Terminal Peace

Terminal Peace is Out Today!

Terminal Peace Cover Art by Kieran Yanner

Today is the day! Terminal Peace is officially available in print, ebook, and audio book formats.

This one had a rougher path than most of my books. Thank you so much to everyone for your patience, support, and understanding over these past few years. I hope the wait was worth it.

“Where can I get a copy?”

If your local independent bookstore doesn’t have a copy on the shelves, they should be able to order it for you. Or you can use this convenient little link list:

“What are the reviewers saying?”

Let’s start with the most important review. I gave my mother an early copy of the book for her birthday this month. Here’s what she texted me over the weekend:

Text Message: "Just finished the book. WOW"

If for some reason you need more than that, Booklist called it a “satisfying and hopeful conclusion to the series.”

I’ve seen a handful of reader reviews popping up as well. Several folks commented that they didn’t expect to get teary-eyed over a book about space janitors, which I take as high praise. (If you’re worried that means it’s going to be overly sad or depressing, reread the “hopeful” part of the Booklist review.”)

“What can we as readers do to help support this obviously-amazing book?”

Aw…you’re too kind, thank you!!!

  1. Reviews are love. Twitter, TikTok, Amazon, Goodreads…it doesn’t matter where. Every bit of word-of-mouth helps tremendously.
  2. Signal-boost the release, either by sharing this post or writing your own.
  3. Does your library have a copy? If not, most library websites have a way for patrons to suggest books.
  4. Are you a famous Hollywood producer who believes the time has come for a humorous-yet-heartfelt blockbuster about underdog janitors in space taking on war and politics and really tough stains? Give my agent a call.

“As long as I’m grabbing a copy of this one, does anyone else have books out today?”

I’m so glad you asked! I get to share a release day with the wonderful Tanya Huff and her book Into the Broken Lands.

“Any closing thoughts?”

Mostly just gratitude. Like I said, it’s been a rough few years, and in many ways, the path ahead is foggier than it used to be. But I’m still writing and still loving that I get to share these stories with people. Thank you all.

Two Weeks to Book Three!

Terminal Peace Cover Art by Kieran YannerOnly 14 days until Terminal Peace arrives in the world!

Today, I’ve got a brief guest post on Mary Robinette Kowal’s “My Favorite Bit” feature, talking about a minor piece of the book that just made me happy to write about 🙂

Some of you will have seen that my author copies arrived a few days ago, which means the printing delays have been overcome and the book really does physically exist! Which is reassuring.

This also means you should be able to pre-order the book from your favorite local bookstore. Or if online works easier, we’ve got you covered there as well:

I’m hoping this book will mark a turnaround from a bit of a slump for me these past few years, writing-wise. Between my wife’s illness, the pandemic, and changes at my publisher, I’d love to get any sort of sense of security or stability on the writing front. But we’ll see what happens. I’ve got one new book sitting with my publisher, one that may become a 2023 Kickstarter project, and one that’s about 25% of the way through a very rough first draft.

In the meantime though, I’m counting down the days to this one, and really hoping you like it! I think it wraps up the trilogy pretty well, but now that it’s in print, your opinion matters a lot more than mine does 🙂

Publishing Updates

Update #1: The release date for Terminal Peace has been pushed back two weeks, from August 9 to August 23. This is because of printing delays that are affecting a number of Penguin Random House titles. (My publisher, DAW, is distributed by Penguin Random House.)

I’m 97% sure this will apply to the ebook and audio book release as well.

Update #2: Remember a while back (two paragraphs) when I mentioned DAW Books was distributed by Penguin Random House? Well, that’s changing too. A press release went out today announcing that my publisher has been acquired by Astra Publishing House.

Let’s start with a quote from the press release:

DAW co-publishers Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert said, “We are extremely pleased by Astra’s enthusiasm, and thrilled that we will be the sole SFF imprint of their company (a first for DAW!). We think this is the perfect fit for us, and it’s exciting and refreshing to be an integral part of a new and growing company. It speaks volumes about Astra’s respect for our company that they have included our entire staff. We’re very happy.”

So it sounds like current DAW staff will continue in their positions. This shouldn’t impact anything for Terminal Peace, or for other books scheduled for a 2022 release.

Links:

So what does this mean? I’m not sure. I hope it’s good news, both for DAW and for me.

