Wow, it’s been a while, huh? Sorry about that. A veritable Sahara of news since May, really. But now I have something to announce, so gather close, you lot!
First order of business is The Ace Of Skulls. I’m a quarter way through and it’s all going very nicely, thank you. However, I think it’s probably now time to let you know that this will be the last of the Tales Of The Ketty Jay. No, put down your knives/poison canisters/thermite detonators, this is for your own good, you know! I always intended that the KJ series was going to be a series of standalones with an overarching story that I could draw to a close in one book. In the planning of this book I came to realise that I’ve just about reached the limit in that sense. There’s already so much stuff to tie up after three books. Either this series was going to metamorphosise into a much more sprawling tale, and risk rambling off into infinity, or I could close it down while I still have it under control and while I can still deliver a book with the necessary pace and verve to keep all you hungry KJ fans happy right till the final page. So I plumped for the latter. I’d rather leave you with four good books than three good, three medium and one that leaves you with a nasty taste in your mouth like you just chewed on a piece of rancid biltong. At least this way you’ll get a proper ending and you won’t go all Mass Effect 3 on my ass (incidentally, the ending to that series was fine, don’t know what all the fuss was about…)
Secondly, some crazy exciting weird news. Broken Sky is coming to ebook! And I’m doing it myself! Eep.
So here’s the story. Scholastic didn’t want to republish Broken Sky so they weren’t willing to put it out in ebook form, and therefore the rights for the books came back to me. However, Broken Sky was written so long ago that I didn’t even have Word at the time and I lost all the original files. Scholastic rather kindly provided me the pdfs of the books to work off, and I converted them to ebook formats and then started going through them to sort out the inevitable formatting errors that arose.
However…
Well, I’d gone about half a paragraph before I was like ‘Ooh, that’s not a very clever sentence. Would make more sense if I just changed it around a bit. There.’ And then three lines on I was like ‘Wait a minute, I just used that word. Better change it.’ And then a bit further and I was like ‘Man, this bit doesn’t even make sense’ and… well, you see what’s happened. Thirteen years on, I like to think I’m a bit of a better writer than I was back then, and I just couldn’t resist the urge to start editing them. And like Ripley with Newt, now I’ve made a clean spot, I have to do the rest.
Now don’t worry, I’m not going all George Lucas on ’em. The story, characters, all of that are just where you left ’em. All I’m doing is tidying up the grammar, making sentences clearer, getting rid of repetition and redundant parts, all that boring stuff. It is taking me ages, but I think it’s worth it, as I still have a warm glowy place in my heart for Broken Sky. Think of this as Broken Sky Remastered rather than a director’s cut.
Anyway, I am now entering the strange world of self-publishing, where few published authors have bothered dared to tread. I’m still a bit hazy as to what I’ll do with it once I’ve finished polishing it up, and it is gonna take a good while to go through all the books since I’m busy working on The Ace Of Skulls, but eventually I plan to release them in Kindle format and ePub for all other e-readers. Really, my primary concern is that I don’t want these books to go out of print. Because they’re ace. And that’s final 😛
Watch this space, as ever…
When and where can I get my hands on the broken sky ebooks my best friend had all the series and she moved away and I never got to finish reading them I’m excited about being able to finish the story I started a long time ago and never got to finish it would mean so much to me if there were ebooks.
I’ve been rereading the Broken Sky series, and it has sparked my imagination just as strongly as it did when I was 12 (12 years ago). These books hugely influenced my childhood, springboarding my interests in fantasy, anime, political drama, writing, drawing, even music. This series is right up there with Final Fantasy VII and Star Wars in shaping my sensibilities of what is I find, for a lack of better word, cool.
Spirit Stones are like Avatar bending and Materia had a baby. Parakka is AVALANCHE and the Rebel rebellion. The concept of Resonants is straight up metaphysical, while the struggles over race still ring true even in today’s world. How terrifyingly bad-ass are the Deliverers? Don’t even get me started on Tatterdemalion and the Jachyra… Sometimes I still look into a mirror and get a chill I thought only Stephen King could leave with me. I even wrote and illustrated the 1st prize short story in my 5th grade class, which was hugely influenced (possibly somewhat ripped-off…sorry!) by your series, something I’m still warmly proud of today. Broken Sky is easily in my top 5 favorites series, among The Dark Tower, Lord of the Rings, and The Kingkiller Chronicles. There were other books I loved at the time like The Seventh Tower and Sabriel; no other young adult series but yours stands with the greats. It isn’t about the level of writing, it’s all about immersion and emotional response. I was very disappointed to hear the anime adaptation was cancelled and I strongly hope it will see the light in some form one day. This series deserves and demands much more exploration. Please continue your rewrites; I know it’s been awhile since this has been posted. Just know some of us are still out there and would love to see another chapter of this beloved saga. Even if it is just a touchup. Thank you.
Hello, I am wondering whats all involved in creating an ebook, legally and technically speaking. I could’nt find any ebooks for broken sky so I bought the 9 part series from amazon. Im wondering if I am allowed to copy these books into an epub format so the public has access to them. I assume copyright issues would arise and I am wondering if there is a way around that? Could I write the ebooks and send them directly to the author for him to decide what to do with them?
I loved this series, it was one of my favorites and still is. I can’t wait to read it with the new edits. Just hoping for a estimated finish date.
Thank you
В сети целый ряд полезных заметок о пикантном положении и роддомах, но они какие-то бестолковые. Недостает названий перинатальных центров, адресов, рекомендаций реальных врачей. А хотелось бы увидеть свежую речь, важную в данном году – с новыми технологиями, тарифами и новостями.
Идеально, чтобы вдобавок и нужная информация для будущих и реальных матерей. Все это нашла именно здесь. Четко, конкретно, с образцами из настоящей жизни, консультациями специалистов. Нередко заглядываю на интернет-сайт, если ребенок недомогает.
роды в тюмени
I just found these books after I cleaned out my closet and found a copy of volume 6 paperback of this series. This series looks so cool, but as the paperback books are going OOP (Out Of Print) and expensive I was thinking; How can I read these? Thank you for having these in pdf/e-book format. I don’t really like reading on my computer, but if there is no other way to buy certain books, then it looks like I have to deal with it. I can’t wait to buy them and read them.