Artemis Rising is #1,981 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,155 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,483 in Alternative History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. Four customer reviews now, but I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Finished most of the line editing for Celestial Accord. I’ll use the mostly completed manuscript for the initial publication and use the final manuscript for the printing after I get the first 20 copies.
Got Family Trees for Celestial Accord. This is from Olha Maksymtsiv:
This is the current iteration draft from adnan_designart
This is the current iteration draft from Yourdreamart
Since Yourdreamart has pictures, I made pictures for most of the Gresham family. You can see them here: https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Gresham_Family
Artemis Rising is #2,021 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,159 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,492 in Alternative History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. Four customer reviews now, but I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
This week was consumed by preparing for a huge weekend for jam sales, a visit to San Antonio to see the new nephew and reviewing editing notes for Celestial Accord. Actually, I did make some progress with the artists working on the world map and family tree for Celestial Accord, but nothing on Selene Unchained.
Artemis Rising is #2,057 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,138 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,430 in Alternative History. If you don’t have yours yet, you can get the paper version here or the kindle version here. Four customer reviews now, but I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Celestial Accord has a finalized cover. It took a lot more time and effort this time than the previous three times I’ve used GetCovers.com. I must have had someone new or something. For the first time I had someone use one of the image slots for images that I hadn’t approved and they charged me for additional ones. The cover artist also seemed to have trouble following directions. Oh well, the final product looks fine.
Michael, my line editor, finished his edits and returned the manuscript to me to approve/disapprove edits. I’m going to review them and we’ll have a conversation about word/style choices before he finishes the cleanup. That is where all my effort is going to be focused until it’s finished. That should put Celestial Accord on track for release at the end of October. Even if we are a little late for that, with the cover, I’m releasing the current version on October 31. Available for ebook pre-order now at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FP72PX1G
I’m working with some other artists on two additions to the front matter. One is a Gresham family tree, since the various in-laws, brothers, cousins, etc. have such a significant impact on the story. The other is a map of the American Commonwealth. I’m working with Tomas again on that. I’m hoping he can base it on the Berghaus Star projection of the world map.
A new, probably minor, character for Selene Unchained: Name: Commander Hrodger, Commander of the 1st Company of the Defender Marines. Age: 97 earth years (appears Late 40s) Race/Species: Human (Defender Base Selenite) Physical Appearance: Broad-shouldered and stern-faced, Hrodger has close-cropped iron-gray hair and a jagged scar bisecting his left eyebrow. He wears his Jager battle suit with the comfort of decades of experience in one. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Commander_Hrodger
Selene Unchained chapters this week: 9: Kepler Cluster
Selene Unchained word count is 15,669, not counting Dramatis Personae (890 words).
If you want to get early access to Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
Artemis Rising is #2,045 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,139 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,429 in Alternative History. Four customer reviews (whoo-hoo)! I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
I needed a lighter rifle for the Recon marines. It seems everyone was looking at new rifles and changed over to something between about 1890 and 1905, but no good ones in position to be reasonably available in September of 1891. Unless Browning does his 2 week design of the Winchester Model 1892 is done in 1891 instead. So, just like in real life, he uses the Winchester 1886 as the basis, but scales it down. Also, instead of it starting out as a black powder weapon, it is a smokeless powder weapon from the outset. It also uses the .306 rifle cartridge the .306 BAR uses instead of a .303 cartridge. Another departure is that the patent is held by Crystal Keep Holdings instead of being sold to Winchester. That will net Browning a nice chunk of change since this will eventually sell over a million copies as well.
Since the moon has a ‘day’ that is four weeks long, the people of the Moon use a convention similar to Astronauts in real life. Their day counts from the ancient Vulcan equivalent of Greenwich Mean Time. Since Venus, Earth, Mars, and Vulcan all have a 24 hour day (because this is Steampunk, not Hard Science Fiction), the day on the Moon starts 8 hours and 13 minutes before the day starts in Galveston. That’s good enough for right now. I’ll figure out more detail if I need to for future stories. For those of you that want more detail, yes, that means the Moon has essentially the same time zone as Jerusalem.
