"CAPRICA": Available now!

 

From the author of the acclaimed Lords of Kobol and Colonies of Kobol series ... 

In 2010, the Battlestar Galactica prequel series, Caprica, debuted and was canceled. We saw "The Shape of Things to Come," but what happened next? 

In CAPRICA, read the rest of the story. Follow the Graystones as they try to build a body for Zoe. Follow the Adamas as Joseph rebuilds his life and falls in deeper with the Ha'la'tha. Follow the Cylons as they spread throughout colonial society and are radicalized by the religious teachings of Sister Clarice Willow. And then it happens: revolution. 

The Cylon War ensnares billions. As the colonies struggle to unite in the face of this dire threat, the Graystones and Adamas are torn apart. The Messengers of The One True God work behind the scenes to ensure the survival of the species. And Zoe must make a choice: fight to protect humanity or fight on behalf of her "children," the Cylons? 

There is a Plan and questions will be answered. 

(Note: this book was previously published as part of Colonies of Kobol.)

Get it for FREE here:

Smashwords
Apple Books
Barnes & Noble
Everand
Kobo


In other big news, since it's my birthday, I'm giving away stuff.  My scifi/horror ebooks are now FREE.

Read all about it here.

Thanks for reading.

"CAPRICA" FAQrica! plus an EXCERPT

 

 

Everything You Want/Need to Know about CAPRICA (the book) ...

"Is this fan fiction?"

Yes.  I wasn't paid by Universal to write this therefore I am not charging you to read it.  It's free.

"So did you just pull the story out of your ass or what?"

That's a little harsh, but actually, no.  I didn't.  The fansite Caprica Times published an interview with the last showrunner, Kevin Murphy, after the series was cancelled.  In it, he explained that season two would pick up five years after season one (where we see them in the finale's montage) and feature occasional flashbacks to show how they got there.  Now, I didn't feel like I could do that in my writing because constant flashbacks would get annoying/confusing, but I felt like I could tell a more linear story, showing the five years leading up to the "Shape of Things to Come" montage and then beyond.  A few story beats were also revealed by Murphy, but I won't be divulging those here as they're basically spoilers for the book.  To put it succinctly, I pretended like I was a one-man writer's room for season two and three of the show and Murphy's comments were my instructions.  (Anything that falls outside of his instructions, I guess, does qualify as "pulling it out of my ass.")

"Do I need to have watched Caprica to enjoy this?"

Are you serious?  Yes.  You should watch Caprica.  There are some references and story points that will only make sense if you've seen the show.  I wrote it right after a binge of the series, so I'm sure it'll read well after a binge, too.

"What about Galactica?"

Hmm.  Probably not.  You're OK there.  It'll be enhanced by having watched it, though, I'm sure.

"What about Blood & Chrome?"

You are thorough; I'll say that for you.  "Need to," no.  If you saw it once, that's enough.

And I'll stop you now.  No, you do not need to have watched The Plan before reading this, either. 

"OK, smart guy.  What about Deadlock?  Should I have played the video game Deadlock?

Huh.  You got me.   No, you don't have to have played Deadlock.  A few ships get their names and designs from the game, but no storylines or characters.  The base game starts in year five of the Cylon War and this book only covers the first few years of the war.  There's no real crossover.

 "Maps?  Where did you get these maps?"

I made them.  The "stellar" maps are based on the QMX map released a decade or so ago, which was based on a writer's room document by Bob Harris, Kevin Grazier, and Jane Espenson.  A lot of tidbits about the various colonies come from that document and I used them in writing Caprica and Colonies of Kobol.  The map of Caprica itself is based on the very tiny bit of land visible on the QMX map and a couple of shots from the show.

"Wait a minute ... Colonies of Kobol?  This book isn't really 'new,' is it?"

No, not really.  CoK is an enormous book (over 2,000 pages in Word) so I'm sure that's daunting to potential readers.  Plus, some people might not care about rando characters centuries before the TV shows on other worlds.  There is a hunger for more Caprica, however, so releasing just that portion of CoK made sense to me.  Caprica fans will get a taste of what might have been, and maybe they'll want to try out the rest of my books.

There are a couple of new pages, however.  You can read those after the JUMP.

"CAPRICA": coming June 9!

To celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the TV series Caprica, on Monday, June 9, I'll be publishing this:

 

I'll be clear right up front: this isn't a new* book.  If you've read Colonies of Kobol (Special Edition, preferably), you've already read this.  This is what was originally published as Book Thirteen in Volume Three.

"So why publish it separately?"  Well, to ensnare new readers.  Colonies of Kobol is huge so many people didn't give it a chance.  Or maybe they just weren't interested in some guy's unofficial made-up history to a twenty-year-old TV show.  (I don't take it personally.)  If, however, it were more inextricably tied to a TV show ... like Caprica ... maybe people would give it a shot.  And, if they liked it, maybe they'll back up and read Lords of Kobol or Colonies of Kobol.

Plus, I see people posting all the time about Caprica, so this might scratch that itch for many.

There's more news coming on June 9, but I'll save it for later.  Thanks for reading.

* - There is one part of Caprica that is new, but I'll post it on the blog for everyone to see when we get closer to the date.

"Frak Facebook": What's Been Going On, What's Next, and More

UPDATE: read the latest post HERE.

 

Almost a year since my last blog post?  Wow.  I guess it's time to catch up ...

If you followed (past tense) my Facebook page, "ety3rd," you probably saw something like this the last time you went there:

That's because some nefarious scoundrel hacked my page, created a new account with my info, broke Facebook's rules, and then got their page plus all of mine banned from Facebook.  I spent over a month trying to get Facebook to understand, "No, that wasn't me," and, "I just want my author page back," and, "These are the only email addresses I've used in concert with my Facebook account," and, "Don't you think the hacker changed that?" and, "How would I know what the hacker changed my password to?"  Needless to say, after several weeks and a useless $15 purchase of "Meta verified" so I could get "enhanced support" (insert rolling eyes), Facebook did a grand total of jack-shit to help me out.  Thus the title of this post.  (And this is to say nothing of Zuckerberg's assholery.)

So, if you want to follow me on that dying platform, this is my new URL: https://www.facebook.com/ety3rdbooks

These days, I'm mostly sticking to bsky because it's just a far nicer place and experience than the other places I've posted in recent years.  (You can find links to all my stuff at my Linktree.)

It's been a nice year selling stuff on Etsy, so thanks to all of you for getting my posters and shirts.  Check out my line of "Simple Symbols" t-shirts ... those are proving popular.

I was in the hospital for a few days for heart arrhythmia and my insurance said it was "not medically necessary," so I've got that going for me.

Writing-wise, I was working on a Galactica-related ... thing for a while, but I've set it aside for now.  You saw my last blogpost here.  I'll go into greater detail some other time, but I hit an obstacle in the storytelling and haven't felt the urge to get past it just yet.

If you've read Colonies of Kobol - Special Edition, first off, thank you.  Secondly, if you read the author's commentary, you're aware that I hinted at something super-secret being in the works.  (After all, if I made a cover, you know I've given it some serious thought.)  I have worked a little on that, but there are still no plans for a release, to say nothing of actually finishing the thing.

I think I mentioned something somewhere once about having an idea for a book wherein we follow a pair of homicide detectives who are working to solve a high-profile case in the modern day of a Roman Empire that never fell.  The more I think about it, the more I like it.  That might be the next thing I start to write, assuming life doesn't continue to, uh, get in the way.

Thanks for reading.

"Colonies of Kobol - Collection: Special Edition" - DOWNLOAD NOW

 

Visit the sixteen Colonies of Kobol in a single volume ...

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.

See the settling of the first colony on Gemenon.  Behold the destruction of Earth and the flight of the Final Five.  Witness the rise of empires on Virgon and Leonis and the thousand-year-war waged across the plains of Tauron, the seas of Picon, and the mountains of Sagittaron.  Visit the jungles of Libran and Scorpia, the mines of Canceron, the farms of Aerilon, and the volcanoes of Aquaria.  Read the continuation of the short-lived TV series Caprica and watch the horrors of the Cylon War and the creation of The Colony.  Revisit New Caprica and then, on our own world, go on one last journey with Bill Adama and Saul Tigh, and get a look into our own future as the Messengers of The One True God work to free mankind of the cycle.

This is the definitive special edition collection of these books in chronological order, complete with additional chapters, behind-the-scenes information, art, pics, and author's commentary.  Learn all about the writing of these tales, connections to the Battlestar Galactica and Caprica TV shows, and much more.

