Freebies

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I'm taking part in Read an Ebook Week over on Smashwords so until March 12th, you can get my steampunk novella, The First Tale, for free! That's right - instead of the usual 99c, it now costs nothing. Just add the coupon 'RE100' at the checkout. Smashwords offer all kinds of formats, from EPUB to mobi and PDF.

I'm quite pleased about the timing of this as I have plans for forthcoming Tales from Vertigo City mini serials - so get to know everyone before the new adventures start!

My short story collection, Checkmate & Other Stories, is still free on Smashwords, though if you want to show your support, you can get both The First Tale and Checkmate for 99c for the Kindle from Amazon.

Steampunk

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I came across this post by Matthew Delman over on his steampunk blog, and having dipped a toe into the waters of the genre myself, I felt I should perhaps clarify my own position on the subject. After all, a writer should preferably know what it is that they're writing, yes?

Steampunk is one of those strange genres where people often know the name, but aren't entirely sure what it entails. In its simplest form, steampunk is usually set in Victorian London, but as it's a form of alternate history, the protagonists have access to all kinds of technology not seen in the history books - the only proviso being that is powered by steam.

According to Matthew's blog, "Steampunk, in its most simple definition, is a type of fiction that places contemporary technology in the Victorian Era with Coal (and thus Steam) as the primary power source instead of Gas or Electricity." If you check that goldmine of information (sic), Wikipedia, they define steampunk as "works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used — usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era Britain — but with prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy."

I agree with Matthew that historical accuracy isn't a major aspect of steampunk due to its inherent nature in the same way that much science fiction isn't strictly scientific in nature. Even the setting of steampunk can be fluid - it doesn't have to be London, although the period is pretty firm. Personally, I'd be fascinated to read steampunk set in 19th century Paris or Moscow. I believe the single 'fixed' point of steampunk is that it IS set in the past, and that the only technology available should be that which could conceivably be driven by steam. So you couldn't have electronics as it would be pretty difficult to power them with steam, but cars, airships, and other forms of machinery are all possible. The first internal combustion engine was designed in 1807 and Karl Benz began selling vehicles in 1888 so automobiles aren't entirely out of place.

However, I would argue that a book or film can have steampunk sensibilities, without necessarily being hardcore steampunk - China Mieville's Bas-Lag trilogy would be a good example. This is how I explain my own work, The First Tale. I chose a rough steampunk setting for my Tales from Vertigo City project, and Vertigo City is based on Victorian London, down to its brick-lined sewers and bizarre emporia. Transport comes via omnibuses and trams, although cars make a rare appearance. The clockwork automatons and antiquated weaponry are a nod to steampunk, while protagonist Philip Wiseman favours the frock coat fashions of a 'dandy'. It only really deviates from true steampunk in that a) it is not set in London, b) the fashions are not strict Victoriana, c) I got zombies and even steampunk mecha in there and d) Liss has the ability to throw energy bolts at people.

To me, the most important element of steampunk, besides the technological constraints and time period, is that is is fun. Alternate history has the potential to be fascinating and thought-provoking, but the nature of steampunk lends itself well to adventure stories, and personally, I think there just isn't enough adventure in mainstream fiction these days.

I'd be fascinated to hear what people think of steampunk!

* * *

The image for this post is by the stupidly talented Tom Brown, the artist behind steampunk web serial comic 'Hopeless, Maine'. More of his art can be found here, while Personal Demons, the current book in the serial, is here.

Don't forget, The First Tale is still only 99c on Smashwords. At the time of writing, that's just 63p!

Goodreads

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After some subtle persuasion from Paul Anderson and Carrie Clevenger, I set myself up with an author profile on Goodreads. It seems odd to say that, to call myself an 'author'. I'm not sure why - I have had short fiction published sporadically online since July 2008, I have actually sold copies of my first e-book, The First Tale, and I now have a short story included in a bona fide anthology - the Chinese Whisperings Yin Book. If the definition of 'professional' is doing something and getting paid for it, then I must be a professional writer (even if it isn't my main source of income).

