Artemis Rising is #1,822 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,109 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,282 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 here.

I’ve decided that the way the Defender Marines chose their 12 Recon Marines is they first asked for volunteers. Then they had the 35 Marines who volunteered fight their way through a gauntlet of opponents using exercise weapons that assess when a Jager marine is wounded or incapacitated. Then the five lowest scoring were eliminated. Without time to rest, they fought through the gauntlet again and the five lowest scoring were eliminated. Without time to rest, they fought through a third time and the five lowest scoring were eliminated. The remaining 20 were divided into five groups of four and put through seventy hours of capture the flag combat with a only seven two-hour breaks. Before the capture the flag rounds, they were told that the highest scoring troopers would have the opportunity to choose a partner to team up with in future exercises. After the rounds, the trooper with the highest combat score was allowed to choose any other trooper as his partner. The highest scoring trooper remaining was allowed to choose any remaining trooper as his partner until there were 10 pairs of troopers. The pairs then had to fight each of the other nine pairs of candidates and go through the gauntlet as a pair four additional times. In the end, two of the pairs self-eliminated and the two lowest scoring pairs were dropped leaving six pairs of recon troopers.

Line editing for Cosmic Accord began this week. A slight hiccup – I sent the editor the manuscript for book 3 instead of book 2. He caught that pretty quick and he has the right one now.

Also had some issues with the Book 2 cover. We’re having trouble finding a photo of someone for Ima. This one is too young and doesn’t have the right hair. Maybe for next week.

I did get some modifications for the map in Book 2 and my mapmaker is working on an update of the map for Book 3.

Selene Unchained chapters this week:
1: Planning to Break the Chains – finished, but will be extensively reworked
2: Consulting the Mage
3: Beraht
4: Hala – started

Selene Unchained word count is 7,584, not counting Dramatis Personae (775 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.