Selene Unchained Audiobook is finished, a new minor character, Scarlet has another dress, and the website is being reworked. All this week’s Secret Knowledge is below…
Another new minor character. He is an opportunity for me to communicate what a good approach to sales and such is, assuming I can keep a close enough eye on ChatGPTs hallucinations about sales…
Scarlet’s arc in Martian Phoenix jumped from danger to max confrontation with no intermediate steps, so I re-wrote one of the scenes to have an intermediate step.
I’ve been having a ton of trouble with the Nrdly template for my website – so I’m in the process of ditching it. That means a lot of work on updating the website this week.
A little progress on Martian Phoenix. Since it is back in previous chapters (and not finished yet), I don’t have a new word count and such.
Antarctic Honeymoon is #1,951 in Steampunk Fiction, #6,837 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #11,294 in Exploration Science Fiction. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. The audiobook is available here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Artemis Rising is #535 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #552 in Steampunk Fiction, and #1,686 in Alternative History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Seven reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #1,738 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,846 in Steampunk Fiction, #4,540 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #1,215 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,291 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,298 in Alternative History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Selene Unchained is #1,604 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,624 in Steampunk Fiction, #4,247 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here
Mirim’s First Christmas is #11,278 in Colonization Science Fiction, #11,298 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #18,260 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
I’m at a family reunion this weekend, so unless you’re one of my siblings, nieces, or nephews – no books available this weekend.
I created several pieces of marketing collateral (signs) for Steampunk Galveston. It also included a picture of Endeavor.
One of the most useful models I’ve even found on decision making is Col. John Boyd’s OODA Loop. In many ways, it can explain the success or failure of competitions or conflicts better than almost anything else. For example: during the Vietnam war, many significant decisions had to cycle through Washington D.C. before action could be taken on the battlefield. Both because those decision makers tended to be civilian bureaucrats instead of military officers, and Washington was literally on the other side of the world (11-12 hours difference), often US actions were too late to be meaningful. During the various conflicts in the Middle East in the last several decades, one of the first aims of US forces was to damage the ability of central dictators to coordinate with their forces. At the same time, civilian authority in Washington has tended to provide strategic direction, and leave tactical decision in theater. The OODA loop for US forces could often cycle several times before the Dictator could get word back to troops that were no longer in anything resembling the same situation. All that to say, Observation, Orientation, Decision, and Action may show up in chapter titles—and now you know the secret behind those choices…
I went to the Galveston Steampunk Festival. Sold Jam and Books. Revenue was so-so. Jam sales sucked. Book sales were several times better than any other event. I think If I have 2 more titles, I’ll be ready to go to cons with books alone. I’ve decided to try out the following at least: http://www.fencon.org/
https://guides.mysapl.org/popmadness
https://www.comicpalooza.com/
https://soonercon.com/
https://www.texasbookloverscon.com/
https://rebelscumconventions.com/
https://www.san-japan.org/
https://fanexpohq.com/fanexpodallas/
https://armadillocon.org/
https://www.p-con.us/
https://texasbookfestival.org/ Let me know if you can think of others I should try. It is looking unlikely that I’ll get into any of these this year…
One of the problems with ChatGPT is that it does its most useful work when cornered like a rat in a trap. One of the ways to do that is be very detailed about the considerations for anything it does (assess chapters, outlines, etc.). I added some more rules about, specifically, what Dolores believes a good wife looks like. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Counsel_on_the_Worthy_Wife
Selene Unchained Audiobook is about half way reviewed. It should be released sometime next week.
I made a little progress on Martian Phoenix, but it was mostly in outline and realignment of previous scenes with where I’m going next in the story.
