The Beatitude of Suvita in softcover

The softcover of The Beatitude of Suvita is now also available on Amazon.

Amazon was particularly efficient today, and already published the Kindle edition of The Beatitude of Suvita. This is what the cover looks like, and the sample chapter is available on the right (with the sample chapters of my other two books). It's priced the same too, $2.99, but if you want to review the book I can send you a copy separately (this is also true for the first two books of the series).

With The Beatitude of Suvita the series is now complete, but there is of course always a chance that I feel inspired to write more.

The Beatitude of Suvita about to be published

Both the kindle files and the physical copy of the book are under review and should soon appear on Amazon. I will already add the sample first chapter here, so you can enjoy that part.

The Beatitude of Suvita is the third part of the Mar Enmig Chronicles, the other two books are available here too (including their sample chapters). The books don't have to be read in order, the stories are separate.

Read the apha and beta versions of my latest novels

I've mostly finished "The Baetitude of Suvita" and the first draft of "Human Version 3" and would love more feedback, so if you're interested in reading these let me know. The first is part of the Mediterranean steampunk series that I already wrote two books in, the second is part of my next, Near Sci-Fi series, for which I don't really have a name yet.

The Beatitude of Suvita

The third book in the Mar Enmig chronicles will be the Beatitude of Suvita. In time it is right after the Daemon of Cormagan, however, the book stands on its own (like the other two books in the series). In this book Suvita is trying to prevent a war between the Romans and the Cathar. I'm currently going through the book for a third edit, and hoping for more comments from people reading the book (if you want to read the current version, feel free to contact me). Marlon Teunissen is again drawing the illustrations for the book, of which two are already done.

Ex Fumigans Vapore Encyclopedia now available for e-readers

The "Ex Fumigans Vapore" Encyclopedia, describing the technology the the Haeven of Punyal and the Daemon of Cormagan is now also available as an e-book and as PDF. There is also a version available on Amazon, which will be updated more frequently than the ones here. Hopefully you enjoy reading this small encyclopedia of steampunk inventions.

The Haven of Punyal published

The Haeven of Punyal is now published on Amazon. The kindle version should follow soon. It is $9.99 for the book, and $2.99 for the Kindle version once it appears. I will update this blog with a link to the sample chapter as well as other important information soon.

Editorial Letter for The Haeven of Punyal

These are some of excerpts from the second editorial letter:
 

"The manuscript is imaginative from the start, causing readers to wonder what sort of world they’ve entered and what sort of creatures inhabit it. Language and technology are used to great effect in the story."

"The story unfolds at a very crisp pace, each chapter proceeding generally in the pattern of flashback/news article/obituary/interview, Chalina’s story, Capa’s story/present day, then commentary from “dead” Punyal. This order is both logical and comforting in a way, as the reader is guided through the ebb and flow of the action at a measured rate.

In Punyal’s musings after death at the end of most of the chapters, he seems to be addressing his sister and then the reader, sort of like a chorus in Greek drama. He offers analysis of what has taken place as well as some foreshadowing of the events to come."

Cover text for The Hæven of Punyal

In a Mediterranean steampunk world Capa finds that her brother Punyal has disappeared, and most likely has been murdered. She investigates what has happened together with her partner Velas, one of the best engineers outside of London. They uncover the mystery that other forces want to keep shrouded and Capa can no longer remain an observer.

Today I finished formatting the interior of "The Hæven of Punyal". It is currently being checked by CreateSpace for issues, and at the same time I worked on the cover. I already had most of the work on the cover done (my name is likely to lose a fraction at the top, but I don't want to reduce the size of the image, as Marlon did such an awesome job on it, that that will just have to be. It all depends on CreateSpace's cutting, and I find it more likely that the name will be fine. We'll see when the proof arrives. The only thing missing is the text at the back of the novel, which is why I'm writing this post. Let me know what you think about the above... Should I add more about Chalina? Should it be longer? More elaborate? I have a tendency to not want to give away anything in the cover text, but I usually find other novels describe half their content.

