The teaser page for JAC.AL is live on Backerkit! It’s the story of a protocol-loving security construct who just wants their squad to install a security update…

JAC.AL is a sci fi novella set in the Spiral Frontier universe, an IP I’ve been developing for the past few years. This is the first in a planned 5-novella story arc, each one following one of a squad of constructs in the 2nd Mountain Task Force deployed to the planet New Lagos Prime at the outset of AI apocalypse.

The teaser trailer for the book is live and features art from the incredible John Gaertner and voice, sound design and music from the equally incredible Raison Varner. If you’re interested in keeping up with the project, you can follow it from the BackerKit page or join my newsletter.

As it happens, I also announced a second piece of fiction as part of the BackerKit campaign: *R4Y & Kate*. Set in the same Spiral Frontier universe, this is a regrettably cut chapter turned short story turned novellette set in parallel with the events of *JAC.AL.*
Basically it tracks the human program manager and construct software architect of the project that causes the AI apocalypse. I wanted to explore what it would be like to be running a launch that goes so wrong that it brings down all of civilization as we know it (because as a PM, I know the feeling of “well, what’s the worst thing that happens? We bring down all of civlization as we know?”).

This novellete will be free to early backers and I’ll probably make it available as part of other anthologies in the Spiral Frontier series. This one was just one of those stories that had to get out and this crowdfunding campaign was the perfect spot for it.

This project is incredibly exciting for me. I’ve wanted to write long-form science fiction my whole life and while I’ve had a solid 20 year run as an on-and-off writer for games, having something with my name on it (cough cough John Milius cough) that I brought from vision to completion is literally a dream come true.

After I took the last book in this series (The Lost Construct) through to agent pitches and was met with deafening silence, I wasn’t sure if writing was going to work out for me. The response I got from beta readers for JAC.AL restored my faith in my ability to write this kind of material and that there’s a group of readers out there looking for stories about robots with heart and AI shenanigans.

I hope y’all will join me on this adventure and thanks for stopping by the site!