More timeline and glossary updates for Overdraft, plus an upcoming podcast

The fourth episode of my Overdraft serial "Winner's Curse," is out, bringing the serial to the halfway point — and I'm pleased to say that I've gotten the Glossary and the Timeline brought up to date here on the site for the series.

I really do intend to add some more supplemental material — including a proper production notes section — but writing on the project and proofreading on Star Wars: Kenobi has kept me pretty busy. However, I can share that I do have a podcast coming up with Star Wars Bookworms, which gets into Star Wars, Overdraft, and various other things. It should be available later this week. Update: And now it's online!

Next Tuesday sees the release of Overdraft Episode 5, titled "Tip from a Dip" in accordance with the established dynamic of using financial slang for episode titles. I'll leave it to you to guess whether intergalactic salesman Jamie Sturm is the dip in this equation! And the next day, Simpsons Summer Shindig #7 releases, with another one of my stories. Check it out!

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Overdraft: The Orion Offensive Episode 4: "Winner's Curse" now online!

Today is Every Other Tuesday again? That means either the Schwann's truck will be by later selling frozen pizza — or that it's the release day for episode 4 of Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, subtitled "Winner's Curse." Click to subscribe now, or check your Kindle account for it if you've already subscribed.

In "Winner's Curse," when the competition at the auction cuts out, Jamie and company are left with a dubious prize — the right to face a ravenous space-serpent all alone! Then we find out more about the surprising connection in Jamie and Bridget's past — and pay a call to another world, where Jamie encounters some even heavier problems, so to speak!


Remember, Overdraft is a Kindle Serial, so if you subscribe at $1.99 any time in the serialization period, you'll get every episode. Folks who subscribe now, for example, will start with Episodes 1-4 and get the next four as they come out. Yep, we're at the halfway point! Time flies.

There are resources here on site, including the Overdraft Glossary and the Overdraft Timeline, that you can check out; I'll update them with the Episode 4 material shortly.

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Star Wars: Kenobi cover released!

Thanks to IO9, we now have a look at the cover for Star Wars: Kenobi, which releases August 27!

The Republic has fallen. Sith Lords rule the galaxy. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi has lost everything . . . Everything but hope.

Click over to IO9 to see the cover in its full size. The cover artist is Chris McGrath, and the designer is Scott Biel.

There's a preview of the book in the Star Wars: Crucible novel releasing in July.  There'll be more interviews and such about the book as the summer goes along. In the meantime, I've written a little more about the book here. It's cool to see the cover at last!

You can preorder the hardcover from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Random House, and IndieBound. You can also preorder the audiobook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Also, don't forget to also look in on a couple of my current projects. The Star Wars: Lost Tribe of the Sith - Spiral graphic novel releases on June 19. The Star Wars: Knight Errant - Escape graphic novel is out now. I have a story in Simpsons Summer Shindig #7, out at the end of May.

And currently running is Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, the fun science fiction serial I'm doing with 47North. $1.99 gets eight biweekly episodes, forming a complete novel; subscribe to get the three already released plus the new ones automatically downloaded to you as they're ready.

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Overdraft: The making of the cover

The third episode of the Overdraft: The Orion Offensive serial is out this week — download it here — and I have made updates to bring the Overdraft Glossary and the Overdraft Timeline up to date for the current chapter. But I thought I would quickly share a look at the making of the cover.

The first working title of Overdraft was Surge Sigma, after the team of bodyguards that Bridget Yang runs; they were the first characters introduced in the series, back in "Human Error." Agreeing that Overdraft was snappier and spoke more to the situation in the story, we made the title change fairly early on — and I provided publisher 47North some ideas for the cover.

I had wanted to do something very pulp-oriented, with perhaps a fun echo to the original cover of the classic Merchant of Venus game. I provided a pencil sketch of what I had in mind, placing it underneath a home-brew logo for placement only.

As it turns out, artist Paul Youll produced a wonderful piece that used exactly that idea, right down to where everyone was standing and where the shuttle was. That was pretty cool for me to see — in all my years writing comics, I've certainly provided guidance for artists, but almost never when it comes to suggesting cover art. (Iron Man #78 was one of the few exceptions where I suggested the cover.) I think Paul did a fantastic job.

The logo, meanwhile, was crafted by 47North's art department. I'm thrilled with how it all came out!

The fourth episode of Overdraft releases on May 14. Be sure to check it out!

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Star Wars: Kenobi -- the promo copy!

The fine folks at Del Rey have posted the blurb for Star Wars: Kenobi, my new novel due out August 27. You should totally follow the link to it here and preorder it from them, but I think I can exercise some author's prerogative and share the description:

The Republic has fallen. Sith Lords rule the galaxy. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi has lost everything . . . Everything but hope.

