There are just two days left at Smashwords for their Spring Ebook Sales. There are thousands of ebooks on sale for 25, 50, or 75 percent off. Many others are free. Stop by and check out the many titles on sale, including many of mine.
There are just a couple of days left to get your ebook copy of Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike for free at Smashwords. Be sure to use coupon code RW100 at checkout.
From the 180,000 acre campus of Maxxim Industries, fourteen year old girl genius and inventor Astrid Maxxim works alongside her father, Dr. Roger Maxxim, on projects to make the world a better place. Her latest invention is a flying scooter—the hoverbike. Is it the target of an international spy ring, or are they after secret Project RG-7, or Astrid herself? Astrid has something bigger on her mind though—high school. There’s a field trip coming, and the Spring Fling is right around the corner… And does Toby like her as much as she likes him?
This week only, The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton is on sale at Smashwords for half off: $1.50! Be sure to use the coupon code RAE50 at checkout.
Eaglethorpe Buxton, famed adventurer and story-teller, friend to those in need of a friend and guardian to those in need of a guardian. He is a liar and braggart, not to be trusted, especially around pies. Who are we to believe? Buxton himself leads us through The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton. This volume includes the previously published Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Elven Princess in which our hero comes to the aid of… a poor orphan? An elven princess? And Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Sorceress. When the sorceress, subject of Eaglethorpe’s play arrives with fire in her eyes, the hapless story-teller must pretend to be his good friend Ellwood. Will he pull off this charade and survive? And what happens when the real Ellwood shows up? One can never tell, especially when Eaglethorpe tells the story. Plus thrill to three all new Eaglethorpe stories. In Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Queen of Aerithraine, our hero is back in his homeland, just in time to stop a mysterious murder, meet the Queen, solve the mystery of his best friend, and face off against a zombie apocalypse! In Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Amazons, our hero and his new friend Percival Thorndyke tramp through the horrible, stinking, insect-infested land of Ennedi in search of treasure. Eaglethorpe must deal with man-hating Amazons, jungle-dwelling goblins, vicious centaurs, the dreaded and feared frog-bear, and a companion who seems determined to get himself killed. In Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Day of the Night of the Werewolf, the famed story-teller is sent to hunt down an unusual werewolf and manages to run into practically everyone he has ever met along the way. The Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton is a farcical fantasy of heroic proportions, sure to elicit more giggles than gasps.
This week, you can get your ebook copy of Women of Power at Smashwords for Free! Be sure to use coupon code RW100 at the checkout.
The life of a superhero is tough. All American Girl fights supervillains, alien invaders, and terrorists as she tries to get product endorsements and a magazine deal. That’s nothing compared to her private life though. She’s only just broken up with her super boyfriend Perihelion when he’s scooped up by Omega Woman, and now rival Skygirl has moved into her territory.
Get Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 1 : The Voyage of the Minotaur Free this week at Smashwords! Be sure to use coupon code RW100 at the checkout. Other Senta and the Steel Dragon books are on sale too.
The Voyage of the Minotaur tells the story of colonists from the Kingdom of Greater Brechalon as they travel to the distant land of Birmisia in a world that is not quite like our own Victorian Age. The Dechantagne siblings; Iolanthe, Terrence, and Augie lead an expedition aboard the battleship Minotaur, hoping that the colony they build will restore their family to the position of wealth and power it once had. Along with them is the mysterious sorceress Zurfina, an orphan girl turned sorceress’s apprentice Senta Bly, and the newly hatched steel dragon. Waiting in dark and mysterious forests of Birmisia is the promise of a new life, along with hosts of dangerous beasts—from velociraptors and tyrannosaurs to the inscrutable reptilian aborigines. Senta and the Steel Dragon is a tale of adventure in a world of rifles and steam power, where magic and dragons have not been forgotten; a world of bustles and corsets, steam-powered computers, hot air balloons and dinosaurs, machine guns and wizards.
Princess of Amathar is now on sale at Smashwords for 1/2 Price: $1.50. Be sure to use coupon code RAE50 at the checkout.