There is a Plan and questions will be answered.

Available for FREE from:

Smashwords
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Everand

Please rate and review it where you got it!  Spread the word!

Writing the Special Editions Part XI: Finally, "Lords of Kobol - Special Edition" available for download everywhere!

It took a month-plus, but Lords of Kobol - Collection: Special Edition is now available for download from multiple retailers.  The links are below; a needlessly detailed recounting of what happened immediately follows.

So LoK SE was published on Smashwords on Dec. 8.  Smashwords is the free site through which I publish my books.  Because I can't charge for my BSG-related work and Smashwords lets me make books free to download, it makes sense.  And, Smashwords has what they call the "premium catalog," which means they distribute it to other online retailers (Apple, B&N, etc. ... not Amazon; they won't let me charge $0.00)  Typically, it takes about four-ish days for a book to be uploaded and then get distributed elsewhere.

Not this time.

When I publish through Smashwords, I upload a Microsoft Word "doc" file which then gets converted into everything else.  LoK SE is a large book with a LARGE amount of hyperlinking inside.  The Word file is 1,314 pages long and 13.8 MB.  There are over 400 chapters, plus commentary on about 85% of those chapters.  Fifty images.  It's big.  The problem, as it turns out, was the table of contents.  Not the one I made; the one that was automatically generated.  

If you've read the book, you know there's a table of contents that links to all the chapters, the maps, etc.  At the end of most chapters, there's a link to the author's commentary on that chapter.  Each of these links require two things: a bookmark and a hyperlink.  For example, for chapter one of Book One, I select the heading for that chapter, click "insert bookmark," and give it a name ("I1" - for Book One, chapter one).  Then, in the table of contents, I highlight "I - PYTHIA," click "insert link," select "place in this document," and then the "I1" bookmark.  So I had to insert bookmarks and hyperlinks for all 420-ish chapters, plus the maps, prefaces, the acknowledgements at the end, the list of other books, etc.  That's 430 pairs of bookmarks and links.  This doesn't include the commentary.  I'm guesstimating that there are about 350 "author's commentary" sections, which means that's another 350 pairs of bookmarks and links.  Because the automatically generated table of contents looks for these bookmarks, that's a whole mess of stuff that could end up in the ToC that shouldn't be there.

(This does not include the "hidden bookmarks" that Word creates for some godsdamned reason every time you open the file, make a change, or look at the screen funny.  By the time I was ready to upload the finished doc file, there were literally thousands of these bastards.  I had to create a macro in Word to delete them all because doing so by hand would have been impossible.)

So, when I uploaded the LoK SE doc file, the system struggled to reconcile the ToC as I had it (just the chapters, maps, etc.) against the massive number of other bookmarks not in that ToC.  The epub file generated by Smashwords, when downloaded and its ToC opened, included scores of oddball links at the end, plus missing legitimate links.

After conversation with Smashwords support (shoutout to Matt T.), I learned that there is a special way to create bookmarks you don't want in that auto-generated ToC.  Prefixing a bookmark with "ref_" means the auto-generator will ignore it and it won't end up in the epub's ToC.  That means every "author's commentary" bookmark would need to be edited to add "ref_" at the start and every link pointing to those bookmarks would need to be redone, too.  

Needless to say, this took a while.*

Reupload.  Better, but still had bad, "stray" links in the ToC and missing links, too.  Edited and reuploaded again.  No change.

At this point, I decided to the back-and-forth navigation was just too complex.  Support said a well-crafted epub file would likely be the solution (and Smashwords allows those uploads, too).  I started down that path with the program Calibre.  Days later, the epub file was finished and I uploaded it.  I downloaded the epub from Smashwords and it looked OK ... but would it pass review and get in the premium catalog?  Nearly a week later, the answer was "yes."  

TL;DR: here are the links:

Smashwords (in all file formats)
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Everand
Gardners
Kobo
Odilo

Please, download the book from your online service of choice.  But, most importantly, be sure you give it a rating and leave reviews wherever you can.  This helps spread the word and get more readers on board.  I really appreciate it and hope you enjoy it.

