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Profane shouts filled the restaurant.
The lunch crowd at Blakely’s Chicken hadn’t been paying much attention to the overweight young man in the corner. After all, he was wearing headphones and had a tray next to him. Obviously he had already ordered. He was intent on whatever his computer was displaying anyway. Such a sight wasn’t uncommon. After all, Blakely’s Chicken had premium wireless Internet access with bandwidth north of 20 megabits when it wasn’t crowded. He was wearing jeans he hadn’t changed in four days and a taco sauce stained T-shirt decorated with a cartoon duck, but none of the restaurant staff had connected the dots. Yet.
When the rifle-shot-like sound of the word that shall not be uttered in public made everyone in the restaurant turn to look, the manager decided to speak up.
“Crowd control!” he screamed. “Stop him! He’s killing us!”
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask–”
Another shout. The customer swerved his mouse and knocked the tray out from under his drink. The manager jumped back, trying to avoid the extra-large cup of soda and ice. He wasn’t successful.
“Sir, you’re going to have to leave!”
The customer neither heard nor saw the manager trying to get his attention. In the game, his lovingly shepherded level six character was in a fight for its life against a masterfully executed scheme of pixelated robbery and murder. He had joined the dungeon party based on the fact several relatively high-level characters were in attendance. None were below level four. The deceptively poorly-equipped “thief” character, which was really only a conveniently engineered combination of stealth, surprise attack and poison use skills, was level seven. That should have been a red flag, but the promise of quick wealth overcame prudent observation. The kicker was that everyone had voice chat, so he could hear and speak to everyone in real time.
“Block him! Block!”
The thief had strategically avoided most of the potentially hazardous combat during the dungeon run. As a result, it was practically unhurt and at full strength, even after the fight with the final boss. The other characters weren’t so fortunate. In fact, they had been drained of health, mana, rage, and most of their advantages. After all, they had defeated every opponent in the dungeon.
Except one.
The thief had waited until everyone was weakened to spring his trap. Both spellcasters were murdered by single thrusts of his knife. By the time the warrior character realized he was under attack, his face had been torn to ribbons by a razor-sharp claw weapon. He swung his sword wildly, but failed to connect with anything. Blood was pouring into his eyes when the poisoned knife plunged into his neck.
The lone survivor was the archer character, which was being controlled by the Blakely’s Chicken customer. It was out of ammunition. It had minimal armor. All it could do was attempt to hold the thief off by using its bow as a makeshift club. Its owner hadn’t been even partially prepared for this kind of treachery.
Another barked four-letter word echoed in the restaurant as the archer was disarmed. The other real-world people in the dungeon party were all screaming profanities over voice chat, which was chief among the reasons the archer player’s discretion left a bit to be desired. For everyone else, the chicken restaurant was just a pleasant place to eat. For the archer player, it was a burning building full of dead bodies, shrieks and bleeding corpses. His next punctuation-optional tirade drew the attention of a police officer in line to pick up an order of spicy wings.
“Why can’t I move?! What is this?! MOOOOOVE!”
The other players shouted protests, but their characters were far underground in a game world location where nobody could come to their aid. The archer stumbled over broken bodies, desperate to escape.
“I spent two hundred dollars on this character! Heal! Heal! HEAL ME! They’re all dead! We’re dead! You suck! You SUCK! NEVER QUEUE AGAIN—!”
Uproarious laughter filled the voice chat channel. In the dungeon, skin and hair sprayed in all directions, splattering the bodies of the two pale spellcasters once again. Their shocked dead expressions stared straight up as blood pooled around them. The warrior character slammed into the stone floor, cracking its head on the hard surface. Its armor shattered and tumbled in all directions.
While the stunlock timer ticked, none of the game controls worked at all. The archer character was being brutally stabbed in a manner that would have shocked seasoned homicide detectives. Gore splashed across the screen. It was an effective graphics effect. The chicken restaurant player yanked his laptop computer into the air and smashed it against the table over and over again. Plastic, electronic components, mustard, sugar and picnic utensils shot in every direction. The soda-covered tankard-like drink cup tumbled across the floor. The police officer ran to the manager’s assistance.
