Always Editing

The Voyage of the Minotaur I’m rereading Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur and doing some editing.  I really love this book and I giggle to myself when I read things that I had forgotten that I added to the story.  I’ll give you one example.  When the expedition first encounters dinosaurs, Professor Calliere remarks that they are related to dragons the way that apes are related to humans.  Both Father Ian and Zurfina make the same dismissive noise, father Ian because he doesn’t believe apes are related to humans and the sorceress Zurfina because she doesn’t believe dinosaurs are related to dragons.

As I’m reading, I’m editing.  There aren’t any changes in the story or language, but I have learned a lot about formatting since I created that book.  I’ve found a couple of dozen places that should have had a comma, and where there is a period– and vice-a-versa.  I have a feeling that I’ll be editing my books every year for the rest of my life.  I don’t really have a problem with that, though I would like to have perfection the first time.  That is one of the advantages of ebooks– I can make a change or correction and have it up at every bookstore in just a few days.

Here is the description of The Voyage of the Minotaur: In a world of steam power and rifles, where magic has not yet been forgotten, an expedition sets out to establish a colony in a lost world. The Voyage of the Minotaur is a story of adventure and magic, religion and prejudice, steam engines and dinosaurs, angels and lizardmen, machine guns and wizards, sorceresses, bustles and corsets, steam-powered computers, hot air balloons, and dragons.

I invite you to check it out.  It is my favorite of all my books.

The World of Senta and the Steel Dragon: B

The Voyage of the Minotaur Ballar: Though little is known of its beginnings, by -6000, Ballar was an expanding empire in the northwest corner of Sumir.  Ballar maintained trade with many other civilizations and its culture became quite diluted, taking on the traits of neighboring civilizations.  About -2600, the Ballar Slave Class overran the Ballar ruling class.  The resulting Kingdom of Zaerphon bore little resemblance to its predecessor.

Bamport: A deep water port and airship base for the Kingdom of Freedonia, Bamport was located on a small island north of Enclep.

Bangdorf: Capital of Freedonia, Bangdorf is a city of nearly two million.  The original city predates Freedonia, having been established about 520.  Upon selection as the capital in 1794, a massive rebuilding project was begun that continued to the present.

Barnyard, The: The Barnyard is a novel by Willam Hormby in which the farmer and his family are captured and put on trial by the animals of the farm.  Eventually the animals kill and eat the humans and then turn on each other.

Bentin: Bentin is a small city in Greater Brechalon n the County of Cordwell.  It is chiefly known for the Royal Military Base located just beyond the edge of the city.

Beer: Beer is an alcoholic beverage produced by the saccharification of starch and fermentation of the resulting sugar.  The starch and saccharification enzymes are often derived from malted cereal grains, most commonly malted barley and malted wheat.  Most beer is also flavoured with hops, which add bitterness and act as a natural preservative, though other flavourings such as herbs or fruit may occasionally be included.  The preparation of beer is called brewing.  There are dozens of brands of beer produced in Greater Brechalon, but this number is dwarfed by the varieties found in Freedonia.  Beer is less common in Mirsanna, where wine drinking is much more prevalent.

Billingbow’s: Billingbow’s Sarsaparilla and Wintergreen Soda Water is a soft drink produced in Brech City.  The syrup is mixed with sparkling water and bottled.  Billingbow’s syrup is shipped to Freedonia, Mallontah, and Birmisia, where it is mixed and sold.  Billingbow’s is a favorite of Saba Colbshallow.  Ssissiatok (Cissy) was also fond of the drink, though it is not particularly popular among lizardmen.

Bird Feet: One of a variety of species of violet, Bird Feet are common in Enclep.

Birmisia: The northeastern portion of the continent of Mallon, Birmisia covers an area of about 8 million square miles.  Home to hundreds of lizardman settlements and several large cities, it is sparsely settled by human beings—the one notable exception being Brechalon’s Birmisia Colony.  Most of Birmisia falls in the temperate climate range.

