Here is an exert from orbital Defiance, the first book in the New Haven Chronicles series. It’s heavy military sci-fi, so if that’s not your bag, than you likely won’t enjoy it.
Click this link, apparently to behold the PDF wonder.
Orbital Decay
Writing breaks & goals, and the new tv season…
I’m taking a break from Orbital Decay, for at least a month. I’ve been working on it for over a year and I’m getting a bit cross eyed. It will be good to get away from it for a while and come back at with a fresh set of eyes. Even with a month away from it, I should be able to make my end of the year release goal.
In the mean time, I will turn my attention to a number of other things:
Updating a short story I wrote several years ago that isn’t connected to any other project
The New Haven Chronicles Timeline needs some revision and I’d like to get it squared away before Orbital Decay is released. There are also a handful of New Haven related short stories that I want to try and work on. Some that require completion of a first draft and others that need revision.
Most importantly though, I need to start work on the second book in the Fall of Man series, the sequel to Method of Life…or rather I need to take what I have written already and start putting it towards the final story I want to tell. I’ve got about sixty to seven thousands words already down, but I’m not sure how much of that will survive once I really get into it. It’s a good amount to start with and work through, so I’m hoping that the next installment won’t take as long as the first one; which took several years.
I started putting together ideas for what I would eventually become The Fall of Man, when I was still in high school, back in the late 90’s. It’s taken from then to now to get the story contained within Method of Life down on paper, so to speak. Along the way, much of the rest of the series was planned out and some of the books are already started and well into development, so any large changes or massive rewrites, it shouldn’t take as long for the next book to see the light of day.
So if anyone has made it this far into the post, what do you think of the new fall tv lineup? Any new decent shows on the horizon? I’ve seen a couple new ones already, through legal means, Revolution and Last Resort. I enjoyed Last Resort and I’ll probably keep up with it, simply for mindless fun. Neither show however is exactly pushing any boundaries.
Of course the big draws are on HBO and AMC. Boardwalk Empire and Treme are back. They’re not my personal favorites but are worth checking out. The Walking Dead will also be back soon, though because of the falling out between AMC and Dish Network, I won’t be seeing it. Hopefully I can find an alternative method to get my zombie fix this fall/winter.
So what are you watching?
Method of Life awaits your discovery.
Stuff…
I need to work on posting more here. It’s not much of a blog, otherwise.
I’ve nearly finished the first draft of Orbital Decay. It’s taken longer than I would have liked, but the story ended up being longer than I had planned. It’s also taken me longer to write the battles sequences than I thought it would. I’ve written fight scenes before and thought they wouldn’t pose any difficulties, but as the space battles in this really through me for a loop. Needless to say, while the bulk of the story is there, the overall piece is still going to need some work. I can’t say for certain now when Orbital Decay will be released. My hope is to have it done and ready to go by the end of the year, but if I’ve learned anything about myself through my writing, it’s that I’m terrible at predicting when something will be done and/or setting any type of deadline for myself.
So it’s best in this case and any future endeavors to simply say it will be done, when it’s done.
In other news, my other book, Method of Life is still sitting on my hard drive, relatively untouched. So what I’m planning now, it to work on getting Method ready for publishment once Orbital Decay is through the first draft stage. Taking a break from New Haven to focus on Method, will do me some good. This way I can get one book out there for sale and then refocus my attention on New Haven with a fresh set of eyes…so to speak.
Between the two, there might also be some other things released. It just depends on how much I can get done.
That’s about it for now. I’m getting ready to head out for the evening and need to finish getting ready. My hair isn’t going to fix itself.
Updates…
It’s been several months since I’ve updated this bloggy thing. I’ve been busy writing though, so it’s an acceptable absence I think. By the end of the Summer, tow books, Method of Life and Orbital Decay will both be available for your reading pleasure via Amazon.com. I’m publishing them myself as Ebooks, because an actual book you can hold in your hands printed from a reputable publisher, is so last century. At some point I’ll get around to actually publishing physical books, if only because it will be nice to have them sitting on my book shelf, but until then the electronic version will have to suffice.
I watched some great E3 coverage this past week, from IGN and G4. There were far too many highlights to cover here though. I’m still not sold on the WII U, though with a more normal gaming controller, that is very much like the 360 controller, and HD graphics, the system certainly has potential. I didn’t seen anything yet that really blew me away, but developers get a better handle on it, there could be some good games…once they get away from games I’ve already played on other systems. ME3 and Batman: Akrham City as launch titles. Really, you couldn’t find anyone to make new titles to replace or out do these obvious ports. The fact that two of Nintendo’s launch titles are ports from other systems, doesn’t exactly feel me with a great amount of excitement for the WII U. If anyone buys the WII U specifically for those games, they should save themselves some money and just buy a used 360 and a used copy of both games. Hell, you can do that right now without having to wait for the WII U to launch, do it cheaper, and have a multiplayer experience that you know for sure will work…or a PS3. I hear they have online functionality that works…most of the time.
At any rate, Nintendo could have done much better.
That is all.
Time Line: Part Three…
Good news. I powered through over half of Part Three today, so baring any crippling hand injuries or major bouts of writers laze, it should be ready to go on Friday. The earlier the better as I always say….actually I’ve never said that, but it’s true nonetheless. The sooner I can finish part three, the sooner I can move on to focusing on the next short for the following Friday.
I have three more short stories planned before releasing the first official episode, Orbital Decay, so by my calculation if everything goes according to plan and I maintain the one release a week schedule, Orbital Decay should be out in March at the earliest. That is of course assuming it’s done by then. Fingers crossed.
Jon Michael May 