Adventure Beyond the Stars – Written for Readers Who Want More

Author: Malcom

  • 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.

  • Victorian Planetology

    Victorian Planetology

    During the early history of “speculative fiction”, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Edgar Rice Burroughs postulated that all or most of the inner planets were, more or less, hospitable to life. Mars was a desert world, long dying for lack of water. Venus was a jungle world, its cloud-covered face hiding jungles that often housed dinosaurs. It was even speculated that a fifth planet, Vulcan, once lay between Mars and Jupiter. Since this makes for a much richer storytelling setting, and the stories are set in the late 19th century, this is true for my inner planets as well

    Mercury’s World River

    Mercury is tidally locked to the Sun, but that doesn’t keep it from having water, atmosphere, and life. A constant, cold to cool wind from the cold side blows along the surface with an equally constant hot to warm wind aloft returning the air from the hot side. A deep, broad valley circles the twilight zone between them.

    Jungles of Venus

    The clouds of Venus are water clouds and the surface is a hot, muggy jungle. Saurian leviathans rule the air, land and sea, making exploration difficult – and that is before considering the bloodthirsty lizard people

    Earth, With Bonuses

    Our own planet is, mostly, the same. But with all the cool things on other worlds, there have to be mysterious islands, lost civilizations, evidence of ancient bases from peoples of the other planets, and other story elements still to be found. Who knows, maybe a voyage to the center of the Earth is possible…

    Moon – Scars of Conflict

    Not all of those craters on the moon were from natural meteorite impacts. Thousands of years ago, there was a War in Heaven that almost destroyed the numerous moon bases and instillations. Almost…

    Mars And The Elves

    Mars has canals. Mars also has the mightiest volcanoes in the solar system. And the people of Mars, both those living in the baroque civilizations of the canal queendoms, and the raiders who venerate the millennia-old trans-atmospheric fighters on static display, are human – except for the pointed ears…

    Lost Vulcan

    The Asteroid Belt is has about 20 times the mass of the belt in real life. It is also far less evenly spaced, most of the asteroids being in the quadrant centered on the ancient moon Ceres. But the closer one comes to the heart of the Vulcan debris field, the more… haunted it becomes.