FREE PLANET vs WAR WORLD - new website to promote - competing trilogies

Three years in the writing of the six novels of the interconnected Hertzan Chimera trilogies, there's a new website to promote the completed i.e. finished "Free Planet vs War World" dual/duelling novels.

Let the world know, WAR WERE DECLARED.

click image to visit the "Free Planet vs War World" promotional website

REAPER (free planet #3) novel now available - You The People series finale.

this weekend is a very special weekend for me, it's the culmination of THREE YEARS of intense and often insane writing effort to resolve the War World vs Free Planet issue.

REAPER (the third and concluding novel in the Free Planet series) has been published by Chimericana Books in ebook, kindle and paperback. All formats should be there by the end of this weekend. In the end, it all went rather smoothly. But one imagine you'll wanna know what happened and who won the war.

I'm not even sure who really won, or if the war was worth fighting, you'll have to judge for yourselves how it went. Is this the end of War World vs Free Planet? It feels like it.

Was the conclusion satisfactory or are there still opportunities for more books in the series? How concerned were you that the two series became intimately interconnected? Will you write back and let me know?

REAPER, back cover blurb:

The first book was Custodians vs You The People. 

The second book was Military vs Civilians. 

In this third book Reaper, the Crystallines and the Organics go at it. 

But who will win and what is really at stake here? 

And what is the VMC? 

And how do our dreams enslave us? 

And what does Free Planet really taste like to the Reaper? 

All will be revealed in this third and final instalment.

REAPER - Free Planet book three - 60,000 words

Well, that's it ladies and gentlemen,

REAPER, book three in the Free Planet trilogy started in 2013, is finished.

 “In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act,” George Orwell 1948.

In the end, Reaper came in at 60,000 words and those who know of my other work/references will understand and appreciate the direction this Free Planet franchise and the War World franchise went/will go. When I say this, and you'll have to read both series right to the end, I mean there's a lovely Future Franchise that will take the whole FP vs WW narrative onto the next level via one unified story line. More of that in coming updates on a newly created blog just for that purpose.



MORNING-AFTER UPDATE: just sorted out the back cover blurbs for both these tandem novels, and I think they'll be published by some time in next week. I just have to do this now, not later. Now.

Crying Insane Assassin II - let me die in suspicious circumstances - The Enigmatic Variation

oops, we don't talk about that...

...it's like my poetry/prose editors used to respond, back in the eighties/nineties when I was submitting such to relevant journals under several pseudonyms like Michael Paul Peter and Vierland Brecke and Jane Louxis, "You're trying to tie up all the loose ends too neatly in your work," and by this they meant that I used to write poetry/prose such that the earlier content of the poems/prose was summarised neat and tidy at the end. Tied together. Neat. Boring. Mostly it was just the last line or two of a piece of work...

Then I became a "novelist", and I realise that, "Tying up loose ends is the job of a novelist, but..." maybe it's time to go back into both Kumiko (war world #3) and Reaper (free planet #3) and take out much of the neatness and tidiness I insertyped into those heavily-architectured twin-resolutional concluding-books of this dual-trilogy known as "Free Planet vs War World". The Enigma Variation of what might just be a boring set of novels about a boring topic might elevate it to something of worth to the future reader looking for a sensible reason why his world of slavery and debt and godma is SO UTTERLY FUCKED.

For example: six weeks ago, I beg'd CIA please don't let me die yet so that I could finish these two concluding novels of the dual-trilogy. As if they were important right now or something. As if two more books would be just the necessary more-wordage that would convince people that Free Planet will always win over War World. As if the universe or the world you live in is that simple. I realise it's not that simple, but you know what? Were I to die, today, in suspicious circumstances... like, for example, Dutch demolitions expert Danny Jowenko (pictured above) who watched the Saloman Brothers Building aka WTC7 come down into its own footprint on the afternoon of 9/11 and proclaimed, "Yes, that was a professional demolition job, no?"

These concluding novels in the dual trilogy (like the reams of smoking-gun 9/11 evidence) are already there, in various stages of development. They could be published as they are: Notes for a Ruined Planet or something of that ilk. There's no reason why not. Some editor could tidy them up so that they read like English. He/she'd do it differently than I'd done it, so... it would have the same effect. It would achieve the same aim. The six novels of the dual-trilogy "Free Planet vs War World" are done. Already. It's that simple. They're done already even though I haven't gone in and Philbin'd them up yet. Maybe some mainstream publisher will consider taking on my dual-trilogies and releasing them in these commemorative covers after my untimely death.

