Good news! Last week, my publisher sent me the cover art for The Cronian Incident. And as of today, with the announcement for the book coming out, I am officially allowed to show it to the world! For the past few weeks, we’ve been toying with some concepts that the publisher’s artist came up with. After agreeing on a template that we liked best, the artist went to work making it as detailed and futuristic-looking as possible! Below is the final product they created.
This will be the front cover for the paperback and the thumbnail for the ebook, which is set to be released in mid-September. It features a spacecraft docking with spaceport in the dense atmosphere of Titan (Saturn’s largest moon). If you look closely, you can see how the hull of the ship bears the symbol of the Formists. This is the faction in my story that wants to terraform Mars, and their symbol is therefore a tree within a circle set against a sphere that denotes Mars.
What do you think? Does this cover scream “space opera”, “technological singularity”, “gritty”, “realistic”, and/or “science fiction gold” to you?
Stay tuned, because the press kit for The Cronian Incident is coming soon!
For reasons which will be become clear in a moment, I am not feeling very wordy today. So I shall keep this plain and put it into a series of bullet points, all with exclamation marks:
The manuscript is complete!
Sent it to the publisher last week!
They’re about half-way through and said they like it!
Hmmm. Okay, maybe I need to go with the wordier version!
After 18 months, I have finally finished the manuscript to The Cronian Incident. And after about a week, they wrote to me to tell me that they were half done and they were enjoying it. Naturally, they were sure to note that there were some flaws and some things that needed fixing, but nothing major. In other words, it will need polishing, but they see no reason NOT to publish it at this time! 🙂
This moment has certainly been a long time in coming! And in all honesty, I felt kind of deflated once I had written the last sentence to the last chapter. I was happy and knew that the significance of being done would probably hit me soon enough. But at the time, it was like climbing a steep hill and getting to the top, only to realize how tired I was and how far I still needed to walk to get back to the car!
Ah well. Like I said, I am sure I will hit me it eventually. And in the meantime, I’ve been encouraged and relieved to know that the publisher didn’t think it was pure crap! Because believe me, when you’re heavily invested in the creation of something, you really worry that others might not like it! And that is perhaps what made completing the manuscript so very difficult and time-consuming. It was not just me feeling like, “man, I need to finish this!” There was also the feeling of, “but what if this doesn’t work out? What if this is no good? Have I wasted all this time? Will I have to start over?”
In the meantime, all I can do is wait and stay cautiously optimistic. The publisher has told me that they anticipate finishing the book by sometime next week; at which point, I imagine we’ll start talking about edits and contracts, etc. Getting close, people! Fingers crossed!
Hey folks! It’s taken me some time, but I am finally getting around to finishing my story of this past year’s Eurotrip. The year of 2016 is rapidly coming to a close, so I really wanted to get this done before New Year’s. After all, this trip marked the centennial of the Battle of the Somme, Beaumont Hamel, and many other World War I events. Leaving it until next year just seemed wrong.
Picking up where I left off, my family and I witnessed some really amazing things during the first week that we were in Normandy. Our visit coincided with the 72nd anniversary of the D-Day and the Liberation of Normandy. And once we had finished witnessing these, visited the D-Day beaches, taking part in the commemorative ceremony at Grangue, and paying our respects to my great-uncle Wilmott, we got in some last-minute visits and started carrying on to Belgium and Holland.
Cabourg:
Our first stop after the ceremony at Grangues was to the town of Cabourg, located on the Normandy coast overlooking the English Channel. This place is famous for being a the favorite hangout of French writer Marcel Proust, and is the home of many waterfront hotels and casinos. Personally, I felt it was a bit Niagra Falls-esque, that is to say, a bit tacky. But we still got in a lovely walk along the waterfront (Promenade Marcel Proust) and enjoyed some lunch at the famous Grand Hotel Cabourg.
Upon returning to Grangues, we packed up and got ready for the next part of our adventure, which included stops in the border towns of Amiens and Albert…
Amiens:
During the Great War (aka. World War I), Amiens found itself being on the front-lines of battle. Between 1914 and 1918, it was occupied by both the Germans and the Allied forces. And the Battle of Amiens (1918) was the beginning of the Hundred Days Offensive, where Allied troops (led by the Canadian Corps) began pushing the Germans out of France completely and back through Belgium. In World War II, it was heavily bombed by the British Air Force and suffered immense damage. After the liberation, the city was rebuilt and has gone on to become a very modern urban environment.