Isaac and I had a conversation about the military campaign in Selene Unchained. He approached it from a strictly military, how would you best win the war as quickly as possible. I realized I probably had some plot holes there, despite the fact that the good guys have some significant setbacks. Without giving away spoilers, I did some significant rethinking of how the campaign would run. It is faster now, but not the ‘wham, you’re dead’ strike that Isaac first suggested.
I needed something yummy for Elisha and Mirim to bring to the dinner when they get back to the village at Tunnel 16 Entrance. Since Stringfellow Orchards was mentioned in Artemis Rising, I decided to go back there for inspiration. Seems that Henry Martyn Stringfellow was the first to plant Satsuma oranges from Japan on the Texas Gulf Coast. I don’t want to go to the trouble of making marmalade with the peel, so Rosa helped Mirim make orange jam instead. I even have a recipe to start with if Upton’s Cowboy Kitchen ever wants to make some.
I tried out some paid advertising. If you are keeping track, I have lower rankings on Amazon this week after the advertising than I did before. Not spending any more money, at least right now.
Selene Unchained chapters this week: 6: A Sorceress, A Marine, and A Spy – finished 7: Elisha and Mirim Return 8: Contemplations 9: Kepler Cluster
Selene Unchained word count is 14,317, not counting Dramatis Personae (16,121 words).
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
Artemis Rising is #1,987 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,130 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,325 in Alternative History. Still at 3 customer reviews. I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
I finished the chapter that introduces Hala. I must admit, I’m really disliking Zafir – in the words of the old Texas salt, he needs a good killin’. I really like Hala – if you’ve been reading these you know her name means moon, but has the additional connotation of ‘ethereal beauty’. I thought that was perfect for the character and the role she would play in Book 4.
I spent some money on ads on Facebook and Instagram. We’ll see if they are worth it. Even if they only make 50% of the investment back, there is enough information about the efficiency of the ads that I may be able to get to break-even on the next round. If I can do that, with some tweaking, I should be able to get beyond break-even. Even if it is only break-even, if I’m selling ten or fifteen books a week, that will help me get some momentum.
Honestly, I found it really hard to concentrate this week. I was really bummed over Charlie Kirk’s assassination. I know he is with the Lord. I know we will see him again. I know that, like many Christian martayrs, he is likely to have more impact in death than he did in life – and he had a huge, history-changing impact in life. I’m still bummed that one of the biggest advocates for dialoge and free speech, the peaceful exchange of idea, was taken from us. Over and over I thought about Obi-Wan’s words to Vader, “If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine”
Selene Unchained chapters this week: 1: An Air Car Ride 2: Plotting Freedom 5: Hala – finished 6: A Sorceress, A Marine, and A Spy – started
Selene Unchained word count is 9,248, not counting Dramatis Personae (775 words).
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
Artemis Rising is #1,822 in Steampunk Fiction, #2,109 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), and #5,282 in Alternative History. Still at 3 customer reviews. I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
I’ve decided that the way the Defender Marines chose their 12 Recon Marines is they first asked for volunteers. Then they had the 35 Marines who volunteered fight their way through a gauntlet of opponents using exercise weapons that assess when a Jager marine is wounded or incapacitated. Then the five lowest scoring were eliminated. Without time to rest, they fought through the gauntlet again and the five lowest scoring were eliminated. Without time to rest, they fought through a third time and the five lowest scoring were eliminated. The remaining 20 were divided into five groups of four and put through seventy hours of capture the flag combat with a only seven two-hour breaks. Before the capture the flag rounds, they were told that the highest scoring troopers would have the opportunity to choose a partner to team up with in future exercises. After the rounds, the trooper with the highest combat score was allowed to choose any other trooper as his partner. The highest scoring trooper remaining was allowed to choose any remaining trooper as his partner until there were 10 pairs of troopers. The pairs then had to fight each of the other nine pairs of candidates and go through the gauntlet as a pair four additional times. In the end, two of the pairs self-eliminated and the two lowest scoring pairs were dropped leaving six pairs of recon troopers.
