A Gollancz at the Fantastic upcoming Elite: Dangerous Books

Unless you’re an Elite virgin or you’ve spent the past few months on a distant moon brushing your herd of verrix, you’ll know that May is Elite: Dangerous fiction month. There’s a flurry of book releases: seven novels and an anthology, from publishers Gollancz and Fantastic Books. Now all the cover art has been released, I thought now was time to celebrate the occasion by bringing them all together for a delectable dalliance with design.

I think you’ll agree, the artists have done a great job; each cover captures the drama and character of the Elite universe.

At time of writing, the three Gollancz novels (Docking is DifficultNemorensis, and Wanted) will be available from Amazon from 15th May, 2014 (pre-orders are open), and the four novels and anthology from Fantastic Books are now available (And Here the Wheel, Lave Revolution, Mostly Harmless, Reclamation, and Tales from the Frontier). Formats: ebook, audio, paperback and hardback. There’s too many to link to individually, so here is one for them all: Enjoy!

The writers and publishers have all been working hard to bring you an assortment of thrilling adventures (I sound like a classic Flash Gordon cinema announcer, don’t I? ) so why not give them a try? For readers of SF adventure and fans of the game, there’s something for you here.

Opinions on the covers? Any particular book exciting you? Leave your thoughts below (they won’t appear immediately, all are approved first to prevent spam).

BREAKING NEWS (April 1st, 2014): Frontier Developments May Be Forced to Rename Elite: Dangerous

Frontier Developments found itself at the centre of a storm of controversy this morning as another internet pressure group stepped up its campaign to ‘clean up the gaming industry and make it safe for our children’ as Anole Biddy (‘I think I look 21, don’t you?’) of No Irresponsible Playing with Plastic Leisure Entertainment Systems (NIPPLES) was heard to say to reporters, before telling them to remove their boots from her ‘immaculately manicured lawn’.

There Will Be a Delay: An Apology

This is a frustrating blog post to type, and one that’s overdue as I didn’t post anything last month. Despite the project eating my available free-time, progress editing Out of the Darkness has been slower than I’d hoped. Assuming the rest of this edit goes at the same pace, the book will be out later than I stated in the Kickstarter (March, 2014). It’s most likely going to be summer before this draft is complete and ready for Frontier to review. For that, I apologise.

It’s a Long Way…

Submit! Quotation rumoured to be from an internal Frontier draft memo, ‘Maintaining Correct Relations with the Minions’, Chapter Two, ‘How the Writers MUST See Us’:   ‘Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic… regarded this earth us with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.’ H. G. Wells, The War of the Worlds. As other Elite: Dangerous writers finish with editing and prepare to face Frontier’s vast and cool and unsympathetic intellects, the forums echo with the sounds of rejoicing. Yet, the reverberations are falsely hearty, covering the drip, drip, drip of insidious fear and slight loss of bladder control.

Author Interview: I’m a Guest of Marko Over at Hooked Gamers

What does a writer do to avoid going loco during editing? Find a friendly human face to talk to. Marko Susimetsä, an avid gamer and bearer of an awesome hat, invited me over to the Hooked Gamers’ website this week to answer a few questions. We talk Elite, ships, writing, problems, and the upcoming novel, Out of the Darkness. Thanks for having me, Marko and your round, pointy-handed friends. We’re at: Just click the piccy to come and join us. ‘Hooked Gamers’ name and logo don’t belong to you, so don’t steal them. (I’m not a lawyer, but I know you don’t want to meet one. Copyright is a tricky beastie—stay safe.)

Lave Radio Writer’s Interview

Is it the multi-media event of the decade? Probably not, but it is the first time I talk about my novel, Elite: Dangerous the game, and the upcoming fiction.  WRITER’S INTERVIEW 009 – T. JAMES Just click the piccy (You can download it from the playback screen. Right-click in a PC browser, or do the equivalent on Mac/mobile.) ∞ Many thanks to John Stabler for hosting and editing the podcast. ∞ Image Credit: I don’t know if ‘Lave Radio‘ is copyrighted, trademarked, or anything else legal, but don’t be a scum-bucket and use it without a credit. Audio Credit: As a creation of Lave Radio, this podcast is automatically copyrighted under UK law. Just be glad they are nice people and let you download it if you want to.

The Never-Ending Story?

The never-ending story ENDS! Yep, after over 116,000 words and half-a-million characters, I’m done, ecstatic, and done-in. Today was a marathon writing session. I set a new personal record of over 3000 words. The rough first draft is roughly finished. The ending summary has been provisionally OK’ed by Frontier today, which is great because it’s epic, or at least I think so. I’m nervously awaiting the reaction of my first readers. It should all be there: action, adventure, mystery, romance, twists, turns, memorable characters, familiar aspects of the Elite universe, new takes on the same. If you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it then I think you’ll be Happy-Backers. I don’t know if there will be Elite literary awards, but if there were then I may stand a chance in the ‘Most Improved’ section. From a promised 25-30K, it’s (pre-edits) at around four times that. That’s … Continue reading