Editorial Letter quotes

I received the Editorial Letter for the Haeven of Punyal (as well as the edited version, which hopefully I can incorporate this weekend). Here are some of the happy quotes:

This accomplished and absorbing book, a novel blend of steampunk fiction, murder mystery, and code (ranging from the covert speech patterns of the Xivato to the proteins for which DNA codes), was a pleasure to read.
...

Against the backdrop of a fantastic steampunk world where Romans are identified by their tails and the sense of smell is privileged over sight or hearing, this novel is remarkable for being primarily driven not by its admirably speculative setting but by its strong characters of Capa, Chalina, and Punyal, who shift and grow over the full course of the story in response to circumstances beyond their control. Supporting characters also are given room to grow—for example, Black Dog, through his increasingly complex interactions with Chalina.

...

Overall the manuscript’s style is rich but discreet, offering a rhythmically varied syntax filled with descriptive detail, but never calling attention to itself and away from the more important story at hand.

Farsee (temporary title) finished

While "The Haeven of Punyal" is still being edited by the editors at CreateSpace, I just finished Farsee as part of NaNoWriMo, with a total of 50368 words. It is much rougher than my previous two novels, so it will need more editing, but hopefully will be finished on the same time schedule.

Encyclopedia

I added a few more entries to the Encyclopedia that I'm writing related to the books. Hopefully it is entertaining. The new entries are the alerter (from my latest book) and the trireme (from The Daemon of Cormagan).

Alerter

My artist, Marlon Teunissen, is working on the fourth illustration of the Haeven of Punyal. This scene covers one of the steampunk devices used in this book, which doesn't have a name. It is an alerter, and I created a simple rendering of it here, so that she can use it to complete her drawing. The way it works is approximately as follows: using a flywheel (eventually steam powered, of course) a platform slowly turns around, on which a infrared sensitive lens is situated. This lens' focus is changed between certain distances, allowing the valve to open and close depending on whether a heat signature is detected (the alerter uses a similar crystal as the talker, which allows the infrared light to be focused on a valve which opens and closes). In this case the valve doesn't trigger an air stream, but a small silver rod which hits a large bell. As long as the device is powered, this means it will sound the bell each time it finds a relatively large heat signature. It therefore alerts you if there are people nearby.

First illustration done

The first illustration for the Haeven of Punyal is finished. This also means I continued my first editing pass through. It will be a while, but hopefully the book will be done relatively soon.

Dreams with Marlon

The latest editon of Brabants Strip magazine contains an article about Marlon Teunissen, the artist who made the illustrations for "The Daemon of Cormagan". The book is also mentioned in this article.

Finished NaNoWriMo 2011

The sequel to the Dæmon of Cormagan has finished the writing phase. Next is the editing phase, which will take a lot longer. Basically this is book two in the Mar Enmig series. The book can be read on its own, there are a few minor characters shared between the novels, but apart from that it is separate, and even has a different style.

Now available in both Kindle and soft cover versions on Amazon

You can now buy this book on Amazon. The kindle version was already available for some time (and already sold some copies and got a review), but today the soft cover version became available as well. I get slightly more money if the book is bought directly from createspace, but I would already be quite happy if you decided to buy my book at all.

Preview

I decided to use the createspace website to add a preview of my novel. It includes the first chapter, which is also available on the kindle page of amazon.com, and my own website.

Launched

Whether it is the 17th of October, or the 18th, the book is now available on amazon.com (kindle only at the moment, but the soft cover should be available soon as well) and on create space. More information can be found on my landing page, which also links to the places where the novel can be purchased. It also includes the first chapter, so you can get a feel of the writing.

Getting ready for launch

So far I've set up my ad campaign in Ad Words (mostly image ads, obviously), the kindle version is uploaded and ready to be published and the proof is underway. Hopefully I can make everything active at the same time. It's kind of exciting, actually.