Birmisia Colony: A Brech Colony in Birmisia, Mallon, Birmisia Colony was founded in 1899 by the three Dechantagne siblings and is centered on the city of Port Dechantagne.

Blackbottom: Also known as The Bottom, Blackbottom is a section of Brech City built on land sloping down toward the River Thiss.  Besides thousands of two and three story houses that all seem to be either leaning toward the river because of the sloping land or leaning in the other direction in hopes of countering the slope, there are countless seedy pubs, sordid meeting houses, and hidden drug dens in Blackbottom.

Black Pudding: Black pudding, blood pudding, or blood sausage is a type of sausage made by cooking blood or dried blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

Bloomers: One of several types of divided women’s garments for the lower body.

Bonaventura, Abel: A writer from Borazon, Bonaventura is known for his novels Who Lived in My House? and Bring Me My Life.

Bonnano, Lan: Brech writer Lan Bonnano is best known for his novels Death and Destruction and Fiora Kirseen.

Booth, Duchy of: The Duchy of Booth is located on the northern corner of the island of Mirilon and is one of 66 political divisions within the United Kingdom of Greater Brechalon.

Borazon, Kingdom of: A large country south of Freedonia, Borazon was formed as a successor state to Magnus’s Empire of the Zur.  The modern Borazon encompasses only the eastern portion of the original kingdom.  Borazon converted to Kafirism about 160.  The Borazonian language is closely related to Freedonian and the two counties share many other cultural traits.

Bormass: Bormass was an ancient culture occupying the horn of Sumir from about -2000 to about -1500.  It has been speculated that the Bormass originated on Enclep, because of a similarity of artwork.  Little remains of Bormass, except for massive carvings of animals found throughout their land.  The largest of these is Numateme, an entire mountain carved into the shape of a lion.

Brech (The Great City): Brech City is the capital of the United Kingdom of Greater Brechalon.  It is the largest city in the world, with a population of more than four million.  Tradition holds that Magnus the Great laid out the city himself in year -6.

Brech Mallontah: (See Mallontah.)

Brechalon: The large island upon which Brech City resides, it is the center of the United Kingdom of Greater Brechalon.  Brechalon is roughly circular, approximately 500 miles in diameter.

Brechalon (Ancient): The civilization of Brechalon was a military empire.  The discovery of an ancient fortress on the Island of Greater Brechalon is what gives the Brechalonians their name, though it was later determined to be only an outpost and the bulk of the empire was in fact, on eastern coast of what is today Mirsanna.  The Brechalonians pioneered iron weapons, and defeated Donnata about -4600.

Brech by Starlight: A romantic novel by Cathal Parvis.

Brech’s Islands: A historical novel that follows the development of the Kingdom of Greater Brechalon, Brech’s Islands is one of the most popular foreign novels in Brech.

Brech Stories: A popular collection of short stories by Baumgarten Glines.

Breeding Booksellers: A small bookstore on Avenue Phoenix in Brech City, Breeding Booksellers is noted for procuring hard-to-find editions.  Terrence Dechantagne purchased a copy of Kazia Garstone’s Revenge at Breeding.

The Bribe: The Bribe is a novel by Chirem Gynn that tells the story of a police constable whose life crumbles around him after he accepts a bribe from a drug dealer.

Bring Me My Life: A novel by Abel Bonaventura, Bring Me My Life tells the story of a man returning from six months of living in a coma to find himself replace by a man who has married his wife and adopted his children.

Broken Tooth: A novel by Wadsworth Dietle, Broken Tooth is the story of a dog that must choose to stay with humans or join a wolf pack.  It is the only book by Dietle that is as popular in Brech as it is in Freedonian.

Brownworth, Tzuriel: A Brech biologist and medical doctor, Tzuriel Brownworth best known for his Theory of Evolution, developed during his jouney to the Mullien Islands as detailed in The Adventures of the S.S. Flying Fish.

