And then?

Ok,

Just so everyone knows (I know the both of you have been wondering), I am still here, and still alive!

I have no idea why this blog is so difficult to maintain regularly (maybe it's because it cost me my last job uh? Meh). Anyway, Just an update on all things Kalijor.

To begin with, The Second Key of Kalijor is done and waiting for cover art. My artist assures me that he is making headway, but he has to pay the bills, so a couple other projects have had to be put ahead of the book cover. I trust it will be done as soon as it needs to be, and am hoping it is before the 4th of JUly, since I will be able to get it in front of my fans in Yampa when we are up there for the celebration!

I have gone through what I have of the The Third Key of Kalijor, checked it for continuity and flow, as well as some general editing, and dived back in to the writing (nearly 60 pages in the last three days). So that is coming along nicely again and may be done before the summer is over! Of course, there will then be loads of editing and rewriting to be done, but that could easily put The Third Key of Kalijor on track for a summer 2010 release (no promises of course though!).

Play-testing on the Kalijor RPG is moving along quite nicely, only a few major issues have been turned up, along with a heap of typos and other technical foibles. It should be in second draft soon and ready to really move into the hard pitch with Palladium!

In similar news, the first source book is done (Rathalon) and several more are in various stages of completion. These new source books include, Earth Ring Station, Pandoria, The Moon, and Avian. Currently the Earth Ring Station is the furthest along (around 30 pages), but they are all sort of being built simultaneously so anything can happen!

For those who aren't aware, the Kalijor universe is in multiple formats now. You can buy the soft cover novel in any major book store around the world or online as always, but you can also get the hard cover special edition on Amazon Marketplace! Also, the books (The FIrst Key of Kalijor and Jumah's World) are both available on Amazon's Kindle platform, as well as the iPhone and iPod Touch via the Apple App store!

The electronic versions are quite affordable (all of them under $10US), and all profits from Jumah's World still go to the Children's Hospital no matter the platform you choose to enjoy it on, so dive right in!

OK. I think that's it for now. Hopefully this will not be the last time I update this blog this month!

Thanks for hanging on for an update, and I look forward to seeing you at the next release party!

Layout and Typesetting

OK, so 'The Second Key of Kalijor' is all but done!

I finished the final revision this afternoon around some other projects, and then went through and did the typesetting and layout. At this point I am waiting for the title page image and the cover art, and then we are ready to go to print!

The cover artist and I had a good long chat the other day and came up with some great ideas and he is working on roughs now (around other projects of course). Hopefully we can get the final piece under way soon!

All in all, I am very happy with the book and the feedback I have received, so I think you will all really enjoy it when we get it to you!

Stay tuned for more, and as always, please email me, or post on the forums if you have questions or comments (or use the comment feature here if you like :) )!

Kalijor on the (internet) radio!!

On Friday, March 19th I was interviewed by Sean rima on Castle Rock Radio's "Big Fat Radio Show"! We had a great 20 minute talk and I was invited to come back again, which I will do for sure when the new book comes out (around June 1st), if not sooner.

Anyway, the MP3 recording can be found here: http://www.kalijor.com/Media/CRR_March_19_09.mp3 if you'd like to check it out!

In other news, I have the first test copy of 'The Second Key of Kalijor' back and it looks pretty good! THe cover artist is excited about the art (as am I), and we are all still of the opinion that Jerry Bruckheimer should be calling any moment to option the material!

'The Second Key of Kalijor' Out to test readers!!

OK, I finished the first revision of 'The Second Key of Kalijor' yesterday! I will get a couple copies made and out to test readers today and tomorrow and am putting a return date of the end of March on them. This gives me a couple months to get the next revision done, coordinate the cover art, and work on the layout/type-setting.

At this point I would have to say that I am on track for a June release, but remember, nothing is set in stone!

Kalijor on the iPhone!!!

Heyas all!

I just wanted to touch base with you and say that, as of 11am February 7th, 2009, both 'The First Key of Kalijor' and 'Jumah's World' are available on the Apple App Store. This means that you and your family and friends, can fire up your iPhone and/or iPod Touch and download a copy to read while you are out-and-about!

They are both stand-alone applications, which makes them easier to access (as opposed to opening up an eBook reader, then browsing for the files). They remember where you left off last, have adjustable font size, reversible colors and are searchable.

Please check them out, and tell your friends and family to have a look as well! :)

On a side-note, all author profits from the sale of 'Jumah's World' are still going to the Denver Children's Hospital, even iPhone/iPod and other digital formats (my books are also available on Amazon's Kindle platform).

OK, I am off to get ready for P&P gaming. I hope you have a great evening/day and I will talk at you later! :)

Paul

News about 'The Second Key of Kalijor'

Cover artist for The Second Key of Kalijor is in the pipe, and the cover design has been agreed upon for preliminary sketching. The manuscript revision is about 33% done, and could be done this week if all goes well. We'll see.

At that point, I will get a couple copies out to test readers for feedback and then get into another revision. After that, it will likely need another technical editing pass, then we could be ready for publication.

If all goes smoothly, that should all be done before June. No guarantees however, I'd rather miss my date by a bit than rush the product. I rushed Jumah's World a little bit and it shows in the product, I'm sorry to say. It's still an incredible work, don't get me wrong, but there are things I should have done, that I didn't. I don't ever intend to let myself do that again.

So, stay tuned. I'll keep the status of the new novel in the public eye so you all know where things are at.

Only two weeks this time!!

Heyas everybody!

It's been almost two weeks since I posted an update here so I just wanted to touch base and let everyone know what is going on.

I am still thinking through my NaNoWriMo project, trying to make sure that I have a good idea of the characters involved and what, generally, I would like the plot to look like. I have decided that it will definitely be set in the world of the future in which Kalijor resides. There may be a few cameos from some major characters, however the focus will be on a new person with some interactions with/from Daray. If you are interested, there is some bio information concerning Daray in the encyclopedia at Kalijor.com although I still haven't posted any of that novel to the site. I should be able to get to that this week, although it won't be much more than the first couple of chapters!

Next up, I think I have finished all of the major additions to the Kalijor RPG manuscript and have spent the last couple of days going through and adding metric equivalents for measurements, looking for spelling and grammatical issues and formatting. My next pass will address some of the ordering of the book's sections to get that into a better/more user friendly arrangement and then it should b down to whatever mechanical tweaks we continue to uncover through play-testing! Now, I just need that call from the publisher and it will be golden!

Other news? Um.... Oh, I beat Crysis Saturday! Very cool game! Although I must admit that the T.A.C. Hammer is the most annoying weapon I have ever used before. The damn thing is useless unless you are pointing it at the one, single, eligible (according to the game engine) target. I died like, ten times before shutting the game off and taking a twenty minute break before I threw something at my new computer. Then I looked up an online level walk-through just to see if there were any notes on how to use the damn gun and realized that it was more of a plot device than a weapon. Once I knew that it was pretty easy to figure out, but I still think it was a bull-shit game mechanic!

Other than that however, the game was amazing. Very well written, amazing game-play, loads of different styles of play, some unique mechanics that I've never seen done before, and generally very fun to work through. Plus, it had customizable weapons, which always scores points with me. I love playing with the options/functions o weapons in my games!