Maybe nothing of this kind will happen.
Maybe the concluding parts are never finished or published.
Maybe the world will continue to be ruled by mega-conglomerates and banking overlords playing a ruthless game of RISK with your very existence and you'll remain ambivalent to your for-profit patent-protect slavery but...

Enough people now know that Mike Philbin blog'd and youtube'd about his free planet manifesto for a number of years and he wrote four books in a planned six in the War World vs Free Planet dual-trilogies and somewhere in the world rough versions of those concluding dual-novels exist and could be published at some time in the future.

While I'm not that naive to believe that my Free Planet vs War World series will save the world or anything. Well, not this generation's world. Not this Earth, this generation's world is obviously doomed to die in the flames of corporate slavery and ruin. But more of that at some other time, if there is some other time. Fact is, though these books won't save you, or your children, I'm determined to have fun with you while I finish off the series with Kumiko and Reaper. I intend this Free Planet vs War World series to really fuck with the readers' minds, and it will. Believe this.

Enough people will finally realise that a Free Planet is the only way forward for mankind, were he wishing to remove himself from the cynical carnival called G3 or Global Gambling Game. And that's all living is, it's just a game. You decide your rules. Not them...

Free Planet 3 (Reaper) - finally, the finale has a structure - Crystalline chapters working

okay, you'all realise I've had the 'ending' or 'potential narrative/character content for an ending' for years, hence the cover for Reaper (free planet #3) which was designed back in 2014.

But this morning I received THE MOTIVE and the back-room scandal/dealings that gets us there. It's a good ending. It's a just ending. And yes it's as brutal as fuck in so many ways. Cruel as only a re-Wilded home world like Free Planet will allow. In fact, it's coming along so well in notebook form, I can't wait to transcribe this shit into doc format and expand on the confusion and pain of humanity as REAPER climaxes, galactically.

Once this novel is complete, that means that all six novels of the twin-trilogy Free Planet vs War World will be complete. I'll write this finale up through spring/summer (time and patience pending) and parts 3 of this duo-trilogy Kumiko (war world 3) and Reaper (free planet 3) will be out in paperback ebook kindle etc. via all decent online distributors some time during 2015. All being well. I never thought I'd end up writing a six-book interlocked dual narrative, but that's the joy of the creative process, eh?

"The Hoo-hoo are coming! The Hoo-hoo are coming!" cries the second death of Earth angel.


MONTH LATER UPDATE: I now have a filled-slots sketched-out third free planet novel that's somewhere just over 40,000 words with loads of typing up to perform yet. It wasn't easy either, hence this month-long delay in progress. I had tried all sorts of ways to extract information from my notes but there was something missing and I wasn't convinced by the earlier answer I had to how to do this. I had to be really brave with the allegedly above-resolved content and I had to totally restructure (and will have to totally rewrite to purpose) the Crystalline chapters of the novel so that they become a what happened first person how when why journalistic testimony. But I now have my alternative angle to fill with personal content, and it's gonna auto-resolve itself thanks to the structures already present in the copious notes of this novel.

The Organic side of REAPER (free planet #3) is the 'classic script' version where all the relational drama is laid bare, mostly dialogue. This is brim-filled with relevant narrative content, not sketches. Reaper should be a fine ending to the Free Planet vs War World series.

REAPER (free planet #3) - manuscript is one year old today - and still growing

so, today I wandered off for my usual 5-6 mile jog, ended up doing a quite decent 7.5 miles... just kept running and running, felt great. Anyway, on the way round, I experienced another bout of Jog Dreaming. As explained before, Jog Dreaming is where a weird 'haven't died yet' vibe seems to be rewarded with intense dream-like auto-resolutions or channelings (a term and concept I really don't like as it implies that 'my work is not my own') of novel content from the point where I'm currently at in any given project.

I've just banished myself to bed with my trusty old laptop while the girls watch The Voice and (firing up the February 2015 version from the relevant folder) I've just noticed that the 33,000 words Reaper (free planet #3) document is one year old this month. Happy birthday to it, happy birthday to it, Happy birthday dear document, happy birthday to it. LOL.

