Category: Books

Artemis Rising is #351 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,384 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #1,436 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.

More progress on Antarctic Honeymoon. Mirim for the WIN has finished its first week in developmental editing. I’m getting prepared for a research trip to Galveston, Texas – although I was recently informed that we needed to do more than just research. Finally, I learned a lot of interesting tidbits, most of which may never get into the books directly.

Eleanor’s probably father, Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, was the most famous of the residents of Knebworth House. Knebworth House is an English country house in Knebworth parish of Hertfordshire in England. It has been home to the Lytton family since 1490.

Added John Moses Browning to the Dramatis Personae. No changes to the amazing historical person. He was one of the most important firearms designers in history, Moses Browning held 128 patents for firearms in his lifetime, including patents on designs that laid the basis for many modern firearms. This includes gas operated semi-automatic actions which are used in almost all semi-automatic and automatic firearms, and the .50 caliber ‘ma deuce’ machine gun, possibly the most widely used machine gun in history. Last I heard, .50 caliber BMG (Browning Machine Gun) was the single most used ordinance in the history of the US Air Force.

Also got to use the origin story of Browning’s gas operated mechanism idea. In the 1890’s he was testing a rifle and noticed the muzzle gasses pushing back the vegetation nearby. From there it was only a question of how to harness the energy from those gasses to work the mechanism.

Did some more research on the business elite of Galveston in the 1890’s and realized that Thomas wouldn’t have been engaged to Abby Kempner – her father, Harris Kempner, was an Ashkenazic Jew from Poland. A Jewish man, born in the Russian puppet state of Poland, on the border of Prussia, speaking Yiddish as his first language, wouldn’t have allowed an Episcopalian to marry his daughter. So I switched the birth order of John Henry Hutchings youngest two children and Thomas Gresham is engaged to Rey Sealy Hutchings instead.

Many of the people on the various boards in Chapter 26 were historical people. George Sealy, Frank’s future father-in-law, and John Henry Hutchings, Thomas’ future father-in-law, are on the board of both the GL&V Railroad and Gresham Aerospace. Col. Moody is on the boards of the Gulf, Laredo, and Veracruz Railroad and Gresham Steamship Company. George Brakenridge of San Antonio, Texas, Isaac Garza Garza of Monterrey, New Leon, and Francisco Yturria of Matamoros, Tamaulipas are on the board of the Gulf, Laredo, and Veracruz Railroad. Manuel Carrillo, Tia Dolores’ father, is on the board of Gresham Steamship Company. Henry Rosenberg is on the board of Gresham Aerospace.

In the 1890’s the approaches to the Port of Havana were defended by a bunch of shore batteries. Even though the United States of the West Indies have been free from Spain for about 30 years, I figure the batteries probably still have guns in them. That means the Bateria de Santa Clara can add some local… color to Chapter 26.

Finally decided on specifics for the houses the Selenites get to stay in while in Galveston. I finally realized that instead of trying to shoehorn the Selenites into one of the famous houses in Galveston, I could just “cut and paste” some houses from the same time period into “blank places” in Galveston. Therefore, at the end of Chapter 8, they acquire two properties, neither of which were in Galveston, but both of which existed in Texas in 1891. The Keeper House was placed at 1702 Ball and is copied from the Rotan-Dossett House from Waco. The Selenite Embassy was placed at 1502 Broadway and is based primarily on the Cartwright House in Terrell, Texas. The Cartwright House really does look like an Embassy, especially after the Selenites put in leukos-powered electric lights like the modern Cartwright house has.

I organized the Walter’s Galveston document ahead of travelling to Galveston this weekend to do some scouting on the ground. I plan on getting some pictures of some of the buildings that still exist and see about getting pictures from the Rosenberg Library for some of the rest of them. I’ll also be meeting with Jami Durham at the Historical Society who was very helpful in getting a feel for the Gresham family.

Had to figure out where at least a couple of the aero/Aether ports would be. So one is in the New York area (where Edison Aetherics builds all the aetherships before the Tesla Drive) and another is in London. The Royal Victoria Aeroport lies between the Royal Albert Dock on the north and the Woolwich Railway on the south.

