THE CONSPIRACY APES

SAN DIEGO COMIC CON

2011-07-20T14:28:00.001-04:00

So, it's here: the release of my Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes novel. Back in 2007 I pitched the idea of this to FOX, have labored for the past 4 years through many trials and tribulations, and have finally gotten to this point.

This project has been about love from the beginning, love for Planet of the Apes, love of "making things fit" (continuity), and a love of storytelling.

Over the past year, in the final stretch of getting this done, I found romantic love in the form of fellow comics creator, Chandra Free.

She has supported me through a very strange time in my life, and never stopped believing in my ability to tell a good story.

Come by the Archaia booth #2635 at comic con and see us this week, signing our various projects- Apes, Critical Millennium, and The God Machine.

Be among the first to read Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes - three weeks before it arrives in stores. Enjoy the two paintings Chandra created for the book. Meet some of the other artists in the book, including Critical Millennium artist Dan Dussault, and comics legends Jim Steranko and Dave Dorman.

Pick up Critical Millennium #4, also debuting at this show!

Chandra will be signing her epic The God Machine Hardcover for the first time on the west coast!

Come get your free Apes promo cards, enter our Apes raffle, and get your books signed.

And please, ask us questions!

We want you to be part of the magic.

Please join us...

Drew G.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:San Diego, CA

ORDER CONSPIRACY OF THE PLANET OF THE APES at your favorite comic shop!

2011-07-13T01:25:00.003-04:00

Conspiracy of the planet of the apes available for order on p230 of Diamond PREVIEWS! Tell your favorite comicshop to order Code JUL11 0828

CONSPIRACY AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER ON AMAZON NOW!

2011-06-15T14:39:00.003-04:00

ORDER NOW!

CONSPIRACY AUTHOR DREW GASKA TALKS ABOUT REBOOTS AND ALTERNATE CONTINUITIES IN THE PLANET OF THE APES UNIVERSE.

2011-06-14T19:54:00.004-04:00

"There are major discrepancies between all the series, and in crafting COnspiracy of the Planet of the Apes I had to take a creative approach to make all these things make sense. In the third movie, Escape, Dr. Hasslien compared time to an infinite highway with infinite lanes, if you change lanes you could change your future.

I have come to the conclusion that the cartoon and television series, as well as some of the comic’ continuity, are in fact different lanes of the same highway. This explains how the cartoon has Corneilus, Zira, and Zaius in a world where the apes have technology, but that is clearly not the case in the feature films. It is my hypothesis, and the foundation of this novel series, that all the astronauts started off in the same lane on that highway, but as they made it to the future, they wound up getting off on different exit ramps. This also explains how each of the astronauts from the different sources are shocked to find out that the future is run by apes, but some of their missions left after Zira and Cornelius return to 1973 and say as much. I have used this idea to create a few interesting characters inspired by the other sources and incorporate them into Taylor and Landon’s timeline, so that they are “this lane’s” version of that character." - Drew G.

'ASHES TO DUST" painting by Chandra Free

AUTHOR DREW GASKA CONSPIRACY INTERVIEW with DIAMOND's SCOOP!

2011-06-14T14:37:00.004-04:00

INTERVIEW LINK

LIBERTY ONE TEASE! DESIGN BY ANDREW PROBERT

2011-06-13T15:43:00.005-04:00

Everyone knows that the command capsule is the only part of the the Liberty (formerly the Icarus, formerly Air Force One) that has ever been shown in an official capacity in Planet of the Apes film and merchandizing. In designing the full ship for Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, Author Drew Gaska sought out starship designer extraordinaire Andrew Probert.
To the left is a glimpse at his painting in the book, just a little bit of a tease to whet your appetite for the full reveal this July 25th when the book hits stores nationwide. Not only is there a double page spread of Probert's gorgeous painting of the Liberty in action, but also the book's end papers have been designed to look like "blueprints" based off of Gaska's notes and Probert's design for the ship.

