I'm delighted to reveal the cover of Kelvoo's Terra! My thanks to Alain Berset for his brilliant 3D rendering of the characters, and to Jan Westendorp for expertly using those characters in the overall cover design.

I am in the home stretch of the publishing process, aiming for the launch in mid-October (possibly sooner). I'll keep you posted.

If you would like me to notify you when Kelvoo's Terra is available, please drop me a note via the Contact form.

Below, you'll see a mockup of the new cover, followed by the book's synopsis (the text for the back cover).

KELVOO's TERRA - Synopsis:

Kelvoo is a survivor. Human first contact had a devastating effect on the kloormari species of Kelvoo’s home planet. No kloormar was impacted more profoundly than Kelvoo.

Now, Kelvoo is on a mission to protect two young humans, Brenna and May—orphaned, abandoned, and left in Kelvoo’s care. After a generous job offer, pressure from the girls, and the chance to immigrate to Terra, Kelvoo must choose between a life of security and the risks of the human homeworld.

Once on Terra, Kelvoo, Brenna, and May are welcomed with open arms. Terran life is full of wonders until a radical anti-immigrant movement unleashes a violent coup, plunging Terra into chaos and civil war. Will Kelvoo be able to protect Brenna and May, or will they all succumb to the hate and violence surrounding them?
--
As the highly anticipated sequel to Kelvoo’s Testimonial, Kelvoo’s Terra combines suspense, political intrigue, and personal redemption as it dramatically explores the impact of ignorance and hate, versus the power of family and love, in a futuristic science fiction setting.

Three months since my last post? Inexcusable!

Well, I do have one excuse . . . I've been putting everything else aside to work on the sequel to Kelvoo's Testimonial, and I'm delighted to say that I've just finished the first draft! Whew!

Here's a synopsis of Kelvoo's Terra - An immigrant's tale
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Kelvoo's Terra is set seven years after the era of Kelvoo's Testimonial. Kelvoo has made significant progress recovering from the trauma of captivity on Jezebel's Fury and the colonization of Kuw'baal by human settlers and business interests.

Kelvoo's Testimonial has been published across the Planetary Alliance and has inspired massive reforms, known as "The Correction" on Terra, resulting in almost all humans leaving Kuw'baal.

Reunited with the human orphans, Brenna and May, Kelvoo is the girls' legal guardian. The girls would like nothing more than to leave the dull, cloudy world of Kuw'baal and move to the legendary human home planet of Terra. Kelvoo is reluctant until a human professor offers Kelvoo an opportunity to teach at the Interplanetary University on Terra.

Kelvoo, Brenna, and May move to Terra where they are warmly welcomed. Kelvoo loves teaching the students about extraterrestrial perspectives on human nature and Brenna and May fit right in, making friends and enjoying life.

Unknown to Kelvoo, forces are at work on Terra to build a populist, anti-immigration movement. Funded by massively wealthy humans, The Human Independence Movements calls for the immediate deportation of all extraterrestrials, through violence "if necessary". Deeply troubled by the movement, Kelvoo is repeatedly assured that its leaders are just fringe lunatics whose movement will never amount to anything. Kelvoo's world is shattered when a wealthy member of the Human Independence Movement befriends Brenna and convinces her to betray Kelvoo and join the movement.

When election time comes for selection of the next Terran government, the movement puts forward candidates for the newly formed Humanity Party. Much to the shock and disgust of the majority of humans, the Humanity Party wins with a minority of the popular vote. The other parties form an alliance to thwart every attempt to persecute Terra's extraterrestrial citizens. Driven by their hatred and frustration, and aided by the reappearance of the Brotherhood gangs, the Humanity Party unleashes a brutally violent uprising, plunging Terra into chaos, civil war, and interplanetary isolation.

The mass deportation of non-humans begins, but a far worse fate is planned for Kelvoo, who is seen as an existential threat to humanity itself.

Kelvoo's Terra is the story of Kelvoo and May as they struggle to survive and escape a world that had once welcomed them with open arms.
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So, that's the first draft of my story's synopsis. I'm going to have to edit it and shorten it considerably before it is ever printed on the back cover.

So, completion of the first draft marks the biggest step on the journey to publishing Kelvoo's Terra, but there is still a long way to go. Here's my partial to-do list:

• Finish reviewing the first draft of my manuscript and make corrections
• Send the manuscript to a group of "beta" readers for corrections and suggestions
• Update the manuscript to reflect beta reader feedback
• Send the manuscript to professionals for editing and proofreading
• Come up with a synopsis for the back cover and to describe the book on websites
• Work with a designer to produce the book cover graphics
• Upload the book files to online booksellers (Amazon and others)
• Start marketing Kelvoo's Terra to obtain pre-orders
• Announce the launch of Kelvoo's Terra
• Keep on marketing Kelvoo's Terra
• Start thinking about a sequel to Kelvoo's Terra
• Dismiss any thoughts about a sequel as ridiculous
• Start work on the sequel

Stay tuned for updates!

I haven't made any blog posts for a while, so I thought I'd take an opportunity to report that some excellent reviews have been coming in, especially on Amazon!

Rather than repeating all of the reviews in this blog post, I've just added a new Reviews page to this website, where you can see a sampling.