The very supportive Benjamin Solah was good enough to put The First Tale on Goodreads, and it's very cool to see that people are reading it. I genuinely blush when people send me tweets saying they enjoyed The First Tale - and it takes A LOT to make me blush. Yet it's so nice to know that people actually read what you do - and enjoy it. In a lot of ways, it makes the whole thing worth doing. I can't think of anything more sad than being a writer and never letting anyone read your work. I suppose I can understand the reasoning behind it - after all, if no one ever reads it then no one can ever tell you that you're no good. Besides, if you're writing for your own enjoyment and you're keeping yourself happy then it doesn't mean that you need to show it to anyone else.

Then again, writers tell stories. It's what we do. Whether we're novelists, journalists, copywriters or chroniclers, we're all telling stories. Is a story still a story if it isn't read? It's that age old philosophical question - if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it, does it still make a sound? I mean, I tell these stories for two reasons. 1) I write them because I have to (I'd go crazy from the voices in my head if I didn't write down what they said). 2) I write them because I want people to read these stories - I want to entertain people! If someone reads something I've written and can escape from the mundane drudgery of their existence for those few minutes it takes to read a flash, then I consider the whole endeavour worthwhile. If the readers learns something too, then brilliant.

The most momentous stage in setting up my profile was selecting what genres cover my style. 'Short fiction' was an obvious, if generic, term, and I felt compelled to put down 'science fiction & fantasy' as opposed to 'horror' because I feel a lot of my stuff comes under the 'speculative fiction' or 'urban fantasy' bracket, as opposed to 'horror'. I always wanted to be a horror writer, but I realised fairly early on that I was no Clive Barker or Stephen King. Indeed, an email I once received about my short piece Left convinced me of that - the author of said email told me my style reminded him of Neil Gaiman or Ray Bradbury. When I'd recovered my jaw from the floor, I realised that horror clearly wasn't my 'bag' unless it was based on reality. But more importantly, I finally nailed my colours to the mast and put down "historical fiction" as one of my genres. I really enjoy writing things that require research, so you can expect a few more historical pieces over coming weeks.

Of course, one of the many advantages of historical fiction is it covers such a wide range of topics. I can continue to write my tales about bodysnatchers, mental asylums or vengeful knights, but still continue to write steampunk (a genre characterised by its adherence to an historical 'aesthetic') and stories about pirates...

News from Vertigo City

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I've been doing a lot of thinking about my Tales from Vertigo City project, and after much discussion with my favoured creative confidantes, Carrie Clevenger and Jimmy Misanthrope, I have decided to pull The Second Tale. Initially the concept worked well in outline form for the serial, but now I've started writing, it's blossomed into something much larger than my chosen serial format will allow. Therefore I will be working on it as an illustrated novel.

This has also forced me to rethink the entire concept behind the Tales from Vertigo City project, and I have had to redefine this, too. Originally the plan was to have nine different tales, set in alternate versions of the City (in effect, my own multiverse), yet all starring Liss as a recurring character in her form of the Spirit of Vertigo. This has become too unwieldy and I would rather not do it at all than get halfway through and realise it's not working.

In addition, I've become too attached to the characters and world I created with The First Tale. It would be unfair to them, and myself, to leave them as they are in order to move onto the next incarnation of Vertigo. Therefore the Tales project will now consist of the adventures of those characters you've already met, in the form of novellas and regular flashes about them.

The Second Tale will still proceed under the heading of Tales from Vertigo City, albeit a Vertigo City a century or so after the original First Tale. It will have a name change, and I'll post snippets on the Vertigo City blog. I hate to be a tease, since The Second Tale had received a good reception, but this way, I get to do these stories justice.

As a result, I'll be bowing out of the Tuesday Serial for the time being, unless any shorter stories demand to be told in such a way. In the meantime, I recommend you check out Carrie Clevenger's Crooked Fang, Grace Motley's Fire and Water, Jason Coggins' The Courage of Others, and Sam Adamson's UCF Chronicles.