"One year old and only 33,000 words?" as true as that might be, remember I did write Kumiko (war world #3) to first-draft i.e. about 66,000 words while I should have been (had promised to be) working on Reaper through 2014. Anyway, a bit more research on the real age of the Reaper document takes me back to an unused novel treatment from March 2013 called Extinction Level Event that I was gonna use as the core or basis of what this third free planet novel was going to be. Most of that got abandoned in the writing of Reaper but a blind-archaeologist character from ELE might just insinuate himself back into the final free planet novel. He'll probably succeed way things are going with the story.

But ELE goes back even further than that, I was working in the games industry in 2009 when I first came up with the eye-porn idea. I know this because I remember sharing the guts of the narrative with one of my colleagues at the time. So that locks the origins of the Reaper novel way back in 2009 before the Free Planet novel-cum-series even started. ELE went into limbo, got time-capsuled, or mothballed. Strange how these things take so long to brew - luckily it'll be a nice dark vintage by the time it's done. Dark and dangerous, for you the reader and your enslaved souls. The Ninety Billion.

Reaper (free planet #3) - Please don't let me die yet - Crying Insane Assassin.

both due by end 2015

it's a thought I had regularly while writing the 2008 Silverthought Press releases Bukkakeworld and Planet of the Owls. I am forever grateful to Paul Hughes of Silverthought who had faith in these strange disturbing adult novels to publish them in the first place - they're not an easy read. At the time, I suspected these books were the reason I'd been born on this planet and they'd contain some sort of Legacy Material that I'd eventually become famous for. I'd be happy to die if only they were out, for public consumption. And that happened. And nothing happened. Anyway...

Fame is not why I write, one can achieve fame by pulling one's tongue out on Breakfast TV or dropping one's trousers on Late Nite with Letterman. That's not (personally) the Creative Path I'm travelling down. I'm an egotist; yes, as an artist it's important that the journey one takes is a personal one and the audience are dragged along in the turbulence of the output. And this applies to the writing process too.

2010-2013 was the time period in which I thought quite hard about, blog'd furiously about then finally wrote the devil's-advocate Free Planet novel Custodian. It was always intended as a one-novel project called Free Planet, but then (just prior to publication in early 2013) I realised there was an opportunity to extend the narrative out with MIDDD or Military Industrial Dogma Double Dealings that told the 'real story' of why Free Planet (Custodian) happened. But then, you see, Free Planet #2 (Liberator) hinted at the concept of a War World and the fact that everyone living today is still at war, it's just that it's now a for-profit war, a patent-protect war, a non-disclosure-agreement war. But we're still at war.

Late 2013 saw the first release of the tandem War World series. As it stands today, books one and two of the projected six-book series or double-trilogy are out in paperback, ebook, Kindle etc via Chimericana Books from Amazon, B&N and all the usual online book-buying places. Book three of the War World series (I'd like to think trilogy would be enough, I'm sure it is) Kumiko is mostly finished at 66-70,000 words or so and I'm hard at work on book three of the Free Planet series Reaper - 30,000 words and rising daily.

All the time, I'm thinking, "Don't let me die yet, don't let me die yet," and it's not as if these works are VITAL or IMPORTANT in any way, shape or form that can save mankind or otherwise alter his future. It's just a daft northerner having fun with words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, character, voice and ideas. It's a writer goading a reader to think, at the very worst. But it's the feeling that I've put so much into these six books, these parallel trilogies, and (even with the page after page of copious and contradictory notes in the unfinished manuscripts that I don't always adhere to) I'm the only who can finish this. Sometimes a character's narrative journey is more important than the story he's adopted into. So, let me do it. Let me finish it. Don't let me die yet.

WEEK LATER UPDATE: not only is Free Planet falling to bits, not only is the story racing to its breathless climax, but there's now a CRYING INSANE ASSASSIN on the loose, and he/she's taking no prisoners. Watch out, Custodians, you're on his/her list. And you deserve all that's coming to you.