“Sir, I need you to step out of the booth! RIGHT NOW!”
The customer looked up just as his archer was stabbed through the face. In the game, his character fell to the ground. A large taunting banner rose from the handle of the knife protruding from its head. It read “EASY PK.”
A trembling combination of tears, flushed face, annoyance at being interrupted and frustration all combined to elicit a double-chin-flapping howl of outrage and despair from the defeated player. “YOU DISTRACTED MEEEEEE!”
Having lost all sense of self-control, he threw his nearly 300 pounds into a poorly advised grappling contest with the police officer. His headphone cord, laptop, mouse, power cable, mouse pad and charging mobile phone became a whirling, tangled snare. The officer twisted the customer’s arm and nearly dislocated his shoulder. He then grabbed a handful of hair and dragged the screaming player out of the booth in a most undignified manner. Several well-built men in the restaurant went to the cop’s assistance. After a blubbering frenzied tantrum which involved at least two slips and falls in the half-gallon of soda on the floor, a wild haymaker that connected with nothing and a kicked-off shoe deflecting off the drink machine, the former owner of a level six archer was slammed against the table, swiftly handcuffed and frog marched out of the wreckage and into the parking lot with his headphones clattering along behind him.
In the game dungeon, where there was no police response, the thief rifled through the belongings of his victims and then carefully looted the boss and its henchmen. He rapidly collected the lighter weight treasures consisting of two magic weapons, four medium-sized opal jewels, 121 silver coins, a gold bar, two vials of powdered ivory, a large pearl, sixteen pieces of fine silk and a ceremonial jeweled dagger. His combination of player skills, characteristics and quests produced an experience bonus of nearly two thousand points, which brought him within single digit percentages of progression to level eight. He vanished into the darkness, laughter echoing.
Seconds later, only the Internet knew the Blakely’s Chicken customer had been streaming the session. The entire incident had been caught on live video and broadcast to more than sixty thousand viewers.
Every School in America Reaches 100
There has been a lot of talk recently about reading skills and how we can encourage each other to take literacy seriously. My approach has always been practical. Give people something they might actually want to read and you’ll have no problem encouraging better reading skills. One of the most fortunate things that happened to me growing up was easy access to not just books, but good books. I still remember titles I read when I was in elementary school. Those stories made a difference.
Now you are making that difference. As of this morning, our Every School in America program and the Action Faction have now joined forces to put 100 books in schools across the country, and we’re just getting started. As part of this rapidly growing project, I’m working on multiple fronts to advance some of the stories that got quick starts in 2025 and then got sidetracked. The good news is more than a few are getting new titles, new series names, new covers and print editions and almost all will be making appearances here as part of the Action Faction serialized fiction library.
Show your support for the Action Faction by becoming a sponsor! Links are below. Every time we hit a $50 milestone, we put another book in a school! Here is where all of my in-progress works stand at this point. I’ve added universe tags so you can see where each book fits. I’m finding a lot of my time is now dedicated to curating my own works. It’s not as easy as it looks 🙂
As you can see here, I have over 400,000 words of stories in progress, so there won’t be any shortage of new material.
The Wiki – I’m authoring a Wiki, which will serve as a secondary reference for all the named elements of my literary universes. It will start with the big three: Starships, LadyStar vs. Ironjammers, Kings and Conquests, and expand from there to include spinoffs like Silver Eagles, Tricycle Force/Zombie Salvage and so forth. As soon as it is suitable for review, I will move it to its own site, post the link here and give it a keyword on Jumpline.
Ai – Standalone – 7400 words – This is my story about a retired and largely isolated Army officer who is facing struggles far too common in our modern society. He invents an artificially intelligent android who, unlike most of the mechanisms of our world, is actually on his side for a change.
None But the King – Starships Universe/Action Faction – 12000 words – This is book one in a series about the Proximan/Human military alliance. It is a prequel to Starships at War.
Attack Pattern – Starships Universe – 5600 words – This is book two in my upcoming Advanced Starship Tactics series. I only have one scene written so far. I’m working on integrating that scene with the events of book one.
