THE CHRONOSMITH CHRONICLES: Who is Mordicai?

While the upcoming series The Chronosmith Chronicles jumps off from Seasons of War: Gallifrey, we make sure to note that Gallifrey is not required reading for the new books. And that's completely true! While readers of the charity novel might catch some things that new readers won't, the new books will be completely stand-alone and enjoyable on their own.

That said, according to Kara's calendar of weird holidays, it's National Inventors Day in the United States. And no one fits the bill there better than our own Mordicai.

So who is Mordicai?

When Kara and Paul first teamed up to write Gallifrey, they had to create four characters. Funnily (and luckily!) enough, each of them quickly took to two of the four plotted-out personalities. Kara "adopted" Savalia and Kendo, with Paul in charge of Mordicai and Tor Fasa. Once their personalities and histories were worked out individually, the notes were brought together of a series of Skype calls, and their stories intersected into what became the charity novel.

Each of the characters had (and has) a short title, with Mordicai's being "The Engineer." This was a very on-the-nose term in Gallifrey, being the name he actually ended up calling himself by. But Mordicai will just be himself as a Chronosmith: an engineer who keeps things working.

Mordicai and Savalia—our Soldier-Poet—make up the romantic leads of the team, and we have very firm rules in place for them. They've had a lot of their relationship trial-by-fire already, after all. At first glance, the two have very little in common: Mordicai is very logic-bound and rule-driven, while Savalia learns rules for the purposes of bending them (from a creative standpoint, at least). They're both past attempting to change each other's ways, though; both ways of thinking have their uses, after all, and aren't necessarily at odds with each other.

Going forward, Mordicai is absolutely the brains, and the designated driver, of the Chronosmiths. Where Savalia leans on emotion, Kendo on diplomacy, and Fasa on influence, Mordicai will always be the most down-to-earth (so to speak).

Saying much more would give away what we have planned... and we have a lot planned! In the meantime, there are still copies of Seasons of War: Gallifrey, both digital and physical, should you be curious about the origins of the series. Pick up your copies now, as we won't be doing a second printing of this particular book!

And stay tuned for more news about The Chronosmith Chronicles and our other upcoming projects.

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A Message from Caudwell Children

While our copies of Gallifrey are not yet sold out, we have decided to forward what we have raised so far to the charity that Seasons of War was created to support, Caudwell Children. We received the following in response from Caudwell's Associate Director of Core Services, Lisa Bates:

Caudwell Children are so very grateful for this fantastic donation of £1,000. We would like to thank everyone involved in “Seasons of War: Gallifrey”; the Doctor Who fandom who have bought this wonderful novel, to the writers, Kara Dennison and Paul Driscoll, to Declan May for starting this all and also to Altrix Books for publishing it.

The charity’s management and running costs are covered by a kind benefactor, so all donations go directly to the children and families we help. Your donation will help us continue our life-changing work, it will make a huge difference in the lives of disabled children. 

From the bottom of our hearts, we cannot thank you all enough. x

We'd like to thank everyone who has purchased a copy of Gallifrey so far, and look forward to being able to increase our donation before the print run comes to an end. Print and digital copies can still be ordered directly from our website.

Thank you again for your support!

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Thanks to our reviews and shout-outs!

It's been a busy first book launch for us! We're pleased to see so many people reading, leaving reviews, and spreading the word about Seasons of War: Gallifrey.

We're also grateful for the feedback from our readers, as it's helping us to create our "show bible" for The Chronosmith Chronicles. Knowing what you liked and what resonated with you is helping us to bring Mordicai, Savalia, Kendo, and Tor Fasa into the next stage of their adventures.

If you'd like to help spread the word (and we'd love to have you help) and aren't sure what to do, here's a few ways you can help us as we finish out our print run of this book:

Follow us on social media!

You can find us on Facebook and on Twitter. Both Paul and Kara keep an eye on these accounts, so it's a good way to get in touch with us. Plus, we keep it very active, with news not only on our own work, but also on our projects elsewhere and publications by friends of our co-founders. So you should be able to find several things of interest there.

You might also want to follow Kara on Facebook and on Twitter, or Paul on Twitter as well. Those are our personal accounts, though, so only the respective person will see what's on there. Still, we're both up to a lot outside Altrix, so you might like what you see!

Give our designer some love!

Ginger Hoesly is an amazing artist and designer who will be working with us again in future. If you'd like to support more of her work, check out her Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr. She also has a shop on Tictail where you can pick up artbooks, prints, and more — especially interesting if you're a Doctor Who fan!

Incidentally, Ginger and Kara work together on the light novel series Owl's Flower, so check that out for more reading material and more ways to support us. And Ginger will have a zine of interest coming soon, so keep an eye out!

Review us on GoodReads!

