Saturday, August 29, 2015

A designing woman #2 for #WeWriWa

More from the Pre-steampunk book



Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors.  This is a sample from my latest work in progress, "A Designing Woman", and I hope you enjoy it. Mr. Williams has come for a visit, the day after the assembly, and is now walking with Amanda on their way to the riverbank. They'd have seen her workshop, but for wearing their good clothes. He's just asked her about the papers he read (in last weeks snippet).



“What papers?”
“The ones in the library; I must say, you have a fine hand.”
“I hope you didn't mix them up, they were in order.”
“No, I could see that.” Then Mr. Williams gently chided her, “May I add, that 'Principles of Mechanics' is an unusual read for a young lady. I'd have thought 'the Mysteries of Udolpho' or some such romance would be to your liking.”
Amanda stopped short. She was about to reply sharply, and then noticed the smile on his face, “You're teasing me, aren't you?”
“Yes.”
“I never saw the point in those books, all heartthrob and passion in some made up land; I want to do real things.”


This is a work in progress. Here are links on tablo and authonomy.  Apparently Steampunk implies Victorian, Dieselpunk the 1920's. What-punk should a Regency period book be? Horse-punk isn't right.
Google's being dashed odd - the only way I can reply to comments is to edit the post. Oh well, there's always wordpress. Turns out, Google and Firefox don't get along on windows, but they do on my trusty Linux box.

I'm calling this proto-steampunk simply because I was told in no uncertain terms that "steampunk" meant Victorian with ubiquitous steam technology. Amanda's working before that and during the Regency, so it cannot be steampunk.

Thursday, August 27, 2015

The Uberization of publishing?

Not too long ago one of my works was accepted into Booktrope. Needless to say, I'm really pleased.

Bootktrope works differently from conventional publishers in precisely the same way that Uber differs from cab companies. Instead of a central controlling authority who schedules everything, Booktrope uses a cooperative control model. Authors, book managers, editors, proofreaders, cover designers, and all the various parts of taking a book from a draft to a publication that someone would actually purchase. Instead of the publisher, or in the case of an indie the author, putting up the funds and contracting what are in essence employees to do the work, the booktrope model has them work as a team for a percentage of the return. It spreads the risks and the returns.

Like Uber, Booktrope makes its money by coordinating the parts.

In some ways I think the method is a better fit for publishing than driving.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

A Designing Woman 1 for #wewriwa

More from the Proto-steampunk book



Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors.  This is a sample from my latest work in progress, "A Designing Woman", and I hope you enjoy it. Mr. Williams has come for a visit, the day after the assembly, and is waiting in the library. Like most libraries of the time, it was more for show than reading. He's found his way to Amanda' corner and is strangely interested in what he finds.




Instead of the unused order that characterized the rest of the library, he came to a section that was in active chaos. He picked up one book that was lying open, face down, and read, “Principles of Mechanics.” He frowned at the equations it contained. Then he smiled to himself and put it back. A disorderly stack of pages was tucked into a corner of the room nearby. They were full of drawings and calculations; all were done in a fine feminine hand.

He paged through the sheets and studied Amanda's work. As he gazed with interest at a calculation of the optimum size for a piston, he was interrupted from behind.

“That's my daughter's trash. I try to remind her to be tidy.”

This is a work in progress. Here are links on tablo and authonomy.  Apparently Steampunk implies Victorian, Dieselpunk the 1920's. What-punk should a Regency period book be? Horse-punk isn't right.
Google's being dashed odd - the only way I can reply to comments is to edit the post. Oh well, there's always wordpress.

I'm calling this proto-steampunk simply because I was told in no uncertain terms that "steampunk" meant Victorian with ubiquitous steam technology. Amanda's working before that and during the Regency, so it cannot be steampunk.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Carrot, Parsnip and Potato Pancakes.



Since Kartoffelbrei (potato pancakes) is a German specialty, I somehow doubt that Jane Austen would have eaten these. That said, they're good.

Take:
1 potato
1 parsnip
1 carrot

Grate each coarsely and mix them. You're aiming for roughly equal portions of each vegetable so adjust accordingly if you have a huge potato and a tiny parsnip.

add and mix
1 egg
1 tablespoon flour
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of pepper.

