Artemis Rising is #2,045 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,139 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,429 in Alternative History. Four customer reviews (whoo-hoo)! 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 needed a lighter rifle for the Recon marines. It seems everyone was looking at new rifles and changed over to something between about 1890 and 1905, but no good ones in position to be reasonably available in September of 1891. Unless Browning does his 2 week design of the Winchester Model 1892 is done in 1891 instead. So, just like in real life, he uses the Winchester 1886 as the basis, but scales it down. Also, instead of it starting out as a black powder weapon, it is a smokeless powder weapon from the outset. It also uses the .306 rifle cartridge the .306 BAR uses instead of a .303 cartridge. Another departure is that the patent is held by Crystal Keep Holdings instead of being sold to Winchester. That will net Browning a nice chunk of change since this will eventually sell over a million copies as well.

Since the moon has a ‘day’ that is four weeks long, the people of the Moon use a convention similar to Astronauts in real life. Their day counts from the ancient Vulcan equivalent of Greenwich Mean Time. Since Venus, Earth, Mars, and Vulcan all have a 24 hour day (because this is Steampunk, not Hard Science Fiction), the day on the Moon starts 8 hours and 13 minutes before the day starts in Galveston. That’s good enough for right now. I’ll figure out more detail if I need to for future stories. For those of you that want more detail, yes, that means the Moon has essentially the same time zone as Jerusalem.

Isaac and I had a conversation about the military campaign in Selene Unchained. He approached it from a strictly military, how would you best win the war as quickly as possible. I realized I probably had some plot holes there, despite the fact that the good guys have some significant setbacks. Without giving away spoilers, I did some significant rethinking of how the campaign would run. It is faster now, but not the ‘wham, you’re dead’ strike that Isaac first suggested.

I needed something yummy for Elisha and Mirim to bring to the dinner when they get back to the village at Tunnel 16 Entrance. Since Stringfellow Orchards was mentioned in Artemis Rising, I decided to go back there for inspiration. Seems that Henry Martyn Stringfellow was the first to plant Satsuma oranges from Japan on the Texas Gulf Coast. I don’t want to go to the trouble of making marmalade with the peel, so Rosa helped Mirim make orange jam instead. I even have a recipe to start with if Upton’s Cowboy Kitchen ever wants to make some.

I tried out some paid advertising. If you are keeping track, I have lower rankings on Amazon this week after the advertising than I did before. Not spending any more money, at least right now.

Selene Unchained chapters this week:
6: A Sorceress, A Marine, and A Spy – finished
7: Elisha and Mirim Return
8: Contemplations
9: Kepler Cluster

Selene Unchained word count is 14,317, not counting Dramatis Personae (16,121 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.