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Sunday Update Time!

- I hit 27k on Book 1 of The Evaran Chronicles II. In the previous chapter, Evaran and M have dropped off three aliens. It gave the new gang a peek into how the Torvatta travels as well as some insight into different cultures.

They are settling in for the night, but not before a tour of the Torvatta. Dr. Kate Minter is surprised to see notes from Dr. Snowden in the planar cartography lab, and Evaran is intrigued that she can see them. The current scene is from Isaac's perspective, and they're about to experience the holo room.

- I sent the pronunciation guide for the audiobook of The Final Evolution, Book 15 of The Evaran Chronicles, to Michael. Production should begin in a few weeks!

- I should also be getting back the edited manuscript for Wildblood, Book 5 of The Inspector Dalton Files, next month. Once it comes back, it will be my main focus to get it launched.

- The audiobook for The Cosmic Artifact, Book 13 of The Evaran Chronicles, has been uploaded to my YouTube channel.

I hope your weekend is going well, and if you have Monday off, enjoy the break!


Celestial Monsters

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is at it again, this time finding the first pieces of evidence of monstrously sized stars 10,000 times larger than our sun 440 million years after the big bang.

I liked the "Celestial Monster" name they gave them. As with anything being analyzed, it's hard to see these stars, but their effects can be inferred. In this case, it was chemical traces inside globular clusters, clumps of tens of thousands of tightly-packed stars. What's intriguing is that the chemical proportions varies wildy. These huge stars would have only been around for two million years, so only indirect traces remain.

I wondered if these might be black hole stars, but from what I've read on the subject, those are much larger than these monster stars. I'll be following this to see what comes of it.




My Weekly Midjourney Post!

I'm doing a weekly post on my journey with Midjourney, an AI art generation tool. I pick a character from the Evaranverse and see what Midjourney can make based on my prompts.

This week it's Krikus Det. He's an elite bounty hunter operating out out of the Galvin Rim, a lawless area within the the boundaries of The Kreagan Star Empire. His capture rate was high, and he was known for his ruthlessness and efficiency.

He took an open contract on Evaran and the gang, and a lesser one on Andia Kiggs. Prior to traveling to Coris, an asteroid station, where they were, Krikus had taken out a rival bounty hunter and secured a palisin energy weapon which was extremely rare and was one item that could knock out Evaran temporarily. There were also other items like armor enhancement and contrains, all courtesy of the Seeros Corporation.

Krikus was able to capture the gang after eliminating GJ-45, an android bounty hunter, who had been waiting for the gang. Krikus simply took his waiting spot.

Krikus had almost got the gang to his ship had it not been for the efforts of Jala and Rakar Ho Jador. He was knocked out and his his ship stripped of weapons and armor that might hurt Evaran. Evaran filled the ship's databanks with information on Krikus's crimes, then strapped him into a seat and sent his ship to Kreagan Outpost 1.6.8 where he was arrested.

For the below snippet, the ice prison Tokara is mentioned. In Rogue, Book 4 of the Earthborn, Blake Brown is sent there in 2032, about twenty years after this event. It's a deep dive into the prison, and why sending Blake to it is a bad idea.

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A snippet from Dr. Snowden's perspective after being captured in The Fredorian Destiny, Book 2 of The Evaran Chronicles:

The reptilian smirked. “You’re awake. Surprising.”

“What the hell is going on?”

The reptilian half smiled. “Krikus Det’s the name. You’re being transported to my ship. Once I get you to where you need to be, I get paid. That’s what the hell is going on.” He laughed.

Dr. Snowden looked over at Emily, who was squinting while shaking her head. He cleared his throat. “Emily, you okay?”

“Yeah...just a little dizzy,” said Emily.

“You should be. You got hit by a Cetarkan stun beam. Really surprised the old man didn’t go down the first shot,” said Krikus.

Dr. Snowden narrowed his eyes as he turned to look at Krikus. He heard Andia rustling behind him.

“This bounty must be worth something for you to take this risk,” said Andia with a gravelly voice.

Before Krikus could respond, Evaran piped in. “Five million for me, Dr. Snowden, and Emily.”

Krikus smiled, again displaying a row of sharp teeth. “Yes, but there is a bounty on Andia for two hundred and fifty thousand.”

“From who?” asked Andia.

“Not who, where. You’re going to Tokara.”

“And that is?”

Krikus laughed. “Ice moon. One way in to the underwater base under the ice, one way out. I don’t understand why soft skins would pay for you, but the important aspect is they do. You’re the prime ambassador of Fredoria. There will be quite a few interested based on your list price.”

“Pay for me? To do what?” asked Andia.