Dreadnought Ascendant – Starships Universe – 51000 words – I want to add some new material regarding the USS Republic and give her a proper sendoff in the last chapters.
Encounter at Demon Skull – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 12000 words – This book has a good structure, but is only about half the proper length of a novella in my fantasy series.
Hellstrike – Starships Universe – 15000 words – I think this story (Argent goes back in time to present-day Earth) has a ton of potential, both as a standalone and as a serial on the site here. I want to develop it more fully so the story is satisfying and not rushed.
The Hexing Harpy of Grisbane Hall – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 4000 words – I’m rewriting this one from the ground up. It’s a Halloween-theme haunted house story that is equal parts spooky and silly, but it is great fun to write. This will be book eight in my episodic fantasy series.
Hunter Killer – Starships Universe – 17000 words – The bonus material for this book needs to be written and published in a second edition.
Invicta – Starships Universe – This is book three in the Advanced Starship Tactics series. I haven’t started work on this one yet.
Jacks to the Nines – Starships Universe/Action Faction – 11000 words – This is a commissioned Action Faction title featuring a battle in the Platmore Field system between the Bandit Jacks and none other than the Imperial Butcher himself and his mighty starship, the Xelo. These are parallel events which take place during the events of Destroy All Starships.
Jaesha the Aranid – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 1300 words – I’ve invented a “hunter” character for my fantasy series that is roughly equivalent to the mentor character Reina of Kulnas. I may expand this cast of characters to include others so there is a colorful history for my fantasy stories to draw on.
Last Charge of the Defiant – Starships Universe – 14000 words – This is book one in the Advanced Starship Tactics series. It has an absolutely stunning premise, and fits in perfectly with the looming mystery of Omicron 474 and the wreck of Tae San. Watch closely for this one.
Lions Pride – LadyStar Adjacent – 65000 words – As some of you may know I had a seven-year career in marching bands. Four in high school and three at a Division I university. This story is my tribute to my almost-career as a musician.
No Savage Under This Moon – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 15000 words – I’ve added some new powers for my fantasy characters, which I plan to retcon into my previously published books so I can make all the plots consistent and reach a higher word count. I want my novellas to come in at 22000 to 25000 words as a rule.
The Shabby King of Never-Christmas – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 4000 words – In keeping with my holiday series, I have to write a Christmas book for my fantasy characters.
The Phantom of Hollow Forks – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 5000 words – This will be the first true “dungeon” expedition for my fantasy series, at least the first that includes both the LadyStar and Ironjammer characters. I’m re-visiting almost all my fantasy books except Dawnsong in order to include the Ironjammers wherever possible.
The Priestess and the Rogue – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 52000 words – This book is actually in rather good shape. I just have to complete act three. This will be the third novel in my fantasy series.
Protector of the Innocent – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 14000 words – Very much like No Savage, it needs to be retconned with my characters’ current powers, and it needs a higher word count so it qualifies as a novella.
The Infamous 24 – Starships Universe/Action Faction – 32000 words – My plan is to re-release this on my site here (as a serial) and then to slot the first 30000 words or so as a book one in a potential trilogy. I want to give all of the Facility 51 gadgets their due time in the sun.
Tricycle Force – LadyStar Adjacent – 9000 words – My fantasy characters are participating in an “Isekai” story, which means they left their regular world for the fantasy world through a portal. Their “regular” world is where stories like Lions Pride take place. It is also where they encounter other teams of “heroes,” where the word “hero” is only used in its most generous form. Tricycle Force is one of those groups: a ragtag team of zany over-eager technology enthusiasts who are humanity’s last line of defense when aliens land and start eating every vehicle with an even number of wheels.
Wreck – Starships Universe/Action Faction – 2000 words – This is a commissioned Action Faction title that features a “rebuild the starship” plot with a ticking clock.
LadyStar: The Dreamspeaker – LadyStar vs. The Ironjammers – 80000 words – This was my first novel, published in 2011. It did as well as could be expected based on my experience at the time, but it is incredibly out of date at this point. It needs a total rewrite, which will become a second edition and re-join the fantasy series as novel one.
