Are you guys ready?
Tomorrow the ultimate episode of Fireteam Freelance drops. Black Site Bora, episode 12, goes live at 9 AM, Saturday August 8th, 2020. Seven months after the first episode, Zero, made its debut.
This is a juggernaut of an episode. Weighing in at 23,000 words, Black Site Bora is nothing but action from start to finish as the Adah, Ursa, Owl, and Anvil make their do-or-die raid on a UN black site.
So if you’ve been enjoying the journey of the team so far, this is the episode not to miss. Set your alarm clocks. Get your snacks ready. Catch up on any missed episodes over at the Fireteam Freelance page.
Black Site Bora is almost here.
Hit the jump for more news!
Speaking of finales, work on Starforge continues. There was a minor setback when I scrapped the entire opening chapter (chapter 1, not the prologue) and restarted it with a slightly different opening tactic to get more show out of it, but it paid off. Today I start work on chapter 2, and I am excited.
See, there’s an ebb and flow to doing a trilogy. If you’ve stuck around for any of my Being a Better Writer posts, then you’re likely familiar with the idea of “rise and fall” over the course of any adventure. Well, what a lot of people don’t think of is that a trilogy or series of books with an overarching plot has to follow a similar rise and fall over the course of the series.
In other words, book one can be an “inciting incident” of sorts, with the first major rise of the story, while a book two can be the middle part between the initial rise and the finale. And this series? Well, like most trilogies it does follow that a bit.
Colony was the “inciting incident.” The opening bits of plot and action. Jungle began to fill in the questions and make sense of it all (pun, dear readers, intended). And Starforge?
This pattern means Starforge is the climax. Everything is coming to a head. This book starts out on high stakes … stakes you readers can probably quite accurately guess at in some vague aspect, given the end of the last book.
This is the climax. This is going to be the biggest, most grand, explosive end to the series. Yes, it is an ending. This will be the final book. UNSEC, Pisces, everything that happened in Jungle … it’s all colliding in book three. And if you though either of the other two climaxes were nail-biting …
Starforge is going to end this story with a bang unlike anything you’ve ever seen.
Now, away from finales and onto a small beginning … Editing on Axtara is proceeding just fine. I’ve found a good rhythm of “Do a Starforge chapter” then “edit six Axtara chapters” the next day. Plus a bonus chapter or two on weekends. Alpha is moving along, tweaks and changes are being made, and step by step—or maybe wingbeat by wingbeat—Axtara draws closer to Beta (and of course, release).
However, many of the Alpha Readers, most of whom have finished their pass-throughs by now, have loved it. It’s different from something like Colony or Shadow of an Empire, but no less fun.
Now, I could wax on here and post some more on various topics not quite as related to writing … but in all honesty, what I want to do right now is get to work with chapter 2 of Starforge because … Well, that’d be spoilers. But I want to get to that.
Colony was written in six months. Jungle took a year. I’d like to see Starforge closer to Colony‘s writing time than Jungle. Though in realism, it’s probably going to be in the middle.
I’ve got to write, readers! Things are happening! Have a great weekend, and don’t forget Black Site Bora tomorrow!
Oh! Wait! One final note here. Remember that goal of 400 reviews and ratings across my works? Well, as of this week (and a rapid boom of reviews and readers over the last two months), I’m about to pass 300! At the current pace, it could happen by next week!
And even if it doesn’t, it ticks closer each day!
Okay, now I’m gone. Anna’s got [MESSAGE REDACTED BY PISCES ORBITAL CONTROL].
Unusual Things 