Tag: Star Saga

Short Stories Now On Kobo

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

Are you a fan of short fiction? Did you read the Star Saga books and wish there were more stories set in that universe? Really? Wow, I thought only I wanted that. Cool. Well, if you want more Devon Ardel, Red Allen and Thirty-seven, you’re in luck. Just head on over to your phone’s app store and get the Kobo ebook app. Then you can start downloading ebooks of all my short stories set in the Star Saga universe. Kobo is the exclusive publisher for my short fiction. You can’t get these stories on Amazon or anywhere else in ebook format.

Each short story ebook will set you back a whole US dollar! So choose wisely. Collect them all for hours of reading adventure.

There are eleven individual shorts and one anthology – Tales From Ocherva, that contains many of them. I’ll be adding more stories soon, and from now on when I write a new short story, they will appear on Kobo, and nowhere else!

Star Saga Mug

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

In the things you need that you didn’t know you needed department, I give you my new mug design. It includes all the covers from the first trilogy of the Star Saga. All five books, including the two in-between novellas. The covers are set against a blue-gray field so they pop better and completely wrap around a standard mug. You can purchase this fine product from Redbubble.

Now you can admire the fabulous covers while sipping your favorite hot beverage and if a friend happens to ask you who that Ken McConnell bloke is, you can tell them how much you loved my novels. See what I did there, I created a marketing tool for all my fans to use. If you get this mug, send me a picture of you using it and I’ll tweet it out on Twitter!

Corvette 2 Release Date

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

Busy weekend. I’ve uploaded a stub for the next Corvette book and it’s now up for Pre-Sale on Amazon. So far, five eager readers have ordered it. Many thanks! It’s already done better in pre-sale than three of my back list books! The actual release date is this coming Tuesday, 14 November 2017. So it won’t have but a long weekend to gather pre-sales.

In preparation for the release I’ve also spent some time updating this website with a new page for the book and adding it to the front page. The cover I’m using is not quite final yet but it’s close enough. We’re going to add that it’s book 2 of the Corvette Trilogy and then alter the old book 1 cover to match. Details, details.

In the meantime, I’m still pounding on the Corvette 3 first draft. I’ve realized that I might actually need an outline for this one and so will take some time to organize it before continuing on. I have plans to do another trilogy following the career of Armon Vance, so I have to make sure the final Corvette book sets up the story arch for that trilogy. If it gets written, and that depends on sales and sales alone, that series will be called the Destroyer Trilogy. I think you can guess he’ll be captaining a destroyer starship.

Next year will be dominated by finishing the third Corvette book and working on the fifth Star Saga novel – XiniX. Can’t wait to get back to those characters again and see what the Silicants have been up to for the past five hundred years. Sometime in the next two months I will do a post on how my book sales have done this year. Thanks to the first Corvette novella, it’s been a pretty damn good year.

Book Series Issues

KenMcConnell2 Comments

I’m having quite the time figuring out the branding of my Sci-Fi universe. For the past few years I’ve been calling it the Star Saga, which is accurate in that the whole series follows multiple generations spread out over a thousand years, but doesn’t make it easy for the reader to understand. So I’m reorganizing the books once again for clarity.

This is part of branding my fiction and plays into how it gets advertised to readers. If the reader comes across one of my books I want her to know where that book fits into big picture and where to find the next book so she can continue the story. This is no easy task when confronted with the Star Saga. It was previously divided into three trilogies and then each of those trilogies became five books long, which technically means they are no longer trilogies. Then I added some short story anthologies to the mix and finally, a prequel series revolving around a single starship and its crew. The end result was mass confusion.

I’ve given up on the whole trilogy moniker and instead will start using “series”. So the Star Saga now contains four series each in a different time period and with a mostly different cast of characters. The next problem becomes what to number them. Some of the books are full on novels and some are novellas and the novellas come in between the novels. Currently the plan is to just number them in time order, regardless of whether they are novels or novellas. This will suggest reading order and when done, each series will be just five books long.

But what happens if I write another cool novella set in the middle somewhere? Then you can’t just redo all the book covers in the series. Do I say Book 2.5 in the series? Then later I write another related novella and call it 2.1 and that one comes before 2.5? So I think I’ll only number the main trilogy of three books. That’s the main arc of the story and the lead characters. The novellas are fillers and smaller tales so they won’t get a number but they will be in a specific order that will be listed in this read order list. This lets me come back to the series and write another Devon Ardel novella that takes place before Devon’s Blade or After The Rising and as long as this one page is updated the reader will know the time order of the book.

Below is the latest incarnation of the Star Saga broken down into four series. I will put a page that shows this breakdown in every book going forward and hopefully by next year they will all have it and possibly a galaxy map. Although that has yet to be commissioned.

