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.

"Lords of Kobol - Collection: Special Edition" - DOWNLOAD NOW!

 

All five acclaimed Lords of Kobol books collected in a single volume ...

Thousands of years before the Cylons destroyed the Twelve Colonies and the Battlestar Galactica led a ragtag fleet to Earth, the Lords of Kobol lived among mankind in peace and harmony. Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Athena, Ares ... the gods provided and the people worshipped. But who or what were they? In Book One: Apotheosis, see Kobol in its golden age, with gods and humanity working together, and witness the creation and exodus of the Thirteenth Tribe. In Book Two: Descent, learn the origins of the Olympians and the tale of their coming to Kobol, as well as their war against non-believers. In Book Three: The Final Exodus, watch the end of the Pantheon's reign as Cylons revolt and mankind flees for the Twelve Colonies. In Prelude: Of Gods and Titans, spend more time with Zeus and the gods, and meet their parents, the Titans, and observe the beginning of the cycle. And in the background of it all, The One True God and its Messengers seek to preserve humanity in the face of doom. Finally, in Alternate: Tales from Ancient Days, read a different take on the end of the world and how the gods played their parts.

This is the definitive special edition collection of these five works, complete with deleted 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 (in all file formats)
Apple
Barnes & Noble
Everand
Gardners
Kobo
Odilo

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

Writing the Special Editions Part X: LoK is Locked!

I've finished another read-through of the Lords of Kobol - Collection: Special Edition.  Didn't change much at all, so I believe I'm at the "walk away" point.  I'm locking it and eagerly anticipating publishing it on Friday, December 8.  Two weeks from today and right on schedule.

For kicks, I created this graphic showing the various covers I used over the last twelve years:

Click to embiggen

(Doesn't include the "marble edition" covers since those were never actually published.)

I'll make another post in a week or so detailing the timing of it but if you're following me on social media, it'll be hard for you to miss it.  (Here's my Linktree page so you can get a quick look at my social accounts and choose whichever one floats your boat.)

Thanks for reading.

Writing the Special Editions Part VIII: One More Time!

A brief update to let everyone know that I've begun the second complete (cover-to-cover) readthrough of the Lords of Kobol Collection.  

I'll be making sure all the links are correct, checking for errors, mistakes, and so on, ... stuff like that.  I'll also be evaluating the commentary I wrote a few months back to ensure that it's still what I want to be out there, inextricably tied to the "definitive version" of these novels.  

I'm also keeping an eye on that 15MB wall, but that wasn't a major issue with the LoK Special Edition.  

Everything is still on track for it to be released on the twentieth anniversary of the BSG miniseries ...

December 8.

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 III: Lords of Kobol is finished ... for now

Took about two-and-a-half months, but I've finished the first pass at Lords of Kobol: Special Edition.  If you haven't been following along, I read each of the books and created a kind of "commentary track" (like good ol' DVDs) in which I discussed inspirations, languages used, mythology, connections to the TV shows, and so on.  I threw in quite a few pictures and sketches and things, too.  I tried to keep the commentary fun but I'll admit, it was kinda like therapy for me at times so I got a little "real" once or twice.

All five books plus commentary came out to 1,314 pages in Word.  Thankfully, it's still 1MB under the 15MB limit imposed by Smashwords. 

I'll let it sit and macerate for a while.  I wasn't planning on publishing it until December for BSG's 20th anniversary, so I'll check back in and give the additional stuff another look before locking it down.  

"Will there be changes?"  Yes.  Deleted scenes have been added in, but with "DELETED" in the header of each chapter, so you'll know what's what.  I'll leave it up to you to decide if those are truly "in the story."  There were about three chapters altogether wherein I was displeased with how it read.  More often that not, there was too much "telling" and not enough "showing," so I altered things to do more of the latter.  Only one chapter required a true rewrite and it was for that reason.  I made a few other minor corrections (e.g. spelling) or additions for clarity's sake.  The end product, however, will be the definitive version of those books.