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None Before the King – Book One in the By Honor Forged Series
The Search for the Ithis Part One
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One of the key plot threads that appears in all three of the major Starships Universe military science fiction story collections is continuing encounters with what human crews believe are the remnants of an Ithis presence near Alliance star systems and throughout the contested regions of Core space.
The encounters grow in complexity as the series progresses, and they also begin to change as the threat to the Alliance comes into focus. The first to address the alien presence is a man named Zachariah Atwell, who is believed to be a former high-ranking officer in the Skywatch Marine Corps. There is also considerable evidence he is either an active duty intelligence operative or in some way attached to a covert operation of some kind. Given his access to weapons and advance knowledge of the movements of Skywatch fleet spacecraft, it is highly likely he is being continuously briefed by someone in a position to access sensitive information.
The first mission of the battleship Argent is to locate and verify the status of DSS Dunkerque, a Pershing-class strike cruiser under the command of Vice Admiral Charles Hughes. Dunkerque was on course for the Gitairn region, a series of partially contested sectors that contains the Bayone, Raleo, Manassas and Core VII star systems. The reason these systems are remarkable is because there is an unusual Imperial presence in them despite the fact they are far removed from Sarn space. This presence is not new. By the time Argent and the Perseus Task Force arrive, Sarn warships have been operating in and around the Gitairn systems for some time.
The first unusual event when Argent arrives is reception of an extraordinary signal warning her captain of a trap. Argent encounters a cruiser-class warship which fires on her. She also attacked by a boarding party that somehow got aboard ship without the use of a transport. Her point defense apparently fails, leaving her vulnerable to an inbound missile attack. It requires heroic intervention by Argent’s chief engineer to save the ship from a second attack.
Key to the mystery of what actually took place during the battle is the fact the enemy cruiser was simply there. No course was detected. Long-range scanners didn’t pick up the vessel at any appreciable range. It only took Mockingbird 114 a few seconds to break Argent’s defensive perimeter. The question Captain Hunter never had time to ask was “where did that ship come from?” Some might credibly conclude the only reason Argent wasn’t more seriously damaged was that Hunter launched a Nemesis and a heavy ready alert right when he needed them most.
Because the events of the encounter took precedence, there wasn’t time to evaluate the question of where the boarding parties came from either. Although they were discovered in the engineering section near Argent reactor seven, there was no telling what other sabotage they might have perpetrated against Hunter’s command prior to the alert. There is every reason to believe the enemy boarding party was responsible for the point defense malfunction. That would have been the obvious system to take off-line if they had knowledge the enemy cruiser was preparing a missile attack. Argent did manage to deploy countermeasures against the missiles, but they were only partially effective.
The real question is what combination of technologies made it possible to simply drop a cruiser-class warship almost on top of DSS Argent and to simultaneously position armed boarding parties in her engineering section? Where was the cruiser’s crew? Why didn’t they issue a challenge?
It is then Major Moody and Lieutenant Curtiss encounter Zachariah Atwell. He claims to have wired the entire spacelane traffic control deck, and like the boarding parties he was somehow able to get himself aboard Argent with no obvious transport ship.
The problem with Atwell’s story about a giant fleet ready to attack the entire Core frontier is the deployment of his forces don’t make any sense. Lieutenant Zony Tixia points this out almost immediately, which raises suspicions even further. How and why does Colonel Atwell believe interfering with the missions of both an admiral’s flagship and a five-million-ton battleship will benefit him somehow? What is he after?
Then yet another cruiser materializes, only to serve as a screening vessel for multiple war shots from the Sentinel weapon on the surface of Barker’s asteroid. This would have made a fine second act for the mystery of the appearing and disappearing spacecraft except for one thing.
Almost exactly the same series of events is taking place at Station Nineteen. But this time they are targeting Jayce Hunter’s command, not Argent.
It is at this point most would be asking why these two officers and their ships are being targeted? Absent heroic actions by their crews and fellow ship captains, Task Force Perseus and DSS Argent could have easily been crippled or worse. Heavily armed enemy personnel were encountered both aboard Station Nineteen and at least one Perseus warship.
