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 IX: ONE MONTH AWAY

Just finishing up my last readthrough ... Thankfully, I'm not having to change much.  Just dotting "i"s and the like.

It's almost done.

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 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 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 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.

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 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 XXXIX: Managing Expectations

I'll be honest: I don't know who I'm talking to with this post.  Me?  You?  Dunno.  Mostly me, I suspect.

I've long been worried that people would be disappointed with Colonies of Kobol.  That people have liked Lords of Kobol so much is a surprise in itself, so, naturally, I'm concerned about the follow-up.  I'm just going to type and hope it ends up being therapeutic for me and any release neuroses I happen to have.  Maybe it'll help you readers, too.

1. If you're hoping to read Colonies and get 2,000+ pages of hot Cylon action, you're going to be disappointed.  Cylons appear in ... checks memory ... Book One, and then not again until Book Thirteen - Sixteen.  (Not counting a brief "cameo" in Book Eleven.)  There's plenty of action throughout, however, and that leads me to the next point.

2. A great deal of Colonies reads like an "alternative history" of Earth.  This may or may not surprise you.  The vague backstory of the Twelve Colonies was laid out in Caprica's bible and various other associated sources (including the famed QMX map), including allusions that Virgon and Leonis were essentially England and France, respectively, and they carried out an on-and-off thousand-year war of colonization, imperialism, etc., utilizing their many proxy worlds and nations against each other.  Spoiler alert if you haven't studied Earth history: that's pretty much what happened here, too.  So there will be plenty of battles with each one steeped in a different era of the past reflecting different weapons, armor, ships, and so on.  There is some cross-pollination of the high tech among the low, but I'll talk about that more thoroughly in a different post, likely after release.  

Simply put, I took advantage of the time frame and settings in these books by writing wholly different genres of stories among the sci-fi.  You've got knights, castles, a western, a police story, "Age of Sail"-type warfare, politics, romance (kinda), mobsters (a little), and horror (a little), all mixed up with a huge continuation and conclusion of the Caprica TV show, more Cylon warfare, and an epilogue with some of the people from Battlestar Galactica set on Earth II (our Earth) about a decade after settlement.  And that leads to the next point.

3. I'm worried about the ending.  When I wrote Lords of Kobol, the ending of the story was one of the few things everyone knew about: there's a "Blaze," Athena died, there's an exodus, and Zeus said, "Don't come back."  The hard part was writing a compelling story that got us there, but I never really worried about the ending.  Same thing with Prelude.  Sure, it was a prequel, but again, I didn't have to worry about the ending.  The ending was the beginning of Lords of Kobol.  (Well, not really.  Book Two, sure, but ... you know what I mean.)

For Colonies, however, I'm out on a limb.  The closest guidance the series gave me was the epilogue of "Daybreak."  I've watched that scene many times and read its transcription often enough, too.  I took it to heart and crafted a story set in our own future that seeks to fulfill something "Head Six" said.  The problem is ... I worry that people may not like it.  It is, however, the ending that I feel must happen, so that overwhelms my concerns.  Mostly.

As for what's around that ending, there's flashbacks to the crew of the late Galactica.  I have no worries about that stuff; I think it turned out great.  However, there are some elements of the portions of the story in our future that bother me.  I'm writing about real nations now and not something pulled out of thin air for Sagittaron a thousand years before the Cylon War, for example.  Invariably, that means politics are injected into the story somewhat and that concerns me, too.  Though all dramatic sci-fi inevitably comments on the world around its creators when it was written and produced, this feels more on the nose since I'm typing words like "United States" instead of "the People's Revolution of Scorpia."  In the end, I don't think it can be helped.  I tried in my latest rewrite to tamp some elements down and shift others, but when I was finished, it felt as though I was left with a hole in the story that had to be replaced.  

Alright, alright.  Enough of the therapy session.  Now that I've gotten it off my chest, maybe I won't fret about it too much more.  Maybe.

Thanks for reading.

(PS: I'm starting to read/edit in a day or so ... it'll be a slow process of reading and immediately changing word choices if needed, fleshing out if needed, etc.  It's been a while since I've read Book One so I'm kinda looking forward to it.)