"Are you going to pull a Lucas and remove the originals from the web?"  No.  I won't go that far.  However, once the SE is published, that's the one I'll point people toward.  I cannot foresee a time in the future wherein I'll want to add or change anything else, so the SE will be the final word.

"What's next?"  Oof.  Colonies of Kobol.

Lords of Kobol was "only" one thousand pages.  Colonies is 2,000+.  AND, the Special Edition will put nearly everything in chronological order.  I am certain it will take me days, if not weeks, to arrange the chapters in the new file and then retitle the headers for each chapter.  And that's to say nothing of the bookmarking/hyperlinking for the Table of Contents.  All of that before I even start on the commentary portions.  Plus, don't forget about that 15MB cap for uploads to Smashwords.  I will have to degrade the quality of the images in the books (maps, primarily) to try and stay under that cap.  It's a good thing I wasn't planning on releasing that SE until next March.

I kid about the tedium.  It will be tedious, but I'll enjoy digging into each facet of Colonies again and talking about the various languages involved, why I made certain choices, etc.  

That's what I'll be up to.  Thanks for reading.

Writing the Special Editions Part II: The Trilogy is Finished

If you're just tuning in, I'm working on a "special edition" of the Lords of Kobol and Colonies of Kobol books.  I have collected all five LoK books into a single file and I have been in the process of reading it and commenting on the story as I go.  (The "commentary" portion will be available via a hyperlink at the end of each chapter.)  

Simply put, this has been a lot of fun.  I haven't read the trilogy since ... I dunno.  2017, maybe, right before I started work on Colonies?  Lots of good stuff and plenty to talk about in the commentary.  I "get real" a few times, talking about serious personal stuff and how it ended up in the book.  I also dug up a bunch of old files and have pics of sketches inserted in there.  I found the very first draft of the book so I can compare how it started versus how it ended up ... I also found a crazy timeline of events I created before I started writing in earnest in 2009.  It was pretty detailed and I put the whole thing in there to compare and contrast.

One cool item in that timeline I never acted on?  "Hermes - criminal stowaway."  Wha?  I have no memory of that and no idea why I didn't tell that story.  I'm somewhat disappointed I didn't.

At any rate, I just finished the commentary for Book Three, meaning the original trilogy is complete.  Next, I start on Prelude, followed by the "lost" Book Four.  

Things are still on track for a December release, as promised.

As for the Colonies special edition next March ... we'll see, but it's still looking good.

In the meantime, feel free to download and read Lords of Kobol right here.

Thanks for reading.

Writing the Special Editions Part I: The Writer Compares Himself to Tolkien*

* - Just a little, and that's Christopher Tolkien; not J.R.R.

If you're a Tolkien fan, you've likely at least heard of The History of Middle-earth series (as well as other, similar works).

My Tolkien shelf

In J.R.R.'s lifetime, only The Hobbit and the three Lord of the Rings books were published.  The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, and other books came later, but here's the thing: they were compiled and edited by his son, Christopher.  After Silmarillion was published in the '70s, Christopher embarked on what proved to be a monumental four-decade-long task of gathering, cataloguing, editing, and publishing seemingly all of his father's writings on Middle-earth.  And this entailed much more than what we saw in both Hobbit and LotR.  Much, much more.

What does this have to do with me?

Well, whereas Tolkien wrote from 1914 all the way until his death in 1973, I started writing Lords of Kobol in 2009.  My efforts to organize and catalogue changes for Special Edition are much less monumental than Christopher's.  Still, it can seem daunting at times.  Here's a look at what files are open on my PC at any given moment:

Click to embiggen

On the far left, there's the LoK SE docx file.  I use the split-view so I can read a chapter up top and then type my commentary in the bottom portion.  I'm bookmarking and hyperlinking to and from the commentary as I go.  Note that the page length is currently nearing 1,200 pages.  About seventy of that is commentary, thus far.