Line editing for Cosmic Accord began this week. A slight hiccup – I sent the editor the manuscript for book 3 instead of book 2. He caught that pretty quick and he has the right one now.
Also had some issues with the Book 2 cover. We’re having trouble finding a photo of someone for Ima. This one is too young and doesn’t have the right hair. Maybe for next week.
I did get some modifications for the map in Book 2 and my mapmaker is working on an update of the map for Book 3.
Selene Unchained chapters this week: 1: Planning to Break the Chains – finished, but will be extensively reworked 2: Consulting the Mage 3: Beraht 4: Hala – started
Selene Unchained word count is 7,584, not counting Dramatis Personae (775 words).
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
Artemis Rising is #2,059 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,550 in Steampunk Fiction, and #5,120 in Alternative History. Still at 3 customer reviews. I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
A Copy Editor has been chosen for Celestial Accord and the manuscript will be headed that direction in a couple of weeks. Chances are we’ll be finished by October and it can be published by Halloween. OK, so that is 4th Quarter, not 3rd Quarter or mid-2025, but it will be better for the wait, I promise.
The Shadowy Man needed some bribe money. Being a child of the late 20th Century living in the early 21st, I immediately thought of a Franklin, a $100 bill. Thing is, $100 in 1891 was the equivalent of about $3500 today. There were $100 bills, but they were used like bearer bonds are used today – they exist, but you won’t see them in the cash drawer of a retail business. Next thought was a Jackson, a $20 bill. They existed, in fact they would occasionally show up in retail commerce. This was because there was a law that the US government had to buy a certain amount of silver every month and the government printed special bills to make the purchases. They weren’t really common, however. What were common were the various gold coins. A double eagle was a $20 gold coin and these were what tended to show up in circulation.
In the 1780’s John Fitch engaged the services of Henry Voigt to help him invent and build a steam engine to power a water craft. The reason he had to develop his own steam engine is because Britain had a technology embargo against its former colony and wouldn’t let the Watt steam engine be exported to the US. That first steamship in the US was the Perseverance.
In 1891, Patrick “Pat” Tiernan was Sheriff of Galveston County. Richard H. Tiernan was the only deputy sheriff listed in the 1890-1891 directory. I guess there’s nothing like keeping it in the family…
Learned some things about Old German names. Adal means “noble”. Beraht means “bright”. Gunda means “battle”. Hart means “hard, firm, brave, hardy”. Gar means “spear”. Learned Nikkal was a goddess married to the Moon in the ancient Levant. There was an ancient Arab moon goddess known as Al-lat (literally the goddess). The Arab female name, Hala, means “moon’s halo” representing ethereal beauty. The Arab female name, Mayar, means “glow of the moon” representing radiance and warmth.
Charon, the largest moon of Pluto, has features such as the Spock, Kirk, Uhura, Skywalker, Organa, and Vader craters. I guess they ran out of gods and old dead guys…
Finished Forging the Chain Breakers this week: 37: The Marine Council (most of Military Pow-Wow moved to chapter 40) 38: Once More Into The Cave 39: Gaisarix Roll-Out 40: Military Pow-Wow 41: Plans for Selene Unchained 42: The Baron Raises The Stakes
Forging The Chain Breakers final word count is 72,567, not counting Dramatis Personae (2,629 words). Developmental Editing scheduled for February.
Selene Unchained chapters this week: Prologue: Zafir Needs a Replacement 1: Planning to Break the Chains – started
Selene Unchained word count is 1,600, not counting Dramatis Personae (295 words). Developmental Editing is tentatively scheduled for March because Sandra is such a professional.
