Trading Allegiances (Book 9 of Yrden Chronicles)

 Merry Christmas, everyone.  

With nothing else to do on this festive day (for some, I suppose), I gave myself the final kick in the pants that I needed and hit the publish button for "Trading Allegiances" Book 9 of the Yrden Chronicles. I had hoped to get it out just before Christmas, but it looks like I didn't quite make it. Still, I did make the date I had mentioned in my last post here: before the end of the year.

For any who are interested and still sticking with the story:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRHK22NJ

At the end of "Back To Pelgraff", Colleen Yrden got her alliance together and now she must force the Damarg Empire to the negotiating table to stop Star Patrol's raiding of human tradeships, stations, and planets ... and to repatriate the prisoners that the Damarg pirates took, including, hopefully, her husband, missing now for 14 years

Standing in the way of that are spies that have reported on Yrden doings and the mighty Damarg Navy which she hopes the Empire will not turn against her alliance before they are ready for it.

Welcome to the penultimate book of the series. Buy it now while supplies last!

In other news, Book 10, "A Dangerous Species, the final book in the Yrden Chronicles series, has now entered editing and proofing. With just a little luck and effort, you may see it before the end of January 2025. Definitely before the end of February unless disaster strikes.

It feels really good to have ended the story, which I started some 23 years ago. I had intended "A Dangerous Species" to be a stand-alone novel, but it kinda grew, as things are wont to do.

Anyway, once again

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year. (May we all get what we desire in 2025 and not necessarily what we deserve.)

Live Well, Live the Joy.

D.A.

Back To Pelgraff (Book #8 of The Yrden Chronicles)

 Hello Friends:

So, at long last, Book 8 of the Yrden Chronicles is live on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Back-Pelgraff-Yrden-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B0DNGCXXMY

I've put it into Kindle Unlimited for the time being and it will stay there until Feb 16th, 2025.

2025? Where have the years gone? Nonetheless, Back To Pelgraff is now ready to be read.

After years on the defensive, Colleen Yrden struggles to create an alliance of human worlds and Families from the Family Trading League, and with their support to retake Pelgraff, push the Damargs out of human space, and force the Damargs to the negotiating table.

But that's easier said than done, for the Damarg Korsh and his allies still see the human worlds and commercial enterprises as easy targets. And now the Damarg Empire's navy may take a hand upping the ante from mere protection of resources to an existential crisis with what the Family Trading League spent centuries trying to avoid: War.

Fear not, you will not have so long a wait for Book 9, Trading Allegiances, for I am already editing the first draft and hope to have it up for you before the end of the year. And Book 10, A Dangerous Species, the final book in the series, will follow that shortly as the first draft of it is already complete. I'm aiming for the end of February for it.

I thank all who have waited -- patiently or impatiently -- for the finishing up of the series. I began the first chapter of book 10, which was supposed to be a stand-alone novel, over 20 years ago. But nothing ever goes as I expect it, and all sorts of other novels and expansions of what would become a series happened in between during the last 14 years since I first published Pelgraff (which was, at the time, supposed to be the prequel to A Dangerous Species -- a two-book series).

For any interested, I'm now about 1/2 way through the first draft of a new book in the same world as "The Steadfasting" and "A Throne at Stake". So, I've not given up writing yet.

Again, thank you to all who have stuck around, and if this is your first exposure to me or to the "Yrden Family", I hope you enjoy.

Live well, my friends, 

D.A. Boulter

The Yrden Chronicles Series

 Hello, Friends.

I have continued writing, hoping to finish the series, and I have -- in first draft at least. That means I have three novels to edit, proof, format, find covers for, and publish.

Right now I'm working on proofing #8 Back to Pelgraff. #9 Trading Allegiances and #10 A Dangerous Species, the final novel in the series, are waiting.

Editing, proofing, formatting, getting the covers for, and publishing often takes just as much time as writing the novel in the first place, but I'm hoping to have all of them out before spring 2025. With luck, I will publish Back To Pelgraff in October of this year.

