The Hour has Come!

 Available Now, An Hour For Vengeance

Kirov Series Special Edition, Volume #68

From a Temporal Cyclone to burning ships struck by terrible new weapons of Imperial Japan in 2030, the War in Limbo continues right where Volume #67 left off. Karpov and Kirov have already seen what can happen when locking horns with this modern Japanese Empire, in a world made possible by Ivan Volkov. With Letters of Marque from Director Kamenski, he takes Kirov to sea again in waters swarming with ships of the Combined Fleet, and with Odo Nobunaga set on exacting revenge for the duplicity and betrayal of the Siberians when his war prize fails to function as expected.  Action from start to finish in this one, as Fedorov and Karpov hope to eventually find a way home to their Meridian in 2027.

Now on Amazon

An Hour for Vengeance, Kindle edition, $6.99

An Hour For Vengeance

 Kirov Series Special Edition #68

The Kirov Series Revisited….

 

Most fans of the Kirov Series know by now that the never ending story never really ended. The last two volumes of the main series were #63 Final Sortie, and #64 Journey’s end. Then, after over ten years dedicated to the mighty Kirov, John took a break and put out a five volume Epic Fantasy series, The Chronicles of Innisfail, basically looking for more readers in that highly popular genre. But ever since Game of Thrones, fantasy has been absolutely saturated, and it was difficult to get noticed.  So John then returned to his Keyholders Saga, which arose as a subplot in the Kirov Series when the character Sir Roger Ames hired one Ian Thomas to burrow beneath Churchill’s burial site to obtain his ashes so they could be compressed to make a diamond by services like Eterneva, EverDear, Lonite and many others. Ever since that, Sir Roger has been wagering that diamond in a number of games with wealthy adversaries. These men all seem to have mysterious keys that open highly engineered gates to hidden passages concealing rifts in time. So time travel is again at the heart of these stories, which end up being highly textured alternate histories.

Of course the keys soon become prominent in the Kirov Series as other characters begin seeking them out, like Elena Fairchild, and eventually Fedorov and Karpov as well. We learn how they are used in the Kamenski Device to open more and more features of that magic box. Meanwhile, Sir Roger leads us through four excellent alternate histories of famous battles from British History.  The first was Field of Glory (Waterloo), then Zulu Hour (Isandlwana). Returning to this series John added The Devil Ship (The Opium Wars) and then The Sands of Honor, (Sudan and Omdurman), with Sir Roger Ames again involved in both stories. These are books that are pretty much stand alone novels, so the Keyholder’s Saga can be read in any order.

Now then… the never ending Kirov Saga suddenly had an Encore, (Series volume #65) and that volume actually seemed a more appropriate way to tie things off for the series as a whole.  While it focused on the officers and crew, the vehicle was the airship Baikal, not the Mighty Kirov. But it did get us sitting in on the plans and plots of Karpov and Fedorov, and on a fairly wild mission to both polar regions.

Next John went back to the ship he devoted so much love, time, and energy to and put out two quick volumes a month apart. They were Clash of Empires, Kirov Series #66, where Director Kamenski recruited our heroes and their intrepid battlecruiser to clean up a mess caused by the disappearance of a Chinese warship. It was followed in just one month by War in Limbo, volume #67.

With Kirov fighting in just about every historical war possible, this time John took his imagination forward to the year 2030, and in a future made possible by Ivan Volkov’s interventions. In the War in Limbo, we learn that Volkov gave “the Bomb” to the Japanese a year before the end of WWII, and that enabled Japan to stage a surprise attack on Halsey while he mustered in Truk Lagoon. That ended the war by treaty instead of unconditional surrender for Japan, and voila, what do we have in 2030, a ravenously Samurai souled Imperial Japanese Empire dominating all the Western Pacific, but with modern day ships and missiles in their Imperial Navy.

Kirov gets marooned in this Limbo in volume #67, quite literally tossed aground on the island named Limbo by a big Typhoon. It is not long before the Japanese become aware of the ship, and they meet the same character that they encountered when this world was first introduced in the main series, Captain Sato. Things then take a darker turn, and things transpire that series fans never thought possible. Mid-way through this story there are dramatic events which cannot be revealed here. This puts both Fedorov and Karpov to the test, and they devise a plan to try and reverse their setbacks and escape this world.

The ending of War in Limbo presents an eerie stalking of the ship and crew by the force of Paradox, which appears as a massive Temporal storm. So while a physical typhoon begins the story, it is bookended by a Temporal Cyclone,  and that is where we left it last month. Well guess what mister prolific has for us in June. The Kirov Series gets yet another sequel, Series Volume #68, An Hour For Vengeance is coming soon, and while the other Encores were stand alone stories, this one connects directly to War in Limbo, picking up right where that story ended. The two volumes even share a similar cover design.

So this month the story takes off again, and puts us right back on the bridge of Kirov to resolve the ending of War in Limbo. Saying more about An Hour for Vengeance might spoil things for you, but needless to say, Karpov is pissed off with the Imperial Japanese Navy for what they put the ship and crew through, and he shows them what Mizuchi can really do. Coming this June, possibly around the 15th again, we get another Kirov fix that is utterly classic, and it looks like these books revisiting the series are becoming a stealth Season Nine. Like the four or five Star Trek spinoffs, there may be more to come as the Kirov series reboots in these tales. Don’t miss out! 

