And so it begins! You can get the audiobook of Dinocalypse Now from Audible... uh, now. http://www.audible.com/pd?asin=B00CA4PLQ2

The nature of the licensing deal (and our teensy tininess vs. Amazon's hugeness) means we have absolutely no input in the whole process, so while we'd love to give people samples, discounts, etc, we simply have no power to do so. We hope some of you enjoyed it enough in text that you're willing to pop on over, grab the audiobook, and review it once you've listened. We're excited to listen to it ourselves!

Thanks again for your support -- we couldn't have gotten this happening in the first place without ya. :)

We're wrapping up the editing and proofing on Stephen Blackmoore's Khan of Mars, so we hope to get you the e-book soon enough -- possibly even in the next few weeks.

Would you prefer we send the PDF to our Dinocalypse backers a number of weeks before the other e-book formats? That's a possibility here -- we just won't have the ePub and Kindle formats done at the same time, and the hang time could be as much as a month. Let us know in the comments.

Meanwhile, over on our absolutely nutso RPG kickstarter for Fate Core, we just announced a new stretch goal for a young adult fiction novel following the teen adventures of Sally Slick! Check out the announcement and the amazing Sally Slick art here.

We don't want to leave you with just that, tho -- not when we can share some art with you! Below, have a look at Christian St. Pierre's pencils for the cover for Khan of Mars. It's gonna be great!

It's been a great year for us. Dinocalypse, our first full step into the Kickstarter fray, blew the doors off every expectation. You blew the doors off every expectation. Since then we've run a successful board game project in Race to Adventure, and now we're rockin' it out with our Fate Core project.

But Dinocalypse is where it all started, and we're continuing to make good strides on bringing you more pulp-themed fiction. Both Khan of Mars and King Khan are written and are moving through the final steps of production. We hope to have these to you for reading in the next couple months, a full half year before the books see formal release into the fiction market. We just need to get the cover art, layout, and e-book conversions done before we can share them with you. 

While both books take place past the end of the Dinocalypse Trilogy, there're practically no spoilers to be had, so you can pursue your deep and abiding love of your favorite professorial ape worry-free.

There's been some other great news on the Dino-front, too -- we've inked a deal with Audible.com for them to produce audio-book adaptations of the Dinocalypse Trilogy itself. There're no established publication dates for them yet and, alas, this isn't something we can offer to you ourselves (Audible is waaaay bigger than us), but we figured the audiophiles among you would be pretty excited by this news.

Meanwhile, Chuck begins work on Beyond Dinocalypse shortly, with work on Dinocalypse Forever to start soon after, by mid-year 2013. We've already seen how quickly Chuck can hit is Dino-deadlines, so we're positioning Beyond Dinocalypse as a summer release, but we think we'll have it ready for you to look at it months before the eager public. Membership has its privileges!

To prep for that release -- the fiction market likes to know a book is coming at least six months in advance, sheesh! -- we've gotten the Beyond Dinocalypse cover art done. We're going to give you a high-resolution look at that cover at the end of this post.

And, looky there -- we're at the end. Here you go, and as always, thanks for everything!

First off, the rounds of editing and revision on Harry Connolly's King Khan are done. That means we're gaining on our goal of getting this book, in e-book format at least, to you soon -- I don't know if that means Christmas-soon, or early-January-soon, but soon! 

There are several things that need to happen now that the text is done before we can get this stuff to you: cover art, layout, and ebook conversion, at the least, all of which will take several weeks at minimum. Thanks to fellow backer J.R. Blackwell for turning in quality edits, and Harry for pounding through those revisions right quick!

As mentioned before (I think!), King Khan is the last book in the chronology of the books we're getting made here, so its release to the general public is going to be delayed until it makes sense to fit in with what's been printed -- but, for backers of the project, we're throwing caution to the wind and will make sure you get the books (in ebook format at least) as they get done, regardless of their order in the sequence of events. Cross-book spoilers will be at an absolute minimum, so you needn't fret about reading any of the non-Dinocalypse-trilogy books out of order.

Second, this past week, Stephen Blackmoore turned in his initial draft of Khan of Mars. There's still work to be done here -- some adjustments to pacing, a few "deleted scenes" to restore, that sort of thing -- before it goes to an editor. As our second-latest book in the series' timeline, also featuring Professor Khan, this one will pair well with King Khan, and should become available to our backers not too long after King Khan. Never let it be said that Evil Hat doesn't give you two fists full of simian justice!