It has been a long ride, I know, and I am thankful of those of you who have stayed with it. I will continue to keep you informed of my progress.

D.A.

Trading Allegiances -- First Draft Complete

 Hi All:

Just a note to let you know that instead of stopping writing to edit "Back to Pelgraff", I kept on with the next novel in the series, #9, "Trading Allegiances", and have now jumped to #10, "A Dangerous Species".

I know from bitter experience that I cannot edit one book while writing another. And, as I've gone months without writing after editing a book, I decided that I want to finish this series as quickly as possible and have thus continued to write.

Book #10, "A Dangerous Species" should be the last book in the "Yrden Chronicles" series. It was actually supposed to be a stand-alone novel when I started it. It became a testament in HOW NOT TO WRITE A SERIES

Book 10 was supposed to be a stand-alone novel, just like all the other ones I'd written to that point. I had this "wonderful" what-if that came to me. It had it's origin in our history, but to do the "what-if" without having to do a hell of a lot of research, I decided to take the major circumstances and shift them into Space and the distant future.

So, I started writing Book 10, which, as I said, was supposed to be a stand-alone novel. Early in chapter 1, it occurred to me that I needed a civil war -- like the Spanish Civil War -- to occur as a precursor. That "shiny object" took hold, and I wrote what was to become Book 5, "Pelgraff" -- then went back to work on Book 10. BUT, in Pelgraff, a certain throw-away line, just something to add a bit of depth to my universe attracted me, demanded to be written. So I wrote that book -- about the founding of a trading league (which figured in book 5) and a scientist that was instrumental in it -- which occurred 450 years before Book 5. That was "Courtesan"

Then, that finished, I went back to Book 10, but the story of the leader of the League in book 5 needed an origin, so I abandoned Book 10 and wrote Book 1 -- the origin story "Trading for the Stars". Then, again from Book 5, I knew I needed a story on how she acquired her bodyguard. So, Book 2 "Trading for a Dream". Then I had her inciting incident (mentioned in book 5), so I wrote Book 3 "One Trade to Many". Then I needed a leadup to Book 5, so I wrote Book 4 "Trading in War". Book 6, "Trading in Secrets" partially came from another "shiny object" that I wanted to put into a book, and decided to incorporate it into my series instead of a stand-alone. Book 7, "Partisan of Pelgraff" came from another "shiny object", but one which could be in the series. Then I buckled down to work my way to Book 10 -- which I had worked on from time to time, building it up to about 85,000 words.

In the middle of all that, fans of "Courtesan" began asking for a sequel, and the 4 novels of "Not with a Whimper" came about.

Now I'm finally working on finishing "A Dangerous Species". However, that may delay the publishing of books 8 and 9, but it's probably the fastest way to get the final 3 books out.

Anyway, that's my story ... and I'm sticking to it.

For those who have followed me this far, I thank you and I'll get these books out as soon as I can.

Back To Pelgraff -- first draft complete

 Been a while since I've made any posts here. I am going to try to be more conscientious about that, but if you're following this blog, I'm sure you won't believe me. Heck, I'm not sure that I believe myself.

In any event, latest news has me completing the first draft of Book 8 of the Yrden Chronicles, "Back to Pelgraff". Unfortunately, I think it needs more work than other first drafts I've written, so I can't give a real solid publication date, but I hope to have it out some time in the fall.

While I'm doing the old editing thing, I'm also working on Book 9, which will be titled something like "Trading Allegiances". I'm already about 15,000 words into it (about 50 pages) and it seems to be going a bit faster than "Back to Pelgraff", so there's a possibility that it will get published late this year as well -- but don't rely on that.

There may possibly be two more books in the series, but I'm hoping that Book 10 will finish it. Originally, when I thought this would be a simple, single, standalone novel and not a 10-book series, Book 10 was supposed to be that book. It will be a long one, and I've already written well over 200 pages in it. Once I finish "Trading Allegiances", I'll try to power through that one and have it out by the late summer of next year. After that ... who knows?

