For months now I’ve been posting blog entries about my “next book.” I’ve been vague as to not reveal too much information, I’ve been vague about release dates and everything else that I possibly could. Hell, I was even hesitant to announce a title — which turned out to be a good thing because I changed it recently. But finally I’m ready to make an actual announcement.

The first book of the Andlios series — Terminus Cycle — will be released on March 24th, 2015 on Amazon.com’s Kindle platform. Yes, I’m dead serious, the end of this month I’ll finally be releasing my second novel and it’s entirely different from my first one.

How different? Entirely.

terminuscycle_coverI can’t stress that enough. Terminus Cycle is a science fiction novel that is split into two parts. The first part is the last few weeks of an epic journey from Earth to a nearby, inhabitable planet, while the second part is what happens when Humanity lands on this planet. It features two protagonists who were born on opposing sides of the spectrum of the ship, the Omega Destiny. Jonah was born poor, Captain O’Neil was born wealthy and took his father’s place as the Captain of the ship. While they are two different characters, they have a lot in common and the story is both men coping with the lot in life that they were dealt and doing their best for the people around them.

 

Here’s the description of the book:

“Humanity never stopped growing or using resources, leaving Earth in crisis. The solution was a mission to send ships of immense proportions out into the expanse of space to colonize neighboring planets.

Jonah Freeman was born into the lowest rung of society aboard the Omega Destiny. He fought and clawed his way out of poverty only to find himself uncovering a conspiracy about the mission and their destination planet that could alter humanity’s history forever. On the other side of the Omega Destiny was Captain Peter O’Neil, born into wealth and the honor of being the Captain that would land humanity on its new home planet.

Freeman and O’Neil were born on different sides of the spectrum aboard the Omega Destiny but their lives are on a collision course all while their new home planet of Omega looms in the distance, growing closer and more mysterious every day. What greeted them when they arrived was not only shocking, but more dangerous than they ever imagined.”

So yeah, quite a departure from The Godslayer, right? I’ve also done everything imaginable for this book to not only make it successful, but to be as professional as possible. This required a sizable investment on my part, but I really believe in this book, believe in this series and want to give it the respect that it deserves. This means commissioning artwork for the book (which if you’ve been reading the blog entries you’ve seen evolve from sketch to final product) from the wonderful Jenn Blake back home in Rhode Island. It also meant hiring Liz DeGregorio to edit it, which really helped to bring a level of polish to it that I could only dream of.

I’d also like to take this time to thank everyone who read early versions of the book over the past few months. Regardless of the stage that you read it in, your feedback was all immensely helpful and I greatly appreciate your time, your patience and your honesty in this process. Things have come a long way since the first draft back in late November and I thank everyone who was involved for their assistance.

Now, I know that it’ll be a bummer for some of you that I’m not planning a paperback version right away, but the truth is that it’s a lot of work and in 2015 there is little return in it. I moved a good number of copies of The Godslayer, but literally 99% of them were via the Kindle marketplace. Seriously, less than 1% of my sales were the paperback. While it might be an inconvenience to some of you, let me remind you that you don’t need a Kindle device to read the book. You can read it from any eReader (if you have one), or there is a Kindle app for literally every mobile device known to man; Android, iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire and even PC and Mac. It’s 2015 and just about everyone has some sort of mobile device, from a smartphone to a tablet. If not, well, if you buy it and can’t read it reach out to me and we’ll work something out.

So, if you are looking to help me out or just to read a good science fiction book check out Terminus Cycle on Amazon. Pre-order it, if you’ve already read it leave a review. If you read it when it comes out please take some time to leave a review on Amazon and GoodReads (if you use GR). Seriously, you don’t know how much that helps. I’ll send you a Christmas card or something.