Friday Flash - Time Stop

Tweet This flash was inspired by the very lovely Eric J. Krause's prompt over on his blog. This week, his prompt was "Time stands still for everyone but you". Also, the impossibly brilliant Carrie Clevenger of Mindspeak requested more steampunk, so what better than to revisit the first incarnation of Vertigo City? Enjoy a new story featuring Liss and Caleb. I've written this in such a way that you don't need to have read The First Tale, but if you want to, the ebook is available now from Smashwords for just 99c!

* * *

The workshop smelled of grease and rust. Liss paced among the trestle tables. She picked through the cogs and battered machinery heaped in dull copper piles. Dusty sunlight streamed through the casement window onto Caleb's workbench. He sat at the table, soldering rudimentary circuitry.

"Liss, if you're bored, feel free to pester someone else. I won't be offended," he called.

"I'm not bored. I'm just curious about what all this stuff is. What's it for?" Liss examined a glass tube topped with brass studs.

"I never know what something is for when I get it, I work that out later," he replied. "I don't exactly use things in the most conventional fashion."

An automaton rumbled into the workshop. The antenna at the base of its torso wagged when it saw Liss. It plunged across the room towards her. Its heavy tread made the tables shake and the junk piles wobble. Screws pattered to the floor like metal raindrops.

"Why don't you take Two for a walk?" asked Caleb. He took off his goggles and looked at her. The automaton thudded across the room to the staircase in anticipation. It pointed up to the hatch leading into the street.

"I've already taken it out today," said Liss.

The automaton lowered its arm with an audible hiss. Its round shoulders sagged. Liss looked at it. She noticed a drop of oil running down the smooth polished copper that served as a face.

"Caleb, Two's eye is leaking again," she said.

"I'll sort it out later. I want to get this soldering done first," said Caleb.

Liss turned her attention back to the table. She recognised some of the parts, like pistons or camshafts, but others were baffling in their design. She picked up a thin rectangular metal box. Glass took up a whole side, with a single round button mounted near the bottom edge. She pressed it, though nothing happened. Her finger traced the small square engraved on the button.

"Where did you get this stuff?" asked Liss. She dumped the thin box on the table.

"The Antiques Quarter. It's amazing the stuff you can find down there. Very little of it is actually antique but it's a good source of spare parts for the automatons," replied Caleb. "I get most of it in job lots. They don't know what it is any more than I do."

A flash of light on bright metal caught Liss' eye. She raked through the grimy machine parts in front of her. Her hand closed around a polished brass cog. About a handspan across, strange symbols ran alongside the teeth. An hourglass filled with red sand was suspended in the large hole in the middle of the cog.

"This is different. Any idea what it is?" she asked.

Caleb looked up.

"No. I got that in a job lot last week. I want to catalogue all this at some point, but that means sifting through the junk to get at the good bits. Right now, I don't have time."

"You mean you can't be bothered."

Liss flicked the hourglass. It flipped in a smooth arc, tipping upright. The red sand filtered down through the small neck. Liss stared at it for a moment. The movement of the grains proved hypnotic.

"What does it do?" she asked after a minute.

Caleb didn't reply. A quiet ticking filled the silence of the workshop. Liss looked around, unable to see a clock.

"Hey Caleb, what does it do?"

She looked at Caleb's back. He hunched over his bench, soldering iron and circuit board in hand. He didn't move. He didn't even twitch the way he did when he concentrated on his work. Liss turned to look at the automaton. Two stood motionless at the bottom of the stairs. The drop of oil froze on its face. She couldn't hear the hum of its motor.

"OK, this is weird," she said. Her voice sounded strange in the workshop. It echoed slightly, as if she stood at the mouth of a cave. She picked up a spanner and dropped it. It hung in the air. It only moved when she forced it to the ground with her hand.

Liss crossed the workshop and climbed onto Caleb's bench. She peered out of the casement window, at eye level with the street. She gawked at the tableaux before her. Passers-by stood frozen mid-stride. A gentleman looked furtive as he addressed a red-haired woman in a gaudy blue dress standing on the corner. Two children played hopscotch in the gutter. One of them hung in mid-hop above the squares. Three women in faded dresses clutched their shawls about them, heads thrown back in silent laughter.

