Serials are fun and a mess in a dress

This is the conclusion I’ve come to as a result of (re?)starting the process of working on fixing books 3-7 of the Awakenings series. Of course, it’s a serial, the story predates the serial, and it’s all very complicated and crazy and fun.

It’s a story that I wanted to tell but it was a story that I dove into with barely half a plan which sometimes works out great and sometimes doesn’t. Sometimes writing to a deadline, while it forces you to continue to stretch creative muscles, doesn’t do you many favors.
There’s a lot that needs fixing, needs updating, needs smoothing out—this is true of books 3-7, but also specifically true of some plot and character arcs that turned out to be, in the end, not what they were originally intended to be (I’m looking at you, Matt and Hecate, who took the prize for “biggest surprise” so far—which is not to say other characters didn’t also do this to me because more than a few did). This means I have a lot of material to play with, but there’s also a lot of material that needs tightening up.

Some things will need to be pulled out, new things will be added in. In reviewing the content that ended up being book 3 content (since book 2 and book 3 ended up being mixed around a little bit from how they were originally posted—just to make some things flow better and properly link things together), there’s almost no content with the group that Aoife’s with, which is something that will need to change so their plot arc can be properly tied up in subsequent books. I can’t cut them entirely because a) it wouldn’t make sense to do it given the role some of the characters play later and b) at least one particularly important instance where we see exactly how wild talents and magic can be in the broken world.

In many ways, the books of the Founders Cycle (which comprises the first seven books of the series), is about the survivors learning exactly what they can do—the power they possess—and then stomping down hard on the war that they didn’t start but will play a role in finishing. It’s a fun, interesting arc that takes them through the first few years after the end of everything they knew and one that sets up the Ambrose Cycle that follows—but more on that story sometime to come.

Either way, I’ve got my work cut out for me with all of this.

Awakenings: Book One and War Drums are available where books are sold.

Of Starships and Intergalactic Wars

Probably ten years ago, when the Internet was a younger space and podcasting and the concepts of web fiction and indie e-publishing were young, I ended up guesting on a podcast dedicated to web fiction, talking about Awakenings initially. The conversation with the host eventually drifted to my recently released book, Broken Stars, about which the host was duly enthused.

The universe of Broken Stars is in some ways more optimistic than the world of Awakenings—sure, the human race still has problems but the actual apocalypse hasn’t happened and hey, we’re in space. Sure, Earth is held by a galactic state that stands in opposition to our heroes in Broken Stars and there’s definitely a simmering conflict there, but we’ve managed to survive two wars of annihilation and enslavement by an alien race to get there.

More on that in a second.

The question—in the midst of this long-ago interview—that came up from the host, something that is probably the only thing that I remember from the whole interview, was the question whether or not Broken Stars would ever be released as web fiction, if anything in that universe would be released online as web fiction. I remember laughing and saying that I wasn’t sure it quite felt right to do it that way, that the format might not be right.

Fast forward to a pandemic, to another bachelor’s degree, to a much different point in my life than where I was in the days of that interview.

There has been an idea rolling around in my head for a little while now, suggesting that in addition to getting back to both Awakenings and at least the world of the Legacies of Lost Earth, perhaps there was hope for a web-facing taste of the Epsilon universe—of which Broken Stars is a major part.

The Preytax Wars are a historical event that takes place in the Epsilon universe, an event that planted the seeds for the status quo that exists in Broken Stars. Taking place in the 22nd century, several decades after humanity has made its way deeper and deeper into the stars (thanks to a bit of help from a few friendly alien races that made first contact in the later 21st century), the Preytax Wars represent humanity’s first encounter with a hostile alien race and two major conflicts with that race—both of which are generally characterized as life or death for humanity and human society on the whole.

Humanity won, but not without cost and not necessarily as decisively as anyone characterizing it as an existential conflict might have hoped—but no one actually thinks they’ll come back, right?

More on that to come in the future.

I have never been sure if I would actually write a full-blown book in the era of the Preytax Wars—I would have to write several, in fact, due to knowing who some of the important macro and micro stories live with. Something that I have been playing with is putting together a site that gathers fictional news reports, journal entries, sequences, etc. that would tell at least part of the story of the Preytax Wars. It’s been an idea that’s simmered for a little while now.

I suppose we’ll see what happens next.

