The particularly (dare I say bizarrely) observant might have noticed some activity over on my author pages recently. The first change, which is a minor one, is that I’m trying out a brand new name for my Sci-Fi series. I got a lot of great suggestions from fans over the months that I’ve been mulling it over. I was particularly fond of “Freelancer.” Most of the characters in the series are in some way or another a freelancer–most notably the star, Lex Alexander. Unfortunately, if you do a search for freelancer, you get this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game)
Yes, it looks precisely like it could be my books… but it isn’t. And since it came out before my books, using the same name would probably get Microsoft Game Studios out after me. Then a fan named Manuel suggested “Big Sigma” as a name for the series. This one’s subtle, because it is the name of Karter’s planet in the series, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. Plus, since Big Sigma is just the name of an upper case Greek letter, I’m reasonably sure I won’t have any lawyers coming after me for using it. (The ancient Greeks aren’t known for being very litigious these days.) The change has been made and should be going live in the various stores over the course of the next few weeks. This change should be useful, since a lot of people contact me after reading (and enjoying) Bypass Gemini to ask me if I’m planning on doing a sequel. Now that the series has a name, let’s hope people can pick up on the fact that Unstable Prototypes is its already released follow-up.
Just to make that news all the more worthwhile, I’d like you to meet the latest addition to the “Awesome Commissioned Art” family. Here’s Lindsey Hein’s beautiful Squee figurine!
So much personality!
Brilliantly done as always!
Now for the next piece of news. My very first NaNoWriMo project was a silly story about superheroes. Even as I was writing it, the story seemed awfully goofy, so for a few months after completion I debated on whether I would even release it. Eventually I decided I may as well. If you’ve been watching my twitter, facebook, or tumblr feeds, you’ve probably seen some artwork progress shots. Well, here on my blog I’d like to officially announce that I’ve selected a release date! The Other Eight will be released on April 1st, 2014. The eager among you can head over to Smashwords right now and download the first half to sample. Here’s the cover!
From Left to Right: Nonsensica, Johnny on The Spot, and Non Sequitur
That cover has a heck of a story behind it. Aside from being drawn by Nick Deligaris (as you good fans demanded) and being his first piece for me that uses a non-realistic style (also the result of asking the fans) the art has two additional notable points. One, the concept was derived from an idea suggested by fan artist and beta reader CatseaTheDevil. Beyond that, the basic character design was drawn largely from some character commissions by Adam J. Hall. I’m happy to have had these contribution to help shape the cover, and I can’t just let them slip by unacknowledged, so I included a special thanks page in the book to credit them appropriately.
I’ll chat some more about this story as the time of its release draws nearer, but I just wanted to keep everyone in the loop.
Thanks for reading!