Reaper (free planet #3) recommencing - ideas coming thick and fast - Kumiko (war world #3) first draft completion

during a recent extended week's holiday from my regular (bus driving) day job, I put in a good few hours per day i.e. a good few thousands of words per day, into Kumiko (war world #3). Kumiko was at the 52,000 words mark when I started my 'holiday' -- this was a mixture of 39,000 words of eight finished chapters + 13,000 words of extra notes etc. At the end of the holiday Kumiko was a much more finalised 13 finished chapters and a healthier 63,000 words. It'll be a little more than this when I've finished polishing it, but that's cool for now. Yes, I type fast when needs must and I can restructure a whole novel on the fly (as I had to here) under strict time/motion constraints.

What this means is that (while there are a couple of narrative threads to tidy up in the Kumiko first draft and a general spit and polish on the technical aspects of War World's ranks and badges) I'm happy that I've done all I can with that side of the Earth story and can now focus upon Reaper (free planet #3) as Xmas 2014 dawns and the publication year of 2015 for the tandem third parts in the Free Planet vs War World trilogies looms. I have a few more lieu days of holiday next week, so I've ample time to pen a good wedge of Reaper stuff.

The important thing is THE DREAMS HAVE STARTED. And by this I mean, "I can always tell when a novel needs to start because I start getting insistent and specific dreams about it. I've had TWO very important i.e very Reaper-relevant early-morning dreams already this week, so my Writer Mind (lol) is nagging that I 'crack on with it'." Yes, I realise the dream content is arbitrary and subjective, but I seem to know where all this material fits in - like magic. Reaper has over-grown enough now, and the story begs to be clipped and shaped. Like a hedge. Fun'd...

Running total: 20,000 words, and rising.

Reaper FP #3 - ORGANIC vs CRYSTALLINE - third split narrative

FEB 28th 2014
this happened, the genie escaped the bottle, I can't put it back in. I was there, like a good little writer, hammering away on the keyboard, re-writing chapter one (again), then re-arranging and restructuring chapter two (nipping an tucking, adding and taking away), now having a go at chapter three of 'free plane #3' novel Reaper and it just WHAM BAM THANK YOU MAM'd me.

CUSTODIAN (fp #1) was The Custodians vs You The People.

LIBERATOR (fp #2) was Civilian vs Military.

REAPER (fp #3) turns out to be Organic vs Crystalline.

Yeah, I know, I was surprised by that development, too. I certainly didn't expect to go in this direction with book three. In fact, nowhere in the detailed plan I have for the conclusion of this three-book series is there any mention of crystalline existence. But there it is.

It came from an examination of the old Patent Database - the Custodian Liberation aka McCardle and Hoskins finally get their finger out and start sifting through the Privatised Creativity, Passion and Kinship Store of ancient inventors for the good of mankind rather than the cynical furtherance of the Profit margin. And there it was ... the elixir of life, or at least the bridge to everlasting life.

Of course, I realise I've put a narrative cat among my pigeons. Do I care? Yes, it's giving me a headache, but I do this for you, sweet nectarous reader, so that you can find some succour in your daily grind. 

MARCH 16th UPDATE: I was actually considering giving up (for profit) writing for good last night. I came this close to never finishing WATCHER or REAPER. I thought, "Why should I when I alraedy have the novels in my head?" what do I need to gain from commercialising my talent? But I made a major discovery today. And that's powered me on to get these two books finished this year.

In February, I 'got inspired' to start writing about CRYSTALLINE EXISTENCE in REAPER (free planet #3). It's based on my ideas of a Sentient Water Planet i.e. Earth's real presence, its ancestry. I thought of the least likely crystal that could be out there i.e. a WATER BASED CRYSTAL that grows from salt water (with a special catalyst, nudge wink) the way salt is harvested from water.

Today's major discovery is a real mineral called RINGWOODITE that has 15% by weight of water trapped in it. I'm loath to call 'my crystal' Ringwoodite but there's no reason why I can't have a more purified form of the crystal as the basis for the Eternal Life & Homes (albeit undersea) in this third book. The crystalised memories of the ancestors forming the structures within which Free Planet will live its life?

AUGUST 4th UPDATE: REAPER (free planet #3) novel is on the blink while I'm busily writing KUMIKO (war world #3) novel. The Free Planet narrative and the War World narrative are kinda connected, or have become connected over the final stages of their respective trilogies. Is it a Free Planet or is it a War World? I like that it's happened this way, as it's less convoluted than if I'd planned a dual-trilogy series from the get-go.

