Figure: Sati Ima, the Mobile Frame pilot from the battleship Escalon
So just off the publication of the fantasy novella The Alchemist’s Ranger, we are back to editing the next book in the cyberpunk scifi grydscaen series called grydscaen: desecration. desecration is volume 5 and closes out the story arc aboard the battleship Escalon. The Psi Faction team is ready to take on the opposition as the Escalon travels closer to Londes, the homeland of the Atlantea Federation.
Since I have recently finished writing the dark fantasy trilogy The Seer of Grace and Fire, I have not been in grydscaen world since we released the short story Read Only Memory about the hacktivist Rom and his journey as the voice of Packrat Underground. Coming back to grydscaen: desecration after a three month stint in fantasy land was a little jarring. I had my head so far out of scifi dystopia that it was a little bit of a shock when I jumped back in today. I have edited desecration at least twice and went through a good two rounds of proofreading. But coming off the fantasy which is current, going back to this book took a leap of faith. All the grydscaen books were written over an 18 month period except for grydscaen: tribute. I will not tell you how many books are in the series at this time. That is a secret. But know there is a defined start and end and all the books are done.
Since I have a beta reader for the fantasy, I have learned a few things that I did not previously know. These will impact this edit of desecration and will possibly influence the tone of the book. When I wrote this book we were consulting at a high tech firm as a hacker. This shined through in the grydscaen books and influenced the tone and the subject matter. Since at the time I was deep into pentesting and quality assurance we see some of that peeking through. The novella Rogue which was written after I changed jobs from white hat hacker to systems analyst was greatly influenced by that time.
grydscaen: desecration takes place on the battleship Escalon and as the sequel to insurrection we have a more military feel. The world opened up in insurrection and we got to see other countries and places. That continues in desecration I did some research initially to get the feel right but the Escalon arc wraps up with this book and we had to deal with the psychic event The Convergence which foreshadows some of the later books and changes Lino Dejarre the main character significantly. A lot of things spin up because of this book and we take some items in a different direction because after this book and insurrection, Lino has new responsibilities which he has to mature quickly to handle.
I started editing today at the crack of dawn and I am about 25 pages in. Minor changes so far but we are making them which are necessary and correcting some typos. I usually write on this antiquated Mac computer that I got from art school when I was studying animation. The OS can’t be upgraded since it is old but it works as a glorified typewriter. I have a little desk in the back of the room that I write at. All the drawing and artwork is done on another computer which is newer since I can run more memory intensive programs on that PC. I like the Mac because it reminds me of school and it feels different than the PC. Shifting back and forth between machines can be a logistical nightmare and require flash drives and online cloud storage but it works for me just fine.
I will be glad to get back to Lino and the Psi Faction team with desecration. Three months away writing fantasy which is not that long seems like ages since I was deep into the scifi dystopian world I know so well. The cover art is done for this book and I can’t wait to share it with you when we get closer to publication but we have at least 6 months before desecration goes into the publication process. Release date is July 2017 and I know that is some time away but I need to release book 1 of the dark fantasy The Seer of Grace and Fire in February or March so grydscaen has to wait.
We will be getting a book trailer for desecration which requires some expenditure and I will need to save up for that. When I published the ebook grydscaen: dissonance I did not plan on a book trailer but I might go back and visit that idea since I have book trailers for all the other grydscaen books. dissonance will be hard since it is a book of diverse short stories. I will have to focus on one to really let a book trailer shine for that volume.
I look forward to wrapping up the Escalon arc and can’t wait until the Psi Faction team gets into space later in the series and visits the La Paz space station. More military scifi in my future and I can actually say space opera is coming to my dystopia.
I love the world of grydscaen and when I finally come to the end of the series I am going to miss it. I may continue to write novellas and short stories in the world with maybe even a new manga but the main storyline will close with the final grydscaen book. We are a few years off so don’t worry. I won’t quit on you half way through.
desecration brings a surprise, I won’t reveal it so I don’t spoil the storyline but I can tell you now that it makes things a lot more dangerous and the Atlantea Federation ups its game of destruction as it escalates its battle with the Pacific Territories.
I thought this was going to be a writing update but alas I have been all over the place with this post. I hope the still from the grydscaen: insurrection book trailer with Sati Ima gets you itching for more mobile frame pilot action and battleship combat. The Psi Faction team will be wrapping up their tour of duty on the Pacific Territories’ battleship Escalon at the end of desecration leading to a return to the Psi Faction and life in the Echelons and the City. Lino will definitely be busy in this one. Sati himself will be faced with a few trials in this book. More to come in the epic scifi thriller. Stick around for more updates as we get closer to publication of grydscaen: desecration. Bye for now.