“If you have ever had any enemies, they will be notified. For a small sum, they can have some time with you alone. Pleasure, torture, who knows what they have in mind. Once you have outlived your usefulness, or no one pays for you, you die.”

“That’s quite sickening,” said Andia.

“I’ve heard stories from there. You soft skins can be quite depraved.”


Wednesday Update Time!

- I used this writing cycle to update the chronology for Book 1 of the Evaran Chronicles II. I didn't get fully caught up, but I should be by tomorrow. What I do during chronology updates is go back over anything written to that point, then I add markers that define a in-universe time like 5/1/327,609 7:00 PM. Not only does it help me track where something is timewise, but it makes debugging easier if there's a time conflict somewhere.

- I forgot to mention on Sunday that the audiobook for The Evaran Impact, Book 12 of The Evaran Chronicles, was uploaded to my YouTube channel. Two more left to upload!

- I'm almost done with the pronunciation guide (11 pages long so far) for The Final Evolution, Book 15 of The Evaran Chronicles. I realized that the second Evaran and M are in it at the end, so I need to make sure that their voices are defined, and I think I have the second Evaran's.

I hope your week is going well!


Movie: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

I played Dungeons and Dragons when I was younger, and the Monster Manual was one of my favorite books. I also loved the rules for combat and everything else. You can see a bit of the tactical options bleed over in my books where positioning and abilities are played out in a grid-like manner, at least in my head and sometimes on graph paper. I watched the previous Dungeons and Dragons movie, and while I liked it, I can see why others might not.

Enter a new movie into the Dungeons and Dragons universe. I had read that this new movie made some profit, and I was surprised to see it on ParamountPlus. That's always a nice surprise when flipping through services to see what's on. In short, I really liked Honor Among Thieves. It has star actors in it from Chris Pine and Michelle Rodrigues to Hugh Grant, and the worldbuilding displays were impressive.

I thought the pacing was good, and it felt to me like parties I had played with in the past. There were some scenes that cracked me up and others that were awesome action scenes. I thought the plotline was solid, and I loved the name drops of places. All in all, a pleasant surprise, and I hope there is a sequel!

https://www.paramountplus.com/movies/video/VYaqo0i3pHMuC4n2U30CyIQ6CuVjp716/


I hope you have a great Monday and rest of week!


Sunday Update Time!

- I hit 24k words on Book 1 of The Evaran Chronicles II. Evaran and M are with the new gang in the Torvatta. They're currently taking a few aliens home that helped out, but the gang is also adjusting/learning about the Torvatta. Although the next chapter has a scene for each new member and goes into great detail on the Torvatta, the current scenes are at a higher level and show them the portals, time traveling, stealth aspects.

- I got a Bookbub for The Evaran Chronicles Box Set: Books 1-3 starting June 3, so I've set the price from 3.99 to .99 until July 31. It will take a few days for the retailers to reflect that new price, and some retailers *cough* Apple *cough* take longer due to their slow and error prone website.

- Tom has finished the new artwork of the second Evaran and M (in his robot body's default mode). I've attached the new image. I've also updated the banner for this page as well. I may also do one for Dr. Snowden and Emily in their survival suits with PSDs.

- I had two copyright claims on my YouTube audiobooks, but as of today, they've both been cleared. I also had to file some claims against those who uploaded my audiobooks, and that's been resolved as well.

- I hope to get the audiobook pronunciation guide to Michael for The Final Evolution, Book 15 of The Evaran Chronicles, this week. It's been slow going with everything else going on, and there are all the voices of traveling companions across the series in this book.

Nonetheless, I'm also looking at the pronunciation guide for The Lost Ship, The Evaran Chronicles II prequel. This will take some time as well since it defines the voice of Evaran and M over the next 10 audiobooks at a minimum.

I hope your weekend is going great!


Radio Signals

I've been devouring content from AstroPhysicist Dr. Becky Smethurt's YoutTube channel. I love her deep dive into topics, and this one I watched was on radio signals from outer space. While various channels and media outlets jumped to various conclusions, I liked her explanation of what these strange radio signals are.

In summary, we can't directly observe if a planet has a magnetic barrier, like Earth, but we can infer it if the planet orbits near it's star, and the planet's magnetic field reflects back some of the solar wind. That then interacts with the star, which causes a glow that is visible in radio waves. There was a recent paper on this phenomenon for YZ Ceti which found coherent (same frequency,wavelength, polarization, like lasers) radio bursts that coincided with the two day orbit of the nearest planet.

While this doesn't mean that there's aliens, it is a step in the direction for the search for life. One thing I've not covered fully in the Evaranverse is that if Earth is finding all these things, why is it not more well known? The Imperium has a hand in that and controls the narrative aka they don't want any civilizations/ships to be able to be detected...yet. It's a point that Dr. Kate Minter makes in Book 1 of The Evaran Chronicles II.