~ The The Writing Shop Press

Season 9: The Encore Series for Kirov

Volume 65: Encore

Volume 66: Clash of Empires

Volume 67: War in Limbo

Volume 68: An Hour for Vengeance

Clash of Empires!

 AVAILABLE NOW - Kirov Series #66 ~ Clash of Empires

After ending the Kirov Series last year, author John Schettler has been sneaking out stand alone novels based on the ship and crew, and putting them out as "Special Editions."

The first was Encore, appropriately titled, and a book that became Kirov Series #65. This spring we will get two more stand alone novels, each one a specific mission that needs a warship to resolve. While Encore was a jaunt to the distant future on the Airship Baikal, the next two books will be centered on the ship and crew, and they will be a mission to the past in Clash of Empires, released April 15. Next month, we get another book, one complete mission for Kirov and crew entitled War in Limbo. So if you have had an urge to walk that deck again, these two books will be just what you need.

OTHER NEWS on Website and Email.

The hosting company for my web site and email service notified me that they are getting out of the hosting business altogether. So there I was, with a 400 page web site that suddenly needed to find a new host.

I’ve been wanting to simplify the web site for some time now, and so this was a good reason to start. Here’s what I have done.

1)      The web site has moved

I’ve registered a new Domain, which is now “writingshop.press”

In the short run, I pointed the old writingshop.ws at a much leaner web site at www.writingshop.press.

Anyone typing www.writingshop.ws will get forwarded to the new, much simpler web site. It will showcase my various book series, and announce new releases, but I will no longer create a page for each series book. I’ll probably expand this site in the months ahead, but for now it just has a home page and one subpage—ah, simplicity. And also because of this move…

2)      My email has changed

I can now be reached at: John@writingshop.press 

In the short term I think mail sent to John@writingshop.ws will still reach me, but it will soon phase out, so you should switch to the .press email address to contact me reliably.

3) About Clash of Empires

 Clash of Empires marks a return to the Kirov Series for stand alone books that involve one mission or sortie, and these will be intensely focused on the ship and crew. In Clash of Empires, the book also takes us to the period of the Boxer Rebellion (1900) as Kirov goes back after a missing Chinese super destroyer, Anshan, pictured above. Clash of Empires will stand Kirov series Volume #66, (Encore being #65), and it will be followed next month with series Volume #67 War in Limbo. Again, this will be one sortie by Kirov, mostly focused on the ship and crew, and it will have some very dramatic events.

What can I say? Paraphrasing Michael Corleone: “Just when you think you’re out, I pull you back in!” After Kirov’s cameo appearance in Sands of Honor, I just needed to walk that deck again, and I hope you support these volumes, as they will probably decide whether or not there will be any further cruises on Kirov in the months and years ahead.

Thank you all for your interest and support for my books. I hope I’m giving you something good in return.

 

Best Regards

John Schettler

         

Walk the Sands of Honor!

 Available Now! A medley of John's entire universe. Book LINK

The price of honor has been high, for an Empire, a nation, a single man. And that price has been paid on battlefields all over the earth, in the hinterlands of Empire, beyond the frontiers of national power. For England, the world’s greatest empire in the late 1800s, the price of honor was paid with the blood of her soldiers, in Europe, Afghanistan, India, China, Egypt, Sudan, and Natal, and the often desolate places where that blood was shed, the battlefields where men fought, and strove and died, became the sands of honor. England sent her diplomats, politicians, her heroes and her soldiers in their khaki tunics to those battlefields, and so many young men looking to make a name for themselves.  In The Sands of Honor these ‘desert loving Englishmen’ will face and fight the whirlwind Army of the Dervish, the zealots who had rallied to the banners of the Mahdi, he who was promised to come. It's Dune in the late 1800s!

On the morning of the 2nd of September, 1898, with Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian Army encamped in a large defensive position against the Nile called a zeriba, the British 21st Lancer Regiment rode out to find and fix the enemy’s intentions. They would reach and climb the grey gravel slopes of Jebel Surgham just off the right flank of the camp, whereupon they heard ‘a mighty rumbling as of tempestuous rollers and surf bearing down upon a rock bound shore.’ There they saw ‘a moving, undulating plain of men, flecked with banners and glistening  steel’ extending over a front three to four miles wide. It was a dense mass, a deep bodied flood of anger raging towards that hill, aiming to flow over and around it like a mighty sea of arms. Soon the shouts of that mass were plainly heard—Allah u Akbar! Rasool Allah el Mahdi! They brandished thick bladed swords and long cruel spears, masses of tightly packed warriors led by proud Emirs on horseback surrounded by bannermen and troops of Baggara horsemen.

The Dervish Army came on as a thick dark tide on the open plain. These were the men, like the Fremen of Dune, who had stirred the restless sands of Sudan in wild rebellion; the men who had thrown down Gordon of Khartum, one of England’s dearest heroes. The men who had slaughtered the 8000 men led by General Hicks. They were fierce, proud, relentless as they came, and endowed with a fanaticism that would drive them into the teeth of all the firepower Kitchener’s army could bring to bear on them, the quick firing artillery, Maxim Machine guns, the incessant volley fire by lines of steady infantry with their magazine fed Lee-Metfords. And they would be met by England's best: The Grenadier Guards, the Cameron and Seaforth Highlanders, and Fusiliers from Lancashire and Northumberland; men of Warwickshire and Lincolnshire.

