Adventure Beyond the Stars – Written for Readers Who Want More

Tag: Update

  • Mirim is being Edited

    Mirim is being Edited

    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

  • Week of June 11

    Week of June 11

    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 19th 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 25th 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

  • Progress as of 4 June 2025

    Progress as of 4 June 2025

    As you can see above, the cover mockup for Antarctic Honeymoon has been updated. I’ll need to get a photo-realistic image of the Endeavor to replace the AI image on the cover. Anyone know a good spaceship designer?

    I modified the blurb for Antarctic Honeymoon – see it here.

    Found out some about the wives of some of the historical characters in the current story. George Kunz was married to Sophia. Charles Tiffany, founder of Tiffany’s Jewelry, was married to Harriet. J.P. Morgan, who funded a lot of Kunz’s collecting and explorations, was married to Francis who went by ‘Fanny’.

    Delmonico’s restaurant in New York City was the epitome of fine dining in 1891. The most famous location at 56 Beaver Street, informally called the Citidel, was closed while Bill, Eleanor and Mirim were visiting Tiffany’s. Instead there were only two locations, one at 22 Broad Street that served the financial district, and one at 5th Avenue and 26th Street. Even though J.P. Morgan was hosting the dinner, I figured it was an evening affair and, with two locations, one specifically serving the financial district, the 5th and 26th location was more likely to be the fine dining version. Besides, I could find a picture of it.

    I also discovered that this Delmonico’s location is right across the street from Madison Square Park, one of the oldest public parks in New York City. At this time the original Madison Square Gardens, a converted depot of the New York & Harlem Railroad, was on the other side of the park from Delmonico’s.

    Major Regdar wants the Arun Marines to have firearms in addition to their boarding swords and instead of the cranky and easily damaged coil guns they now carry. To facilitate that they talk to Thomas Grey Bennett, husband of Hannah Jane Winchester, who has been president of Winchester Repeating Arms Company since 1890… Not very long. Thing is, Thomas had been working for Winchester for years and was instrumental in growing the company, especially overseas. This will be interesting. Browning recognized the potential of a gas-powered semiauto weapon when he designed a shotgun using such a mechanism in 1898. He asked Winchester for royalties instead of a single payment for the patent. They refused and that broke the Winchester-Browning relationship until after WW I. What’s going to happen when Browning designs a semi-auto mechanism, or even a machine gun, for the Arun Marines?

    The Maxim gun was the top-of-the-line machine gun of the time, and its direct descentant is being used in the current Russia-Ukraine war. It was water-cooled and too heavy and bulky for even an Arun Troll to handle like an assault rifle. But Colt was working with Browning on a gas-operated machine gun.

    I’ve commissioned a map of Galveston for Mirim for the WIN. I’ll let y’all know how that comes out.

    Chapters this week:
    Breakfast at Tiffany’s – completed
    Dinner Plans
    Winchester Repeating Arms
    Coltsville
    Dinner at Delmonico’s – partial

  • Week of April 28, 2025

    Week of April 28, 2025

    I’m going to try and blog at least once a week. I’m not going to go back and try to figure out all the cool stuff I’ve learned since Mirim got a cover, but here is some stuff that happened in the last week or so. Just a note, I’m currently writing in chapter 13 of Antarctic Honeymoon and the word count (including outline and notes) is 26,487.

    I decided to change the order of the stories so it would make a little more sense. Moving Antarctic Honeymoon up to Book 3 and Forging the Chain Breakers to Book 4. Current Order (although there is no promise some of these books will even be written):

    1: Artemis Rising – Published
    2: Mirim for the WIN – Editing scheduled for June
    3: Antarctic Honeymoon – Writing
    4: Forging the Chain Breakers – Writing suspended
    5: Selene Unchained
    6: Phoenix Goes To Mars
    7: Secrets of Kilimanjaro
    8: Secrets of the Sphinx
    9: Return to Mars
    10: Fish People of the Amazon
    Floating Cities of Venus
    Mountains of Madness
    Secrets of Ceres
    Bombing Iapetus
    War of the Worlds
    War in Heaven
    Emory Upton in Mexico

    I plan to write a travelogue for Walter & Eleanor’s Galveston with illustrations of various buildings that are either significant, or that have a role in the stories. I’m not sure if I’ll publish it for grins and giggles. Amazon makes such projects easy.

    Some things I learned recently in my research for the stories. 15 Union Square West is the location of the headquarters of Tiffany & Co in 1891. It was a pretty cool building and the story of Tiffany’s is pretty cool too.

    George Frederick Kunz was a huge figure in transforming how Americans in general and people in particular viewed gems and jewelry during the late 19th Century. His story is fascinating and he would probably be who Bill Armstrong contacts to sell the Selenite gemstones. The fact that in 1891 he goes on an expedition to Russia to explore gem mines in the Urals means that the plans of the protagonists in Antarctic Honeymoon take a radical turn.