A little progress on Martian Phoenix. Chapters this week: Observation and Orientation – finished Decisions – started
Word Count is 25,248 in 7+ chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Advertising: Between May 1-20, I sold 1 ebook for $4.99 in revenue. Since I spent $42.46 on advertising, I’m still upside-down there. Still, every book sold is the chance of getting another review, the more reviews the better the chance of making sales, the more sales the closer I get to break-even…
Antarctic Honeymoon is #1,508 in Steampunk Fiction, #5,752 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #9,677 in Exploration Science Fiction. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. The audiobook is available here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Artemis Rising is #635 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #2,051 in Alternate History, and #3,066 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Seven reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #1,272 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,515 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,672 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #591 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #693 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,920 in Alternative History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Selene Unchained is #1,122 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,244 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,296 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. Audiobook should be finished next week. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here
Mirim’s First Christmas is #7,628 in Colonization Science Fiction, #11,003 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #13,986 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Just for grins-this is the list of books currently written, in progress, planned, or conceptualized.
You can get autographed copies of all four books in Selene Reborn Series (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers, Selene Unchained), Antarctic Honeymoon, and Mirim’s First Christmas at Steampunk Galveston Saturday.
Spent a lot of time this week on line editing and finalizing the audio book for Antarctic Honeymoon. I finished the first pass. That means the audiobook is live. I might do another pass, but I’m fairly sure it wouldn’t find anything significant. The audiobook is available here.
I was thinking about some things and decided to figure out, specifically, what Elisha’s sword looked like. I need to do a lot more work before any of this would be canon – but ChatGPT did have some interesting ideas…
I’m really considering taking a break from Walter and Eleanor and writing some books that are more romance-slanted since they tend to sell more. I can also do some background on Mars at the same time. Very tentatively, I have the following six books planned:
Book 1: John Graves and the Queen of Burnished Towers – John Graves leads the Intrepid Expedition to Mars in 1870. Begins his relationship with the Queen of Burnished Towers.
Book 2: John Graves and the Sky Kingdoms – John Graves and/or Mike Powell among the Air Martians.
Book 3: John Graves and the Four Canals War – The war that began the expansion of Burnished Towers into the new Empire of Mars
Book 4: John Graves and the Crown of Mars – Continuation of the war, emergence of the empire
Book 5: John Graves and the Hidden City – Discovery of the ruins of a Martian City that was not beholden to the Deep Martians
Book 6: John Graves and the Lords Below – Discovery of the Deep Martians and part of their network of control.
I made a little progress on Martian Phoenix, but it was mostly in outline and realignment of previous scenes with where I’m going next in the story. Word Count is 19,281 in six+ chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Antarctic Honeymoon is out, but no rank yet. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. The audiobook is available here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Artemis Rising is #328 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,183 in Alternate History, and #1,978 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Seven reviews for Artemis Rising (thank you Emily!). More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #944 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,145 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,813 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #1,309 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,598 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #3,762 in Galactic Empire Science Fiction (not sure how that happened). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Selene Unchained is #392 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #497 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,413 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. Audiobook is coming soon. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here
Mirim’s First Christmas is #7,356 in Colonization Science Fiction, #10,823 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #13,722 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
You can get autographed copies of all four books in Selene Reborn Series (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers, Selene Unchained) at Granbury Spring Fling Friday, or Saturday.
I did some more alternate history work—this time focused on Hawaii. I don’t think I’ll include those details yet—too many spoilers. But this is an image of Pearl Harbor circa 1915…
In Chapter 7 – Observation and Orientation, Scarlet increases the pressure on Nasir and, unintentionally, on Beulah. This is where that becomes obvious.
On a bit of a whim, I did some work that ties into when the Intrepid brought the first expedition to Mars in 1870. That expedition was led by Captain John Graves of Virginia (NOT John Carter of Virginia). He encountered the Queen of the Martian city state of Burnished Towers and, over the next 20 Earth years, that city became the seat of the new Martian Empire, she became the Empress of Mars, and he became the Warlord of Mars. I wanted a similar type of clothing for those Martian Elves, but something significantly different as well.
And I think this looks like someone Graves would be willing to make his Empress. Almost makes me want to write that book (or books).
Spent a lot of time this week on line editing and finalizing the audio book for Antarctic Honeymoon. I’m about half way done. When that’s done, I’ll work on Selene Unchained.
