Books: Current Status of Projects

A very quick update on where some of my current writing/editing projects stand at the moment:



* Hand of the Machine (Volume 1): Hawk: Writing first draft of manuscript. This is a sort of heroic action / space opera story that will be told in three volumes. A White Rocket book.



* Sentinels (Volume 7): Stellarax: Developing third draft of outline. This book wraps up the current trilogy, "The Rivals," that began with The Shiva Advent and continued in Worldmind. A White Rocket book.



* Assembled! 3: Awaiting contributions from various writers. Many chapters already in hand and edited. This will be the last of three volumes exploring Marvel's Avengers comics, characters, and creators, and benefitting the HERO Initiative charity. A White Rocket book.



* Sentinels (Volume 8): Order Above All: Developing first draft of outline. First volume in the next trilogy, "Earthwar." Another White Rocket book.



* Baranak: Storming the Gates (The Above, Volume 2): In development. (Sequel to Lucian: Dark God's Homecoming, the first volume of my "Above" series, in the style of Roger Zelazny and Jack Vance.) Likely an Airship 27 publication.



* Gideon Cain: In production with Airship 27 Productions; expected very soon. This is an American version of the "Puritan swordsman on a quest" character, in the style of Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane. One of the co-creators was Kurt Busiek (Astro City; Marvels; Avengers) and another was Keith R. A. DeCandido (Star Trek novels, etc). I initiated the project, co-created it, and wrote one of the stories in the volume.



* Mars McCoy, Vol. 1: In production with Airship 27. Details coming soon. (I contributed to the character's/world's creation and co-edited this volume.)



* Mars McCoy, Vol 2: In development with Airship 27. (I co-edited this volume as well, and have a 45,000-word novella in this one that I am very excited about.)

More details as I am able to reveal them. Expect the Cain book very soon. Back to writing HAWK now!

Kull and Solomon Kane

As much as I like the character of Solomon Kane-- the Puritan crusader who wanders the Earth, rapier and pistol at the ready -- better than any of R E Howard's other creations, I haven't enjoyed the Dark Horse comic as much as I'd hoped. It's seemed a bit muddled to me, and the pacing has been off. The art is close enough to what I'd want for the property, but it's not always clear enough as to what's going on.

Meanwhile, I've never cared much at all about Kull, the barbarian who stole a kingdom (and who mainly served as an early template for Conan's later career)...

But I picked up KULL #1 this week and found I really enjoyed it. It's a lot more in the style of what I expected the new/relaunched Howard properties from DH to be like. The writing is crisp and fast-paced and the art is perfectly suited to the character and the world.

If you like the classic Howard properties, give this one a try. Meanwhile, I hope SOLOMON KANE improves soon.