Tag: post apocalyptic

Surviving the Aftermath

With my very own post-apocalyptic novel about to release tomorrow (What Once Was Home), I was very excited to find that one of my favorite game publishers has a new post-apocalyptic game out now!

I’ve spent a lot of time in the book rebuilding communities through the eyes of my characters, and I feel ready to take a more direct hand in the challenge of rebuilding a society in the wake of an apocalypse. There’s a lot of potential obstacles we may face here. Limited resources, a lack of infrastructure, lawlessness, environmental hazards, etc. I’m sure that Paradox and Iceflake have thought of all these and more, so this game is sure to be quite the challenge!

Paradox Interactive is renowned for such titles as the Crusader Kings, Europa Universalis, and Hearts of Iron series. Their forays into city building games include the acclaimed Cities: Skylines (considered by many to be a spiritual successor to the Sim City series) and Surviving Mars.

Now, they’ve partnered with indie developer Iceflake Studios to bring city building games into the post-apocalyptic future with Surviving the Aftermath!

Game Features, from the Paradox Interactive website.

No Place Like Home: Build and manage a colony of survivors after a world-ending event. Construct more than 50 unique buildings to handle everything from resource collection and farming to exploration and security. Don’t forget to construct the Gate to venture into the savage world beyond your colony.
Surviving Earth: Explore a vast procedurally generated world featuring six different biomes filled with exploitable resources, bandits, and more. Each environment has different conditions that will affect your colony’s survival. Stay vigilant: Natural disasters will put your survivors to the test.
Survival is my Specialty: Recruit over 46 unique Specialists, each with their own skills and motivations, to manage your colony’s resources and production. Send them beyond the Gate on scientific missions, scavenger runs, and to fight bandits.
Expect the Unexpected: Life in the aftermath requires you to make moral choices. You may not be able to control everything in your colony, but how you respond to situations and emergent events will shape the character of your new civilization.
Mods: Surviving the Aftermath players can bring their own visions to life using Paradox Mods.

I’m very eager to get my hands on this, and hope to be uploading some screenshots and videos from my own attempts to survive the aftermath soon. The game is now in early access, and you can get your copy from the Epic Games Store now.

All media associated with Surviving the Aftermath is courtesy and © Paradox Interactive. Used for editorial purposes.

What Once Was Home: Coming Home on October 25th!

When his world is torn apart, one man must learn to survive in What Once Was Home.

Jace Cox’s life is changed when an overwhelming alien force invades the Earth with no warning or provocation.  In the years that follow, he must not only fight to survive; but also learn what it means to be a man and a leader.  As the situation grows more dire, he realizes that his greatest challenge isn’t the alien invaders or even his fellow man; it is holding onto his own humanity despite living in a world gone mad.

Release Date: October 25, 2019

Pre-orders available now from Kyanite Publishing!

Also available from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Indiebound.

Praise for What Once Was Home

Every step of the way, I was enthralled by Jace’s story. Every word drew me so deep into this world, that it became real to me. It’s what I want when I read a book, a movie in my head. An incredibly engaging and heart-wrenching journey. With an ending that made me sit back and repeat the word “Damn” to myself several times. Because, damn.

What Once Was Home stunningly combined the incredible speculative elements that I love about science fiction with the engaging personal stories and moving internal struggle that continues to draw me back to contemporary fiction.

Compelling characters, fast-moving plot, and a world you can sink into—you really cannot ask for more from any story. Even if science fiction and alien invasions aren’t your things, this is a book you do NOT want to miss out on. Jace’s journey is one that I think will touch many readers and bring them back again and again.

— Crystal Kirkham on Goodreads. 5 stars.

Bass’s story is engaging and delves into human emotions, joy, pain, and loss. The story grabbed me from the beginning to the very heartwarming end. Bass is an excellent story spinner and his descriptive writing drew me into this bleak world. What can I say? It is terrific and I highly recommend this book. I look forward to reading more of B.K.’s books in the future. A five-star treat.

— K.D. on Goodreads. 5 stars.

Related Articles

Making it Personal: Writing Character Driven Narratives in a War-Time Setting.

What Once Was Home: Cover Reveal

I’m very excited to reveal the cover for my first full-length novel: What Once Was Home!

When his world is torn apart, one man must learn to survive in What Once Was Home.

Jace Cox’s life is changed when an overwhelming alien force invades the Earth with no warning or provocation.  In the years that follow, he must not only fight to survive; but also learn what it means to be a man and a leader.  As the situation grows more dire, he realizes that his greatest challenge isn’t the alien invaders or even his fellow man; it is holding onto his own humanity despite living in a world gone mad.

What Once Was Home will be launching on October 25, 2019, and pre-orders are available now from Kyanite Publishing! Click HERE for more!

Genres: Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic, Alien Encounters, Military Science Fiction
Length: Novel – Approx 300 pages
Release Date: October 25, 2019

What’s Next for B.K. Bass?

As always, there’s a lot of exciting things going on in the B.K. Laboratory. I wanted to share a little of what is planned for the rest of the year and beyond, and some news about a change in direction for me as an author.

Before we get into what’s coming next, I think it would be best to take a quick look at what has come before. Last year I was plugging away at what should be a fairly long science fiction novel. I decided one weekend to take a break to avoid burnout, and wrote a dark fantasy novella.

Then I wrote another, and another, and an anthology, and a cyberpunk novella, and a heroic fantasy novella…. In the meantime, I had also started up a company and began a career as a publisher, not to mention launching my own literary magazine with the help of my business partners.

So, that weekend off turned into a year of crazy levels of productivity, but alas my novel was still simmering on the back-burner. I think this was the best thing for it, since I’ve learned lot about writing and editing over the course of the last year.

Which bring us to now. After receiving reviews of my various novellas, there’s been one common trend:

My biggest critique? I wanted more. 

I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for part 2.

I wish the next book was out already.

I look forward to Book 2 of the trilogy!

My only complaint is born merely of anticipation. I want more!

As much as I love being able to tell all these different stories, it is important to me that my readers be happy too! In the interest of that, I’ve rearranged my commitment to the publishing company to free up more writing time, and will be shifting my focus away from novellas and to full-length novels.

This first brings us back to the science fiction novel on the back burner: What Once Was Home. I’ll be committing most of April to finishing this manuscript and hope to have the revised draft to my editor by mid-May.

Find out more about What Once was Home here!

The other big change coming from this is that the project I was currently focused on – Parting the Veil – is going to be delayed. It was coming out this summer, but it will now have a release in the fall. This is not only because of the time being spent on What Once Was Home, but also because I’ll be making Parting the Veil a novel instead of a novella! The outline for the story already has a lot going on, and as a novella it was going to have to be a very streamlined plot that didn’t delve too deeply into certain things. The potential for a novel-length story is definitely there, so I’m going to make that happen.

Find out more about Parting the Veil here!

Now, there were quotes up there from readers anticipating the next book in a series or trilogy. Not to worry! Between these other projects, and contiguous with them, I’ll still be working on my novellas. The focus will be on delivering highly anticipated sequels, and I will not be starting any new series until these are out there. Among these projects are Companions of the Stone Road, the sequel to Warriors of Understone; and Night Life, the sequel to Night Shift.

All of these projects and more should be completed before the end of this year, and I’m looking forward to many more exciting things in 2020!