Well, fuck...

I started rereading the last post on this blog and it's funny how we make plans that end up going to hell. We published Blackjack 3 in late October and with it came a wave of optimism and raw euphoria that you can feel in that post, but soon after came the crash. And I've been rudderless ever since. I'm working, of course, plotting and doing scenes, but IO is a mountain that I'm not ready to tackle. That bastard's sucking up my time like there's no tomorrow and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight. The good news is that I've got a good handle on it. The book is finally in my grasp. The bad news is that it involves taking one of the four storylines back to formula. It'll be worth it in the end, I think Galan needed the new track that we've got for him, but it's a disappointment to have to restart 1/4th of the book.

Part of it is House of Cards. Blame Kevin Spacey. That show's broadened my horizons in such a way that I find it hard to describe. Also Game of Thrones. I don't like GOT nearly as much, but I see something in there that's different than anything I've ever done, and motivates me to try something inspired by it. My partner wants to cut Galan, to drop it in the cutting room floor and leave the fun stuff. In a way, he's right. Galan's story arc is a bit dour, quite morbid, and lacks the sexy fun of Alec and Ev. I get that, trust me. Dropping Galan (and merely playing off him in the other arcs) would make things leaner and faster. But Galan is the key. To me, it's as much his story as it is Mistrals or Canino, or Alec/Ev. To some, I'm talking gibberish, I know. I might link to the last version of IO Episode 1 here, so you have an idea of what we're trying to accomplish. Maybe I'll just paste it at the bottom.

I'm tempted to cut and run, to do the funner parts of the story and publish sooner, but I'm going to fight it. I think it'll be better with Galan's "evil galactic corporation" perspective. Thanks, Kevin.

For the time being, I'm tabling the whole thing. In fact, it's been tabled for over a month. I intend to return to it as soon as we settle on this issue, but right now there's no point in completing it, even though it's almost done.

So what's next?

Two things, first, Blackjack 4 is in plotting stage. We've got a good idea of what the next step should be. Remember that plane that crashed during the conflict with Brutal in the final pages? We'll see what that was about. Blackjack's also kind of bonafide now (with an unreal list of caveats), so it'll be interesting to write about a guy who can show his face on the street and doesn't have to fear having Atmosphero's latest group or even the local authorities. There's also the relationship. We've seen it bloom, then turn to poison, then bloom again and so on and on, a dozen times in Dale's brain. Now it's time to see it in action. A good relationship is hard work, as most of us know, but does Dale know that. Is he ready for a woman like Apogee?

Second, I have a new story. This one's coming first because I'm knee deep in it already. I don't want to talk about it too much, but it'll be something more grounded, but still with the usual Bequer/Hoade sensibility. I intend to have this done in the first part of the year, and B4 in the second half.

Hoade is also toying with the idea of doing a Battle book, based on the character of Ricochet. Don't remember him? Pull out your old *.mobi of Wayward and see for yourself. Fun character with a lot more going on than meets the eye. Imagine being able to control the molecular forces of potential energy...

Anyway, I'm back, and soon, Blackjack will be too.

Again, thanks

So it's out, and the response is great, and I wanted to come on to thank you all for all your support. Again.

Blackjack has been a gift, a surprise and a cathartic journey. You've all seen my ramblings here, so I won't go into it except to say I couldn't have done without all your help and ideas and comments. And now on Amazon I'm getting more and more feedback. Go see the reviews and look at how detailed people are getting with their "pro/con" stuff. I love it. I can't believe the effort some of you guys are putting to these reviews. They give me strength.

And I love the criticism. Of course it's not a perfect book. What is, War and Peace? Nope. Ulysses? Come on, three pages about a bowel movement? But hearing your problems with the story, the character, the pacing, etc., only goes to help me moving forward.

Forward...what's next? Well, I've been rudderless the past few weeks. I drifted off IO to another short project and finally to another. Some of you might be worried that I'm moving on from Blackjack. This book has a sense of finality, doesn't it? There's no major cliffhanger (Haha?) and one could look at it as a completed trilogy. Where we find Blackjack at the end of the book is kind of a nice place to be, right? Well, don't worry. We're already talking, thinking about Blackjack 4, tentatively called Messiah, though were aren't going to get hot and heavy with it until the beginning of next year. The thing about the next book is that we've got part of it ready, the plot well defined - it's ready to go. So I'm not going to let it linger, like I did with B3, and I'm not going to get sidetracked with another monster project.

IO is near completion of the first book. Right now, I'd say it's going to be a two book story, with one book coming out sometime in 2016 and the other in 2017 or 2018-ish. If you guys have had followed the development of the story here, or bought one of the "episodes" in the cancelled series, then you know it's going to be an interesting romp into a new and different world. I'm as excited about that as I've been about anything.

I know, you guys want Blackjack, I feel your rage as you see me drifting from him. Don't despair, don't freak. We're on it, and there won't be another 2.5 year gap between Blackjack stories. The great thing about IO is that book one is almost done, then I can hand it off to the other writer/editors and work on Blackjack while they slave away.

