Alastair Mayer’s T-Space Blog

Finally. It still needs a few finishing touches based on early-reader feedback, and the usual publishing steps like formatting for print and ebook, cover blurbs, and so on, but the story is done. A Rising Tide comes in at about 85,000 words, so my longest yet.

The book starts out following the Victoria to the planet Kakuloa (in the Alpha Centauri system) immediately after the events of The Return, then skips forward a few years to the settlement of Kakuloa, and the rise of the squidberry* industry…and the problems they’re having with tree squids. Cephalopod expert Dr. Ellie Greystone is called in, but she has problems of her own on Earth, and not everyone on Kakuloa is happy with what she’s discovering about the squids.

Squidberries aren’t the only industry on Kakuloa, of course. It’s becoming a jumping-off spot for further interstellar exploration; a resort developer likes the beaches, and especially likes some loopholes in the law governing the planet; and William Blake finds his role expanding from mission commander to de facto planetary administrator, with all the associated headaches.

There will be more books in the Kakuloa series, bridging the gap between Alpha Centauri and the The Chara Talisman, but without the cliff-hangers that the Alpha Centauri series had. Jason Curtis will show up in there somewhere.

A Rising Tide should be available around Christmas. That’s the cover above on the right. Now, I have a couple of others to finish….

*(Squidberries are the source of an anti-aging drug.)

UPDATE: Kakuloa: A Rising Tide is now available in both Kindle and trade paperback editions. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited.

I keep promising that the next book is coming Real Soon Now, and it is, so I though folks might be interested in just how it is progressing. I keep track of my writing time and word count in a spreadsheet (this is valuable, especially if you’re doing something on a deadline like NaNoWriMo). Below is a chart from the current spreadsheet.

The dates along the bottom should be self-explanatory. The horizontal lines mark increments of 10,000 words. The dark blue line, which just crossed the 70,000 mark, is for Kakuloa: A Rising Tide. The orange line is for The Pavonis Insurgence.

You’ll notice a sharp dip in the blue line just before 09/08/18. That’s when I realized that a couple of chapters I’d already written more properly belonged in a later book, so I took them out. That’s the yellow line (incomplete because I’m not tracking it at the moment), which will be Kakuloa: A Downward Slide when it’s done.

The wavery bits in the September/October time-frame are where I’m doing some editing and revising, and October looks relatively flat because I’ve been removing outline notes to myself (which I embed in the text as I go along) and replacing them with actual story. Also incorporating edit fixes from my alpha readers. (Also dealing with some non-writing crap, like replacing my car.) Pavonis is mostly horizontal recently because I’m focused on finishing Kakuloa; it will climb rapidly once that one is done.

My pace this year has been slower than last, partly because of life interfering, but also because I’m having to do more extensive research and world-building (and keeping track of it all) than for the first Alpha Centauri trilogy. Next year should go faster.

So. I’m not forecasting a release date yet (still aiming for this year though), but my editor/beta readers should have it by Thanksgiving. For which I, for one, will be truly thankful.

P.S. There’s another chapter I pulled out because it was more of a sidebar that just didn’t fit. It’s relevant background, though, so I’ll probably make it available to my newsletter subscribers. You can go here to sign up. No spam, I promise.

Today is Veterans Day in the US, Remembrance Day in Canada and the UK, and is also marked in other countries under different names.

To all those who served: thank you.

As mentioned earlier, the Colorado Authors League (of which I am a member) will be part of the Colorado Country Christmas Show this weekend (Nov 2-4) at the Denver Mart (I-25 & 58th). My books (trade paperback) will be on sale at discounted prices, even bigger discounts if you buy multiples. Use the coupon at right (click on the image for full size) for discounted entry to the show (there will be a lots more going on than just books, but lots of books.)

All books are signed, but I will be happy to personalize them from 2pm to 4pm on Nov 2, 11am to 1pm on the 3rd, and 2pm to 5pm on the 4th. Look for the T-Space poster.

Cheers!