* - Holy shit.  Colonies of Kobol - Special Edition is going to take forever.  That's well over 500 chapters and author's commentary sections.  It'll take weeks to get it in shape, but at least I knew I would be starting with an epub file thanks to the 15MB Wall.  I better get started now if I want it to be ready to go for March 15.

Thanks for reading.

Writing the Special Editions Part VII: "Colonies" is Done

Well, it took a couple of months, but the commentary for Colonies of Kobol is complete.  The whole thing is 2,631 pages in Word with about 400 being the added commentary.  That's a lot of pics, show connections, linguistic discussions, and so on.  A lot.

You may recall a previous blog post wherein I was worried about the file size.  Well, yeah.  That's still a concern.  (Warning: lots of talk about how the sausage is made follows.)

Smashwords, the ebook publishing site I use, has a limit of 15MB when it comes to uploading .doc files.  The final version of CoK SE (with low-quality images) is 20.1MB.  So that's out.  However, they also allow uploading epub files and the limit on those is 20MB.

I've experimented with this and here's how it went.  Calibre can make epub files from .docx files, so I converted the book from .doc to .docx and then ran it through Calibre.  I don't know what black magic it utilizes, but the final epub file was only 5.9MB.  Seeing that, I decided to create a version of the book with high-quality images.  Well, that .doc file was 33MB, but after converting it to an epub, it was 18.7MB.  Huzzah!

But there's a problem.  Smashwords apparently employs rigorous standards for the epubs they allow to be published and their site specifically mentioned Calibre (and other programs) as often providing files that get rejected.  They run the epubs through EPUBCHECK, which is apparently a standard for those files agreed upon by some sort of international cabal.  I downloaded a program that allows me to check the files myself and, expecting the worst, I went ahead and ran CoK SE through.  To my unending surprise, it got a green check mark and "OK."

I mean, my formatting isn't crazy because Smashwords also has rigorous criteria for their .doc uploads.  I assumed with all of my footnotes and links to and fro in 90%+ chapters, it would throw off something.  But it didn't.  

I'm cautiously optimistic for next March when CoK SE will be published.  My plan is to upload the epub to Smashwords and see what happens.  If it ends up getting rejected, I'll have a contingency standing by, perhaps the barebones "no commentary" version that barely fit under 15MB but includes links to my Google Drive with the full version.

So there you go.  I'll let both LoK SE and CoK SE sit and marinate for a bit.  Then, in the fall, I'll give the commentaries another pass and be ready to publish the first one in December.  As planned.

Thanks for reading.

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 the Special Editions Part V: Halfway Point on 'Colonies'

Well, a little beyond halfway, I suppose.

Here's the screen where I am now (nearing the end of Picon):

Feel free to embiggen so you can get a sample of the commentary.

So far, it's been a great deal of fun, even though I just read, edited, re-read, and published these books last year.  Ideally, I'd like to be able to wait a decade to read and write the commentary on Colonies, like I did with Lords of Kobol, but it makes sense to release the special edition of Colonies sooner rather than later.

Lots of details are in the commentary, including translations of "foreign" dialogue, inspirations for characters or events, funny stories, sad stories ... it's been enjoyable and kinda therapeutic.

Still on track for LoK SE to be released in December and CoK SE to be released next March.  As for the 15MB "wall" I posted about a few months ago, I'm still working on it.  I think I'll be able to get around it on way or another.

Thanks for reading.

Writing the Special Editions Part IV: Hitting the 15MB Wall and a POLL

 

I'm hitting a wall.  And it's 15MB high.

How big is 15MB?  Well, that will get you about one minute of an HD movie.  About one quarter of a podcast.  About ten high-quality photos.  

On the ebook publishing site Smashwords, that's the maximum file size allowed for an uploaded book.

Smashwords is the site I've used for all my books, primarily because they allow me to publish free ebooks (since I can't charge for my BSG spinoffs) and because they convert the source file into just about any format for ebook readers.

When I finished Lords of Kobol Special Edition, I was concerned about the file size since I added a bunch of pics and such in the commentary.  The total at the end of it was 13.7MB.  

I knew, when it came to Colonies of Kobol Special Edition, I would be in trouble.

I have since sorted all 526 chapters from the three volumes into near-chronological order and I finished the laborious task of bookmarking/hyperlinking the chapters for the Table of Contents.  I was well over the limit.  I reduced the quality of the pics to blurry-ass JPGs ... still over.  I deleted all of the maps ... over again.  I deleted all but the two most important (low-quality) pics in the book ... 14.8MB, as you see above.

