Future projects

Update: The Mountain King will be released May 7th instead of April 30th. My schedule was just too crazy in April to get this book out when I originally wanted to, so look for it on May 7th!

 As I am working on my current novella I'm thinking ahead to the project I have scheduled this summer that will extend towards the end of the year. I have one more novella for the children's fantasy series I'm writing and then I'm done - for the time being. I won't say that I won't revisit the series and pick up where I've left off because at this point I don't know. In fact, I have an idea for a short story that would be part of that world, but that's another day. A few years off, in fact.

 The next project I plan to write is a trilogy that I have wanted to write for years and years! I'm very excited! So far I've come up with the title The Red World trilogy for the entire series (formerly Monolith) but I haven't come up with individual titles that I like. This is unusual because I often come up with titles first and then build a story around that title. I'm sure it will come to me in due time though.

 This next story is going to be a sweeping Science Fantasy and it will take place on another planet, a desert planet. The first book will be out in September, or that's what I'm shooting for anyway. I have some research I plan to do for this story too. Part of that research will be reading some of my favorite books: The Bible and Frank Herbert's Dune, plus some books on astronomy and cosmology.

 I anticipate that the trilogy should be finished sometime early in 2013. Also between this summer and December I'll be writing another short story and this next short story will actually be the prologue to the next series I plan to write when The Red World trilogy is finished; a steampunk science fiction series.

 Writing is the best job in the world to me. I get to sit around and make stuff up. I love it!

Free Short story!

New book cover art for my new science fiction short story, Rainfall. 

A man with a mysterious illness hears voices 

 and sees strange visions - but only when it rains.

Rainfall is available for free download at Scribd and Feedbooks. Check it out!

Antiquitypunk? Anyone? Anyone?

Steampunk.

It's a popular genre and has been for quite some time now. Some might say it's past it's heyday. I don't know about that. I plan to write a steampunk series sometime in the next year so I hope that isn't true. Even if it were in some peoples' minds, publishing is different now so you can pretty much write anything you want and someone will want to read it, no matter how "out of style" the genre may be.

In any case, I don't think the steampunk sub-genre will ever truly go out of style. I follow a fellow on Facebook, Daniel Proulx, who creates steampunk jewelry. He also posts a lot of wonderful steampunk conceptual art pieces that he finds on to his FB page. Here are a few of my favorites:

But it got me wondering yesterday. That and an interview I was listening to on the Adventures of SciFi Publishing podcast about something older - antiquitypunk. Ancient people's used machines often to tell time, seasons and to study the stars. There are other ancient machines as well that I can't recall the names of at the moment. Oh, there's a famous archeological find called the Antikythera Mechanism that comes to my mind.

What would antiquitypunk look like? What would it be like? what kind of stories could populate such a world? Perhaps ancient flying balloons instead of dirigibles? Or mechanical bow and arrows that shoot arrows of fire that explode on impact, like bunker-busters? Or mechanical horses and chariots? Wooden and metal submarines? Airplanes shaped like birds, made of wood with wings of linen? I don't know. There's a lot to think about. It just gets me thinking that perhaps I should write a short story involving this sub-genre just mostly as a place holder for future ideas.

Anyone else out there have any ideas?