Tatooine—a harsh desert world where farmers toil in the heat of two suns while trying to protect themselves and their loved ones from the marauding Tusken Raiders. A backwater planet on the edge of civilized space. And an unlikely place to find a Jedi Master in hiding, or an orphaned infant boy on whose tiny shoulders rests the future of a galaxy.

Known to locals only as “Ben,” the bearded and robed offworlder is an enigmatic stranger who keeps to himself, shares nothing of his past, and goes to great pains to remain an outsider. But as tensions escalate between the farmers and a tribe of Sand People led by a ruthless war chief, Ben finds himself drawn into the fight, endangering the very mission that brought him to Tatooine.

Ben—Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, hero of the Clone Wars, traitor to the Empire, and protector of the galaxy’s last hope—can no more turn his back on evil than he can reject his Jedi training. And when blood is unjustly spilled, innocent lives threatened, and a ruthless opponent unmasked, Ben has no choice but to call on the wisdom of the Jedi—and the formidable power of the Force—in his never-ending fight for justice.

As I mentioned on Twitter, the description very much fits. Tatooine is one of the stars of the show — and not someplace where one can simply hide forever unnoticed. There's a western feel to it: it's a close-knit community, and he's very much the outsider, wanting to be anonymous. But that's easier said than achieved, of course, particularly when one has the public-spirited instincts of a Jedi!

There's definitely action here, as befits Star Wars — but we also get to see things from a different point of view, as Obi-Wan would say. We've seen the Sith nursing their hatreds, patiently plotting their revenge; now we see a Jedi hero having to prepare for a long vigil, protecting the new hope of the galaxy. It's an interesting place that Obi-Wan finds himself in -- I hope you'll enjoy it.

More details as they become available... I would expect that they'll be releasing the cover soon. (Update! They have! See it here.) In the meantime, you can preorder the hardcover from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Random House, and IndieBound. You can also preorder the audiobook from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

In the meantime, some housekeeping: The third episode of my Kindle Serial, Overdraft: The Orion Offensive is now available; $1.99 gets the entire storyline. And I will be appearing from 1-4 on Saturday at Galaxy Comics in Stevens Point, Wis., for Free Comic Book Day. May the Fourth be with you!

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Overdraft: The Orion Offensive Episode 3: "Underwater Holdings" available now!

It's that magical Every Other Tuesday again, which means it's the release day for episode 3 of Overdraft: The Orion Offensive, subtitled "Underwater Holdings." Click to subscribe now, or check your Kindle account for it if you've already subscribed.

In "Underwater Holdings," Bridget Yang and her Surge Team are all wet — buried at the bottom of an alien lake, as salesman Jamie, out on his first disastrous mission, desperately tries to find a way to save them. Later, Jamie pays a call on a very different world for one of the strangest auctions in the galaxy. And, naturally, there are some mysteriously familiar party-crashers...


Remember, Overdraft is a Kindle Serial, so if you subscribe at $1.99 any time in the serialization period, you'll get every episode. Folks who subscribe now, for example, will start with Episodes 1-3 and get the next five as they come out.

There are resources here on site, including the Overdraft Glossary and the Overdraft Timeline, that you can check out; I'll update them with the Episode 3 material shortly


Finally, a quick note that I will be appearing this weekend at Galaxy Comics at 925 Clark St. in downtown Stevens Point, Wis., for a signing from 1-4. It's both Free Comic Book Day and May The Fourth Be With You day — an auspicious omen!

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Misery Train! JJM sends Simpsons on crazy rail vacation in Simpsons Summer Shindig #7

Woo-hoo! Or is that choo-choo? Just in time for summer, I'm back in the funny pages at the end of next month, sending the Simpsons on a railroad vacation in Simpsons Summer Shindig #7 from Bongo Comics!

I've been hip-deep in prose-world with Star Wars: Kenobi and Overdraft: The Orion Offensive this year — but another of my Simpsons tales has been slotted for the big vacation issue, shipping May 29. "Railroaded" is a fun piece which finds the Simpsons on their way out of Springfield on the Silver Flash, a passenger train that turns out to be less than they'd hoped for — and more than they bargained for!

I've done a lot of train travel in recent years — including with my son, the railroad nut — and the story was a lot of fun to write. The issue also includes several other stories, by Ian Boothby and the whole Simpsons comics gang. This is my fourth Simpsons story — I was also in Bart Simpson #76 and #77 last year — and they're always a blast to work on.

Preorder it from your local comics shop, or here!

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