What happened to the War for Earth?

I had this series I was working on, called The War for Earth.  The first book was Pathfinder, though I knew I’d have to change that before (not to mention if) I published, because a space opera novel came out in 2011 with the same title.  It was about a guy who discovers the hyperspace pathways back to Earth, which has been “lost” for half a millenium… and discovers that Earth is a dead world, and the remains of the human race are victims of the biggest con-job in known history.  And he, along with a relatively few others, starts a war over it.  The saga was going to be based on the history of Ireland’s struggle for independence from Britain, and the twisted and painful history of that relationship would have informed the story development across the trilogy.

I was halfway through the writing of the first draft, and I’d plotted the rest of the first book, when I lost my hard drive.  All data was gone.  I thought I had a backup from only a month before… but I didn’t.  Due to a mistake I had made recently in backup maintenance, I had a two year old backup. 

Shit.

Anyway, I got a new drive, and started trying to recreate Pathfinder.  But I just can’t seem to make it happen.  I’ve tried several times to get working on it, and my enthusiasm has just… shriveled up and died.  It’s like I’m still grieving the draft I had. 

So now I’m working on  new idea, one I’d put on the back burner while working on the Earth saga.  This one is about a mage who rediscovers an ancient magic and awakens it to save his nation… but in doing so begins a war that may tear his whole world apart. 

It’s a stand-alone novel at present, but I have ideas to spin off into a series of it becomes warranted.  It’s called (for now) Warden’s Call.

Wow. Just writing this up gave me an idea that could drastically alter the direction I was going to go for the ending. Thanks!

Why is this here?

Hello.  For those of you who know me, bear with me a moment while I initiate the newbies.

Ok, Newbies.  Over here.

All right.  My name is Michael Johnston.  I’m a high school English teacher, a husband, and a father, with the importance of each role rising and falling depending on my location on the Earth, who I’m with, and where the alien signals controlling my brain are coming from that day.  Wait.  Strike that last part.

Ok, old guys.  Come back.

I am also aspiring to be an author of science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories.  That’s what this blog is for.  I’ve already got a personal blog, which I’ve been using since 2001, over at Livejournal, under another name.  But when I thought about blogging about books and writing, I realized that I could either dig through ten years of posts about anything from my job to my cat’s latest puke to endless stupid internet memes I took part in, or I could start fresh here.  So that old blog will remain active for things I want to share only with personal friends, and this one will be for friends as well as possible future audiences.  We’ll see how that one works out.

Anyway, welcome.  Real posts soon, but right now my family wants to watch a movie, so Husband and Father wins out.