Yesterday morning, during a lovely 9 mile jog in the woods and along the river, I received (from the ether) a  generous wedge of narrative resolution to add to the Crystalline/Organic thrust of the Reaper arc, just free stuff wedged into the waking dream that is my writing process. 

Gene Brewer - author of K-PAX - 5***** review for Liberator

here's a FIVE STAR review of my latest Free Planet novel LIBERATOR, from one of my favourite authors Gene Brewer (K-PAX series):

Mike Philbin's Liberator does more than continue where Custodian (Book I of the Free Planet series) left off. By this time the premise is picking up more steam, the characters have become more real, the storyline more accessible, the indictment of our social and political norms more scathing. Mr. Philbin's wordplay is truly striking and original. The images stick with you. There are moments of tongue-in-cheek humor and his wit is increasingly biting. This is an author who gets better with every book. He is someone to watch. [LIBERATOR on Amazon]

FREE PLANET vs WAR WORLD - new trilogy covers - 2016 editions...

don't ask me if this is for real or anything, there's every possibility I'm deluding myself about my ability to finish book three in the free planet series and I'm not totally convinced this idea is any good yet, but...

I've just been playing around with the idea of bringing out (or selling on to another publisher) the idea of the FREE PLANET trilogy, as one book. The three separate parts of the proposed book would sport the names of the separate novels Custodian (2013), Liberator (2014) and Reaper (2015).

FREE PLANET was always envisioned as 'one book' but then it got a little more involved, became a second, then third book (potentially) so I thought, "Maybe this is the time to show you what I've been working on as a cover idea for such a trilogy," were it a) possible or b) attractive to publishers.

It'd be about 80,000 + 60,000 + 60,000 = 200,000 words as a book, which is quite a wedge of words. Just a thought... back soon.

APRIL 13th UPDATE: for those of you going, "Where did the updates on Reaper (free planet #3) go?" fear not, I am still, technically, working on it. It is still destined to be released in 2015. Watcher (the project I'm writing at the same time) is dominating my thoughts right now, is all. As you'll see from the new War World TRILOGY cover, it's Free Planet's real competition, and I'm not sure which'll win, yet.

Reaper has not been put on the back burner, in fact I'm going to make myself write some more of it right now to push the book past the 20,000 word mark also. Yeah, maybe that'll do it. I'll try to make myself write more Reaper before I allow myself to write more Watcher. In reality, I'll probably finish Watcher first.

"Who watches the watchers?" indeed.

Reaper FP#3 will be twenty chapters, how do I know?

I know because I just adapted the 2,000 words short story of 'what happened to the hunted-to-exhaustion Janey and Timmy' (you'll remember tham from the tail end of Liberator FP#2, if you read it) for use as a structural device throughout the novel.

It's done already. It's in the can. Finito.

I decided to split this 2,000 word Oral History of Timmy Brecke into chapter starts, each paragraph of this 'short story' precedes the action of each chapter of the yet-to-be-written novel. I sensed that (as it was 2,000 words) it would be nice if it came to about TWENTY CHAPTER beginnings, hundred words a-piece.

And it did. Exactly twenty paragraphs. 20 chapters.

I was very surprised by that, and it felt like 'some kind of sign'. That means I can write Reaper in chunks of 4,000 words giving me a novel total for FP#3 of anywhere around the 80,000 words mark. We all know my 'guesstimations' aren't always reliable and we all know that whimsy, inspiration and good old randomness can insinutate its way into my novel writing process but there it is. Day of the Reaper is officialy GO, GO, GO and there's lots to say about 'why Free Planet took four years' to really gets its arse in gear. Why the world nearly had to end, twice. And why you'll shit your pants when you see who was behind what. There really were so many counter/parallel FPS simulators going at the same time, and the PPI or PATENT PROTECTION INITIATIVE was very well funded by T.H.E.Y. i.e. You The People, so no fucking surprise there then.

We'll find out what happened to Timmy and Janey, we'll see if this near-ruined homeworld eventually became a Free Planet.

