Adventure Beyond the Stars – Written for Readers Who Want More

Category: Books

  • Aeroports, Firearms, and Selene Reborn

    Aeroports, Firearms, and Selene Reborn

    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.

  • Galveston City Company

    Galveston City Company

    This is just too big a learning to be part of the standard weekly blog – so it will get one all its own.

    During the time of the Selene Reborn books, the Galveston City Company still had a huge amount of influence on the development of Galveston because they owned virtually all of the undeveloped land in the city.

    It all starts with Michel Menard, one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and, among other things, a location surveyor. The surveys most people are familiar with are boundary surveys – what are the boundaries of a tract of land. A location surveyor would go to a tract of land and identify improvements and geographical features that could add value to the land. He performed this service for Juan Seguin on a tract of about 4,605 acres on the east end of Galveston Island. The exact details are unknown, but Seguin gave title to the land to Menard in 1834.

    In 1836 Menard petitioned the government of Texas to have the Mexican land grant confirmed. Since the early Texas Congress was notorious for being… chaotic, it isn’t surprising that it wasn’t until 1838, after the Texas Congress had time (and some coups) to get itself organized before they officially deeded Galveston Island to the Galveston City Company consisting of Menard and 9 other early luminaries of Texas and Galveston.

    For the next 71 years, the Galveston City Company would sell and/or donate land to guide the growth and expansion of the city of Galveston. In 1891 when Gresham Aerospace is trying to get large tracts of land for their half-mile long aethership factory and such, In addition to getting permission from the City Council to build over where streets are supposed to go, they would need to buy all, or most, of the land from Galveston City Company, Archibald Campbell, agent and secretary.

    This is not the way I’ve ever heard of anything going. I guess it is kind of like master-planned communities now days, but without a detailed master plan to start with and with decades of incremental development instead. I think it is interesting that a Communist could make a case that the Galveston City Company is an example of central planning done right since they controlled, or at least influenced, the development of Galveston into a well-organized, prosperous, philanthropic community. Of course a Capitalist would point out that it was a private, for-profit enterprise, not a government agency, that did it…

  • Bricklayers, Foundries, and Future Plans

    Bricklayers, Foundries, and Future Plans

    Artemis Rising is #336 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,639 in Steampunk Fiction, and #1,258 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.

    Thomas Lucas, who lives across Broadway from Gresham Castle, may be an alternate builder for at least the upgrades to First Hangar. Information about Thomas Lucas IRL.

    If you haven’t sent a reply with feedback about the title for book 2, please review the list of title suggestions and hit reply.

    Not as many chapters this week. Two reasons, Deborah and I spent several days celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary. It takes longer for us old people to celebrate things – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it… Also, what the Shadowy Man is getting up to will be talked about more in this book than originally planned. That means adding some pieces in some of the already completed chapters.

    According to the 1890-1891 Galveston City Directory, page 179, David Fahey was proprietor of Uhrig’s Cave saloon, 2102 Market on the corner of 21st Street. Residence same. That is more than enough to inspire even a half-way decent writer to create a setting for the Shadowy Man to pump the bricklayers for information.

    John Locke (h) – Bricklayer in Galveston. Roomed with Fannie Stone. I added that he was from Eastside London because I wanted the Cockney accent. His friends were John Lipscomb (h) and George Blake (h) both historical bricklayers that I decided were Galveston natives.

    Historically in 1891 there were three foundries in Galveston. One, Lee Ironworks, part of the C. B. Lee & Co. complex, was right near the railroad depot and was the run by the Alderman for the 6th Ward (Northwest Galveston), Charles Lee. Guess where Walter and Company got the steel plates to cover Nike and Artemis…

    I’ve had a couple of questions about plans for future books. Those plans have changed a lot since I sat down to write Artemis Rising almost a year ago now. Currently, as of the changes made this morning, the plan looks like this:

    The Rise of the Selenites (Series):
    Artemis Rising
    [Book 2 – please send your title suggestions]
    Forging the Chain Breakers
    Selene Unchained

    The Adventures of Walter and Eleanor:
    Antarctic Honeymoon – may be book 4 of 5 in Rise of the Selenites
    Secrets of Kilimanjaro

