Two Bits of News

Whoops. I see a month has gone by without me updating this blog. (I have been updating my other blog at http://thewildcatsvictory.wordpress.com ).

Until now I have had little to add to the progress of my fantasy novel Rast, but it looks as if my publisher is going to pass on a deal from LSI that will reduce the cost of POD print books of Rast, so I will have them to sell in July. Whoopee?? That means I will have to go out and start peddling books again. That’s what I get for wanting to be an author.

On the electronic front, I have entered Rast in the 2012 EPIC E-Book Awards in the Fantasy category. I hope I will have news to post here in due course. While I’m sceptical about the value of awards, the EPPIEs (as they used to be known) do have real human judges evaluating the entries and are not just a popularity contest for authors. If Rast gets anywhere in the contest, I would hope it would impress potential readers that the novel is worth looking at.

I’m supposed to be starting a sequel to Rast, but except for some cogitating nothing concrete has been produced. I’m working on a new venture for Muse, which is my Rast publisher. Since most of the authors and readers are romance fans, (and erotic romance) I’ve decided to dip my foot in the pool. Nothing so straightforward as a mere romance novel—I’m looking at writing Regency Steampunk (with romance) to combine killing a whole batch of ‘birds’ with one blast. It will be a series of three novellas—the first is complete in first draft.

Yes...steampunk is usually Victorian and filled with machines impossible to engineer with steam technology, but I’ve already produced some of those in Rast, so “Regency Bagatelle” (the series title) must have viable machines, even if I take liberties with their birthdays. My 1814 has Napoleon still at large and preparing to invade England again, and my two romancers are an aristocratic spy and the engineer daughter of George Stephenson. Will provide progress updates as I proceed.