Liss looked down at the cog in her hand. The sand poured through the hourglass with a faint hiss. She watched the last few grains drop through the narrow neck.

"How on earth did you cross the room so fast?" asked Caleb.

"I didn't, you were just so engrossed in what you were doing," said Liss.

Caleb shrugged and returned to his soldering. Liss stashed the cog in her pocket. It might come in very handy one day.

The Launch of The First Tale ebook

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It's finally here! The First Tale e-book is now available for 99c from Smashwords. Click here to buy! The e-book collects all thirty episodes of the serial that ran over on my Tales from Vertigo City blog, although naturally it's been edited and tweaked to improve the flow, even out the tone and in a couple of places, even add a little extra action.

So now you can read the whole story of the Vertigo City Resistance and the Weimar Corporation in one go, if you so choose! It's available in all the usual Smashwords formats, including MOBI, EPUB and PDF.

As a special bonus, if you buy the e-book, there's a link on the back page to the extras I bundled together, which will hopefully add a little to the experience of Vertigo. I'm talking newspaper clippings, propaganda posters...and of course, another copy of the wonderful cover illustration of Commander Liss Hunt by the exceptionally talented Jimmy Misanthrope.

Of course, if you like it, feel free to leave me a review!

The Impending End of The First Tale part 1

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Commander Liss Hunt, Vertigo
City Resistance

On Saturday 20th February, 2010, I posted the first instalment of my very first web serial, The First Tale. I had no idea where it was going to go, or that a name I chose entirely off the top of my head was going to give birth to a concept of nine independent serials, linked only by their setting. My fictional Vertigo City will appear in a different incarnation in each tale, with the first version being a strange steampunk mix of Victorian London and a slightly 'fantasy' sprawling mass.

The serial will end on Tuesday, with the publication of the thirtieth instalment, and while I'm quite sad about it, I'm also excited about the prospect of starting The Second Tale, which is more of a noirish, 40s sort of affair about a jaded superhero. Anyway, about twenty instalments into The First Tale, I decided I wanted to collect the instalments together, give them a polish, and release them as an e-book - I wrote a post about it back in July. The original plan was to release a text-only version via Smashwords, and a fancy version including graphic elements via Scribd. This plan has now changed.

You see, Jamie Debree posted a link on Twitter to Lynn Viehl's Paperback Writer blog, and the content of Lynn's post got me thinking. Having read about their shoddy interpretation of their own guidelines, I don't really want to use Scribd now, and many other sites become incredibly confusing if you want to sell a PDF e-book that ISN'T for the Kindle. I was also worried that having two different versions of the same e-book for sale with different retailers might get confusing. So, I have come up with a solution.

Instead of having the choice between a regular e-book and a PDF with graphic bits, I'm now just going to have the one Smashwords version. However, there will be a link within the book to a page on my website, and from there you will be able to download a free PDF of the graphic sections that would have originally been included in the version intended for Scribd! (With me so far?) This includes a newspaper article on the Meat Beast, a society magazine piece on the Living Dead of Vertigo City, a Weimar profile on Liss, a hand-drawn map of the city, and a few other bits and pieces, all packaged up as Caleb's scrapbook. You don't need to see this stuff, but I'm hoping it'll give a greater insight into backstory for The First Tale, and hopefully it'll add a little to your enjoyment of the serial.

Are you all excited yet?!

How They Met

Tweet Here's my attempt for this week's Fiction Friday challenge on the Write Anything blog, also submitted to the Friday Flash collection. The prompt was;

Pick two established characters, either from your own work or others’. Now write the scene/story of their meeting.

I decided to go with Commander Melissa Hunt and Dawkins, from my current web serial, The First Tale, which is part of the ongoing Tales From Vertigo City project. You don't need to have read it to read this flash, as it takes place outside of the scope of the serial, but in a nutshell, Dawkins is an inventor, and founder of the Vertigo City Resistance, and Liss is his prize commander. This, dear friends, is how they met.

