, any detailed criticism you might have, suggestions for clarity, whatever.  I'd like to incorporate any good suggestions into the books before publishing.

Thanks for reading.

Writing Colonies XLI: Maps of Caprica and Battle

Phase two of editing continues apace, however, I realized I had not shared a couple of maps with you.  The first is Caprica:

Click to embiggen

It's based on the limited landmasses seen in BSG and Caprica, plus the image from the QMX map.  Some places were seen first in Book Eight: Picon as a revolution ended the era of imperial puppet nations on the planet (the Virgan-aligned nation of Rhodia was in northern Andros with its capital of Rhodes; the Leonan-aligned nation of Dordogne was in southern Andros with its capital of Lato).  

The second map is specific to a single, long chapter in Book Thirteen: Caprica which focuses on a siege:

Click to embiggen

I'm sure that's fairly impenetrable without the context of the story itself, but, hey, it's another map you can look forward to.

Thanks for reading.

RIP Dean Stockwell: A Cavil Chapter from Colonies of Kobol

 

Known mostly for Quantum Leap, we know him best as Number One (aka John Cavil) from Battlestar Galactica.  

When writing Colonies of Kobol, some of my favorite parts come when writing scenes for established characters, and none were more fun to write than scenes with John Cavil in Books One, Fourteen, and Fifteen.  After the JUMP, I'll share a couple of moments and a nice long chapter.

Writing Colonies XXXIII: A Sample of "Aquaria"

I'm about a third of the way through Book Eleven right now, and I've just started the portion that may intrigue you the most.  

If you want to read part of it, click the JUMP.

Writing Colonies XXVI: "Aliens" in the Colonies

For those interested in a SITREP (sans graphic), I'd say I'm about two-thirds done with Aerilon at this stage.  

A while back, someone asked me if there would be any unusual wildlife on the colonies, something we never saw in any of the shows.  As these were, essentially, alien worlds to humanity, it made sense that we could see something of that nature.  I've sprinkled a few around (the single-horned mountain rams of Gemenon, the wild cats of Leonis, various varieties of birds and flowers, etc.), but none were very prominent in the story.  That changes with a scene in Book Seven.

Ready to be grossed out by the lizard vultures of Aerilon?  Click the JUMP and read on.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XXIII: Have I gone mad?

Yeah, so ... I'm still working on Canceron, that hasn't changed.  Remember how I said I had an idea about how to build up the first part that I didn't like?  How that part was too slight?  Well, I had an idea about how to add some content and context, so I started writing the other day.

I may have gone mad.

Once you read what I've written (this is the first of the planned four such parts of new material), you'll understand my question.  You might even recognize its inspiration.  Read it after the JUMP.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XXII: SITREP - Canceron is finished ... maybe?

 

There you go.  That's the handy dandy graphic.

As I stated last time, I finished the first part of Book Six and, immediately upon hitting that last period, decided I didn't like it.  So I moved on to the planned second part of the book.  That's what I just finished.  (About seventy pages, for those keeping track.)

In the back of my head for the last few weeks, however, I've been thinking about the first part.  Is there something I can do to salvage it?  I do kinda want to tell that story in more than just a throwaway line in the second part.

I came upon a possibility last week.  I won't spoil anything now, but it involves a somewhat involved endeavor: writing a book within the universe and then inserting portions of it into the narrative of this story as a companion.  It would be like if I decided to take Adama's and Roslin's favorite book, Searider Falcon, write the whole thing, and then sprinkle chapters into Colonies of Kobol for flavor.  I mean, I probably won't write an entirely new book just to put pieces in this one, but I will be writing several chapters that require a whole different mindset and writing style than I've employed thus far.

I'm going to give it a go.  If it works, great.  The story of Canceron gets that much bigger.  If it doesn't work out, then I'll just move ahead to Book Seven: Aerilon.  I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XXI: Taking Canceron in a Different Direction

If you saw last update, I abandoned my initial start of Canceron just as I finished the first pass on those chapters.  (They were just too thin or slight compared to everything else.)  So I've pushed ahead with my planned second part of the book.  As of now, it will be the only part of Book Six, but I may go back to the first part and redo things if I get inspired.

