Forever Faithful -- The New Beginning of the Novel Line

Forever Faithful is the new Battletech novel, written by senior veteran Battletech writer, Blaine Lee Pardoe. While it isn't a Dark Age novel, it does flesh out some events leading up to several Dark Age events. I won't get into spoilers here, but there is a lot of groundwork about a certain group and the final fates of several characters from the Twlight of the Clans series are given their due.

As I have said before, the Jihad suffered from the lack of novels. The main reason was because it was caught in the gulf between FASA and Wizkids -- Wizkids wanted a new start, so they had a "Jihad" and moved the timeline forward sixty years. Fanpro, then later on, Catalyst Game Labs, had to take the Jihad and flesh it out. With the novels in limbo (In a legal sense, I think, but don't quote me on that.), the Jihad had to be explored through sourcebooks, short stories, and other products. The closest we got to a Jihad-era novel was Embers of War by Jason Schmitzer, which is set at the very beginning of the Jihad.

But Brent Evens, Battletech's Lead Developer, decided to concentrate on the IlClan era. And leading the way for this new era of Battle, the 35th anniversary of the game, would be the fiction. Novels and novellas would fill in the events around Shattered Fortress and IlClan, to take the Universe forward into the new era. (I still have no knowledge of any short stories plans. All I've heard is rumor, and even if I knew, I couldn't say anything.)

On a personal level, I hope that one day, Catalyst will go back and fill in the Jihad and some of the other eras with no novels or novellas. There are so many rich events that had yet to be written about in fiction. The Reunification War, The Amaris Civil War, the First and Second Succession Wars are untapped sources of stories that are the equal of any we've already seen. I, however, see Brent's reasoning. The need to fully flesh out the new era is the priority, and with this being the 35th year.

But Blaine isn't done. he has a novella and another novel that will get things rolling in this new era. I don't know when they'll be out, but I betting around Gencon. After that, I don't know.

But I don't want to neglect the two novellas that  came out at last year's Gencon. Blane Pardoe's The Anvil and Phil Lee's A Splinter of Hope. Both cover events written about in Shattered Fortress and gives depth to those events.

Brent has said that fiction was the driving force of Battletech in the past, and he wants to see the fiction driving the new era. I hope to be one of those who does the driving and I do have one or two Battletech projects that might see the light of day one of these days.

In the meantime, some of my stories are out there -- In the Battletech anthology Legacy I have a story, as well as the soon-to-be widely released Battlecorps Anthology 6: Front Lines. Hopefully other Battlecorps anthologies will be released.

In the meantime, I had a good month of February writing-wise, exceeding my monthly goal by almost two thousand words. Most of that was involved in related Battletech products I'm working on, mostly speculative as to whether or not they'll ever see the light of day as official products.

So, that's it for now. Trying to write blog posts isn't easy and I know little about what's going behind the scene is so little to begin with and what little I do know is covered by my NDA, so even if I knew anything juicy, I couldn't say anything. That's how it goes....

Later!

Craig

A Changing of the Guard

In life, things change. People move onto other jobs, decide to spend more time with their family, or need some time to themselves.

No, I'm not talking about myself. I'm staying where I am....

However, who I deal with at Battlecorps has changed. Jason Schmitzer has decided to move on and left as Battlecorps Editor at the beginning of the year.

So, who replaced him?

John Helfers.

Who?

I was familiar with the name, but didn't really know who he was. So, I looked him up. The following is from the Penguin website: John Helfers' Bio

John Helfers is an author and editor currently living in Green Bay, Wisconsin. During his sixteen years working for Martin H. Greenberg at Tekno Books, he co-edited more than twenty short story anthologies, as well as overseeing numerous other ones for publishers in all genres. He worked with many well-known authors and co-editors, including Lawrence Block, Larry Bond, Dale Brown, Stephen Coonts, Nelson DeMille, Charlaine Harris, John Jakes, Anne Perry, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Connelly, Walter J. Boyne, Harold W. Coyle, Mercedes Lackey, Margaret Weis, Kevin J. Anderson, Ice-T, Richard Belzer, and Max Allan Collins. He has also edited more than forty complete novels by such authors as Doug Allyn, Brendan DuBois, James Patrick Hunt, and Jean Rabe.

He has also published more than forty short stories in anthologies such as If I Were An Evil Overlord, Time Twisters, and Places to Be, People to Kill. His fiction has appeared in anthologies, game books, and novels for the Dragonlance®, Transformers®, BattleTech® and Shadowrun® universes. He has written both fiction and nonfiction, including the third novel in the first authorized trilogy based on The Twilight Zone™ television series, the YA novel Tom Clancy’s Net Force Explorers: Cloak and Dagger, and a history of the United States Navy. His essays on the military have appeared in Beyond Shock and Awe, and in theHow to Lose a War series, including recent volumes on the Civil War and World War II. His most recent nonfiction book, The Vorkosigan Companion (co-edited with Lillian Stewart Carl) a guide to the science fictional world of Lois McMaster Bujold, was nominated for a 2009 Hugo Award. In 2010, the Shadowrun anthology Spells & Chrome won the Origin Award for Best Game- Related Product.

In 2011, he left Tekno Books to become a full time freelance writer and editor. He wrote several novels in the Room 59™ espionage series for Worldwide/Gold Eagle Publishing (including the launch book, The Powers That Be) and has also written novels in their Deathlands™ and Mack Bolan/Executioner™ series. Currently he’s working on several tie-in and original projects in both the adult and YA genre.

That is an impressive resume.....

Not that Jason wasn't good -- without his help, I wouldn't have grown as a Battlecorps writer. and we had a few discussions via IM and email about different subjects involving writing and stuff. He was the one to decided The Lance Killer was good enough to publish, and he did the same for every other story he published. He didn't accept everything from me --- I had a few misfires. He took on a tough role and did it for eight years herding a bunch of cats disguised as freelance writers, most of the time by himself until Phillip Lee assumed the assistant editor slot. A truly thankless job, but he did it and stories were still being published. He decided to leave on his own, to devote more time to his job and his family. I don't think we've seen the last of him.

But Battlecorps website goes from a strong editor to an even stronger editor. It's clear that Catalyst want the fiction to become an even stronger part of the company. No other game besides BattleTech and Shadowrun has placed such an heavy emphasis on the fiction --- it is through the novels and to a lesser extent, the short stories, advance the timeline and fill is small parts of the universe to make it come alive. and with the revamping of the Battlecorps website in the works, we should see a strong, better Battlecops website.

But John's more than Battlecorps' new editor, he is also overseeing all of Catalyst Games Lab's Fiction lines --- Shadowrun, Battletech, and any other fiction lines that come to fruition. Short stories, novels, anthologies --- they are his domain. He was brought on in 2013 to shepherded the return of the Shadowrun novels. When Jason left, John took over as Battlecorps editor, ably assisted by Battlecorps' Assistant Editor, Phillip Lee.

So, I have a new editor to become familiar with, a new way of doing things, and new challenges. I'm looking forward to John's stewardship of Battlecorps.

Welcome aboard, boss.

Craig