My father outside of the Amiens Cathedral side entrance
Once we arrived, we checked in at a Best Western, located next to a park where a big ol’ monument honoring Charles de Gaulle and the French resistance stood. From there, we set off on foot to the old part of the city to see the Cathedral and take in some of the local culture. The Cathedral Amiens was quite the sight, as it is the tallest classic Gothic churches in France, and is today recognized as a World Heritage Site.
The interior was quite amazing and we took many pictures. We also got treated to images like the one above that showed how the Cathedral was fortified during the war. After a few hours inside, we stepped out into the courtyard and enjoyed some sour ale at a bar sitting right next to it (my wife and folks were not fans of it!) By dinner time, we enjoyed some rather lackluster burgers at another joint that honestly had horse meat on the menu (steak cheval, I kid you not!)
That night, we didn’t all sleep so well. My wife and I had a cramped room that was tucked in the inner corner of the building, and the heat was sweltering. I opened the room’s only window, but she feared a pigeon would fly in (a realistic anxiety, since they seemed to be nesting right outside). As such, we basically tossed and turned and got a very restless sleep. By morning, we weren’t so happy. But we soldiered on to our next destination!
The interior of Amiens Cathedral during World War I
Albert:
After taking our breakfast in the downstairs dining hall and continued on to our destination for the day – the border town of Albert. Here was another historic town that was on the front lines during World War I, specifically during the Battle of the Somme. It also boasts an impressive cathedral – the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières – that saw its share of action as well. And today, it has an impressive WWI museum that is major draw.
To give you a little history lesson, the Basilica dates back to the 19th century and was built in the Byzantine tradition. Its tower features a gold statue, known as the “Golden Virgin”, which shows the Virgin Mary holding forth a baby Jesus. On January 15th, 1915 – while French, British and German forces were battling for control of the border region – a shell struck the tower and bent it to a near-horizontal position. There it would remain for years to come, and a popular mythology quickly emerged, claiming that whoever knocked it over would be the side that would lose the war.
By the time of the German Spring Offensive of 1918, British shelling destroyed the church. And after the war, like every other town and landmark in the region, the Basilica was rebuilt, complete with the statue of the Golden Virgin on top. Another thing which survived the war was an underground tunnel that sits beneath the cathedral, where wounded were brought when the town was on the front lines. Today, that tunnel serves as a museum, where rooms that sat to the sides of the tunnel are now displays showing equipment and recreated scenes of the war.
The tower of the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Brebières, showing the Virgin Mary and the baby Jesus.
Unfortunately, I have no pictures from the tunnels to post, so my meager descriptions will have to do. For one, despite being brightly painted and well-lit, they retain an undeniable sense of claustrophobia. The entire time I was wandering through them, I felt the oppressive feeling that comes from being underground and there only being a few feet between one wall and the other. This really helps to impress upon you how awful it must have been during the war, when the entire place would have been lit by gas lamps or a few bulbs and it was overcrowded with wounded soldiers, nurses and equipment.
Once you get the other end, there is a lovely shop that sells lots of (what I assume were) historical recreations – helmets, bullets, badges, uniforms. I have heard tell that some people have retrieved various war artifacts from their fields, or have memorabilia lying around the house, and have chosen to sell them. However, the stuff we saw seemed in too good of shape to be a century old.
Speaking of which, we also took this day to visit Beaumont Hamel, the memorial where the Newfoundland Regiment suffered terrible losses during the Battle of the Somme. We had missed the centennial celebrations, which took place a few days before on July 1st, 2016, which was a bit of a blessing. According to the tour guides, the place was packed to capacity, with people even standing in the fields (which are usually off-limits due to worries of there still be unexploded ordinance).
Like last time, before going to the site, we stopped in at Avril’s Tea Room for some eats. This consisted of chocolate milk (the powdered-chocolate mix and milk, which you have to keep stirring if you don’t want a mouth of powder!) and some slices of quiche with bacon (very salty!). Luckily, one of Avril’s cats was doing the rounds and helped me eat some of the bacon bits.
The wall outside the Albert museum, where poppies grow wild!
This was followed by a quick demonstration in a neighboring field, where I showed my parents my latest Taekwon-Do pattern. We all used to train together, and got our Third Degree Black Belts at the same time (1997). However, they quit a few years later and I’ve been training (and keeping them in the loop with occasional demonstrations) ever since. We then visited a farmer’s field that sits next to Beaumont Hamel because my father wanted to see if he could find a crater that he had read about.
