A New Study Edition Cover and 37 Teleplays in Four TV Formats

Can humanity win a war without killing?

Why does General Jones entrust humanity’s greatest secret to the very people everyone else underestimates?

How does a twelve-year-old girl in a wheelchair turn other people’s assumptions about her into an advantage?

Those are a few of the questions at the heart of Earth’s Secret Alliance. They are also examples of the questions readers will explore in the upcoming Study Edition.

More than 50 discussion questions from Roswell: First Contact through The Woundless War will be available as free resources on my website.

The Study Edition Cover Reveal

Here it is: the cover of the new Earth’s Secret Alliance Study Edition, expected in early 2027.

The Study Edition brings together all six interconnected novellas, bonus and restored material from the chronological novel, and commentary from Charlotte “Charlie” Baker.

It also includes:

• Discussion questions for every story
• Vocabulary and writing activities
• Character and theme studies
• Historical and cross-curricular connections

It is designed for classrooms, homeschool groups, libraries, reading programs, families, and book clubs.

Due to a miscommunication, my editor will not be available to begin her review until December. That gives me more time to gather useful feedback before the book is finalized.

Five Free Printed Beta Copies

I am offering free printed beta paperbacks to the first five qualified applicants who agree to read the Study Edition and provide thoughtful feedback.

Teachers, librarians, homeschool educators, book-club leaders, and parents who would seriously consider using the book educationally are welcome to apply.

After the five printed copies have been claimed, PDF beta copies will remain available.

Once the editing and beta-reading stages are complete, the next step will be reaching schools, libraries, homeschool organizations, and book clubs. That stage will benefit from an experienced educational publishing or distribution professional with established connections in those markets.

37 Teleplays in Four TV Formats

Over the past several weeks, I reorganized my six screenplay adaptations into a chronological series of five feature films.

I also adapted the complete story for television and streaming in four different formats:

• Twelve 45-minute episodes
• Ten 55-minute episodes
• Nine 60-minute episodes
• Six 90-minute episodes

That is 37 completed teleplays.

My screenplays did not advance to the final rounds of this year’s competitions, but Charlie’s Big Chance was recognized as both a Pilot Quarter-Finalist and an Animation Semi-Finalist. I am grateful that Charlie’s story made it that far in two different categories.

When I began writing Earth’s Secret Alliance, I was not trying to write a blockbuster or bestseller by using gimmicks like cliffhangers. Instead, I created family-friendly stories filled with characters readers and viewers care about and want to know what happens to.

Adapting the stories into fixed-length television episodes changed my perspective. Each episode needed to end at a meaningful turning point, and some of those moments naturally became small cliffhangers. I hope they give viewers something to look forward.

The Most Important Thing I Learned

The screen industry places enormous importance on pitching and presentation. I have a monotone voice, and producers have turned me down because of it.

I have spent months learning how to produce a film, but the most important thing I learned is that I am not the person to do it.

My strengths lie in writing, developing this world, finding practical ways to bring it to the screen, and helping shape its visual effects. I am better working behind the scenes than standing at the front of the room trying to sell the project.

For now, I am putting further screenplay development on hold and returning my attention to the books, especially the Study Edition. I have taken the screen adaptation as far as I can independently.

Its next stage will require an experienced producer, manager, sales agent, or representative with established studio and distribution relationships who can recognize what has already been built and place it before the right decision-makers.

This is no longer just an idea. Earth’s Secret Alliance has grown into six interconnected stories, five feature-film screenplays, 37 teleplays in four television formats, almost 14,000 books, and more than 114,000 Kindle pages read.

“Who Is Your Target Audience?”

That may be the most infamous question in publishing and filmmaking. Marketers insist that the answer cannot be “everyone.”

I agree that no single story appeals equally to everyone. That is why I deliberately created different entry points into Earth’s Secret Alliance.

Charlie’s story welcomes children and families. Malcolm and Mary speak especially strongly to teens, socially awkward readers, gifted young people, and those who have been underestimated. The other stories explore leadership, diplomacy, prejudice, relationships, military ethics, and responsibility.

Do you know someone who might enjoy one of these stories?

Recently, at one of our local markets, I explained the different entry points to a woman who stopped at my table. Each novella was written to be short enough to provide an accessible starting point while appealing to a somewhat different audience.

She bought all six novellas and the complete novel.

At first, I felt guilty that I might have oversold her. Then I learned that she had ten grandchildren and was also choosing craft kits to give them something enjoyable to do.

My guilt suddenly became joy.

I had not pressured her into buying too much. I had helped her find something for her family.

That encounter reminded me why I created multiple entry points. Each story has its own primary audience, but together they form one continuing narrative. My hope is that once readers connect with one character, they will want to meet them all.

At its heart, Earth’s Secret Alliance is about bringing people together: young and old, male and female, and people of different races, beliefs, abilities, and backgrounds.

As General Jones says, “We’re all people, blacks and whites, Christians and Jews, are we not?”

Life Beyond the Keyboard

This has been a season of asking questions, adapting stories, and learning where my own strengths belong.

My wife and cowriter, Lydia, and I are both now medically retired from our former jobs, but writing continues to give us meaningful work to share.

When I am not writing, revising, or answering questions about aliens, much of my time is spent throwing a ball for my dog, Miley. Monkey, my cat prefers to supervise by jumping into my lap or standing directly in front of the computer screen.

I have also been attending local markets to help my sister’s family raise funds for my grandnephew’s autism school. Stories and screenplays matter deeply to me, but supporting the people and animals I love keeps everything in perspective.

Thank you for continuing to read, encourage me, ask questions, and share these stories.

Earth’s Secret Alliance has grown far beyond anything I imagined when I began writing it, but its heart has not changed. It is still about ordinary people learning to see what others can do instead of what they cannot, and discovering that our differences do not have to divide us.

Tony B. Richard