Mysteriously transported to the artificial hollow world of Ecos, Earth man Alexander Ashton finds himself in the middle of a millennium-long war between the reptilian Zoasians and the humanoid Amatharians. Adopted by the Amatharians, Ashton must conform to a society based on honor and altruism, ruled by Knights whose power comes from the curious energy forms known as “souls” which inhabit their supernaturally powerful swords, and rife with its own peculiarities and prejudices. When the Princess of Amathar, whom Ashton has longed for since first seeing her, is captured by the Zoasians, he must cross an alien world, battle monstrous creatures, and face unknown dangers to save her. Princess of Amathar is a sword-swinging novel of high adventure in the tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs. It is the story a strange world filled with alien races, aerial battleships, swords and energy weapons, amazing adventures and horrible dangers, and the man who must face them all for the love of a woman he has never met.
All four of the ladybugs were pleased to get out of New York early. The stress of being locked up in their hotel under guard and the threat against their lives hung over them like a cloud. Having the chance to spend two full days in Chicago before the concert, instead of only one was just as welcome. Rather than chartering another dirigible, the band was given the use of an official government airship.“I didn’t know a Science Police agent could summon a dirigible at her whim,” commented Ep!phanee to Agent Andrews.
“We can’t, but the Science Council can. There are quite a few Ladybugs fans among them, I’m sure, and I doubt that they want any of you to hitchhike to Chicago.”
Every school girl knew that the Science Council ran the world. They had since the great Science War, which began in 1956. At that time the last remaining totalitarian rulers had tried to expand across Europe and Asia. A coalition of nations picked themselves up from the depths of the Great Depression and fought back. When the war was won, a new world government had been created. Science Council members were chosen for their knowledge and wisdom and acted for the good of humanity.
Once the airship S.V. Rosalie Morton had left LaGuardia, the two agents continued their investigation. Agent Wright spoke to each of the crewmembers and support staff of the band and Andrews interviewed the two remaining musicians. The first was Penny Dreadful. They met in Andrew’s cabin and sat at the small desk beside a large window as the clouds passed by outside. She was a large woman though not fat. If she had been a building, she would have been called structurally sound. And a skyscraper. She was about five foot eleven. She weighed around one hundred fifty pounds, a good thirty pounds heavier than she was on the old album covers, on which she had seemed extraordinarily skinny. The white corset, not quite reaching down to her waist left plenty of cleavage, and she wore long white gloves decorated with tiny pink bows. Her white layered net tutu skirt left fourteen inches of bare, white thighs above her knees, which were covered by white lace stockings. She wore white combat boots. Her huge mane of red hair was still styled in the dreadlocks she had worn on stage, and she had two huge hoop earrings and a smaller hoop in the middle of her lower lip.
“Thanks for seeing me,” he said.
“You’re kidding, right? Before yesterday I’d never seen a man in real life before. This is really a treat for me… you know, besides somebody trying to kill me and all.”
“So you think you are the target?”
She shrugged. “Steffie’s probably right. A lot of people were pissed off when Carpetmuncher hit the air. That’s the name of the song, um… no offense.”
“I think it’s a great song,” he said.
“You’ve heard it?”
“I bought the album the day it came out.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. I’m a huge Ladybugs fan, and that includes your solo albums. I remember watching you on the Dorothy Kilgallen Show, and I had to present my PhD thesis the next day. So you see; it’s at even bigger treat for me to be assigned here with you.” He watched her for a moment, and then asked. “I’ve been north for two years now, but I still don’t really understand the anti-homosexual attitude. There are plenty of women running around dressed as men, my partner for instance, with her little fake mustache. It all seems pretty open.”
“Not really. We’re still very parochial. Even though men have been gone from most of society for years, there is the tradition around the world of women not going out unescorted. So women like Agent Wright and Alexa Rothman, faux-men, are tolerated and even encouraged. With no men to escort women, someone just had to take their place. Sex in some ways is really just an extension of that, but nobody talks about it. Women pretend that faux-men are men and for the most part, treat them that way. Women who openly have sexual relationships with other women, or at least with other women who look like women, are ostracized.”
“That’s the other thing that surprises me,” said Andrews. “How women look. Without many men around, I expected to see relatively few women putting on makeup, but you all do… except those pretending to be men.”
“I imagine that most men and women were surprised to find out how little women dressed up for men and how much they dressed up for each other. It’s all about outdoing each other. That includes painting our faces, and wearing jewelry.”
“Yes, I knew women pierced their ears, but I wasn’t expecting everything else.”
“Maybe sometime I’ll show you all my jewelry.”
This seemed as though it was meant to be suggestive, but Andrews couldn’t find anything particularly arousing in looking through a jewelry box.
