Statement on SEASONS OF WAR and the publication of GALLIFREY

Altrix Books is saddened to learn that the official Seasons of War page will be closing down soon. This is due to, according to new project manager Martin Meades, "a copyright and intellectual property request." They will be handling refunds and distribution of their own undistributed projects.

Seasons of War: Gallifrey, is different. Though commissioned by Declan May (the originator of Seasons of War), Gallifrey was published under the banner of Altrix Books, and at this time we have received no indication (from Seasons of War or anywhere else) that we must cease distribution of the book any earlier than we had planned to. Should we get this alert, of course, we will honor it. However, at present, we are keeping orders open until we have sold the last of our print run.

At the time of this writing, we have raised £1,000 for Caudwell Children with your generous help. We look forward to increasing that number before the final donation is sent off. To that end, you may still purchase copies from our website while supplies last.

It is also worth noting at this point that neither Paul Driscoll nor Kara Dennison works in any official capacity with the Seasons of War brand beyond the writing and publishing of Gallifrey, nor do they have information or access that will enable them in any way to help with claims, refunds, or distribution of materials. Any information to the contrary, no matter where it may be printed, is erroneous.

If you would like to continue to follow our activity on social media after the closing of the Seasons of War page, you can find us on Facebook as Altrix Books and on Twitter @altrixbooks.

Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to presenting our next books in the coming months.

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On pitching.

Once again, we'd like to thank everyone who pitched a story to Unearthed! There were so many amazing ideas sent our way, and while we had to turn away some to keep the book from being a brick, every concept was a joy to read.

In the future, we will be accepting more pitches — both for anthologies and for stand-alone books. We look forward to hearing new ideas from more of you in future. In the meantime, we thought we'd talk a little bit about what makes a good pitch to us.

Paul and Kara are both writers, and Kara is an editor by day, so we've been on both sides of the process. We also know that every editor is different, so what we say may not apply to another publisher. But if you're looking to warm up to one of our next calls, a few things to bear in mind:

Include the ending of the story in your pitch.

There's nothing like a good cliffhanger, and we're always told to "leave them wanting more." And in some cases, that's a good thing to do. But when pitching stories to us, please including the ending. This is for a few reasons.

1. We need to know you know it. We're both writers, and we know how it is to get a good idea and not quite have the ending stuck yet. So we want to know, if you're offering us an idea, you know where you're going to go with it.

2. The ending is essential to knowing if we want the story. We love twists-in-the-tale and surprise endings, but we need to know what we're in for. The upshot of your story may help us decide it doesn't fit into what we're doing; conversely, it may be what gets you accepted. (There are at least two cases in Unearthed of the story's ending being the prime reason it was picked.)

3. We don't want no funny business. We don't want to end up getting to the end of a finished product and discovering that it contains content or sentiments we cannot or do not want to publish.

Follow the directions.

We're not putting up an overall "How to pitch" page yet because we have a few things we're still working out, and because it will likely vary from project to project (and depending on whether Kara, Paul, or both are at the forefront of it). So we'll convene on an overall Altrix Pitching System.

But for the short term, just know that the more closely you follow the directions laid out, the more likely you are to get accepted. Sticking to what we've laid out shows us that you're easy to work with, and is reassurance that if we have to send out emails with new info on a deadline, you'll be able to cope with it.

Make sure you enjoy what you're pitching.

This may seem like an odd request, but seriously. Make sure what you're sending us is something that interests you, and something you'd want to do if we said "yes." It's very easy to tell when someone is sending us an idea they're enthusiastic about as opposed to something they're rolling out just to get another pitch in. Again, we know. We're writers, and we've done both.

If the call we've got open at the moment doesn't interest you, don't worry. We have plenty of plans for the future. It's okay to wait on something that grabs your attention.

At the moment, we aren't accepting submissions for anything, as we're working away on two charity anthologies and gearing up for a series. But in the near future, keep your eyes open for more opportunities!

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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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UNEARTHED: Meet Our Authors!

From archaeologists to grave robbers, from legendary criminals to explorers, everyone wants to know: What's in the Box? And thanks to our intrepid authors and artists, we can finally find out.

Unearthed will be an anthology celebrating the magic, horror, and mystery that comes with human curiosity. Our creators are a mix of familiar faces, new talent, and experienced writers from multiple circles.

Authors confirmed for Unearthed:

James Bojaciuk

Keith DeCandido

Kara Dennison

Paul Driscoll

Richard Gurl
I. E. Kneverday

James K. Maddox

Michael O'Brien

John Peel

Meredith Peruzzi

Graham Tedesco-Blair

Sharyna Tran

With cover design by Ginger Hoesly and interior art by Sophie Iles and Monica Marier

The stories will cover a broad spectrum spanning genres. You'll cross paths with everyone from gentleman thief A.J. Raffles to the god of curiosity. Historical pieces muse on the Fort River Dam and the poetry of Longfellow. Explorations take us through dimensional portals and into outer space, and reexamine the fates of the King of Kings and the King of Knights. Resurrectionists make a "grave" mistake, an ancient game turns into a deadly meme, and competitive cooking goes off the rails with today's very special ingredient.

All proceeds for Unearthed will go to ARCE, the American Research Center in Egypt, which is devoted to preserving ancient Egyptian culture and supporting scholars and archaeologists.

Unearthed goes on sale in early 2019, with preorders set to open at a later date. Thank you for all your support — we look forward to opening the doors of Altrix Books' first anthology!

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What's Next for Altrix? Unearthed Progress and the Chronosmiths

Thanks to everyone for continuing to pick up our books! Again, we only have a limited number of books available, and once they're gone, they're gone. We will not be doing a second print run of Seasons of War: Gallifrey, and the digital copies will also be closing out around the time the print issues are gone.

But there's more coming from Altrix in the future!

Submissions are now closed for Unearthed, and Kara is currently going through them. Contributors should be hearing one way or the other very soon, and we'll make an announcement on here and social media once everyone has been contacted, just to make sure nothing slips through the cracks.

Judging by early work sent by featured writers and the quality of the submissions we received, it's going to be an amazing anthology! We can't wait to tell you more!

We also can't wait to tell you more about The Chronosmith Chronicles, our upcoming series spun off from Savalia, Mordicai, Kendo, and Tor Fasa! Early preparations are underway to create stories and accept guest submissions, so keep your ears to the ground!

As we mentioned before, thanks as ever for the support. We can't wait to show you what the future has in store. Just a few more little things to put in place!

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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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