ABOUT ANDREW PROBERT:

Andrew Probert’s artistic career spans over thirty years, ten of which were spent working on some of science-fiction fans’ favorite Hollywood productions.

He began on the small screen, designing the robotic Cylons for the original “Battlestar: Galactica”, moving on to the big screen as a major design contributor for “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”, working to update the overall look of Starfleet ships & hardware.

This led to a number of television and feature-film projects, including “Airwolf”, “Streethawk”, and “Back to the Future”. In 1987, Probert’s last Hollywood project proved to be the one for which he is most well known: “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. As the show’s Senior Illustrator, he designed the Enterprise bridge, battle-bridge, and provided concepts for the remaining sets & other hardware, while designing the exteriors of the Ferengi Marauder, Romulan Warbird, and Enterprise-D spaceships.

In 1989, Probert joined Walt Disney Imagineering, designing various themepark rides & attractions. Years later, he entered the video game industry working with Spectrum Holobyte, Sega, and recently, Perpetual Entertainment.

Andrew is currently involved in producing paintings and an occasional book cover.

For more on Andrew, visit http://probertdesigns.com/

CONSPIRACY COVER FROM PENCIL TO POSTER TO FINISH

2011-06-13T15:26:00.005-04:00

Get a look at the three stages of Jim Steranko's cover for the Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes Illustrated Novel, from pencils (bottom) to the poster image (middle) to the tweaked final for the book (top).

MTV GEEK CONSPIRACY OF THE PLANET OF THE APES INTERVIEW with AUTHOR DREW GASKA

2011-06-13T15:21:00.002-04:00

Andrew E. C. Gaska talks about the illustrated novel coming from ARCHAIA ENTERTAINMENT on JULY 25th!

http://geek-news.mtv.com/2011/06/01/the-man-behind-the-conspiracy-talking-with-conspiracy-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-author-andrew-ec-gaska/

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE LIBERTY ONE!

2010-01-02T12:48:00.012-05:00

Hey everyone,

I just thought I'd share with you pictures of a custom Liberty -1 space craft model! It is a 1/6th scale project that Apes fan Chris Hight has commissioned fellow fan Matt Sotis to work on. Matt has been recreating the ship for use with the Sideshow 12 inch Figures, based on the actual set blueprints. Check out the amazing pics below!

Obviously this is still a work in progress, but its looking fantastic. In time, Matt hopes to complete the Liberty - but what he doesn't know yet might kill him! As you know, The Liberty-1 (formerly the Icarus) is somewhat of an enigma - with only its command module sticking out of Dead Lake in the beginning of the original Planet of the Apes - and while there are several theories online as to the design of the the rest of the ship, it has not been officially revealed... until now.

In Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes, we will be showing for the first time ever, the official design of the REST of the Liberty starship, as conceptionalized by myself and an influential film designer whose name will be revealed in time!

Suffice to say, the portion of Liberty - 1 we do see in the film is just the tip of the iceberg - there is much more to the vessel that propelled Taylor, Landon and the rest of the crew to the future, and their final fates.

Have a Happy New Year!

-Drew G.

POTA PRINTS AVAILABLE ONLINE - EXCLUSIVE CARD OFFER

2009-12-23T10:08:00.004-05:00

Attention Apes fans!

Happy Holidays! The Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter pages are now live! In addition, the BLAM! Ventures online store, THE AMMO DEPOT, is now open, and carrying exclusive POTA merchadise!

We are selling the remainder of Alpha and Omega prints offered at San Diego Comicon this year for $30 a piece, or you can buy the set of two for $60 and get the five released Conspiracy trading cards AND Landon's dogtags for free!

In addition to that, Any order from now until February 1, 2010 will receive a free unannounced 10th bio trading card - featuring Dr. Cornelius!

Labeled '0 of 9', this extremely limited collectible is yours free with any order placed here! Simply write the text: STINKING PAWS in the notes on your PAYPAL order, and this card will be sent to you with you order.