Brysin’s Weekly Ladies’ Journal: A popular magazine published in Brech, Brysin’s Weekley Ladies’ Journal is the most popular of a new variety of publication featureing news on fashion and etiquette.

Buitreraptor: Buiteraptors are a rather small species of Birmisian predatory bird.  They are bout three feet in length and about a foot tall.  The buitreraptor has a slender, flat, extremely elongated snout with many small teeth that lack meat-tearing serrations or cutting edges and are grooved, strongly recurved and flattened.  It is not a hunter of relatively large animals, but rather a hunter of small animals such as lizards and mammals. The forelimbs of Buitreraptor are long and end in hands with three fingers.

Burson, Tracy: A Brech novelist and proponent of conservation.

Bustle: A bustle is a type of framework used to expand the fullness or support the drapery of the back of a woman’s dress.  Bustles are worn under the skirt in the back, just below the waist, to keep the skirt from dragging.  Heavy fabric tended to pull the back of a skirt down and flatten it.  Thus, a woman’s petticoated or crinolined skirt would lose its shape, making her behind look flat and unappealing.  Since their introduction in Mirsanna, bustles have become synonymous with the fashion, and continue to increase in size.

The Voyage of the Minotaur – 50% Off at Smashwords

The Voyage of the Minotaur The Voyage of the Minotaur (Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 1) is on sale all during the month of July for 50% off, only at Smashwords.  Follow this link and pick up the book (regularly 2.99) for only $1.50.  Be sure to use the coupon code: SSW50.

In a world of steam power and rifles, where magic has not yet been forgotten, an expedition sets out to establish a colony in a lost world. The Voyage of the Minotaur is a story of adventure and magic, religion and prejudice, steam engines and dinosaurs, angels and lizardmen, machine guns and wizards, sorceresses, bustles and corsets, steam-powered computers, hot air balloons, and dragons.

And don’t forget, you can pick up Brechalon (Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 0) free, wherever fine ebooks are sold.

Smashwords Summer/Winter Promotion

It’s that time.  For the entire month of July, Smashwords is having their yearly promotion, featuring literally thousands of books at great savings.  From now until 7-31-13, you can find all kinds of gems.  Of course many of my books are on sale there as well.

You can pick up Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike at 100% off– Free.

Astrid Maxxim Cover

Blood Trade and Princess of Amathar are 50% off– just $1.50.Blood Trade

Princess of Amathar

The Voyage of the Minotaur, The Dark and Forbidding Land, and The Drache Girl are all 50% off– just $1.50 each.

The Voyage of the Minotaur

The Dark and Forbidding Land

The Drache Girl

The Young Sorceress, The Two Dragons, and the Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton are on sale 25% off– just $2.24 each.

youngsorceressformobileread1

 

The Two Dragons

 

Eaglethorpe Buxton Mini

Follow this link to Smashwords, or follow the individual links on the book page.

Voyage of the Minotaur– Free this week

The Voyage of the Minotaur Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur is now available free as part of Smashwords’ Read an Ebook Week.  This sale runs through March 9th.  You can find the link to the book here.  Be sure to use the coupon code REW75 at checkout.

If you’ve read The Voyage of the Minotaur but would like to pick up the rest of the series, they are on sale too.

The Dark and Forbidding Land and The Drache Girl are both on sale for $1.50 each.  The Young Sorceress and The Two Dragons are on sale for $2.24 each.

The Voyage of the Minotaur at Sony Ebooks

In a world of steam power and rifles, where magic has not yet been forgotten, an expedition sets out to establish a colony in a lost world.  The Voyage of the Minotaur is a story of adventure and magic, religion and prejudice, steam engines and dinosaurs, angels and lizardmen, machine guns and wizards, sorceresses, bustles and corsets, steam-powered computers, hot air balloons, and dragons.

The Voyage of the Minotaur is available now at the Sony Ebook Story.  Check it out on your Sony Reader or follow this link.