My Weekly Midjourney Post!

I'm doing a weekly post on my journey with Midjourney, an AI art generation tool. I pick a character from the Evaranverse and see what Midjourney can make based on my prompts.

This week it's Valerie Simmons. She's an Outsider, someone who's crossed over from another dimension. She's over a hundred years old, and like vampires, she craves drinking blood. Most vampires are Daedroulds, and she is the only non-Daedrould vampire on the planet. She is also the last of her kind from a large group that had crossed over in 1906. Since then, her sisters were killed and even hunted due to their superiority complex.

It was down to Valerie and her last sister, who had married a Werebadger. Their family was gunned down by the Faith Militia's slayers, and Valerie sought revenge. She killed Zeke, the leader of the slayer group but had been caught. It was Dalton Kingston who found her near death after having been tortured in a trailer park. He rescued her and gave her a second chance, and in Otherworld, Book 1 of The Inspector Dalton Files, she joined his team.

Over the previous century, she had become an assassin, but only took contracts against those involved in criminal activity. It was lucrative for her, and she used her natural speed, strength, and enhanced senses to down targets. Her close-quarter combat skills were excellent, and she was well-versed with many weapons from hand weapons to guns.

She made a name for herself due to how long she did assassination work, and while her sisters had high profiles with wanton disregard of the impact, she kept to the shadows. She also was a master of disguise and also used her infiltration ability as well as social engineering to get close if needed. As of Wildblood, Book 5 of The Inspector Dalton files, she's been Evaran-touched and has gained a heightened regeneration factor on her already impressive one.

As a Zikarian, she forms strong bonds with those she bites. Sexual encounters mean little to her, but she is aware of the impact it has on humans. Although most vampires give bite jobs, hers is more potent due to being a Zikarian, and she is far more selective about who she gives that too. She doesn't care for the gender of whoever she is with as the quality of their blood is the most important attribute.

Her weakness is lightmires as their blood tends to be of the highest quality, even more so than a WildBorns, although she knows Lightmires hate vampires and have the ability to stop them in their tracks.

She has a non-exclusive relation with fellow team member Rick Westmoreland, also known as Executioner, a former legendary slayer. He is growing on her, and for the first time in her life, she is with a group where she can form longer term bonds. She credits Dalton with her second chance and rescue and looks up to him not only as a leader but also a great friend, something not common in her previous life as an assassin.

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A snippet from her perspective from Lightville, Book 2 of The Inspector Dalton Files, when she deals with Viktor Sokolov, a former assassin colleague:

She hustled up the stairs and paused at the landing to ensure there were no traps. A level later, she stood outside a door. Based on his scent, he had recently been there. She pushed the door open and stepped back. Nothing happened. She peeked in but yanked her head back when a bullet flew past her.

“Ah, so they sent you. Valerie Simmons. Ex-assassin. Traitor,” said Viktor.

She scowled. “Sorry you feel that way.” She activated her comms with Todd and Evot, then whispered, “I’ve found him. Come when you can.”

“Not just me…there are others. You betrayed the code,” said Viktor.

She laughed. “There’s no official code. It’s just an unofficial agreement for how things operate. The rules are broken all the time and then used to justify whatever.”

Viktor sneered. “Perhaps. But working with the Earth Ward as part of an inspector team? Not assisting the Star Lotus clan in freeing their members that were detained? You’ve fully stepped out of the world.”

“And I don’t care. I do what’s best for me, and right now, that’s apprehending you since you took a shot at one of us. I have to ask…why Todd?”

“He was more valuable dead than alive. You, Dalton, Brad, and Rick were worth more alive and have things of value to certain people. The last thing I need is capturing you four, then Todd deciding to be a hero. Easier to take him out,” said Viktor.

Valerie grimaced. “Contract work. Great.” She watched as Evot entered as a swarm of flies in a nearby room. Todd was on his way up as well. “I’m going to guess the Facilitator was involved. I never figured you the type to work with the likes of Septimus.”

“I suspected he was the contractor,” said Viktor. “All I had to do was watch that room for your team, pull them over here, then I was free to capture or kill them. Kill Todd first, then maim Rick on the way over. Brad would have been knocked unconscious by the gas, and Dalton would have been stunned. Easy pickings. Unfortunately, there was an unknown variable.”

“Evot.”

He scoffed. “Whatever that was. Not much on it but enough to know it had detection abilities. In the past, you would’ve worked with me on this.”

“That’s the past. This is the present. Also, you would not have stunned Dalton.”