One last word about my co-writer on this, Joshua Hoade. This time his name goes on the cover, right next to mine, and that's for a reason; he made B3 so much better. Not only was he involved with the plotting and editing, he did a fair bit of first draft writing and was responsible for all the edits. Josh also kept my head in the game (as he's doing now with IO), and was a constant advocate for the piece. B3 exists in no small part because of his efforts, and I will forever be thankful of his participation. Moving forward, we've enjoyed our new process so much that we've decided to keep it going in the future. He'll be a co- in B4 and in everything else we do from here on out.

To recap our plans: it's IO, or maybe a small project to finish the year, then back to Blackjack, and in the meantime, another humble thanks to everyone for all your support.

Blackjack Dead or Alive is now available on Amazon

Hope you guys enjoy! By the way "Pitty" is what the dude wrote in the excoriating review. Not my problem!!!!

http://www.amazon.com/Blackjack-Dead-Alive-Book-ebook/dp/B016FJNZDI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1444510409&sr=8-1&keywords=blackjack+dead+or+alive

IO on hold...for a good reason

I'm putting IO down for about a week...wanna know why?

Cause of Blackjack. Yeah, big guy's a bully and he throws his weight around here too. He's done with Josh (the editor) and now he wants a piece of me. I got it yesterday morning and I'm through half of it already. Guys, I love this book. I know, I'm biased, but I love what we're doing here

So timing-wise, I should have Blackjack: Dead or Alive done in the next few days and ready for upload. Amazon takes a day to approve everything, then it should be yours. Only a year and six months late. Let's make sure that the next Blackjack book doesn't take so long.

I have to admit, the last book left me a bit gunshy. It left me a bit spent. I went through a strange ordeal in writing it and you can tell in the finished product - in particular the finale. My mind wasn't right. B3 has left me the opposite, uplifted and positive. I can't wait to get back to IO, to finish it, and to start on the next B4 book.

This morning I was driving around, letting scenes play out in my head and I thought, "wait, that's B4 stuff. Stop that. Concentrate on 3." That's a good thing. Finishing 2 I couldn't have said the same thing. It was a harder book to write than this one and the aftermath wasn't as pretty.

Anyway, I have to check it, format it for epub publish, do the new cover...YES, NEW COVER! I love you Erik Lehmann. Then upload the sucker and let you guys have at it. I want to put together the formatted versions for Createspace's print on demand, too. I know, most people read on their Kindles/Nooks/smartphones/computers, but I want to give you guys the option of buying it on print as well. It's tricky since it's such a long book. The more pages you have, the higher the prices go, and at a certain point, I don't want to seem like I'm gouging you guys, or appear like a greedy bastard. The truth is that the print versions will be like 15-18 bucks per book. I know, it sucks. Don't buy it if you can go epub. It's just a couple of bucks for the epub.

Okay, so IO on hold a week or so, Blackjack in between, then back to IO, then...I forget.

So?

So, I've been putzing around with Facebook and let this place sort of linger. My bad. I'll be here more often in the coming days.

B3 is in the final stages. The editor estimates another couple of weeks, then it comes back to me, then it's yours...so yeah, I can say it's coming in October. Finally. I know, there's no reason to celebrate - it's over a year late. But I'm still happy.

Moving forward, we've decided to break up IO (again), but this time into novel-sized chunks and book 1 is almost done. It's not for financial reasons, and you'll end up spending the same for the full story, but breaking it up will make it more manageable in the long run.

Afterwards, I'll take a short break from Blackjack and IO and try for something else in the meantime. Right now it looks like Heart of the Jungle. Then back to Blackjack for what is tentatively called B4: Messiah.

About the book titles, I don't know who talked me into NOT putting the semi-colon, but right now I want to strangle them. It's stupid, I know, but it's kind of implied anyway. I might go back and edit everything.

Another thing, I was looking over at B1 the other day and I saw my presidential prediction for this coming cycle: Jeb Bush. First of all, I want to apologize to all the Democratic readers for implying that the Reps are going to win it in the first place, but I also want to apologize to Republicans far and wide for putting forward such a feeb. Yeah, that dude totally sucks, and I should know, I lived through his governorship. I think people from all sides of the political spectrum can agree that Jeb is a special kind of jaggof. Blackjack Wayward corrected the error, making the president a make-believe character, but since I made her a woman, some of you might assume I meant her to be Hillary. Nope. I just like the idea of a woman president - not necessarily her in particular. I'm raising a daughter and it'd be nice to tell her, "you can become anything," and actually mean it. The next president (who will factor into B4) is going to be Asian. Don't ask me how these people serve such short presidencies in my book, I don't have a logical answer.

Enough about politics anyway, B3 is coming soon, and I’m going to try for the follow-up around the same time next year, getting Blackjack back on course.

Thanks for everything, and I look forward to your comments and questions.

Greetings from Merrit Island!

Man, you guys should have seen the sunset we had over here. We were eating some salmon en papillote (wrapped in paper, lol) that my sister and I threw together and someone looked out the window - mind blown.

