Category: history

Hunter Healer King, Book 2 is Here!

Posted on Posted in Cool Books, Fantasy, history, Mel Dunay, Myth, Paranormal Romance, Publishing Plans, Steampunk, Weird Science, World Building, WritingTagged , , , Leave a comment

The name’s Chloe Fortebat, and I am in trouble. First I helped Maxim kill a werewolf, then I kissed him, and then I insulted him when I found out that he was roughly twice as old as he looked. Now Maxim is about to be crowned King of the Stormcrows aboard a luxury airship, and he has invited me to attend. But this ship feels more like a cage with each passing hour: a passenger’s horse has turned up missing, a crewman has turned up dead, and before it all started, I heard noises in the cargo hold. But Maxim has a mind as sharp as my banishing dagger, and between us, we aim to put an end to whatever monster lurks aboard the ship, no matter how awkward we feel around each other right now…

My name is Dr. Maxim os Storm, and I hunt the beasts that haunt the night. With my coronation mere hours away, something stalks the shadows of this vessel: a monster that answers to a human being..but who? And for what purpose? Despite our recent…complications, Chloe’s courage and loyalty make her my strongest ally as I pursue our enemies, and brace for the dreadful pomp and circumstance of my own coronation. The crown of the Stormcrows may await me, but first, we have a mystery to solve – together.

Writer PSA

Posted on Posted in history, Paranormal Romance, Scrivener, Steampunk, World Building, WritingTagged , 1 Comment

Always try to collect all your notes on a particular story in one place somewhere. I was reading some books about writing mysteries, remembered a failed mystery idea(1) I had done a lot of world building for, went to look up the Scrivener file I had for it, and discovered that a). it took me an embarrassingly long time to find it because I’d named the file after a relatively trivial story element I wasn’t interested in using anymore and b). although I had successfully corralled the setting notes om scriv(2) and some general ideas on the two detectives, I did not have notes on my plot ideas.

And okay, when I did a deep dive into the notebooks I was using around the time I was brainstorming this, I found that my plot ideas were mostly pretty lame, and that was why I hadn’t taken them seriously enough to put them into Scrivener, but I would have saved myself a certain amount of trouble if I had.

(1) it was one of the iterations of the Feisty Girl/Posh Guy concept that eventually led to Wolf’s Trail, would have been maybe 3a or 4a on this list or this list.

(2) Incredibly important because I had zeroed in on, and even mapped, a tiny bit of Slovenia in an alternate post-WWI, with history on why it was previously its own principality going back several generations and including an alternate wife for a guy who saved Emperor Franz-Josef from an assassination attempt and an additional daughter for Queen Victoria.

Adapting Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, The Dashwoods and Ferrarses

Posted on Posted in history, Jane Austen, Weird ScienceTagged , , , , 2 Comments

I recently finished listening to this book on Librivox (the Karen Savage reading), and decided to start blogging again about adapting Jane Austen. For an introductory essay on the subject, go here. For subsequent essay, click on the Jane Austen category in this blog. As usual, we start with the characters:

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Writing Vacay, Day 3

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Slept in dramatically, felt much better, got some stuff done around the house. Still got a late start on anything writing adjacent:

  • Some brainstorming
  • a lot of research on the less feudal bits (Switzerland, Frisia, etc) of medieval Europe, vaguely connected with one of the plot bunnies
  • 100-200 words adjusting earlier scenes in the WIP
  • 972 words moving forward on the WIP
  • lower word target met! yay?

Writing Vacay, Day 1

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I took the four days after Memorial Day off, planning to do kind of a writing staycation. My goal was try and do a thousand words a day, stretch goal of 1300 words a day, preferably on my main WIP (sequel to Wolf’s Trail), but anything really would do. First Day’s results:

  • 300ish words on WIP
  • 1322 words on a long, rambling blog post draft I might not put up.
  • Well, I made word count, but at what cost?

Weird Wednesday: Doctor Who and the 7 Golden Vampires

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To those who are not familiar with the movies and tv show being referenced, no explanation is possible. To those who are, no explanation is necessary. To those who whine about how awful the source movies are: I have so little respect for your opinions that I am not even doing you the courtesy of putting these beneath the fold.

Likeable and Unlikeable Main Characters

Posted on Posted in Fantasy, history, Jane Austen, Space Opera, WritingTagged , , , , 1 Comment

Elsewhere on the web, there was a discussion going on about whether readers of popular fiction would tolerate an unlikeable main character, and I stuck my oar in – well, a whole galley’s worth of oars actually. I thought I would try to summarize some of my opinions here:

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Final Episode of Hunter Healer King

Posted on Posted in Cool Books, Cool Websites, Fantasy, history, Mel Dunay, Paranormal Romance, Steampunk, Weird Science, World Building, WritingLeave a comment

To claim her inheritance, Chloe Fortabat has to leave her ranch and come to the Old World, where she mingles with monster hunters. The most dangerous of these doesn’t look the part: a quiet, sharp-dressed medical man. Dr. Maxim os Storm’s mission is to destroy those monsters which feed on human pain. He is drawn to Chloe, but she is being slowly transformed into the exact type of monster he hunts. He does not know if he can cure her in time, or what she will do when she learns his secrets…

The final Vella episode of Hunter Healer King is now live. I am collecting the Vella episodes into book form, and will release it to Kindle Unlimited under the title Wolf’s Trail (Hunter Healer King Book 1) in late December 2023, barring catastrophes. If you are interested in learning more about Vella, keep reading.

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New Episode for Hunter Healer King

Posted on Posted in Cool Books, Cool Websites, Fantasy, history, Mel Dunay, Paranormal Romance, Steampunk, Weird Science, World Building, WritingLeave a comment

To claim her inheritance, Chloe Fortabat has to leave her ranch and come to the Old World, where she mingles with monster hunters. The most dangerous of these doesn’t look the part: a quiet, sharp-dressed medical man. Dr. Maxim os Storm’s mission is to destroy those monsters which feed on human pain. He is drawn to Chloe, but she is being slowly transformed into the exact type of monster he hunts. He does not know if he can cure her in time, or what she will do when she learns his secrets…

I plan to drop new episodes for this serial every day in the Kindle Vella store for the foreseeable future. To learn more about Vella, keep reading.

Continue reading “New Episode for Hunter Healer King” →