Author Archives: wesleyallison

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About wesleyallison

Author of twenty science-fiction and fantasy books, including the popular "His Robot Girlfriend."

Blogger Trouble

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Wow, in their hurry to convert to their new interface (which I hate), blogger has totally screwed up my posting schedule.  Two blog entries that I had scheduled didn’t appear and they budged up my logo and title too.  Let’s hope this doesn’t continue.

The Dark and Forbidding Land – Eamon Shrubb

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Eamon Shrubb is one of my favorite characters.  He’s just a big lovable lug.  When I originally plotted out the story, he was only in the second and third parts (which became books 3 & 5).  When I spread it out to five books, I didn’t really have much for Eamon in The Young Sorceress, but I got to write his meeting with Saba in book 2.  I had a great time doing that.

“Colbshallow, right?”
Saba looked up to see a big man standing a few feet from him.  Saba was six foot three and this fellow was just as tall, but with broader shoulders and a thick muscular chest.  Though the man was a few years older than Saba, he was only a private.
“That’s right.”
“I’m Shrubb, Eamon Shrubb.”
“Nice to meet you, Shrubb.”  Saba slowly stood up and stretched out a hand, which Shrubb took.
“What’s your Kafirite name, if you don’t mind my asking?” asked Shrubb.  “Um… you are a Kafirite, aren’t you?”
Saba nodded.
“I’ve never seen so many zeets before.”
“I don’t much care for that word,” said Saba, icily.  He was still thinking about Yuah and was predisposed to dislike anyone whom he thought might be aiming an insult even in her general direction.
“Quite right.  Quite right.  As I say, I’ve never met many zee… Zaeri.  I don’t have anything against them though.  I never understood that whole ‘killed Kafira’ thing anyway.  I mean, didn’t she come back from the dead?  That’s a big part of the church.  How could she have come back from the dead if nobody killed her?  All worked out for the best, as far as I can see.”
“Do you always talk this much?” asked Saba.
“No.”  Shrubb looked pensive.  “Quite uncharacteristic really.”
“Good.  My first name is Saba.  What would you say to some fish and chips?”
“I don’t generally talk to my food.”
“Come on.”

The Drache Girl: Yuah Dechantagne

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Yuah Dechantagne is a character in Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 3: The Drache Girl.

Spoiler Alert.

Book 3 is the mid-point for Yuah’s story arc.  In many ways, it is for her, the high point in her life.  She has married into a high position in an extremely wealthy family.  What’s more, she actually has a position that puts her above Iolanthe in some ways (because she’s married to Iolanthe’s elder brother, and therefor first female in the family).  This was a fun turn of events for me, because in the first book, Iolanthe is so horrible to her.  On the other hand, Yuah’s low point comes at the end of the book as the only thing she has ever wanted is taken away from her.

Yuah appears only a little in book 4, not because her part isn’t important, but only because book 4 is very Senta-centric.  In some ways her story carries on further than anyone else’s, but you’ll just have to wait for book 5 to see what I mean.

The Drache Girl: The Writers

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Books play an important role in Senta and the Steel Dragon, and quite a few fictional authors and their books appear throughout the series. One author mentioned in a previous book actually is a major character in books 4 and 5. ::grin::

Phoebus Dodson is the author of several scientific works that we usually see Hero enjoying or Senta dreading. I imagine his books are huge, with heavy leather bindings, and are usually dusty because nobody wants to read them. His books include: Time and Space, Matter and the Elements, Gravity and Light, and The Contracting Universe.

Dillan Westmacott is the author of a racy novel entitled The Pursuit of Perfection. (Spoiler Alert) This is of course also a reference to the relationship between Terrence, Yuah, and a certain otherworldly winged woman. (End spoiler)

The most often referreed-to author is Kasia Garstone. She is a scandalous muck-raker (and some say socialist or communist. Her books include Steam, Revenge, Sacrifice, and Privilage and Sacrifice. Practically everyone reads her works, but almost nobody admits to it. My favorite line about Garstone actually doesn’t appear until book 5, but I’ll give you a little preview.

“Kasia Garstone says wizards are tools of the oppressors.”

The Two Dragons – Now Available!

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After a marathon editing session over the weekend, The Two Dragons is now available at Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/152056 or Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007UJED16 or of course, Amazon Britain https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007UJED16.

