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Kingdom of Sand - Not right now...

Posted by Rick Graham on

Effective immediately we are pulling down the Kingdom of Sand series!


KoS book 1 cover

Why? 

Because I want to revise the formatting for the first 2 books to make sure they are up to date with our current standards. Plus, I never properly updated the Amazon versions back in 2020. You can imagine stuff came up that distracted from getting to that task until it had been so long that I wasn’t even thinking about it any longer. 


Additionally, I have wanted to get back into writing the rest of the series and I need to make sure that the content matches things that have happened elsewhere in the lore. I have begun work on Judgment Day and so far don’t anticipate there being any significant changes to the story at all. 


So what’s the plan then?

As of right now my plan is to re-read the first three books and lay back out all of what has happened and what I wanted to happen. These stories were written several years ago so I have to get myself mentally back to Mikhail Tarvus (the main character) and what my plans were/ are for him. 


What kind of changes do you think you might make? 

Firstly, the biggest is a particular space battle. Space combat has evolved from where it first was and I want it to match up with the “correct” lore. Book 2 and 3 were considerably shorter than book 1. I would like to close that gap and that means more content will be added. When I first began KoS I had no idea how ORCA worked or anything about the other sub-factions. I want to incorporate seeds for future stories throughout KoS and mention other key characters that didn’t use to exist. One of which is Queen Abigail Black. I don’t think she will have a big part, but with what happens between the Five Skulls and the Republic will absolutely be of interest to her and Haven. The Republic and Haven have not been on the best of terms in the last few cycles and having a member entangled (I’m trying to be careful to avoid spoilers for those who haven’t read the books yet) with them is not good for the Queen. 


I am not intending to alter the core of the story. I can’t yet say that every single scene will play out as it had. But, I do want to weave in other ideas I have that will play out in KoS 4 and beyond. So, I may have to make small alterations to get us there. I also will be able to work in more WarMechs that exist now. Back when I first wrote KoS 1 I didn’t have as much fleshed out. Now I have a lot more to draw from to hopefully make the series as a whole feel more lived in. 


One other big change is that I want the book covers to be revised. I haven’t decided what they will show yet, but the ones we have now don’t make any sense as the mechs themselves are cleaner looking and more refined versus where we were back in 2018 and 2019. Heck, at that point there was barely any official art to go off of. So a lot has happened since then. 


Will this be the last time you edit KoS?

I sure hope so! I have gone through once before and made major edits (more for grammar) and tightening up the formatting. I did make some changes as I was in there last time, but I never officially concluded the release so that needs to be rectified. I don’t want to get a reputation for Lucasing the stories and touching them every few years. But, if we get things on the right course now then they should become a focal point for a major event that effects basically the entire ‘verse…so I want to get this right. 


When will the updates drop? 

Well…I don’t know exactly. Currently the biggest hurdle is getting my mind totally wrapped around the story and what has happened (more in the minutia and deep details) and where I want the cast to go. After that the next big thing is the artwork for the book covers. I feel very confident that as I reread everything and really get into the stories that the proper idea for the covers will come to me and then begins the hunt to find someone who can pull it off. 


I will continue to update everyone as it is appropriate and will discuss it further during Revecon on June 30th. 

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