The vast Dervish army, approaching 60,000 in number, could have come the previous night, like wolves in the dark, but instead they waited for the dawn, choosing to attack beneath the eyes of Allah. Why should they creep and snipe in the dark against these, who they would now surely destroy? Now, there was nothing between this vast host and Kitchener’s Army of 22,000 but the 320 men of the 21st Lancers, watching from that lonesome desert promontory. With them, was a young Lieutenant, out to make a name for himself, a medal seeking, glory hunting 23 year old named Winston Churchill….

On came the venomous Dervish fighters in their fearless fury.

Available Now!

Kindle and Trade paperback

36 Chapters, 350+ Pages

The Sands of Honor

By
John Schettler

Prologue – Rise of The Mahdi
 

Part I – China Gordon
Part II – The Work of the Faithful
Part III – On Desperate Ground
Part IV – The Road Less Traveled
Part V – Reconnaissance
Part VI – Atbara
Part VII – Omdurman
Part VIII– Consequences
Part IX – The Uninvited Guest
Part X –  The Last Battle
Part XI – While the Iron is Hot
Part XII – Men of Valour

Epilogue

Time Terminology Lexicon

Genres: Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Alternate History, Time Travel

Characters: Sir Roger Ames, Ian Thomas, Generals Gordon and Kitchener, Captain Gordon MacRae, Hicks Pasha, Sheikh Ali, the Mahdi, the Khalifa, Cavalry Colonels Broadwood and Martin, Lt. Winston Churchill, the Meridian Project Team--Paul Dorland, Maeve Lindford, Kelly Ramer, Robert Nordhausen, and a special mission for Anton Fedorov, Vladimir Karpov, Admiral Leonid Volsky, Kandemir Troyak, Sgt. Zykov, Pavel Kamenski, and BCG Kirov.

The Desperate attempt to save Gordon of Khartum, then General Kitchener's bold advance up the Nile to fight the Dervish, first at Atbara, then on to the decisive battle of Omdurman, where the life of a single man could change all future history from that day forward. Make room on your Kindle for this one!

Two New Books Coming Soon!

 And I'm Opening a New Substack Blog.

Hail to all my blog subscribers and those of you who signed up for emails!

The latest  news is that there are now two books in the pipeline, and Kirov & company get pages in each one. These are presently scheduled for March and April, and my Substack will be sending out the details on these projects later. There are still spots in the Advance Review Teams for each book, so if you want to be a team member, and get the book two weeks before anyone else, email me.

                        Coming April 15                                            Coming March 15

The Writing Shop is opening space on Substack!

I’ve decided to move blog and weekly email traffic to Substack where I can opine on other things and write about topics of interest. I know it’s a busy world out there for you, both online or off, and I’m just one more pulse in the wire. On Substack I’ll be hitting some different vibrations, on the craft of writing, the history behind my books, the characters walking my pages, and then even things like current events.

But my Substack won’t just be a book tour thing. I just threw up a post about ChatGPT again, the hot topic of the day, where I asked it to write fiction, do some research, and proofread as a writer’s tool. How did it do? (Hint, it’s a great proofreader). The transcript of that conversation is posted there if this AI thing is of any interest to you. I respect your time, and privacy, so I did not load my email list into Substack. If you want to get my Substack posts, news, special offers, announcements, team openings, polls & surveys, articles and such, you can find me here:

Https://Writingshop.substack.com 

 

I hope you’ll tune in!

John Schettler

Clash of Empires

 A Devil Ship meets Imperial China

In my latest book I introduced one William Jardine, the Scottish trader who established the J&M (Jardine Matheson & Company) that came to be the center of the opium trade. Jardine got rich and powerful with his fleet of China Clippers running opium  from India to China, and bringing back teas and silks to England. He came to be known as the Tai-Pan, or supreme leader of the China Trade, and he also helped the mighty British East India Company take a nice profit from that trade. Then he sees  the Devil Ship, which he mistakenly calls the “HMS” Nemesis. Even though it was a purpose-built ship, not for the Royal Navy, but for the British East India Company who would profit from the war it would enable.

I first met this man (Jardine) in the landmark novel Tai-Pan by James Clavell, one of my most admired writers. I read Shogun nearly 40 years ago in 1975 when it was in everyone’s lap on trains, planes, and subways, the book that was Clavell’s breakthrough novel. Then I discovered Tai-Pan had been written eleven years earlier in 1966, and I devoured it. Returning to that book this year after finishing The Devil Ship, I was delighted to see it covered some of the same history as my latest novel.  I even found a scene where Clavell’s Tai-Pan, who he called “Dirk Struan” instead of the man’s real name, catches his first glimpse of the paddle steamer Nemesis in the book Tai-Pan. He swears at it roundly, seeing it for what it was, the coming of a new age in shipping, and the harbinger of the death of his prized China Clippers, the most beautiful sailing ships that ever graced the seas. 