Telling the stories of empires conquering worlds and such sounds exciting (and it is), but as I did chapter after chapter, I found myself ... repeating myself.  Castle intrigue and the like.  I pared back what I could of such repetition (and I likely have more to do), but I've been working to find new ways to tell the stories of these worlds.  Sometimes that means new genres.

If you'd like a taste of what I mean, you can read one of the early chapters of Canceron after the JUMP.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XVII: SITREP - and a chapter from Sagittaron

 Here's the graphic:

Halfway through Book Five: Sagittaron.  The first half dealt with the arrival of the imperial forces of Virgo and Leo on the planet.  The second half picks up a few centuries later once the oppression has been codified and the people are becoming set in their ways (ways that persist all the way until Battlestar Galactica).

Throughout these books, I'm using the Messengers of The One True God as connective tissue, interviewing people from my books and the TV shows to set up, recap, ask questions, etc.  I try to use characters attached to the colony in question, of course.  There are two known characters related to Sagittaron: Anastasia Dualla and Tom Zarek.  I've used them both.  In fact, you can read Zarek's chapter after the JUMP.

Writing 'Colonies' Part XII: SITREP - Half done with Book Three

Here's the handy-dandy graphic:

The first half of Book Three - Leonis went fairly quickly, I thought.  It's about the coming of Virgo to Leonis, their sister world in the Beta System, and the establishment of a unifying presence there.  I don't want to say too much, but suffice it to say that the people who led Virgo after its colonization were far better about passing along technology and knowledge than just about any other world in the colonies.  The second half continues this story a century later as Leo is more fully a vassal of Virgo and how the world breaks free of that rule, leading to a thousand years of conflict.

As Leonis has always been an analogue for France and Virgon England, I'm trying to keep a linguistic symmetry, so most of the places and names on Leo at the time of Virgo's arrival are Gaulish, minus as much Latin influence as I can muster.  The Virgo speak Latin but that is on its way out as Old English is on the rise back home.  In later books, I will transition names and words to Old English, Old French, Middle English, etc., over the centuries.  This is by no means important; it's just flavor.

Want a taste?  Here are a couple of chapters from the first half of Book Three after the JUMP.

Writing "Colonies" Part VII: Sitrep

It's the first week of March, 2020.  I have a soft deadline of 2021 to be finished with Colonies of Kobol and to have them ready to be released into the wild.  (Mainly because summer of 2021 marks ten years since I first released Lords of Kobol.)  Don't put money on that, however.  Lest we forget that I had to take a year-long break from Prelude before I was ready to continue and conclude that one.  (Even though that ended up being the best thing for it and it became my favorite of that series.)

Still, things are going well.

Book Sixteen: Earth is halfway finished.  Now, don't get excited.  Yes, Book Sixteen is the last in the three volumes, but I'm not writing them in order.

In fact, this is the current status of all sixteen books:

There we go.

I wrote Book One first because I had just finished a BSG rewatch, so the Final Five were still in my head.  Then I moved on to Book Fourteen: The Colony because that starts with the Final Five arriving in the Colonies and stopping the Cylon War.  After that, I did a Caprica rewatch and started Book Thirteen.

Man, Book Thirteen is long.

Five-hundred fifty-four pages.  Why is it so long?  I mean, the first three entries of Lords of Kobol are about two hundred and change, each.  Prelude is three hundred and change.  For Colonies of Kobol, Earth (I) and The Colony were about one-fifty or so each.

I have come to the conclusion that Caprica is so long because the show wasn't given the finality it deserved.  For Lords of Kobol, I used about six hundred-seventy pages to tell all the story I wanted.  Plus a bit more with Prelude for a thousand pages total.  That's good enough for the Lords of Kobol, I suppose.

For Earth (I) and The Colony, I'm reusing characters from the show, Battlestar Galactica.  Their stories were told very well and pretty much in full on the series.  There's no real need to explain too much more about their characters.  Largely, it's just about depicting the events that got them where they ended up.  Now, that's not to say there's no character development or insights.  There are plenty.  But given what we saw in the show, these characters weren't necessarily begging for more.

