Next Episode

I can't wait, I find myself imagining what could happen next, or what is happening from the point of view of other/ other posible characters... Its an interesting few sectors to get lost in!

Rebellion was so damn good. I wish they next one came out tomorrow!

I can't wait for the next episode to start with Nathan spending the day in sick bay with some very unhappy doctors staring down at him.

Jessica throwing in a one liner "At least these nanites don't itch!"

And finding out if Cuddy and Birk still smell like wine "It only lasts a day or two" or "I've scrubbed myself pink and its still all I can smell!"

I also can't wait for him to come back up from Corinair with just as many bumps and bruises

So I was thinking... If it takes a week to jump from Sol to the PC and the Dusahn pulled out of Sol after the SKKV attack on the Jung then by Episode 5 we should see the Dusahn being Reinforced in the PC. I wonder if those ships damaged in Sol will be repaired at Takara or at another Location? a home base?

Because if they are being repaired at Takara it raises questions. The Dusahn have large scale repair/refurbishing facilities either a Jung Platform or some other old school form of Mobile Dockyards. I say this because what we have seen in the story to date. A) The Dusahn have not only maintained but refit their ships with Plasma Weapons & Shields on their 100 journey outward away from the Jung. B) In a relatively short amount of time they retrofitted all of there known ships with Jump drives.

If they are repairing ships at Takara, it could mean that their repair facilities are not capable of providing assistance to those returning ships, which seems unlikely considering the low numbers of damaged ships. Which makes me wonder why they wouldn't want to bring there ships there.
It could mean that they are hiding there losses from their own people.
That they are busy prepped to move the dockyard (Jump to Takara?)
That they are busy retrofitting the captured ships for war
That they are building new ships.

How wierd would it be to have the Dusahn Home base, say a Battle Platform, caught at the edge of a Black hole all this time, and they are just trying to get enough ships together to tug it out...?

I can't wait to read ep 5! - I've put a notification on my calendar for the 18th of May (3 months from Book 4's release date) and I'm going to try to stave off madness by telling myself that thats not to far away...

@Ryk do you feel like dropping a hint as to the name of the next episode?

Any idea of how far along this one is in the production process?

Are your sales/read numbers going up/down/staying consistent since you started Rogue Castes?

Hope you are keeping well

I'm good. I actually am in better health than before. I even managed to lose weight and get off my blood pressure meds. Battling a couple small tears in my left shoulder, but other than that, I'm good.

Writing Rogue Castes has been a bit difficult, as I started with only a vague idea of where I wanted to go. Now, five episodes in, I'm starting to get a clearer picture, and I'm terribly excited.

Sales have been a little less than part 1. I suspect that this is mostly because many people don't want to start reading until I'm well into part 2, or possibly even completed. My biggest concern is that our new-reader growth rate is not what it used to be. I attribute that mostly to an increase in the number of authors putting out sci fi novels. We're looking into growing our mailing list by offering additional scenes and graphics that will be behind a firewall that requires the user to be on the mailing list to gain access, but that's still a ways off.

I have not yet decided on a title, mostly because the direction that episode 5 is going has changed several times as I am writing it.

As far as production times, I'm always shooting for 2 months between episodes, but I'm starting to fear that I'll never achieve that goal on a regular basis. I try to write a few thousand words every day, but the fact seems to be that I am a last-minute, write like a maniac kind of writer. I need a few weeks off after completing a book to breath, then a few more weeks to think about and outline the next one. Then I write it over a few weeks. Not the best plan, but it seems to be the only one that reliably works for me. Unfortunately, this means that I won't be able to get the audio releases to coincide with the digital/print releases. At least, not until I have enough books on the shelf to ensure that my revenue stream does not fall too low to allow me to take 6 months off from releasing in order to get ahead.

I probably should not complain, though. Compared to some of the jobs I've had in the past, I have it easy now.

To be fair, you release your books ASAP at the moment, and I'm sure I'm not the only one happy about that.

Releasing the Audio a month or two later would be in line with industry norms as far as I'm concerned.

I'm just happy to get a bit of easy reading scifi that is actually good.

You write great books

@four-islands I'm with you. I appreciate the need and desire for audiobooks, but as you said, it's the norm. It's nice that the big guys can do simultaneous releases, but they have publishers that pay them advances to write, and they get top priority on voice talent.

" I’m always shooting for 2 months between episodes, "

Christ i must be old, but i remember when i was waiting patiently (or not so patiently) for over a year between my favorite books growing up, granted these were bound paper books, but Ryk seriously do not feel bad for having to push it out to 3 or 4 or more months so you can get the story right! And I echo the above comments about the audio books, the only way you could really get it matched is if you held the release of one book until the next book is ready, by that time the audio would be ready for the first book so you could release it together.... However if the rabid fanbase you do have found out you had a book just waiting to be read.... i shudder to think of the outcome... 🙂 AS for building up the base let us know if we can do anything to help!!

Book 5's title will be Balance. It was announced on the Frontiers Saga Facebook page. Apparently Ryk doesn't like us forum lurkers anymore.

Well i think that's a bit over-dramatic... Ryk needs to boost visibility and reach, one way to do that is to use social media, when we like or comment on the post our friends see it and become interested. Ryk has always been far more forthcoming and open to discussion here than pretty much any other author i have followed. Sure others will give you boilerplate updates and tell forum lurkers other tid-bits but few will get into a discussion deep into the mechanics of their universe like Ryk does...

That all being said, Balance makes my mind wander and i am so excited for the next book again/still!!!

Yeah we have a May date for Escalation!! And from the cover posted on facebook i think we are going to see some action with Cobras!!

Judging from the cover art of Balance posted on Facebook, I believe we'll see the theft of several Cobra gunships from Tau Ceti by Nash and Roselle to further support Nathan's war effort in the PC. The question I wouldn't mind seeing answered is whether Nash and Roselle will take the Tanna and the Benka with them. Adding a destroyer and battleship would help bolster Nathan's fleet while only weakening the Sol forces slightly since there are like a dozen destroyers and the Cape Town now. It's not like they'll need them. Best guess is that the supposedly Jung ships seen in Alliance space in previous episodes were actually Dushan ships conducting false flag operations to keep Alliance ships tied down in the Sol Sector instead of aiding their allies in the PC.

I am not so sure the Duschan have the ships to run as decoys in the Sol sector. A better bet is that Jung ships are looking for them.

I Think that the Dushan used there oldest most broken down ships to set off a confrontation between the Jung and the Allianc, while using their best to take the Pentarus Cluster. The Cluster would then be a safe haven while the Sol and Jung Cores tear each other apart