Terminal Peace was my last contracted book with DAW. We submitted a new fantasy novel to them earlier this year. If they want it, it will be interesting to see if and how things change with the acquisition process.

For the moment, I’m cautiously optimistic and hoping for the best. And one way or another, the core of my job remains unchanged: sit my butt down and write the next book.

Updates: Goblin Queen and Terminal Peace

Let’s start with Goblin Queen. I’ll be posting this to the Kickstarter site as well.

I’d been hoping to start mailing out books this month, but that was before I dealt with IngramSpark’s customer support and printing delays.

Today I received an email response to my trouble report about being unable to upload the cover file. A report I sent in on July 29. On the bright side, I was finally able to resolve the problem myself last week. With everything uploaded, I reviewed the electronic proof, then ordered a physical proof copy.

That’s when I got a pop-up informing me that due to COVID-related staffing and other issues, printing could take 2-3 weeks, and I might not be getting my proof until near the end of August.

Assuming there are no problems, I’ll be able to put in my big order at that point, and would hopefully get the rest of my books a few weeks later.

The alternative is for me to go ahead and order through Amazon’s KDP print-on-demand service. Amazon was much easier to work with and set up. I went through three rounds of changes, and have three different physical proof copies I received during the time I was fighting with IngramSpark.

But from what I’ve been told, IngramSpark prints a slightly higher quality book than Amazon, and I’d prefer my Kickstarter supporters get the best I can give them.

Everything else is ready. I’ve got the stickers, bookmarks autographed and ready, padded envelopes, labels, and an account at Pirate Ship that will let me print media-rate mailing labels from home. All I need are the books…

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Meanwhile, I’m hoping to turn in the manuscript for Terminal Peace to my editor by the end of the month. I’ve gotten through about 75% of this hopefully-final rewrite since early July, so I’m on track. But this part of the book has required a lot more reworking to get everything to fit, which has made for a frustrating and less productive couple of weeks.

This is part of the reason I’ve been scarce on the blog and social media and such. I know there are valid and legit reasons this book has taken me so long, but I really want to get it finished. I’m at that point where I’m close enough I can see the finish line off in the distance, which makes me want to sprint the whole way.

Unfortunately, I also need to do things like sleep and eat and all the rest. But I’m getting there.  I just need to remember not to sprint so fast I take a spill…

Terminal Peace, Draft One

I started writing Terminal Peace in August of 2018 … a few months before Amy got sick. After her cancer diagnosis, I tried to continue working on the book when I could for a while. A few hundred words here and there when she was free from the hospitals and I had the spoons to write.

Eventually, I gave up. I couldn’t focus on the book, and I certainly wasn’t in the right mental space to write humorous SF. I spoke with my agent and my editor, both of whom were incredibly understanding and supportive. I set the partial manuscript aside and focused on taking care of my wife and kids.

A month or so after Amy died, I started writing again. I had a hard time caring about the story. My life was very different from when I’d started. I was different. I ended up starting from page one, reusing a fair amount of what I’d already written, but adjusting the story as I went. I also added a new plotline that let me process a little of what we’d been going through.

Last night, I finished the first draft of the book.

It still needs a lot of work. Like all of my first drafts, it’s crap — but it gives me a better grasp of the story, and allows me to go back and turn it into something cohesive and exciting and … well … good. I hope.

I have no idea how long it will take me to turn this into a final, publishable manuscript. Nor do I know when DAW would be able to schedule it for publication once that’s done. I’m still not writing as much or as quickly as I was before everything went to hell at the end of 2018, but I’m doing better than I was.

If I had to guess, I’d say Terminal Peace would probably be out within 1-2 years. But that’s a complete guess.

Thanks to everyone for their patience and support. It helps to know people are excited to read the third and final Janitors book, and it helps too that everyone has been so understanding about how long it’s taking me to finish it.

And as a reward for reading this far, here’s a snipped from chapter one that will almost certainly be changed by the time the book is published:

After a month of repairs and upgrades, Mops barely recognized the Pufferfish bridge. Gone were the video game controllers Grom had used to simplify navigation and tactical. All the exposed circuitry and wiring had been repaired, and the various notes and reminders Kumar had scrawled on the walls were scrubbed clean. The air held no trace of the old methane smell from spilled alien slushees.

At Mops’ request, they’d even installed a cupholder at Grom’s station.