I was making changes on the manuscript right up until the last minute, interesting since the first draft was finished in 2008.  I also had to change the cover.  The orange and red backgrounds had an awful bleed-through on thumbnails.

I am incredibly happy that Senta and the Steel Dragon is now done– happy, relieved, sad, tired, and about 27 other adjectives.  I hope you all enjoy it.

The Dark and Forbidding Land – Mr. Vever

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Mr. Vever is one of those characters who are just around in the background, though he has a fairly large part in Book 5: The Two Dragons, and even gets an action scene.  His part in Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding Land is mostly as the jeweler who sells Terrence Yuah’s engagement ring.

Though he had yet to move into his shop, Mr. Vever had been for some time working from his home, a small single room house just inside the great wall about half way between the gate and the eastern beach.  Here he cut gems and crafted jewelry, occasionally working on watches though that was not his specialty.  He opened his door to find Yuah and Terrence on his front step.
“Mr. Dechantagne, what a surprise,” he said, motioning them inside.  “And Miss Korlann, it is always a pleasure to see the most beautiful woman in Birmisia.”
“Back off Vever,” drawled Terrence.  “That’s Mrs. Dechantagne now.  We’ve just been married.”
The little man squinted through his spectacles at first one of them and then the other and then back again.
“Funny,” he said.  “You two don’t look like newlyweds… Well, what do I know?  Come in.  Come in.”
“Thank you,” said Terrence, as they stepped inside.  “We’re here to buy a ring.”
Yuah began to feel a bit faint and looking around saw a small chair near the door, which she dropped down onto it, sitting sideways so as not to damage her bustle.  She waved off Mr. Vever’s concerned look.
“Um, well, what type of ring were you looking for?”
“We need a pair of wedding rings,” said Terrence.  “Fourteen karat, I should think.  Simple but stylish.  Not too big.  I don’t suppose we need an engagement ring…”

“We bloody well do,” said Yuah.

Update – The Two Dragons

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Twelve of the 21 chapters of The Two Dragons have gone through final editing as I write this.  I keep making changes though.  I re titled the last chapter.  It was originally called “What Happened in the Years the Followed.”  Since I ditched the long epilogue though, it doesn’t make much sense anymore.  Anyway, here are the chapters.

1. The Social Event of the Season
2. Zurfina’s Past
3. Mayor Korlann
4. Cousins
5. The Problems at Home
6. The Long Way to Tsahloose
7. Beneath Ancient Stones
8. Inspector Colbshallow
9. City of the Dragon God
10. Tsahloose
11. War!
12. Troubled Times
13. The Green Dragon
14. Father and Grandfather
15. Their Future Together
16. Sabotage and Murder
17. What She Thought was the Case
18. Panic and Despair
19. War Comes to Birmisia
20. What Happened at Iguanodon Heath
21. Return to Brechalon

Update – The Two Dragons

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As I write this, I have just finished the final editing of chapter nine.  I’ve been able to edit a chapter a day, so as there are 21 chapters, it should be about 12 more days until done.  I might be able to speed that up by working longer on the weekends.

The beta readers unanimously preferred the new ending.  The original chapter 21 was a long epilog, but I pulled it off and instead wrote a series of vignettes that just hinted at what happens in the following years.  This is so that I can write a second series at some point.