That's not the case with the characters from Caprica.

They only had one year and then we were teased with that amazing epilogue at the end, showing what the future held for them.  And that was all we got.

So, I felt a sense of duty to get these characters to the points we saw in the epilogue and to then push them further toward the Cylon War.  And once the war started, to show what they did during it.

And that's what I did.  I feel like Book Thirteen is the second and third season of Caprica that those characters never got.  The first half of the book is the second season, which takes them from the end of the first season to the places we saw in the epilogue and then further to the start of hostilities with their Cylon companions.  The rest of the book is about the war.  Some characters are added and some drop away.  Some die.  It's long but it needed to be long.

New Caprica?  Not long at all.  Only about sixty pages.  Why?  Because the story of that colony is well known and brief.  I wanted to provide some more context to certain characters, tell a few stories that weren't told on screen (stories that Ronald D. Moore hinted at in interviews), connect dots to stuff we found out later in the series ... but that needn't take up hundreds of pages.

That's the nice thing about using the volume system like I am for Colonies.  If a story about a particular colony isn't terribly long, it doesn't have to be.  If it's begging for a full-on epic, I can do that.  I have germs of stories, skeletons of tales, if you will, for every colony and not all of them will be long.

So, Book Sixteen: Earth (II).  How long is it?  Right now, about fifty pages.  It might get to one hundred and it might not.  The story I want to tell is fairly simple, even though it details the end of the entire "Kobolverse" saga and The One True God's plans for us all.  Yes, there is an addendum, sorta, to the tale of the settlers from the ragtag fleet on our planet some 150,000 years ago.  But the bulk of the action takes place in our own future, some X-years hence.  (I am purposefully keeping the date vague both here and in the book so it's not invalidated by the passage of time in the real world.)  It is in our own future that we will determine if the cycle continues or if it starts again.

(Listen to the words of the Messengers in Times Square for a hint on which way the story will fall.)

In the past, I have given out PDFs of the first drafts to the parts of Colonies that I've finished.  I will not be doing that any longer.  Book Sixteen is the end and I don't want to give away the end.  Also, once I back up to the other books and colonies, I feel like giving away those individual pieces won't do the readers any favors since they'll lack the needed context.  With the parts that I have written to this point, readers knew many of the characters thanks to both shows, BSG and Caprica.  There's no such luck with stories about ancient Gemenon or Sagittaron or Virgon or Aerilon.  I may share chapters from time to time, however.

Speaking of, want a chapter from Book Sixteen: Earth?  Read it after the JUMP.

Writing "Colonies of Kobol" Part VI - Saul Tigh and Brenik

I'm currently writing Book Fifteen: New Caprica.  Having just finished Book Thirteen: Caprica, I had plenty of things fresh in my mind to use ... especially when it comes to the torture of Saul Tigh.

If you have the DVDs or Blu-rays of BSG, then you know there are deleted scenes.  A lot of what is removed is of little consequence.  Sometimes, however, there is gold.  For example, remember Elosha telling Galactica's crew that the Tribes fled Kobol when a jealous god sought to elevate himself above the others?  That was a deleted scene.  (And one that I put my own unique twist on in Lords of Kobol.)

Here's another deleted scene.  In it, Young Bill Adama and Young Saul Tigh talk about the war and Tigh discusses his own particular horror story.  I couldn't find the entire scene on YouTube, but here's the audio for his tale:
CLICK HERE.

I couldn't NOT use that, right?  I did, in Caprica and I revisit it in New Caprica.  Click the JUMP for two never-before-seen chapters, one from each book (in first draft form ... so keep that in mind).

New-New BSG and Colonies of Kobol

Like many of you, I was surprised by the news last week that there would be a new Battlestar Galactica series coming to NBC-Universal's upcoming streaming service, Peacock.  Since so little was released about it, I didn't have much of an opinion.  I just thought, "Feels a little soon," and, "ANOTHER streaming service?!"

