Come visit me at my first books-only event Side Quest Con where you can see all the bookmarks (4 additional this week). More hero pictures, Colonel Sir Frederick Vansittart, Martian Airships, and Walter & Eleanor in the Ozarks. All this week’s Secret Knowledge is below…
You can get autographed copies of all four books in Selene Reborn Series (Artemis Rising, Celestial Accord, Forging the Chain Breakers, Selene Unchained), Antarctic Honeymoon, and Mirim’s First Christmas at Side Quest Con Friday or Saturday.
Four more bookmarks. I think that is all for right now. When Martian Phoenix drops, I’ll add Beulah, Nasir, Juan, and Dolores.
I put together bookmarks for Beraht and Hala, so they got hero pictures and a revised couples picture.
Since Major Regdar was one of those bookmarks, I created a hero picture for him. I wish I’d done it sooner. He feels more real in my mind now than he used to.
Ima was the last of the four. She got a definitave hero picture as well. She also is my stand-in for what I’ve learned about our constitution. I recently heard that it was the oldest foundational document still in effect. In other words, all the governments that have a constitution that defines their structure, instead of a body of traditions and legal precedents, are younger than the United States under the Constitution. Unfortunately, the vast majority of people-citizens-voters in the United States don’t really know what the Constitution really says or have a clue one about what the framers of the constitution meant when they wrote it.
Just for fun, I used the hero portraits to put together another version of Celestial Accord cover. I think it came out pretty cool. Not sure if I want to redo all the elements. Maybe I’ll just ask Getcovers to redo the cover set.
Frederick Vansittart has been mentioned in some of my stories since he is the man that raised Eleanor, although most everyone is convinced that he was not her biological father. He’s going to show up as a supporting character in Martian Phoenix and probably later on as well, so I figured I needed to flesh him out some more to keep from writing myself into a corner. Good thing I did, I didn’t have a good appreciation for the role the Vansittart family had in British society and foreign service in the 18th and 19th centuries and had a rather thinly characterized idea of Lt. Frederick Vansittart. That is no longer the case for Colonel Sir Frederick Vansittart, Knight Commander of the Most Honorable Order of the Bath (KCB), Her Britannic Majesty’s Chief Envoy to the Martian Empire. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Frederick_Vansittart
I also needed an airship for Sir Frederick to travel to Seven Canals on. So I came up with a design lore entry and picture of his airship. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Airships_of_Mars
Deborah and I are planning to go to Branson, Missouri for our Anniversary. Since I don’t get out of the area much, I decided to look and see if there might be opportunities for a Walter & Eleanor story there. Of course the first step was to review all the current plans for Walter & Eleanor stories:
- Antarctic Honeymoon on Amazon, Kindle, and Audible
- Palestine’s Ghosts scheduled late 2026
- Secrets of Kilimanjaro forthcoming
- Riddle of the Sphinx forthcoming
- Walter & Eleanor on Mars possible
- Martian Clue possible
- Venusian Ratanaba possible
- Saharan Atlantis possible
- Floating Cities of Venus forthcoming
- Dwarves of Mercury forthcoming
With a little brainstorming help for the Artificial Idiot/Intelligence I have a list of ten places to visit and about a dozen potential ideas for Walter & Eleanor stories in the Ozarks.
Just a little progress on Martian Phoenix chapters this week:
Gathering Storm – progress, although it is getting really long.
Word Count is 47,882 in 11+ chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Antarctic Honeymoon is #1,487 in Steampunk Fiction, #5,267 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #9,256 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 #216 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #257 in Steampunk Fiction, and #656 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 in #729 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #833 Steampunk Fiction, #2,209 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 so far. If you’ve finished the book and haven’t left a review, please do so here.
Forging the Chain Breakers is #1,251 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,339 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,455 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 #334 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #401 in Steampunk Fiction, #1,096 in Alternate 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
Mirim’s First Christmas is #11,586 in Colonization Science Fiction, #11,621 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #18,570 in Science Fiction Short Stories. 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.