Audible e-mailed me to say that all three of this year’s books are being worked on and they hope to have Emissary up when the e-book comes out. Those of you listeners won’t have to wait much longer.

The short story for April is up for sale at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and the iStore. It will bring you up to date on what’s happening in Kris’s life and how this desk job is going. Have fun.

I’ve put up the next three months of books and stories for preorder if you read the kindle or iBook. The first book of the Iteeche War, Rita Longknife – Enemy Unknown will go live March 1.

Kris Longknife’s Bad Day is a short story about Kris’s desk job and why she comes to hate it. Budgets! It will go live April 2, Kris Longknife – Emissary is set to come out May 1. All are in place and will not have any of the problems Replacement had. I can learn when hit in the head with a hammer.

Now to finish Sandy Santiago’s next story for July.

It turns out that, if you have the old 4 chapter version, you can’t get the new 40 chapter, 60,000 word version, even if you return and buy it again, like I did 3 times. You have to remover the old version before the new one will load.

To remover the old 4 chapter version, first make sure your device is set to sync and accept updates in settings. Then go to home or library and find the book. PRESS and HOLD the cover you want to remover. It took me 4 times before I got a 5 option menu, including Remover from Device. Press it. The new version loaded immediately for me then.

Good luck, and I hope you can finally enjoy the book.

The latest word one of you just got from Amazon is that they can’t solve the problem for at least 7 more days. I can solve it in two, maybe less. I can withdraw Replacement from sale. I can then reload a file, call it Replacement II and you should be able to get it in one, maybe two days from Amazon.

This would require you to return the defective file. Get your money back. and buy a new file. I’m willing to lower the price by a buck to thank you for your loyalty.

What do you think?

First, I’d like to thank the 1100 of you who downloaded Replacement from Amazon in the last 24 hours. Now I’d like to apologize to you. This is my first go at using Amazon’s pre-order system and I will do it differently next book. I loaded what I thought were the teaser chapters and Amazon didn’t use them. Then, 5 days ago, I loaded the full book. Yep, full 210 page 60,000 word book! After I got word today of this disaster, I reloaded the full book. When I preview it, all 210 pages are there. When I bought a copy, just like you. Nope 40 pages or so. I’ve got a call in to Amazon. I’m waiting for a call back. I’ll let you know as soon as I know that the entire book is up there and how to reload it. For now, fell free to return it.

Sorry to have been gone for the last month. Early this month, I got that call you dread. My 89 year old mom was in the hospital. By the time I got a ticket, we were talking about hospice. Before I got on the plane, my brother called to tell me she had passed on. I spent the next week with my brothers and sister trying to come to grips with her life.

No sooner than I got home but I had to head for the Oregon Coast to attend a symposium on the business of self publishing your books. There will be more to talk about later on this, but it suffices to say that Kris Longknife’s Replacement: Admiral Santiago on Alwa Station trying to fill Kris’s shoes will be published in January and Ray Longknife – Enemy Unknown, the first book of the Iteeche War will follow it in March with Kris Longknife Emissary in May. I plan to have three more books out in the second half of 2017.

I also intend to get some short stories out, either stuff that got cut out of Kris books or new material, say a story from Abby’s viewpoint, on the months you don’t have a new book.

Lots of fun stuff coming your way next year. Enjoy!

I owe Ace one more book on this three book contract and that book is moving along finally. Emissary takes Kris in a totally different direction. It was a slow start but I reached 33,000 words today. Hopefully, it will come together in the next few months and leave me time to write a book about what happens on Alwa after Kris leaves. It’s not like it’s going to be easy for Grand Admiral Santiago to step into her shoes. All three pairs she was wearing at once. ?

A fan dropped this list of questions on Kris Longknife’s facebook page.

What Caused the ” unity war’?……
What’s the story of the itchee war?….
How did ‘Trouble’ become a general?
Ruth and Troubles marriage… It STILL works in Kris’s time…..

Here’s some answers.

The Unity war, like most wars, had a whole series of causes. I think I covered them pretty clearly in First Casualty. Part of it was the developed planets, say Earth and the first 49, charging too much for finished products and paying too little to the 150 Rim worlds for raw product. Part of it was the high interest rates the Earth banks were charging the start up colonies, making it impossible for them to get out of debt. Then there was President Urm of Unity who promised lots of things but usually only brought in thugs to take over a planet. (See the problems in To Do or Die of trying to clean up after Unity.) Then, there may have been a Peterwald at the bottom of it all, expecting to make a killing, buying up distressed companies after the war. First Casualty revolves around the war, while the other three books examine the aftermath.

The Iteeche War covers humanities collision with its first aliens. Unfortunately, first contact was not made through “official” channels but by our pirates outside human space running into some Iteeche Masterless Men likewise living out side the rule of law. I’ve written the first two or three of those books. I’m waiting to see if Ace buys them or if they will pass. The Ray Longknife books sell about half as well as the Kris books. I hope to have something to report early next year.

To Do or Die ends with Trouble still a captain. I think you’ll see his star rising very quickly during the Iteeche War.

And Yes, Ruth and Trouble’s marriage has survived all the pushing and pulling that a military wedding has thrown at it. I think the novella Kris Longknife Welcome Home, Go Away made good use of Trouble’s viewpoint to give you a good look at those two. Kris is not their only great-grandchild, though she may be their most troublesome one.