FOUR MONTHS LATER UPDATE: as the War World series and the Free Planet series have organically intertwined in the last year or so, Reaper (free planet #3) will be probably remain on hold until some narrative issues in Kumiko (war world #3) have been ironed out. Reaper is due to be finished, then, some time AFTER Kumiko has finished.

Or at least until the threads and connections between the parallel projects have been finalised, not necessarily 'set in stone'. Oh, set in stone, Mike, I like that. SET IN STONE.

Free Planet 3 - REAPER - 2014 cover concept

don't ask me why I'm releasing this visual interpretation of the Free Planet 3 narrative so early. I say 'visual interpretation', as are most covers, but it's not 'really' what REAPER'll be about. I mean it's not set in space, it's not a Space Opera and no invading alien presence is due. At least there's no plan for such yet.

Though I have a really good idea where this third Free Planet novel may go, I haven't started to work on 'Reaper' yet. In fact, I don't intend to for another maybe six months or more as my main focus this season will be the STALKER'S GUIDE TO... novel.

"Why not make the third novel in the Free Planet series take place all on the same day," the day when it all happens. The day Free Planet 4 Real is born.

It's still gonna contain the same narrative elements I'd always intended to include, but I'll cram it all into one day. Dawn to Dusk, eight months after the events in Liberator. Have it a non-stop marathon of intense emotional and physical drama. Wear down the reader as it'll undoubtedly wear down the characters.

This will be the day when the old (Commercialised (Consumerist (Corporate))) world ends and a new one begins. This will be the day when mankind finally begins to see the 'great gift he's been bequeathed' and the thing he nearly ruined with his Quest for Profit/Asset/Conquest.

Free Planet #2 novel: LIBERATOR - available now - everywhere!

click to buy paperback

  

Not everything that appeared to happen during the Custodian Liberation happened as a result of Free Planet. There was another parallel drill going. As there always is in the need to know compartmentalised military game. It's just the way it is. Deal with that, and mankind can move on to the next level of politico-military tactician Zbigniew Brzezinsky's Grand Chess Game.

 

Custodian (the first novel in the Free Planet series) showed how a group of Oxford University rebels could rework The Industry to their advantage, to YOUR ADVANTAGE. But was the resulting 'free planet' really all it pretended to be? Is there another (parallel) free planet simulation being run? A military drill? Real 'terror'?

Liberator (the next novel in the Free Planet series) shows what really went on FOUR YEARS AGO when you thought a 'brave rebel world' of Diversities, Floating Homes and Freed Humanity were taking place. In this novel you'll discover THE REAL REASON why 'free planet' happened.

And you're not going to like what you find!

Oh, and in case you haven't seen it before, here's the book trailer for Free Planet #1 novel: CUSTODIAN

 

yes, I used the same incidental music for both book trailers, uniformity of purpose. Sir, yes, sir.

No, the Free Planet series isn't based on the Star Wars series...

here comes the Black Tsunami...

STAR WARS

• In A New Hope, the Empire is trounced.
• In Empire Strikes Back, the Rebellion is trounced.
• In Return, the Jedi return... hmm.

FREE PLANET

• In Custodian, the Indusry is trounced.
• In Liberator, the Military reveal their hand.
• In Reaper, we're talking about THE BROKEN CHAIN of the Black Tsunami.

Just thought I'd share that observation with you.

LIBERATOR FPS2 - 69,000 words - first draft complete.

published 2013

Well, I didn't expect that to happen like that...

There I was, writing away, somewhere close to the 66,000 words mark. I had the two final chapters to flesh out, still. But I also had 'four assigned alternating military/civilian chapter slots' to fill before I got there. And one more part-written chapter before that lot.

Then suddenly, I realised, "It's done."

I deleted those four empty chapter slots, lifted my hands from the keyboard, then shared the news with a good friend of mine, "It's done," I grinned. And she said what a good doggy I was. Patted me on the head while my inner tail wagged and my tongue lolled out. I'm such a good doggy woggy. I am, heh heh heh.

published 2014

LIBERATOR's looking like it's gonna be about 69,000 words or so. It was written in four months in longhand into two notebooks, like my War World 2013 summer novel TANDEM. Plus ending LIBERATOR here leaves all the afore-planned intrigue and 'denoument' for the third and final part in the Free Planet trilogy, REAPER, to come. What I mean by this is 'I didn't spoil the original book three premise' by trying to cram it all into book two like I nearly did at one point in the last few days.

