UFO:Alien Invasion
General => Discussion => Topic started by: Bonzo on October 15, 2012, 09:50:32 pm
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If you didn't see H-Hour's post on the news feed, one of the professional writers from Firedance, Gary Bonn, has written some short stories inspired by playing UFO:ai! Gary and I will be collaborating to produce a new five-minute piece every two weeks, and when the story is complete, publish an actual UFO:ai inspired novel. The segments are available to read (for free) at Writerlot.net (http://www.writerlot.net), and the novel/novella will be available to download for free in few days window, which we will warn you about ages in advance.
According the poor bloke who monitors the analytics we've had a good few hundred (!?) readers from the UFO:ai folk. This thread is to keep you all up to date, and to receive your feedback and critique.
The UFO page on writerlot (http://www.writerlot.net/UFO.htm) (basically this, on there)
The current online works are as follows;
Alien invasion 1 (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0051.htm)
Alien invasion 2: Firefight (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0052.htm)
Alien invasion 3: Paradigm Shift (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0053.htm)
Alien Invasion 4: Wings and Wisdom (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0054.htm)
Alien Invasion 5: Little Heroes (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0055.htm)
Alien Invasion 6: Mystery (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0056.htm)
Alien Invasion 7: Webs (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0057.htm)
Alien Invasion 8: The Crypt (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0058.htm)
Alien Invasion 9: Sacrifice (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0059.htm)
Alien Invasion 10: Rout (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0060.htm)
Alien Invasion 11: Revelations (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0061.htm)
Alien Invasion 12: Beyond Hope (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0062.htm)
Alien Invasion 13: In Hiding (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0063.htm)
Alien Invasion 14: The Enemy Within (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0064.htm)
Alien Invasion 15: Empty Threat (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0065.htm)
Alien Invasion 16: Things Fall Apart (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0066.htm)
Alien Invasion 17: Nowhere to Hide (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0067.htm)
Alien Invasion 18: No Other Options (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0068.htm)
Alien Invasion 19: Off Balance (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0069.htm)
Alien Invasion 20: I Wants Fartface and Sweetie (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0070.htm)
Alien Invasion 21: 8 Minutes To Death (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0071.htm)
Alien Invasion 22: Poisoned Air (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0072.htm)
Alien Invasion 23: The Centre of Everything (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0073.htm)
Book Two
Alien Invasion II: Chapter One (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0074.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Two (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0075.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Three (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0076.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Four (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0077.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Five (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0078.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Six (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0079.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Seven (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0080.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Eight (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0081.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Nine (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0082.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Ten (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0083.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Eleven (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0084.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twelve (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0085.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Thirteen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0086.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Fourteen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0087.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Fifteen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0088.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Sixteen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0089.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Seventeen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0090.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Eighteen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0091.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Nineteen (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0092.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0093.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty-One (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0094.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty-Two (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0095.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty-Three (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0096.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty-Four (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0097.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty-Five (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0098.htm)
Alien Invasion II: Chapter Twenty-Six (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0099.htm)
More to come!
*News*
Gary's away at a meeting with the Writerlot/Firedance crew - hopefully putting in a good word for the books.
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I'm an avid reader, and always enjoy a good novel, so I definitely will be looking forward to it.
Oh wait, that means I have to wait two weeks for the next part :(
I'm not trying to hurry you, I know writing a good story must take its time
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Very nice, i like the tone you guys give it :D kudos to you two
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Hello, people!
Bonzo has twisted my arm and applied forks to me eyes until I agreed to work on a piece for every sunday. Actually, we're having a laugh - I've never worked in collaboration before and he's absolutely bursting with clever ideas.
Thanks for the feedback - and for this whole, inspirational project.
Grins: Gary
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Pah. "clever ideas" indeed. All I did was play 2.4 through! By the time we're finished the game will be complete with a zillion mods and be the biggest thing on the internet. THEN will you promise to play it through?
Oh the readers are going to be in for quite the experience... heh heh heh.
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Hello people!
Bonzo and I have worked like mad... You have 17 more chapters to come - one every sunday on http://writerlot.net/writerlot.htm
We've had a ball and the ending surprised even us. We've loved doing this - and I'm currently talking to my publisher. If they go ahead - it'll get full editorial treatment, and be published as a book.
