Just the usual quick update for all you readers out there! Colony‘s Beta is progressing at a truly impressive rate. So impressive, in fact, that my current crop of Beta Readers have outpaced me in both their eagerness to finish the story and their heeding of my own words about my time constraints. Outpaced to the degree that they have now finished their Beta 1 read-through, while I find myself just over halfway through my own meticulous read-through.

On the plus side of things, however, that’s half of Colony‘s length edited in just four days (as my weekend was otherwise occupied). Another few days, and I’ll be ready for the Beta 2! Then the copy edit … and the cover … and I’ve got another finished book.

Wow, that just sunk in. I’m really, really close.

Anyway, it’s close. Start saving your spare change. Colony is coming at last! Hopefully I’ll have a cover to show off in the next week or so as well!

And now, a distraction!

I love the Gears of War series. Ever since I saw the very first trailer way back when (over a decade ago), this hyper-brutal series has become a personal favorite of mine between its ridiculous and over-the-top violence (chainsaw gun anyone?) and its equally brutal, harsh, dying world everyone is fighting for a scrap of. I love the lore, the story, the characters …

Anyway, what does this have to do with anything at all? Simple. Gears of War 4 comes out on the 11th. That’s right. Four days from now. Unless you bought the really nice deluxe edition … which I didn’t. That’s a bit of a luxury purchase, even if I would get to play early.

Now, this won’t affect Colony‘s upcoming release. I refuse to let it do that. But I will, however, indulge myself in a little priming for the release.

Four games so far. Four awesome trailers. I’m doing a countdown!

So, without further ado, the “Mad World” trailer that introduced the world to Gears of War, launched a song to #1 on the charts, and made a gaming icon.

See you tomorrow!