I'm not even gonna bother with a teaser chapter from book three, as I did at the end of book one. I know where this story's going. And maybe you do too. I certainly don't feel like I need to convince you to come along with me for the ride of your life. You're in or you're not.





ONE HOUR LATER UPDATE: upon further consideration, moderate editing, furtive typing towards a resolution of 'the unfinished last chapter but two' and whatnot, "Yes, that's it," it's done. I'm now very close to a feeling of TOTALLY PSYCHED. 

 

But that could also be down to the massive amounts of filter coffee I've quaffed all day on my mega-marathon writing binge devouring five or six different music CDs for this narrative-via-character finale, including classic Slipknot, Asalah, Camelspotting, Gorecki and Koto Music of Japan.



Twelve straight hours of non-stop typing. From eight o'clock this morning until now, eight o'clock at night. And still a few more paragraphs in me before the night's over.

 

SIX DAYS LATER UPDATE: I went back in and 'reworked' Civilian Chapter One and Military Chapter Four, which are technically 'imposter chapters' wedged into the beginning of the book once more than half the book had been written. I'd decided to properly cover 'the last four years' of Free Planet with these two summary chapters, before getting into the 'meat and two veg' of the second novel's narrative proper. So, my editor, who helped me finalise the Custodian (free planet #1) manuscript, has a copy of the first draft of this Liberator (free planet #2) manuscript, so let's see what her 'fresh pair of eyes' see.

 

 

EDITORIAL UPDATE: my editor's going through the Liberator manuscript with her fine-toothed comb and I've received some wonderful initial feedback, "It's a very strange book, by the way. Strange even for you!"

LIBERATOR FPS2 - 66,000 words - guest appearance by Jane Louxis

published 1989 by Creation Press

if any of you have been following my writing (career) over the last few decades, you'll realise that I have 'quite a thing' for one of my earliest creations, the deadly and dangerous white-skin red-haired Jane Louxis who cored out the central role of my 1989 Creation Press novel Red Hedz - that's a painting I did of her there years before the book came out.

Jane's gone under many names in different books I've penned (writing as Hertzan Chimera) and in several different short stories. I love this redhead character. She's my psycho-sexual muse and (as you can imagine) is quite horrific once she gets gets her pscho-sexual rod on.

As you'll have heard from this morning's rambling rantorial CRASHLANDING a scriptment of mine for the REAL 'ALIEN' PREQUEL i.e. not Ridley Scott's Prometheus (which seems to be a franchise reboot or (cough) parallel story to Alien) was banned from 'said forum' and it spurred my ire to resurrect the old enigma Jane Louxis. Jane likes to sexually murder maim kill, in the name of art. Can this sales-crippling knee-jerk reaction be termed Negative Inspiration?

I'll be adding several elements of that (reposted) 'crashlanding' scriptment into key scenes within the LIBERATOR universe, just for shits 'n' giggles. This isn't some petty inclusion (except that it might be) as I'd already added Jane Louxis into the death-bed testimony of an ealier Liberator witness and she's at the very end of the book. I won't say how, or why, obviously. But this morning's petty event allowed me to pour all my ire and anger and disdain and spite into the Jane Louxis character's re-definition for FPS2, her Literary Resurrection after years in the forehead-popped ether floating about looking for a purpose. We find out why Jane's the way she is. We find out about the plethora of intel-invented stories that have supported and widely spread her legend throughout the G3 or Global Gambling Game arena. We find out why she's so feared among the gambling cognoscenti.

We don't even know if Jane's her real name or whether her kind have actually consorted with Satan. Yes, book two of the Free Planet trilogy is VERY STRANGE. And I can't work out whether this constant reversion to The Lake of Psycho-Sexual Effluent is helping or hindering my artistic liberation. Suffice to say, you're going to fucking love LIBERATOR, or I'm sending round the Bovver Boys.

CURRENT RUNNING TOTAL: 66,000 words, and rising fast (in fact, I've updated the running total THREE TIMES since this post was written last night). Liberator is now on what is known in horse racing circles as its Home Stretch. God bless private non-disclosure-agreement censorship on the 'net, and aggravated ire-generation. This is the future of mankind, BANNED TO DEATH.