This will be a free Kindle etc, download for all of you, (I'll negotiate how long they're prepared to do this - but keep you informed and forewarned) and then be published as a paperback too.
If they like it, if you like it, it could go on and on.
Thank you so much for your comments and this opportunity to create some really kickass battle scenes. ;D Oops, no spoilers now... :-X
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Herp derp forgot to update last week like a fool, fixed now.
Oh, I've meant to post about this for some time, but I always get distracted reading your great work and end forgetting: this forum doesn't notify when a post is edited, if you also made a post when you update, it would be better, we don't really mind some double posting
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I'm new to the site, drawn here by the story telling.
Episode eight http://www.writerlot.net/gary0058.htm (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0058.htm) is up today and even though you've gone from fortnightly to weekly, I'm still tapping my foot waiting for the next one.
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Another one who found his way here from WriterLot. Good stories those, now to investigate the rest of the site.
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These stories get more and more awesome as they go. Can't wait for next one as soon as I end reading previous =)
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Part nine is up!
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The easing of the craving is very short-lived. As soon as I read one episode I *desperately want* the next one.
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Part ten's up - apparently yesterday... nobody tells me nuffin'
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These are pretty fantasfic. (hah, get it, fan-tas-fic?)
Terrible puns aside, I'm really looking forward to the upcoming chapters.
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Maackey, you're hilolrious. (see I put 'lol' inside the word... what have I become)
Revelations is up on writerlot!
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Three more sleeps until the next episode ;D
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We've written three more chapters. They're to build the beggining to help non-UFO people to understand what's going on. I think we need at least one more to go back to the start of the invasions. Hmm, watch this space.
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Ohhhhh more chapters, nice!
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Chapter twelve is up! (was two days ago, I'm so not-on-the-ball it's rolled out of sight)
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Thanks Bonzo. We've been re-tweeting (https://twitter.com/ufoai) when @WriterlotFree posts the new chapter and I've just made a post to our IndieDB/Desura profiles (http://www.desura.com/games/ufo-alien-invasion) to let them know about it as well.
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Wow that's really cool of you :D
Thanks H-Hour, from the whole team!
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Chapter 15 is online!
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Just saw this - super awesome! Thanks for this!
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Maybe I missed this info, but how many chapters are there going to be?
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Maybe I missed this info, but how many chapters are there going to be?
That'd be 23 online, the physical book will have at least 27. There might be more backstory and extras added to how ever many already written. There'll be plenty of opportunity to download the whole thing when it's finished!
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*were* written! so you already have them and are just holding back, grrrrrr
read the 14 of them in one go when I found this and can't wait to see more =D
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Shhhhh it's a secret conspiracy by the alien invaders to deprive you :P
Actually, if you're really interested, it's for several reasons. First, editing and quality control (which means getting at least one Writerlot Crewmember to proof read/critique) - so there's a lot "written" but not quite got the green light. Also they make up Gary's weekly Writerlot slots, allowing him to get some other writing projects done. I'd have said given him some time off, but he's so bloody busy with writing he barely has time to play UFO against me :I
Stay strong - it'll all be up eventually :P (and then you'll be able to download all 27 chapters of it for free for a little while - we'll give you a heads up long before don't worry :D)
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Thx for the info - personally I'm waiting for the epub. I read the first 2 chapters on the web, but that's not a comfortable way to read.
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Chapter 15 ready for your viewing!
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16th installment.
Uh-oh
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Read it first thing in the morning ;) Can you say how many readers this story has?
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I'll have a look at the analytics....
Seems to be a little over one hundred regular followers - ~95% from here.
Because the UFO-playing demographic is the best demographic :)
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Seems to be a little over one hundred regular followers - ~95% from here.
Huh? That seems too few, are you sure you aren't missing a zero?
Really, I was expecting a few thousand readers
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The ~150 is pretty suspicious, yeah - the analytic suite we're using tends to behave oddly. There'll be a proper figure when we've found and fixed the issue, no doubt
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Whoa, Chapter 17 guys!
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Chapter 18 is up!