These were the sort of things I explored in The Devil Ship, a time of conflict between two empires, two ages in naval technology, two starkly different cultures. It was a time where new ships, iron-hulled steamers, were just coming into regular service, and the sparks of inevitable conflict ignited by the grinding of two cultures, the British and Chinese, started the fires of war. They were both Imperial powers with long histories that were locked in a struggle in the mid to late 19th Century, and among the prizes Great Britain secured in those wars was the island that became the glittering jewel of a city we know today as Hong Kong. They held it for over 100 years.

I hope you’ll take the time to pick up a copy of The Devil Ship and enjoy it! In my story, there had to be mention of the Tai-Pan as well, for I had learned that William Jardine all but spoon-fed the plan the British used to defeat Qing China in the Opium Wars to Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary at that time.  So here was a perfect setting, the Age of Sail meets the coming of Steam and Iron, ships that ‘endured the disgust of the seas and the contempt of the wind’ as Clavell’s Tai-Pan laments. Throw in the last days of the red coated British infantry, the Martini & Henry Rifle, the new quick firing Nordenfeld field guns, Maxim Machine Guns, a Devil Ship sailing up river to Canton with the Royal Navy, and it was a whirl of a story.

The Devil Ship starkly illustrates the importance of a powerful navy. 42 Ships of the Royal Navy and less than 20,000 British regulars were able to bring down a dynasty that had ruled China since 1636, with an army of over 1 million soldiers. How could that have happened? Read The Devil Ship and see. Yet Britain could never do today what it easily accomplished in 1842.  Since then, England’s Navy has dramatically reduced in size, to a point where it now has only five destroyers, while modern day China has over six times as many and will build five new ships in that class every year. It pays to look at history and remember the vital importance of sea power. That is as true today as it was in the 19th Century. 

Just Released!

 The Devil Ship... Available now.

Announcing the release of John Schettler’s latest novel, The Devil Ship.

 GET IT HERE

The Devil Ship was well named, both by its creators and by those who would have to face it.

 Yet when it sailed from Liverpool on its maiden voyage, a false destination was given to the press to hide its real purpose and mission. Not even its Captain and crew could know its true destination.  The ship was called the  Nemesis. Yet her Captain, Master William Hall, Royal Navy, found he would soon have the company of a most mysterious man, a company man, who supposedly knew the answers to all of his many questions. Along the way, the ship is being steered through the unfathomable waters of fate as well as the wild seas of the world.

Where were they going? What was the Nemesis designed to do? What were his orders? Soon the Devil Ship would shake all under heaven in the clash of two of the world’s great Empires, where the fate of each would hang in the balance.  

He was bound for mystery and destiny in one throw, half way around the world, where a clash of two cultures, two great empires, would write one of the darkest chapters of modern history ever seen. Something was telling him this would be grand, daring, bold beyond his imaginings, and yet terribly wrong.

A Military Historical Fiction, this book adds a twist common in John’s work, Time Travel, which opens the door to interventions that spin out an Alternative History. If you enjoyed Field of Glory or Zulu Hour, this volume is in that same vein, and will be sure to please.

New Book Scheduled for General Release

 Devil Ship Getting Ready to Sail!

The Writing Shop Press announces author John Schettler’s new historical military fiction, The Devil Ship, is now scheduled for release on January 12th for Kindle and in Trade Paperback. The research was even more extensive for this one, relying on official accounts by the ship’s Captain, numerous other eye-witness accounts, a couple of movies available, including a 60-episode drama of certain events translated into English for John, episode by episode, minute by minute.  The book will feature an atrocious war involving both naval and land fighting between two great empires.

Mark the release date on your calendar and be among the first to get the book!

Happy New Year!

 Exciting new books ahead!

Happy Holidays!

My next book, The Devil Ship, is almost ready and coming soon. I have put a dedicated page on my website. Check it out at http://www.writingshop.ws/html/devil_ship.html 

Hope you had a great Christmas Holiday! I asked Santa to slip something into your stocking, a free book from me. If you didn’t get yours, it will still be available for a  free download through 3 JAN 2023. Start here:  https://writingshop.ws/html/gift.html.  It would be nice to see you post online reviews. 

Hoping your new year will be full of promise, opportunity, peace and happiness. I know that’s a lot to ask, but why not?  

Happy New Year!

Here's a peek at the cover for my next release - Coming Soon!

Christmas Is Coming!

I am happy to tell you that my next book, a historical military fiction, is reaching its final draft and will be released soon. The release date will be announced in early January.

As you may have noticed, there have been a lot of activities going on at the Writing Shop.  We have received a lot of emails. At present, the Beta Reader and ARC team positions are all filled. If you have an interest in these,  I will make sure you are included in the next project.

Right now, I expect most of you will be trying to fill those stockings and check off the last few items on your gift lists! I’m going to be sticking something in your Christmas stocking this Christmas Eve too. Be sure to see next week’s announcement in this space. And join the mailing list to be among the first to find it out.

Advance Review Copies going out soon!

 12 DEC 2022

ARC Team Members

Do you know that in the first screening of the film Pretty Woman, Vivian (Julia Roberts) and Edward (Richard Gere) did not end up together? The audience hated the ending. The producers changed it and gave us a movie loved by so many.