LIBERATOR FPS2 - Xmas Day Chapters - 58,000 words running total

while the book is still at 50,000 words, there are two chapters that have been 'introduced' into the narrative and given their 'chaptorial' place withing the 40-chapter index but are stubbornly resisting being written.

It's a 'me' thing, I've just been ... reluctant to lay the brickwork, point the gaps.

Both chapters deal with The Mighty Quins: the eponymous chapter is a 'four years ago' chapter showing how the quins became involved in the LIBERATOR narrative, the other chapter Safari (which comes directly before it) shows how these children are hunted down for their usefulness by the Black Pentagon leading towards the latter part of the book.

New titles, headings and positions for you, eh? Excited?

DECEMBER 25th AFTERNOON UPDATE: hmm, well, that didn't go 'exactly' as I 'might have planned' but the two missing chapters (mentioned above) have been written over the course of a single play through of Riuchi Sakamoto's THREE. I'm wondering if I can even write LIBERATOR without having his music playing in the background. It's like some sort of intellectuo-narrative free-forming talisman that my flying fingers can't do without. This book.

Running total: currently 54,000 words. And I don't feel I'm any closer to 'really' understanding how LIBERATOR got here or where it might go during its pre-amble towards the final chapter(s) which have already been written out. So many loose ends right now, and I'm not convinced it's worth being too tidy about how many of them are tied off. A little blood is a good thing in an action adventure, right? Except this shit is 'narrative blood' and that might erk the reader ... like I care.

DECEMBER 29th UPDATE: and having crashed headlong into a bit of a dead end, I popped out the other side within Cloud City. A crackin' scene, lots of revelations. Lots of tied off ends. Lots of new narrative to explore. 58,000 words is the current running total. 10,000 or so to go, I guess. Where to start REAPER FPS3. Who knows?

Liberator FP2 novel - 50,000 words - subtle restructuring, new chapters, motoring along...

technically, I'm 45,000 words in.

A couple of the later chapters are still to type in from notebook, but I'm confident they'll amount to about 2,000 words per chapter.

I've gone back in and ADDED two earlier chapters #2 and #3 so that the whole Free Planet world (four years after Custodian) is fully fleshed out, so that the reader has no misconceptions that this really is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT world to the one the Corporations nearly ruined.

Kinda really enjoying this book still; as you can see from the racing word count, it's becoming quite an obsession.


TEN DAYS LATER UPDATE: this morning, I added another two chapters, slotted them into positions 3 and 4 in the 40-chapter index. Just to add another layer of understanding (for me as much as) for the reader. This way we both get to understand what's gone on, what's about to happen, and why I'll stab that back of both of us with LIBERATOR FPS book #2 revelations. The book's anywhere near 50,000 words or so (I haven't been keeping track over the last few hours), or it will be once I fold in that 'still not typed in' stuff. I have the notebooks open in front of me for the 'afternoon sessions'.

EVENING UPDATE: yeah, final tally came to one hundred and twenty words under 50,000 at the end of today's manic session. There are still a couple chapters that need content, so it's technically over that Magic 50 already. Just gotta type in the rest.

I'm really at my most Hertzan Chimera-like this novel, my most Loki-like, of dirty old bastardness. And lovin' the gruesome trip, man.

Liberator FP2 novel - 35,500 words - 2014 cover image

just hammered through the 35,500 words first-draft mark of Liberator (free planet novel #2) and I'm now MORE CONVINCED THAN EVER where this trilogy's going and how and when and why it'll suicidally crashland into Planet #3, Reaper in 2015.

 

Oh, yes, and that is a first look at the new cover design for LIBERATOR: free planet #2 (this cover's far more relevant to the extreme horror content of the book than the stand-in design that was 'borrowing' a non-copyright image from off the net).

I'm not necessarily a big fan of draggin shit out for the sake of a series, so I've upgraded one or two ideas from Book 3 to happen in Book 2 ... I did this not because I've run out of ideas (yet) for Liberator FP2 but because I have ADDITIONAL ideas for Reaper FP3, and it'll make loads more sense when you read what I did and why, some years later when I reveal the randomness of my writing process, the Channeling of Narrative via Character.

Trust me, I'm a Machievellian.