Unfortunately, we never found the crater. The field was dense with what we took to be rye and was pretty much impenetrable. And after fearing that were dangerously close to trespassing, we fell back aways and started looking in a plot that was mostly dirt for some shrapnel. As I explained from our last trip, shrapel and unexploded ordinance often turns up in fields throughout Flanders. This, more than monuments and grave sites, lets you know just how totally the landscape was altered by the war years.
And much like the last time we went digging – outside of Langemark cemetery in Belgium – we seriously hit a motherload here! Within minutes of searching, we found several large pieces of metal that bore markings that indicated that they were from an artillery shell. And my father found several shrapnel balls that were still intact! We packed this up in a little bag, and then proceeded to Beaumont Hamel.
My father and I searching for shrapnel in the farmer’s field
As I described it last time, the site is a preserved battlefield. Though it is now grown over with grass, the field still bears the marks of war. As you enter, you see where the British and Newfoundland troops (then part of the Commonwealth and not Canada), were stationed. When you spot the key locations, like the danger tree, and the German lines at the far side of the field, you come to understand how staggeringly wasteful the First World War was. Thousands of men died within the space of a few minutes, and on a stretch of land measuring not much longer than a football field.
We got to see more of it this time, walking from one end to the other. This included all the grave sites and monuments that dot the field, the British and Commonwealth lines, the German lines, and the visitor center. And with this visit complete, we proceeded on to our next (and possibly favorite) destination!
Ypres:
This town is one that captured the hearts of my wife and I after our first visit in 2014. In fact, it would be fair to say it captured my heart long before I visited, thanks to my fathers descriptions of this town, its people and its deep connection to the events of WWI. In fact, I think I spoke so at length of these in my posts about our 2014 visit that I almost feel like nothing more needs to be said.
Psyche! Okay, so we turned up in Ypres midway through our trip. And we checked back into the hotel that served us so well last time. This would be the local Albion, which endeared itself to us in large part because of their awesome breakfasts! I can’t emphasize enough how wonderful a good Belgian breakfast is. Seriously, it combines the best aspects of a French and German breakfast – hard boiled eggs, meats, cheese, muesli, yogurt, croissants, bread and bakes goods, jams and spreads, and lots of butter! And the coffee is none too shabby either!
The preserved trench line at Vimy Ridge
We had already laid out which places we wanted to see – the In Flanders Fields Museum, the Menin Gate, the Market Place during Market Day (Saturday), the British Grenadier Bookshop, the medieval walls, and of course the many monuments and cemeteries that are in driving distance from the town.
The wife and I also took the opportunity to go for a job around the wall which guards the old part of town. We had done this the last time we visited – in 2014 – and wanted to see more of it. After running along the part that follows the canal, we ran across the bridge, around the other side through one of the wall’s main gates, and then farther around to the section of the old city that the wall doesn’t encompass.
After that, we had a nice meal near the Cathedral that sits next to the In Flander’s Fields museum, where I discovered a new type of food (Flemish Stew, which is cubed beef is a rich ale gravy, usually served with salad and mashed potatoes) and a new beer (Keizer Karel, a nice Belgian Blond ale), both of which I loved!
The sheep that grave in Vimy’s fields today
But the greatest jaunt we made was definitely to the Vimy Monument, commemorating the battle of Vimy Ridge in 1917. Visiting this place is tantamount to to a holy pilgrimage for Canadians, as it commemorates the battle that effectively defined Canada as a nation. Once again, we took the underground tour, passing into the tunnels that the Canadian and British used before the battle in an attempt to place mines under the German trenches. As the craters in the region can attest, the resulting explosions were quite large!
One thing I absolutely must include is the story of my mother’s lost purse, and the story of our lunch. I cannot impress upon people enough how excellent French culture is at doing a simple lunch. Pull into any roadside bakery, get yourselves some subs made with French baguettes – they have all kinds of interesting options, from sliced meet to curried chicken or pesto and veggies – and grab some delicious baked goods for desert. This time around, we all got assorted baguette subs and some delicious apple tarts (my mother got a pistachio cream goodie). We bought these before going to the monument and then ate at the picnic area afterwards.
We packed up to leave after all that, got back tot he hotel, and realized my mother left her purse behind. We called the staff at the monument only to find that they were closed for the day. So my folks went back to look for it. As it turns out, there was an RV parked by the picnic area. When my folks returned, the nice couple who owned it (a lovely French Canadian couple) had picked it up and were holding it in case we returned. When they saw my folks, they let them know it was safe and sound and turned it over.