    Others:
    Flight of the Phoenix
    Beware the Wrath of Magi

    Ideas that may become books:
    Return to Mars – A Walter and Eleanor adventure
    Getting a Clue – A Walter and Eleanor adventure
    Old Ones In England – A Walter and Eleanor adventure
    Fish People of the Amazon – possibly a Walter and Eleanor adventure
    Secrets of the Sphinx
    Floating Cities of Venus
    Dark Side of Mercury
    Secrets of Ceres
    Bombing Iapetus
    War of the Worlds – may be a series
    War in Heaven – may be a series
    Emory Upton in Mexico
    The Rise of Amir Al-Jalil
    Mike Powell on Mars

    Plenty of untold stories and all that assumes I don’t get enough feedback from readers about wanting more story somewhere not covered by this list…

    Chapters this week:
    Shadowy Man additions
    2 Chapters split (additional 2 chapters)
    27: Preparations for the Council
    28: Galveston Aeroport Company – started

    Forging The Chain Breakers word count is 48,947, not counting Dramatis Personae (2,183 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.

  • Atlantis, Angels, and Power Crystals

    Atlantis, Angels, and Power Crystals

    Artemis Rising is #1,435 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,579 in Steampunk Fiction, and #3,813 in Alternative History. I got a 3rd customer review, still 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 had another couple ideas for a name for Book 2. “Selenite Surprise” or “Surprise Visitors” Let me know what you think.

    NASA 1118 78.3F

    Had some discussion about potentially adding Atlantis to the stories in the future. Maybe using the Sahara Eye. Major question to be resolved is how to destroy Atlantis so it is at least similar to the Plato story. One minor question would be how much metal reinforcement do they need? If they build in a Classic Greco-Roman or Gothic style, none. If they use steel like we do – the steel would probably be rusted to nothing and those structures compromised. If they use a more corrosive resistant metal (titanium, aluminum, special alloy) they may still be in place. Something to consider.

    Something else that will show up earlier is how will the Selenites gain support among the communities under the control of Zafir? What if the Selenites are able to disguise themselves sufficiently to carry word of the coming freedom to everyone. Among other things, Angels are messengers. What if the people under Zafir’s control end up entertaining ‘angels’ unaware?

    If Old One tainted leukos crystals are purple-black (like a UV light), and Moon leukos crystals are usually colorless or pale yellow, would Martian power crystals be red? After all, the reason Mars looks red in real life is the massive amount of iron oxide in the surface dust. Come to find out, Corundum (aluminum oxide crystals) with trace amounts of iron and tungsten make blue sapphires. Rubies come mostly from chromium traces. Of course that doesn’t mean I have to make Martian crystals blue…

    I discovered that in real life, while Gresham Castle was being constructed the Gresham’s lived just behind the house on the south side of Avenue I between 14th and 15th. It is listed as the Thomas Chubb house on the historical landmark plaque out front of it. That is Edward and Vickie’s house in the story.

    I also looked up what the major ports were at the end of the 19th Century. They were the ports of the “Northern Range” in Europe. That’s Le Harve, France; Antwerp, Belgium; Rotterdam, Netherlands; Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany; and Hamburg, Germany.

    Chapters this week:
    21: American Commonwealth Military Council – added before 22
    22: At This Meeting of the Board… – completed
    23: Grey Wednesday
    24: Galveston Aeroport Collusion

    Forging The Chain Breakers word count is 45,808, not counting Dramatis Personae (1,831 words)

  • Book 2 With Editor

    Book 2 With Editor

    Artemis Rising is #1,224 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,368 in Steampunk Fiction, and #3,293 in Alternative History. I got a 3rd customer review, still 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.

    Submitted the new book 2 to Sandra, my editor. It may be a while before she can get to it. She’s a very good (and popular) editor. It’s better for her to have the manuscript and wait to get the time than have the time and be waiting on the manuscript. Hopefully I’ve fixed the issues and we can get this published by the end of the month or early September. Still need a good title for it. I did have another idea: Cutting In at the Presidents’ Ball. What do y’all think?

    Started working on Book 3 which is now Forging the Chain Breakers. Since I was able to pick up a lot that was edited out of either Mirim for the WIN or Antarctic Honeymoon, I’ve made a lot of progress by just touching up chapters picked up from the cutting room floor, so to speak. Chapters 1-21 are essentially the same as chapters written earlier for either Book 3 or some other story. 21 had extensive changes to the final board meeting.

