Twelve Months and Twelve Days Later: The First Light Chronicles Omnibus

A while ago I promised that there would be an Afterword added to the First Light Omnibus. It's a little late, but after four drafts I've decided on which one to include. The Afterword is called Twelve Months and Twelve Days Later, An Afterword by Randolph Lalonde. The significance of the title rests in the fact that I started writing Science Fiction twelve months and twelve days before the final edit of the First Light Chronicles was complete and the afterword was added. On January 1, 2008, this journey began as I wrote the first chapter of Freeground. For more details on that journey and the two novellas that followed you'll have to read the afterword, available to anyone who has a copy of the Omnibus in their MobiPocket library or who orders a printed copy of the book.

As I completed the editing and polishing work on the First Light Chronicles Omnibus I was happy to place the Afterword right at the end. Sadly, only people who own the Mobipocket rights to a copy of the book and people who purchase a printed copy from Lulu.com or Amazon.com in the future will have access to it.

Polishing the three books in the Omnibus was a great look back, and now that it's all finished I've updated the individual novellas as well; Freeground, Limbo and Starfree Port. The afterword isn't included in any of those volumes, however.

Now I'm moving on to the Spinward Fringe Series, it's about time I finish taking a look back before taking a great big step forward and finishing the next novel in the series: Spinward Fringe Frontline. This whole review process takes time, and I thank you for your patience with reassurances that taking a look back is crucial to doing a good job on the next two books.

This is a great universe to write in, you're fantastic people to write for and after taking this look back I'm ready to push forward and expand it once more.

So, if you've got a copy of the First Light Chronicles Omnibus in your MobiPocket Library, go ahead and update it. Even if you don't plan to read the whole thing over again (since I didn't change any plot points, you really don't have to), you might want to take a look at the new Afterword.

Thank you for reading along, the road ahead promises to be longer and more interesting than the one behind.

RL

The First Light Chronicles Omnibus: Final Edit Complete!

Here are the facts:

When I started writing this series at the beginning of 2008 it had been almost three years since I had done work on long fiction.

I was more of a technical writer, every sentence had a period and thoughts were rigidly separated.

I didn't expect anyone else to enjoy the material I turned out for practice at the beginning of the year (First Light Chronicles Omnibus), but I had great fun doing it.

Here's what happened:

I loved the storylines that sprung out of the three novellas contained within the Omnibus so much that I started the unlimited series; Spinward Fringe. To my surprise people enjoyed the First Light Chronicles so much that they wanted more and enjoyed Resurrection, Awakening and Triton.

So MobiPocket took me on as an independent publisher and people started reading these high technology science fiction novellas on their blackberries, other cellphones, ebook readers and laptops. Now that's a happy irony! These books are perfectly suited to small devices as far as I'm concerned. The books have sold quite well for something available mostly on a fringe market (eBooks are still quite unpopular compared to the printed, tree wasting kind), and I'm so happy to have an audience for more Sinward Fringe novellas/novels so I can easily justify more novellas and novels.

The problem:

It had been almost a year to the day since I started writing this series and I needed a refresher. I remembered what happened in the First Light Chronicles, don't get me wrong, but I needed to go through the books once more to clear up some vagaries and make sure I wasn't leaving any minor plot strands dangling loose.

Even though my editor has been through the First Light Chronicles, I also wanted to make sure that there weren't any rough edges left. You know, sentences and paragraphs that were correct, but not smooth. So, another read through / edit was required before I moved on.

The result:

I've enjoyed re-reading the First Light Chronicles, and yes, there were a few squarish sentences and points that needed a little more explanation. I'm happy to say that those have been all rounded out and expanded. Have there been major changes? No! The worst thing I could do is go back and make sweeping (or minor), plot changes that would chance the universe and stories I've already told. The edits I made were actually quite minor, and I can honestly say that I've done everything I wanted with these books.

The Future:

I'm going to take this week to revisit the Spinward Fringe Series; Resurrection, Awakening and Triton. I know Resurrection needs some polish and there are some details I absolutely need to have straight before I go on and finish my work on Spinward Fringe Frontline.

About Fronline:

Spinward Fringe Fronline, simply put, takes all the charm, excitement, characterization and plot craft that you've seen in the First Light Chronicles and the Spinward Fringe series thus far and draws from it. Everything that was exciting and compelling about those novellas (all six of them), is getting pressed into this book just so I can tell the story contained in Frontline properly. I'm not finished, I actually had to take a break at page 166 so I could take this backwards look then make the next mighty leap forward.

I'm hoping to have Spinward Fringe Fronline (the seventh book), completed by Christmas, but if I miss my date it'll be on MobiPocket in January 2009. It's been a great year, and reviewing it this way is a fantastic method of preparing to write in the next.

Amazon.com?

After all that's finished I'll be sending all the books to Amazon.com, where they'll offer copies of the printed book for sale. They're going to use their own presses to print copies as people order them and apply the same specials / shipping savings to my books as they do to everything else they offer on their site. Everyone will finally have a good, trustworthy, well known online store to order printed books from, maybe even in the UK!

So stay tuned, there's more Spinward Fringe news to come!

RL

Oh, about the Afterword that will be added to the First Light Chronicles Omnibus; it's with my Editor and THAT will be out before Christmas. I know, it's not much compared to another Spinward Fringe Novel, but it's the best I can do at the moment, unless someone manages to add an hour or two to our restrictive 24 hour days...

Books by Randolph Lalonde: Six Steps Back To Take Six More Foreward

The First Light Chronicles Omnibus has spent over two months in the top spot on the MobiPocket Science Fiction section. That's huge for me, it's exposed this book to hundreds of people, and every few days I get an eMail from someone whose enjoyed it and moved on to Spinward Fringe. I couldn't be happier that people enjoying my work, especially since I want little more than to entertain people for a living. I'm so very close to living that dream, to continuing my efforts full time.

That's why I'm taking a short break from working on Spinward Fringe Frontline (I know, that's not what you want to hear), to look over all the previous books and ensure that they're exactly the quality and style I need them to be before going forward into 2009. No plot points will be changed during this final edit. Frontline is still on track to be finished by the end of the year, regardless of this break, but looking back before going forward is especially important at this point, partially to ensure the quality of the plot and characterization in the new book and partially because everything will be submitted to an Amazon.com subsidiary company so all the books will be available in print for competitive cover price early in 2009.

2008 was an amazing year for me. On January 1, 2008 I started writing an unnamed science fiction novella, and eleven months later I'm working on my seventh. A few hundred people have found my work and find real enjoyment in it. There are so many possibilities from here, and there are projects under way that involve the Spinward Fringe Series that I still can't talk about.

For the few out there who heard that our family just suffered a loss and there were some personal issues, I'm very happy to reassure you that the storm is over and everyone is going to be fine. I'm back to work and we're all set to have a great couple weeks leading up to the holiday season. My editor is also very, very anxious to dig into Spinward Fringe Frontline, so you can trust there will be no delays there!

Thank you all for the bounty of support during 2008, things are looking fantastic for 2009!