* * *

Pounding footsteps rang out in the street. One pair of scuffed boots, followed by six pairs of brand new leather shoes. Her breath came hard and ragged, her muscles screaming in protest. No amount of training could prepare her for a chase on foot. Not when she’d run the last two miles through Vertigo City’s antiques district, and her pursuers had been in a car. Their car now sat idling on the main street as they followed her through the maze of back streets.

She swerved to avoid an old woman carrying a wicker basket of carriage clocks. Judging by the thuds and shouts behind her, at least one of her pursuers failed to follow her example. 

An alleyway opened between an antiques bazaar and a junk shop so full its wares spilled out onto the street. Liss threw herself around the corner, diving into the cool darkness between the buildings. Shots rang out behind her as bullets slammed into brickwork. Cement dust showered her back.

“Shit! Shit shit shit shit shit!”

The back wall of a building blocked the end of the alleyway. She whirled round to see five Weimar Corporation thugs advancing toward her. Panic gripped her gut. Two men tapped hammers against their open palms. Two more carried knives, while the fifth held a revolver. All five wore crisp black suits, Weimar armbands around their upper left arms.

“Ah, cornered at last,” said the gun-toting heavy. Comb tracks ran through the styling cream that plastered his hair to his head.

“What are you going to do, shoot me? That would be a bit anti-climactic, wouldn’t it? All this chasing me around just to gun me down in an alleyway. Hardly heroic, is it?” Liss tried to inject bravado into her words.

She glanced around the dead end; she saw only a rusty door to her right, and piles of damp boxes to her left. Bars covered the few windows that looked down into the alley.

“Oh shut up, Hunt. We’ve been after you for weeks and now we’ve got you. We know it’s you that’s been attacking our cars all over town,” said the heavy.

“Someone has to stand up to you lot. Might as well be me,” replied Liss. She hoped they couldn’t hear the tremor in her voice.

“Kurt, we have to take her in. I mean, she’s not even Resistance,” said one of the other thugs. His knife wavered.

“Maybe not now, but she could be,” replied Kurt. His thumb caressed the hammer of the revolver.

The door to Liss' right burst open. Rust flaked off the handle when it hit the wall. An elderly gentlemen in a tweed waistcoat and trousers sauntered into the alley. He held an impressive hand cannon, trained on Kurt. An automaton followed, its copper body glinting in the fading light. Liss thought it held a pair of hand cannons, until she looked again and realised the cannons were actually its hands.

"I'd drop the gun if I were you, dear boy," said the gentleman. He consulted a gleaming gold pocket watch. Liss felt a wave of awe at his cool, leisurely manner.

"What the hell are you doing here?" asked Kurt.

"I am here to lend my aid to this rather pretty young lady," replied the gentleman.

He nodded at Liss, gesturing to the open doorway behind him. The hammer-wielding thugs started forward. The automaton fired a blast into the ground in front of them. The spray of stone dust forced them back.

Liss ducked into the door. A set of rough steps led downwards, lit sporadically by flickering torches. The stairs must lead into the tunnels beneath the city, and only the Resistance lived underground. She gazed at the gentleman's back, wondering if if could be true.

He darted back inside the door, and shots rang out in the alley as the automaton closed the door behind them. The gentlemen slipped past her and headed down the stairs, beckoning her to follow.

"You, I do believe, are the notorious Melissa Hunt!" he said. His voice echoed in the darkness.

"How do you know who I am?" asked Liss.

"I keep tabs on all noble Vertigo citizens who take a stand against Weimar. Your efforts have been most impressive, dear girl! One could hardly not take notice."

"Then who are you?"

The old man stopped beside a torch and looked up at her. The light flickered in his watery blue eyes.

"My assistant here is my automaton bodyguard, Two. I am Dawkins".

"THE Dawkins?"

"Yes, my dear. Welcome to the Resistance."

Tuesday Serial - It Begins

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I was part of a Twitter discussion last week with a collective of other writers who are all attempting web serials, and we've decided to make Tuesday our 'serial day'. Previously I'd been updating Tales from Vertigo City on Fridays, which is already #FridayFlash day, and I've often wondered if there's too much of a clash. As of today, I'll be switching to Tuesday.

