Finally settled on a name: Obligations of Rank. Got the copyedit back and just now finished implementing those changes. Rattled the cage of my cover designer to move things from the back burner to front. All in all, coming together nicely.
Wasn’t sure if I needed to add maps to this one and ended up adding two: one of central Kentucky, as that story moves around a bit and I don’t want the readers to get lost. The other is just to illustrate the progress of the Martian terraforming project. I also had to update the stemma as there are just too many family connexions to keep track of.
If all goes well, it should be out for Thanksgiving in the US; the third week of November.
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machciv 
Well, which of your books is your favorite . . . which one would you suggest to “set the hook”?
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That’s right up there with “which of your children is your favorite?” or “cat-girls or fox-girls?” There’s just no good answer.
All 12+1 of my books takes place in a future history I call Machine Civilization. Chronologically, the first story, “Crosses & Doublecrosses” begins about six months from now. “Obligations of Rank” will be three generations hence.
I’m a little tempted to suggest the two books of the Saga of Nichole 5, “Friend & Ally” and “Foes and Rivals.” It takes place less than a year into the Breakup of the US and has a good cross-section of discovery, war, politics, and romance. The first of those two is also available as an audiobook, as no one reads anymore.
I’m equally tempted to suggest “Worlds Without End” as it is something of a fulcrum: Gary and his kid sister, Faustina, are the first generation after the Breakup and so their stories touch on the tales of four earlier books, while at the same time laying the groundwork for Faustina’s military adventures when she gets a little older (the “American Imperium” trilogy).
Unless you prefer graphic sex and horrific murder, then definitely “Cursed Hearts.”
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Crosses and Doublecrosses it is . . .
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Cracked “Crosses and Doublecrosses” tonight . . . (Finally!!!)
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I liked it!
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You’re welcome. I did have a few readers VERY unhappy with what happened to the main character.
Now read the other dozen.
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I was just fine with it. Didn’t like her anyway. What’s the order (chronological) of the books?
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Thanks for the list!
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As I said in an interview about CDC, “It’s a novella because everyone was an asshole and I hated having them in my head.”
The largely chronologic order is:
Crosses & Doublecrosses
Friend & Ally
Foes & Rivals
Cursed Hearts
The Fourth Law
Echoes of Family Lost
Worlds Without End
Empire’s Agent and other Short Stories*
Princess Crusade
Empress Crusade
Goddess Crusade
Obligations of Rank
And there’s my Children’s early reader, “Henge’s Big Day!”
*As a short story collection Empire’s Agent covers ground from before Crosses until after after WWE and is thus laden with spoilers for all of those books.
In the first four listed above, you’ll note characters from each book making brief appearances in the other’s as well. This future history is tightly interconnected.
My current 30k-word in-process manuscript will fit in between Goddess Crusade and Obligations of Rank but likely won’t be out until March. Not bad for seven years work, eh? Thanks for reading, John!
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