2015 is shaping up to be a big year for me. In case you haven't heard the news, I've got my second Syfy Original Movie set to premiere this summer (more on that as we get closer to the debut). Not only that, this will be the year that I wrap up my sci-fi/action adventure
Rift Jump series.
As you may or may not know,
Rift Jump began as a series of stories I wrote in high school. Over the years, I added to the mythology, never intending to publish; it was simply something that amused me. But, back in 2012, I began collecting those old stories and giving them a fresh polish and the first volume of
Rift Jump was published by Splashdown Darkwater.
Once I made the decision to publish
Rift Jump, I knew it was going to be a two-parter. I had a very definite story that I wanted to tell, featuring my star-crossed inter-dimensional lovers, Michael and Sara. Later this year, I'll be releasing
Rift Jump, Volume 2: Sara's Song (check out the sweet cover art by Thomas Mason
here).
Leading up to that release will be a few surprises: the first being today's big announcement--In a few weeks, I will be re-releasing the first
Rift Jump novel under my own banner, Genre Experience, and it will be a
Revised and Expanded Edition! Here's your first look at the (slightly altered) cover:
"So why a new edition?" you may ask. I'm generally hesitant to re-visit my work, but in the writing of
Sara's Song, I found myself taking some twists and turns I had not anticipated when writing the first book three years ago. Looking back, there were some things I wished I'd built up a little bit more in that original tale in view of what was to come in the concluding installment of Michael and Sara's journey across the multiverse. Grace (at Splashdown Darkwater) and I had been talking about moving
Rift Jump over to my own line (that began with last year's release of
HITMEN: Four Tales of Magick, Monsters, and Murder) and I decided that, if I were going to be making the move and creating a new edition anyway, now would be the perfect time to go in and make those subtle--but important--changes to the original book.
So what's in the new edition? A few brand-new scenes, some expanded scenes, some expanded characters, and a richer mythology that should excite fans of
The Coming Evil Trilogy... Also, the new edition will include a new introduction written by me, and conclude with an excerpt from the upcoming
Sara's Song. I'm confident that, together, these two books will make a very complimentary coupling--much like the heroes whose story they tell.
What's NOT in the new edition? Sadly, to make room for the new material--and to streamline the overall product--I'm losing the appendices found in the original edition: namely the completely unmodified original "Rift Jump" short story I wrote way back in high school (it's hysterically awful :)), and bittersweetly, the humorous send-up "Rift Jump: Ninjas" written by my superbly talented wife Meghan. Cutting these was a hard decision and not made lightly, but ultimately, I feel, the right one.
All is not lost: that first edition of
Rift Jump, complete with those rare short stories, will be available for just a little while longer. At least a week or so--but likely longer, until the release of the new edition. So consider this your final chance to pick up the soon-to-be-out-of-print first edition of
Rift Jump from Splashdown Darkwater. You can get it in
paperback or
Kindle while the gettin's good.
As for the Revised and Expanded Edition, stay tuned here for the big release as well as a couple of surprises--all leading up to the end of an era (at least for me),
Rift Jump, Volume 2: Sara's Song!
