The Girl From the El Dorado Star System, Book One: The Man Who Had to Die

OK, here's the table of contents from Book One of The Girl From the El Dorado Star System, which should be posted to Smashwords by the end of this month:

Table of Contents

Prolog:                     History
Chapter One:           Bubble in Space
Chapter Two:          The Girl on the Strand
Chapter Three:        Only Tom
Chapter Four:          Muski's Pub and Grill
Chapter Five:           Tamona's Taco Tavern
Chapter Six:             The Old Man
Chapter Seven:         Alone
Chapter Eight:           One Shot, One Kill
Chapter Nine:            A Speck in Space
Chapter Ten:             The Girl in the Park
Chapter Eleven:         Checkmate
Chapter Twelve:        Mayhem
Chapter Thirteen:       Escape
Chapter Fourteen:      The Girl Who Could Be Found
Chapter Fifteen:         What's Done is Done
Chapter Sixteen:        Time to Fly
Chapter Seventeen:    Briefing in the Dead of Night
Chapter Eighteen:      The Game's Afoot

Anyone who saw the preview chapters on Smashwords.com (they were up only a short time) will recognize "One Shot, One Kill," but will remember it as Chapter Seven. When I decided to tackle publishing on Smashwords by breaking up the original Volume One into separate books, I decided to rework some of the material I already had finished, thus adding a chapter between "The Old Man" and "One Shot, One Kill." By the same token, two later chapters that have already appeared on Smashwords will also be renumbered when they appear in Book Two.

More to come...

peace, J

Honor Harrington

OK, so the movie is slated for 2017 release. Guess I have no choice but to wait, and I'm getting older every year. Meanwhile, Top Cow is releasing comic adaptations of David Weber's Honor Harrington novels, beginning with On Basilisk Station. You can find them here: http://www.thetopcowstore.com/searchresults.asp?cat=82. I've got the first two issues. I believe they have about three different artists working on this, and the end result is perhaps not what a lot of Honor Harrington fans envisioned while reading the novels. Partly because each artist has his own style, partly because this is all still a work in progress as the guys at Evergreen Studios work through the design process for the movie. It isn't easy to produce visually what David Weber has written about in the novels. Meanwhile, I think the comic versions are worth checking out.

Peace, J

Progress! Razvitia!

Finally! At last. After all these months. The Girl From the El Dorado Star System, Book One: The Man Who Had to Die, will be on Smashwords by the end of the month. It is in the hands of my e-editor now. The two chapters I had published on Smashwords as previews just didn't fly with the Smashwords powers-that-be. Previews, even completed chapters, are not allowed. (But they said they now accept serial versions of novels...) So this, and life, threw a monkey wrench into things for a little while. It did give me the chance to do some more writing and rewriting. The first ten chapters of the story I set aside as "Book One," thinking to publish the story in serial form. Then I began revising the material, splitting chapters like amoebae, and adding several new ones. The result is that what was once the first ten chapters of the story is now the first eighteen chapters. Over 59,000 words. This better qualify as a "completed book" for Smashwords purposes. What were originally the next ten chapters of the story, the original Chapters 11-20, are going to be Book Two: The Girl Who had a Mission, Chapters 19-34. (More writing and rewriting and amoeba chapters.) That book will be completed probably by early July. That will pretty much take me through the original Volume One. Book Three: Appointment at Calaverras will follow.

Also, I have a new cover for the series of books. I highly recommend http://www.selfpubbookcovers.com. They're reasonably priced for low-budget writers. Most covers are available for $69, with some going for $89-$99.  The art work is good and original. And you get to design your book cover - basically arranging your title, author, and by line on a pre-made cover, prior to buying it. Once you buy the cover it is removed from the website and is not available anywhere else.

Here is the cover for The Girl From the El Dorado Star System, Book One:

 I have also started working on a companion guide to the story, with glossary, characters, ship names, places, and notes on languages, society, etc. That really won't be finished until the story runs its course.

Spin-off stories are in the works.

Peace, J.

Update on The Girl From the El Dorado Star System

I just saw that it's been about two weeks sonce the last post.  Time really flies when you're having fun, or working.  Progress continues on Volume One of The Girl From the El Dorado Star System.  At present there are 26 chapters in the outline for volume one.  All four of them are completed.  I'm focusing on chapter 18 right now, Solitaire Revelation.  That one is almost completed.  The remaining three will take a little more work. 

Once the remaining chapters are finished then it's time for a final text edit and any revisions, and then it's off to an editor for e-formatting and a pro cover.  Once that's doen it'll be ready for the Smashwords Premire Catalog!  I may decide to publish chapter drafts on this blog.  Haven't made up my mind yet.

