Kalijor.com

I took a couple weeks off during the holidays there. Played some EverQuest 2, watched a couple movies, read a book or two, and ~finally~ read up on the Girl Genius web comic (can’t believe I missed that one for so long *sighs*).

So, tonight, after work, I cleaned my office (except the vacuuming), filed a bunch of stuff, and did half the taxes for Kalijor Press and Aeon Training (Not too difficult since neither is making much money just now, although that will be changing presently).

Of course, it wasn’t all fun and games whilst I wasn’t working on books. Because I ~was~ working on book stuff still. *laughs* See how much I love you folks? I work for you even when I’m not actually working for you! *wicked grin*

So, I got the cover for the 2012 con book commissioned and just got it back form the artist this evening. It looks great, aside form a couple very minor details that I shall get ironed out this week. Now I’ll get my amazing/lovely titler to do the lettering, then a final revision of the book and I can put that one together and send it to the printer. That will probably be next week some time.

Also, I assigned (and paid for) the RPG art, both cover and interior. That’s somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 images, not counting some of the little things I’ve done that I think might be good enough to go in for some minor equipment illustrations and so forth, and I may even commission a few more pieces from another artist, just to help David out a bit and get some of the load off his shoulders. Still, it is awesome to know that the art is under way. Now, we just need that paperwork signed to make everything nice and official, then we can make an ~official~ announcement about the RPG. I still hope to have it for GalaxyFest, but we shall see. The timeline is extremely compressed now, and we still don’t officially have the license yet.

Worst case scenario, I will have prototype books there and will be able to take pre-orders for the final product.

After that, I received enough of the test copies of the Fourth Key back from test readers and will begin making changes to the book based on feedback as soon as Wednesday evening. I should have it all buttoned up by the end of this weekend and in the hands of my editor for a final editing pass next week. After that, final revision and it’s in the can. David has some awesome ideas for the cover. I chatted with him about it while I was there to drop off the check for the RPG art, and I think y’all are going to LOVE the cover when it’s done!

The Fifth Key is still sitting at 1k words as I haven’t touched it since before ‘the holidays’, but I will be diving back into it around editing, revision, layout, and typesetting of the fourth book, the RPG book, and the 2012 Con book, so it should be well under way by the end of January.

Just to assure you all that there is ever so much more to be had in the Kalijor universe, here is a brief glimpse of what is already going on behind the scenes, aside from what I’ve just talked about above:

I have ten (yes 10!) completed novels just awaiting editing and revision after the Fifth Key is in the can. If you’ve ever wanted to read more about Daray, Alina, Niko, Turin, Tor, Almon, Xavier, and more (oops, did I just give away some names of the players in the up-coming books? Dangit! Now I have to explain myself to management…) then your wait won’t go on much beyond the Fifth Key. Daray has her origin story in ‘The Aegis Protocol’, while Alina has hers in ‘The Turin Gambit’. After that, Daray has a trilogy of books (called Status Quo) detailing her adventures during and after the Keys of Kalijor books, and Alina has two of her own (the Solidarity series) that take place during that same time period. Then there are three more books dealing with Daray and some of her friends that she makes in Status Quo (this series called Vulpine Requiem). In addition, I have several ideas for other books with completely different characters (although I am certain some of my favorites will make a few appearances here and there), one dealing with a mysterious traveling music group who moonlight as pirates in the space-lanes of the Sol System.

In the RPG pipeline, I have the first sourcebook already written (Rathalon), and the second is a little over 50% complete (Earth and the Earth Ring Station). I have about 15 other sourcebooks in various stages of completion (including, Avian, Pandoria, Cohai, The Magic Academy, Talanor, Magic objects and Spells of Kalijor, Venus, The Venus Station, The Dregs, Mercury, Mars, The Conglomerate, and Solidarity Online). I plan to write one sourcebook for each major location in both Kalijor and the future, and I would like to stagger them (one Kalijor, then one future, then one Kalijor, etc.) through release to you, the awesome readers of these books I can’t stop writing.

Also in the works is a series of graphic novels (the first script is written and will hopefully be story-boarded in time for Denver Comic Con in June, we’ll see.). I suspect we’ll use the Convention book stories for the graphic novels at first, but I also know that there will be much more, and harder-line stories with our favorite characters as adults that will follow those up. One can, after all, only take so much ‘cute kids’ stories.

So, there you have it. A quick look behind the scenes at what Kalijor Press is cooking up. For 2012 we will be releasing, the RPG, and the Fourth Key for sure. The new 2012 convention/event book will be out in time for GalaxyFest, and I would like to release ~at least~ one sourecebook for the RPG, if not two. We have nearly a dozen convention appearances planed, including, tentatively, a return to GenCon in August, and monthly appearances at the Galaxy Gallery in Denver (802 Santa Fe, studio 5, upstairs above the furniture store). I’ll see about working in some signings at local book stores as well, particularly after the Fourth novel is released in April.

Whew! *pants* As I said, lots going on, even when I’m taking time off.

So, stick with us, folks. It all starts here. It all starts now.

End of Line…

Paul