Some of you may recognize the symbol of the American Geographic Society. It is the same as the symbol for the Interplanetary Geographic Society Press. It has corn sheaves (corn is native to Central/North America) and an uncommon world map projection called a Berghaus projection or Berghaus star. The particular one used has North America and the American Sea prominently displayed. The American Geographic Society, based in Havana, West Indies, will become the Interplanetary Geographic Society at some point. Two other organizations similar to the American Geographic Society were the Royal Geographic Society in Great Britain, and the Smithsonian Institute in the United States. The famous National Geographic Society was founded in 1888, but is still fairly new and not as well known.

Chapters this week:
25: Talk With Browning – finished
26: This Meeting of the Board
27: American Geographic Society – started

Antarctic Honeymoon word count is 53,133 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.

One of the oldest catalogues of lunar craters is Charte der Gebirge des Mondes by J.F.J. Schmidt. This is the book that Thoma scanned and sent to Crystal Keep for them to use in updating their map of the lunar surface and placing Earth names on features.

Sent Mirim for the WIN to my editor, Sandra for editing. If it doesn’t need too much work, maybe it will be published by the middle of July.

For one of the scenes this week I needed to know the layout of the first floor of Gresham Castle. I believe this image is from the original plans.

I needed a caller on Beulah in addition to Nasir. There wasn’t a lot of information about him, but I decided to base him on the man who married Beulah in real life. Carl Oakes (m) – based on the historical husband of the historical Beulah Gresham, he, too is 9 years older than in real life. His appointment to the Military Academy (West Point) is a deduction based on the one picture I found of him.

In Mirim for the WIN, there is a discussion of term limits and the Aruns tell everyone that their leadership serves only a one (Vulcan) year term, a bit more than four and a half Earth years, before having to take a break before serving in the top leadership positions again. Come to find out, incumbent Governors of Virginia can’t run for re-election either. Since the legislators can run as many times as they want, that means the Governor only has a year or two to get much done before becoming a lame duck. Not surprisingly, Virginia has had only two governors serve a second term since that became an option in 1830. Since the legislators can run as many times as they want, the executive is much weaker in Virginia. If we tried to impose the same limit on Presidents now, that would probably put too much power in the hands of the massive, unelected, federal bureaucracy. If it were put in place prior to the individual income tax and the FDR or Johnson expansions of the bureaucracy, maybe that would work. Hmmm…

Chapters this week:
Engaging Management
Return to the Moon – finished
Shadowed Sunshine
The Search
Talk With Browning – started

I ordered a map of Galveston for Mirim for the WIN the first one came in and it looks excellent. If the second doesn’t look significantly better, Tomas’ map will be the one in Mirim for the WIN.

Box magazines, the ancestors of those used on modern assault rifles, were invented in the late 19^th century. Starting in 1888, the British army used the Lee-Metford rifle, a box magazine, bolt-action, firearm, as their standard issue firearm. Drum magazines holding 50 to 100 rounds of ammunition were around at the end of the 1800’s as well. Looks like the Aruns won’t need to introduce Browning to magazines…

Browning Brothers had their building on 25^th Street in Ogden, Utah. Artemis will land on the banks of the Weber River and the Major, Walter, and Juan will walk into town.

Found out that Cornell University, Walter’s Alma Mater, may have been the best Engineering School in the United States in 1891. It was known for having a rigorous curriculum and faculty. Commencement was June 18, 1891.

Fastest animal on Earth is the Peregrine Falcon in a dive. They can reach speeds of 242 mph (320 km/h).

I have two reviews on Amazon – good, but I need some more to convince Audible to make an audio book. If you’ve read the book already, and liked it, please leave me a review on Amazon. When I checked on Monday, Artemis Rising was #3,228 in Exploration Science Fiction, #1,581 in Alternate History Science Fiction, and #418 in Steampunk Science Fiction. Only two orders of magnitude to go! J

I discovered something on Kindle. You can enable X-Ray mode. I think it is supposed to provide in-text descriptions of people, places, and things in the book. I figure it is worth a try, so I put notations on a bunch of people and things in Artemis Rising. Let me know if any of you are familiar with X-Ray, or if you find hyperlinks or something in the Kindle version of that book.

Chapters this week:
Preparing for Dinner – first part of old Dinner at Delmonico’s chapter
Dinner at Delmonico’s – finished
What’s Next?
Return to the Moon – partial