"Whew," you're thinking.  "You did it!"

No.  No, I have not.

I haven't even started the author's commentary yet.  For me, that's the most important part.  I really enjoyed reading Lords of Kobol again and writing my thoughts about it right afterward, sharing stories of its creation, where ideas came from, pictures and maps, homages I included, linguistic jokes and tricks, and so on.  Since I just finished Colonies a little over a year ago, all of that info is fresh in my head and I won't have to rely upon my archives of old Word files or ancient blogposts to fill in the blanks.  I have PLENTY of thoughts to share on Colonies, stories to tell about its inspirations, LOADS of linguistic insight, connections to the TV series, pics and maps and flags and covers, and much, much more.  I desperately want to have that info readily available for readers in the same way it will be for readers of LoK.

Unless Smashwords changes their file size limit, I can't.

But ... I have an idea.  And a Plan.  (You BSG fans should like that.)

Here's the Plan: I'll publish what I have now via Smashwords next March.  For most readers I'm sure, they'll be happy to have all three volumes in one ebook and with the chapters sorted in chronological order.  For those readers who want all of the additional information (and to salve my own ego), I will have, standing by, a FULL VERSION of the Special Edition ready to be downloaded from some file sharing site.  This will be the version of the book I'd make if Smashwords had no limit.  I will place links to that version right at the beginning of the Smashwords 15MB edition so readers can't miss it.  Then, they can choose if they want the whole shebang or decide they're happy with what they've got.  

Meanwhile, I'll keep checking Smashwords to see if they decide to up their file limit in the next year.  The FULL VERSION will be ready to go, if they do.

TAKE A POLL: Which version of Colonies of Kobol - Special Edition are you likely to download?

VOTE HERE

NEW PLAN: I'm going with the epub file from the get-go.  I've tested it before and a fully annotated and illustrated Special Edition comes under the 20MB limit, so no worries there. 

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.)

What's Next? Special Editions

Well, I took a diversion down a different road with my Cylon War propaganda art, but what's after that?

I've mentioned it before, but I'll be diving into special editions of both Lords of Kobol and Colonies of Kobol.  Want details?  Here we go:

This will be all five books, plus about ten deleted chapters primarily from Book One.  I will provide a commentary (a la a director's commentary on a DVD or Blu-ray) plus images and such I used "behind-the-scenes" in the making of the book.  (A significant portion of which, I'm sure, are available in this blog's archives right now.)  At the moment, I'm still considering the best way to incorporate the commentary, and I'm leaning toward a link at the end of each chapter that will take the reader to the end of the book where the commentary in its entirety will reside.  I think that's better than creating a lengthy footnote at the end of each chapter ... that would make it hard to just read the damn book because you'd have to scroll or swipe past multiple paragraphs of me rambling on about why I made certain choices or a pic of a Kobollian Cylon.

Tentative release date?  

December 8, 2023

Why?  That's the twentieth anniversary of the Battlestar Galactica miniseries and its first airing on TV.

This will be all three volumes (sixteen books) in one.  No deleted chapters to speak of, but there will be at least one additional chapter that wasn't ready for initial release.  There will also be a healthy amount of other pics and info, "behind-the-scenes" talk, and so on.  I'm also considering the "link at the end of each chapter" thing to take readers to my commentary.

The BIG difference here, however, is that I am leaning toward putting everything* in chronological order.  Because I kept everything contained to the colony of focus, different portions of the three volumes happened at different times, occasionally even intermingling.  Here I will be lining just about everything up 1, 2, 3, so that it all fits.

* - There will be exceptions.  Most notably, Book Sixteen: Earth.  Without getting spoilery, I don't want to disrupt the narrative flow of that book by splitting things apart chronologically.  I don't think it would work or have the same impact.

Without the individual books there to keep everything straight, how will the reader know (beyond context) that this chapter takes place on Virgon, for example?  At this point, I am leaning toward changing the chapter headings to something like this:

XXV
EDGAR
1,034 Years After Colonization
(Virgon)

At a glance, you can see exactly when and where the story is.

Tentative release date?

