Hey there readers! Max here with a news post about, well, everything!

First up, unless otherwise pleaded with, the current plan for next week’s live Being a Better Writer Q&A is to have it at 3 PM Mountain Time. Like last time this will last about an hour, and will be conducted over the Unusual Things discord server, The Makalay Camp.

Yes, of course that’s a reference. Anyway, look forward to that this Monday, and start thinking of questions and topics! Not just for the Q&A, of course, because—

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Being a Better Writer is in need of topics! That’s right, we’ve reached the end of list #17, and Topic List #18 now sits atop my desk, ready to slowly fill with topic after topic on the arts of writing for the next installments of Being a Better Writer.

Which means after the live Q&A is over, the time will arrive once more for a BaBW Topic Call post to go up! I’ve got some new topics I’ve already been putting on there (such as one on diction and dialogue) but as always there are an endless number of writing topics to choose from, so if there’s something that’s on your mind that you’d like answered, discussed, or talked about in some manner, jot it down and get ready! If you don’t have one off the top of your head, that’s fine. You’ve got time. Sleep on it, and wait for the post to arrive.

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Now, let’s talk about Starforge for a moment. Starforge, the grand finale to the trilogy started with Colony and Jungle, is now in the last 90% of the draft. Yes, I am in the midst of the final battle.

And it is awesome. No spoilers, but it’s the climax of everything that the series has been leading up to. For Pisces, for Jake, Anna, and Sweets … even for Earth and humankind.

So once I’m done here, I’ll go right back to working on that because, you know, finale. It’s living in my head right now and pretty much an epicenter of my focus. It needs to be done.

Which raises an important question: What will I do when it’s done? Will the Alpha Reading call possibly be sent out next month?

No. Sorry folks. No, once I finish it, I’m going to take at least a month off from working on Starforge (not other stuff!) to disconnect from the draft. During which time I’ll finalize the paperback for Shadow of an Empire and work on a few short stories and other projects. Start plotting out the next Axtara and Unusuals books. That kind of thing.

Then, once that month-long disconnect is over, I’ll start editing the draft and polishing it up for Alpha. Because yeah, there’s plenty to do, I’m sure. This book is titanic, and it’s the finale to the trilogy. It needs to meet, or better yet, exceed, the high bar left by the first two books in the trilogy.

But once I’ve gone through and sawed off all the ragged edges, maybe restructured or rewritten a few chapters … then we can have an Alpha Call.

Oh, and it’ll be a big one. Like I said, there’s a high bar to meet here, so there will be no slacking on this project!

YIKES! Also, I almost forgot, but the Patreon Supporter Poll to choose the name of a new munitions company in Starforge is over! Who won? Well … you’ll have to wait until the book releases to find out, but thank you to everyone who voted!

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Speaking of the UNSEC Space Trilogy, I noticed that Colony had passed a milestone recently. What milestone, you might ask?

100 reviews and ratings. And yes, passed. Because I obliviously didn’t notice that Colony had hit 100 (and also because it picked up a couple of 5-star ratings and reviews in a few short days). Meaning that Colony now boasts 101 reviews and ratings across Amazon and Goodreads, and yet …

Still holds a review average of 4.25 our of 5 stars.

If you’re wondering what that’s on par with, that’s just slightly higher than Dune, one of the icons of the genre. Sands, it’s a rating that’s higher than one of my favorite Sci-Fi books of all time (and direct peer), The Icarus Hunt.

Go Colony!

Jungle, its sequel, is moving a bit slower. It hasn’t cracked 50 yet, though it is close. And sitting at a 4.75 out of 5 overall rating. Though in fairness, those folks that left one-star reviews on Colony for having too much plot/character development and not enough killing (yes, this was a real complaint from a one-star review), or not enough homosexual erotica (which is to say none, and this was also a real issue for someone) aren’t likely to have followed through to the sequel.

But dang Colony. Well done!

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Now, last but not least, this does make one wonder with how well Axtara – Banking and Finance has been selling … is she close behind?

No. Not that close. However, she’s almost caught Jungle. So she’s close to 50, and in only a few months. Oh, and with a 4.9 star average.

Yeah, she’s soaring. There hasn’t been anyone who’s expressed disdain toward Axtara yet.

Though in fairness, it’s a pretty awesome book. Definitely looking forward to writing the sequel.

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And with that, I think this week’s installment of news is sufficient. Hope you’re all having a great weekend, don’t forget that Monday’s BaBW will be live and at 3 PM Mountain Time. There will be a post up with link to the server when it happens, so swing on by! In the meantime, think of what you’d like to ask or request for the next topic list!

Have a great weekend everyone!