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
Artemis Rising is #1,964 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,356 in Steampunk Fiction, and #4,795 in Alternative History. Still at 3 customer reviews. I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.
Discovered that John Browning invented the guns and Matthew Browning sold them. Kind of like how Eleanor and Walter divide the work. I went back and rewrote the parts with the Browning brothers.
My editor, Sandra, returned the rewrite of Book 2, so I tied up Forging the Chain Breakers and started working on integrating the edits instead. I have them all integrated now. Title is now “Celestial Accord”. I have an order for a new cover from GetCovers.com. I have a request for copy editing on Reedsy. Release by the end of September if I’m really, really, lucky. Chances are it will be at least October instead <sigh>.
Forging the Chain Breakers chapters this week: 36: Browning Assault Rifles 37: A Military Pow-Wow – started
Forging The Chain Breakers word count is 65,912, not counting Dramatis Personae (2,506 words)
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
Artemis Rising is #1,845 in Steampunk Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,043 in Steampunk Fiction, and #3,818 in Alternative History. Still at 3 customer reviews. I need a few more to get Audible to take notice – if you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so.
I needed a place for the New York City aeroport on Staten Island. The Edison Aeroport takes up the shore of Staten Island from the Tottenville Station to Mill Creek and from the shoreline to the Staten Island Rapid Transit Railroad. I also had to figure out how an aeroport would work. They wouldn’t have long runways and terminals like modern airports because they don’t have heavier than air aircraft and the passenger and cargo access such aircraft have. Especially since this is Steampunk, we decided that liftwood cargo ships, passenger ships, and military ships would all dock at towers. Gantry connecters would come out and connect to the ship and provide just the right amount of external power to keep the ship steady on the tower. Stability arms would come out to pre-designed hardpoints and lock in place to hold the ship steady in high winds. Passenger tunnels would extend to passenger hatches. Cargo ramps would connect to cargo hatches – all sorts of connections and complex machinery with plenty of gears…
I got to thinking about where Aeroports, especially Aeroports with significant military forces, will be in 1900. I decided they would be Galveston, Texas; Little Rock, Arkansas; Staten Island, New York; San Francisco, California; London, England; Antwerp, Belgium; Le Harve, France; Bremen/Bremerhaven, Germany; Genoa, Italy; Vienna, Austria-Hungry; St. Petersburg, Russia; and Moji, Japan. It’s going to increasingly suck the farther down that list the city is…
In 1891, the British military used the Lee-Metford rifle chambered in .303 black powder. It weighed about 9.5 pounds, was almost 50 inches long with a 30 inch barrel. It was magazine fed from an 8 or 10 round magazine and had a rate of fire of about 20 rounds/minute.
My initial thoughts about Defender Marine firearms: Major Regdar and Walter visit Ogden Utah to talk with John Browning about designing weapons for the Defender Marines. Their electromagnetic guns are kludgy, prone to break, and not known for their accuracy. They do, however, have a very good design for a reloadable magazine. Walter encourages Browning to use the new smokeless powder and a magazine based on the lunar one for his design. Since this is about 3-7 years earlier than IRL, Browning’s automatic and semi-automatic weapons are developed earlier as well. Jagers at first carry a rifle similar to the Remington Model 8 (invented early) with a 20 round magazine. It is later replaced by an improved version similar to the M1 Garand, again with a 20 round magazine. Trolls at first carry a version of the M1895 Colt-Browning Machine Gun with a 30 round magazine, later a 100 round drum magazine. Later replaced by a version of the M2 (Ma Duce), with a 100 round drum magazine, although it can also be belt fed. These may have a cooling circuit designed by Nikola to cool the chamber and barrel using something like the cooling coils of the freeze cannon.