I would love to know your perspective as a reader before the publication of my new book. I know you are passionate about the genre of my new project – a naval, military fiction that involves the clash of two cultures and two great empires. As I am too familiar with my work, I need fresh pairs of eyes and minds to provide impartial feedback.

There are still a few spots open for Advance Review Copy (ARC) team members.  I invite you to sign up for the team. Just drop me an email with your mailing address. This is a commitment to read the full First Draft of my upcoming book before it goes to general release, and then consider posting an honest review on Amazon on or near launch day. (Est. 15 JAN 2023)

Please sign up as soon as you can to secure your spot as a reader. I will send you details on what I am looking for with the book. You can request either the Trade Paperback or kindle file version (Free), and I’ll get it to you as soon as the First Draft is in readable form. Due to time constraints, overseas readers will get the Kindle file.

Thanks for your support as a reader in the past. I’m hoping to make the next book launch a great success with your help.

Duel at Sea!

 Oh My... Where did Ivan Volkov get that Battleship?

That's the question Karpov asked himself when he first learned about the challenge. Volkov! He was back again, from some other Meridian, and intent on putting an end to the one Fedorov and Karpov had fought so long to defend.

But Volkov just made a very big mistake. Was it hubris, blind ambition, or simply rabid hatred that led him to boldly challenge Karpov and Kirov to one final battle at sea, a duel to settle their long vendetta once and for all.

Vladimir Karpov was a happy man the day he received that challenge, and he said so.

"Come and get it!" Volkov taunted. "You come too, Fedorov, you sniveling toad. I’m going to enjoy chopping Kirov up and putting you both in the water. Then I’ll sail up, hook the two of you and drag your asses all the way back to my home port at Sevastopol. So what do you say? Are you game for a nice little showdown at sea?”

“You’ve got it, Asshole,” said Karpov. He didn’t hesitate a second.

“The one thing I did not get to do was to put you in a grave. It will be my pleasure. When we heard you had passed, I was very disappointed. Killing you and whatever monstrosity of a ship you’ve built, will be a supreme joy.”

“Oh, you can try, but Orenburg is no pushover, Karpov. I designed it to be my flagship for the new Orenburg Federation I’ll build here after I get rid of the two of you, and that damn ship of yours.  Good to at least see you aren’t the cowards I thought you were. I’m going to enjoy carving your precious battlecruiser up.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Volkov. You talk tough, but you’ve got no experience at sea. You won’t last ten minutes in naval combat with me. I’ll box your ears so hard you’ll be deaf for a year, and I’m going to enjoy every goddamn minute of it. You can bet on that.”

“That may be true for the little ships you preyed upon in the last war, but not mine. I won’t be in a Chinese Corvette, Karpov.”

“But you will be dead just the same.”

So where did Volkov get a ship good enough to challenge Karpov on Kirov?

Come and see!

Don't miss Encore, an all new book in the Kirov series. Available Now on Amazon!

BUY NOW

Kirov Series serves up an Encore!

 Surprise Volume #65 in the Kirov Series is Available now!

Encore

OK... It's an Encore, and author John Schettler has put together an all new mission handed to Karpov and Fedorov by Director Kamenski. The result is everything you ever liked about the Kirov series. There's mystery, Troyak and the Marines deploy for some ass kicking. The Ice Men Skeletals are back, there's airships, haunting landscapes in the polar regions and lost deserts of the world. Kirov goes to sea when a variation ends the war in 2025-26 differently, and removes a key trump card from the Allied hand. Karpov wants to set things right. Volkov shows up with a big surprise or two, and the vendetta between Volkov and Karpov finally gets its proper resolution. A few plot holes are filled, and a few loose ends tied off. And best of all, its out now for kindle!

While the author isn't promising this will happen all that often, he was just too restless, like Karpov, and Kirov just had to get back on stage for one more swansong. Here it is. 36 more life saving chapters!

Kirov Series Encore: $6.99 for Kindle version

Quality Trade Paperback: $19.99

The Journey's End has Come at Last

 The longest story ever written has finally reached its end. :(

Get Journey's end for Kindle or Trade Paperback

Ahoy Kirov Series fans. You've got one last book in the series as the long saga comes to a fitting end.

We asked John about the torment of ending a series of such exceptional length. His response: "It wasn't easy. I knew I had a final battle to be fought against Admiral Kita, but Karpov didn't like his odds in that situation. As I thought about how to end this I realized that I had given the very first book a good ending, never really intending to do a series. Then, I just couldn't stop writing, so I did Cauldron of Fire and Pacific Storm, thinking to make this a "Trilogy." The response from readers was so positive that, even though I thought I had ended the story after volume three, I went ahead and wrote Men of War. It was Karpov that then took hold of things, particularly after the eruption of the Demon Volcano. I just knew what he would do when he finally fell through to 1908, and I just knew that Fedorov would come up with some scheme to go back after him. That led to all the books in the "9 Days Falling" segment, and then I thought I was ending the series with Armageddon, another big climax similar to Karpov's first mutiny aboard Kirov. But series fans just wouldn't let it go. I threw out six new book proposals and asked them where I should go next, and the vote was heavily in support of more Kirov series books. So I launched what became "Season 2--Altered States."

Was it hard to end this?