For those of you who have stayed with me thus far, thank you. I'll try to keep you better informed in the future.

D.A. Boulter.

 

Retribution's Last Stand (New)

 Hello, all.

It has been quite a while, but my newest book hit amazon a little earlier this month. It is called, "Retribution's Last Stand".

A symbol of the past refitted to fight in the present for freedom in the future

The battlecruiser Retribution, last surviving veteran of the Senien War, and a symbol of the union of both the Garvid and human populations of the planet Pacerea, has become a museum-cum-training ship, looked after by the descendants of those who once crewed her.

When a new threat emerges, Gwendolyn Smith, president of "Friends of Retribution", the society tasked with the upkeep of the old battlecruiser, must find a way to return Retribution to active status despite the opposition of ... well ... most everyone.

Retribution holds Pacerea's only chance of remaining independent and keeping intact the society forged by Garvid and human alike in its old hull. If Gwen can succeed against seemingly insurmountable opposition, she and Retribution may make a last stand against the coming chaos though it cost her her marriage, her life, and the battlecruiser itself.

* * *

I hope you'll check it out and -- if you like it -- leave a rating and/or review of it. 

I also hope all you are doing well in this new year of 2024, and hope we all get what we desire and not necessarily what we deserve. (It appears that I deserve to be chastised for not keeping the Cat's food dish topped up like he thinks I should -- even though he could well do with a little reduction in weight.)

So, with righteously indignant meows echoing in my ears, I go to do the Cat's bidding. 

Take care, all, and

Live the Joy

Ghost in the Game ... Live

 Well, it took several years from the first time I thought of this book back in 2017 until I finished it. But, it's complete and for sale on Amazon -- and in Kindle Unlimited until the end of the year (2022 if you're counting).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BH5B4VQM

It takes place in the not too distant (but dystopian) future, where "The Game" is a virtual reality role-playing game that places the players into what seem like very real worlds where they can do anything they can in real life and more. Those who play it say,

"Everything is better in The Game."

PI Gault McGirr doesn't believe that, but has no intention of finding out for himself ... until his ex-girlfriend, Connie, shows up and hires him to find a missing person: John, the man who took her away from Gault in the first place.

In order to redeem the ill-conceived promise he made her, Gault needs to enter the MMORPG virtual reality game that brags that it is "Better than Real Life" in every way. He hopes to find the man quickly either in game or out, preferably both, and then get Connie and John -- or just John -- out of his life for good.

However, the deeper he digs, the more it looks like John has become involved in something far greater than what Gault first suspected, something that has others looking for him as well, and without good intentions. Gault needs to find John fast, and may the Gaming Gods help any orc or goblin that gets in his way. But finding John will require a team, something Gault feels ambivalent about.

Unravel the mystery with Gault and his new associates as his investigations lead him into Fantasy World, where a fantasy knife in the back can bring the same excuciating pain that an actual one can in real life, but where the pain doesn't end with death, and where betrayal is rife.

This is the longest book I've ever written and I'm happy to have finished it. Amazon says it has a "print length" of 883 pages -- but no print book is available. Get it while it's hot!

As is typical for me, I'm suffering a kind of "postpartum depression" that many writers suffer from when they finish a book. While labouring away on the book, I had something to look forward to -- the ending -- but now that I've written "The End", a sense of purposelessness has come over me. Yes, I have other books to write, one of which is at the 3/4 mark, but there is a definite crash at the end of each book.

Cheer me up. Read a few pages of "Ghost in the Game". I've spent at least 500 hrs on it, so it would be nice if someone other than myself and two beta readers read it.

Anyway, it's October now, so with winter coming on, I should return to one of the other books and hopefully finish another one before year's end.

Thank you for your time, and drop a note if you wish.

D.A. Boulter