The Dark and Forbidding Land- Mr. Parnorsham

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Senta stepped inside the door as the bell hanging above it jingled.  Miss Lusk followed and the bell jingled again as the door closed.  Mr. Parnorsham looked up from behind the counter where he was rearranging costume jewelry in the glass case.  He squinted through his bifocals and wiped his hands on his white apron. 
“Good day ladies.”
“Good day Mr. Parnorsham.”  Miss Lusk politely feigned interest in the costume jewelry.  “I’m in need of some two inch lace today.”
“Let me show you what I have.”
Senta wandered over to look at the toy counter.  It was a small twenty four inch square counter divided into six inch square compartments, each with a different type of toy.  There were rubber bouncing balls, toy guns, tin soldiers, doll sized tea cups with saucers, and wooden ponies with yarn tails.  Senta picked one up and made a horse noise by blowing air between her lips.
“That’s just the one I need,” said Miss Lusk from the other aisle.
“How much is the toy horse, Mr. Parnorsham?” called Senta.
“It’s a toy pony and it’s five pfennigs.  Oh, by the way Miss Lusk, I just got in some more tins of butter biscuits.  I know how much you like them.”
“Yes I’ll take one of those too.”
“Just one?”
“Just one,” she peered around the aisle at Senta and whispered loudly.  “I won’t need that bustle if I keep eating these.  Aren’t you a bit old for a toy pony?”
“It’s for Bessemer.  He’s been playing with my doll lately and I’m afraid he’s going to bite her head off.”
“Do you have five pfennigs?”
“Yeah.  I just don’t know if I want to spend them.  I guess I will though.”  She picked up the wooden pony and brought it to the counter.
“That will be seventy five P, Miss Lusk.”
“We’ll have two of those as well,” said Miss Lusk, pointing at a large framed picture of a brown bottle emblazoned with the words “Billingbow’s Original Sarsaparilla and Wintergreen Soda Water.”  Then she winked again at Senta.

“Well that will bring you total to ninety seven P.”


Mr. Parnorsham is around in all the books, a comfortable background character.

The Young Sorceress- Chapter 2 Excerpt

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Senta was waiting at the side of the road in front of her home when Graham arrived the next day at eleven.  She was dressed in her latest acquisition—a sunny yellow dress with a low back that showed off her shoulder blades.  Graham didn’t own a steam carriage, so she expected him to arrive on foot.  He surprised her by instead showing up in the back of a rickshaw, reclining in comfort as a large lizzie pulled him along.  There were two seats on the vehicle balanced above two spoked wheels and the lizzie pulled it with two long poles which stuck out the front.
“What’s this then?” she asked.
“Pretty ace, isn’t it?  Mrs. Government had them brought over from Sumir.  The lizzies can buy them and set up their own business pulling us softskins around.”
Senta picked up the picnic basket from beside her foot and stuffed it behind the rickshaw seat next to the similar basket that Graham had brought with him.  Then she climbed up and sat down next to him.
“Do you think this lizzie can pull us both?”
“You hardly weigh anything at all.  Besides, Canron here could pull four or five of these things tied together.”
He turned to the reptilian and gave directions in the lizzie language, which many humans, perhaps unkindly referred to as “spit-n-gag.”  After a quick reply in the same tongue, Canron turned the vehicle around and took off toward the center of town.
Augustus P. Dechantagne Park sat far out on the peninsula beyond the dockyards.  It had been designed by Governor Iolanthe Dechantagne-Staff and had been named for her youngest brother who had died in a battle with lizzies from the city-state of Suusthek.  It featured a gazebo, a walking path, and a statue of the aforementioned Augustus P. Dechantagne.  It also had a lovely copse of trees under which picnickers would gather during the summer.  As it was early spring however, Senta and Graham both preferred a spot in the open under the warming rays of the sun, and it was here that they headed, though they had not conferred aloud on the subject.  After unloading and dismissing the lizzie rickshaw, Graham spread a blanket out and they sat down to assemble roast beef sandwiches.
Roast beef in and of itself was something of a novelty, since it was only recently that cattle had arrived in Birmisia Colony.  Pork had been available for some time and many people, Graham and Senta included, had grown used to dinosaur meat as well.  This roast beef was tender and delicious, not surprising as it had come from Café Ada, which in addition to being the newest and most talked about eating establishment in Port Dechantagne, had a Mirsannan chef named Pierre Something.
As they ate their sandwiches, Graham looked around.  They were not the only people in the park.  Several children were playing an ad-hoc game of football.  Five or six other couples and at least one family were seated on their own blankets enjoying their own noon day meals.  A young couple, four of five years older than Graham and Senta, sat on a park bench and kissed when they thought no one else was looking.
“We could be doing that,” said Graham.
“Oh, so now you want a kiss.  What happened to ‘she’s not my girlfriend’?”
“I haven’t said that in a long time—years maybe.  Everybody knows you’re my girlfriend.”
“Everybody who?” wondered Senta.
“Everybody everybody.”
“Well I don’t just give kisses away.  I need a sign of devotion.”
“What kind of a sign?”
“Something that lets everyone know that I’m your girlfriend.”
“And what would that be?”
“You’ll figure something out.”
Leaning back on her hands, she turned her face up toward the warmth of the sun.