Thread Slivers is being prepared to be published as a hardback and mass-market paperback via a Kickstarter campaign. It is the first book of the highly rated high fantasy / hard science-fiction epic Golden Threads Trilogy, originally published in February of 2013 . Check out the updated first and second chapter excerpts for the hardback edition.
Thread Skein is about to come out, a full year late. Why? Well in a large part because of its ending. Books would be boring if we didn’t get something from them. Book endings are meant to be climatic, with a joyful outcry of “oh yes!” or a “No! Not now, give me more, you can’t leave it there!” Thread Skein should cause a very loud joyful outcry and much uncontrolled happy dances. But, it was hard.
December 2014 was a difficult month for my writing efforts. In fact it crushed my imagination. Now I need to reboot my imagination and am looking for ideas or shows that I can add to my coffee time.
I’m happy to announce that I’m working on “Infiltration” Book One of the Duianna Chronicles. Infiltration begins a series of hard sci-fi space marine books almost totally from the view point of Rolly Duke Bensure (aka Duke.) The series will eventually end with the novel that transitions Admiral Bensure into Supreme Commander Duke. Is that a prequel or a set of novels?
Many astute readers and reviewers have clued in on the fact that the “ancient imperial command language” in The Golden Threads Trilogy is Latin. In the third book, becomes blindingly obvious to every reader. A few folks have praised the use of Latin as ingenious, while others have a less friendly opinion. A fan emailed me and inspired me to answer the question “Why Latin?” in detail. You might be surprised by my answer.
Do parallel worlds or universes actually exist? In Thread Skein you discover I’m in the subquantum strings Many-Worlds camp. Parallel worlds is a common Fantasy and Sci-Fi theme. But, is it real or just pure fantasy? I leave that to you. Still here is a brief summery of the ideas and a peak inside of Thread Skein where I join the host of other authors that write parallel world fiction.
What is the Elracian mystery? This is a central element to the Golden Threads Trilogy, and in fact, answering this question helps to resolve many of the plot threads. Many powerful entities have tried for over five thousand years to suppress the knowledge. But, there are numerous hints about this mystery throughout the first two books.
Fan Fun is … well FUN! In making progress in Thread Skein I ran into a problem. I had never named a particular technology. My brain was stuck in a loop so I called for help from my readers. Sure enough a lot of great ideas came rolling in, sadly only one can make the cut. If you want to find out what technology this was about, how it is used in the book, and more importantly who came up with the winning name…
Throughout the Golden Thread Books, there are references to the paramilitary organization called the Nhia-Samri. What they actually are varies wildly depending on who you are dealing with. The Duianna Alliance Assembly commissioned this brief to be written by Countess Electra Neyon just after hostilities broke out in 15723.
One of the more interesting elements to deal with in the world of Niya-Yur is the mix of magic and technology. There are many moments in the books where readers wonder, “why didn’t they just use <insert thing>?” The answer is because reality is complex and those that live in it plan, think, and act according to what they know.
I put the calculations on army sizes into play. It was pretty difficult to kill off so many people. It is war, and that is not pretty, very rarely is it heroic. The events are starting to spin faster and faster starting to pull the characters together to the climax. Here is a really fun scene snippet from the most current finished chapter, let me know what you think.
In Thread Skein, I’m tossing around casualty numbers like candy. Being me, I stopped to make sure it made sense. In building Niya-Yur, I estimated the world population at roughly just under one billion for all the continents and races. Using real army statistics I worked backwards from Dagger numbers to population totals to be sure I wasn’t far off.
Things are progressing steadily. Even though the current chapter is 8,000+ words it was still hard to find a real non-spoiler slice to share. Here is a rather interesting scene from this chapter which I am sure a large number of fans of Ticca and Lebuin getting together will enjoy. Note I’m not committing one way or the other on this subject. Still it is a fun moment for them.
The characters set the tone of any book. The character line up for The Golden Threads Trilogy are a pretty interesting crew, one has to wonder how so many lives could even meet, let alone working together. I’ve assembled many of the character descriptions, summarized size of each role, explain some of the POV, and even provide pronunciation audio clips.
Rhonia is a continent, a chain of islands, an empire, and the source of some tasty if annoying herbs. Here is the latest sneak peek into book three Thread Skein, in a scene where Illa is left on her own in-between. This sneak peek comes with a map and some background info as a bonus!