Category Archives: Books

April 29, 2012 · 4:53 pm

Stuck at the beginning

Let there be light. And a killer plot hook.

When I first came up with the notion behind Spacebuckler, it was very much setting first: Sailing ships can fly! In space! The rest flowed from that pretty easily. As I fleshed out the rather complex setting behind such a simple notion, plot hooks and characters presented themselves to me. Not without effort, but they were there for the mining.

My current project — unnamed and undisclosed for the moment — is far more character driven. As such, I’m having a tougher time coming up with the plot elements. I know where I want the character to end up; heck, with this particular character, EVERYONE knows where he ends up. The joy in it is seeing how he gets there. And that means…a starting point.

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April 14, 2012 · 9:21 pm

Alchemical transmutation and heady brews

If you’ve followed me on Twitter at all this week, you’ve seen I’ve been out and about a bit more. In fact, I’ve been primarily in Quebec. Let me tell you, gang, there are few better inventions than poutine, and I am aghast that the United States has not taken to this Canadian import with the same relish it has reserved for Molson, Mounties and Shatner.

But as we’ve slowly made our way south, pausing in the beautiful green mountains of Vermont, one attraction in particular caught my attention. Just down the road from the Ben & Jerry’s factory is a little brewery called The Alchemist. It even has the alchemical symbol for fermentation on the logo. So, yeah. I’m a novelist who’s written about 18th century alchemists. I’m also a homebrewer and a beer fanatic. Naturally, this was a stop that had to be made.

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April 1, 2012 · 2:41 pm

Switching up perspective through first-person present

I’m pleased enough with a new bit of writing that I had to share the why and wherefore on the blog. And as you gathered from the headline, it’s about taking a different tack in the narrative.

I’m working on a new project unrelated to my completed book, one that I’ve taken to calling “Project S” on Twitter. Now, don’t get me wrong: Spacebuckler is totally my literary baby, and the sequel is well fleshed-out. But until such time as it’s acquired, well….I gotta do something, right? Hence, Project S, which has nothing to do with space and the Napoleonic Era whatsoever.

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March 18, 2012 · 7:19 pm

The challenges of the origin story

Wow...this looks really good on me. Hope I get to wear it again.

If you’re a geek-movie fan like I am, there are moments you’ll readily identify in nearly every pic in the genre. James Bond puts on the tuxedo for the first time in Casino Royale. Batman catches a villain from behind and growls, “I’m Batman.” (Both Michael Keaton and Christian Bale had that pleasure.) Aragorn rides forth wearing the symbol Gondor in the final battle in Return of the King.

There’s a bunch of books that have similar iconic moments, but I’m deliberately going for the immensely popular images we see in movies here. That’s because we already knew what would happen to these characters. Bond in Casino Royale was just at the start of his career, and we knew he and that tux would have a long history of kick-assery together. Batman wasn’t just scaring some thug; he also was owning the fact that, yes, he was a guy in a costume doing something crazy and dangerous. And Aragorn, well…he was fulfilling the classic Campbell hero’s journey, finally coming back home to free his people. All of these characters had just escaped from their origins to fulfill their destinies.

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March 4, 2012 · 8:10 pm

A tour of the Known Worlds: Mercury, Part II

Once the stern of a brig, these windows now look into a hostelry on Elizabeth Mercuris.

Sorry about the lack of blogging here, folks. I was out in beautiful Los Angeles for my day job, and things were both busy and interesting (in good ways). I also had a chance to meet up with fellow NLA agency-mate Jason M. Hough for some quality Mexican food in San Juan Capistrano. No swallows were spotted, but the dinner was excellent and the authorial company even better. Jason’s a stand-up guy and a great writer, and if you’re not reading his blog or following him on Twitter, you should. His book, The Darwin Elevator, is out next year, and I for one can’t wait to read it. Continue reading →

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February 19, 2012 · 4:49 pm

A tour of the Known Worlds: Mercury

When we last left off on our little tour of the Known Worlds (as featured in Spacebuckler) we had just explored the mysteries of cloud-shrouded Venus. Next up: Mercury, the sunniest spot in the solar system. This appellation is not a good thing, mind you.

The real planet Mercury is a small ball of superheated rock just 36 million miles from the sun (on average). On the sunny side, temperatures reach up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. On the dark side, eternally pointing away from the sun, temperatures hover around minus 280 degrees. And you can forget about any meaningful atmosphere — the few gaseous atoms not blasted into space by the solar winds aren’t exactly breathable. Of course, you’d either freeze or fry anyway.

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February 9, 2012 · 8:44 pm

Holding out for a hero

Maybe not THIS hero.

I’ve been corresponding with an old friend recently, now living in Japan, and we’ve been sharing our respective books with each other. He is an extraordinarily talented writer with a penchant for the macabre and, dare I say it, nihilism. He brilliantly deconstructs our humanity, creating a strong sense of unease…which then grows into horror…then sublimes into a very primal fear. In the end, his book makes the case for the meaninglessness of all the trappings of civilized life.

Really, it’s a helluva read. But personally, as a writer, I can’t go there.

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January 29, 2012 · 8:47 pm

A tour of the Known Worlds: Venus, Part II

The streets of Puerto Verde are vacant in the heat of the Venusian afternoon, but will come to life after the siesta.

I’m going through the setting of Spacebuckler planet by planet, and this week we’ll linger on Venus for a bit, because it’s more than just a hot and humid jungle. Indeed, if the late 18th century London broadsheets are any indicator, the entire planet is a hive of scheming Spaniards, savage Venusians and pirates of all stripes.

And yet despite the papers’ tendency to stretch the truth…they’re pretty close to the truth when it comes to the Green Planet. After the Pinzon expedition discovered the aurora pathways into the Void and first landed on the Moon in 1492, the Spaniards quickly set their sights on Venus. There, they laid claim to the entire planet — an impossible task given its size, nearly as large as Earth itself, and its trackless jungles.

Then there were the Venusians.

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January 23, 2012 · 4:40 pm

A tour of the Known Worlds: Venus

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and Tweets and whatnot about writing lately. I had a few things I could say about all that, but I realized I had contributed more than enough to the stew of often contradictory and occasionally maddening advice that would-be writers seem to covet and trade like dog-eared baseball cards.

Enough, I say! Let’s have some fun. Starting today, and until I run out of worlds, I’m going to take this blog on a tour of the solar system — or the Known Worlds, as I call them in Spacebuckler. These aren’t the eight (formerly nine) planets you’re used to. These are the kind of worlds an 18th century Royal Navy frigate would visit…if said frigate could escape the surly bonds of Earth, of course.

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January 16, 2012 · 7:35 pm

Back to writing! (How do you manage it?)

The past few months have been my first experience with trying to write fiction during a full-blown holiday season and while juggling a couple of really big projects at work. The result? The only thing fictional was my progress writing fiction. Not that I have cause to complain. I had a great holiday and I love spending time with my wife and daughter. I like my day job a lot, to the point that only Dan Brown-esque success would prompt me to think of leaving. I have friends and hobbies and home ownership stuff and, well, I’m good with all of it.