Already have Alpha and Omega? Don't worry, anyone who has previously ordered the prints from us need not worry about getting the Cornelius card. As a special thank you to the fans, BLAM! will be mailing out the new bio card to everyone who has made a previous purchase, free of charge.

Order soon, supplies are VERY limited!

THE AMMO DEPOT:
http://www.blamventures.com/store/

COPOTA MYSPACE:
http://www.myspace.com/conspiracyapes

COPOTA FACEBOOK:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Conspiracy-of-the-Planet-of-the-Apes-Illustrated-Novel/143168634554

THE LIBERTY LOGS TWITTER:
http://twitter.com/thelibertylogs

COPOTA WEBSITE:
http://www.blamventures.com/pota/

Happy Birthday Chuck

2009-10-04T23:43:00.002-04:00

I was on IMDb.com just now and saw it is (at least for the next fifteen minutes or so) Charlton Heston's birthday today, he would have been 86.

Happy Birthday!

pota poster

2009-10-01T15:46:00.005-04:00

Over at Graphic Nothing's Flickr page you'll find a set of minimalist movie posters, among which I found this one for Planet of the Apes. Some are cool, some are eh, a few are obscure and the rest I hadn't seen the film they come from.

It's worth a look-see, click through on the poster image to check out the whole set:

(via BoingBoing)

Another future, this one not involving Apes

2009-09-13T00:44:00.005-04:00

Just in case you thought all the gang at BLAM! Ventures did was write about Apes, we do some other stuff as well...

(Click on the picture already, see the cool stuff on the other side)

While I'm not working on that property, it is being guided by the able hands of my co-author and BLAM! Ventures creative director Andrew E. C. Gaska.

Check it out, and look for more info in the coming weeks.

In POTA news (because there is a bit of that), we've got a big story meeting coming up as we head into what I believe will be the final draft. Exciting times!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, Conspirators.

Conspiracy Interview

2009-09-06T21:51:00.007-04:00

Greetings fellow conspirators!

Our first Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes interview is up! The good folks over at the Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing podcast have been doing a bunch of post-SDCC coverage, and as I mentioned back here, Lou Anders had interviewed me for the show.

The main interview for this episode, conducted as always by host Shaun Farrell, spotlights two of this years L. Ron Hubbard Presents: Writers of the Future contest winners. The SDCC interviews, beginning with mine, come in at around the 37:26 mark. It's OK if you skip ahead to listen (I won't tell), but don't forget to check out the rest, as I've said before AISFP is a podcast worth subscribing to.

Episode 83 of AISFP is available now, go listen and spread the word!

Beware the beast man...

2009-09-04T22:47:00.002-04:00

Kinda creepy.

Zaius

2009-09-02T22:34:00.003-04:00

True to his word, Bruce Ross delivered a Zaius custom figure yesterday. I think this one captures the attitude of Zaius better than the previous one did of Ursus. Click on the picture to go to the site for more shots, including the two together.

Ursus in action (pose)

2009-08-31T11:34:00.007-04:00

Work continues on the book, but things have been quiet blog wise and will probably be that way for a while yet. So to keep you guys occupied, I figure I’ll share a link that was shared with me this morning via Chris Roberson’s blog.

Bruce Ross is a guy who makes cool custom action figures, and here he takes a crack at General Ursus. While I hardly think it’s a dead on likeness, it does make for an interesting Apes soldier at the least. Next up, he’s going to tackle Dr. Zaius. I’m curious to see how that one turns out.

There are more pictures at the site along with commentary by Ross on inspiration and materials used to make it. Check out some of his other figures as well, some of them are really awesome.

In the coming up department, we plan to begin profiling the artists working on Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes sometime in October, so be on the lookout for that. And we'll have updates for you on the novel's progress, conventions we'll be appearing at and more in the months to come.

Until then, fellow Conpsirators...

