Category: My writing

The physical copies aka “real books” ;)  of The Archimedean Heart arrived yesterday and they look BEAUTIFUL.

I am beyond thrilled.

I will be taking these copies to Clockwork Alchemy this weekend. Who knows? I might even sell a copy!

I’m having a great time researching my next book. Part of why I love writing alt-history is that I get to find out all sorts of amazing things that really happened and turn them into a story.
This new work is set in the Bahamas in 1908 and it is a fascinating time period. I even bought a history book about it. ;)
There was a huge divide between the white Colonials and the people of color who while emancipated, really suffered from poverty and racism. They had a rich culture which I hope to bring out in an engaging fashion, while being respectful to the people.
I’m totally being a history nerd, plus, since it’s fantasy, I get to read folklore. I love folklore and fairy tales.
I just discovered that in Bahamian legend, a monster called the Lusca lurks in the blueholes (beautiful water features caused by collapsed limestone caves), ready to snag people with her octopus-like tentacles and eat them with her shark mouth. This fits in perfectly with my cultists who worship a sea monster.

Here it is, the cover image for The Archimedean Heart.

 

I am so excited! It’s beautiful!

This book, my debut novel, is available for pre-orders on Amazon Kindle Direct now. Print copies were available at Clockwork Alchemy Memorial Day weekend and now through Amazon.

My novel The Archimedean Heart is a story about perceptions of beauty. I was initially inspired by a book about John Singer Sargent, an American expatriate painter in Paris, circa late 19th century. He caused a great scandal by portraying a famous beauty in an unexpected way. I thought it would be interesting to explore what people think of as beautiful. Another element that I wanted to consider is what happens when nature and science collide. So we have the naturalist painters fighting to restore their country to a more “real” place and the Court painters still slavishly devoted to the porcelain doll beauties of the Court. Plus a lady scientist who is probably the coolest of the bunch, because, SCIENCE. It’s set against an 1880s France that never was. In this France, the Scientists created a weather machine and the French people never go hungry. There was no French Revolution and the old monarchs are still in power, at least as figureheads. The Scientists have Augmented them to keep them going much to the dismay of our Naturalists.

I started planning this novel in the summer of 2014 and then wrote the bulk of it during NaNoWriMo 2014 . Got my 50,000+ words written in a month. Of course, that was really just the beginning. After a lot of revisions, two rounds of editing by a professional editor, and beta reads, The Archimedean Heart is ready to be published! It came in at just over 62,000 words, so it will be a quick read. I find that I’m just not a writer who wants to go on and on.
I am currently slogging through formatting. Kinda fun, kinda drudgery.
The really cool news: I hired an AMAZING cover designer to create the cover. Eloise Knapp of EK Cover Design  did a superb job on Gods of Chicago and Gods of New Orleans, so I had to have her work on my cover. Reveals will be forthcoming.