I MADE A VIDEO! Starring me and my dog explaining CHAMPIONS OF THE THIRD PLANET in a little more detail than you’ve heard before, especially as it relates to my childhood obsession with STAR WARS. The video is up now on my page, I hope you’ll check it out.

Making the video took me away from the book and Inkshares for a couple of days, but now I’m back. I’m currently writing chapter 12 of the book -- Milo and the other kids are already dealing with some freaked-out aliens on a far-off planet where I am. Meanwhile, I don’t want to get stuck revising when I still have BLANK PAGES ahead of me but I wanted to jump back and clean up chapters 2 & 3 before I post. Also because I had a really cool idea for something that I’m guessing will happen around chapter 20 and need to set it up in the beginning of the book. 

Fun fact I’ve discovered: I’m bad with alien names. It takes a long time for me to come up with ones I like and then I have to brew on them for a while to see if they stick. I guess you can’t learn that about yourself until you start writing a book with a LOT of alien names.

I also have some pitches to catch up on -- sorry if you’re waiting for a response from me, I promise I haven’t forgotten! 

If you haven’t pre-ordered a copy of CHAMPIONS OF THE THIRD PLANET, please order one. It’s technically a middle grade novel, so it’s aimed first at kids 8-12, so if you know one of those, you should get it for him or her if you want to be considered a "cool" grownup.

But REALLY I’m really writing this book for me. I’d read this book and I’m a grown man!  I mean, I’m going to bow to STAR WARS again here -- George Lucas thought of STAR WARS as a kids’ movie (!) but grown-ups loved it just as much. In fact, most of my favorite movies appeal to everybody at any age: RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, GHOSTBUSTERS, BACK TO THE FUTURE. So that’s what I’m aiming for.

Thanks, hope you enjoy the video!

--Chris

I attended a writing group on Sunday. It was fun to connect with other authors. We were a congenial bunch, and supportive. I passed out a few cards for Disintegration. They were receptive to it, in the room, but short of holding their faces to burning coals, I’m not sure those cards are going to equal pre-orders! Alas. :P