Prompt for September 10, 2014 – Day 253

It’s Wednesday–we’re halfway to the end of our week. Yay!

Here’s an opening line for your inspiration. It happens to be the same opening line I used for today’s Awakenings update.

Prompt Type: Opening line

Prompt: I literally tripped over it—the object of our search, our temporary holy grail.


Got an idea for a prompt? Email me at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.

Prompt for September 2, 2014 – Day 245

It’s Tuesday, and back to work for me (and most of us, right?)

I spent my Labor Day slaving over the edits for the deluxe/print edition of Awakenings: War Drums. I hope you had an equally lovely and productive Labor Day as well!

Today’s prompt is actually one of the chapter openers from War Drums.

Prompt Type: Opening line

Prompt: Every so often, his thoughts returned to the girl he’d left at the border.


Got an idea for a prompt? Email me at emklitzke (at) gmail (dot) com.

Current projects and ramblings

Well, November’s over and we’re now well into December and I’ve been busy the past few months, as I’m sure folks have noticed.  My updates for Ashes to Ashes and Awakenings have been shorter than usual for the past few months, for which I whole-heartedly apologize!  I’ve been spending some time recharging my batteries the past few weeks and prior to that was knee-deep in some plotting with a few friends for some potential collaborations (in a new fantasy universe, the science fiction universe of The General’s Lady, and in the UNSETIC/Lost Angels universe), but now I’m getting back on track with my own work and I’m loving every minute of it.

I spent my November getting deeply reacquainted with my Epsilon universe and of my NaNoWriMo work, folks may be seeing some short works about General Jackson “Longshot” Hunter, JJ Collins, and perhaps a few others that have been mentioned in Broken Stars and Falling Stars only briefly. Stay tuned for updates on that front.

More recently, I have begun to work on edits and reviews for the special edition of War Drums and the (somewhat belated) release of Awakenings book three, Omens and Echoes.  As a result, Phelan O’Credne has decided to take up residence in a warm corner of my brain and is rocking back and forth, hoping I don’t do some of the awful things I’m pondering for the universe going forward (I’m currently writing and posting book four at awakenings.embklitzke.com).  More updates on that coming soon.

It’s shaping up to be a fun end of year for me, both as a writer and as a crafter (I got a new sewing machine and have been using it to make wonderful things lately).  The new year promises to bring new goals and a niece for me to spoil rotten.

There will be some changes and new weekly features coming in the next few weeks, so check back often!

Snippet Sunday – Awakenings: Book One

Today’s snippet is an additional piece from Awakenings: Book One previously only available in the print and ebook versions of the serial.

Awakenings: Book OneThe world ended on an August Sunday, in a rain of stones from the sky, like something out of Revelations.  Marin Astoris saw the end of the world well before it happened, and her visions of the future become a guiding force for a small knot of survivors at her Midwestern university.

In the weeks after the end of the world, that knot of thirty students and one professor begin to awaken to supernatural gifts they didn’t expect.  These newfound talents may mean the difference between life and death–for them and the rest of humanity.

Thom Ambrose loves Marin with every fiber of his being, but he can’t accept the prophetic gift they share.  If he does, he’ll lose the only thing that’s important to him: her.  His ignorance comes at a price.

Is it a price he and his friends can afford to pay?

Fiction below the break.


Continue reading “Snippet Sunday – Awakenings: Book One”

Awakenings: War Drums Cover reveal

I’ve gotten opinions on this from a few friends and now it’s time to show it to the world.

Awakenings: War Drums cover

Awakenings: War Drums will actually only be comprised of roughly the first 100,000 words (give or take a few chapters) of the current ongoing segment of Awakenings.  I began to realize once I hit 165,000 words and wasn’t done yet that maybe what I had intended to be book two was perhaps really book two and book three.

To give you an idea of how long the first 100,000 words would be, if you go up through the end of Chapter 19 in the current version as uploaded, that would account for approximately 101,000 words of the book.

The current draft of books two and three combined is over 179,000 words and still climbing.

I will announce more details about book three (length, cover art, title, etc) at a later date.  Book Four of Awakenings also does not have a title yet, but you can expect that to begin posting probably by May or June.

Of course, considering it’s me, plans may change…nothing, after all, is ever certain.


Awakenings: Book One is available where books are sold.

Catch up on the current ongoing story at awakenings.embklitzke.com