"Damn hard, and sad too. You have these people in your head for ten years, you dream about them; think about them all day. It's like losing close friends. Though I suppose I could boot up another book involving them any time I wanted, the series itself was long in the tooth. The readership was diminishing, as it was asking a lot for people to stay the course through 64 books, and new readers looking at that journey were easily intimidated. So I decided it was time to do something new. I had squeezed all the wine I could out of that bottle, Kirov, and I wanted to take my muse, and word processor, somewhere else."

Why did you decide to end it with these character based retrospectives?

"I wanted to revisit some of the great moments in the series, and thought that showing how each character stood up in those moments was a nice way to say goodbye to them. Throughout those retrospectives, I continued to weave in the tale of what was happening on Baikal, and on Kirov in 1943 now when Admiral Kita arrives. That became the final task for the ship, and it was a daunting one. So I asked myself, who's going to win this one? Is Kirov going to be sunk here? Are these people all going to die in Part XII? I won't answer those three questions here but it's all in Part XII, I hope readers feel as I did, which is expressed in the ending I chose."

Do we get the remaining mysteries solved? The Seven Keys, the Grand Finality?

"Yes, the mystery of the keys, who made them, and the Kamenski Device are pretty much known by the time they sign on Sir Roger Ames. At the end, the problem of the Grand Finality is revealed too. Along with the fate of the ship and characters. It was something Kirov discovered in Book one, though Fedorov is shocked to learn how that happened. So I had a hard time at the end, like Karpov. I was never one for an easy goodbye. The story ends like things really end in life, not through some contrived plot invention, or stirring climax. Karpov and Fedorov had a job to do in these final missions, and they did it well. Unfortunately, there were some unexpected consequences when Sir Roger asked if he could shift to his time for a look around. I set all that up much earlier in Queen's Gambit.

Are you excited about your new project?

"Of course, but this is a difficult time for me, caught between two worlds, 'one dead, the other powerless to be born.' I'm hoping to build a good readership for my Chronicles of Innisfail, and it has a decided military Fiction bent, just without the tanks and missiles. I call it "Mythic Military Fiction," and I hope some of the series readers take a look with volume one, and help me launch it. .I owe so much to the readers, but I gave a lot too. Producing a book every 60 days was quite a task. But I'll be equally prolific with Innisfail, though I'm not expecting it to be another marathon like the Kirov Series. I've finished book I for that, and just put up the web site pages, with links to all the maps of my new world. Come and see!

Get Journey's end for Kindle or Trade Paperback

Kirov sails for the Final Sortie

 

Buy for Kindle: $4.99

Fans of the long running Kirov Series may have a lump in their throats as Karpov (the younger) takes the ship into the Pacific for what will be the ship's final sortie. His prey? The Imperial Japanese Navy in 1941. Arriving after Pearl Harbor, Fedorov sets the course to intercept the Kido Butai as it returns to Japan. 

Get ready for action, because Karpov is going to lay into the Japanese Navy like Clint Eastwood with a good piece of hickory. The action builds and builds to a climax at the end of Chapter 15, until a problem presents itself.

   Series readers will remember that the Modern Japanese Destroyer Takami emerges from the ash covered Java Sea after Krakatoa erupts, Captain Harada begins interacting with Japanese Generals and Admirals, until he works his way up to a meeting with the legendary Isoroku Yamamoto himself—and some of this interesting interaction is revised here. The remainder of this volume is then every bit as riveting as the first 15 chapters, loaded with naval combat, much of it devoted a long series of engagements between Kirov and Takami as they stalk each other like a pair of Gladiators. Takami has some surprising new capabilities to even things out, but remember, Karpov is in the big Chair aboard Kirov, and can never be underestimated.

The Long Goodbye...

At the conclusion of Volume 6, Sea Lions, Fedorov sustained an injury that would take his life, but Karpov is not willing to let the author write his co-conspirator in Time out of the story just yet. As he has done twice before, he immediately rushes to the Kamenski Device in an effort to get to safe time in the past where Fedorov is whole, healthy and well… But something goes wrong. The Deus es Machina in a box fails to perform as anticipated. Enter Sir Roger Ames for a look under the hood of the Kamenski Device to see if he can identify the problem, which then launches Karpov on a mission to find the one thing they need to get it to work properly again.  This will soon take Baikal back to the lake it is named for.

Season 8 has been a roller coaster ride with a number of twists from the more familiar military fiction into the realms of both horror and pure science fiction. When Karpov’s excursion in search of Kolchak’s Gold led him to a strange hidden railway tunnel near the source of the Angara River we were all transported to what the author calls “Strange far places,” a phrase he quotes from H.P. Lovecraft. Then we got some riveting scenes where a platoon of rangers on patrol along the Stony Tunguska face some of the very same creatures that both Karpov and Fedorov stumbled upon while on opposite ends of Siberia. Fedorov calls the creatures “Raptors” and what can only be called the “Raptor War” begins, reaching its height at the mid-point of the season, in Coming Through. Biology has a good deal to do with the outcome of that conflict, as Baikal moves from one suspected entry point to another, finding and demolishing hidden temporal rifts where the Raptors are coming through to modern years and wreaking considerable havoc. On two occasions, Karpov resorts to heavy handed blows against the Hordes of flying intruders.