“Besides those who are upset over homosexual content in the music, can you think of anyone else who might have something against you?”
She stared back, smiled, and then rolled up the bottom of the white corset to reveal her smooth featureless stomach.
“You mean because I have no belly button—because I’m a vat baby?”
“That’s one possibility.”
“That’s hardly my fault. They should blame Anton Dilger, not me… Are you all right?”
Andrews had turned white and his eyes widened.
“Are you all right? Do you need the doctor?”
“No.” He took a deep breath. “No, I’m all right. It’s just that… in the enclaves… we don’t ever say that name. Not ever. It’s worse than any profanity or blasphemy. It’s just not tolerated.”
Penny nodded, tugging on the ring through her lower lip.
Sixty years before, during what was still known as the Great War, German-American scientist Anton Casimir Dilger had come up with a plan to keep America from joining the allies. Not content to poison American cattle with Anthrax, he had created a strain of an existing disease, some said influenza, though no one had ever identified the original. With it he had infected several cities along the east coast. Though initially killing almost sixty million men, women, and children, the disease mutated over time to affect only the males of the species. There had been more than 850 million men on earth before he began his sabotage. By 1930, there were less than 200 million, and by 1950 there were less than 10 million. Governments had sent their remaining men to enclaves in the far southern reaches of the globe where the disease didn’t seem as virulent, and there most of them remained. In the last years of his life, the great inventor Nikola Tesla, in an attempt to save the species, had designed and built the baby vats, where girls were grown from their mothers’ cells. The first vat babies had been born just after Tesla’s death in 1943. Penny was born in 1945.
One of the things I’ve learned (I hope) is that even though you go to a great deal of trouble to create the details of a fantasy or sci-fi world, you shouldn’t go showing it off unless it benefits the story. I think this is one of the weaknesses of His Robot Girlfriend that makes me want to rewrite it.
There is a pretty large amount of detail about the Ladybugs and their music in Tesla’s Stepdaughters, but I tried to use only what I needed to be descriptive. In editing, I cut back on the details of their concert playlists. However, I created WAY more detail than is shown in the book. I created every album of the Ladybugs career, every song on every album, who wrote each song, and who played what instruments on those songs. I posted the details long ago on the blog, and if anyone is interested I’ll post them again. I even put it out there in ebook format, but I took it down, as I didn’t want people to be disappointed that they weren’t getting a story. I’ve put it in as an appendix in the back of the latest ebook editions of Tesla’s Stepdaughters.
Rain beat against the wide windows of the promenade deck as the massive form of the S.S. Lady of Angels descended through the clouds. The dirigible, one of the largest in the air, had made the trip from Los Angeles to New York in just over twenty-six hours, almost two full hours ahead of schedule. In a few minutes, the mooring team would have it fastened to the ground at LaGuardia, and its passengers would be debarking. The great golden craft was one of the latest generation of airships. Massive, as if someone had turned the Empire State Building on its side and launched it through the air; fast, propelled by six huge steam powered propellers; but unlike the other two dozen gigantic vessels at the airport, the Lady of Angels had only a few passengers—the four members of the rock band the Ladybugs, their managers, staff, and crew.
“Is it going to be raining at Shea Stadium?” asked Ruth De Molay, her island accent a blend of American and British dialect.
“Yes,” answered Alexa Rothman, “but don’t worry; you’ll have a cover over you.”
“I assume the electrical will be covered too,” she said, but to this there was no answer.
“We’re on the radio-vid again,” said Steffie Sin, peering at the nineteen-inch monochrome monitor on the wall. A female reporter spoke into a microphone.
“It’s less than two hours before what some have dubbed ‘the concert of the century’ tonight at Shea Stadium, where performing live for the first time in ten years, the greatest rock combo of all time will begin the American leg of a historic world tour.” The image on the screen switched from the attractive female reporter to images of thousands taking their places in the stadium. “The Ladybugs burst onto the world stage in 1963, the head of the female invasion with their cover of Buddy Holly’s Peggy Sue. This was followed by a string of hits, most written by the band’s four members. At one point in 1965 the group held sixteen spots concurrently on Billboard’s top one hundred singles chart. Releasing two to three albums a year and maintaining a grueling tour schedule kept the Ladybugs at the top, but then in 1967, weary of life on the road they moved to their studios in the Virgin Islands, where they released such cutting edge studio albums as Blessed Nobody, Platinum Dream, and the self-titled double album. Even as their last two albums were being marketed however, longstanding personality and management conflicts within the group broke it apart, and in 1970 the band split up, many believed forever. Now, five years later, hot on the heels of the Christmas release of Rebel Girls, the band makes its triumphant return to the concert stage.”