In the center, that's the "LoK.doc" file.  The first draft of all three books in one.  Created in September '09 and finished in March '10 (six months ... which I still find hard to believe).

Bottom right is the "LoK discards" file.  It includes chapters written for subsequent drafts that went unpublished and even a couple of chapters that were published and got removed.

Top right is a series of PDFs.  Note the tabs: each one is a different version of Book One published across the last decade and change.  (I occasionally published a new version of the book a couple of times each year, but that was often to add links to another book of mine or to update website links and the like.)  This way, I can see that one chapter was present in 2011 when the book was first published, but that it's missing in 2014.  At that point I have to figure out why I removed it ...

(Not pictured: image viewer, which I have open so I can check maps and such.)

I created the SE file a few months ago, pasting in all five books.  Then I returned to Colonies briefly to write that one-off chapter detailed in the previous blog post.  Last week, I came back to the SE to organize things and I made the fully linked table of contents.  Over this past weekend, I started reading and commentating in earnest.  

We seem to be on track for that December release date.

Thanks for reading.

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.

"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)

"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.

Colonies of Kobol RELEASE DATES

Well, it's been nearly five years in the making, and I appreciate your patience, but the time has nearly arrived.

Colonies of Kobol - Volume One: Foundation ...

That's ten days shy of five years from when I first created the Word document and got the ball rolling.  

That's the first Monday of the month, so I continued that into the next books, too.

Colonies of Kobol - Volume Two: Evolution ...

Colonies of Kobol - Volume Three: Revolution ...

The cool thing is, Volume Two is out on 4/4/22 and Volume Three is out on 6/6/22.  Not important.  Just neat.

The dates are subject to change due to calamity or what have you, but I'm pretty determined to get them finished and published as I've listed here.

For Lords of Kobol, I released them one month apart.  Then again, those books are only about two hundred pages each.  With Volume One being more than four hundred, Two nearly eight hundred, and Three pushing a thousand, I figured two months in between releases would be better for the readers.

(Speaking of Lords of Kobol, now would probably be a good time for you to go ahead and re-read those four great books.  If you haven't already, you can download them for free HERE.)

More news and info to come.  Thanks for reading.

Writing Colonies XL: All About Editing

Here's the graphic:

The green Roman numerals mean I've completed the first of my planned edit phases.  Here they are:

1. "Run-and-Gun Edit."  Basically, I read the book and fix misspellings, word choices, etc., as I go.  Pretty quick.
2. "Tone Edit."  I read everything a bit more slowly and make sure the "feel" of each chapter/book works.  Sometimes I find that I can get flowery in some places and not flowery enough in others.  Maybe the difference comes down to the mood I was in the day I wrote it.  I'm not sure.  Regardless, this edit will be about evening things up a bit and making sure the tone fits with that portion of the story and ones adjacent to it.
3. "Chronological Edit."  This one's unique to Colonies of Kobol.  Because I've separated the story into sixteen separate books covering each of the Colonies of Kobol, I've had to jump around in the timeline a bit.  I could have written everything in order, but that would have been one massive book and not sixteen more manageable ones.  (For those interested in a chronological read, I intend to include a chronological table of contents so, once you've read it through once, you can read it again in a more linear fashion.)  With this one, I'll start at Book One: Earth, then go to the first part of Book Two: Gemenon, then the first chapter of Book Four: Virgon, then all of Book Three: Leonis, then the first part of Book Eight: Picon, then the first part of Book Five: Sagittaron, ... you get the idea.  All to make sure the continuity holds up and everything makes sense across the different worlds  (mentions of events in one book frequently appear in dialogue in others).  I may even throw in a re-read of Lords of Kobol and a re-watch of Caprica and BSG in the appropriate spots to make sure it fits the universe.  Depending on time, we'll see.
4. "Paper Edit."  Basically, I print the whole thing out and read it, red pen in hand, so I may make the pages run red with the blood of its errors.  Reading the book in different media helps me find mistakes I've missed in other read-throughs, I've found.
5. "Device Edit."  Similar to the "Paper Edit," I read this on a handheld device of some sort, again, so I might catch mistakes that slipped through previous edits.