A little progress on Martian Phoenix. Chapters this week: Correction – finished Commitment Observation and Orientation – started
Word Count is 19,196 in six+ chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Antarctic Honeymoon is out, but no rank yet. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. Audiobook is coming soon. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Artemis Rising is #328 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,183 in Alternate History, and #1,978 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Seven reviews for Artemis Rising (thank you Emily!). More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #944 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,145 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,813 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #1,309 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,598 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #3,762 in Galactic Empire Science Fiction (not sure how that happened). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Selene Unchained is #392 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #497 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,413 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. Audiobook is coming soon. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here
Mirim’s First Christmas is #7,356 in Colonization Science Fiction, #10,823 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #13,722 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
You can get autographed copies of the first three books in Selene Reborn Series (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, and Forging the Chain Breakers) at Wataugafest Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.
The rewrite for Selene Unchained is finished. It got a little longer, and the cover didn’t fit anymore. The spine needed widening by 0.061 inches. It was checked and is live on Amazon. I’ve ordered copies and should have them by May 28, plenty of time for Galveston Steampunk. I’ll let everyone know when I have copies at the weekend markets. If you want yours earlier, order the paperback from Amazon and bring it with you – you don’t have to buy it from me to get me to sign it.
Antarctic Honeymoon started with an expositional preface. I decided to replace that with an action-focused first chapter instead. I also decided to completely rewrite the end of the book with Aira. That has the modifications to Chapter 20 – The Enclosure done, as well as the replacement Chapter 21 – The Sleepers done. I’m looking at a modification pass on the Epilogue and three more chapters to finish it out. Still trying to get it done in time to have copies for Galveston…
Artemis Rising is #182 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #630 in Alternate History, and #1,073 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Six reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #496 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #639 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,709 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #498 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #647 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,722 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Selene Unchained is #1,538 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,803 in Steampunk Fiction, #4,221 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, or the kindle version here. Audiobook is coming soon. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here
Mirim’s First Christmas is #6,978 in Colonization Science Fiction, #10,394 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #13,016 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
You can get autographed copies of all three released books in Selene Reborn (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers) or Mirim’s First Christmas at Flying Pig Festival Saturday.
All my writing this week has been focused on integrating the feedback from my editor into Selene Unchained. I have the “tactical” edits done, and most of the chapter-level edits. Two or three of the biggest chapter-level issues are taken care of, and I should be able to address the rest of them, the biggest issue is with a potential genre shift. Sandra pointed out that Unchained has a fantasy plot-line to it and that might be off-putting to people expecting a steampunk story.
I’m not sure how to address this. My setting has three major elements driving the world building. One is the alternate history of getting rid of slavery in the early 19th century and the American Commonwealth that enabled. A second is the underlying structure of Martian society that I hasn’t really had an impact on any of the stories published so far. The third, however, is the struggle against the Old Ones. They are Lovecraftian-inspired spiritual entities that kicked off the War in Heaven and empower Zafir on the Moon. I honestly can’t see how to address Zafir’s fall without addressing the spiritual struggle to overthrow Zafir’s Old One master.
Maybe the answer is to make it clearer in my marketing that the struggle against the Old Ones is part of this Steampunk story. If it isn’t a surprise, that should work—it will just be calling out to a slightly different audience.
That’s all for this post – I’m really trying to get Unchained and, hopefully, Antarctic Honeymoon completed in time to have copies for Steampunk Galveston.
You can get autographed copies of all three released books in Selene Reborn (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers) or Mirim’s First Christmas at Mayfest Thursday through Sunday.
The featured image is a pretty intimidating group, even for an upper-class girl from 1890’s Galveston or a Doña of Veracruz.
I also learned why the images coming out of ChatGPT seem to be so much better than they used to be. The image generator got an upgrade. So I decided to try out the new generator on getting images of Phoenix. It worked pretty good.
So with the best image of a vehicle or ship I’ve ever gotten out of ChatGPT, I decided to build an image of the other side of the delegation with Phoenix in the background.