The great dirigible had dropped below the cloud bank now, turning majestically to start its final descent. Stretching out into the distance, one could make out the pillars of smoke rising from a thousand different smokestacks, each belonging to one of the many, many gigantic steam engines that provided electricity for New York City. The reporter on the radio-vid continued.
“We have confirmation that the band’s airship is now arriving at the airport. All four members are confirmed to be aboard. As everyone knows, the Ladybugs are Steffie Sin, Penny Dreadful (born Penelope Dearborn) both of Los Angeles; Ep!phanee (born Theresa Maria Bergman) of Stockholm; and Ruth De Molay, a native of the Virgin Islands. Ep!phanee and Dreadful have both released a series of successful solo albums while Sin and De Molay have released music more sporadically, the latter focusing on a successful movie career while the former has spent a great deal of time in seclusion in Switzerland.”
“Turn that shit off,” said Penny.
“I want to hear what people are saying about us,” replied Ruth.
“Don’t pay any attention to her,” said Steffie. “She’s just pissed off because they used her real name on the air.”
“Penny Dreadful is my real name. I had it legally changed.” She looked like she wanted to say more, but at that moment the captain’s Texas drawl came over the speaker.
“Attention passengers. As we come in for a landing at LaGuardia, I’d like to express thanks on behalf of myself and the company to all of you for flying Pan American Lines, and on a personal note I’d like to say what a privilege it is to pilot the greatest musicians of all time to their first concert of the decade. The crew and I will be looking forward to transporting you safely to Chicago in two days time. In the meantime, break a leg. Here in Queens, the temperature is a balmy 62 degrees and the local time is 6:55 PM.”
“She has a lovely voice,” said Penny.
“She doesn’t know shit about music though,” said Steffie. “If we’re the greatest musicians of all time, where do you rate Mozart, Beethoven, or Enrico Caruso?”
“Do we have time to get to the stadium?” asked Ruth.
“No problem,” assured Alexa, “assuming Piffy has her hair done.”
The last two hours had been spent getting ready for the concert. The band members had donned their custom-made outfits, each a very expensive update of the costumes they had worn on their 1964 tour. They consisted of spandex leggings and a matching bustier. Penny’s was bright red to match her hair which been carefully formed into faux dreads. Steffie’s was black, contrasting with her platinum blond tresses, which were braided into two massive pony tails and interwoven with white and black ribbon. Ruth’s outfit was blue and a blue headband held her natural dreadlocks back.
“I’m ready,” said Ep!phanee standing in the doorway in her own blue outfit, her bright blue hair styled into two buns, one on either side of her head.
The great dirigible made its landing and the crew began hustling instruments to one of the six large airflivvers parked nearby. The band waited impatiently beneath the humongous fuselage for their vehicle to be ready. Each had pulled on their goggles. The air, while breathable, would burn one’s eyes in a very short time without protection.
Alexa stepped close to them. “We’re going in four separate flivvers.”
“Why?” asked Ep!phanee.
“Safety.”
“They got another death threat on me,” said Penny.
“It’s that damned song,” said Steffie. “I told you it was going to be trouble. People aren’t ready to accept homosexuals.”
“We’re all homosexuals,” replied Penny. “I’m just being honest about it.” Then she looked at Alexa. “No offense.”
“You know I still love you.” Though Alexa had cut her hair short, drawn on a pencil thin mustache, and was wearing a man’s suit, she had made no attempt to hide her DD cup breasts.
“We’re all riding together,” said Ep!phanee. “The fans expect to see us climb out of the same hatch.”
“Are you sure?”
Without any further word, Ep!phanee held her umbrella up and stepped briskly across the tarmac to the airflivver parked just in front of the one into which the instruments had been loaded. The others followed. Once all five women were seated, the pilot started the engine. The long, broad dragonfly wings on either side of the vehicle began to flap in a circular motion. The crew, staff, and security piled into the other four craft, and the six airflivvers lifted off together, sailing over the airport terminal, turning in a gentle banking maneuver and winging their way toward Shea Stadium.