 

The Star Saga

Starship Series

Corvette (Starship Series, Book 1)

Seer of the Black Star (Starship Series, Book 2)

Pirate’s Lair (Starship Series, Book 3)

(30 Years)

Starforgers Series

Tales From Ocherva, Vol 1 (Starforgers Series)

Starforgers (Starforgers Series, Book 1)

Devon’s Blade (Starforgers Series)

The Rising (Starforgers Series, Book 2)

The Blood Empress (Starforgers Series)

Counterattack (Starforgers Series, Book 3)

(500 Years)

Starstrikers Series

Trader Tales, Vol 1 (Starstrikers Series)

Starstrikers (Starstrikers Series, Book 1)

K’Nat Trap (Starstrikers Series)

XiniX (Starstrikers Series, Book 2)

Dark Wind (Starstrikers Series)

NexGen (Starstrikers Series, Book 3)

(500 Years)

Starveyors Series

Anthology to be Named Later, Vol 1 (Starveyors Series)

Starveyors (Starveyors Series, Book 1)

OPFOR Vikens (The Starveyors Series)

Tripartite (Starveyors Series, Book 2)

Nor Alien I (The Starveyors Series)

Ancestors (Starveyors Series, Book 3)

Long Overdue Writing Update

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

WRITING STATUS

Fans of the Corvette novella will be pleased to know that the first draft is complete and in the hands of a few select beta readers. A second draft or pass at the manuscript will occur after I get some comments from the betas. Then it’s off to the editor and copy editor and finally, it will get released. When will that last part happen, you ask? Probably in late October.

In the meantime, I’ve already started writing book 3 and the final Corvette novella. If I finish it before winter you can look for that one to be released late winter or early next year. By that time I will be well engaged in writing Book 5 of the Star Saga – XiniX.

The only book on the schedule for next year is XiniX but that could change. If the Corvette trilogy continues to sell well and the demand is there, I could do the first book of a second trilogy in that series probably called Destroyer. As you can guess, Captain Vance progresses to a bigger ship in that trilogy.

SALES UPDATE

Corvette sales have slumped in the last month but sales of the other Star Saga books are steady as new fans make their way through the back list. I average about two thousand US dollars per month which is not too shabby for no advertising and no big publisher backing. Last month I did a reading at one of my local libraries and enjoyed hearing what other local writers were doing and meeting them to talk shop.

MODELING STATUS

On the modeling side of the house or more appropriately the garage, I’m trying to finish detailing the Black Star pirate ship for the Corvette 2 and 3 covers. Another week or so of fiddling with greeblies and then I can get her primer coat applied. From there it’s a base coat of flat black and then a bit of weathering and battle damage to finish her off.

I have drawn up plans for a second corvette model, this one a bit newer in design that will be featured on the third Corvette book cover. I probably won’t light it and will knock it out as soon as the pirate ship is finished and photographed.

LIFE IN GENERAL

Summer is another scorcher here in Idaho and now the area forest fires are making the air hard to breathe. It’s my least favorite time of year in the western US. The temperatures are hovering in the high nineties and hundreds Fahrenheit.  Which means I have to do my model building in the mornings and writing in the afternoons when I’m confined to the air conditioning.

We did a short family vacation last week in McCall Idaho and had a blast. Hiking, boating and canoeing were some of the fun things we did in the local resort community.

Hope you summer is going well and I’ll check in again when I have some updates.

 

K’nat Trap Release Day

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

The ebook and paperback versions of K’nat Trap are now both available on Amazon. If you pick up the paperback, you get the ebook free! Can’t beat that!

As always, please leave a review when you finish reading it. Authors live or die on reviews. The more we get the better off we do and the more likely we will be able to write you more of the stories you love. So if you loved K’nat Trap, tell everyone about it with a quick review on Amazon.

Thanks!

 

I’ve got my copy!

Get yours today!

July is K’nat Month

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

Looking for a quick, fun read this summer? Then get yourself a copy of K’nat Trap. It’s loaded with starfighter fights, carnivorous alien squids and Special Forces Pravda. How can you miss with all of that? So go and order yours today so it’s automagically on your Kindle or Kindle app on the 18th. If you can’t wait until then, order your paperback copy now and be reading it in just a few days shipping time.

Here’s the cover blurbage:

Starstrikers agents Kiloe and Tamia team up to capture a new Votainion starfighter with NexGen technology.

On a remote, enemy held planet, a K’nat starfighter has crash landed intact. Commander Kiloe is sent on a one way mission to repair it and fly it to a nearby Alliance cruiser where Tamia is waiting to help recover the enemy starfighter. But more than just the Votainions are preventing him from recovering the starfighter. He also has to deal with a sentient alien who has an insatiable appetite. Can the Special Forces team recover the secret enemy fighter or will their efforts be thwarted by a vicious alien and best efforts of the enemy?

Here are some of the cool ships featured in K’nat Trap. You can find complete build pages in the Model Builds page of this site.

K’nat Fighter
Terrox Fighter
GCU Sherman Cruiser

K’nat Trap Paperback Now Available

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

As you may have noticed by now, you can actually order the K’nat Trap paperback before the ebook launches on the 18th of July. But if you’d rather wait for the ebook, that’s fine too, just get your pre-0rder in so it will appear on your Kindle when is releases. If you’re like me you will forget about purchasing it and then bingo, there it is in your reader and you’ll be able to dig right in on it.

