I will admit, I am still pretty new at this and I act like a kid on Christmas morning every time a new cover comes out. So here is the cover for The Clone Elite. Just so you know, I only saw it a few moments ago myself, and I am still in shock. These covers just keep getting better and better.
22 comments:
That is totally awesome!! You're right. Each cover gets better and better. I like the look, sort of the look of some one who is only fighting because it's fight or die eventually. Can't wait to read a synopsis.
Writing a synopsis is going to be tough because you can't talk about this book without spoiling the big surprise in book 3.
Awesome cover. I'm really looking forward to this one. Still on target for a release date around Halloween?
Any news on the Gears of War book you've been writing?
Christian McGrath, the artist who Ace has assigned to do my covers, is amazing. No doubt about it.
As to "The Clone Elite," everything is still on course for October.
Aaron, there is a lot of news of the Gears of War book--litle of it involving me. I believe a very accomplished Star Wars author named Karen Traviss is going to pen that book.
Thanks for the quick response! The reason I asked about Gears of War was because of this link:
http://www.booksamillion.com/ncom/books?pid=0345499433&ad=FGLBKS
Anyway, back to the Clones... do you plan on doing any more Wayson Harris books after 'The Clone Elite' or is that the last one? And have you given any thought to the idea of spin-off books featuring the Adam Boyd clones?
I saw that site as well. Frankly, I am not quite sure how to respond to it.
I have signed a contract to write three more novels with Wayson Harris. Also, I continue to play with the idea of a book following the Boyd Clones on a mission with the Japanese Fleet.
The idea intrigues me and I got a very positive response when I asked about it on this blog. I have two books I want to do first--meaning after I finish the next three Harris novels.
Thank you for asking.
So that will be a total of 7 Wayson Harris books, correct? Sounds great to me!
As far as the Boyd book(s), I can tell you that I would not hesitate to buy one (all, if there are more than one).
What about the other two non-clone books? Is it too soon to speak of those yet?
Steven, I wanted to post up and say how much I have enjoyed reading this clone series.
I happened upon "the Clone Republic" whilst searching for a fresh author, and I was immediately hooked. I was also excited to find a sequel to that book. The other day I'm browsing online and found this site, Lo-and-behold! there's more books! I immediately called my local book outlet and had them hold "the Clone Alliance" for me. Having finished it tonight, I thought it was pretty good, but there were just a couple things that seemed a little incongruous. The main thing being that Harris seemed to completly abandon his newfound reverence for life that he found in the end of book two. Not that it's a bad thing, but it seemed like such a large departure. Any thoughts on that? Can't wait for the fourth book, My only concern is that with an additional three books coming after this one, will there be enough story to hold them, or will the plot thin out a bunch. I mainly read Star Wars books for my Sci-Fi fix, and their latest series "Legacy of the Force" was a nine book series that dragged on horribly because it only had enough story line to be covered in 3-4 books. Ultimately that is going to be up to you, and I hope I'm pleasantly suprised as to the direction of this series.
Keep up the great work!
Sky P,
Thank you for your letter.
Allow me to address your last concern first. While my next three books do follow the adventures of Wayson Harris, they are entirely independent of the first four novels, and completely new series that is set in the same world, in the aftermath of book four, The Clone Elite.
I certainly hope you will not find the storyline wearing thin.
Now to your other concern, one of the goals of this series is to sort of push Harris along and show his constant evolution.
He starts book one as a true believer who slowly becomes more and more disappointed as he realizes that the Unified Authority is not the great republic he believed it to be. By the end of book one, he will no longer hesitate to kill.
BTW: I thought the cover artist, Christian McGrath, caught that beautifully.
By the beginning of book 2, Harris is no longer the Boy Scout he started out as. He has no second thoughts about breaking the knee of one bodyguard and the jaw of another when they step in his way.
By the two-thirds mark of Rogue Clone, however, having seen so much death and destruction he goes through a trigger-shy period. By the end of the book, Harris finds that he is pretty comfortable behind a gun.
As you point out, Harris gets pretty blood-thirsty in The Clone Alliance. That said, he did not kill the old man at the train station and he let those snotty kids walk right out of the apartment complex.
It was a tough balance for me. I wanted to show that Harris was ready to go all-Marine again, though he no longer had the same reverence for the Unified Authority. I think maybe his months on the Baptist colony squeezed some of the humanity out of him.
He is nastier still in The Clone Elite, maybe even nastier than Freeman at this point.
Steven, thank you for replying to my comment so quickly!
I appreciate you taking the time to explain some of those things.
Sky P,
Sadly, I hover around my email in the morning as I get ready to write, so your timing was perfect.
You've got it all wrong about the graditude, though. Thank you for reading my stories and taking the time to visit my website.
Uhhh..... can you wait about three seconds while I pick my jaw off the floor?
*three seconds later*
There we go. That cover is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!! So awesome I think I just wet my pants, no wait that's just the drool from when my jaw dropped.
Well I just wanted to drop by to say that I just picked up a copy of Clone Alliance at Borders and am very thrilled to start reading it. I have to admit that the time between the books being released has made me lose a little interest because I have found other books. This is not intentional at all, so please don't kill me.... especially those hardcore fans out there.