Airflivvers had come into use in the early days of the Science War. Afterwards they became common for commercial use. On their first visit to Shea Stadium in 1964, the group had flown in an early Douglas model. These were made by Mitsubishi, and were not only state of the art, but were high class comfort as well.
The convoy stayed below the cloud cover and weaved in and around the great columns of black smoke that were rising into the sky. Within moments they were out of eyesight from LaGuardia, and anyway, their attention was on what was before them rather than what was behind. They didn’t see the majestic airship in which they had arrived suddenly explode, flattening nearby buildings and spreading debris for miles. They didn’t see the fires that sprang up as flaming debris was strewn across the entire airport. Ep!phanee thought she heard something over the airflivver wings, but she took no serious note of it.
In what seemed like an impossibly short time, they were circling the stadium. Even from several hundred feet in the air, anyone could see that virtually every seat was filled. Thousands of flashbulbs began firing as the airflivvers descended. Even more flashbulbs went off once the vehicles set down on the grassy field and disgorged their passengers. Tens of thousands of screaming fans created a deafening din as the four band members rushed to the awning covered stage. Once there, they had to wait as their instruments were brought up, though the amplifiers, electrical systems, and Ruth’s drums were all waiting.
As the aircraft took off again, Ep!phanee looked down to see two police officers talking to Alexa. She shouted down to them, asking what was going on, but the stadium was far too loud to hear anything. Alexa gave her two thumbs up. Turning back to the crowd, Ep!phanee waved and looked around. The group was completely surrounded by more than 55,000 people.
At last all the instruments were arranged and plugged in. It looked like a guitar store. Steffie had three different basses and a Fender Stratocaster 12 string she needed for a single song. Most fans thought of Steffie as “the bass player” because that’s what she did on stage. In the studio, she performed with almost any instrument. She could play the drums better than Ruth and the guitar almost as well as Penny. She could also shine on anything else that she could strum, strike, or blow into. Penny had twelve different guitars, each on its own stand and each played for no more than three songs. The greatest guitarist alive (some said who had ever lived) Penny could make a guitar do anything she wanted, but the guitar had to feel right for the song. Given the wrong instrument, she was just as likely to bust it into splinters as play it. Piffy had only her Westinghouse Dreadful VII, designed to the specifications of and named for her band mate, though her harmonica, her tambourine, her cowbell, and her South American guiro were resting on a pair of stools.
Just as Ruth had taken her seat behind the drums and the others had slipped their straps over their heads, Mayor Stromfeld rushed across the grass and up the steps to the stage. Whatever speech she had planned was quickly cast aside when she got to the microphone. The constant din of the crowd made it impossible for anyone to really hear what she was going to say. She kept it short.
“New York welcomes the Ladybugs!”
Astrid Maxxim and her parents live in a mansion in Maxxim City. It is three stories high and huge, with an observatory, a laboratory, and a music room on the unused third floor. Only a part of the first and second floors are used, the former having a series of unused rooms where servants were once housed.
The inspiration for this mansion comes from two sources. The first is the house that my grandparents lived in when I was born. It was a huge, two-story house made of red brick, that had been built over a hundred years ago as a hotel. About forty years ago, my grandparents sold it and it went through several owners. A few years ago, it was gutted so that it could be rebuilt, but the owners apparently ran out of money. When I visited it last, it was just an empty hulk. The other day I looked for it on Google Earth and found only an empty lot. I have often dreamed of this house, all the way back to when I was a kid. Back then, in my dreams, it often appeared as being much larger than in real life. In recent dreams, it is always in decay.
The second inspiration comes from just a few miles west of the first, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. I used to live in a crappy apartment building next to the freeway in Tulsa. This was back when I attended second grade a Paul Revere Elementary School. Across the road from my apartment was a row of stately mansions. A school friend of mine lived with his mother in an apartment above the garage behind one of these large, lovely homes. I believe his grandparents lived in the big house. I remember going inside one time and seeing a sweeping staircase like something out of Falcon Crest. A few years ago, I took my kids on a trip through Tulsa, looking at all the places from my childhood. The row of beautiful old mansions was gone. Paul Revere Elementary School was gone. The crappy apartment building I lived in– still there.
In Astrid Maxxim and her Hypersonic Space Plane, the Maxxim family begins a refurbishment of their home, breathing new life into it and making some modernizations. Maybe this is me, trying to rebuild those glorious houses from my past.
City of Amathar 