Battlecruiser Alamo has
been and continues to be tremendous joy to write. As I've said
before, this universe is one that has been in my mind for the last
twenty years, more than that, and it's amazing to finally get to
explore it. A lot of the pieces are now in play for what – I will
now reveal – is intended as a twelve-book run. In my mind at least,
the four books that I released in 2013 were 'season one', with
'season two' and 'season three' planned for 2014 and 2015.
This series had a rather
amusing start – three false start drafts, all of which were
completely different. None of them were actually finished; in each
case I realized it just wasn't working before I finished the draft,
and moved onto the next one. Took about two years to get that first
book written! Now that I have a firmer idea of the direction, things
move onto a new level – I know where this series is going, and in
2014 a lot more of the ongoing plot is going to become apparent.
What can be expected?
Well, as I intimated in the 'Poor Ensign Chekov' post, there will be
a few changes to the 'cast' as a few people get moved out; there are
some crew members that I want to focus on more, and a few new
characters I want to introduce, and a I need to move a few people
into positions that will set them up for the ongoing saga. Things are
changing in the Triplanetary Confederation, and not all of them for
the better. Trouble is brewing...
As for the Battlecruiser
Alamo? Well – she's going out again on another mission of
exploration, once again with Lieutenant-Captain Marshall in the
captain's chair, this time a longer one. The intention is that this
will last for the four books of 2014, as the ship heads back out into
unknown territory in a bid to learn more about the mysterious Cabal
and the threat it potentially holds for the Confederation, as well as
continuing the search for the long-lost Hercules.
Naturally, not all the
mysteries are going to be solved this year – I need to leave
something for the following
years – but a few of them will certainly become clearer, and more
pieces of the puzzle will slot into place. I'll be honest here –
even I didn't know all the details of this when I wrote the first
book in the series! The Cabal has evolved as new ideas have suggested
themselves from the plot, and some stories have moved back and forth
in the line. I may end up writing an entire spin-off series in 2015
to accommodate a story idea that currently doesn't fit Alamo, but one
that I like and want to
write.
Oh
– and aliens. I'll say that much – Alamo makes contact with
living aliens in 2014.
They've already been established as a part of the setting way back in
Price of Admiralty, but I actually intend to introduce some into the
series in the books planned for this year. Again,
this is something I've been looking forward to, and even planned on
introducing some last year, but they just didn't fit into the
evolving arc at this point.
Provisionally,
the titles for the books to be released in the Battlecruiser Alamo
series in 2014 are as follows. Naturally, all of these are subject to
change, to some more so than others; as you will see in this blog
post, the fantastic Keith Draws has already prepared two of the
covers for me! (Not One Step
Back was originally the first
book in the series, and Battle of Hercules originally the next...I
must admit to being terrible with covers!)
Book
5: Not One Step Back (February)
Book
6: Shattered Visage (May)
Book
7: Doomsday's Dawn (August)
Book
8: Battle of Hercules (November)
Tomorrow, details on an
Alamo spin-off..
No comments:
Post a Comment