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Caveat
All titles on this website feature GLBT characters and situations.
If you will be offended, please read no further. By further
exploring this site, you agree that you are of age in your
part of the world, and are fully aware of the content of books
and art displayed here.
All images on this site are copyright.
Site contents © DreamCraft, 2018
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Above: The Jade cover art for the full series in paperback. NOTE: the final trilogy (all 390,000 words of it) falls
under one cover,
The ENDGAME OMNIBUS
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Below: The Nicholas Hoar cover for the
1993 GMP issue of DEATH'S HEAD and the 1994 GMP issue of EQUINOX
 
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It all began with DEATH'S HEAD, originally
published in 1991, in abridged form by GMP in the UK. A year later
came EQUINOX, the second of the
Jarrat and Stone books ... and then a ten-year lull while GMP,
as a business, wound down and merged itself into the much larger
Millivres-Prowler Group.
Many readers still don't relize that DEATH'S HEAD was heavily
abridged in the GMP version. If you're reading the old GMP paperback,
you're 25,000 words short of getting the whole picture ... you
definitely need to be reading the UNabridged version!
Not until Mel Keegan entered into the long-term
creative partnership with DreamCraft
Multimedia did the NARC books stir back to life, and they took off in
2004/05 the way they should have fifteen long years ago.
The third novel, SCORPIO, was
published in September 2004, and Mel has dusted off old notebooks:
the story outlines for NARC books which were planned and of
necessity shelved, so long ago.
Next came STOPOVER, which we whimsically
called 'NARC #3.5," since it's a slim volume which falls between
SCORPIO and APHELION. It's the same length as most of the SF novels
of the 1960s — about 44,000 words ... and MK had actually
intended it to be the prolog to APHELION.
Halfway through the
writing, we all realized Keegan had 'done it again,' and the
novel was going to run way too long. We cut STOPOVER out of
APHELION and released it as a stand-alone early in 2007, while
APHELION followed along later.
Then, alas, came a long, long drought. With Mel's health failing
and Jade retiring, between 2007 and 2018, NARC went onto old ... but
it nagged away in the back of Mel's mind, that the series wasn't
finished, and needed to be finished.
A respite from health difficulties in 2017/2018 brought Mel back
to the keyboard with a will. SCIMITAR, BASILISK and ENDGAME were
written "back to back," coming in at just a whisker under 400,000
words. Yes, you read that right. In mid-2018 they're being released
under one cover as THE ENDGAME OMNIBUS, in ebook format for
Kindle, Nook, PC, Mac, whatever: Mobi, PDF and EPUB. (Sadly, it's
physically impossible for a print on demand publisher to produce
a 900pp paperback, so the three books are being issued in three
volumes, due in August or September of 2018 -- remember to allow
time for the book packaging process, and the delivery of proof
copies to Austalia by mail. It ain't quick.
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The NARC books became not merely a possibility, but a reality,
with the DreamCraft reissue of EQUINOX, and a year later, the
restoration of DEATH'S HEAD.
This restoration project was an immense task. "Lost" text -- whole
scenes and a sub-plot -- were put back in, and the whole book was
re-proofed, given a light edit to bring the tech up to date (a wise
move, given the length of time since it was originally published).
DEATH' HEAD UNABRIDGED was shipped in March '04, and reception from
readers was overwhelming. Advance orders were several times
more than DreamCraft had expected, and the reader response has been
better than we could have hoped for (and we'd already had
high hopes to begin with).
Early in 2008, DreamCraft switched over to printing and binding in
the USA/Can and UK/Eur, using the services of the POG 'giant,' Lulu.com.,
and, subsequently, Amazon's own printshop, CreateSpace.
To celebrate the move, we struck an entirely set of new covers.
Mel Keegan's readers frequently disagree on what might be their favorite book or genre, but on
one issue they're solidly in agreement: gay-themed science fiction doesn't get any better than
this! (Having said that, however, we can hear a wail going up in the background, from the folks who
actually prefer the historicals. In fact, 25% of readers do prefer (gay) historical fiction, and
something like 10% read mostly only contemporary fiction. Guys — name your poison, as the saying
goes: the odds are excellent, you'll find it in these pages.)
Want to know more about NARC? Click here for a collection of articles, interviews and features
which open a window into this amazing world!
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The covers for the 2012/2018 reissue of the complete series:
In paperback -- click the thumbnails to view the full wrap-around covers:
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Jade herself remains a great NARC fan, and across the years indulged herself in a vast body of artwork
produced in the "3D render workshop" of DAZ Studio. Care to take a peek?!
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