Spooky Spectacle report, dissected puzzles, Tea Cakes, academic institutions and the Little Rock Bible. All this week’s Secret Knowledge is below…
No author appearance this weekend.
Spooky Spectacle was a disappointment in sales at the show, but most of the books improved their sales rank, so there may have been some significant Kindle and/or Audible sales after the show. Something improved the ranking.
After their visit to Visita de San Miguel Arcángel, Sekmet observes that they have the edges, but not the center of a dissected puzzle. You see, in 1894, they weren’t called “jigsaw puzzles” yet, because the jigsaw was too new. They also didn’t have the peg and notch arrangement that modern puzzles have. They did have pictures, or often maps, called “dissected puzzles” – like the pictured ones about Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show pictured.
Walter, Eleanor, and Sekmet have a discussion in The Corridor That Wasn’t about what they might find behind various doors. Sekmet and Eleanor decide a room full of tea cakes would be nice and Walter has a difficult time being the stern father figure, especially after Sekmet invokes his favorite type of tea cake. (Hint: it has pecans…)
I wanted George Washington Carver to do his Agronomy and Extension work in Galveston instead of Tuskegee. That meant I needed an academic institute for him to work at – The Gresham Institute of Science and Technology. That meant I had to detail Crystal Keep University, Crystal Keep Holdings, Booker T. Washington, and the replacement for the Tuskegee Institute – The Arkansas Institute of Applied Science. Since it was at the University of Arkansas, I needed to detail that. Since the University of Arkansas had four founding colleges, I had to detail those: The College of Nations, Little Rock College of Medicine, Iron Legion Military Academy, and Arkansas Baptist College. The Arkansas Baptist College had to be founded by a Baptist organization, so I had to detail the American Baptist Convention. As those two were detailed, it became obvious that a Seminary was needed, so the American Baptist Theological Seminary was detailed. And since the Arkansas Baptist College and Seminary both took on an approach to missions that included translating the Bible into the people’s vernacular, it became obvious that they would translate the Bible into late 19th Century American English, hence the Little Rock Bible. And all of that is secret knowledge behind bits and pieces in the stories.
The new job is really eating into my writing and the Universities project didn’t help, progress this week:
Weird The Third I: The House of Doors – finished
Weird The Third II: The Corridor That Wasn’t – progress
Word Count is 70,260 65,096 in 15+ chapters of an estimated 70,000-130,000 in 32 chapters.
Since Artemis Rising was originally published in the middle of the month, my sales cycle ends on the 20th. July/Aug Sales: Artemis Rising sold 6 ebooks, 776 pages on Kindle Unlimited, and 3 paper books off Amazon, 1 in-person. Celestial Accord sold 1 ebook and 599 pages on Kindle Unlimited. Forging the Chain Breakers sold 1 ebook, and 735 pages on Kindle Unlimited. Selene Unchained sold 1 ebook, and 523 pages on Kindle Unlimited. Antarctic Honeymoon sold 3 pages on Kindle Unlimited and 1 book in-person. Mirim’s First Christmas had no sales. Surprisingly, Goth Galore sold 1 ebook.
High Adventure is available as a stand-alone novelette. It is #1,755 on Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #2,014 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,087 in Action & Adventure Short Stories (Kindle Store). It is ebook only available here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Goth Galore is available as a stand-alone novella. It is #2,337 in Gaslamp Fantasy (Kindle Store), #3,541 in Gaslamp Fantasy (Books), and #10,219 in Historical Fantasy (Kindle Store). It is ebook only available here. No reviews yet. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Antarctic Honeymoon is #2,673 in Steampunk Fiction, #9,721 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #14,705 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 #240 in Steampunk Fiction, #281 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), and #759 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 #509 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #573 Steampunk Fiction, #1,671 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 but two ratings so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #535 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #636 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,744 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 #514 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #613 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,676 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). 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 #6,920 in 90-Minute Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads, #12,306 in Colonization Science Fiction, and #12,758 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books). 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.