That was a load of my folks minds, let me tell you. They were already dealing with the stress of knowing that one of their beloved cats (Beethoven, their oldest), had broken his leg in an accident (he’s doing fine, btw). With all that complete, we retired back to town for a quiet dinner and a nice sleep. On the next day, we made for our next stop on the tour.
That consisted of seeing locations in central Belgium, Holland, and then our return to France. All of which will be covered in Part the Last!
Hey all! I have more in the way of novel-writing news. For starters, The Cronian Incident is now just a few chapters short of completion. After over a year of writing, editing, and back and forth with my prospective-publisher, the novel is just about finished. All told, it is now 31 chapters long and just over 85,000 words in length. I anticipate it will be about 100,000 by the time its finished, though I have been known to exceed estimates in the past!
And as per my agreement with my publisher, I have begun working on its sequel. Apparently, publishers like to know the people they sign have more books in them. And they prefer to release sequels within a few months of the first book, to ensure that any buzz they generate with the first release can be capitalized on. Lucky for me I had plans for a second and third novel before my publisher and I started talking, not to mention some spin offs.
So here’s the commercial description for the proposed sequel (i.e. what you’d read on the back of the dust jacket), as well as a rundown on some other ideas I’m working on:
The Jovian Manifesto:
The Solar System is in the midst of a crisis. In the Jovian and Cronian systems, the populations are up in arms, thanks to an inflammatory document that has appeared on the local nets. Known as “The Jovian Manifesto”, this document details how a powerful faction in the Inner Solar System conspired to seize control over the moons of Callisto and Titan and forcibly alter them. Behind the leak is a mysterious personality known only as Clio, who is threatening to release all the details unless the guilty parties come forward.
Back on Venus, a former analyst named Valéria Gallego is called before the Solar Assembly to investigate the Manifesto and its author. In this, she is assisted by Kadera, an infiltration specialist who can get in and out of any location in the Solar System. If they can determine its authenticity, perhaps they can prevent open conflict. But if not, the Inner Worlds may have no choice but to send armed forces to the Outer Worlds to ensure peace and stability.
Meanwhile, a string of violent acts has threatened to bring things ever closer to the brink. For Gallego and all those who are seeking the truth, time is running out…
Luna Invictus:
Now this is a book that doesn’t come with a commercial description, just a general one. But it is set in the same universe as The Cronian Incident and The Jovian Manifesto. Here’s what I am thinking. Basically, I wanted to do a story set on the Moon, ca. the 22nd century, when the Moon is now effectively colonized,,,
Between the European Space Agency (ESA), NASA, the Russians (Roscosmos), India (the ISRO), and China (CNSA), the lunar surface now has multiple permanent settlements. Whereas the ESA and NASA have established themselves at the southern polar region – in a domed settlement in the Shackleton Crater – and the Chinese have established a colony in the northern polar region, the Russians and Indians have claimed the mid-latitudes, where stable lava tubes have allowed for the creation of underground cities.
And on the “Dark Side” of the Moon – that is to say, the side looking away from Earth – are a series of installations known as the Unrestricted Zones. It is here that all kinds of weird research, development and experiments take place. Nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum computing, and man-machine interface – anything goes in these places! Ever since the explosion in learning that took place during the previous century, places all over Earth and the Moon have become dedicated to pursuing technological progress and integration without restriction.
And it is here that a young man named Frankling Houte is seeking to go. Years ago, his sister – named Constant Houte – chose to undergo a procedure where her organic brain would be augmented by merging it with quantum components. But after all contact ceased, he is determined to find her and return her home. But whereas Franklin fancies himself a brave rescuer, it is his sister who will come to save him.
Transverse:
This story will take place entirely in a generation ship that is making its way towards the nearby star system. Within the confines of this self-contained world, thousands of humans have committed to waiting and working for generations as their massive ship – the Traverse Velocity, which in astronomical terms refers to the speed at which a star moves perpendicular to our line of sight – transports them to an Earth-like world outside of our Solar System.
The location of that world is up for grabs at the moment, mainly because new discoveries are being made all the time. Did you hear about the latest exoplanet discovery, located about 39 light years away and already said to be the “best place to look for signs of life beyond the Solar System”? Between that and new findings that claims how previous discoveries are not likely to be habitable after all, I’ve decided to leave the destination blank until I actually start writing it!