    I’ve been looking for a Botanist for the expedition to Antarctica, and discovered, much to my delight, that possibly my favorite botanist of all time can, with just a bit of historical massaging, be graduating with his Master’s degree from the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. A young George Washington Carver will be going with the expedition to Antarctica. I’m just going to have to figure out if I want him to continue work on liftwood on Earth, do his magic with peanuts, or something in between.

    I also discovered that Egypt was a very interesting place in the 1890’s. It was ruled by Mohamed Tewfik, the Pasha of the Khedivate of Egypt. So Egypt was technically part of the Ottoman Empire, effectively its own monarchy, and under the effective control of the British Empire. Yeah – it was a weird situation…

    Progress this week:
    Complete revision of first 11 chapters of Antarctic Honeymoon
    12: A Preacher, A Feminist, and A Sorceress Go To Tea…
    13: 15 Union Square West
    14: Breakfast At Tiffany’s
    16: Dinner At Delmonico’s

    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.

    That’s enough for now. I’m planning on another post like this next week.

  • Mirim Has a Cover

    Mirim Has a Cover

    Mirim for the WIN, the second book in the Victorian Interplanetary series, is ready for editing and has a cover now. If you would like to be a beta reader and get your 2 cents worth in before it goes to Sandra (my editor) in June, leave a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon and email me to let me know at malcolm@malcolmupton.com

  • More Progess Online

    More Progess Online

    I have a website domain name, malcolmupton.com, an email for my fan list, malcolm@malcolmupton.com, and a MailChimp account to manage my mailing list. They aren’t all hooked together yet, but the Nrdly folks are working on it.

    Since they are working on the IT stuff, I guess that means I can write some more… as soon as I get some jam labeled…

  • Editing Started Today

    Editing Started Today

    Today is the official start for Sandra to edit Artemis Rising. I uploaded the manuscript Saturday, as nervous as before I go onstage to speak. Unfortunately, I can’t turn that nervousness into energy onstage – it takes the same amount of energy to depress the keys whether I’m nervous or not. I am looking forward to the feedback. From what Sandra has told me so far based on the 3000 word sample I gave her, what I’ve heard from my beta readers, and what I’ve picked up about story telling, I suspect I have good story bones.

    I’m not sure if I will be disappointed or relieved if there isn’t anything major. No matter what, it is beginning to look like the book I’m currently working on, Selene Unchained, may need to be split into more than one. I always knew that the story of the Selenite Revolution (Selene Unchained) and the continuing story of Walter and Eleanor’s adventures (Secrets of Kilimanjaro) were going to be separate books. But Selene Unchained, that started with the arrival of Artemis from the moon before dawn on Friday, is already at more than 50k words, and it is only late Tuesday afternoon.

    Maybe I’ll need to split the story of the development of the political and military materials necessary for the revolution (Selene Unchained) from the social tour-de-force introduction of the Selenites to Earth society in general, Galveston and the Presidents’ Council in particular. I could always call that one Mirim for the WIN…

  • Artemis Rising Cover Complete

    Artemis Rising Cover Complete

    I have taken delivery of the final version of the cover for Artemis Rising. Someone suggested that GetCovers.com could put together a cover for me for a very reasonable price. They were limited to photoshopping stock photos for the cover, no original artwork, but there are probably billions of stock photos available now days. Between what I’ve learned from Nick in the First 10k Readers program and the fact that they specialize in covers, I think it came out very good. All of the review team that commented on the final version liked it and my editor, Sandra, really liked it. I think it will do its job well.

  • Marketing Education

    Marketing Education

    One of the major differences between my effort to publish Artemis Rising and my effort to publish Seven Into Darkness is that I understand how important marketing your book is to its financial success. With more than 300 million people, any competently written novel will have an audience. the difference between financial success and failure as an author is 1) do you get your novel looked over by a good editor and 2) does your target market know your book exist? The second is enabled by good marketing.

    I have been connected to an author and teacher of author marketing by the name of Nick Stephenson. He went from part-time income from his books to $1m a year using the methods he teaches in his ‘Your First 10k Readers‘ program. Unsurprisingly, it is all direct-response marketing. That means I could probably have figured it all out myself, after all, Silver Bullet Marketing is a book about direct-response marketing as well. But instead of taking a year, probably a lot more considering that I’m working on a shoestring right now, to figure things out, I can just learn from the mistakes (and triumphs) of others. Don’t have to spend time making them all myself…

  • Editor Chosen

    Editor Chosen

    I’m pleased to announce that Artemis Rising has an editor. Sandra Herner will begin editing my manuscript on or about February 18. The fact that it is so far out is just an indication of the level of demand for her expertise. I am confident that she will help Artemis Rising become both an excellent story, and everything it needs to be to be a financial success.