Category Archives: News

What’s going on, book schedules, that kind of thing.

War of the Steam/Dieselpunk Worlds

I’ve wrapped the first draft of The Ghost in the Doll and I finally got bored enough with all my o available media that I picked up Penny Dreadful on Amazon. Well… only one thing for it, I’m going to have to write another Unobtainium book. Well, not totally promising, but it’s being plotted and researched: Kate, Charles, and Antonia are going back to the Dark Continent.

Meanwhile, I’ve been digging through Steam and Dieselpunk material for inspiration. I’ve got a load of Lady Mechanika comics I haven’t read, more Penny Dreadful to watch, at least one book I should get around to. Plus, well, it’s not quite right, but it’s also so right, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds is playing as I write this. The original one, not the new version.

Now, War of the Worlds came out when I was a kid. I first heard some of it when a girl in my class brought it in (on vinyl) for a sort of show and tell thing. I was gripped. It was awesome! I put it on my Christmas or birthday list and soon I had my own gatefold album with two records and a very evocative art book which had all the lyrics in it. I’d sit in front of our record player with headphones on and sing along… Yeah, I can’t sing, but hey, I couldn’t here me. Now, probably 35 years later, I can still remember all the lyrics. Not just the ones everyone knows. Oh no, I can remember the duet between the parson and his wife, Spirit of Man. My geek credentials are, apparently, well up to date.

Still have to wonder how the infantryman thought he was going to start a brave new world ‘with just a handful of men,’ but I guess it had to rhyme.

It Has Emerged

Probably a better title for when I release the book, but…

Someone suggested I should post more frequently, even if it’s just something about what stage the writing’s in. Maybe some word counts… Almost certainly not going to do that, because it might be depressing for one thing. And I’m not going to promise to post regularly because… Well, my brain doesn’t work like that. I am lousy at the social media thing because I just plain don’t think of it as a thing to do. Possibly an age thing: I’ve been doing stuff internet related since before it was a thing, but I don’t have the mindset for what it’s become. But…

Since I seem to be in the mood currently (this’ll be 3 posts in 2 days! go me!), here’s the progress update. (And, yes I have updated the What I’m Working On page.)

Emergence is code-complete. That means it’s got all its words in it and it’s moved to the ‘awaiting editing’ phase.

I’m currently working on the plotting for The Ghost in the Doll, a title which will make far more sense when you start reading it, honestly. Yes, it’s also obviously a play on both The Ghost in the Machine and The Ghost in the Shell (which, of course is a reference to The Ghost in the Machine in itself, meta-references FTW!), but there are in-universe elements which will be revealed. First hints in Emergence.

But before I start writing GitD, Frostburn will get its first edit run. As I recall, there’s a missing scene I need to write, so that’s going to take a little longer than usual, but I expect to get started on GitD by the end of this week, barring unforeseen meteorite strikes or robot invasions.

In case you’re wondering, I don’t currently have the slightest clue what’s going to come after GitD. I should probably do something seriously different, but we’ll see where my mind is wheeling in a month.

If You’re Hunting Mink…

You can find her here:

As I type this, I haven’t had notification from Amazon that the process is finished, so Hunting Mink may not be available in all areas. If it’s showing as not available, try again in a few hours.

Ultrahuman Art Dump

Okay, I’m now working on the final edit for Hunting Mink. I am trying to get this out for tomorrow, but I’m taking this opportunity to say that I’m working through corrections in a document, while trying to hold off a blazing headache. I’ll get the book out tomorrow. I’ll work through the pain for my readers. (I will get all the sympathy I can for this.) But it’s slowing my down, and it may delay things a little. Sorry.

As partial compensation for any delay, and because I was going to do this anyway… Some art. We’ve got the cover for Hunting Mink here, and the character sheets for Cygnus, Twilight, and Mink. If you click through any of the character sheets, they’ll take you to the ArtStation page where I put all three sheets plus an extra which may give a little hint of one possible future for Twilight.