For this post, here is one of my recent favorites from Amazon.com:

How They See Us - An Alien Perspective
An autobiography (even a fictional sci-fi autobiography), if written honestly, is going to reveal the truth about its narrator and the narrator’s perception of others (i.e., humans, in this case): the bad, the good, the ugly, and the beautiful. The narrator in this case is Kelvoo, an alien from the pristine planet, Kuw’baal, and a member of the Kloormari species.

Sam Buchanan, a human who will become Kelvoo’s best friend, describes the Kloormari in his Preface to Kelvoo’s Testimonial as “unparalleled multi-taskers.” The Kloormari are blessed with extremely versatile bodies, photographic memory, unlimited vocal range, a seemingly infinite ability to learn complex information and to apply acquired knowledge with staggering speed and efficiency.

The Kloormari are also innocent as children. Imagination, passion, ambition, greed, deception, love, hate, all those complex and paradoxical emotions and qualities that both doom and elevate humans are completely foreign to them. That is, until a human research vessel lands on Kuw’baal and makes First Contact with this interesting species. And though the first humans Kelvoo and his species encounter are well-meaning and make a favorable impression, the Kloormari eventually become vulnerable to less honorable humans (and also become more humanlike, for better or worse), leading to a series of disorienting and traumatic events.

This futuristic tale is eminently contemporary, concerned with destructive human behaviors such as war, drug addiction, sex trafficking, economic exploitation, bigotry, replacement theory, and so on. Bailey skillfully weaves into the story detailed technical material and creative world building to please even the most demanding hard sci-fi fan. But he has also created an alien species that can move the human heart to laughter or tears.

Yes, this is the alien Kelvoo’s testimonial, but it’s really about us, the people we choose to be and the way we choose to engage the universe and those who are different from us. Will we be guided by our better angels, or by our demons? That’s a choice each of us has to make.
​

May 14, 2022 - Today's the day!

Today, Kelvoo's Testimonial became available in eBook and hardcover formats around the world.

Although the softcover version has been available in most markets for a few weeks, I'm counting today as the official launch since the eBook makes Kelvoo's Testimonial widely available at a far lower cost.

If you have an e-reader, you can order Kelvoo's Testimonial for just $4.99 in the US, $6.49 in Canada, £3.99 in the UK, €4.59 in the Eurozone, and an equivalent amount in other countries.

If you have a Kindle e-reader, you'll find Kelvoo's Testimonial in Amazon's Kindle store. If you have a Kobo, Nook, or other e-reader, look for Kelvoo's Testimonial at Kobo, Barnes & Noble/Indigo, Apple Books, Scribd, Angus & Robertson, Thalia, Mondadori, or Vivlio.

Starting Monday, May 2nd, Kelvoo's Testimonial will be available from Bolen Books in Hillside Mall! Bolen has set aside space for my display right on top of the Local Authors section!

Founded in 1975, Bolen Books has weathered many a storm that has resulted in the closure of the great majority of independent booksellers. Today, Bolen is as strong and independent as ever in its lovely 17,000 square foot space.

I am humbled and honoured that Bolen Books is carrying Kelvoo's Testimonial and I greatly value Bolen's support of local authors.

The day after delivering my books to Russell's, I got my first independent review via the NetGalley platform. I've certainly received many kind words from family and friends, but it's impossible to know how much personal bias might have deliberately or unintentionally crept it. As such, I was absolutely delighted to see the following review:

At last! My printed proof copy of Kelvoo's Testimonial. I'm performing a final proofread and then I'll be ready to order a first batch for distribution to many of the wonderful people who have supported my efforts so far!

I'm also progressing toward having the e-book available via Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Apple Books, and making the printed version available via Amazon and, for bookstores, on IngramSpark.

I can't wait to announce an official release date!

Since Kelvoo's Testimonial is an autobiographical account, I had envisioned a cover that featured Kelvoo, posed in a way that would be similar to autobiographies of celebrities, leaders, and other living humans. You can read more about that in my blog post, "Book cover - Initial concepts". 

I had recently received images from a 3D character model, created by brilliant artist, Alain Berset and I used the images to submit a couple of concepts to Jodi, an excellent cover and book designer.

Jodi came up with four excellent designs. Three were along the lines of my original vision, and she threw in a different design to provide an alternative.

I had a difficult time choosing a cover and I realized that I was too close to the project to make an objective choice. I decided to put the four designs "out there" on social media and ask my friends and acquaintances to vote.

!The results of the vote were:

A: 12
B: 17
C: 2
D: 7

So, B won by a fair margin. On the other hand, A, C, and D had styles that were very close to one another, so a majority of voters chose something other than B. This told me that, whatever I chose, I wouldn't go too far wrong (unless, perhaps, I chose C). Nevertheless, by that time, option B had "grown on me", even though it diverged the farthest from my original concept.

I let Jodi know that option B was my choice and I requested just a couple of minor changes. For example, B shows a few patches of bluish sky, while Kelvoo's Testimonial states that Kelvoo's planet, Kuw'baal, exists under a constant, thick layer of cloud.

Jodi made the requested changes and the cover of Kelvoo's Testimonial was created!