But of course, no story would be complete without some intrigue and big ol’ inciting event! And the way I see it, things begin to go awry when the Captain and crew get notification that one of the passengers has awakened from cryosleep prematurely and disappeared into the ship. Shortly thereafter, one of the crew is found dead in what appears to be a sabotage attempt gone wrong. A ship-wide search begins to find the culprit while the atmosphere quickly devolves into one of paranoia and suspicion.
To make matter worse, the crew becomes aware of another ship that is threatening to catch up and overtake them. It seems that another faction from the Solar System, which was also intent on settling (insert exoplanet here) is now trying to get their ahead of them. What began as a journey to a new world, characterized by hopes and dreams, has become a race to lay claim to a planet. And it appears that the planet may have inhabitants of its own, ones which are not interested in welcoming the intruders.
After many weeks of waiting and waiting, it has finally happened. A publisher has offered to take me on and I have accepted. Which means that when The Cronian Incident is finally available, it will be a Castrum Publishing product. But before you go thinking its all good news, let me tell you that the road getting here was a bit awkward!
For starters, I was first approached by the man I’m currently working with (let’s call him Paul) back in October. At the time, he was the acquiring editor (AE) for the science-fiction and space opera division of a UK-based publishing company. After the usual back and forth with edits and suggestions, he said he wanted to sign me for a three book deal and a short story.
Shortly thereafter, he announced to all those authors who he had been working with that he had quit the company over “creative differences”. He also told me in a private email that he would still be interested in signing me once he got his own press up and running. I was flattered, but kept talking to the press to see where things stood. I was told by Paul’s boss (the AE for the entire operation) I was still in good standing, and he asked me to submit my latest draft for them to look over.
Then, after about a month of waiting, the editor told me he was handing me off to someone they had hired to fill Paul’s shoes. At about the same time, Paul contacted me again and said his press was up and rolling and wanted to know if I had signed anything yet. I said I had not, but was still waiting on a reply. He said cool, and that if I was interested, he would give me a contract with the standard rules, rights, and royalties. In other words, distribution via paperback, ebook and audiobook, with a 40% cut of each.
I was more than prepared to jump ship because honestly, I wasn’t sure about them and only really decided to sign on because I had had the chance to talk to Paul extensively and trusted him as an editor. You could say we shared a lot of the same goals and he seemed entirely on the up and up. But of course, I wanted to do my due diligence.
So I naturally started knocking on Tickety Boo’s door to see what was going on. The owner himself got back to me and asked me to send him my latest manuscript. He said if it grabbed him in the first ten pages, we would be good to go. I seriously didn’t know what the hell was going on, as I’d already submitted my manuscript to his company multiple times and had been given the green light by his former acquiring editor (Paul), and the AE above him.
In any case, I did as he asked and was told he would get back to me in 24 hours. When that time has passed, I let him know that I had a competing and needed an answer. He messages me back to say he was willing publish my book, but that it would need like two big editing sweeps, and he was only willing to give me 30% royalties until it proved its worth. He also made it clear he wasn’t about to get into any bidding.
Less than an hour later, he messaged me again and said his editors had “overruled” him and he was not going to publish me. I wasn’t sure what to make of this. But it genuinely felt like he was at first trying to shake me down, and then just dropped me. I also noted the timing and how it seemed rather conspiratorial. If I didn’t know better, I would have thought the mention of another offer made him get defensive.
This also came after a month of runaround from his operation, which Paul had quit because (as he explained just recently) he didn’t like the way they were treating their authors. After all this, I could certainly see why some people felt this way. And so I emailed Paul back and said we were a go. I also let him know that I had already decided to sign with him, but wanted to make sure I didn’t leap without looking.
So the good news is that I am a go and should be ready to see my book in print within a few months time! The only bad news would be it took awhile to get to this point and I had to get the runaround from some jerkoff and his printing press in the process! But it’s the journey, not the destination, right?
So expect to hear regular updates on the progress of this story as it goes from final draft to on sale. And expect updates on its proposed sequel – The Jovian Manifesto – which is currently in the works!
Hey everybody. I know that these days, I have a tendency to post only occasional updates on my blog these days. Hopefully that is something that will change in the near future. But one of the upsides of this is that I always have plenty of news to share when I DO post.
Speaking of which, a LOT has happened in the past few months. For one, I’ve been sick January, which means that I’ve been sick for about seven weeks straight now. This has to be the longest bout of flu that I’ve ever suffered from. And I tell ya, it really sucks! An upside to this is the fact that I’ve severely curtailed my alcohol and sugar consumption. This has been great for my health, though I’ve also missed a lot of exercise because I’ve been too tired and stuffy to train or hit the gym. Life always seems to make you compromise, huh?
