Done writing, but...

Blackjack Dead or Alive is done and in the hands of the editor!

The final edit requires an outside look, and for B3 it's going to be my co-writer Josh Hoade, Blackjack himself. He's had a huge input into both of the previous books, but this time he's involved in an even bigger role, he helped me piece together the first draft, then was the only person that agreed when I thought I should shelve about 200 pages and start all over again. We put this new story together with a ton of new characters, and some old ones. He's been Apogee's greatest advocate, and thanks to him some of the guys that we knew so well have added depth, namely Epic.

Epic in this book? Hell yeah, and Haha, and Super Dee and Moe and A LOT of Apogee, but primarily, this is the final step in Blackjack's journey into finding his place in the world, the last stumble of a flawed guy with a heart of gold. But Dead or Alive is hardly the last word on Blackjack.

I dumped about 1/3 of the previous manuscript, not because it was garbage, but rather because I had other plans for Blackjack. I took my time with his fall in Villain and Wayward, and now that the rise begins, I'm also taking my time. Book three exists for a reason, his first foray into something pure and honest, but also it's the reckoning, a time for transformation. Not into some goodie two-shoes hero. Blackjack isn’t Epic, but neither is he a Villain, regardless of what the world thinks of him. Anyway, book three sets up what I had started writing already, so I’m presented with the opportunity to start book four with 200 pages in my proverbial typewriter. So Blackjack will fight on, and as long as I can, I’ll bring you his tale.

Next, though, is Interstellar Overdrive, re-envisioned as a full-fledged novel. I spent the last week re-reading the 600-ish pages of the manuscript. Yeah, that’s how much was ready to come out the door. As April ends, I’m got my mindset switched over from Blackjack and Apogee to Alec and Ev, Mistral and Canino, and Galan – never forget about Galan. We’re taking this opportunity to revisit the whole thing, and we’ll backtrack any changes that we come up with. Don’t be upset if a name changes here or there, or if it reads a little better when it’s all put together. What I do know is that this book is going to be a monster. From where it leaves off at page 574, until the finale, I think I’ve got another 400 pages to write. So there’s my Summer.

The real delay with IO will be the editors, in particular the final pass, so the soonest it might be done is by the end of the year. Trust me when I tell you it’s worth waiting for these guys to do their magic.

Interstellar Overdrive might take long enough that my next project will probably come out sooner, and I want to take a moment to talk about some of our plans.

Josh is a damned good writer in his own right, and he’s decided to take on a superhero group that we’ve come to know and love, Battle. This will switch the paradigm between us, with him as the main writer and me coming in to do the polish in the end. Battle is a group formed by Superdynamic in the hopes of “training up” a bunch of newcomers with impressive powers. The story will revolve around the hero Ricochet and his struggles to control his abilities. It’s in Josh’s hands, of course, but so far I love everything he’s coming up with. You’ll see more of Ruby, Moe, Templar and the bunch, and for the big villain, none other than Baron Blitzkrieg and his Dogs of War. We’ll have more about this project in the near future. Right now, we’re still breaking down the story. I think you guys will love someone’s fresh take on these dear characters.

Next on my slate after IO is a new project we’re only now starting to put together. It’s another Bequer/Hoade production, set within the Blackjack world, but looking at things from a different perspective. The idea came to me while watching the awesome X-men movies recently. Think it was in Days of Future Past, during the Nixon stuff at the end, the President asks, “Do we have a response to this?”

It seemed to me to be one of the flaws of most superhero movies, and something that only the excellent Agents of Shield TV series seems to want to deal with, the homo sapiens response to homo superior/metas/supers, etc. It looks from the trailers that Batman vs. Superman might deal with the subject, but again from the point of view of the supers.

I want to explore a realistic answer to such a threat, and I have to thank Josh for the brilliance to suggest we weave it into the Blackjack world. In this world, supers are established for over 60 years, leading us to believe that there would be a well-thought out system to handle unruly supers. We use the well-worn trope of power-dampening manacles and rooms, and a whole rolling chair thing in B3, as well as super-only designed prisons like Utopia isolated in the bottom of the ocean. There are laws that govern super behavior, and organizations that are designed to deal with the good and the bad. If you’ve read Villain and Wayward, then you’re familiar with our take on how humanity would respond.

Tier Zero will take things to another level, a response that we might not be all so comfortable with, that is sometimes necessary in the modern day. It’ll be a commentary on modern war, of course, and to how we behave against perceived threats.

As excited as we are about B4, Battle and Tier Zero, we’re thinking of putting it all together in a book that will tie all the threads together, and finally deal with the elephant in the room, The Lightbringers. The idea is in its infancy right now, but we envision it will be a two-parter about their arrival and the aftermath. We’re thinking it should be in third person, with multiple POVs like IO, so you’ll get to see a different side of Blackjack and what people really think about him.

Okay, so that last part is based on some very premature talks, but I couldn’t hold it back. The Lightbringers wouldn’t be published until after B4, Tier Zero, Battle, and even B5 and possibly Battle 2, but it’ll be a nice way to cap off the whole series. Since it would take place over two books, we might interlace it with the other series, crossover-style. They do it comics, right?

Then when everyone’s too old, we’ll just recast everyone and reboot…

Anyway, those are our plans right now, with Heart of the Jungle somewhere in there. Blackjack Dead or Alive first, though, and soon. When? End of May or the beginning of June, as I've been saying (only a year late!). Thanks again for all your patience, for the comments on this blog and for your continued support.

One final note before I go, everyone has to see the amazing Netflix Daredevil series if you haven’t already. It’s that good.