Interstellar Overdrive, Episode 1 is up!

Get it here:

http://www.amazon.com/Interstellar-Overdrive-Episode-What-Worth-ebook/dp/B00M7GD9P8/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1406608130&sr=8-6&keywords=ben+bequer

Interstellar Overdrive, Episode One: For What it's Worth coming this Tuesday!

I know, it's not Blackjack, and I know, it's what's kept me from Blackjack, and I know, it's not terribly popular around here...but it's done and it's coming. And it's the best thing I've ever done. Now that this is out, and I've fulfilled my commitment up and until Episode 6 of the series, I can go at Fugitive hardcore. My plan is still to get back on an April/May timetable like books 1-2, and keep them coming as long as I have killer ideas coming.

See, this book was hard. Is hard. I've struggled. Anyone reading this blog for awhile will know this. I didn't want a letdown with this third book, I wanted to do something better than what we had before, and I'd kind of written myself into a corner. There's really only two logical places Blackjack can go from where we left off in book 2.

I wrote a good part of one of those two choices and it didn't feel honest. It felt rushed, and totally unreal based on the world Blackjack inhabits. So I went the other way, and I think it's made all the difference. Blackjack, though, is still fighting. For example:

I had this idea that Apogee takes Blackjack to her personal hiding spot - the home of Mirage. I had this idea that she drops him there, with the person that disapproves the most of their budding relationship and there'd I'd do "wax on, wax off" and what not. My people told me it's cliche, that it's been done to death, but I'm a stubborn old goat, so I went with it. Until I started writing it. That's what Blackjack said no. He didn't want to go. It's weird. It sounded stupid suddenly, what I had until recently been all excited about. It was passive, and my character objected.

So, yeah, Blackjack's got a mind of his own. We're redoing the whole Castle Black sequence and then Blackjack's leading me someplace else. Somewhere that's more fun.

Anyway, this week it's Interstellar Overdrive until I get it uploaded tomorrow (and it should be ready to go by Tuesday)...then the big guy comes up to bat.

Soon.

Blackjack Fugitive Update #6

Blackjack Fugitive continues. I've put IO down for the moment and I'm going full bore on Blackjack's next adventure.

As far as realistic expectations to when it will be ready for publish, it's hard to say. I'd like to think I'll be done by Christmas, and in fact I'm sure I will be. But with the editing and formatting that follows, I don't think we'll see it on Amazon until my usual publishing date of March/April. So I blew a year with this other project, and with a 200 page diversion into what's going to end up as book four. I thank you guys for your patience in letting me find my voice. Blackjack three is turning out to be harder than the previous two combined.

But I'm back at it and Wow, how weird getting back into Blackjack's head after running around with guys like Alec, Everett, Galan and Canino. IO is third person, so it's a transition I'm getting used to.

One of the issues I had with book two was how passive Blackjack was, and I think that it's written in first person has something to do with it. We're inside his head, so I'm tempted to go places I normally wouldn't have access too. Book two was weird, too. I chose to write about something most movies/books/comics do in a quick 1 page narrative, or in a 2 minute montage with a hard-rocking Survivor song blaring in the background. Blackjack took me there, though. He was moving through a strange phase in his life, becoming more and more self-aware. In retrospect, I might've made a mistake in making him mope so damned much in the desert, forgetting to make him a master of his fate.

I had an interesting discussion with my IO writing partner, Len Pimentel the other night about a character problem we're having in Interstellar Overdrive. He said something every interesting that is coloring what I do, moving forward, with Blackjack. The nearest parallel to the IO character we're having a problem with is Conan of Robert Howard's epic stories, and Len said, a normal guy, when facing difficulty, is changed by his environment. A guy like Conan changes his environment as a result of the conflict in the story. I'll admit, it was something I hadn't given much thought to, and in retrospect, it's what I like the most about Blackjack. He's not a guy you can shoehorn into a team like the Avengers and hope Cap can "keep him in line".

Blackjack is now a master of his own fate, leading us (including the writer) as he forges ahead.