09/21/09, EDIT TO CORRECT: I was in error. I recently checked back to see if any other apes had popped up, and indeed a few had, specifically General Ursus. My original source for these images had tagged this ape as Ursus, but I looked back at Ross' post and saw it was simply called a Gorilla Soldier. Apologies to Mr. Ross for confusing the issue. For the record, here's General Ursus--with the soldier ape--as Bruce Ross intended (though as with all of his POTA figures, he was going for the feel rather than an exact copy):

An Expert Editor & Some Animated Apes

2009-08-17T14:36:00.005-04:00

From the Simian News Desk:

Just before Comic-Con we hired POTA expert Rich Handley to serve as our editor as we get ready to move into the next draft of the novel. Rich is now nearly finished his run through of the current draft and has been nothing but enthusiastic about what we’ve done. His red pen has been hard at work despite that, because he knows we can do better, and we know we can as well.

The artists involved in the project continue to move forward and hand in some beautiful work which we’ll be teasing bits and pieces of in the months to come. So all is going well with the Conspiracy.

* * *

In other news, today's edition of AMC’s SciFi Scanner Daily Scan blog notes that Hulu.com has seen fit to put the entire run of the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes series. Hulu gets the episode order wrong, but someone in the comments on the Return page was good enough to post the correct order (but we know you knew that already).

If you don’t have a copy of the DVD, check it out, Hulu.com streams to your computers for free.

Ken Kelly Spotlight

2009-08-11T23:32:00.006-04:00

Ken Kelly is a friend to the Apes. He’s going to be contributing to the Conspiracy illustrated novel. If you look to the left you’ll see an angry Ursus daring you to click on him, that’s one of Ken’s pieces.

He’s also been a friend to the crew at BLAM! Ventures since we were booth neighbors at a Big Apple Con a few years back, so we’re kind of fond of him here. While we’ll be doing a profile on him here at some point in the future, I just wanted to point you in the direction of something that showed up in my Google Reader tonight.

(Sorry, no apes in these pictures, so you get a couple of giant crabs)

Ken’s Robert E. Howard series of painting has been featured on the Golden Age Comic Book Stories blog. It’s a gorgeous collection of paintings from the late ‘70s through to 1980. For those of you not familiar with Ken’s work (and you really should be, or we’ll have to send Ursus to “help” you get familiar with them) go check it out!

SDCC ’09 wrap (finally!)

2009-08-11T23:25:00.004-04:00

Well, at least from me—others in the BLAM! clan may have final thoughts to post yet. It’s past time I finished the tale of my SDCC odyssey, however.

But first, pictures! That have nothing to do with Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes! But do have a Star Wars theme!

Apparently Darth Vader and a squad of Stormtroopers
ventured through a Stargate, held a blonde woman captive
while a bunch of soldiers tried to shoot her. Or something.

And… The Littlest Stormtrooper in Pigtails.

Really, there’s not much left to talk about after the above, other than to say I had a really good time at this con. The best I’ve had in years, actually. I got burned out on them and had put a moratorium on attending for the past year or so, but I’m glad I finally made it to Comic Con. My only regret—and this is common to cons I attend away from home—is that I really don’t get to see too much of the host city. If it weren’t for the ever present Day Job and the tiny amount of vacation days I am allotted, I would love to take a few extra days to enjoy the sights, sounds, tastes and whatnot.

Enough of my lament, time to leave San Diego Comic Con 2009 to the history books.

Later, Conspirators.

Not quite the SDCC wrap up

2009-08-06T22:47:00.005-04:00

Yeah, one more day, then I will post it. Really. Truly. In the meantime, I'm going to do a little cross-blog promotion.

My blog, The Manakalita Manifesto, is now not only a place for my personal blatherings and stories, but is also home to the first in what I hope to be a series of interviews with creators I admire.

For the inaugural edition, I asked a writer familiar to The Conspiracy Apes blog: Chris Roberson. If you recall, Chris was the first--as far as I can tell--person outside of the fan clubs to write about the Conspiracy novel. His entry on us got noticed by a few others and the story is making its way onto the web in part because of that post.

