Tag Archives: A Debt of Lead

What’s new for the readers?

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A Debt of Lead is released, the Prayer to the Exiled has since been posted. We’ve managed to get lots of action, hopefully a bit of exposition for the Dark Stars universe, and gotten our first taste of Jacob Wilkens.

So what’s next?

I’ll be very forward here, I have big plans for the Dark Stars universe. I made it as a sandbox that I could take a wide variety of stories and character, then place them inside and tell their tales. As such, I’ve even managed to conceptually adapt a number of my older stories that didn’t quite work, and fit them in the Dark Stars setting.

How many story ideas does this sandbox leave me with, you might wonder?

Eight novels, at least. Yes, you heard me right. And yes, ambition might be playing against me, but I don’t care.

I have, at least, two series planned right now that fit into the setting. The first is a consistently growing series about two mercenaries – Jacob Wilkens and Vaerys Tyrus Dirion – and the jobs they work. The second is firmly a trilogy about a unique TAC (the main human government) SpecForce team.

So what’s in the oven right now?

Crimson Sands, the first full-length novel in the Dark Stars setting, is being started. This novel will follow the events of A Debt of Lead, and will star the aforementioned mercenaries and how they begin to work together.

It will also be the first time that a Vashari – in the form of Vaerys – has ever been a main character in the Dark Stars universe, so the idea of showcasing her and her culture is very exciting for me.

So stay tuned, Ladies and Gentlemen, for the show has only just begun.

New releases!

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A new day, a couple new releases!

First out of the gate, we have A Prayer to the Exiled, a poetic prayer amongst the Vashari in the Dark Stars universe. This piece is exclusively being posted on her website [link], with the full piece posted right … here. The link to this piece has been added to the Published Pieces menu on this website for future references.

This piece gives a little insight into Vashari culture, along with offering a small glimpse into one of the two protagonists for my upcoming works, Vaerys Tyrus Dirion. I hope you all enjoy this piece, just as I enjoyed writing and sharing it.

Second, A Debt of Lead has been released! It is currently available [in pdf, mobi, and epub formats] in the downloads box to the left on this page. Alternatively, there is a direct link to the zip over on the Downloads page.

This story is the debut of my second protagonist, Jacob Wilkens, for the Dark Stars universe. In this story, he’s got to fight his way up through a casino that operates as a front for a stim cartel. If he doesn’t, the cartel’s henchmen will kidnap and kill one of his associates, something he can’t let happen.

These works, combined with Dawnstar, form the beginning of our exposure to the Dark Stars universe. This new universe is a place filled with pirates, massive corporations, stim cartels, aliens known as the Vashari, civil war amongst mankind, and more.

Here’s hoping you stick around and enjoy the ride.

Workshop shutdown.

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Another week, another update. So, let’s get this party rolling.

1) The workshop editing for A Debt of Lead will be coming to a close tonight. While it was a slightly bit of a slow start, the feedback came in heavy and hard. Everything from the story, pacing, exposition, and grammatical construction of the story has been picked apart and been commented on.

That said, it’s mighty difficult to edit and revise a story while other readers are also making new comments. It’s very distracting as well, might I add. I can literally see the effect, as well, judging by the amount of typos I made in the revisions thus far.

That said, I’ll be closing off the commenting portion of the article tonight so that I can enact the previously posted changes and add in some newly revised scenes.  These scenes will – hopefully – add more of an insight into Jacob Wilkens; something that I had aimed to do with this story, yet seemed to fall short of after consulting the feedback.

After I get the revisions and edits done, I’ll open it back up for a final sweep for a couple of days. After that, and any following corrections, I’ll get it compiled together and set for release.  Anyone and everyone that’s contributed to the editing process, at the end of it, will received workshop credit as well.

I’ve been attempting to keep track of everyone to credit as well, since I’m not that much of a glory-hog.

2) The Veil … is on indefinite hold. I’ll give you a moment to gasp in shock, call me nothing more than a lazy novice, whatever you will.

…

Done now? Okay, good.

I’ve got multiple reasons for sticking it in hold, so let me break them down for you in some sub-articles.

A) I started The Veil, thinking it’d be a novel, back in August of 2011. Needless to say, it’s been almost an entire year since the story’s prologue saw the light of day. Adding to that, I think we can all agree that this has been one very productive year in terms of how far my technique has come (and has left to go). In that time, I’ve also come up with a plethora of other ideas for stories.

Except ALL of them have some level of SciFi in them, where as The Veil stands as the only one to be in the “Urban Paranormal” genre. As you might imagine, I am slightly beginning to think of what potential readers would want from me as content, and The Veil just isn’t quite fitting in as it is.

B) When I started The Veil, it was a fun story for me to tell. The problem is, as I’ve gone along with it, I’ve begun to understand the craft of writing and storytelling in such a way that writing this story has become nearly painful. The story has tremendous pacing problems, and the only way to shed them is for radical reform, even from the WIP version that it is now. I’m honestly spending far more time trying to think of logical ways that any of it could work, rather then enjoying the story in and of itself.

C) I’m shelving it, NOT deleting it. I once shelved a story for three years, and now it has an upcoming place in the Dark Stars universe. I am just gonna take the concept and some of the ideas, stick them in a proverbial shoebox, and stuff it in a closet. If a day comes that I find a way to tell The Veil‘s story and make it work with some changes, I’ll gladly come back to it. Until then, I’ll continue to write what I enjoy writing and hope it comes out all the better for it.

So … yeah, I think that’s all I needed to say and get out of the way. Back to work!

The story is in the workshop-oven.

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So yeah, been slightly longer than normal for me when it comes to posting a new update. It’s been a little busy over here on my end, so I’ll cut straight to the chase and make this short and simple.

1: A Debt of Lead, formally A Debt of Bullets, has had its first draft completed. It’s currently in the editing phase, being looked at. So far I’ve sounded the call for help with edits and critique, though none have answered, making myself the only person to have gone through it. I’d originally intended to begin compiling it and work on the cover art as soon as tonight, but I might possibly extend that deadline in the hopes that someone else takes an interest in the editing process.

2: There have been a couple of slight revisions to the website. The Links tab has been removed, since it didn’t really serve much purpose. At the same time the Poetry tab has been changed to a Downloads tab with a link to the download for A Call to Arms, along with a slot for A Debt of Lead for when it’s released. It still retains the links to the poems, still hosted here on the website, though it’s not the most optimal way to view them.

3: After A Debt of Lead is down with editing, I’m moving back to working on the manuscript for my novel. As of now, I’m still working on Chapter 3, but am still aiming to make more headway. At the same time, it’s come to my attention that Fireside Magazine will be accepting submissions on August 6th. Needless to say, this has my interest, so I’m also spending some time thinking about a new story to possibly submit to them.

That’s all I got to mention for now. What can I say, I told you it’d be brief. Now I’m back off to get cracking on more edits, cover designs, ect.

(If you’re potentially interested in helping provide editing and critique for A Debt of Lead, please drop me a message either here or at one of my social media feeds.)