Fedorov wants to investigate a strong magnetic anomaly in the Taklamakan desert, which leads to an amazing discovery. Then, trying to clean up loose ends and problems, they decide to hunt down the German raider Kaiser Wilhelm, flying to the deep south Atlantic to stop that ship’s meddling before it can return to Germany with its great nuclear prize in hand. Once again, it is Fedorov’s curiosity that then pulls the mission team further south into Antarctica. The author confesses he has a strange fascination for stories set in polar climes, possibly because he spent three years teaching Eskimos up near the arctic circle in Alaska. This side trip was first presented as a visit to Operation Highjump, which itself is wreathed in its own set of legends and lore. Then the team makes another macabre discovery in a strange far place, and one that will have some rather dire consequences.

The Author has revealed that Sir Roger Ames is a man from the future, and then uses him to make other revelations about the thing Fedorov’s team finds in the ice caverns of Antarctica. It is certainly not to be mistaken for anything that evolved on this earth, like the Raptors. This time the story goes full on X-Files and Sir Roger, using his knowledge from the future, explains that if earth is visited by alien species some might be benign, others not so benign. Using a metaphor, he characterizes the specimen Fedorov has discovered in Antarctica as the “Murder Hornets” where Alien species are concerned. And the team soon learns that their discovery could be quite dangerous, not only to the mission crew, but to the planet as a whole.

Their decision to return to Antarctica and settle the matter seems to tamp things down, but the author has told us that plot line is not yet tied off. Now we move on to the seventh book in this season, The Final Sortie, where the author largely stays with the ship and crew as Karpov stalks the Imperial Japanese Navy in the early days of the Pacific War in 1941-42, and raises hell. The action builds and builds to a climax at the end of Chapter 15, until  the arrival of the modern Japanese Destroyer Takami, which then sets off another series of battles against that ship.

At the end, Fedorov confronts another mystery that haunts him from the days of the endless fog the ship was once marooned in—something that effects the fate lines of Volsky, Orlov and others. The cliff hanger here is the coming of Admiral Kita, arriving early at Enewetok through the rift created by the US post-war Ivy Mike detonation. That rift extended deep into the past, and delivers a powerful modern day Japanese task force to the scene, one even stronger than what we saw earlier in the series. Is this the nemesis the author will use to seal Kirov’s fate?  We’ll just have to wait for that last volume coming the first quarter of 2022. Brothers, after ten years with this story, it will be a sad day when it ends with the Series Finale in the final book, appropriately entitled Journey's End. That said, the author has included an announcement at the end of this book for a new series he is launching in 2022, something altogether different that I’m now really looking forward to. The first Volume of that new tale is already complete, and John is working on the web site while he finishes Journey's end. Its in an entirely different genre.

For now, hop aboard Kirov for the Final Sortie. This one builds up at the end to what will likely be the last missiles to be fired by the ship and crew. The Series Finale, Journey's End is going to focus heavily on all the main characters, as each one's fate line is tied off, one by one. If you were there at the beginning, you'll definitely want to be there for the ending in these last two volumes. So join our 'Wanderers in eternity' and walk that missile deck once again, but be ready when the claxon sounds!

 

Kirov Saga #63

The Final Sortie 

By

John Schettler

 

Part I – Catch-22

Part II – Wading In

Part III – Karpov’s War

Part IV – Hara’s Dilemma

Part V – Moskit#10

Part VI – Bloodhounds

Part VII – Shadow Thread

Part VIII– Strange Bedfellows

Part IX – Gladiators

Part X – Devil in the Banda Sea

Part XI – The Marathon

Part XII – Homeward Bound

No Man's Land

 Season 8 gets into gear!

The startling developments in the season opener, The Mission, now begin to get traction as Fedorov and Karpov find more trouble ahead from "the Raptors."

NOTE: If you haven't read "The Mission" yet, spoilers dead ahead!