March 20, 2024

Why?  That's the fifteenth anniversary of the broadcast of "Daybreak, Part II," the finale of Battlestar Galactica.  

And after that?  I will truly be done with the Battlestar Galactica universe.  (Maybe.)

Thanks for reading.

NEW: "Cylon War" Propaganda Posters and "Kobol Phoenix" for sale!

I made a Cylon War propaganda poster for Colonies of Kobol - Volume Three ... and I liked it quite a bit.  So I decided to make more.  I've opened a shop on Etsy to sell posters, along with shirts, etc., with the "Kobol Phoenix" that has been my avatar for a decade now.

Let's see what's what ...

Kobol Phoenix

Just the plain Kobollian Eagle/Phoenix that I've used on my book covers for years.  It's simple and I love it.

• Premium t-shirt (six colors available)
• Unisex t-shirt (four colors available)
• Unisex t-shirt with smaller symbol (fourteen colors available)
• Unisex premium sweatshirt
• iPhone cases (multiple models available)
• Samsung phone cases (multiple models available)

(Coffee mug coming soon; I want to order a prototype first to make sure it looks right.)

Printful (which makes the items you order through Etsy) has LOADS of different things onto which I can put the Phoenix symbol or any of the following posters.  Check out the site here and let me know if you want a puzzle, blanket, mouse pad, or whatever.  I'm happy to create a listing for you.

On to the posters.  They come on high-quality matte paper.  I've got a couple already and they are beautiful.  Here are the available sizes: 8"x10", 10"x10", 12"x12", 12"x16", 12"x18", 14"x14", 16"x16", 16"x20", 18"x18", 18"x24", and 24"x36".  Because of the different sizes, I had to recompose each of the posters so they would look good in different ratios.

"Put It On Paper!"

This is the one that appears in Volume Three and, obviously, it's the first one I made.  

• Poster
• Notebook (seemed logical)

"Secure That Network!"

I figure IT people would like this one.

• Poster

"It's Watching You"

When I saw this WWII propaganda poster, I knew I needed to try and replicate it.  At a glance, one might think I just replaced the German with the Cylon and changed the text, but no.  This is a "from scratch" recreation.  Probably my favorite of all the ones I've made.

• Poster
• 50"x60" blanket ('cause why not)

"Bullets, Battlestars, Bombs"

Another replication, this one's based on a Canadian WWII poster.  I had to include a toaster and a Graystone-brand Holoband.

• Poster

"Don't Cut Corners"

I thought fans would get a kick out of this one.

• Poster

"The Gods Are With Us"

A simple one, I'm sure it'll make people do a double-take because that clearly was a Bible before I got it in Photoshop.  The Caprican Reformed Temple was a creation of mine in Colonies of Kobol ... a sort of "Protestant" split from the Holy Church of Virgon, their overlords at the time, and thus was the Caprican Reformation viewed as a political movement.

• Poster

"Battlestar Service"

It wasn't easy to find a bunch of saluting silhouettes, but I did.  Not a thousand, though.  Yes, that's the Blood & Chrome version of Galactica.

• Poster

"Fly High"

Fun one.  I got to include a Mark I, a Mark II, and a Mark III.  (Yes, that's Kara.  Cameo appearance.)

• Poster

"You Brought It Down"

Another replication; here's the original.  

• Poster

"Grow Your Own Food"

This went through many permutations, including an attempt to draw limbs on various vegetables so they could hold rifles.  Never could get it to work.

• Poster

"Attack! Attack! Attack!"

This one's inspired by a WWII poster, too.  Fun to include all manner of vehicles, especially the "Warhawk" Viper propeller plane and the jet.

• Poster

"Join or Die"

This one was inspired by a famous American Revolution political cartoon.  In Colonies of Kobol, after the committee came up with the Articles of Colonization, the legislatures of the colonies had to ratify them before they could go into effect and they could become the United Colonies of Kobol (just like in the US before the Constitution went into effect).

• Poster

"Keep Calm and Battle Star"

I don't posit that this was actually around  on the Colonies during the Cylon War like I might for the above, but this was a fun one.  It is obviously based on perhaps the most famous WWII propaganda poster.

• Poster in red
• Poster in blue

"So Say We All"

Uses the "Keep Calm" font and, since "SSWA" is essentially a religious phrase, I put the plain Kobol Phoenix up top instead of the Colonial Seal.