I had originally asked him to do an interview earlier in the year for a book he had released in late 2008, but that didn't work out. Fortunately, Chris is a pretty prolific guy, and his latest novel is out now in the UK, and here in October. That made it the perfect time to have a chat with him about the new book, and a few other things he's got going on.

Please check out my interview with Chris, and I promise not to shill for my blog here anymore (than necessary).

Good Neighbors

2009-08-04T23:42:00.004-04:00

I spent most of last week down with the flu, but am feeling much better now. Just wanted to take a moment to say thanks to out neighbors at Comic Con this year, a bunch nicer people you couldn’t have asked to be next to.

The people at Haunted Memories make creepy changing portraits–lenticular pictures that transform rather nice looking folks in antique photos into all sorts of undead, invisible, anthropomorphic and other assorted wonders.

I picked up a trio of pictures while there, one for myself and the other two as gifts (well received gifts). They do custom jobs as well.

On the other side were the folks at BOO M! Studios (oh the irony, BLAM! Ventures and BOOM! Studios next to each other, now if there were only a POW! Press to complete us). They get cool points for making sure our booth stayed open to traffic when their singing lines got long.

I wanted to get a chance to peruse their fare, but unfortunately my other duties called. Someday I will pick up their Farscape comics, as I miss that show and am keen to see where they took it.

(Hey - if you look below their banner, you'll see the banner for Archaia, the publisher that is putting out our creator owned comic Critical Millennium next spring - a busy time for us)

* * *

Getting late and sleep calls, I will do a final wrap tomorrow with a couple of amusing pictures I took on my limited journeys around the main floor.

Sleep well, conspirators.

Taking a couple of days off

2009-07-28T12:42:00.001-04:00

Turns out I got sick on the plane ride home so I'll be quiet on the blog for the next couple days. I'll be back soon with some final San Diego posts and then onward.

Robert J. Sawyer blogs us, Lou Anders stops by

2009-07-26T22:45:00.006-04:00

I've been negligent in mentioning this, mainly due to the fact that the blog app I've been using on my iPhone to blog the con not having the functionality to do links easy (we'll forget my laziness in not wanting to type out the url), but we got another author talking about us!

Robert J. Sawyer was cool enough to give us a mention on his blog the other day when our editor Rich dropped him a line about the project. Mr. Sawyer is a well known and respected author and futurist, and he's got a new TV show being adapted from his novel FlashForward set to go on ABC soon. He's a big fan of the POTA movies, and from his reaction to the news of our novels, I'd say we caught his interest.

* * *

Among the many fans and convention-goers who stopped by over the weekend was Lou Anders, editorial director for Pyr Books. Lou had given us a mention last week on his personal blog, and along with the many other things he was doing at San Diego, he was out and about conducting quick interviews for the podcast Adventures in SciFi Publishing, of which I was one (my first for this project). I'm not sure if I will make the cut or not, but don't let that stop you from checking out the podcast. Hosts Shaun and Sam do an excellent job of bringing you entertaining and informative interviews and industry news, and if you have any interest in SF/F publishing and how it works you should check out the show archives, it's a treasure chest of awesome advice. I know Sam was at the convention, and she was on my list of people to track down and stalk--uhm, I mean talk to, but I sadly didn't get the chance.

Here's Lou at the booth, doing what I like to call his "Action Lou Anders" pose:

We were both wearing orange shirts. I was much less action oriented in the picture he took of me, however. I'm thinking it was just a coincidence.

I still have a couple of bits left over from SDCC, not all necessarily Conspiracy related, which I'll put up tomorrow.

Lost in the shuffle

2009-07-26T21:44:00.002-04:00

Here's a picture I seem to have forgotten to post. It was the other art wall.

Look close, you'll see a sketch of Steranko's cover! Click for a bigger view.

Sanjulian Draws!

