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Tag: Steampunk

More Technology of “The Sauder Diaries” – A Steampunk Dragon; What’s Not To Like?

Post Views: 485 Introduction This is the third part of a three-part set answering this Question From the Audience. So, without further ado, allow me to continue on discussing the various technologies that Hans encounters and uses, and evaluate “The Reasonable Plausibility Level” (RPL) of each. Science and Technology of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” The “Dragon” One of the most memorable scenes in “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” is the dragon attack in the chapter titled “A Quiet Little Town”: “It came into view at the lighted edge of town, lumbering out of the night. The lights of the town glinted off its armoured hide as it advanced. It was easily two heights of a man to its shoulder, if not three, and double that…

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From WriMo to WriMo

Post Views: 483 After a bit of tumultuous trip, the second book in my “Sauder Diaries” series, titled “A Bloodier Rose” is now available via both Amazon.com and Smashwords.com. In addition, the Print On Demand (POD) service CreateSpace.com has the trade-paperback edition ready to get you your print copy within two weeks of order; either directly to your door, or via your favorite indie bookstore. It’s been a bit of a slog, and I’m happy this one has been put out the door. For those of you new to the show, I started working on “A Bloodier Rose” a year ago, as part of NaNoWriMo. My observations on the process can be found in this blog post. While I very much enjoyed the social aspect of meeting up with…

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Twitter/ Facebook Release party for “The Sauder Diaries – A Bloodier Rose”

Post Views: 457 “Set in the summer of 1888, A Bloodier Rose is the second book in The Sauder Diaries series. Picking up where By Any Other Name left off, Hans, Annika and the rest of the crew of the pirate airship “Bloody Rose” are once again called upon by the Allied Empires.  An ancient weather weapon is at risk of falling into the hands of the Russian Empire, and the pirates are on a race against time, traveling from Europe to America then North Africa, to uncover its location and unlock its secrets. “Along the way, the unthinkable happens and Hans Sauder is forced to reconsider his very place within the crew, and the life he has chosen as an airship pirate. The choices he makes, as the Bloody Rose finds…

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Paid Advertising For Your Book – Don’t bother, I tried that already

Post Views: 448 Back in February, I posted an article titled “More Thoughts on the Economics of Authorspace – It’s a business … who knew?” . In it, I ran through a few numbers based on my own very limited and new understanding of being an Independent author. Part of those numbers was an estimate of $450 in promotion/ advertising. It is that number and how I’ve spent it that I want to talk about. I’ll drop a table on you here in a moment, but the short version is that nothing worked. After about $400 in advertising for “By Any Other Name“, I can definably say that I got nine sales and two reviews as a result of my advertising. That is a cost per outcome of $44. Even…

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The value of taking tea in story writing and RPGs

Post Views: 428 A reader emailed me after the initial release of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name” and commented that one of the things she enjoyed so much about the book was that “the camera” followed the characters even into their “quiet time”. Little amusing jabbs between the characters about how they took their coffee, how they conducted their private lives and implied whistfulness at “roads not taken”. This style of exposition was inspired by two individuals I respect in their given fields, Scott Westerfeld and Nicholas Jequier. At a meet-the-author evening in Vancouver, BC,  with Scott Westerfeld of “Uglies” and “Leviathan” fame, he commented that most of the fan art he received for either set of characters had nothing to do with scenes in the books…

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Questions From The Audience – July 25th, 2012

Post Views: 260 “I’d love to hear some more about ‘real world science’ versus ‘technology used in The Sauder Diaries’. How does it differ?” – Matt Jenkins Introduction This is the second part of a three-part set answering this Question From the Audience. In the first installment I got about halfway through the first novel in “The Sauder Diaries”, sub-titled “By Any Other Name”. So, without further ado, allow me to continue on discussing the various technologies that Hans encounters and uses, and evalutate “The Reasonable Plausibility Level” (RPL) of each. Science and Techology of “The Sauder Diaries – By Any Other Name”, Part 2 Double-barreled Flare gun The original flare gun was designed by American naval officer Edward Wilson Very (1847–1910). The system he developed and popularized…

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Questions From The Audience – July 10th, 2012

Post Views: 461 “I’d love to hear some more about ‘real world science’ versus ‘technology used in The Sauder Diaries’. How does it differ?” — Matt Jenkins Introduction One of the hallmarks of Steampunk is that it is often typified as “Victorian Science-Fiction”. In otherwords, the “science” component of the story needs to be within the scope of Victorian understanding. For example, Jule’s Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” is all well thought-out and reasonably plausible; the only hitch was that no one actually had the –ability– to build a ship like the Nautilus. The science theory supported the design, but the metalurgic reality did not. I’d like to draw your attention to a phrase I just used: “reasonably plausible”. What I term as the “The Reasonable Plausibility…

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Questions From The Audience – July 4th, 2012

Post Views: 199 “With the increasing popularity of steampunk, there seems to be some backlash from some of the more old-school steampunk enthusiasts, who resent the idea of ‘just paint something sepia and put some gears on it — steampunk!’ If you have any thoughts on that, I’d love to hear them.” — Daniel Swensen Hold onto your tophats, gentlemen, and clutch your parasols, ladies, because I am afraid I have to shock you all with the revelation that we have all been here before. Seriously. One of my favorite observations on human nature is that there is no more conservative a person than a rebel the day after winning the revolution. Fandom organizations, based on my own personal observations thus far, tend to bear this out.  The…

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