Somehow both men and ships are simply winking into existence at times and places where they consistently pose an extreme threat to two of the most capable commanding officers in the fleet.
This is only the first of several mysteries Skywatch will face as the story of the Ithis unfolds.
Key to the Starships at War series is recognition that Colonel Atwell, whomever he is working with and the crews of numerous Skywatch spacecraft have encountered something none of them can adequately explain. Later in the series, Captain Hunter finds almost full-size replicas of several ships inside the Lethe Deeps planetary defense base complex on Bayone Three. An expedition to the subterranean levels beneath the complex reveals whatever is happening to the ships might also be happening to their crews.
But the speculation, shaky evidence and fear that follows is what compels Hunter and Alliance forces to consider something even more outlandish: that wherever these alien artifacts and technologies originated, their space is totally dissimilar to Core space. Human scientists have evidence their civilization might have perished more than a billion years ago, and that even if we had the ability to find their home planets, no human would be able to survive in Ithis space because its temporal characteristics and the total absence of physics as we know them make it impossible.
It isn’t long before human scientists uncover more evidence suggesting crew members of at least one Skywatch vessel have already somehow already arrived in an Ithis star system. It is so far from human space nobody can even measure or comprehend the distances involved. How they got there is an even bigger question.
So in case you are wondering if Strike Battleship Argent is just a story about big spaceships shooting at each other, allow me to assure you it isn’t.
From Starships at War
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Watch for our next update with all our new Ajan Warriors vs. The Ironjammers designs!
The Infamous 24 Part Five
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From The Infamous 24
Book One in the Battle for Mycenae Ceti Six Series
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The Infamous 24 Part Four
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The New Five by Five Newsletter
The newsletter has a name! I’m calling it Five by Five, and it is now a combination publication for all of my subscribers: science fiction, fantasy, gamelit and more! Five by Five is also the motto for my reader community, since we’ve worked pretty hard to get reliable communications established.
After almost four months of work, this site now has a pristine email configuration, meaning other sites treat my email as legitimate by default, absent some kind of bizarre error. It used to be my messages would land in promotions, or spam or what-have-you, largely because my outbound email wasn’t configured properly. It now passes all the tests, both necessary and unnecessary, so there isn’t any further work to do on my end.
That said, my subscribers may still not be getting my messages for whatever reason. There are solutions to this problem which I plan to implement. Alongside my newsletter improvement campaign, I intend to include premium work in future issues, work which my readers deserve. However, in the interests of making sure that work actually gets delivered, I have constructed a system to make sure those readers remove as many obstacles as possible. Here is what I’ve come up with:
Note: Your Newsletter Tier will be included in all emails. This new system goes into effect June 17, 2026 starting with issue number #248. One note on issue numbers: Each unique newsletter gets a new issue number, so any particular tier of subscriber may get newsletters that are out of sequence, since each tier may get something different on any given day.
Tier 0: This is the default status of every new subscriber. If we acquire a new email address, we start here. The only messages Tier 0 subscribers get are “if you would like to subscribe to Shane’s newsletter please reply to this email.” If they reply, Tier 0 subscribers are considered to have “opted in” and are advanced to Tier 1. If a Tier 0 subscriber does not reply, they are eventually dropped.
Policy: The reason we do “opt in” and “double opt-in” is because email providers take great delight in penalizing us. We are therefore forced to relentlessly analyze our list to avoid including subscribers that simply park on the list and never participate. It makes it look like they don’t want our newsletter. Whether that is true or not is immaterial. Our subscribers must be active or they can’t remain on our list.
Tier 1: A Tier One subscriber is someone who has “opted-in,” meaning they gave us an email address and they explicitly requested a newsletter subscription. That’s a good first step. The next step is to make sure our sending addresses are whitelisted and/or added to a contacts list so we are recognized by foreign email servers automatically. So we ask Tier 1 subscribers to send us confirmation via email that they have added us to their contacts list or address book. That step advances a subscriber to Tier 2.
