April is the month Badlands Cursed, the sequel to Badlands Born, will graduate from re-write to finished manuscript. From there it will go into editing for a month and then onto a professional editor to polish off all the rough edges I didn’t catch. I’m targeting a fall 2018 launch and will definitely keep you posted on when it will go on pre-order.
I will also be changing the website in a few months, giving it an update and a little more professional polish. The most noticeable change will be that the free download will change from the Michael and Corncob ebook to a short story set in the Badlands Born universe. For you early readers who have already downloaded the Michael and Corncob freebie, congratulations on scoring an early adopter exclusive! The Michael and Corncob stories will go into the vault for a while until I can give them the attention needed to develop them into a full series.
I just finished reading Artemis by Andy Weir, the same author who wrote The Martian. I enjoyed the story’s take on how a near-future functioning moon base would work, the people it would employ, and the culture it would develop. The hero of the story is an intelligent smart-ass who would rather hustle through life than apply herself though once she gets into trouble she’s remarkably capable. And she does get in trouble – a lot. It’s a murder mystery that turns into an Ocean’s Eleven caper by the third act and while the ending stretched my suspension of disbelief, I enjoyed reading it. It’s not as good as the Martian, but it’s still a good story.
The two movies on my radar are Pacific Rim: Uprising and Ready Player One. The first, a sequel to the giant robots vs kaiju movie of 2013 is just plain dumb fun. I set my expectations low and was pleasantly surprised by the original Pacific Rim and kept it on my DVR to watch over half a dozen times. Sure, the premise has been done oodles of times before, and the movie physics are questionable but…but… giant robots! Glowing weapons! Mass destruction! ‘Splosions! Shut up and eat your popcorn!
Ready Player One is based on the book by Ernest Cline, one of the few books that made me say “damn, I wish I had written that!” The book was a love letter to the 80’s nerd culture I was steeped in and had a pace that made me loose several hours of sleep as I kept turning the pages. I’ll be interested in seeing how many of the cultural references make it into the movie as the permissions and royalty fees must have been a headache to negotiate, and also how many more modern references will spill into the movie. I recall seeing characters from Overwatch and The Iron Giant that were not in the book and wonder if this was a decision to attract younger viewers. Fingers crossed on this one, I don’t want it to suck.
Amusing Stuff I Found This Month
Honest Trailer’s send-up of The Last Jedi
The trailer for Ready Player One