And that's it.  Five different edit phases.  So, when that graphic is full of green "V"s, you'll know it's time to move toward publishing.  Wow.

And when will that be?  I have a plan, but much like the show, I'm not telling just yet.  Let's see how the next editing phases go.

Thanks for reading.

Writing Colonies XXXVII: Wrapping up Tauron, PICKUPS & RESHOOTS

 In case you missed it last week, I've finished the first draft of Colonies of Kobol.

(Hold for applause.)

What I didn't do in that post was my typical wrap-up for the book I had finished, so let me do it now.

Tauron is, like several others, a two-parter.  The first takes place as the beleaguered people manage kick the Leonis and Virgon Empires off their planet (for a time).  The second is all about the Tauran Civil War, the conflict that gave birth to the Ha'la'tha, and ends with refugees going to Caprica.

Here's the map I made of Tauron, germane primarily to the first part:

Click to embiggen

For those keeping track (me), Book Twelve is 116 pages long, which means Volume Three is 969 pages.  That, plus Volume One's 429 pages and Volume Two's 721 pages means the first draft of Colonies of Kobol is 2,119 pages long.  (Lords of Kobol was 1,095 pages total.)

In the next phase, it's going to get longer.  Here's the graphic; I'll explain after:

In the movie biz, "pickups and reshoots" are things they film after principal photography is complete.  Pickups are scenes that they plan on filming later to supplement the story (sometimes the decision to film a pickup comes while they're doing principal photography, e.g.: "Oh, it'd help if we had a scene where this character says this thing"); reshoots are do-overs of scenes that didn't go right the first time. 

I've kept a list for the last several months of things I want/need to do, and that list is now the graphic above.  The red asterisks indicate books where I intend to do some of these pickups and reshoots before I dig into the editing process.  For example, in the case of Gemenon, it's more of a reshoot (rewriting) of a key scene; in Leonis, it's a pickup because I need to add a scene to make later stuff make sense; Aerilon and Aquaria just need a few lines of dialogue added; and so on.

I'm not going to update this graphic with a single green asterisk each time I finish one of these pickups/reshoots.  In a couple of weeks (hopefully), I'll just post one with all green asterisks and then discuss my editing process.

That's what's up.  Don't know how long this will take, nor do I know how long the editing/reading/re-writing process will take.  As soon as I can pencil in a date on the calendar for a possible release, you'll be the first to know.

Thanks for reading, as always.

TEN YEARS of "Kobol"

 

It's hard to believe, but Lords of Kobol - Book One: Apotheosis was released on August 3, 2011.  I'd like to thank everyone for reading it and, most importantly, liking it and its sequels/prequel so much over the years.  Please, keep reading it AND keep telling other people who like BSG to give it a shot.  Your word-of-mouth/social media is the best way to get new readers.  (And rate/review it where you got it, too.)

If you haven't gotten it yet, pfft.  What are you here for?  Download all four books in the trilogy here.  (Don't forget, I've written several more books, too.)

So ... what's next?  Despite my desire to have it ready to go at this point, Colonies of Kobol just isn't there yet.  I've almost finished writing it (seriously, give me a few days and I'll be able say it's done), but that would still leave the lengthy reading/editing/re-reading/re-editing phase to go.

I will not, however, let a tenth anniversary go without something to mark the occasion.  How about a giveaway?

I'm going to give ONE lucky reader a first draft copy of Colonies of Kobol - Volume One: Foundation.

(This includes Earth I, Gemenon, and Leonis.)

How do you get it?  Simple.  Email me at ety3rd@ety3rd.com before noon ET on Friday with just a paragraph or so on A) what you like about Lords of Kobol and B) what you hope to see in Colonies of Kobol.  That's it.  I'll pick one of the entries and email the winner Friday afternoon.