2009-07-26T21:21:00.007-04:00

Both of the artists who provided the images for our exclusive prints had been signing for us daily at the con. I showed Joe Jusko hanging out and being interviewed on Thursday, now it's Sanjulian's turn.

Here he is on Saturday signing and sketching on the large banner featuring his art that we had made for our booth.

And at the table during the signing.

Despite the fact that none of us spoke Spanish, and Sanjulian didn't speak English, we got along really well and he's wonderful person. Joe Jusko had said that Sanjulian was a big influence on him as a kid, and ironically enough, their booths were next to each other in the artist's section of main floor (nothing we planned, just happy coincidence).

A fan of Sanjulian's who had just met him the first day of the con was kind enough to hang out each day and help us with translations (his names escapes me, but I will find out and update as we owe him a thanks).

The Apes universe hasn't seen the last of Sanjulian's brush.

Hello, New York

2009-07-26T09:16:00.001-04:00

Just landed. An hour's drive, a little breakfast, and a lot of sleep for me.

The rest of the gang are still at SDCC, I'll try and get the day's doings -- and like I said I still have a few reserve posts for later today.

More soon.

So long, San Diego

2009-07-25T23:50:00.002-04:00

On my way home, but I have to say my first San Diego Comic Con treated me well. I'm not quite done with the reporting, after doing a little recovering on Sunday morning I have a few more Conspiracy related posts and one or two SDCC entries to make, too.

Co-writer and BLAM! Ventures creative director Drew Gaska will be signing on later in the week to give his take on SDCC and the future.

My flight awaits, good night San Diego, good night my fellow conspirators.

The other wall

2009-07-25T18:55:00.002-04:00

I got one more shot for you of our awesome booth, check out the signing table. You can see Joe Jusko's original painting is on the corner of the table to the left and Sanjulian's is on the wall behind.

San Diego goes Ape!

2009-07-25T18:25:00.002-04:00

We were invaded!

Thanks to Jeff & family, and Kevin for letting us share their pictures. You guys are great!

A Conspiracy artist stops by

2009-07-25T18:01:00.002-04:00

Leo Leibelman came to the booth last night to say hi and was kind enough to pose by his contribution to the book, a painting called "The Song."

Why is it called that you may ask? You'll have to wait until spring 2010 when you can buy the book to find out.

Comic Con - Saturday

2009-07-25T12:45:00.002-04:00

They just opened the doors not even 5 minutes before this.

Madness, I tell you.

Edit to add: Apparently Saturday isn't quite the monster day it once was, seems preview night on Wednesday had it's eye on the title. It didn't seem that way to me that morning, however.

Friday afternoon, late

2009-07-24T21:10:00.002-04:00

After a long day on Thursday that became a long night for most of us, we returned somewhat rested and ready to go back to the floor.

Things started a little early when the con organizers decided to let everyone in 15 minutes before scheduled. We had to get the booth up and running while helping con-goers looking for the free replicas of Landon's dog tags and today's free Matt Busch card (Ursus for the curious).

Speaking of the dog tags, I'm told a set has already gone up on eBay, selling for $18.00. They could've at least waited until after the con, maybe they would've gotten a better price.

Joe Jusko was onboard to sign his print "Alpha" again, and the legendary Sanjulian stopped by to sign his print "Omega." Both will be back on Saturday and Sunday, Jusko from 1-2 pm and Sanjulian from 3-4pm. Stop by and pick up a set and get them signed and personalized by the artists. Here are the prints on display:

Some more pictures of the booth, and a hint of some of the other art we got coming.

Getting press!

2009-07-23T15:54:00.001-04:00

A local film crew from Platt College is covering the convention and they're interviewing Andrew about the book. Joe Jusko stopped by for his signing just as they were getting started and joined in the fun.

There they are, looking good.

We'll link to the interview when it's up.

I present to you the Booth

2009-07-23T15:53:00.002-04:00

Just arrived at the convention center and the booth looks awesome!

If your here, stop by.