I had some ideas for a scene currently slated for chapter 21. The image of Scarlet and Nasir came out fine, but I never could get either ChatGPT or Nano-banana to get the Courting Bench right for the Beulah-Nasir memory.
Selene Unchained came back from the editor. Sandra pointed out something that Isaac warned me about. This is a steampunk series, but Selene Unchained leans heavily into fantasy elements. Too heavily. That caused some other significant story-telling problems as well. I’ll need to fix all that in time to get books by the Galveston Steampunk event June 6. Everything else goes on hold until Selene Unchained is rewritten.
A little progress on Martian Phoenix. Chapters this week: Meeting Aliens – started
Word Count is 11,585 in three chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Artemis Rising. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Six reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Mirim’s First Christmas. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. (Thank you Michele!) If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
You can get autographed copies of all three released books in Selene Reborn (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers) or Mirim’s First Christmas morning and early afternoon on Saturday and Sunday at Germanfest in Muenster, Texas.
I finished the Antarctic Honeymoon rewrite. I’m much happier with this version. That will teach me to lean to heavily on AI to do my writing. It probably took me almost twice as long as if I’d just done the writing up front and gotten AI and beta readers to polish it afterward…
Phoenix will need to carry more trade goods than just leukos crystals, so I did a little work on that. Came up with a whole list of other things, but developed most of the detail around the luxury goods Phoenix will carry—after all, those are the ones the High Martian nobles will want, and the rules about excess consumption don’t apply to them near as much. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Phoenix_Spec_Cargo
I needed to know what the Martian Canals were like in more detail. They are between 20-60 miles wide, 50,000-70,000 miles in total length, and comprise 1-4.5 million square miles. This was after I did some checking on the AI – the AI wanted the canals to be almost twice that wide… https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Martian_Canals
I did some more work detailing significant points in Beulah’s development over the course of Phoenix. Since I did that work, I needed to do similar work on Beulah’s foil, Scarlet, as well. I think this is a lot clearer and hits better now.
Work has started on Martian Phoenix. Chapters this week: Seven Canals A Proper Dinner
Word Count is 7,123 in two chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Advertising: I ran a price countdown campaign the last couple of weeks. Between April 9-22, I sold 4 books for $11.64 in revenue. Since I spent $107.80 on advertising, I’m still upside-down there. Still, every book sold is the chance of getting another review, the more reviews the better the chance of making sales, the more sales the closer I get to break-even…
Artemis Rising is #182 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #630 in Alternate History, and #1,073 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Six reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #496 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #639 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,709 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #498 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #647 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,722 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Mirim’s First Christmas is #6,978 in Colonization Science Fiction, #10,394 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #13,016 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. One review so far. (Thank you Michele!) If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
You can get autographed copies of all three released books in Selene Reborn (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers) or Mirim’s First Christmas at the Keller Crawfish Krawl Saturday.
Cataract surgery made it difficult for me to read the computer—so no blog post or email last week.
Mostly worked on the re-write of the end of Antarctic Honeymoon. I think it is much better, and my beta readers agree. I only have the Epilogue to rewrite and I’ll be done—probably just in time for the rewrites from Sandra on Selene Unchained.
The SS Great Eastern, launched in 1858, was 692 feet long and 18,900 tons. Even decades later (1891) it was spoken of as the largest ship ever built.
In the 1890s, Buffalo, New York was the world center of grain elevators. Buffalo harbor on Lake Erie had individual elevators that could handle 1-2+ million bushels each. The massive timber crib structures of earlier in the century were transitioning to iron and steel systems with steam-powered conveyors. It was the grain-handling capital of the world at the time.
Chicago was one of the largest lumber markets in the world in the 1890s, the largest in North America. Galveston was the largest import/export hubs for Gulf Coast timber and the Caribbean trade.
Silviculture is the science and practice of growing, managing, and cultivating forests. Basically agronomy for trees. It was practiced in Germany and France in the 1890s.