Thanks again for ten years of reading.  Here's hoping there's at least ten more.

Writing Colonies Part XXVIII: SITREP - "Aerilon" is finished

 Handy-dandy graphic:

With the completion of Book Seven: Aerilon, I have now finished four books out of the eight books slated for Volume Two.  So I'm kinda halfway done with Volume Two.  Yay.  And I now have "only" five books left to do out of sixteen.  Bigger "yay."

How's my pace?  Well, Aerilon took just over a month.  That's on par with both Virgon and Sagittaron, which also took a month.  Canceron was an aberration thanks to a false start and my diversion into Jonathan Swift, so that was two-and-a-half months.  I think Picon, barring unforeseen wackiness, will take about a month or so as well.

I've mentioned it before, but Aerilon provided the opportunity for me to write a western, of sorts.  It was rather fun and ended up lasting about 77 pages (for those keeping track) and it was a departure from my usual ___ of Kobol style in that there weren't chapters that bounced back and forth, telling the story from other characters' perspectives.  Instead, it focused on one person and his task on this planet.  

I did end up creating a map for it, so here it is:

Click to embiggen

(The long lines are trails that link the far-flung towns.)

Now it's on to Book Eight: Picon.  As this is "The Ocean Colony" and they have an established naval tradition, I think it's rather obvious that I shall have to channel my inner Hornblower and set off on the high seas.

Thanks for reading.

Writing Colonies XXIV: SITREP - Canceron is finished; starting Aerilon

 Handy-dandy graphic ...

My attempt at a Gulliver's Travels-style tale within the Kobolverse is complete.  It was fun, but perhaps a distraction.  I don't know if I will include in Canceron as it does not directly impact the story (a few characters reference it and some themes jibe), but for now, it's in there. 

If you're interested in such things, here is the map of Canceron included in Book Six:

Click to embiggen

For those keeping track, Book Six: Canceron is currently 164 pages long.  That's 354 pages in Volume Two and a grand total of 1,636 pages in Colonies of Kobol thus far.

Now, on to Book Seven: Aerilon ... I'm doing something a bit different again and focusing on a singular story that bridges the period between its initial colonization and them being (and wanting to remain) on their own.

Thanks for reading.

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 XX: Book Six - STARTING OVER

Well, shit.

No, my computer didn't die (again).  I still have the thirty-ish pages I started on last week.  Let me explain it by recounting that special moment from yesterday afternoon.

The first part of the book (not half; part) is about how the Virgo and Leo settlements on Cancer come together to form their own government after their respective empires abandoned them, thus forming the oldest (and what would become the largest) democracy in the Twelve Colonies.  So, I'm typing the final sentences.  Type, type, type.  Put the period on, delete the extra spaces, and finished.  I leaned back in my chair, glanced at the preceding paragraph or two, and said, "I hate it."

Somehow, as I wrote these thirty pages in the last several days, the thought didn't cross my mind.  I believed everything was going OK and according to my outline.  The characters were fine, there was a flourish of humor, some action, ... yeah, I didn't like it.

What was the problem?  It feels too slight.  Not just because the story was told in thirty pages.  The first part of Book Three: Leonis isn't much longer than that but I like that section of Leonis perfectly well.  No, there was just something missing.  It feels too thin.  It's like I didn't have anything more to say than, "Here's what happened.  Plot, plot, plot."  Sometimes my writing can downshift to that kind of beat-by-beat storytelling, but that's typically in action scenes and the like which demand it.  

Yeah.  So I will, basically, start over.

I will not attempt a rewrite at this stage.  I will, instead, skip ahead to the meatier portion of my Book Six outline which details the struggles of a mining community against the leadership of a company and their government.  Right now, I think this section alone will comprise Book Six. 

(Will I include those thirty pages in the mythical Colonies of Kobol - Special Edition?  Maybe.  We're still pretty far away from that, though.)

Thanks for reading.