San Diego bound

2009-07-22T10:49:00.002-04:00

Just a quick note, primarily to test out my new blog app for my iPhone, but also to let you know I will be heading out to Comic Con early tomorrow (and hopefully have better luck on Delta than the rest of the BLAM! Crew who flew out ahead of me on Monday.

Hopefully I'll get to do some live blogging from the convention floor, give you a look at our booth, and show off some of our artists. More later, be good until then.

Ape Love

2009-07-20T23:15:00.004-04:00

Hey all,

I'm Christian Berntsen, one of the co-writers of the Conspiracy novel. Just wanted to introduce myself, and let you know a little of what to expect here.

We will be charting the course of the book's creation here to varying degrees (meaning we'll hint, and occasionally reveal, but not spoil anything), give you updates regarding our company BLAM! Ventures--which is putting this whole shebang together, profile the creators involved (there's a LOT of them), and point you to the places Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes pops up on the web and elsewhere.

On the latter point, I'd like to direct you to two very fine gentlemen, author and publisher Chris Roberson, and Pyr Books editorial director Lou Anders.

Chris gave us a very nice write up on his blog this morning, showing off that cool Joe Jusko art we'll be featuring at San Diego Comic Con this week. Take a look at his site, read what he has to say about us, and if you get a chance, check out some of his writing. If you're a lover of alternate histories, pulp adventure and everything in between, you'll enjoy what he has to offer. He also runs an independent publishing company with his wife called MonkeyBrain Books, specializing in science fiction and fantasy fiction and nonfiction genre studies (some cool and eclectic stuff there).

Lou was less verbose, but no less kind in his posting of our info and link. As I metioned Lou is the editorial director for Prometheus Books science fiction and fantasy imprint Pyr, and has been bringing award winning fiction to us for the past several years by the likes of Ian MacDonald, Kay Kenyon, Mike Resnick, and a host of others. Any of them would be well worth your time, and if you are looking for advice on writing or publishing in general, track down any interview with Lou and you won't be sorry.

As others talk us up, we'll make note and repay them in kind here. I know many of the POTA fan clubs have been buzzing about the book for a little bit now, and I only expect that excitement to grow as we get closer to next spring.

While I'm here, I'll direct you to my personal blog for a moment (if I may be so self-serving), and show you what I posted yesterday: here it is.

I'll leave you with that, the writing life is less glamorous than it seems, as I still have a job to get to in the morning. Until next time...

“That’s one small step for man…

2009-07-20T22:26:00.002-04:00

“…one giant headache for Apekind.” To paraphrase.

Welcome to The Conspiracy Apes blog, the official news source for the upcoming novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes coming in spring 2010 from BLAM! Ventures.

In some ways it’s a fitting day to start this blog, as today marks the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing on the moon and Neil Armstrong making history with his misquote. A year and a half prior to that Planet of the Apes starring Charlton Heston as Col. George Taylor was released, and posited not only deep space travel to another world, but also time travel (well, of a sort... and you know how well that went for them).

Many have dreams of broaching that frontier, finding life on other planets, discovering that there is indeed something more out there (maybe, as Col. Taylor hopes, better). We’re a long way off from that prospect, fortunately for us there are the dreamers working both sides of the equation to make that happen.

The scientists, engineers and all involved with NASA and similar agencies around the world strive to put humanity among the stars. While on the flip side, the writers, the illustrators, the architects of imagination endeavor to bring us there in a more cerebral, and perhaps an even truer way. As an audience, we look to Science Fiction to escape the mundane of our lives, to stretch the boundaries of our soul, and to set our minds burning with possibilities.

One such possibility can be found in the Planet of the Apes universe. Part warning about how we treat ourselves and those we share this planet with, part ripping good tale with a twist at the end that makes every teller of tales envious. We’re here to expand that world and show you the things you haven’t seen yet, bring you the stories you only imagined.

The first one lies in a conspiracy, and centers on an astronaut named John Landon who longed for home, and whose fate while already predetermined, is anything but predictable.

Ready to uncover the truth?