As you can tell from the progress bar in the sidebar to the right, I have finished the first draft of CORVUS, the second installment in the Frontlines: Evolution series. It’s with the editor now, and I’ll see it again in a few weeks to begin the developmental edits, but for now it’s off my desk.
I spent a long weekend in Glasgow, Scotland, where I attended the Alfie awards dinner thrown by George R.R. Martin, honoring the authors whose works had been inexplicably punted off the shortlist by the powers in charge at the Chengdu Worldcon last year. I also spent much of Saturday at the con, where I got to meet up with some old friends I hadn’t seen since before the pandemic, so that was lovely. The travel itself was another story altogether. I took the draft of CORVUS with me to finish it on the way (spoiler warning–I didn’t finish it on the way), and deadline stress plus travel anxiety combined into a new and special cocktail of stress that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But I finished the draft in my hotel room on Friday, literally two hours before the awards dinner, and everything was much more fun and relaxing once I hit “Send” on that email to my editor and agent.
In the wake of the con, a lot of people reported testing positive for COVID, including a good friend with whom I spent time at a pub on Saturday night, and several people who went to the same awards dinner I attended. I’ve tested negative three times since Sunday and I feel fine, so I hope I made it through a busy con and two packed airports without catching it.
I got back on Monday and took the last few days to recover from the combination of travel and deadline stress, but now it’s back to work. I have a project to keep me busy until I get the editor notes for CORVUS back, but I can’t disclose that one yet, so you’ll have to take my word for it that it’ll be cool and awesome.
Once I turn in this secret project, my schedule for the rest of the year consists of writing Palladium Wars #5, which doesn’t have a name yet. I aim to have that one done by the end of December, for a release in the first quarter of next year. I have news on the future of the Palladium Wars series, but that’s a matter for another post.
Anyway–the year is already almost two thirds of the way done, and there’s plenty of work to be done in that last third, so I’d best get to it. More news to follow soon!
Hey Markus greetings from Melbourne Australia. I’ve just finished Descent, the arrival which prompted me to read Palladium Wars from book one and I just wanted to say how good the whole series is and how much I enjoyed it. With withdrawal symptoms after finishing Descent I’ve decided to start the frontlines saga from book one and it is standing up very well to rereading for the fourth time so at least I have the rest of the saga to keep me occupied. I’ve been reading science-fiction voraciously since the late 50s and I have to compliment you on writing some of the very rarest books I’ve read. Looking forward to the next episode of Palladium Wars and also to Corvus. Stay well and happy. R
Love your stories, Marko
Glad to hear you were able to finish the draft before the awards diner. Sounds like an awesome experience!
Looking forward to hear/read more about that secret project and wishing you all the best with writing the next Palladium installment. I can’t wait! (Although I patiently will)
Eager to hear the Palladium news.
Can’t wait to hear news about the Palladium War news!
Marko, just an observation/question of your website. I notice you have the two principle book series scrolled across the top as page sub links. I know website management takes a backseat to actually writing (as does taking the time to answer this random question), but curious if you’ll treat FLE Scorpio as its own series or roll it into Frontlines? Sorry, while I don’t have much website code authoring experience, I am responsible for my company’s website from an organizational, content and visual perspective. My eyes are automatically drawn to such things.
How interesting this ‘what’s new’ email update hit my box this morning. I tried. I really tried to pace myself reading Descent. I limited myself to 5% of the book per evening, per my Kindle. Sometimes nothing if it was a particularly long day. But last night, it was over. I thought I should hop into the site and see how the sequel to Scorpio was coming along. And here it is.