Among the many things going on behind the scenes at AWP as I struggle valiantly to finish Antithesis 3 by the deadline, it has been decided (by those who know better than my inner philosophy geek) that The Antithesis Progression is a series that suffers from title sabotage.

Sure, they say, it respects the intelligence of your audience that you’re letting them share in the series of elaborate philosophy jokes that you call titles, but in branding the series this way you’re telling readers “I know it says ‘science fiction’, but it’s really Hegelian fanfic,” which basically turns of 90% of your potential audience.

This admonition, for some reason, is always followed by a half-spoken “duh!”

So, in the interest of not having the rest of my series bounced by a publishing house I helped found (because that would be WAY embarrassing), The Antithesis Progression is going to be getting a face lift to coincide with the release of book 3 late this year.

The New Titles
The series will be called The Mannix Initiative, and comprise the following volumes:

  1. The Recreants (formerly: Predestination and Other Games of Chance)
  2. The Vindicators (formerly: Free Will and Other Compulsions)
  3. The Statesmen (formerly: Avarice and Other Acts of Charity)
  4. The Escapists
  5. The Kabrakan

The Podcast
The podcast is still going on. I haven’t decided whether to rebrand it or not–that decision is low on my priority list, and I don’t know how to make it (though I’d love your input if you’re a listener–please leave it in the comments below).

The podcast will probably not return till Labor Day. We’ve had some terminal cancer in the family and a set of client deadlines slam down on us at the same time, and that’s left little time and mental energy for creative work, but the deadlines will be all behind us by the third week of August. If I can sneak in an episode before then, though, I will. (For the terminal cancer, “deadline” is the wrong term to use, but hopefully that one won’t come around for quite some while yet. It does make life unpredictable, though).

Fear Not!
Don’t worry, though. The philosophy jokes will remain IN the books themselves, as the titles for the “parts” of each book. They just won’t be on the cover where they scare people away.

I mean, given the choice, it’s better to scare people away AFTER they’ve already started reading, right?

Anyway, cover reveals for the rebranding will be coming out soon–and they are lookin’ pretty sweet!

More news before too long…

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