Judge McReynolds, Sekmet, Aero Warship Olympia, Seals, Endeavor iced over, the I&GN, Knebworth House, Edward & Henrietta, Lucy, Van Helsing, and Abraham Stoker, Pembroke, Irish Saints, and Drawing rooms. 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 Arlington Farmer’s Market on Saturday.
The first supporting character for Palestine’s Ghosts – County Judge Z. A. McReynolds. He was the historical County Judge of Anderson County up until mid-February of 1894. He was also the county clerk for more than a decade before becoming County Judge, giving him an encyclopedic knowledge of county documents. When weird things start happening in the woods west of Palestine around a house that everyone, including him, remembers and doesn’t show up in any records, he writes Walter and Eleanor to start the book. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Judge_Z._A._McReynolds
I decided to create an image of the second scene in Palestine’s Ghosts. That meant I needed to create a favorite place on Endeavor for Walter and Eleanor to read, a favorite settee https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Endeavour an image for Sekmet (her first appearance is in Riddle of the Sphinx), and put it all together for them to read Judge McReynolds letter. Sekmet won’t only be a little girl in Palestine’s Ghosts. She will also appear as several different adult incarnations. Some of the possibilities are in the featured image.
I was looking for a journal for Eleanor to read, and Scientific American was an obvious choice. Looking at the articles for the December 23rd edition, I found an article about The New American War Ship Olympia. Given the situation at the end of 1893 – that obviously became an article about The New American War Aeroship Olympia. That’s how Commodore Perry’s flagship for the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish American war (a war that won’t happen in the Greshamverse) became the Aero War Ship Olympia, which may show up over another battlefield in the United States in 1900…
I also have a stone as a central McGuffin for the story. By the start of the book, it has had three iterations. The earliest was going to be a Celtic inscription in Ogham. The next was an inscription by Merlin in Old Irish. The next was added by an anonymous friar prior to 1894. The last is added by the Greshams to finalize the seal at the end of the book. The first try had the AI messing up the inscriptions, so I went back through and kept a much closer eye on each step. I got better results and changed the stone’s backstory a little at the same time. Explaining too much might provide too many spoilers – read Palestine’s Ghosts for this knowledge…
I looked up the weather in Palestine during January of 1894. I found out that it was unseasonably mild most of the month, but there was an ice storm with a low of 4 degrees Fahrenheit near the end of the month. It fit so well with my story, I just moved the start earlier by a week.
I also discovered that in 1894, the Palestine train yard was owned by International-Great Northern Railroad, not to be confused with the predecessor of the modern BNSF, the Great Northern Railway between St Paul and Seattle.
I finally got the story for Weird the First—Goth Galore to crystalize. I even got the Artificial Idiot to put together an outline of sufficient worth that I can use it to keep organized. The finished story will only mostly follow it, of course, because ChatGPT isn’t even a good hack author.
Because of where Weird the First is set, I needed to get pictures of Edward Bulwer-Lytton and Henrietta Lowe (Eleanor’s biological parents) when they met around 1859.
I also needed to get a picture of supper with Walter, Eleanor, Lord and Lady Lytton, Lucy Westenra and her mother, and Dr. Van Helsing. If you don’t have a fairly good idea what “Weird the First” is about—you need to read more Gothic Horror classics, or at least watch the movies… This does show one of the reasons I only use AI images for inspiration—Lucy looks way too healthy in this picture.
As is often the case, in the course of writing, the characters changed. This time it was researching the staff for Knebworth House that made me realize that having Sekmet as Eleanor’s Lady’s Maid didn’t make 19th Century Aristocratic English sense. At 17, Eleanor had outgrown a governess, but didn’t really rate her own maid—and needed some older supervision. Companions filled that role. They were usually somewhat older than their charges, often from lower down the aristocratic order (or at least the wealth ladder) and they served unmarried young ladies as chaperone, confidant, friend, and (somewhat) wiser sounding board. They could be with a young lady in any setting, but didn’t have to be with them always. It opens up so many more story options. https://greshamverse.fandom.com/wiki/Goth_Galore
A new minor character. Mr. Alistair Pembroke, butler of Knebworth House for 29 years as of the time of the story. He might end up being pretty interesting.
I found a way to explain and expand on the Old Irish inscription of the seal. Merlin consulted with St. Finnian of Clonard on the seal and entrusted Finnian with the White Book. St. Finnian, known as the Teacher of the Saints of Ireland, passed parts of the lore down to two of his students, St. Columba and St. Brendan the Navigator. Just a little more texture behind everything else.
I’ve always wondered why they were called “drawing rooms” when they didn’t seem to have anything to do with art. The reason is that after dinner, the expected next step was for the women to withdraw from the dining room and be drawn into a different room—the drawing room. Amazing how obvious things are—once you understand them…
Incoming Powers is the last Martian Phoenix chapter until Palestine’s Ghosts is completed. Word Count is 53,447 in 13 chapters of an estimated 80,000-95,000 in 24+Epilogue Chapters.
Palestine’s Ghosts chapters this week:
Prologue
Chapter 1
Weird The First I
Word Count is 10,900 in 3 chapters of an estimated 70,000-130,000 in 32 chapters.
June Sales: Artemis Rising sold 1 ebook, 629 pages on Kindle Unlimited, and 1 paper book off Amazon, 8 in-person. Celestial Accord sold 192 pages on Kindle Unlimited and 5 in-person. Forging the Chain Breakers sold 5 in-person. Selene Unchained sold 5 in-person, 2 ebooks off Amazon. Antarctic Honeymoon sold 83 pages on Kindle Unlimited and 3 in-person. Mirim’s First Christmas sold 5 in-person.
Antarctic Honeymoon is #2,065 in Steampunk Fiction, #7,239 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #11,911 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 #499 in Steampunk Fiction, #881 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), and #1,954 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 #1,418 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,495 Steampunk Fiction, #3,693 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 #1,726 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,763 in Steampunk Fiction, #4,469 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 #1,355 in Steampunk Science Fiction (Kindle Store), #1,477 in Steampunk Fiction, #3,568 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 #11,702 in Colonization Science Fiction, #11,793 in Alternate History Science Fiction (Books), and #18,730 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.