Then the producer of the new show, Sam Esmail tweeted.  You might know him.  He created Mr. Robot.

Maybe?

Anyway, he tweeted, "BSG fans, this will NOT be a remake of the amazing series @RonDMoore launched because... why mess with perfection? Instead, we’ll explore a new story within the mythology while staying true to the spirit of Battlestar. So say we all!"

At first, I read this as somehow being a third iteration of the broader concept that wouldn't touch on Ronald D. Moore's version.  After all, the press articles kept saying "reboot," so why wouldn't I think that?  But ... "a new story within the mythology" ... within the broader mythology/concept of the shows or within the specific mythology established by Moore's version?  Since the tweet, most people have settled on the latter interpretation.

Well, this had a surprising effect on me.  My mind spiraled; I contemplated putting Colonies of Kobol on the back burner; I felt like I had wasted so much godsdamned time ... because if they're adding to the canon of BSG, I would have to incorporate it.

I made a mental list of possibilities, assuming that new-new BSG is, indeed, set in the RDM universe (as my books are).  I categorized the possibilities according to A) how likely they were and B) how much impact they would have on my writing, both what I have finished and what I have not.

Here we go:

I.  New-new BSG is all about the Lords of Kobol.  This is the one that would cause me to throw my hands in the air and walk away.  So much is predicated on my first four books (get them here for free) that there would be no way to recover, no way to incorporate the new canon, and have it all make sense.  HOWEVER, I feel that the likelihood of this is very, very low.  One reason: if the show is called Battlestar Galactica, being on stuck on a planet, even if it's Kobol, doesn't make much sense.  (Unless we're supposed to believe that Pythia's cycle is so ridiculously literal that Kobollians had a battlestar named Galactica, too.  Well, I hope not.)

II.  New-new BSG is set right after the Colonials settle on Earth II.  Maybe Cylons commandeered Galactica and the rag-tag fleet before Sam could fly them into the sun!  Now Adama, Tigh, and the gang have to get into space to stop the Cylons ...  Nah.  It would undo too much of the finale.  Not very likely, and even if they didn't do that specific plot for the series, setting a show named Battlestar Galactica on Earth as people try to learn how to farm doesn't strike me as thrilling.  Still, if they found a way to do it, it would have a substantial impact on my conclusion to Colonies of Kobol.

III.  New-new BSG is set in our own future.  Maybe we jump ahead several decades or so, see Earth II Cylons, and we have our own battlestar named Galactica.  (Again, a bit too literal reading of "all of this will happen again," but maybe.)  Likelihood?  I'm going to say somewhat likely.  I can see it happening, though I feel it would undermine the finale as well ("Does all of this have to happen again?"  "This time, I bet no.").  Impact on my writing?  Substantial.  It would necessitate a complete rethinking of the ending I have in mind for the entire saga; not just the Earth II book, but Colonies of Kobol and Lords of Kobol, too.  That would ... not be good.

IV.  New-new BSG is set during the First Cylon War.  Ronald D. Moore once said he felt that another spinoff show could be sustained if it were set during the Cylon War and lived with the crew of the Galactica at various points during that twelve-year-long conflict.  We ended up with the (in my opinion, mediocre) one-off, Blood & Chrome.  I think it's very likely that Esmail sees the rich narrative possibilities in this ... plenty of built-in action, plus great stories to tell with two thousand people cooped up on a ship at a time of war.  So, if I had to put money on it, this is what I would bet on.  How will it impact my writing?  Well, it's hard to say at this point.  Right now, I'm wrapping up work on Book Thirteen: Caprica which includes the beginning of the Cylon War, the founding of the unified federal government of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, the launch of Galactica, etc.  If the new show is comprehensive and includes some of that foundational material, then I'll have to chuck a couple hundred pages of stuff that I've written (of which I'm rather fond).  If the new show picks up in medias res ("in the middle of things"), then I might not have to worry.  If the series is laser-focused on the ship/crew/war, maybe I can keep some of it intact.  The impact is potentially substantial (but localized to one or two parts of CoK) and also potentially minimal.