I always use this annual week-long getaway to get some work done. There's beach and sun and pool, but by 11 o'clock, midnight, I'm the only mouse stirring in the house we rent, and I always bring my laptop. Last year was a disaster, 7 days/0 pages, but this year I'm doing pretty good so far. It helps that I have the story fully broken down, where last year I was having a huge crisis of confidence, post-B2, and unsure about what I had for B3.

This year is different; I'm rocking along with the Alec POV and plan on finishing his entire arc by the time we head back to Miami.

I want to take a minute to thank G.R.R. Martin for inspiring me to do a split POV story. Reading the first book in his series blew my mind and sent me on this journey. Another story that had a huge influence was House of Cards, the recent Netflix edition. Watching Spacey chew that script was another paradigm shift for me, making me revisit the entire project. In any case, those are the two main inspirations to IO.

Moving forward, I'm writing the thing in consecutive order, each POV at a time, then I'll go back and interlace the whole thing. I just broke 700 Word pages, and I figure another 300 until I'm done - it'll be a good 2k Kindle pages when all is said and done. I have a full outline to keep me organized, but I'm finding so much more in each character that I didn't have before. This is one of the reasons we pulled it. Sure, it wasn't working as a serialized story, but also, I was discovering a lot about the characters that I wanted to go back and implement from the beginning.

For example, I never realized how important Mistral's father, and his legacy, were going to be to her character arc until I wrote it. Now I'm forced to go back and do some rewriting to backtrack a lot of cool things I've found out about her.

Going through this process makes me respect comic book writers so much more. They're operating on a small piece of the whole, and have to have a level of organization and discipline that I failed to have in my first serialized attempt. If I try it next time, I'll write the whole thing, THEN publish.

As far as when? It's a long term project, let's be realistic. I'm going to retain the previous two editors, and go with the same exact process, so don't expect IO to be done any time soon. I'll keep you up to date with my comings and goings, but I fully expect my next book (B4) to be done before IO ever sees a publication date.

Wait, did he say...WHAT DID HE SAY????

Yes, B4 is going to be next. It's the least I can do for you guys, who have waited so patiently while I fumbled with B3. I have the storyline ready for breakdown, and when Josh finishes editing B3 (and I'm done writing IO) we'll get hard at work making it happen.

So B4 is next, and I really want to get back into my April/May release slot. Damn...I said I wasn't going to talk about dates. It's probably not realistic to expect it so soon. Maybe the June/July thing works better.

Anyways, I have the following ideas for the title of B4:

Blackjack Messiah
Blackjack The Cult
Blackjack Lightbringer

One of the major realizations that I've come to while working on Blackjack is that the Lightbringers will be a major arc, but it won't be the end. So why wait? Let's get that arc started!

Cheers from the Sun and stay safe!

IO and Blackjack 3 (and B4)

Blackjack 3 update! My editor is slow. GO FASTER, dammit, May is ending and June is almost here.

IO update! I officially broke 600 pages on IO. This is the epic we've been craving for, and Josh, the crazy bastard, is already plotting book two. At present, I'm finishing up the Mistral storyline then I'll get busy with Galan, Alec & Ev and Canino. I'll probably have the book done by the end of Summer.

Then what? Then pivot over to Heart of the Jungle (finish it! - in the Mortal Combat announcer voice), or Tier Zero...or Blackjack 4.

What??? Blackjack 4??? Yeah, if you guys recall, I started a whole different story a year ago, and set it aside for what's turned into Blackjack Dead or Alive. That material I had was real good, though. Definitely a story I want to tell. I would start B4 with 1/3 already in the can, as it were. Imagine, two Blackjack books in one year. The more I think of it, the more it seems possible. 

Tier Zero and Battle can follow B4 without too much trouble. Marvel did 2 Iron Mans before they did the Avengers, right? We can do 4 before hitting the meta. Blackjack 1-3 are kind of the setup to the real stories that are coming. I mean, it took the guy long enough to get his shit in gear.

But first I want to finish IO, at least do my part and drop it in the laps of the editors. I figure I'm 2-3 months away from completion, then the rest of the year I can spend on other stuff.

If it was up to you guys, what would you prefer? I suppose everyone will want Blackjack more than the others, right?

On a side note, and as part of what has me motivated to get right back to Blackjack, I saw Tomorrowland yesterday with my girls. Wow. I'm such a Brad Bird fanboy that I won't even entertain talk of the movies flaws (what movie is flawless anyway?), but the message of the film got me thinking about Blackjack - in a write-the-next-book-fast kind of way. I mean, we've all heard the argument that Bruce Wayne could potentially do much more good if he spent his time, money and efforts on helping Gotham, rather than on batwings, batarangs and batcaves to fight crime. I know, the character has his pre-defined pathos and it's not like you could talk sense to a psychopath/sociopath like Batman. 

But there's an argument there, and I think it applies to Blackjack as well. Something inspired by Hugh Laurie's character in Tomorrowland.

Anyway, I'm going to see Mad Max this week so Blackjack 4 might turn out to be a testosterone-laden romp through the Australian countryside as much as it could be a thoughtful exploration of a troubled hero and his nascent efforts to try to do some good.

Talk to you guys soon!