Finished!  Nearly two years after Shawn Gordon and I began to talk about an innovative crossover rock CD and fantasy novel, “Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon” is now in its final stages.  Erik Norlander has finished mixing all 13 tracks, including the instrumental finale/epilogue, “The Edge of the World,” and has turned the entire album over to our crack mastering artist, Chris Brown, who also played acoustic and additional electric guitars on the tracks. 

Erik and Lana have headed off on a tour for Erik’s band Rocket Scientists, and they’ll have special appearances by John Payne (who also sings on the Terra Incognita CD).  Michael Sadler is on tour in Germany right now.  James LaBrie and Dream Theater are in the studio adding the finishing touches to a new CD.  It was quite a scheduling challenge just to get all these talented people together to contribute their parts for the tracks.

Meanwhile, I have completed the CD booklet, and our designer—T. Duren Jones—is prepping it for press.  The booklet contains original connecting text between the song lyrics, so the music is definitely a companion to the novel.  The fifteen booklet paintings were done by well-known SF artist Bob Eggleton (who just received his twentieth Hugo Award nomination). 

I’ve completed 111 (out of 124) chapters in the second “Terra Incognita” novel, which will be published in summer 2010; I should finish the first draft by the end of the week.  This has truly been an exciting and satisfying project for me; I hope you’ll check out both the music and the novel when they’re available.  (Remember, you can preorder signed copies of both at AnderZoneShop and ProgRock Records.)

—KJA