   What to say about the latest evolutions of the Kirov Series? One reader wrote to say this: “I’ve just finished “The Mission” and was utterly and totally gripped by it. The introduction of time rifts leading back 30,000 years to the Pleistocene is an unexpected and welcome twist to Karpov and Fedorov’s mission to deal with the Volkov “brothers.” I found the entry of the Raptors quite terrifying and the possibility that they are also time travelers trying to mold events to their preferred outcomes. The description you give of their appearance made me think that they could be highly evolved descendants of Oviraptors, themselves highly evolved dinosaurs? Anyway, I can’t wait until “No Man’s Land” comes out to see how things develop!”
    Well, with this prolific writer you never have to wait too long. Get ready to step into No Man’s Land, if you dare, as Karpov and Fedorov take us to one of the most significant battle of WWI in 1917—Cambrai. It was a battle that was conceived to try and prove the viability of the latest weapon on the field, tanks, as the British launch them in waves, almost 400 fighting tanks in all. Unlike the sodden, muddy fields of Passchendaele which bogged down the tanks rendering many immobile, the ground around Cambrai was, mostly good hard chalk, and not heavily cratered by heavy fighting.
    Now the British introduce a new concept of operations—“Combined Arms,” where new methods of artillery fire, massed tanks and close cooperation by infantry become the key elements of a spectacular advance by WWI standards, and against some of the strongest fieldworks the German Army ever built in the war, the Siegfried and Hindenburg Lines. The Bells were ringing all over London but “all glory is fleeting” and the Germans soon plan a major counterattack, the largest ever mounted against the British Army in that war, and they have new tactics as well.
    In the midst of all this, we fall in with the “Kickers” the men who put their backs to one trench wall, fixed their spade into the opposite wall and gave it a good hard kick to begin some new digging operation. While this battle was not one where extensive “undermining” operations occurred, the author had added one in the south of the opening British position, near the Village of Gonnelieu. We will be led into the secret underground tunnels by the Kickers, Diggers and Baggers, only we soon find that they are not the only ones digging beneath the ghastly spaces of No Man’s Land above. Soon both the British and German armies must contend with frightening visitors in their underground tunnels and trenches.
    This opening segment of the book is a welcome visit to WWI, but no tour of that great conflict would be complete without a peek at the naval action too. Of course our heroes soon find a good reason to backshift a year to drop in on the famous Battle of Jutland, and we get a brisk look at that duel between Beatty, Jellicoe, Hipper and Scheer. A pity Kirov could not be in attendance, (though Karpov is there with Baikal), but another ship that has been shifting about in time is involved, and we are returned to Captain Dieter Jung and his crew aboard the Kaiser Wilhelm, an alternate ship build from WWII. This is a subplot of the book that had to be tied off, and the author uses this segment for that purpose, and to give us a nice alternate history of the Battle of Jutland.
    Following this, we get an unexpected twist when Fedorov learns of more trouble beneath the old Citadel of Cambrai, in the  so called “Souterrains” there. His away team makes yet another incredible find, but the mission is one that lays heavily on Fedorov, sending Karpov into a near panic. All this time, Mironov has quietly receded into the background, because the Kamenski Device demonstrates some remarkable new capabilities, and Fedorov and Karpov decide they can get to Josef Stalin in due course. In the meantime, Karpov is rallying the Siberian Army against Volkov’s Orenburg Host, first at Omsk and then pursuing him west to Orsk. As they advance, our heroes wonder what effect their campaigns might have of the overall outcome of things, for this is a struggle to destroy the future Volkov built and preserve that arising from the alternate history of WWII that makes up the bulk of the series.
    All in all, we have a great mix of ground action, small unit engagements, raids, sea battles, and some downright horror in the tunnels and trenches here, making No Man’s Land a solid entry as season 8 gets into gear. We even get to drop in on the  mighty Kirov for the ending, to see what Volsky and the crew are up to. The Admiral has more than enough to deal with when his leisurely voyage to Petropavlovsk is interrupted by a most unexpected visitor, and an old nemesis Fedorov had warned him about before he departed. That sets the table for the next book, where it looks like we will again spend a good long while walking the decks of Kirov. After all, the ship itself has a fate, like any of the characters. Will it meet that on this last dangerous voyage?
    We will soon see. This volume has it all, the tanks, dreadnaughts, armored trains, Zeppelins and more, coming in May to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the Kirov Series!

Coming May 1: http://writingshop.ws/html/no_man-s_land.html

Whirlwind

 Season Seven ends the war in 2026 in Whirlwind, and then gives us the root and stem of the next book the final season premier: The Mission. Both books are out now on Amazon!

About Whirlwind, by John Schettler

The war that began in 2025 now reaches its conclusion in the Pacific as the US deploys a startling new weapon that will hunt down the Last Dragons. In a stunning preview of things to come, it now threatens to rewrite the book on Naval Warfare and ironically, it may also end the long reign of the big deck carriers. Now Sun Wei, Zheng Bao and Wu Jinlong fight their final battles as Admiral Cook leads his carriers into the East China Sea. Includes a full assessment of the weapons and tactics that decided the outcome, and losses sustained by both sides.

Then, Fedorov and Karpov plan and launch their dangerous mission to 1908 to try and save Sergei Kirov and eliminate the daunting influence of Ivan Volkov. As Admiral Volsky takes command of Kirov, Fedorov tries the back stairway at Ilanskiy, while Karpov leads the bulk of the mission force to Tunguska on the airship Baikal. Soon both ends of the mission meet unexpected difficulties and complications, as Volkov maneuvers to eliminate his enemies and secure his timeline as the only future that could possibly arise from these events. More details at www.writingshop.ws

About The Mission by John Schettler 

   The long planned mission to save the future they fought for in so many wars is now underway, but Fedorov’s team at Ilanskiy must fend for itself when Karpov and the airship Baikal only reach the year 1919. As Fedorov struggles to find and secure Mironov while  avoiding Paradox, Karpov cannot resist the lure of war, and decides to involve himself in the Russian Civil War. He wants to replace the Siberian leader Kolchak, and also find the valuable Gold train he has hidden. To do so he must deal with the legendary Czech Legion as they push towards the port of Vladivostok. His quest will soon discover far more than he anticipated as he launches a mission to explore abandoned railway tunnels near Lake Baikal, in search of Kolchak’s Gold.

   Meanwhile Fedorov looks for a way to safely hide until their planned attempt to locate Josef Stalin, but he and his Marines also make an astonishing discovery that shakes him to the core. It seems that the Tunguska Event has done far more damage to Spacetime than he first believed.

Both books are out now for Kindle and Paperbacks should be available soon. 

More details at www.writingshop.ws