I did have one question, in the author's note you said that you had difficulty getting started on Alliance because you had to switch from a different series, among other things, I was wondering how do you keep all the ideas in check? Well because I am having lots of trouble focusing on one story because when I see or hear a certain thing my mind comes up with a new idea for a story, and most of them are ideas for novels and never short stories.
Anyways, keep up the good work Mr. Kent and make Clone Elite the best it can possibly be.
Uhhh..... can you wait about three seconds while I pick my jaw off the floor?
*three seconds later*
There we go. That cover is A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!! So awesome I think I just wet my pants, no wait that's just the drool from when my jaw dropped.
Well I just wanted to drop by to say that I just picked up a copy of Clone Alliance at Borders and am very thrilled to start reading it. I have to admit that the time between the books being released has made me lose a little interest because I have found other books. This is not intentional at all, so please don't kill me.... especially those hardcore fans out there.
I did have one question, in the author's note you said that you had difficulty getting started on Alliance because you had to switch from a different series, among other things, I was wondering how do you keep all the ideas in check? Well because I am having lots of trouble focusing on one story because when I see or hear a certain thing my mind comes up with a new idea for a story, and most of them are ideas for novels and never short stories.
Anyways, keep up the good work Mr. Kent and make Clone Elite the best it can possibly be.
Christian McGrath is an awesome, awesome artist. When I get frustrated, one of the first things my agent reminds me of is what a fine artist Ace as assigned to my covers.
It's funny, I remember The Clone Alliance as practically writing itself. Did I grumble in Author's Notes?
I wrote two historical novels set in Hawaii and a novel for pre-teens around the time that I wrote Alliance. I have not sold them, though TOR Book expressed interest in working with me on future pre-teen projects and a small, Hawaiian publisher has offered to buy the historical novels.
You are correct, by the way, the lag time between novels is not good and it is mostly my fault. Ace would have loved to have published my Harris novels every six months, but I have been slow because of my outside interests. In fact, Ace was particularly patient with The Clone Elite.
I don't know if I have said this before, but I will say it now, Ace Book is a great house to work with. They have not only raised me up, they have been incredibly patient.
Okay, so keeping ideas straight... Killer BLT, it's always best to work every idea all the way through before even contemplating new ideas. If you think of new and cool idea while working on a novel, I suggest trying to find a way to massage it into your novel. I always feel like you should throw everything good that you can come up with in every story you do--if you can make it fit in well. In short, you want to approach every story and make it your best ever if you can, and don't hold back. Never hold back, you owe it to your readers.
That said, if it will not fit, than jot the idea down and come back to it when you have finished your current project. It is easy to get distracted and while there are some authors who can juggle two, three, maybe even four stories at once, I am not one of them.
You know when you see those chess champions who can play six games at once, walking up and down a row of tables and clobbering six good players? I would be one of the six guys getting clobbered.
I hope that answers your question.
One more note, Killer BLT, about jotting and saving ideas. Back in the golden days of video game arcades, at least one of the great game companies took a similar approach. Atari had a book of game ideas that could be used to make games.
Dave Theurer got the idea for the arcade classic Tempest out of that book--the idea simply read, "A 3D version of Space Invaders. Maybe you want to create an idea book to save your ideas while they are fresh.
And if you are serious about writing, buy a copy of On Writing by Stephen King. I know I must sound like a broken record--are you old enough to remember records? LPs, that is what that term refers to, but that book has so much great advice.
Thank you for replying to my question so fast and I know what records are I just wasn't alive when they where popular.
Ueah, early Rap would not have been early Rap without 'em.
Hey,
Thanks for that autographed copy of the Clone Alliance. I purchased the other two books because I would like to read them in order. The only question is, what is the order? I could not find a timeline in any of the books as I am normally accustomed to in the Star Wars novels. I am excited to get to reading your books.
Ryan Mander
I recognized the name "Mander," but Ryan threw me for a loop.
Here is the order:
The Clone Republic
Rogue Clone
The Clone Alliance
The Clone Elite (coming out in October)
I hope you enjoy them.
hey Steven L. kent
I came upon your book while searching for something to read in barnes and noble. I saw the cover and was pulled in by its intricate detail by McGrath. I didnt have to read 3 pages of your first of the 3books I got, before I realized what a genius you are. I just finished your first book 4 days ago and I am already halfway into Rogue Clone and am waiting to collect all your books.
A very dedicated reader, Taylor W.
Kevowatt,
I agree with you. it really has become cliche. From Carl Sagan (Contact) to Stephen King (Myst and Cell), it seems to be the in thing to write about diabolical Christians.
I think it makes a lot of people feel like they are being very brave to attack Christians--brave in the same way the old whalers where brave harpooning whales.
THe amazing thing is that these authors do not see what they are doing for the cliche it has become.
Welcom aboard, Ace.
I'm with you, Christian McGrath is about as good an artist as I have ever seen do the cover of a book. I am so grateful to Ace Book for hiring him to work on my novels.
Post a Comment