Next, on January 21st, I had some really good news. After months of back and forth with my prospective publisher (Tickety Boo Press), I finally got a chance to have a face-to-face with the acquiring editor. Well, it was on Skype, but that counts these days! After talking about edits, he said that the company would like to sign me for a three book deal and a short story! However, about a week later, the same man sent out a mass email saying he quit the press over creative differences. This meant that guys like me (who had not signed a contract yet) needed to scramble to make sure we still had a deal.
Luckily, I managed to talk to the senior editor over at Tickety Boo and learned that I still had a spot in their 2017 catalog. Unfortunately, I still had to forward this man the latest copy of the five chapter treatment of my manuscript and wait for his thoughts on it. After weeks of waiting, he informed me the other day that they had a new acquiring editor for their SF division, so I now had someone who I could contact and who would be able to promptly get back to me.
On that same front, I am almost finished the manuscript for The Cronian Incident. After a lot of revising, merging, snipping and editing, I now have a 30+ chapter story that should be about 90,000 words once its all done. Just a few chapters to go, and I can begin making final edits and revisions before sending the whole thing off to the publisher. That is a huge relief, I tell you! After working this idea in my head for over a year, it feels good to finally be getting it all down on paper.
Let’s see… other news. Oh yeah, in the past few months, I also got do so something really cool for my job. This consisted of my participating in NASA call-in briefing, which I did on two occasions. The first occasion took place early in January, when NASA was announcing their latest Discovery missions. One is known as the Lucy mission, which will examine Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids to learn more about the formation of the early Solar System. The other, known as Psyche, will be exploring an asteroid in the Main Belt that is made entirely of metal. It is believed that this is actually the core remnant of a Mars-sized planet that lost its mantle after colliding with other massive objects.
The fun part happened during the phone-in portion, where we got to ask the Principal Investigators of each mission questions. Since I had written about the Psyche mission in the past, I decided to nut-up and ask a question. It took me some time to come up with something I thought was half-way intelligent, but finally called in. It came to me when she said that the mission could help shed light on how metallic cores generated planetary magnetic fields (which is the current scientific consensus).
Addressing Psyche’s PI, Lindy Elkins-Tanton, I asked if studying this core’s magnetic environment could help teach us why Mars lost its magnetic field billions of years ago. Since this caused it to lose its atmosphere, thus becoming a cold, desiccated world which no longer could support rivers, lakes and oceans, learning more about how cores generate magnetic fields could help us to locate habitable worlds in the future.
She acknowledged that it was a good question, and that she really wasn’t sure. But she said they hoped that their study of Psyche could help shed light on questions like this in the future and they would have to see what they found. Suffice it to say, I was very pleased with myself! Rather than laughing at me or answering in such a way that told me that my question was brain-dead, she seemed genuinely impressed with the question and hoped that they could answer it some day.
The second call-in happened towards the end of February. My boss told me NASA had some huge news to announced of an exoplanet-hunting nature and gave me the job of calling in. So I did, and got to hear firsthand about the discovery of seven exoplanets around the same star – TRAPPIST-1 – and how three of them are not only comparable in size to Earth, but orbit within the star’s habitable zone.
Naturally, this was very exciting news! This time, rather than stick around for question period, I hung up almost immediately after the announcement was finished and began writing about it furiously. It was both fun and a real privilege to be the one to break this story for our publication. And the hits were pretty mad!
That’s about it, I think. It’s been a busy post-holiday wrap up. And now that we are getting into Spring, I am happily looking forward to a few things. And I hope to be able to convey some of them as they happen, rather than months after the fact! Thanks for reading 🙂
After many years of starts and stops, the fandom community has been pretty excited that we are finally getting a Blade Runner sequel. Whether or not it will be the sequel we want remains to be seen (we all remember Jar Jar!). In any case, the first teaser trailer has just come out. As you can see, it shows Ryan Gosling in the lead role, with Harrison Ford reprising his role as Rick Deckard.
As was likely the intent, this trailer establishes that there is a passing of the torch between Ford and Gosling, who has become a Blade Runner himself. And if I had to guess, I would say the whole exchange (which takes place at gunpoint) indicates that the plot will center on what Deckard did at the end of the previous movie – which was to run off with Rachael (a Replicant) to make a life with her.
The movie is scheduled for release in October of 2017, and includes performances by Jared Leto, Robin Wright, Mackenzie Davis, and Ana de Armas. Check it out!