CONCLUSION: to quote Douglas Adams, don't panic.  I can't do anything about it (unless they want to hire me as a writer for the show, in which case, email me, Sam).  I just have to wait for more news and for the series itself.  In the meantime, I'll keep writing Colonies of Kobol and I'll make whatever changes I have to when the time comes.

(To be clear, I want the show to be good and I want it to be successful.  And to those of you who may be saying, "Screw new-new BSG!  Write your thing and ignore it!"  I can't do that.  I can't ignore substantive canon of the show just because it inconveniences me [looking at you again, Blood & Chrome].  Thank you for your confidence in me, but I'd rather try to find a way to make it all work.)


Now, as a treat for my readers who have been so supportive, here's a fun chapter from Colonies of Kobol - Book Thirteen: Caprica.  I hope you like it.

C

GALACTICA

Day 458 of the First Cylon War

The Vipers aligned in the black sky and swept as a single unit over the rim of the asteroid.  They were pristine white ships with red stripes and their fins created visual triangles astride blue flames no matter the viewer's perspective.  Behind them came the contingent of Raptors.  Dark gray and brown blocks with the corners hewn away.  Tall tails at the rear on either side of a large cannon.  Some carried at least one battery of missiles but their most important tasks were to monitor communications and jam Cylon signals.

"Keep it tight," the CAG radioed.

Ahead they saw their target.  An oblong brown rock, nearly two kilometers across.  Cylon machinery worked on its surface and below even now, ferrying tons of tylium away and to the enemy.  The Colonial Fleet Headquarters, now functioning from their new permanent home on Picon, had their eyes on this location for some time.  It was heavily defended and the admirals knew they would have to wait for the arrival of the battlestars to take it on.

In the Combat Information Center of the Battlestar Galactica, Commander Silas Nash stared at the DRADIS screen that hung from the ceiling.  A line swept this part of the Erebos Belt and the tylium base was between the carrier and her birds.  Several hours ago, the Galactica launched these squadrons and then jumped to a sensor blind spot on the opposite side; another asteroid almost a thousand kilometers away from the base.  It was a precise jump and the new ship maintained a dangerous dance with the rotation of that rock.  They couldn't move for fear of showing up on the Cylon's DRADIS.  Most of their systems were powered down.  They sent no signals.  There was no active DRADIS pulse.  Every contact they had came from the Cylons' own signals.

The presence of the eighty Vipers and twelve Raptors was quickly detected by the machines.  Their Raiders launched from the surface of the asteroid and screamed toward the fighter craft.  A Cylon cruiser stationed close to the base came to life, too, and rose up from its shadow.

"Standby action stations," Nash said.  On the screen, the four Colonial squadrons approached the base from the top.  More than sixty Raiders departed the asteroid at the center and moved up to meet them.  Galactica sat still at the bottom of the screen and waited for its cue.

"Bandits inbound!" the CAG said.  "Red and blue squadrons, break off and attack."  The Vipers and Raiders began their dances.  In the opening moments, the rapid cannon fire destroyed eight of the oval Cylon craft and seven of the triangular fighters.  Soon, the remaining fighters of those two squadrons were fully engaged with the first wave of Raiders, and the second wave was almost upon them.  "Yellow and green squadrons, break off and attack!"  All four Colonial groups swarmed around the enemy and the battle, though hard fought, seemed in their favor.  Then the third and final wave approached.

Nash held his breath.  He stared at the mass of green triangles and red circles with another line of red moving up the screen.  He waited to see what that third line would do.  Then, as they had hoped and planned, the third group of Cylons flew past the battle and into the empty space beyond.

"Galactica!" the CAG signaled.  "A wave of Raiders has broken through!  Inbound to you!"

The commander nodded at the lie and said, "Action stations.  Condition one."  After the first bleats of the alert klaxons sounded and the lights shifted to red, he felt an electricity move over his skin.  He looked at his executive officer and said, "Stand by to launch silver and gold squadrons."