    Chapters this week:
    Preface: Sinister Success
    1: To Business
    2: Gresham Steamship Company
    3: Cotton Exchange and Board of Trade
    4: Financial Setback
    5: Firearms and Electromagnetic Weapons
    6: I Guess Your Budget Is “Yes…”
    7: Tea, Bolivia, and Pilot Training
    8: But First, New York
    9: A Preacher, a Feminist, and a Sorceress Go To Tea…
    10: 15 Union Square West
    11: Breakfast At Tiffany’s
    12: Dinner Plans
    13: Winchester Repeating Arms
    14: Coltsville
    15: Preparing For Dinner
    16: Dinner At Delmonico’s
    17: What’s Next?
    18: Engaging Management
    19: Talk With Browning
    20: Gresham Steamship Board
    21: At This Meeting of the Board… – in progress

    Forging The Chain Breakers word count is 41,143, not counting Dramatis Personae (1,695 words)

  • Party Crashers

    Party Crashers

    Artemis Rising is #993 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,158 in Steampunk Fiction, and #2,655 in Alternative History. There are still just 2 customer reviews – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.

    I’m getting some readers in Kindle, so that is encouraging.

    As I mentioned last week, the rewrite of “Mirim for the WIN” is so major, the book will be getting a new title and cover. I’m currently considering “Selenite Party Crashers”. I plan to send the new version of the manuscript to Sandra for editing by the end of the week.

    The problem with “Mirim” was that there wasn’t enough conflict/setback for the story to be very interesting. In an effort to avoid that problem in the future, I reviewed the plan for the future books with an eye toward what the conflicts/setbacks would be for each story. That changed the focus of the stories some, changed the timeline a lot, and spurred a change in the book titles and order. There are now eight books in the immediate series with “Beware the Wrath of Magi” being added.

    A pleasant side effect of the reorganization was that the planned books aren’t as intertwined. Instead of “Antarctic Honeymoon” being next, “Forging the Chain Breakers” will be next, focusing on military and political preparation for freeing the Moon. Bad news – Plan A will be delayed until at least 1893, maybe much later if the Robber Baron has anything to say about it. Good news – Plan B may have the Moon free by the end of 1891…

  • Moon Comes To Earth?

    Moon Comes To Earth?

    Artemis Rising is #885 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,063 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #5,415 in Exploration Science Fiction. There are still just 2 customer reviews – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.

    I’m getting some readers in Kindle, so that is encouraging.

    Still working on the changes to Mirim. I’m thinking of calling the new book “Moon Comes To Earth” or “Envoys and Ambassadors” unless I can find something better. Mirim for the WIN is just too obscure and Mirim looks too young until you read that she is actually 45 and just looks that young. I need a better title and cover to draw people into reading the blurb. I need a new blurb as well, I guess.

    First pass complete for Chapter 21 to the end. Completed the second pass for the full book as well. It expanded to over 86,000 words and from 24 to 30 chapters.

  • Working on Mirim

    Working on Mirim

    Artemis Rising is #734 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,690 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #4,882 in Exploration Science Fiction. There are still just 2 customer reviews – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.

    To make the changes necessary to give Mirim for the WIN a story, I’m going to need to make at least two passes through the story. The first one will focus primarily on addressing the ‘tactical’ level editing issues. The second one will focus on fixing the ‘strategic’ level issues. I may need a third pass to make sure it all fits together correctly. Then it will be back to Sandra.

    I’m thinking it will need a new title as well. Mirim will be a major character, but Elisha and Ima and their struggle to get some official support, even if they can’t get official recognition, from the American Commonwealth will be important.

    First pass complete for Chapter 1-21, this includes adding more than 10,000 words and two chapters.

    If you want to be a beta reader and comment on these chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.

  • Mirim Needs A Story

    Mirim Needs A Story

    Artemis Rising is #1,162 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,967 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #6,602 in Exploration Science Fiction. There are still just 2 customer reviews – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.

    I realized some additions to Mirim for the WIN need to be made to clarify the size of the challenge, as seen from Mirim and Elisha’s point of view. Elisha is, essentially, the headman of a village tasked with representing all the people of the Moon (less than 100 thousand) to an organization that has multiple countries with millions or tens of millions of people. Mirim, for all her skill, has never attempted working a Women’s Information Network the size of Galveston’s. Mirim has also never worked with women who are wives of diplomats, or even Presidents, of those huge countries. All that is on top of being on a completely alien planet. I guess I didn’t write it because I knew how they would cope, but the reader would have to be able to read my mind to know how they cope. Sandra said she had recognized that, but to wait until she’s made a first pass before I start a significant rewrite like that.

    I did go through Mirim for the WIN and Antarctic Honeymoon to look for places to put descriptions of the various locations in Galveston to make the story come alive better. That took up most of my writing time this week.

