Lovecraftian Lore, Clio, Endeavor’s Telephone, Reality, Grendel, Pencils, Frostbears, Weird the Fifth. All this week’s Secret Knowledge is below…
No book events this weekend.
Lovecraftian Lore is available as an ebook. I’m waiting until I have the cover design before printing the paper copies of the short novel. https://malcolmupton.com/book/04-lovecraftian-lore/
I decided to make a better Hero Image of Clio and ended up with three different ones. I’m not sure which one I like more.
A picture of Walter using the newly installed communication device on the bridge of Endeavor to call Judge McReynolds and invite him to supper.
What is Reality? I want to leave the question of “Which story is the real world?” unresolved in Palestine’s Ghosts. That makes this real Secret Knowledge. Reality is our world. Walter & Eleanor belong in a story world of their own. Merlin and Camelot are another story world. The Vikings of this Weird are Vikings of modern-day RPGs and Comic stories. For Walter & Eleanor – theirs is the real world. To Merlin, his is. To the Vikings, theirs is the real world. None of them are precisely wrong. The Weird mashes stories together that should remain separate – creating unwanted story and even genre crossovers. All of this should be kept in mind, but shouldn’t take up story space unless it makes the adventure more entertaining.
Since Chapter 4: The Missing Ingredient is done now, I put together the outline for Viking Invasion. I think this is going to be fun to write. Should be fun to read as well. We’ll have to see if I can do better with words than ChatGPT can do with its banks of servers and LLM training… So far, much better…
Chapter I: The Northmen’s World
Chapter II: Blackwyrm Mere
Chapter III: Beowulf
Chapter IV: Grendel
Chapter V: Myrddyn
Chapter VI: The First Seal
Walter has been doing a lot of writing in his notebook in Palestine’s Ghosts. What has he been using? Ballpoint pens are still being developed and fountain pens leak, splotch, and may not work when you are trying to take notes in the bowels of machinery, at the snowline of a mountain, or in the depths of a jungle. So he has leans on the same technology the Soviet space program used while NASA was developing a million-dollar space pen. A pencil. After all, by 1894, pencil manufacturers had been mixing graphite with clay and firing it to get consistent pencil leads of a specified hardness for almost a century. In the picture are pencils common in the US along with a 19th century pencil sharpener and the sharpener’s box.
A new location for the Lore collection—Frostbear Great Hall. Two rows of enormous columns marched the length of the building, each fashioned from the trunk of a single great tree. Between them stretched a broad central hall, unobstructed by lesser supports, while narrower aisles ran along the walls. Above, an extraordinary network of timber beams rose toward the steep roof. Great queen-post trusses spanned the space between the columns, their paired vertical posts, diagonal braces, and horizontal beams joined by an intricate arrangement of mortises, tenons, wedges, and hardwood pegs. Longitudinal timbers bound the trusses together, creating a structure that seemed at once impossibly massive and remarkably graceful. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Frostbear_Great_Hall
I have a clearer idea of what Weird the Fifth will be like. Current chapter list:
Weird the Fifth I: The Unicorn
Weird the Fifth II: The Once and Future King
Weird the Fifth III: The Dragon
Weird the Fifth IV: The Blackwyrm
Weird the Fifth V: The Wizard
Weird the Fifth VI: The Unicorn Door
Progress this week:
Weird The Third VI: Choose the Right Door – finished
Chapter 4: The Missing Ingredient
Weird the Fourth I: The Northmen’s World
Weird the Fourth II: Blackwyrm Mere – started
Word Count is 26,742 in 6 chapters of an estimated 70,000-80,000 in 19 chapters.
Since Artemis Rising was originally published in the middle of the month, my sales cycle ends on the 20th. Sep/Oct Sales: Artemis Rising sold 1 ebooks, 1,000 pages on Kindle Unlimited, and 2 paper books off Amazon. Celestial Accord sold 1 paper book in-person. Forging the Chain Breakers sold 3 pages on Kindle Unlimited, and 1 paper book in-person. Selene Unchained had 398 pages on Kindle Unlimited. Antarctic Honeymoon sold 1 book in-person.
Lovecraftian Lore is available as a short novel. It isn’t ranked yet and doesn’t have any reviews. It is only on Kindle right now, available here. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
High Adventure is available as a stand-alone novelette. It is #3,139 on Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #3,585 in Steampunk Fiction, #5,241 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 #2,758 in Gaslamp Fantasy (Kindle Store), #4,415 in Gaslamp Fantasy (Books), and #12,987 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 #1,762 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,897 in Steampunk Fiction, and #5,107 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. 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 #709 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #792 in Steampunk Fiction, and #2,272 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 and eight ratings 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 #1,469 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,492 Steampunk Fiction, #4,333 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 and three ratings so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #1,318 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,432 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,910 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. One review and they didn’t like it much. One additional rating just as bad. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Selene Unchained is #1,509 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,633 in Steampunk Fiction, #4,429 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 #3,488 in 90-Minute Science Fiction & Fantasy Short Reads, #7,806 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #8,779 in Colonization Science Fiction. 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.