"Sir."  Colonel Manden picked up the receiver and said, "Stand by silver and gold squadrons.  Stand by silver and gold.  Reserve squadrons one and two, on deck."

"Sir," the DRADIS officer said, "the Cylon cruiser is moving away from the target."  Nash looked at the screen and waited to see which way the large red dot moved.  When it ticked a step up toward the bait and away from Galactica, the officer said, "We've got them."

"Helm, push off from the rock."  The battlestar moved away from their cover and into the open.  He watched the movement of the Cylon vessel away from the tylium asteroid.  Once it was more than five hundred kilometers out and moving at full speed, Nash said, "Come about, three-one-zero carom one-seven-five.  Ahead flank speed."  The helm officers did their work and the deckplates rumbled as the six sublight engines engaged at full power.

The battlestar crossed the space between their hiding spot and the asteroid.  The tension was palpable in CIC.  Young officers stared wide-eyed at their screens and occasionally glanced at their commander.  Nash, for his part, stood still under the command and control screens and watched the moving icons with his characteristic eager smirk.  Colonel Manden towered over the shorter commander and he held the receiver in his hand, ready to bark orders.

"The cruiser has spotted us," the DRADIS officer said.  "They're coming about."  He shook his head and said, "They won't get here in time."

"Distance to target?"

"Two hundred kilometers."

"Helm, begin braking and reduce speed to one quarter."  Nash looked at the XO.  "Launch silver and gold." 

Manden said, "Launch silver and gold.  Launch silver and gold.  Reserve one and two in the tubes."

Nash turned to the tactical station, "All batteries forward.  Salvo fire on the base.  Missile batteries on standby."  The lieutenant nodded and communicated with the appropriate crews. 

In the blackness, the long, gray battlestar bore down on the tylium asteroid.  From both flight pods, forty Vipers launched and symmetrical streams of fighters bent away from the ship and toward the rock.

The forty heavy batteries along Galactica's dorsal and ventral spines began to fire and heavy cannon bursts poured across space and splashed on the rock with fire and metal.  Shockwaves rippled over the surface and destroyed the structures within reach.  Soon, the salvos dug into the planetoid and exposed the Cylon infrastructure below.  Holding tanks of unstable tylium precursor ruptured and blew apart even more of the mining operation.

"Cylon wave three is coming back," a lieutenant said.

The enemy only now realized that they were tricked into going the wrong way, thinking the battlestar had launched the Vipers from behind their approach.  Nash nodded and said, "Helm, begin braking and turn to port, five hundred.  Starboard broadsides on the base.  Comms, signal Smokehouse.  Tell him to bring the squadrons back."

The crew swooned with the inertia of the turn and the comms officer said, "Sir, the CAG is gone."  Nash and Manden shared a look. 

Before they could say anything, the DRADIS lieutenant interjected, "Cylon cruiser is launching Raiders."

Nash's smirk was gone.  "Silver and gold are to maintain their runs on the base.  Tactical, turn batteries toward the cruiser and stand by.  Set close-in weapons to auto fire.  Comms, get me Lieutenant Stentz."  As the various officers complied, he turned to the helm station, "Turn us away from the base and toward the cruiser."

"Stentz on the line."

The commander picked up the receiver and said, "Jaws, this is actual."

"Go ahead, actual."

"You're my CAG now."

Pause.  "Sir?"

"Jaws, you're the CAG.  Bring the squadrons back home."

Her loud exhale was followed by a subdued, "Yes, sir."

"What do you hear, Jaws?"

"Nothin' but the rain."

"Grab your gun and bring in the cat."

"Boom, boom, boom."  There was an obvious smile in her voice and he hung up the receiver.

"Cylon Raiders on top of us," a lieutenant said.

There was a slight shudder as small missiles from the enemy fighters hit the hardened hull of the vessel.  Nash looked toward the screen and saw the CIWS take out four of the enemy icons.  "Tactical, batteries on the cruiser.  Fire at will."