    Biggest news last – Mirim for the WIN is a great slice of life, but a very poor story. Everything is too easy and there are no real challenges or setbacks. It also doesn’t really fit into the Steampunk genre because there isn’t really any adventure. It looks like I’m going to need to back up, rethink what I’m doing in the various books in 1891, and try again. I’m not sure yet, but that will probably mean Mirim for the WIN will not be the title of the next book. Work on Antarctic Honeymoon will be suspended until I get Book 2 straightened out.

  • Research In Galveston

    Research In Galveston

    Artemis Rising is #860 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,344 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #799 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store). There are 2 customer reviews – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.

    In the late Victorian and Gilded ages, the rich and powerful were more likely to have a custom rail carriage built for them. Kind of like having a yacht or private jet today.

    Ran into some major issues with the first chapter of Mirim for the WIN. Essentially I needed to do a complete rewrite. Since I’ve never written the first chapter of a sequel novel, I guess it isn’t surprising that I’m not good at it yet. I ended up adding more than 3000 words making the first chapter over 5,000 – way longer than most of my chapters. I asked Sandra to suggest chapter breaks, but may leave it alone if she doesn’t have suggestions. It made me feel good that I impressed her by getting the rewrite back to her in less than 48 hours.

    Saturday visit to Galveston helped me locate a hugely valuable source of information in the Galveston and Texas History Center of the Rosenberg Library. Huge shoutout to Kaitlin and Christina for their help gathering information about Walter and Josephine Gresham, Gresham Castle, John Henry Hutchings and his house.

    There was also a birds-eye view map of Galveston on the wall that included the Beach Hotel (so between 1882 and 1898). The beach side of the island and the west side of the island was way too empty to justify going back and forth to Texas City. The way I see it, I have three choices:
    1) I can revise everything I’ve written so far to put Gresham Aerospace on the island from the beginning. Pro: It takes care of all the issues from the beginning. Con: It makes it confusing for people who have already started reading Artemis Rising and it is a lot of work.
    2) I can have the Gulf, Laredo, and Veracruz Railroad at least decline developing the Aero/Aether port in Texas City and force the move when Gresham Aerospace makes their expansion in Antarctic Honeymoon. Pro: Allows Artemis Rising, Mirim for the WIN, and almost all of what is written so far for Antarctic Honeymoon to stand as written. It also puts Galveston right next to the Aetherport which will be important later. Con: the facility is on the unraised island during the 1900 hurricane. It also adds some complication to the Antarctic Honeymoon story (which may be more of a mixed Pro/Con – richer story/more work).
    3) Move the facilities from a ruined Texas City location to Galveston. Pro: This can include a raising of the level of the ground post hurricane and it makes some sense in trying to revitalize Galveston after the destruction of the Hurricane and such. Con: I’m pretty sure the Texas City area has a lot less destruction from the 1900 hurricane than Galveston did – moving from Texas City to Galveston would stretch credibility a lot.

    Toured Bishop’s Castle and Moody Mansion. Bishop’s Castle is the name given to the Gresham’s house, Gresham Castle in the books, after the Bishop of Galveston took up residence there. Moody Mansion was the name given to the mansion built by Narcissa Willis when William Moody, Jr. bought it just after the 1900 hurricane. Narcissa had the mansion built in part because she had pestered her husband to build them an opulent house their entire married life, in part to try to draw her children back to Galveston, and in part to upstage her sister, Magnolia Willis Sealy, mistress of Open Gates just two blocks down Broadway. She upstaged her sister for a very few years, got her opulent house at the cost of not having the money to keep it up, and since that estranged her from her children, failed to get them to return to Galveston. In fact, William Moody got the mansion for about five cents on the dollar in a bid he put in before the hurricane.

    Learned that Broadway is where it is because that was the “ridge” of highest ground (8 feet above sea level) down the center of Galveston Island when the city grid was laid out. At the time of the books, it consisted of a single lane road in either direction and a broad esplanade down the center. Most roads in Galveston at that time are paved in crushed shells.

    I did figure out how to make some decent AI generated pictures of the various Embassies. I’m not sure it will work for the Hall of the American Commonwealth, I’ll have to try that next.

    This week was mostly consumed with research in Galveston. Learned a lot and need to integrate it into Mirim for the WIN, as well as later books. That will probably slow down progress on Antarctic Honeymoon for a while.

    Chapters this week:
    27: American Geographic Society – progress
    Mirim Chapter 1 rewrite

    Antarctic Honeymoon word count is 53,807, less than 800 words more than last week, not counting Dramatis Personae (2,268 words)

    If you want to be a beta reader and comment on these chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.