Remember, K’nat Trap takes place in the second trilogy of the Star Saga, right after Starstrikers. So if you haven’t read Starstrikers yet, now would be a great time to knock that one out and then you’ll be ready to tackle K’nat Trap.

In other random news… It looks like Amazon has updated the covers for two more of my novellas, Devon’s Blade and Corvette, to include the “A Star Saga Story” subtitle. So now it’s more clear to the casual reader that they are part of the series. Each of the novella’s come in between the numbered novels of the series.

Corvette is book one of it’s own mini series withing the Star Saga, set before the Great War with Voton. But I’ll make that more clear as the next Corvette launches in late summer.

Happy reading!

Book Zero of the Star Saga

KenMcConnellLeave a comment

Corvette, my latest novella is actually Book Zero of the Star Saga series. It’s set thirty years before the Great War with Voton and is a great introduction to the universe and the entire series. Corvette is a self contained story but sets up what could be the further adventures of its crew. If there is sufficient reader demand, I could write a few more stories about the SS Weippe. Otherwise, you’ll want to start the series by reading Tales From Ocherva, Volume One.

TFO is a collection of short stories about the Stellar Rangers on a remote outer rim world that becomes a centerpiece for the Star Saga. It introduces you to Devon Ardel who will become the central character of the first trilogy. It also introduces you to two androids who figure prominently in the series: Thirty-seven and Eighty-eight. If you enjoy Space Westerns, you’ll love these hard driving stories from the frontier.

The Star Saga starts in earnest with Starforgers, Book 1.

Starforgers is the official start of the Star Saga and take Devon Ardel from her remote Ranger outpost on Ocherva to the Federation Fleet where she begins her military career. Her mother, a Senator from another outer rim world winds up becoming the President of the Federation while her daughter helps the Fleet thwart a Votainion invasion force. Filled with insane androids, crazy space battles and even space pirates, this book is a rocking start to a nine, numbered book series.

Before you rush off and purchase second numbered book of the series, you might want to have a smaller adventure with our hero, Devon Ardel.

In between the numbered series books I delve into one or two of the main characters and fill in the gaps, so to speak with a novella. Devon’s Blade is the first novella gapper book and it’s set a year after Starforgers. Set on another backwater world is the story of Devon’s attempt to turn the fortunes of a starfighter squadron based on the water world of Kew. If you like fighter pilot stories this is your jam. Devon’s Blade is filled with aerial combat in a classic tale that could have been told in any age of flight.

The Rising, Book 2 is set two years after Starforgers.

Devon is in her mid thirties now and she’s feeling pressure from those above her pay grade to become a starship captain. She’s unexpectedly pulled from combat and rushed home for a family emergency. While home on leave she becomes a defender of a Silicant that has been convicted of murder. What at first glance is nothing more than a critical look at android rights is in fact about a rising of the Silcants from servants of humanity to their own, free beings. In the end Devon finds herself heading off to command school with the promise of becoming a starship captain.

But first, we have time for another quick novella.

The Blood Empress is about the young woman who rules the Votainion Empire. It’s a high adventure story about a young girl becoming a woman and discovering her true destiny as the leader. This novella is often overlooked by readers of the series but those who do read it are treated to a wild adventure filled with alien worlds and lots of daring do. Not your father’s coming of age story.

Finally, the first trilogy of numbered books comes to a close.

Counterattack, Book 3 of the Star Saga is the final chapter of Devon Ardel and the young Alliance fleet. Her story connects directly to the Blood Empress’s story in one, titanic battle for survival. It’s the tiny human fleet vs the massive Votainion armada. While it is the end of the first trilogy in the saga, it is not the end of the story. But this book does mark the end of the period in time known as the First Generation.

When next you pick up a Star Saga book, we will have jumped half a millennium into the future of a long, bitter war.

The second trilogy, of the Star Saga story will follow the exploits of a Special Forces team known as the Starstrikers. It is known as the Second Generation and it is still being written. I’ll be relaunching this trilogy with new cover art and a new novella, later this year. Stay tuned…

 

 

Book Launch!

KenMcConnell

Tuesday, 26th of July is the release date for COUNTERATTACK, the third book of the Star Saga. This is the final chapter of the Starforgers Trilogy.

Starships led by Captain Ardel are blasting the Votainions out of space in a relentless show of force. 

Their success on the battlefront is too easy for Ardel and her fellow captains. They all know the enemy is pulling back not being driven out by force. However, the President of the Alliance is convinced that the Empress is seeking a truce and he’s made Ardel’s ship the official envoy. If that wasn’t bad enough she’s also burdened with a half human half Votainion child interpreter created by a top secret program to help with the negotiations.

Empress Nykostra lingers just out of reach, marshaling her forces to take back the legendary home world of her people. Her eroding mental health has the Chief Strategist contemplating her murder in order to ensure their victory over the Alliance Fleet. Can Captain Ardel and the Alliance Fleet ward off the largest counterattack in the history of the war or will a mad Empress fulfill her destiny and bring down the fledgling Alliance?