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The new V8… And Other Silliness

So… I got up this morning and checked my mail, and discovered that DAZ had released V8 and that it going for free just for today. Given I’d just converted Cygnus over to G3F/V7, I figured she would be best to illustrate the features of the new model. So here she is in all her glory, beside her converted version…

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Division of Labour

Okay, so most of today was lost to Tom Clancy’s The Division. It arrived around midday and I held myself back until after lunch, but I was playing it pretty much non-stop (aside from a break for dinner and Lucifer) until midnight when my controller batteries died on me in the middle of a firefight. At least I now know how long the batteries last…

I figured tomorrow was going to be lost to it, but no. Tomorrow I need to get back into the right rhythm, which means writing until at least mid-afternoon (when I usually start noticeably slowing down and have trouble maintaining concentration: yes, just like a day job). Already The Collective has fallen to not being able to figure out how to get the protagonists where they need to be, so I’ve moved on. Frostburn, the next Ultrahumans book, has been more or less plotted out and started. Looks like there’ll be two Ultrahumans books in a row. Oh, and book 3 now has a name: Hunting Mink.

So… Do I like my new game? Well, obviously, though it’s not a real certainty until it keeps me entertained for several months. However, it also has the most ludicrous concept of any game I’ve ever played (with the possible exception of the Riddler’s parts in the Batman: Arkham… series). It sounds clever and kind of realistic, but it’s totally comic book. There’s an apparently airborne virus which is spread through infected bank notes… Um… We have a vast army of ‘sleeper agents’ embedded in the populace who are basically special ops soldiers living as normal people and no one has noticed. Real special ops soldiers train constantly. No one has noticed that the girl who works in the coffee shop down the road shoots 2000 rounds a day at the firing range and runs 10 miles before going to work? Mind you, it is set in New York, so… maybe.

Anyway, tomorrow, back to superheroes who aren’t trying to be normal…

In case you’re wondering, I don’t have super-willpower…

Criminal Minds Are Everywhere

Well, they’re on Amazon and Smashwords. Criminal Minds, the 4th Fox Meridian book has now been released.

book4-cover1-amazon.jpg

You can find it:

(Very slow from Amazon this time. Links above, but some regions may not be live yet.)

Elsa, Where Are You?

Let it Sn(G)o(w)! (My little niece is really into Frozen. Truth be told, I rather like it to.)

Anyway, here in Manchester, UK, it’s snowing. Big, thick, sticky flakes have been falling all morning and show no sign of stopping. We’re not that high up here and it’s a little too warm and wet for anything to build up. We are not talking winter wonderland here. But we’ve got snow. Real, proper, wintery snow, in March. Not very British.

It’s a perfect day to go through proofs of a novel! Okay, so it’s never a perfect day to go through proofs, but I have no desire to go outside so… Criminal Minds is back from Kate, my wonderful proofreader, and I’m working through the edits. It takes a while. Never let it be said that writing is all fun and inspiration. Also, sometime in the next day or two I need to come up with a cover and I have no ideas for that right now. However, expect to be seeing Criminal Minds at Amazon and Smashwords before the weekend is out.

I’ve booked the next Ultrahumans book (still no name…) for proofreading in mid-April, so that is going to be the next book out after Criminal Minds. This will deal with the aftermath of the demise of the Tonaldo crime-family, finally reveal what’s going on with that mysterious find in the Southern Ocean, and take us to San Francisco.

And then… Well, next Wednesday is probably going to be a break day as I spend most of it running around a disease-ravaged New York (I’ve got Tom Clancy’s The Division coming on Tuesday, but Amazon never seem to deliver games to me in a timely manner, so Wednesday…). I’ve started writing something called The Collective, but I’m saying nothing more about that one right now because I’m not entirely convinced about it. On March 18th, Daredevil season 2 is out, and on the 28th I’ve got tickets to see Batman vs. Superman in glorious IMAX 3D (never done IMAX 3D before, which is why I’m bothering with the gimmick). This kind of sudden influx of superhero imagery could easily result in me throwing my hands up and leaping into Ultrahumans 4 which is called Frostburn (you note I know that, but I still haven’t figured out a title for book 3…). I know what’s in it, so it’s just a matter of writing it down and I’ll probably be in the mood… We’ll see.

What I’m Working On… or Not

I’ve updated the What I’m Working On page.

This now reflects my state of mind through most of January, which was not exactly conducive to great writing. (I’d argue that it never is, but I’m self-deprecating.)

Basically, I started several projects and could not quite seem to get my act together. Binge watching season 1 of Gotham got me hooked on writing a new Ultrahumans book, and that seems to be working. I’m hoping that January was my typical fall into Winter depression and it’s all uphill from here. At least until next year.

When I Say Soon…

Enjoy!