Tier 2: At this level, subscribers start receiving newsletters because they have “double opted-in”. That means they responded twice to requests. The standard edition of Five by Five goes out to Tier 2, meaning they get updates on new work, new site features, new art, keywords and so forth. Standard edition newsletters are occasionally enhanced with images and interactive buttons, but are often text only to avoid being relegated to promotions. Standard newsletters announce special offers from time to time as well. In order to advance from Tier 2 to Tier 3, a subscriber must make at least one purchase from Getabook.today using the same email they subscribed with.
Tier 3: Tier 3 subscribers get standard newsletters with one important difference. Tier 3 gets you access to discount codes. These are included with Tier 3 newsletters on a regular basis. Only Tier 3 and 4 subscribers get access to discount codes. To reach Tier 4, a Tier 3 subscriber must make at least one purchase from Getabook.today with a discount code. When they do, they are advanced to Tier 4.
Tier 4: Tier 4 subscribers get the premium newsletter. These issues are the gateway to the all-access-pass: exclusive offers, premium story chapters, priority keywords, hidden surprises, access to experimental publishing projects, the option to test Battlebooks™, Videobooks™ and so forth. Almost all premium editions of Five by Five are enhanced with color images, interactive buttons and other features. Tier 4 subscribers also get invitations to our message board where they can interact with other readers and myself, discuss interesting topics, review brand new works before they are published, participate in community projects like Every School in America and so forth.
Special Provision: If you subscribe to Five by Five with a Proton Mail address, you automatically advance to Tier 4. The above referral link also gets you a $20 credit from Proton Mail.
Special Policy: The reason we favor Proton Mail is because they actually deliver what we send. Their app also opens links in a web browser instead of a security nightmare. It should also be emphasized that deliverability deteriorates, so we will occasionally send “control” emails to various subscribers that require a response. A subscriber who does not respond to a control email is either returned to a lower tier or dropped to preserve the quality of our list. Our plan is to provide subscribers with value. All we ask is that our subscribers return the favor.
A Milestone for Every School In America
Our readers, who are the best in known space, have helped the Action Faction and Getabook.today team up so far to make 23 brand new books available to schools here in Southern California starting this month! We’re contacting librarians, principals, teachers and parent groups all over the southland and offering them both paperback and hardcover editions of my fantasy titles AND possibly one or more adventures of the Silver Eagles!
We’re only a short distance south of one of the largest school districts in the world, so you are making a big difference!
Let’s be clear: You are making all of this possible! Each time our combined bookstore sales and Action Faction sponsorships reach another $50 milestone, we send out another book! Each milestone gets us one step closer to putting a book in Every School in America!
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Works in Progress
As I steer my writing schedule into one that will support progress for all of my active universes, I want to update you on my status with various works. I have twenty books in different phases of completion, nine of which are Starships Universe, eight of which are in the newly named “The Ajan Warriors vs. The Ironjammer Pirates” Universe, and three of which that are either standalones, spinoffs or part of my experimental publishing projects.
The Every School in America project is going to focus initially on print, because we need to place books in schools, most of which have little or no capacity for managing electronic titles. We will still make ebooks and audiobooks available where we can, but it turns out print books are fairly popular in all genres, so that’s the direction we’ll take in the short term. Some of these titles like Hunter Killer and Dreadnought Ascendant have already been released. I’m adding new material to those books along with some others because there are scenes that got missed. That new material will eventually find its way into second editions, which will be clearly labeled so readers can tell the difference.
Also included in these works are some Action Faction titles that are either “Audience of One” projects or ongoing serialized releases here on my main site. Generally speaking if a title is part of the official catalog it will be available for sale at Getabook.today. If it is still in progress, or an Action Faction story, it will be listed here first.
My other motive in posting updates like this is to reassure you I’m writing and not out in a field somewhere marching around.
The Wiki – I’m authoring a Wiki, which will serve as a secondary reference for all the named elements of my literary universes. It will start with the big three: Starships, LadyStar vs. Ironjammers, Kings and Conquests, and expand from there to include spinoffs like Silver Eagles, Tricycle Force/Zombie Salvage and so forth.
Ai – 7400 words – This is my story about a retired and largely isolated Army officer who is facing struggles far too common in our modern society. He invents an artificially intelligent android who, unlike most of the mechanisms of our world, is actually on his side for a change.