• Poster in red
• Poster in blue

That's all for now.  Please, order and enjoy and spread the word.  Reviews, as always, help.  And again, if there's another product at Printful on which you'd like to have the Phoenix or one of the posters, check their site and let me know.

Thanks.

Post-Colonies of Kobol ... Reviews!

Well, all the volumes of Colonies of Kobol have been released.  Did you download them yet?  Have you started reading?  If you have and you've enjoyed it, please rate-and-review the books where you got them.  Seriously, this helps me a great a deal and spreads the word.  I sincerely appreciate it.

Here are a few of my favorites so far:

Also, NaraJoyce read Lords of Kobol and Colonies in one fell swoop after breaking her leg (get well soon).  Here's the love she gave LoK:

Also, I've been writing some lengthy posts about the histories of the worlds, my writing process, the decisions I made, ... it's a deep dive.  Does that interest anyone?  Should I publish those?

Thanks for reading.

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

 

Thousands of years of history have come to this.  Larsa, Kobol, Earth, the Colonies ... will the Messengers of The One True God finally help free mankind of the cycle?

In Colonies of Kobol - Volume Three, you'll see the conclusion.  In Tauron, the people kick the empires off their world and create the Ha'la'tha to fight an unjust government.  In Caprica, revisit the characters and events of that short-lived television series and witness the beginning of the Cylon War while the colonies, thanks to their long histories, struggle to come together.  In The Colony, watch the arrival of the Final Five, their changing of the Cylons forever, and the machinations of John Cavil.  In New Caprica, gain new perspectives on humanity's brief but consequential stay on that world.  Finally, in Earth, go on one last journey with Bill Adama and Saul Tigh and see the shape of things to come in our own future.

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

There is a Plan and questions will be answered.

Available for FREE:

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

Please, rate and review it where you got it.

Thank you and enjoy.

The other volumes can be downloaded here.

Writing Colonies XLVI: How to Read Volume Three

One week away ...

Hard to believe it's almost over, but here we are.  

On June 6 at about noon ET, I will publish the book to Smashwords.  Links to that will then be posted here on my blog and on my webpage.  (A few days afterward, it will filter out to Apple, B&N, and other sites, so the blog and webpage will be updated with those links at that time.)

As for the story itself, there are a few different date conventions to note, but nothing that will prove to be an obstacle.  Each one changes with the perspective of the world of focus, as well as the characters in it.  The first is the now ubiquitous "X Years After Colonization," giving what year the events take place (e.g., the Cylon War begins in 1948).  During the Cylon War portion, time is marked in days (and we know that the armistice was signed on day 4,571 thanks to Razor).  Book Fourteen: The Colony follows the Final Five and thus starts with "X Years After the Holocaust," which was the dating convention used in Book One: Earth, and becomes "X Years Before the Fall of the Colonies" when they arrive in the Cyrannus System.  Book Fifteen: New Caprica uses "X Days After Settlement" as that was frequently used in those BSG episodes and naturally refers to when the Colonials first settled that world.  Book Sixteen: Earth  uses "X Years After the Fall of the Colonies" for several chapters.  Also, the "interviews" with the Messengers continue using the "Unknown Years Before Activation," but in Book Sixteen, during the chapters set in our own future, you will see "X Months Before Activation," for example.  The "Activation" the Messengers had been preparing and interviewing for occurs at the end of that book.

Plus, some of you have asked that I include a chronological reading/viewing guide for all of my books, all of the shows, etc.  It will be at the end of Volume Three.  It's not easy, but I've crafted a list that hopefully minimizes too much bouncing around.  However, it is highly recommended that you have read and watched everything at least once before undertaking that chronological challenge.

Let's look at that handy-dandy graphic now ...

Glorious.  Volume Three is now LOCKED and I am working on the table of contents.

And this next pic, I guess, is the last of the handy-dandy graphics.

Thanks for reading.

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

 

Before the Cylons rebelled and the Battlestar Galactica led a ragtag fleet to Earth, two empires warred for control of the Twelve Colonies.