Tony Noland talks about it in much more detail over on his blog, but feel free to check out our efforts using the #TuesdaySerial hashtag on Twitter. In the meantime, catch up on PJ Kaiser's WWI serial, Tony Noland's Just Enough Power, and Jodi Cleghorn's Hartog serial. Or, of course, you can go read part 12 of my own serial, The First Tale.

Progress on my serial

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Friday will be the tenth week that I will be hitting 'Publish' on my web serial, Tales from Vertigo City. In honour of that, I thought I might write a blog entry about the serial, to hopefully explain more about it.

The idea behind the serial was to write a series of tales, all set in the fictional city of Vertigo. In my head, the city looks like a cross between a 1940s Art Deco metropolis and Victorian London. People travel by tram or hackney carriage, although tradespeople prefer to use a cart. There is even a neighbourhood for the Living Dead, who are essentially the former upper middle class who refuse to relinquish their status, even after death. I suppose I'm going for a twist on the steampunk theme.

The current run of installments are part of The First Tale. The idea for this came from a short flash I wrote about an antique generator that powered a Resistance movement. People wanted to know more, so I decided to write a serial, updated weekly.

So far in the story, Philip Wiseman has been grudgingly accepted into the movement after a stranger infiltrated the sewers and underground tunnels that make up the Resistance territory beneath the sprawling city. After being accused of being a spy, and surviving a close encounter with a bloodthirsty beast, Philip ends up back on the streets. This time he accompanies Commander Melissa Hunt (or Liss for short) to try and discover who the stranger was, and why he was in the Resistance tunnels.

I'm really enjoying writing it, but I admit that it's very much 'seat of the pants' writing. I only have the plot in mind for the next two or three installments at a time. What happens is as much as surprise as it is to readers! I consider the serial to be something of an experiment, but hopefully an enjoyable one. People often complain that they don't have enough time to read, and short stories published online are often too long to take in during one sitting, so I'm hoping that The First Tale's episodic nature, and the brief nature of these episodes, makes it an enjoyable read.

It's also good for me since having a deadline gives me the motivation to write every week, so even if I write nothing else, I've at least continued the story and built a little more of Vertigo City. It also gives me a place to use those small elements or images that pop into my head, but aren't big enough to sustain a story on their own. Who knows, maybe those small elements that I plant now will go on to become major tales in their own right?

Shameless Self Promotion

Tweet Today, it is my turn to be unveiled as part of the new Chinese Whisperings project! It's really rather exciting, seeing oneself on a web page that's not yours (and, I would venture to guess, less confusing than seeing yourself appear someone distinctly unpleasant). If you'd like to take a look, have a wander over here, although it pretty much will redirect you back here! I even answered five questions on the website, the answers to which are here.

I feel like I'm bursting with ideas at the moment. I'm redrafting the third instalment of The First Tale, from my Tales from Vertigo City serial, and I'm redrafting my first novel, Fowlis Westerby. The redrafting process hasn't been as painful as I thought it might be, mainly because I did a lot of revision while I was still writing it (I know you're not supposed to, but yah boo sucks to the establishment). I do have a couple of plot holes I want to fill, and I want to expand a couple of secondary characters, but hopefully I'll have my first revision complete by the end of April, at the latest.

I've also got another idea floating around in my brain, but I'm letting it simmer just below the surface before I even attempt to get anything solid on paper. There is, after all, the possibility of biting off far more than I can chew...

Writing A Web Serial

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I've just posted the second instalment of my new series. This particular series is called The First Tale, as I'm planning on a whole set of stories set in my fictional city of Vertigo.

It's a whole new challenge writing a weekly serial but it gives me a deadline (and therefore the motivation to write regularly) and it's nice to do something a bit different. I'm already buzzing with ideas for the next few instalments, although in some ways I'm "flying by the seat  of my pants" as I'm letting the plot take me where it will!

What are your opinions on serials?