Attack Pattern – 5600 words – This is book two in my upcoming Advanced Starship Tactics series. I only have one scene written so far. I’m working on integrating that scene with the events of book one.
Dreadnought Ascendant – 51000 words – I want to add some new material regarding the USS Republic and give her a proper sendoff in the last chapters.
Encounter at Demon Skull – 12000 words – This book has a good structure, but is only about half the proper length of a novella in my fantasy series.
Hellstrike – 15000 words – I think this story (Argent goes back in time to present-day Earth) has a ton of potential, both as a standalone and as a serial on the site here. I want to develop it more fully so the story is satisfying and not rushed.
The Hexing Harpy of Grisbane Hall – 4000 words – I’m rewriting this one from the ground up. It’s a Halloween-theme haunted house story that is equal parts spooky and silly, but it is great fun to write. This will be book eight in my episodic fantasy series.
Hunter Killer – 17000 words – The bonus material for this book needs to be written and published in a second edition.
Invicta – This is book three in the Advanced Starship Tactics series. I haven’t started work on this one yet.
Jacks to the Nines – 11000 words – This is a commissioned Action Faction title featuring a battle in the Platmore Field system between the Bandit Jacks and none other than the Imperial Butcher himself and his mighty starship, the Xelo. These are parallel events which take place during the events of Destroy All Starships.
Jaesha the Aranid – 1300 words – I’ve invented a “hunter” character for my fantasy series that is roughly equivalent to the mentor character Reina of Kulnas. I may expand this cast of characters to include others so there is a colorful history for my fantasy stories to draw on.
Last Charge of the Defiant – 14000 words – This is book one in the Advanced Starship Tactics series. It has an absolutely stunning premise, and fits in perfectly with the looming mystery of Omicron 474 and the wreck of Tae San. Watch closely for this one.
Lions Pride – 65000 words – As some of you may know I had a seven-year career in marching bands. Four in high school and three at a Division I university. This story is my tribute to my almost-career as a musician.
No Savage Under This Moon – 15000 words – I’ve added some new powers for my fantasy characters, which I plan to retcon into my previously published books so I can make all the plots consistent and reach a higher word count. I want my novellas to come in at 22000 to 25000 words as a rule.
The Shabby King of Never-Christmas – 4000 words – In keeping with my holiday series, I have to write a Christmas book for my fantasy characters.
The Phantom of Hollow Forks- 5000 words – This will be the first true “dungeon” expedition for my fantasy series, at least the first that includes both the LadyStar and Ironjammer characters. I’m re-visiting almost all my fantasy books except Dawnsong in order to include the Ironjammers wherever possible.
The Priestess and the Rogue – 52000 words – This book is actually in rather good shape. I just have to complete act three. This will be the third novel in my fantasy series.
Protector of the Innocent – 14000 words – Very much like No Savage, it needs to be retconned with my characters’ current powers, and it needs a higher word count so it qualifies as a novella.
The Infamous 24 – 32000 words – My plan is to re-release this on my site here (as a serial) and then to slot the first 30000 words or so as a book one in a potential trilogy. I want to give all of the Facility 51 gadgets their due time in the sun.
Tricycle Force – 9000 words – My fantasy characters are participating in an “Isekai” story, which means they left their regular world for the fantasy world through a portal. Their “regular” world is where stories like Lions Pride take place. It is also where they encounter other teams of “heroes,” where the word “hero” is only used in its most generous form. Tricycle Force is one of those groups: a ragtag team of zany over-eager technology enthusiasts who are humanity’s last line of defense when aliens land and start eating every vehicle with an even number of wheels.
Wreck – 2000 words – This is a commissioned Action Faction title that features a “rebuild the starship” plot with a ticking clock.
LadyStar: The Dreamspeaker – 80000 words – This was my first novel, published in 2011. It did as well as could be expected based on my experience at the time, but it is incredibly out of date at this point. It needs a total rewrite, which will become a second edition and re-join the fantasy series as novel one.
Progress Towards Next New Book Sent to Schools
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