In Colonies of Kobol - Volume Two, you'll visit eight worlds.  In Virgon, the Blue Colony is racked with civil war.  In Sagittaron, witness the exploitation of that planet and its people.  In Canceron, democracy is founded and then wounded with greed.  In Aerilon, a wild frontier must be crossed to stop a rebel.  In Picon, there are battles on land, on the sea, in the air, and in space.  In Libran, the Empires' vassals try to unite in peace.  In Scorpia, Leonis' last colony stakes their claim on the future.  And in Aquaria, a small band must survive the elements and the Cylon attack.

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

There is a Plan and questions will be answered.

Available for FREE:

Download from Smashwords HERE (in all file formats, including Kindle)
Download from Apple 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.

(Get Volume One HERE)

Writing Colonies Part XLV: How to Read Volume Two

Yes, I recall the joke from last time.  "I know how to read."

Again, at about noon ET next Monday -- one week from today -- I will post the book on Smashwords.  I will then post it here on my blog and on my personal webpage.  That will be the only way to get the book for a time until it filters out to other platforms like Apple, B&N, etc.  Once that happens, I will post those links on my blog and webpage.

Same as before, read carefully.  Most of the years specified at the top of each chapter are "X Years After Colonization," but there are some KEY exceptions.

And very importantly for me, once you've read it and liked it, do two things: 1) rate-and-review it on the site from which you downloaded it and 2) tell everyone you know who might like it.  More than ten years removed from BSG on TV means people aren't really seeking out related content as much as they did when Lords of Kobol was released, but your help in spreading the word will overcome the deficit of time.

Here's another SITREP graphic to illustrate that Volume Two is now locked:

Meanwhile, I'm now knee-deep in the paper edit of Volume Three.  As that one's pushing a THOUSAND pages, it'll take a while.

Thanks for reading.  Just seven more days ...

"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 XLIV: How to Read Volume One

"Um, duh.  I can read."

I'm sure one of you said that.  There's more to it than that.

First, the technical stuff.

On February 7, at around noon Eastern Time (US), I will post it on Smashwords.com.  It will be available there in all formats (Apple, Nook, Kindle, PDF, etc.).  In the days after it goes up, Smashwords will distribute it to the other stores around the web, like iTunes, B&N, etc.  I will post those links as I become aware of them on my personal webpage here.

(Smashwords now has a pre-order option and I attempted to use that.  I thought it would be cool for everyone to sign up for it in the week leading up to the release, and then you get an email saying it's ready or whatever.  Nope.  To do a pre-order release, I have to charge money.  Because I am still afeared of lawyers, I won't do that.  I do, however, still have a tipjar, in case anyone feels so inclined.)

Now, actually reading the thing.

Lords of Kobol was, primarily, dated at the top of each chapter with the phrase "X Years Before the Final Exodus," obviously referring to the exodus of mankind from Kobol.  In Colonies, the phrase you'll see most often is "X Years After Colonization."  This refers to the day civilian ships landed and human feet trod upon Gemenon with the intention of staying.  

Also, a phrase you'll see often is, "Unknown Years Before Activation."  That's cryptic and it's supposed to be.  (Perhaps it's something that won't be resolved until, say, Volume Three.)  Regardless, that phrase means what you're reading is outside of time and space and you're witnessing the Messengers of The One True God as they conduct "interviews" with people from humanity's past.  Yes, this is how I finagled my way into writing chapters with some beloved characters from Lords of Kobol, BSG, and Caprica, living and dead.  

In other words, with shifting dates and the possibility of extra-dimensional interviews, I'm saying, "Read carefully."

Related to this, I'll mention that I'm working on a chronological reading and viewing guide for inclusion in Volume Three.  Meaning, a list of what to read and watch in order, including all of Lords of Kobol, Colonies of Kobol, Caprica, BSG, and more.  I briefly toyed with making Colonies a strictly chronological story from jump, but that would have meant bouncing from colony to colony on a more frequent basis.  I thought keeping the separate books, one for each planet, worked best, and I believe the larger narrative doesn't suffer because one part of Book Two, for example, takes place after Book Four.

Oh, one more SITREP before next week:

I now consider Volume One locked.  I've read through a few sections since the last full edit and tweaked some things, but that is at an end.  While I craft the social media posts for One's release next week, I am now beginning the next editing read-through of Volume Two.  As Two is nearly twice as long as One, those edits will require more time, so I can't rest on my laurels yet.

February 7 is just one week away.  Thanks for reading.