It's still a bit too early to share an excerpt from Khan of Mars, we think -- maybe next month! -- but with phrases in it like "insanity sharks" and "They swarmed over Cyclone's soldiers like a massive tidal wave. A boiling sea of blue gorilla vengeance," ... we think you'll find it worth the wait.

Clear skies ahead, folks, and we're flying at full speed!

Apologies for the radio silence for the past few months. There simply hasn't been much to report -- fiction development can be like that. The authors who are slated to craft up some words have been doing exactly that. Synposes are getting written; drafts are getting drafted; revisions revised; all that stuff!

But...

This past week, something showed up in my inbox. A full draft, ready for initial review. It was King Khan, from Harry Connolly. (Given the time-shenanigans kicked off by the psychosaurs in Dinocalypse Now, it only figures that we'd get the latest novel in our timeline first, huh?) We've sent him some early notes on this draft, and have put Harry together with editor (and fellow Dinocalypse backer) J.R. Blackwell to start the polishing phase for the novel.

Now, folks, I should tell you from my experience getting fiction from Harry Connolly before -- he contributed a story to our Don't Read This Book anthology -- that he's a speed demon when it comes to getting this stuff written. Harry actually apologized for "taking so long" when he turned in his short story for that book -- despite being the one of the first to turn one in. So don't go expecting that all of our novels will come together quite so fast! (Not everyone was available to start as quickly as Harry was, too.)

At any rate, once we get King Khan edited and laid out, our backers will get a chance to read the novel likely well before we print it and release it to the rest of the world -- from a sales perspective, we think this one will do better with more of the other novels in release as well, given its position in the timeline (covered in our last update).

King Khan is going to be nuts: Professor Khan stumbles into a reality-bending mystery in 1930's Los Angeles, encountering corrupt cops, the walking dead, stars of the silver screen, mad-science gadgetry, and Hollywood producers, and... and... well, why keep listing things when we can just show you?

Here's your exclusive excerpt from the upcoming King Khan!

The blast wave was hot and raw, tearing through their clothes and scraping their skin with hard-blown dust. The others fell hard against the fence, but no one struck as powerfully as Khan did. Wood splintered. The fence bowed backward. Their ears rang.

For a second, Khan thought he'd been struck blind and deaf, but then the dust began to settle over him and he could hear Sylvia and Bertie's choking coughs at the same time as the air cleared enough to see them. They looked dazed--no surprise there, he felt a little wobbly himself--but otherwise unhurt. The wooden fence had bowed over, cushioning their flying bodies. 

Jorje pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it over Sylvia's mouth and nose. She accepted it gratefully, and he looked back toward the source of the explosion. Khan struggled to his feet as well.

They were dressed in torn rags--the force of the explosion had ruined their clothes. Jorje's expression betrayed a moment of grief, but only a moment. 

The light above the back door of the club house flickered unevenly. The explosion had damaged it but hadn't destroyed it. 

Surely a blast that powerful would be enough to destroy a desiccated corpse? 

But no. When the air cleared, they saw The Princess stalking toward them. The slender white feathers of her headdress remained intact. She wasn't even dusty. 

The other zoot-suited gangsters had long since fled into the darkness of the orchard, but the Princess ignored them. She stalked toward Khan and the others. Whatever she was searching for, one of them had it. 

"You must flee," Jorje said. "I thank you, Señor Simio, for saving my life after I treated you as an enemy. Still, it is clear. This dead thing has come to kill me, and you must be far away when it happens." 

Then he turned away from them and clenched his fists, preparing for a fight he knew he could not win. 

Just then, a figure darted by them, coming from atop the fence of the alley. The man sprinted toward the mummy, leapt high into the air, then landed on her shoulders. 

His legs locked around and his momentum carried them both backwards. He landed on his hands, pulling the Princess off her feet and hurling her back several feet.

As she sprawled in the dirt, the man neatly rolled over onto one knee, his head bowed and his arms spread wide as though apologizing for offending royalty. He wore an impeccable charcoal grey suit with a navy tie, and his whole head was covered with a bright blue mask. He pleaded in a language unlike anything Khan had ever heard before. 

The Professor scratched at his chin. A masked man. Of course. If there was one thing this adventure lacked, it was a masked man.

