Hal Spacejock History - Continued
The Hal Spacejock series has done pretty well for itself over the years, after eventually landing with a trade publisher. One title become a national bestseller, another made the shortlist for Australia's top spec fic awards (both the Aurealis and the Ditmar), and yet another went through three printings. However, it wasn't always sunshine and roses, and I've typed up this history to give you some idea of the frustration and heartbreak involved in writing an ongoing series ... and trying to get it published in the first place!
This is
Part Two. Read the first part
here)
After the long-drawn-out experience with the first novel, I decided I could use specialist novel-writing software to keep me on track with the second one. As per usual, instead of buying something I designed and wrote my own (yWriter - available free from
www.spacejock.com). It took me 18 months to write Hal 2, a huge improvement on the first novel, and I had more fun with it because it felt like I was moving forward all the time. Stefen Brazulaitis from Dymocks Carousel gave me feedback on wholesale pricing and how best to approach stores, and then Hal 2 came out at Swancon 2003, 2 years after the first novel. Dymocks sold copies, the independants took some and I got a fair bit of positive feedback. Before the con was over, I was promising a third novel in the series - for the following year!
Read the next part here
Hal Spacejock Second Course covers, from old to new.
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I did this image for the second book in a modeller and ray-traced it with Povray, but it never went into print:
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Instead, Les Petersen came through with another classic. This is the cover I used for the Bowman Publishing edition of Hal Spacejock Second Course:
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Fremantle Press commissioned a completely new cover from Australian artist Dion Hamill. I had a say in this one, and described Clunk in detail. He looks pretty annoyed here, but so would you be if Hal Spacejock was at the controls.
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A temporary cover for the Bowman Press ebook release:
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An updated (but still temporary) cover for the Bowman Press ebook release:
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And this is the current cover (they're still changing frequently!)
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Read the next part here
