Category: Blog

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Food: Generation Mars, Book Four now available

Food: Generation Mars, Book Four has landed!

https://www.amazon.com/Food-Generation-Mars-Book-Four/dp/1733731083

Air, shelter, water, food: that was the plan. Following the success of the first book, Scratching the Surface, I would write four more. Each book would be a chapter book for advanced early readers and would address one of these fundamental elements of survival with a little vignette in which my protagonists deal with a crisis and, through their actions, teach the reader a little about science.

Things did not go to plan. I had too much to say for such constraints to hold. You might say my primary alignment failed and I broke containment.

Now, here we are at Food, the last planned book, and it’s a whopper. Believe me when I tell you: there is a lot in this book. I’m not even sure it’s a kids book. Categorizing it has been a challenge. Let’s say it’s upper middle grade/early young adult. Actually, no, let’s abandon such synthetic labeling and say it’s for anyone 11 to 100 who enjoys a rousing adventure with pathos and science and suspense and humor and failure and triumph. (For kids younger than that, parents may want to pre-read.)

What’s it like to release the last book in a series? I feel… wistful. A little. My own kids are growing up, just like my characters, and it’s hard to let eras go. But that’s what parents and authors must do. So–*sniffle*, *deep breath*–here it is, the last book of the Generation Mars series.

Well, sort of. The thing about eras is that there is always another. Food completes the planned survival element framework and ends in a satisfying place for the characters. But it also leaves the situation on Mars and Earth in a mess. That was on purpose. You should always leave a mess for the next series to clean up…

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Book Four, coming Monday

Coming Monday: the next installment of the Generation Mars saga.

Food: Generation Mars, Book Four.

When a misaligned AI makes Earth unreachable, families on the Moon must make a hard choice. Parents in two competing bases try to save their children by sending them to Mars on an aging spaceship, a journey that will take longer than supplies will last. As food runs out, the social order crumbles and factions form. Keiron Byrne (12 year old cousin to series protagonists Cas and Ori Byrne-Alli), Ro Cook (14 year old crush, bully, and eventual nemesis of Keiron), and Jun Tian (12 year old prodigy from the opposing base who has a secret that might save them all) must navigate starvation, racism, betrayal, and a ship that is beginning to behave very oddly.

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Crafting Generation Mars 16 (illustration)

Share examples of your ideas with your illustrator. Make mockups: physical, existing imagery, AI (if, like me, you can’t draw).

Share relevant excerpts from your manuscript with them. Share the whole manuscript if they want it. You have to give them plenty to work with.

Aside: Stop worrying about somebody stealing your work. The likelihood of that happening is vanishingly small. You’re never going to move forward if you worry about that.

images: 1) a physical mockup of the ice mine in Book Three, 2) a mockup map of the area around Dawn using public domain satellite imagery of Mars, 3) an AI mockup of Nour, a character from Book Three.

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Crafting Generation Mars 14 (illustration)

As the author, it’s important to own the copyright on your illustrations. You want to be able to remix them yourself and use them for future purposes (promos, merch, whatever), without having to ask permission.

Specify this in the contract. This will cost a bit more, but it’s worth it.

Also allow the artist to retain the right to display them in their portfolio. This helps them and can be good for you as well if they have social media reach.

image: Photograph of Greg Wilson taken by Ian Tilton. It was used as artwork for the Credit To the Edit album compilation by Greg Wilson released on Tirk Records. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Greg_Wilson_C2TE.jpg https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

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Crafting Generation Mars 13 (illustration)

My current WIP is now in illustration. Since Generation Mars is a children’s book series, this means more than just a cover. How much more has been evolving along with my books. 

The prelude was an early reader chapter book and was filled with illustrations. Each successive book has been more advanced than its predecessors and has needed less illustration. For the penultimate book, Water, I had two maps and a diagram at the beginning, and an opening illustration for each of the three parts.

Aside: Writing a series that spans multiple maturity levels is not the best idea for marketing. I knew that and did it anyway, because that’s what I wanted to write. When you’re self publishing as a hobby, you can do stuff like that. Think hard, if this is not your situation.

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Crafting Generation Mars 12

For the current WIP (Food: Generation Mars, Book Four), I also have couple people providing sensitivity notes. This is a new thing for me. 

There are some delicate cultural interactions necessary to the plot. I think they’re ok, but I’m an upper middle-aged white guy, with all the blinders that entails. I don’t wanna mess this up.

 

image: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tsaag_Valren, license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

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Crafting Generation Mars 11

I was not completely truthful in the last post. I use editors, sort of. When the time is right (gut feeling), I give the manuscript to my wife.

She will point out areas that still feel sketchy, logical inconsistencies, beats I might have missed or that can be reinforced with a little nudge here or there.

Johnny Depp Captain Jack Sparrow GIFfrom Johnny Depp GIFs

After manuscript updates, I pass it by my daughters for similar feedback.

Eyeroll Eye Rolling GIFfrom Eyeroll GIFs

Between all of us, I feel we have enough reading experience and command of the English language that the resulting manuscript is tight. Then I have a couple of months to polish it while my illustrator works his magic.

Jerry Seinfeld Popcorn GIFfrom Jerry Seinfeld GIFs

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Crafting Generation Mars 10

#CraftingGenMars 10

Now, for a controversial reveal: I don’t use editors. I will say this is for financial reasons, and that is certainly true. But it’s not the only reason. 

I don’t really want anyone else’s opinion on my work, whether developmental, line, or copy level. I mean, I want readers to like it, of course. But only if it’s mine, warts and all.

This Is Mine Tim Robinson GIFfrom This Is Mine GIFs

I realize that this approach is made possible by the fact that this is a hobby for me. If I were relying on my books for income, I might follow a more conventional path. But then again I might not.

I will admit that this has become increasingly difficult as my books have gotten longer.

Friends Joey Tribbiani GIFfrom Friends GIFs