The ship withered under the heavy fire from a battlestar's primary offensive weapons.  The Cylons attempted to shield themselves with short-range flak fire, but it was of little use.  Its small hangar was destroyed and a sublight engine ruptured.  Most of the cannon went still and fuel lines along the rear of the craft blew apart.  Then, the other three engines exploded and the ship had become a flaming burst of light.

"Helm, get us some distance."

"Cylon virus detected," the electronics warfare officer said.  "Isolated in primary fire control.  Auxilliary and backup systems unaffected."

"Sir, new DRADIS contacts."  The commander looked at the lieutenant and saw his worried face.  "Cylon light cruiser.  Cylon carrier.  Two Cylon destroyers."

Nash grabbed the front of his uniform and pulled it down to flatten any wrinkles.  He looked up at the screen and saw that the four squadrons were almost near Galactica.  "Signal Jaws.  Tell her to keep her birds back until they launch Raiders."

Manden stepped closer and lowered his head next to the commander's bald pate.  "Four ships?"

Without taking his eyes off the combat screens, Nash said, "It's almost unfair."

The Sagittaran smiled.  "For them."

"Raiders launching from the carrier and cruiser."

The commander tilted his head.  He looked at the four ships lined up on the screen.  He reached for the monitor and pressed a button.  The DRADIS angle shifted and he saw the Cylons from a head-on perspective instead of top-down.  His smirk returned when he saw that the vessels were truly in a straight line.

"Helm, change bearing to eight-eight-zero carom two hundred.  Ahead one-half."

The colonel looked at the screen and said, "Between them?"

"Hoping for a little crossfire."

The Galactica leapt away from what remained of the cruiser.  Being such a large ship, her movements were slow, but the engines could accelerate Galactica to great speeds.  The newcomers began to fire missiles but their positions did not change.

"Odd batteries, change to flak fire and surround us.  Fire now.  Even batteries through twenty, target the two ships to port.  Even batteries to forty, target the two to starboard.  Evens are to standby."

Manden looked over the command table and asked, "Missiles?"

Nash immediately knew that his XO was asking about Galactica's own.  "Won't need them."

With a bloom of light and fire around the perimeter, the battlestar closed on the enemy.  The missiles were easily dispatched before they reached their targets.  When the Colonial ship was barely fifty kilometers away, the Cylons saw their tactical error and began to spread their vessels out.  It was too late.

The flak shield tore across the hull of a destroyer on the port side.  The designated batteries fired at their targets and hit them all.  The destroyer on the starboard was immediately split in half.  The single flight pod of the carrier shattered and fell away from the bulk of the ship.  Cylon battery and missile fire became a confused mess, and though the enemy missiles were destroyed in the flak, half of the Cylon shells hit other Cylon ships.  When Galactica emerged on the other side of the group, the second destroyer exploded, sending parts of its hull into the light cruiser.

"Helm, slow to one quarter and come about.  Tactical, all batteries fire at will."  The flak shield faded and the main guns targeted the two remaining capital ships.  By the time the battlestar was facing its opponents again head-on, the cruiser and carrier were also aflame and adrift.  "Finish them off."  Moments later, the enemy was gone.

Manden looked toward the DRADIS officer.  "Anything new?"

"Negative."

"Status of the base?"

"Silver and gold squadrons report that the target is destroyed."  The comms officer then pressed the earpiece against her head and said, "Message from Jaws, sir.  She reports, 'We're bingo bandits.'"

Nash smiled and said, "Commence landings.  Keep silver and gold in CAP, just in case any more toasters decide to stage a rescue op."  He glanced toward the LSO captain and nodded.  "It's all you."  The commander turned and saw his XO's extended hand.  "Good work, colonel."

"Thank you, sir.  Congratulations."

He looked around the CIC and then up into the core.  "Good work, all of you."  There was some applause and Nash walked toward the air traffic stations on the far wall behind the landing signal officer.  He saw a young woman writing in a log book.  "Ensign," he asked quietly.  "How many did we lose?"

She nodded and flipped a page.  "None from silver and gold squadrons, commander.  We lost nineteen Vipers and four Raptors from the other squadrons, altogether."