Fry in a layer of hot oil, browning both sides. Remove, drain and eat. The picture had to be taken quickly as they went even faster.

Sunday, August 16, 2015

A word cloud on "after the convergence"

Tag Cloud word count for After the Convergence. I like how Sarah is the central word, even though she's not there for half the book. It doesn't catch all the plot, but knowing the book far too well, I can see a resemblance.
created at TagCrowd.com

Saturday, August 15, 2015

A designing woman 0 for #wewriwa

Something Completely Different



Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors.  This is a sample from my latest work in progress, "A Designing Woman", and I hope you enjoy it.  Amanda's mother is concerned that she's spending too much time working on steam engines and non-genteel things like natural philosophy. She's talking with the vicar's wife at an assembly and they're commenting about the man Amanda is dancing with.





Lady Caterham smiled at Mrs. Peabody. “In other words, a connection to be encouraged. I do so hope Amanda will find something other than machines to tinker with.”
“I agree, a husband and children will soon put her head straight.”

Their happy optimism about Amanda's prospects would have been tempered had they been able to hear her conversation with the young man. While good looking, indeed handsome, with blue eyes, dark hair and a firm visage, able to dance the figures with a natural athletic grace, polite, educated and well mannered, he was also a serious disappointment.

“Mr. Williams, you're studying divinity?”

“A suitable study for a gentleman, honorable and in the service of both man and God.”

“If you say so, but with a chance to meet Dalton or Henry or Davy or,” and here Amanda gave a frisson of excitement, “Even Faraday. You have the chance to study natural philosophy with such masters, and you choose divinity.”

This is a work in progress. Here are links on tablo and authonomy.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Perseids

This is a bit enhanced, but shows some of the Perseid meteors we saw last night. (The streaks on the right). Most were faint, although we saw some that lit up and left a trail in the sky.  This is a 30 second exposure, with an 18mm lens. I'm a bit disappointed in the focus, but that could simply be atmospheric noise. (Or else my lens's infinity isn't infinity.) I've stretched the contrast and brightness as 30s is more than enough to overexpose the image.

Monday, August 10, 2015

Checking Slang.

One big headache for historical romance is getting the slang correct. It's 2015, and the tendency is to write in modern language. A "valley girls in gowns" regency romance won't always work. To be accurate, it will work some of the time, but not always.

I've been using a pretty darn good online etymology dictionary to check on usage. But it's manually curated. Therefore it makes mistakes (as do troll reviewers). An example from a book that is in the final editing.

'“Under a pen name, of course. Won't do to have the next Lord Caterham associated with slushy romantic poetry. Just not done.”'

Slushy sounds rather modern, and the etymology dictionary says it wasn't used at the time. Ha! If I go to the google Ngram search, which automatically searches the corpus of English (and other languages) literature.  Turns out "slushy" is correct.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

After the convergence #6 8-10 sentences for #WeWriWa

More of Alan's Story.



Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors.  This is a sample from my latest work, and I hope you enjoy it. The story continues. More about Sarah's disappearance. Her mother has just explained how happy she was. Sarah had missed the bus with the other students, and supposedly started the journey in a car on her own. She never arrived at the academy.







I thought for a moment to carefully choose my words; I didn’t want to alarm her, but this had all the hallmarks of trouble. Someone in the resistance easily could have reprogrammed the car. I used to do that for fun, as a prank, but why would they take a teenager?
I’m sure she’s just busy; the Academy is a demanding place.”
Were you ever there?”
Not as a student, I didn’t make the cut.”
How?”
Cleaned floors and washed toilets,” I did a few other things as well, let’s just say I was ‘self-educated’. At least until the machine caught me hacking; then I was an instructor, and working on my dissertation. Until I got fed up and decided to branch out on my own.


This work was recently published and is available for Kindle, including Kindle unlimited. It is a dark, noir detective story set in the near future, after machines have become intelligent. It uses a number of engineering/science puns - the "mutual impedance society." 
Available here.