Elements of Treason: Duty and Elements of Treason: Opportunity

These two novels of a three-book series that dive into the events of the Tamar Rising sourcebook. Elements of Treason isn't a trilogy in the normal sense of the word, as all three books deal with different characters, but they all occurr in the same area of space, the former Falcon Occupation Zone. 

I was brought on board as the Tamar Rising sourcebook was being written. I was told which books dealt with what, and the first book was to be about the formation of the new Tamar Pact. I was given a word count and the developing sourcebook text.

Elements of Treason: Duty is about the formation of the new Tarmar Pact. I had two characters from the sourcebook to start with: Sarah Regis and Krit Sirsopa. A few more names came from FM:3145 in the form of Cox, Torres, and Brooks. The Fyhne name is from one of the sourcebooks as the ruling family of Arcturus. There are a number of KS characters in the book (I folded and bent a few to get them into the book, but I did so. However, I lost the list of the character and need to track them down again so these people get the credit they deserve). Everyone else (Including the current Fyhnes) is an original character.

The question I had to answer is "Why didn't Arcturus come back to the Commonwealth?" On the face of it, Arcturus should have been glad to be part of the Commonwealth again or made a bigger stink about being annexed by Regis. That led to "Why did Sarah Regis choose to set up her own state?" The wonderful thing about fiction for Battletech is that you can weave events into the story that gives the reader a fuller picture of why events went the way they did. In Tamar Rising, Sarah Regis and her RCT goes rogue and declares the formation of the New Tamar Pact. Elements of Treason: Duty gives the reader the full background of why she went rogue.

Elements of Treason: Opportunity is different because I was dealing with an established character, Vedet Brewer. Brewer has been playing a villain for a while, taking the Archonship for a couple of years before being deposed and fleeing Tharkad. The wonderful thing about Battletech is no faction or character is 100% good/evil (Well, except Max Liao -- that dude is crazy and evil! ;)).

I found myself wanting to fill out Brewer a bit, to make him a more rounded character. In Elements of Treason: Opportunity, we find out more about Brewer's life and how one incident changed his life forever, and a glimpse at what would have been a different Brewer, even as he's carving out an empire of his own. I hope I made him a little more understandable and humanized him some.

There is a third novel in the series. Elements of Treason: Honor is very different from the first two and more  of a challenge to write. The Hell's Horses take center stage for the first time in a novel, and it was a challenge, so much so, that I couldn't fit it into 45,000 words. So, this one will be longer and I hope will make the Horses fans happy. I have submitted the second draft earlier this month, but as everyone is spending time with friends and family, so it will take some time to get the feedback. I hope we will see it published before the Mercenary Kickstarter in March.

And as a teaser, I have begun work on a new novel that will bring light to an era we know little about. I won't say anything else now but down the road...?

That's it for now. I need to get this blog up and running again.

Later!

Craig