Category: Book

Corvette Draft One Complete

KenMcConnell

Yesterday morning the house was quiet with everyone asleep, so I wrote the final two scenes in my latest novella, Corvette. It feels good to have that behind me. I was thinking it might stretch out to be a novel, but at under 50K words and about 215 pages, its a decent sized novella. Corvette is my attempt to write to a market and create a prequel to the Star Saga. The structure and tropes that I used are similar to what is selling right now in Military SF. I hope to have it out in ebook form early next year.

Right now my writing sprints are focused on the second draft of K’nat Trap. This is the novella that I wrote earlier in the year and its set a few years after Starstrikers, Book 4 of the Star Saga. Looking forward to making the changes my beta readers have suggested and tightening up the second draft. With any luck, it will be out before Corvette, sometime next year.

In other news, I’ve nearly completed the K’nat fighter model for use on the novella’s cover. Here are some shots of the model on my bench.

This is a 3rd Generation Votainion starfighter and appears in Starstrikers and K’nat Trap. It has a standard engine and two NexGen space/time drives that let it move through space and time for short duration.

It’s quite the challenge to paint and weather an all black fighter. The canopy in these shots is just primer gray. Eventually it will be painted.

Devon’s Blade Draft Two

KenMcConnell

I just completed my read through for Draft Two of the Devon’s Blade novella. All issues raised by the Beta Readers have been addressed. It reads fast and the story is pretty tight. No wasted space, as usual for my first drafts. I’ll go back through it again before handing it over to my editor, but right now, I’m pretty happy with it. If you like pilot stories this one is pretty good. Nothing deep, just a great tale of pilots jousting in the skies.

Screenshot from 2015-08-07 12:01:51

It features my all purpose hero of the Starforgers Trilogy, Devon Ardel and is set during the time between Starforgers and The Rising. At just shy of 200 pages long, you can easily read it in a couple of hours. It was really fun to write and after having just read it, I’d say the same applies to reading it.

I upgraded to the latest version of Libre Office during this draft and I have to say, I love the new changes in edit mode. Especially when you turn on the non-printing characters which are now blue and easily stand out against the black font. Shinny. I also like the smaller footprint of the Navigator bar to the right. When you go back to regular mode, you no longer see the blue rectangle that defines the writing area. I really like that too. Hopefully my epub converter plugin works, I have yet to try that.

Screenshot from 2015-08-07 12:07:25

 

Well, back to my vacation. I’ll post again soon.

Paperbacks!

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I keep forgetting to talk about this, but two of the Star Saga books are available now as paperbacks. Starforgers and Starstrikers are both just $9.99 on Amazon. Starveyors will be available at the end of this month for the same low price. These are Print on Demand books at their finest! Great cover art that even features the models I’ve built and interior layouts by my brother, Graphics Artist Byron McConnell. If real books are your thing, you won’t want to miss this opportunity to own the three foundation books of the Star Saga.

Starforgers| Starstrikers

Books!

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Between panels here at Norwescon today, so thought I’d show you this unboxing shot of my new Star Saga paperbacks.

 

If you at at Norwescon today and see me, I have some of these books with me. If you can somehow prove to me that you have read any fiction that I’ve written, I’m liable to hand you one of these books. They are quite nice. ;-)

Having a great time here in Seattle at Norwescon for my second year in a row. Really enjoyed my panel with Tina Connoly and Kevin Scott yesterday and attended some interesting panels too.

Star spotting – Jay Lake, poked his head into the Green Room. William F. Nolan and PZ Myers, Ken Scholes, and Edward Tenner.

 

Star Saga in Paperback

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You can now order the paperback editions of the first two books available in the Star Saga. Of course these are the trilogy starters, Starforgers and Starstrikers, books 1 and 4 respectively. Next month we’ll release book 7, Starveyors.

These paperback editions all have colored Star Saga bands around the top of the covers. Amazon is selling used versions of the first Starstrikers paperback, but its drastically over priced and of inferior quality. Stick with the newest version for the best possible experience.

Starforgers is properly linked to the ebook, but Amazon has yet to link Starstrikers to its ebook version. I think the colored bands threw them off. The paper backs are high quality, Print On Demand books 5×8 inches in size. They both sell for $9.95 US.

 

You can read each book independently of the other as they are set 500 years apart and have different story lines and characters. Book 2 of the Starforgers Era will be out at the end of this year. Next year will see the release of Book 3, thereby completing the first era’s trilogy. Other books in the saga will follow thereafter.

This marks the first time that my SF books have been available as paperbacks and I’m very pleased to be able to offer them to you in this format. Many thanks to my brother Byron for his excellent interior and exterior design work on these books. If you need a great book designer, he’s available.

PS – If you are attending Norwescon this weekend, keep an eye out for me. I’ll have these books for show at my panels and I might even be giving some of them away.

STARVEYORS Proof

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We received the first proof copy of Starveyors on Friday. I’m not going to be editing on it yet, as I’m saving it to show off this weekend at Norwescon. But after I get back, it’s going to be handed over to Bill and he’s going to bleed all over it with his red pen. We hope to have the final copy edits complete by mid April.

At this time, you can now order the paperback versions of Starforgers and Starstrikers on Amazon in the US. They sell for $9.95 and are 5 x 8 inches, just slightly bigger than a mass market paperback and smaller than a trade paperback. Starforgers is linked to the ebook and I expect the same will happen to Starstrikers soon.

We’ve already discussed doing a paperback of Tyrmia in the months to come, but there is no firm date on it yet. Tyrmia is set in the Starveyors Era of the Star Saga but is not a numbered book in the series.

I won’t be selling these books at Norwescon, but I’ll have some copies with me. I will be passing out some designer bookmarks during my signing at Norwescon and I’ll gladly sign the book mark for you. There is a URL on the bookmark for a free epub of Starforgers.

To The Presses!

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StarforgersNovel

We’re working hard to get the last minute fixes in for the first two paperbacks in the Star Saga in time for my signing at Norwescon. I will have three different books for sale that weekend – Starforgers, Starstrikers and Null Pointer. The third Star Saga book just won’t get finished in time. But all three books will be available next month. I hope to also have a proof of Starveyors to show off at the convention.

I will also have some nifty little business cards that have a URL on them for a free download of the Starforgers ebook. If you see me at the convention, be sure to ask for one of these cards. They have cool back cover art on them and they point to a free ebook! You can’t get this back cover art on the ebook, only the paperback. So these cards are kind of a keep sake item for members of Norwescon.

If you’re coming to Norwescon this month I hope to see you there. I will have a limited number of paperbacks with me for my signing on Saturday, so look for me and get your copies quickly. These books sell for $9.95 retail and I will be offering them up for a fraction of that.

Now back to the virtual presses.