"Too many."  Slowly, he moved toward the damage control station and he looked at the schematic of Galactica.  There were a few yellow lights along the perimeter of the ship but no red ones.  One main battery was offline.  That was it.

Nash nodded and walked back to the command and control area where he stood and listened to the LSO coordinate the landings of their squadrons.

On Gamoray, the Cylon War Council sat on their platform and looked at the projection against the wall.  A gold-armored commander was standing beneath them and pressing buttons on a device.

"Tylium base in the Erebos Belt of Alpha.  Five ships, an estimated one hundred Raiders.  Mobile shipyard station in orbit of Styx in Delta.  Two ships, twenty Raiders.  Strike group assault number three on Scorpion Shipyards.  Seven ships, one hundred-fifty Raiders."

"Halt."  The operations commander looked at the other units on the dais and said, "Have there been no successful campaigns since the battlestars were launched?"  It knew the answer.

"Negative."

The Alpha commander said, "We should pull back our mining operations and shift combat tactics to small groups and quick strikes."

The leader paused and thought.  Finally, it said, "Agreed."

The platinum-armored council looked down at the commander.  Gamma said, "We need a vessel to match the Colonial battlestars." 

The leader concurred, "Begin planning immediately."

"By your command."

That is all.  More to come.

"Colonies of Kobol - Book Sixteen: EARTH"

Yes, I'm still writing Book Thirteen: Caprica, but since this is the eighth anniversary of my publishing of the Lords of Kobol series, I thought I'd share a little treat.

The below is the first chapter that I wrote for Colonies of Kobol nearly two years ago.  The idea wasn't mine ... it was Edward James Olmos'.

I saw him at Dragon*Con in Atlanta several years ago and he was asked at a panel about continuing the show in a series of movies beyond The Plan.  He said he had an idea for how such a continuation would start, and what he said is exactly what I did.

Read it after the JUMP.

Chapter from "Colonies of Kobol - Book Thirteen: Caprica"

I'm most of the way finished with Colonies of Kobol - Book Thirteen: Caprica ...

I've said before that I'm regarding this particular entry as seasons two and three of the TV series.  "Season two" is the first half of the book, filling in the time between the end of season one and the events seen in the epilogue of the finale episode, "Apotheosis," and then a bit more to get us to the start of the First Cylon War.  "Season three" is the second half of the book, which is about the beginning of the Cylon War, with primary focus on the formation of the Colonial government, the rise of the Cylons, etc.  At this point in time, I don't intend to do a blow-by-blow account of the war ... I mean, the damned thing lasts twelve years and this book is already longer than any book in the Lords of Kobol series and I'm not finished yet.

I did, however, just finish an action-packed chapter that I thought was pretty cool.  Not every chapter in the book will be like this, but there are several action beats.  Still ... I hope you enjoy it.

You can read it after the JUMP.

Get part of "COLONIES OF KOBOL" right now!

Today, August 3, marks the seventh anniversary of Lords of Kobol - Book One: Apotheosis.  I just want to say "thank you" to everyone who downloaded it and gave it a read.  Big thanks to those of you who rated and reviewed it wherever you got it.  (It's not too late; go ahead and rate & review the series online wherever you can.)

To say thanks, I'm offering up the two (mostly) completed parts of my upcoming Colonies of Kobol series: Book One: Earth and Book Fourteen: The Colony.  Since these two have a common theme, a special cover seemed to be a logical thing to do:

Yes, these two books involve the fall of Cylon Earth and the trek of the Final Five from there to the Colonies, where they put a stop to the First Cylon War.  Then we get to see the creation of the Colonial skinjobs and the rise of Cavil.

Both are early drafts, so be forgiving.

A good knowledge of Battlestar Galactica is (obviously) recommended, as is at least a passing familiarity with Lords of Kobol.  Also, knowing a bit about Caprica would be helpful in places, too.

To get your copy, click this link: http://bit.ly/Final5special.  You have only 24 hours to do this!  Once we hit Saturday, August 4, your time is up!

Each person will get a PDF.  Please don't share it.  Thanks again!