StarFleet Carl: Blog

Due to recent events, Starfleet Carl will not be able to post the final chapters of Book 5 of ATH. Instead I, The Firedrake, his Son, will be taking over his account. I just got chapter 19 and 20 up. If the formatting is off, my bad. My hope is to continue his posting schedule but I have a lot to learn. As his final editor, I promise you that the full book, the last book in the ATH series, will be posted. I just need a learning curve. To all of my Dad's fans, Thank You for your patience and trust me when I tell you... You're gonna want to stick around :)

Okay, Chapter 18 is in the queue for Saturday. The Epilogue chapter is in editing, and I'm working on the book cover. Rather amusingly, I'm trying out StarryAI to help with the cover illustration. That's HELP, not do! If it works fine, great. If not, I'll just do it the old fashioned way, with Corel Draw and a lot of editing. Then, I'll give the EPUB builder that Laz has for Bookapy a try. I actually hope it works okay, otherwise it's dig into Sigil and Calibre.

Either way, I'm shooting for a July 4th release date on Bookapy. (Pun intended.)

Now, show of hands on those of you who've read John Ringo's Black Tide Rising Series. Five years ago, I wrote three chapters of a story set in a world similar to that. But it just didn't kick with me, so I decided to modify a playthrough of Skyrim. That turned into Legacy of a Legend. That was followed by a modified Fallout 4 and Love Never Changes. Then I started A True History Book One. Three years and eight (so far) Clitoride Awards in various categories - plus My Bloody Valentine thrown in as winner of the Valentine's Day contest for 2022, as well - and I'm currently done with Cal for a while.

Now it's time to kill a lot of people with zombies!

He hasn't quite left it, though. But the end IS near. That means I've actually finished Chapter 30, and it's in the editing process now. Only 32,000 words between the last two chapters. But wait... that doesn't count the Epilogue chapter that I'm currently working on. So Elvis hasn't quite left the building just yet.

For those of you who know a little bit about sports stuff - the bit about the Heisman case isn't alternate history, it's real. Literally, you win the trophy, and here's a case for you to take it home in, but we want the case back. (At least back then, anyway.) One of the rather amusing things and coincidences involved in stories is there's a shop - it used to be called Midwest Trophy, but now it's MTM Recognition - that's five blocks south of where I lived in Del City, Oklahoma. Oh, and since 2005, they're the ones who MAKE the Heisman trophy. They also repair them as well, with fixing broken off thumbs the most common issue.

Things didn't quite work out publishing wise for Chapter 24 to post this weekend. I think it would've been appropriate, similar to a couple of my previous chapters. This is not 'the first weekend of summer' or the weekend to go to the lake, or get the barbeque going. Those things can and will happen, of course. However, this is not the weekend to come up to me, or any of my brothers and sisters, to thank us for our service. We have our own day of recognition, later this year.

This weekend is when you say thank you to those who gave the last full measure of their devotion in service to others. If I can borrow a character of Devon's for my blog - this weekend we thank Tony Kowalski and all his brothers and sisters who gave their lives, or who honorably served and have since passed away, to have the freedom to go to the lake and get the barbeque going.

I was just looking through some file histories. It's been over three years since I started writing this series. It's been a full year since I started writing this BOOK. I was just reading through Chapter 15 before I put it into the queue for Saturday morning and made a couple of minor, last minute changes to some things. I always like to read through a chapter before uploading, after having left it alone for a month or so, just to make sure things make sense.

Keep in mind I first wrote this chapter LAST October, when you're reading through it - and what Cal and the crew are talking about. I'm not going to say there's a commentary on society (or two) in it.