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I read all current 18 chapters over the past few days on my ebook reader (using dotepub I converted the webpages to epub files) and I had quite a lot of fun. The only criticism that I'd give right now is that there are sometimes too few descriptions of what is happening over too many dialogues. Especially when there's a lot of action (like in chapter 12) I found myself wondering where the characters are and what are they doing, also who is speaking.
Waiting for more :-).
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Thanks for the feedback Cyber Killer! I'll make sure Gary sees it.
Your reward is... chapter 19 being up!
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Cool :-).
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Chapter 20 is online, and has the best title of anything ever.
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Well, 21. Nearing the end.
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The penultimate chapter is ready for your viewing.
So what're people's thoughts on a sequel?
(thought I updated this yesterday - I must have quit the window too fast or something)
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Well that's the final chapter online (a lot of fun to work on)!
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The cliffhanger at the end of the last chapter was just unfair... keep us waiting for the next one ;-)
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Hey, hey, what do you mean its over already!? You guys wouldn't leave us hanging like that, without knowing if the world was saved, right? right?
Seriously, that was intense (and I must agree that the one week delay between updates was specially unwelcome after the previous chapter ;)), so, did I hear something about a sequel?
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There is more on the way, fear not. Book one's being scrutinised by the Firedance crew presently so a full downloadable with a few extra chapters bolted on should be out soon.
As for the sequel, the beginning of that may be online as soon as next week if the sitemaster sees fit. Fingers crossed!
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Part two starts Sunday... Not sure if this is a duology or trilogy - rather depends on how popular it is with you guys
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All the links up to date with the first two chapters of AI:2
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Book two chapter seven online.
We've had some great ideas for the ending.
Good god have we had some ideas.
Heh. Heh. Heh.
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How is putting book 1 together as an epub going? :-)
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Hello Cyber Killer
The first book will have to go through the publisher's editorial system - which can be slow - but is critically important in terms of quality. We've already been asked to make some changes (always a good sign). So watch this space and we'll keep you informed. Bonzo and I have laboured 7 days a week to sort out the second book, and plemliminary scrutiny has been positive. We think the ending will surprise everyone - especially those that love this game.
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Thank you for the info.
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Perhaps there' s a good reason why this isn't pinned?
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A question to authors about a character's name, "Mikka" - is that supposed to be a nickname? Because it kinda seems like a typo :p
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Mikka's a real name. The spelling "Mika" has been traditionally scandinavian - look at Mika Häkkinen for example. It sounds cool to me, anyway.
Much better for a PHALANX commander than some of the bizarre names UFO sometimes generates, although they tend to become one's favourite soldiers in game :P
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Oh. I'm a native nordic person but somehow I've never heard of "Mikka", there's Mika, Miikka, Mikko, etc though. Is Mikka male or female? I assumed it would be male. I actually tried to google it but found little more than a discussion where someone was trying to come up with a unique name for their baby... Nothing wrong with using that name in your story though.
p.s: As a last resort I actually checked the official registers - finnish, as the Mikka in the story is finnish, right? - and according to them since year 1899 there have been fewer than 36 Mikka's, fewer than 21 of them male and fewer than 15 female (for some reason it actually says "fewer than" with each number). First use was in the sixties, presently there are (again, fewer than for each) 10 living Mikka's, 5 of them male and 5 female.
p.p.s: just noticed your correct use of "ä" in Häkkinen, kudos =D
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Those are very small numbers, wonder if one could put them down to spelling errors? :P
Häkkinen's easy, it's Räikkönen I always have problems with. Keep wanting to put an umlaut/diaphoresis/(whatever they are in this context) over the i and e...
Ah, Finland, where would the world be without gems (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7kJRGPgvRQ) like these (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wof0xPUmW38)?
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korpiklaani =D
Well at least the english-typing world can rejoice in that Linus Torvalds didn't happen to be called Väinö Hämäläinen, on an OS of what name we all would be browsing these forums then, I ask you :p
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List updated. Also...
Cover competition. This is going to be a real book, so it'll need real graphics for real people to look at. If you're interested - ping Gary an email or PM.
Details to come.
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Wait, so we're not real people?
...sounds about right.
:p
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You can be real if you want to be, but you have to find a blue fairy or something first.