Man, still need to work on that.

I wanted to give you guys a quick look under the hood as we continue to work on the rest of our fiction line. As said during the project's drive, a number of these books won't see the beginning of writing until later this year or early next, but that doesn't mean there's no activity. 

Dinocalypse Dice Bag 

Over on the Race to Adventure boardgame kickstarter, we just released an update and added three new tiers to the project. Drop on by and have a look at the MASTER OF DINOSAURS tier -- and more!

Recent Events

I just recently had a chance to review and comment on Harry Connolly's supremely zany synopsis for KING KHAN, and I think you'll all be in for a treat with that one as our favorite ape delves into the all-too-strange world of 1930's Hollywood.

Brian Clevinger has also been working on the manuscript for THE PHARAOH OF HONG KONG, his Benjamin Hu prequel novel ... but more on that in a few. (We have a short excerpt for you!)

I've also had the chance to talk with Chuck about plans for BEYOND DINOCALYPSE and DINOCALYPSE FOREVER when I visited him to get the hardcovers signed. This trilogy's going to be one of the greats, folks.

Chronology Established

In and among all of this conversation has been an opportunity to nail down much of the chronology of the novels. While our books won't (really, can't) have a publication order matching their chronological order, we thought it'd be fun to share the order in which their stories occur. 

C. E. Murphy's presently untitled Amelia Stone novel is the only question mark in here -- it's going to be part prequel or fully prequel, so at least part of its story will live back around the time of THE PHARAOH OF HONG KONG. 

And from a strictly calendar-driven perspective, BEYOND DINOCALYPSE and DINOCALYPSE FOREVER occur well beyond the bounds of the chronological order we're looking at here, thanks to time-travel, so this chronology is more about "timeline as experienced directly by the Centurions" than it is about dates. Anyway, in order:

• Brian Clevinger's THE PHARAOH OF HONG KONG
• C.E. Murphy's Amelia Stone novel (but see the above note)
• Chuck Wendig's DINOCALYPSE NOW
• Chuck Wendig's BEYOND DINOCALYPSE
• Chuck Wendig's DINOCALYPSE FOREVER
• Stephen Blackmoore's KHAN OF MARS
• Harry Connolly's KING KHAN

Reading these novels out of chronological order (aside from the trilogy, which should be read in order relative to one another) won't hurt a thing -- spoilers will be avoided, though the occasional oblique reference to events in one another may crop up -- but we know how important context can be to an avid reader and fan. 

Benjamin Hu in THE PHARAOH OF HONG KONG

But before we go!

Here's a little taste from the adventures of Benjamin Hu, told at an early point in his career from the perspective of Dr. Fang Mei, Special Computation Agent for the British government's ultra-secret Ministry of Para-Historical Defense...

Trapped in a car, a convertible I might add, we did the only thing we could think to do: drive! To which the cultists did the only thing they could think to do: hang on.

If you think this was an awkward affair, perhaps with the three of us screaming at each other and at our attackers while Clayton blindly drove around the disused industrial park, you'd be wrong. Well, you'd be right at first, but part of the problem with driving blindly is that you end up in the strangest places. I hadn't given our course much thought, occupied as I was with heaving Benjamin back into the car while two of the cultists tried to drag him out of it, but then we smashed through a fence. And while that had the beneficial effect of knocking several cultists right off, there was also the unfortunate matter that it was a fence separating the industrial park from the road.

Which we were now on.

The wrong side of.

We continued in this manner for some time. It may seem grossly irresponsible for an agent of the MPHD to engage in such hazardous activity, but I assure you that is exactly the point I raised to Clayton. Loudly.

He, however, was yelling at Benjamin while wrestling with cultist on the hood, who was yanking the steering wheel this way and that. Benjamin was yelling at Clayton while trying to keep from being dragged out of the car.

I say "yelling at" rather than "arguing with" because they were having two distinct conversations round about the same topic. Benjamin insisted Clayton should shoot the cultists. Clayton insisted Benjamin needed to load the gun. Both were too busy fighting for their lives to bend their related but divergent yelling into a single conversation.

It was a moot point anyway, as I was by then using the gun to club at the cultist who had a hold of Benjamin. He was down to just the one, having lost the other to the intersection with the fence.

"Argh, stop!" Benjamin said because, while I was clubbing at the cultist, that didn't mean every blow struck home.