It's a fact of life (at least for writers) that reader reviews mean a lot. So if you're on GoodReads, please drop us a review!

Spread the Word!

When you do, be sure to mention that proceeds from this book go to Caudwell Children. It's a good cause we're happy to support.

And of course, don't forget to get your copy while there's still time!

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A Word with Paul and Kara

Seasons of War: Gallifrey has been on the market for just a little while, but we're already seeing positive comments and reviews from many of you! Thanks to everyone showing us your copies as they come in, and for letting us know what you think of our first book.

For interested readers — both current and potential — we thought we'd share a bit of the Q&A we sent around to our reviewers:

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What was it like collaborating with a second writer?

KD: I’m used to collaborating because of my work in webcomics, and because I work with Ginger Hoesly (our cover artist) on a light novel series. Every collaboration is going to be different. Sometimes one of us does all the typing, sometimes we both do literal 50/50, sometimes it’s more like 100/100. The one constant in entering into a collaboration is that there are no constants!
Paul and I hashed things out a lot over Skype. There would be these long silences between the two of us as we both sat there trying to figure out what to do next, but I think we were on an equal footing across the board. At least in terms of mapping out this story, we were bordering on Drift Compatible quite a bit; we’d make the same decisions the other would have made, we had the same feelings about how it should end and how the characters should evolve, etc. Declan is amazing at matching up authors!

I also think we both worry that we’re each not doing our fair share! In the end, he’s handled a lot of the editing and formatting, and I’ve taken point on the digital side of things. And that’s a part of collaboration that people often forget: what happens once the story is done, and how you get it out there, is yet another facet of working together.

PD: This was a completely new experience for me and I’ve loved every minute of it. Kara and I had never worked together before and we really only knew each other in passing, but Declan knew exactly what he was doing when he allocated the various writers for the novels. We shared the same vision for the book right from the start and our personalities and writing strengths complement each other really well.
As we wrote our allocated chapters it was great to be able to bounce off ideas with each other, or share the odd lines of dialogue to see whether or not it worked. Other characters came out from the shadows as a result. They become far more important to the story then we’d initially imagined. Caelion and Bez being the perfect examples.


Is there any character you in particular associate with the most?

KD: There’s this great anime creator named Leiji Matsumoto, and one of his most memorable series was this show Captain Harlock. The lead was this dashing space pirate, and his best friend was this
doofy little engineer named Tochiro. Matsumoto has said that Harlock is what he wishes he could be, and Tochiro is what he knows he is.

I think that’s what happened with me and Savalia and Kendo, respectively. Savalia is this really caring, really strong, really artistic and “together” person. But Kendo is much more what I really am from day to day, worrying what people think of her and making really horrible decisions and then having to deal with the fallout. There was this moment when I was working on Kendo’s chapters when my brain just went “I wonder what happens when someone with two hearts has a panic attack,” and there we are. Messed up a perfectly good Time Lord is what I did. Look at her, she’s got anxiety.

PD: I can see parts of me in all four of the lead characters: Mordicai’s social awkwardness and rebellious streak, Savalia’s conflict between wanting to be there for her family and wanting to escape into a world of pure imagination, Kendo’s feeling of being the odd-one-out, the one who needs to prove herself in a position of power, and Tor Fasa’s illogical blend of idealism and cynicism.

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The Q&A goes on in our reviewer packet. If you'd be interested in reviewing Seasons of War: Gallifrey for your podcast, blog, or website, get in touch with us on Facebook or Twitter!

And remember, the book will only be on sale for a limited time... when they're gone, they're gone! So be sure to order yours while you can!

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Seasons of War: Gallifrey is here!

The time has come: Seasons of War: Gallifrey is now in stock and ready to order!

Those who pre-ordered print and e-books should be receiving their copies in the coming days. Thank you for your patience and your support!

If you would like to order your copy, head to the book's landing page. Orders are conducted via PayPal, with separate pricing for UK and overseas orders. You can also order a digital version, or a print/digital combo. Be sure to double check your order for print editions, as shipping prices inside and outside of the UK are significantly different.

Thanks to everyone for their patience as we completed this book! We're very excited to present you with our hard work, and with Altrix Books's first title. More will be forthcoming in future!

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COMING SOON: Book Orders Re-Opening!

Hello, and thank you all for your patience as we prepare to print Seasons of War: Gallifrey! It's been a long road putting things together and getting things in line, but the end is in sight. We're to the point of measuring book spines and doing up invoices.

For those who haven't had a chance to order -- once we have physical copies in house (or in houses), we'll be opening orders again.

For those who've ordered, you should have received some digital goodies in the form of free short stories. We will be letting you all know when the book itself is on its way to your doorstep!

For now, keep an eye on the Seasons of War Facebook page for the latest news!

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