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Cover competition. This is going to be a real book, so it'll need real graphics for real people to look at.
We'll need to wait until you publish all the book to make relevant graphics. Or is it only for book one?
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Hello people
Firedance Books Ltd have agreed to a cover competition.
Both book 1 and 2 will be merged into one publication.
They have expressed interest in more work for further books.
This all is great news.
As to the cover - Christy and I will be involved in the judging - but so will the Firedance design people. I'm sure They'll accommodate a selection team from UFOAI too. Christy and I have a little weight there - that which you've given us. Although the latest chapter gets the most attention, according to Google analytics, there is a single forum of 700 - 1000 people discussing this - chapter by chapter - but they are about 5 chapters behind. This sounds like serious stuff. Does anyone know where they are and whether they'd like to talk to us?
As to more writing - you will really need to see the final chapters to understand how the whole plan was to work with the game. :)
One Firedance editor has said, 'If you don't develop Safronov and ****** (You haven't met this character yet), I'll kill you'
So it looks like we'll have to work on...
Thank you all for your wonderful enthusiasm. Do produce cover artwork and join in.
Best Wishes
Gary & Christy
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that's just awesome =D
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Safronov is the new fun one you better have a gas mask around, right? Doesn't sound like that much of a problem.
But then again, my storytelling abilities...best left unmentioned.
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Hello Kurja
I have no idea how a cover design competition could be run here. Who would know? any ideas? H-Hour, perhaps? We've also done gesture studies of some characters. Maybe people would like to post their drawings/artwork of the characters/environments...
Hello Nutter
Christy and I getting severe flack for bringing in Safronov so late - and a second character that arrives towards the end of the book. We are also being told by other writelot.net authors that they want to see these characters develop in another publication.
Breaking news (year 2113): Field-Marshal Safronov has a shower. World removes masks. Mask industry sues... Eau De Safronov available from Chanel...
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You're free to run the competition here on our forums. To be honest, we struggle to get any artwork for the game so you may find it difficult to get enough cover submissions for a contest. Still, it's fine if you want to run it here. If you have any prizes to give out, we'll post a news item for it once you've got it set up.
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ahem, in case someone's been waiting for them, http://www.writerlot.net/gary0086.htm and http://www.writerlot.net/gary0087.htm apparently haven't been linked to here (yet).
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chapter 17 has been up for a while... http://www.writerlot.net/gary0090.htm
looks like the authors have forgotten about us :'(
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Forget about you? Never! Forget about actually editing in the updates after giving the link to the host page... Maybe :P
Good news is the saga continues, and no sign of sequel decay (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Laconic/Sequelitis) (tvtropes warning) yet. We hope...
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Maybe there's nothing to decay?
:p
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Haven't we Grown the Beard (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GrowingTheBeard) yet? Ugh. One would've hoped that by now we'd have got there :P
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Hmmm...has Saf washed yet?
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If we're lucky, he might get rained on.
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Ah.
Look for quality improvement at the next rainstorm, then.
:p
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Chapter 23 (http://www.writerlot.net/gary0096.htm) is online.
Only after finishing it I realized that the entire chapter was reference to a certain game title (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b9/XCOM_TERROR.jpg). Great job, Gary!
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Ah, ninja'd. This is what happens when I update a few days late :P
One day I'll raid my uncle's game collection and actually play the old XCOMs, instead of just reading about them.
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Hello people
Woot! The first and second UFOAI books are complete on http://writerlot.net/writerlot.htm
Both books are in the lap of Firedance Books Ltd and will be published later this year or early next year. With many more chapters and vigorous editing, Christy (Bonzo) and I hope they will add to your enjoyment of this brilliant game.
Thank you for all your enthusiasm and support. We can't believe how many of you have been reading every week!
A third book is on the way, but it's not ready for WriterLot yet. If you can't wait and need something to keep you going, :) there are 'Expect Civilian Casualties' and 'The Evil and the Fear' available from book shops/Amazon etc.
Christy sends his apologies for not being in touch - he's deep into astrophysics studies and, in student accommodation, struggles to get internet access.
We'll keep you informed regarding publication dates and on the third book.
It's been over a year of work and took us right out of our writing comfort zone - but wonderful fun.
Best Wishes: Gary