Meanwhile the free preview of Chapter Seven: One Shot, One Kill has gotten a five star review on Smashwords, and an expressed desire to see the completed novel!  Yeah!

peace, J. Allen Wilder

Honor Harrington and the movie in the works

One thing I'm really excited about right now is hearing about the upcoming Honor Harrington movie, projected to hit the big screen in 2016.  David Weber's Honor Harrington series is right now my all-time favorite science fiction.  It even beats out the reimagined Battlestar Galactica and its spin-off Caprica.  Not familiar with the reimagined Battlestar Galactica?  Read about it on Wikipedia and follow the links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battlestar_Galactica_(2004_TV_series).

I was a very late bloomer when it came to Honor Harrington, discovering the series only in 2008.  It came out in the early 90's.  Honor Harrington is perhaps the best, or at least among the very best, in military science fiction and space opera to be found in English at the moment.  Just think of a futuristic Tom Clancy; The Hunt for Red October, The Sum of All Fears, Red Storm Rising, and some of his other novels set 2,000 years in the future.  Mix that with a little bit of Patrick O'Brian, Alexander Kent, and C. S. Forrester (think of the characters Richard Bolitho, Jack Aubrey, and Horatio Hornblower).  Throw in some pretty hard science, and some theoretical physics.  Add some good, solid themes and values (like honor, integrity, loyalty, honesty, duty, perserverance, human dignity, family, and friends...).  Finally add a strong female lead character.  Stir well.  That's Honor Harrington.

There's been talk in the past about Honor Harrington on the big screen and nothing has come of it.  This time it appears something is happening.  Evergreen Films (http://www.evergreenfilms.com/worlds/tales-of-honor) has been working closely with David Weber and started preproduction last summer.  These are the people who did Walking With Dinosaurs.  And they seem pretty committed to doing Honor Harrington and sticking as close to the books as possible.  AND they are committed at the moment to producing multiple movies and going trans-media with the project.

Like a lot of other fans who have commented in Honor Harrington forums, I hope they don't mess this up, because if they handle this the right way, and it appears they are trying to, then you need to hang on to your seat, because this will leave Star Trek in the dust.  (No, I don't hate Star Trek.  I've said this before.  But, there can be better science fiction than Star Trek out there.)

Apparently the first movie will be based on the 2nd novel in the series, The Honor of the Queen.  At the moment the Amazon Kindle version is FREE!  Don't know why, and I don't know for how long, but right this moment it's...FREE!  You can get it here:  http://www.amazon.com/The-Honor-Queen-Harrington-ebook/dp/B00BBI9WD6/ref=tmm_kin_title_0. 

You can find the entire Honor Harrington series at Baen Books here: http://www.baen.com/series_list.asp?letter=H.

Here are a few other links about Honor Harrington and the Honorverse:

The Royal Manticoran Navy (the official Honor Harrington Fan Association): http://www.trmn.org/portal/.  Yes, I am a member.

The Fan Association has a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Royal-Manticoran-Navy-The-Official-Honor-Harrington-Fan-Association/212931642092718

A July 2013 post by David Weber about the movie is here: http://www.davidweber.net/posts/420-july-2013-movie-update.html

A Krypton Radio news article about the movie is here: http://kryptonradio.com/2013/07/29/news-flash-honor-harrington-films-move-forward/

David Weber's website is here: http://www.davidweber.net/

A description of the universe of Honor Harrington written by David Weber a few years back is here: http://www.library.beau.org/lib/ebooks/baen/01/More%20Than%20Honor/0671878573___4.htm

David B. Mattingly's book cover illustrations are here: http://www.davidmattingly.com/Pages/HONORHA.html

Wikipedia articles (with links and references for further reaing) about the character Honor Harrington and the Honorverse are here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honor_Harrington and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorverse.

HonorCon 2013 still has pages up.  Check it out: http://honorcon2013.sched.org/.  Wish I had been able to go, but my schedule didn't allow it.  I missed a lot!

'Nuff for now!

Keep reading, keep writing, keep creating!

pax vobiscum, J Allen Wilder

Update: The Girl From the El Dorado Star System

Volume One, Chapter Seven: One Shot, One Kill, has been posted on Smashwords as a free preview.  Still awaiting word on it's inclusion in the Smashwords Premium Catalog.  You can download the enitre chapter here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/394047.  It's free.  Read it and have fun.  It was fun to write it, and a little challenging.  That is success enough.  If it inspires someone to write their own stories, then it is even more of a sucecss.

Still working to complete Volume One: Winter's End.  The story text, not including front matter and end matter, comes to over 91,000 words.  The entire text, which includes a lexicon, character list, and end matter comes to over 101,000 words and 243 pages on a Word document.  I expect up to 125,000 words for the finished document.

pax, J Allen Wilder

Re-edited free preview of The Girl From the El Dorado Star System

Just uploaded a re-edited version of the free preview of The Girl From the El Dorado Star System to Smashwords.  This includes fixes to the bookmarks and hyperlinks (keep your fingers crossed) and some text editiing.  You can find it here on Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/390467.

pax,  j allen w