The Antarctic Treaty that set Antarctica apart from the usual scramble for land and resources set aside Antarctica as a place of peaceful scientific research only. It banned military bases, weapons testing, and fortification. It said it would be open to all nations, encourages cooperation between instillations, and requires sharing of data and results. The original treaty froze all claims and forbade sovereignty enforcement and allowed for inspection to ensure compliance. Subsequent agreements also severely restricted mining and other resource exploitation. I figure that is a bridge too far for the Great Powers of the late 19th century, but the Vulcan nations might have been willing to have a similar treaty.
Alexander Herrmann aka Herrmann the Great was a Victorian Stage Magician whose peak fame was the 1870s-1890s, just before Harry Houdini became a big name. What is this important—because it is the name of a wand wielder that Walter and Eleanor would be familiar with.
I got a little sidetracked with the next book, Martin Phoenix. I do have a much clearer idea of a couple of the characters, however. This is Miss Scarlet and her patron, Contessa Peacock. If pictures are worth a thousand words – the three at the top of the page are about 4% of Martian Phoenix…
One of the significant scenes in Martian Phoenix involves Beulah going to a Martian dress shop to try on dresses. I used the opportunity to practice a little more with AI image generation and came up with a montage of her experience.
Advertising: 4 sales so far in April. 1 paper and 3 ebook. $29.96 in revenue. $146.90 ad costs. I’m going to try a price countdown for Artemis Rising ebook and see what that does.
Artemis Rising is #97 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #297 in Alternate History, and #576 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Six reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #269 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #323 in Steampunk Fiction, #783 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #272 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #327 in Steampunk Fiction, #789 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Mirim’s First Christmas is #6,823 in Colonization Science Fiction, #10,282 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #12,841 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here. I’m still working on getting free versions to be available on my website.
If you want to get early access to chapters in the current book, write a nice review for one of the current novels on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
You can get autographed copies of all three released books in Selene Reborn (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers) or Mirim’s First Christmas at the Downtown Arlington Farmer’s Market Saturday or Canton Trade Days on Friday or Sunday.
Spent several days listening to the audiobook of Forging the Chain Breakers. A few line-edits resulted and I submitted the new ebook for review. It came back and I’m working on a final listen on the audiobook before release.
Big news on Antarctic Honeymoon. After feedback from my beta readers, this morning I decided to completely rewrite the last several chapters of the book. I’m trying to get the Forging audiobook done first, but aside from what I did previously on Martian Phoenix, that story will be set aside for a while until I have a better version of the last chapters of Antarctic Honeymoon. I do have an almost-finished book cover.
Started work on background for Martian Phoenix. This will be a lot more work than previous books. The Selene Reborn series didn’t have other books to constrain things, so the Moon was fairly free-form and I could detail it as I went along. This will be on Mars—there is a lot more detail there, more people, more area, more complex history, more opportunities for stories, more ideas for stories, more opportunity to make a mistake that breaks the context needed for something in the future. So… I started with detailing some of the characters from Earth instead…
I also want Beulah to have a significant transformational arc. To do that, I want her to have a starting point rooted in popular sentimental literature of the 19th Century (what we would call romance novels today). So here is her starting point https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Beulah%27s_Romantic_Theology – sounds a lot like the misconceptions around love we have today – including the “I can redeem him if I love him enough” misconception that traps so many women into abusive relationships. This is her full lore entry: https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Beulah_Gresham
Advertising: 13 sales in March. $54.79 in revenue. $175.45 ad costs. Need to do some work on that for April
Artemis Rising is #484 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,546 in Alternate History, and #2,470 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. There is also an audiobook version here. Six reviews for Artemis Rising. More will help others find the series as well – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord is ranked now. #1,006 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,117 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,799 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here, the kindle version here, or the audiobook version here. One review so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #1,113 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,266 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,098 in Alternate History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. The audiobook will be delayed while I finish Antarctic Honeymoon. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Mirim’s First Christmas is #6,609 in Colonization Science Fiction, #10,025 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #12,490 in Science Fiction Short Stories. You can find the paper version here or the kindle version here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here. I’m still working on getting free versions to be available on my website.
