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.