The Young Sorceress Characters: Kieran Baxter

Kieran Baxter is a minor character appearing in The Voyage of the Minotaur.  I had always had this story in my mind about what happened to him later on, but originally I had planned on it happening off camera, as it were.  The characters in the story would only hear about it later, when he eventually reappeared (originally he wasn’t going to appear until after The Two Dragons).

As I plotted The Young Sorceress, I decided that I needed his story.  I had already written a shipwreck story, so I adapted that to his experiences.  I was never completely happy with the results and his part of the story is my least favorite part of Senta and the Steel Dragon, though I love his eventual return in the end of The Two Dragons.

Motivations: Brechalon

By the end of 2009, I had already decided that I was going to publish The Voyage of the Minotaur myself.  I had three fairly popular free books out there– His Robot Girlfriend, and the two Eaglethorpe Buxton stories.  So I thought, what I really need is a prequel to distribute free that will drive interest for The Voyage of the Minotaur and subsequent books.

Brechalon was a difficult task, because I was trying to set up what would happen in a year or two before the action really starts.  Two of my main characters were at this point fairly uninteresting children and a third was in prison.  I decided to focus on the others, so I had the Iolanthe-Terrence-Yuah story line, the Iolanthe-Zeah story line and the Augie story line.  In addition I followed Zurfina into the prison.  Those decisions brought out a couple of other weaknesses.  The most interesting thing about Terrence is his drug addiction, but I couldn’t show too much of it without giving it away, and the most interesting thing about Zurfina is her magic, and she was in an anti-magic prison cell.  In the end, I was pretty happy with the story, though I don’t think it does much more than hint at what really is to come in The Voyage of the Minotaur.

I don’t think I’ll ever attempt a prequel of this type again.

Motivations: The Voyage of the Minotaur

The Voyage of the Minotaur was actually the second novel that I wrote– sort of.  As I mentioned the other day, it was originally the first part of a very long novel– almost 400,00 words, about 850 pages.  I was almost done with this book before I even had a working title, but settled on The Steel Dragon, and this of course later became Senta and the Steel Dragon.  The three parts were originally called– Expedition, Colony, Dominion.

After the book was done and had gone through editing, I decided that it was just too big and had to be split into three parts.  So part one became The Voyage of the Minotaur.

Several things influenced me to devise this story.  A friend had encouraged me to self-publish Princess of Amathar, and the success of that book, minor though it was, encouraged me to write a second.  Lord of the Rings had just come out and so I was already thinking of a three part fantasy story.  I had also just read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, and remembered his notes about it being his Lord of the Rings.  Finally, I had recently watched James Michener’s Hawaii.  Putting this all together with several non-fiction books I had recently read about colonial imperialism (particularly Britain in Africa), and I came up with the story outline for Senta and the Steel Dragon.

I wanted a story that told about colonialism over a long period– in this case about ten years.  I had thought about how badly native people were treated by the colonial powers and wondered just how much worse it would have been if those natives were an entirely different species.  I already had a world map that I had created a few years earlier when I had toyed with the idea of writing a role-playing setting.  All of this went into the mix.  I also used the setting I had created twenty years before for a few fantasy vignettes I had written– the otherworldly place that people visit when they use the magic drug opthalium.  Throwing all this into the mix, I just started writing.  It took 14 months to write the drafts for what became three books.

The Voyage of the Minotaur: $1.99 for a limited time at Sony and Amazon

The Voyage of the Minotaur is available for a limited time at Amazon (Kindle) and the Sony Ebook Store for $1.99.  That’s $1.00 off its regular price.

Check the price before purchasing because I’m not sure how long this price will be available.  (Like I said– limited.)

On the other hand, if you purchase it for $2.99, I get an extra 70 cents, so thanks.  And I certainly hope you think its worth $3 when you read it.  Writing it was the (mentally) toughest but most rewarding 14 months I think I’ve ever spent.