I got a new notional picture for the Troll troopers armed with their .50 Browning Assault Rifles. It is the picture that will be used for, at least, Forging the Chain Breakers, although it may also be the notional background picture for Selene Unchained. I like the Troll much better, but I like the old Moon background better. My guess is the GetCovers folks will probably make something even better – they have every time so far…
I’ve decided that when Walter and Eleanor go to the 1891 Cornell graduation to recruit engineers, they will offer five work/study opportunities to work for Gresham Aerospace and study engineering from the Crystal Keep. Three of the engineers, Juan Almirall, Robert Burwell, and Oren Heilman will go on to be the foundation of the engineering team for Gresham Aerospace. Two, Clarence Cory and Warren Meeker will become the initial Earthborn faculty of Crystal Keep University – Galveston. Cory was the real life first professor of mining and electrical engineering for UC Berkley. Meeker was the real life longest serving faculty member of the Iowa State University College of Engineering.
I’ve decided that I will only have the first four or five books be a real series. Artemis Rising will be directly followed by Book 2 will be directly followed by Forging the Chain Breakers, maybe Antarctic Honeymoon will be next, but I might jump directly to Selene Unchained. All the rest of the planned books I’ll try to make stand-alone. They share a setting and characters, but I’m going to aim to make each one stand on its own without the reader needing to read another book to understand what’s going on. I’m not sure how to organize that on Amazon. I may just say they are Victorian Interplanetary stories and not put a number on them and make the first 4-5 books the series Selene Reborn. What do y’all think?
Current titles with votes: The Moon’s Secret Envoy -2 The Moon’s Surprise Envoy -1 A Celestial Accord – 2 Moon Comes Down – 1 Selenites Path – 2
Chapters this week: 28: Galveston Aeroport Company 29: Aero Reconnaissance 30: Completed Sanctum 31: The Trolls Seize Fire 32: Facing the New Council 33: Military Update 34: Where Will it Fit? 35: A Beginning and a Milestone 36: The Browning Order – started
Forging The Chain Breakers word count is 61,959, not counting Dramatis Personae (2,472 words)
If you want to be a beta reader and comment on Book 2 chapters, write a nice review for Artemis Rising on Amazon or Goodreads, and email me that you’ve done it.
This is just too big a learning to be part of the standard weekly blog – so it will get one all its own.
During the time of the Selene Reborn books, the Galveston City Company still had a huge amount of influence on the development of Galveston because they owned virtually all of the undeveloped land in the city.
It all starts with Michel Menard, one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and, among other things, a location surveyor. The surveys most people are familiar with are boundary surveys – what are the boundaries of a tract of land. A location surveyor would go to a tract of land and identify improvements and geographical features that could add value to the land. He performed this service for Juan Seguin on a tract of about 4,605 acres on the east end of Galveston Island. The exact details are unknown, but Seguin gave title to the land to Menard in 1834.
In 1836 Menard petitioned the government of Texas to have the Mexican land grant confirmed. Since the early Texas Congress was notorious for being… chaotic, it isn’t surprising that it wasn’t until 1838, after the Texas Congress had time (and some coups) to get itself organized before they officially deeded Galveston Island to the Galveston City Company consisting of Menard and 9 other early luminaries of Texas and Galveston.
For the next 71 years, the Galveston City Company would sell and/or donate land to guide the growth and expansion of the city of Galveston. In 1891 when Gresham Aerospace is trying to get large tracts of land for their half-mile long aethership factory and such, In addition to getting permission from the City Council to build over where streets are supposed to go, they would need to buy all, or most, of the land from Galveston City Company, Archibald Campbell, agent and secretary.
This is not the way I’ve ever heard of anything going. I guess it is kind of like master-planned communities now days, but without a detailed master plan to start with and with decades of incremental development instead. I think it is interesting that a Communist could make a case that the Galveston City Company is an example of central planning done right since they controlled, or at least influenced, the development of Galveston into a well-organized, prosperous, philanthropic community. Of course a Capitalist would point out that it was a private, for-profit enterprise, not a government agency, that did it…
