Artemis Rising is #1,845 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,043 in Steampunk Fiction, and #3,818 in Alternative History. Still at 3 customer reviews. I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.
I needed a place for the New York City aeroport on Staten Island. The Edison Aeroport takes up the shore of Staten Island from the Tottenville Station to Mill Creek and from the shoreline to the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad. I also had to figure out how an aeroport would work. They wouldn’t have long runways and terminals like modern airports because they don’t have heavier than air aircraft and the passenger and cargo access such aircraft have. Especially since this is Steampunk, we decided that liftwood cargo ships, passenger ships, and military ships would all dock at towers. Gantry connecters would come out and connect to the ship and provide just the right amount of external power to keep the ship steady on the tower. Stability arms would come out to pre-designed hardpoints and lock in place to hold the ship steady in high winds. Passenger tunnels would extend to passenger hatches. Cargo ramps would connect to cargo hatches – all sorts of connections and complex machinery with plenty of gears…
I got to thinking about where Aeroports, especially Aeroports with significant military forces, will be in 1900. I decided they would be Galveston, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Staten Island, New York; San Francisco, California; London, England; Antwerp, Belgium; Le Harve, France; Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany; Genoa, Italy; Vienna, Austria-Hungry; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Moji, Japan. It’s going to increasingly suck the farther down that list the city is…
In 1891, the British military used the Lee-Metford rifle chambered in .303 black powder. It weighed about 9.5 pounds, was almost 50 inches long with a 30 inch barrel. It was magazine fed from an 8 or 10 round magazine and had a rate of fire of about 20 rounds/minute.
My initial thoughts about Defender Marine firearms: Major Regdar and Walter visit Ogden Utah to talk with John Browning about designing weapons for the Defender Marines. Their electromagnetic guns are kludgy, prone to break, and not known for their accuracy. They do, however, have a very good design for a reloadable magazine. Walter encourages Browning to use the new smokeless powder and a magazine based on the lunar one for his design. Since this is about 3-7 years earlier than IRL, Browning’s automatic and semi-automatic weapons are developed earlier as well. Jagers at first carry a rifle similar to the Remington Model 8 (invented early) with a 20 round magazine. It is later replaced by an improved version similar to the M1 Garand, again with a 20 round magazine. Trolls at first carry a version of the M1895 Colt-Browning Machine Gun with a 30 round magazine, later a 100 round drum magazine. Later replaced by a version of the M2 (Ma Duce), with a 100 round drum magazine, although it can also be belt fed. These may have a cooling circuit designed by Nikola to cool the chamber and barrel using something like the cooling coils of the freeze cannon.
I got a new notional picture for the Troll troopers armed with their .50 Browning Assault Rifles. It is the picture that will be used for, at least, Forging the Chain Breakers, although it may also be the notional background picture for Selene Unchained. I like the Troll much better, but I like the old Moon background better. My guess is the GetCovers folks will probably make something even better – they have every time so far…
I’ve decided that when Walter and Eleanor go to the 1891 Cornell graduation to recruit engineers, they will offer five work/study opportunities to work for Gresham Aerospace and study engineering from the Crystal Keep. Three of the engineers, Juan Almirall, Robert Burwell, and Oren Heilman will go on to be the foundation of the engineering team for Gresham Aerospace. Two, Clarence Cory and Warren Meeker will become the initial Earthborn faculty of Crystal Keep University – Galveston. Cory was the real life first professor of mining and electrical engineering for UC Berkley. Meeker was the real life longest serving faculty member of the Iowa State University College of Engineering.
I’ve decided that I will only have the first four or five books be a real series. Artemis Rising will be directly followed by Book 2 will be directly followed by Forging the Chain Breakers, maybe Antarctic Honeymoon will be next, but I might jump directly to Selene Unchained. All the rest of the planned books I’ll try to make stand-alone. They share a setting and characters, but I’m going to aim to make each one stand on its own without the reader needing to read another book to understand what’s going on. I’m not sure how to organize that on Amazon. I may just say they are Victorian Interplanetary stories and not put a number on them and make the first 4-5 books the series Selene Reborn. What do y’all think?
Current titles with votes:
The Moon’s Secret Envoy -2
The Moon’s Surprise Envoy -1
A Celestial Accord – 2
Moon Comes Down – 1
Selenites Path – 2
Chapters this week:
28: Galveston Aeroport Company
29: Aero Reconnaissance
30: Completed Sanctum
31: The Trolls Seize Fire
32: Facing the New Council
33: Military Update
34: Where Will it Fit?
35: A Beginning and a Milestone
36: The Browning Order – started
Forging The Chain Breakers word count is 61,959, not counting Dramatis Personae (2,472 words)
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.