Weekend Steampunk Videos

First up, a collection of projects in a steampunk workshop.



Internet memes translated into Victorian times.



Finally, the best corkscrew ever invented.

Finished!

The first draft is finished. Sort of. It has been written to the end, let's put it that way. The climax and the follow-up, even a short epilogue. All done.

Now I am editing and filling in. As an author I tend to be very direct and to the point. Nearly every scene I have written to this point is directly relevant to the plot. But I have created a world that I hope will entice readers to stop and smell the roses now and again, which means I need to go back and plant a few. Here is a sample, I hope it smells sweet.

Konrad helped Tinibu and Grover out while they worked on the fourth aircraft in their wing of fighters. Tinibu dangled over the side of the biplane's turbine access hatch, held up by a thin hemp rope and a mesh of canvas straps he wore like a vest. Beneath the aeroplane, flapping in the wind, was what the mechanics on Kharkov called a diaper, a large sheet of netting, designed to catch anything the mechanic might drop by accident. Grover and Konrad stood above, lowering tools and parts on long cords to Tinibu whenever he called for them. The sun had just passed over the horizon, so Tinibu was closing up for the day.
Konrad glanced up and saw a glittering jewel in the distance, set against the dusky sky. He pointed it out to Grover.
“What is that?”
Grover looked up and smiled. “Paname. The most beautiful sky-city. I have only visited her once and I fell in love. One day I will go back. I save a bit of my pay so I can live there when I retire, find a nice French girl, settle down and raise a family.”
“That is a worthy ambition.”
The city drifted closer, Konrad could make out individual lights glowing in the sky. It had towers and what looked like bridges on the upper surface. Whereas Himmelberg was lumpy and misshapen, every line of Paname seemed planned. Konrad had never considered before that something so large could appear graceful. The entire city sparkled, like a sky full of stars, compressed to the size of a city.
The little man sighed. “It is a pipe-dream Konrad. I would need to work a hundred years to save enough, but, a man has to have dreams. Mine is La Ville-Lumière.”
Tinibu cleared his throat below them. “If you two lovebirds are just about done admiring the view, I am ready to be hoisted up.”

Ætherstorm Query

I have decided my novel will be named Aetherstorm, at least until I find something I like more. While finishing the final chapters this week I have also been refining my query letter. For those who don't know a query is an essential part of the process to getting published, the body should look something like the back cover of a published novel. Here is the body of the query for Aetherstorm.

Eighteen-year-old Konrad Adler has never set foot on Earth. On most of the planet, aether-warped animals and a dangerous sub-species of human called synari reign. Ordinary men live in the skies, safe from the dangers below, destroying the aether-warped branches of humanity at every opportunity. Konrad appears to be an ordinary human, but in truth he is like the synari, aether-warped, faster and stronger than humans.

When Lord Dragomir discovers his secret, Konrad flees by stowing away on his father's salvage gyrocopter. But the salvage operation goes wrong. The gyro crashes, killing his father and leaving Konrad stranded, hunted by both Dragomir and the synari. He will need to survive on a planet no longer fit for human life, make his way back to his home in the skies and confront Dragomir before he can truly be free.

But Dragomir has bigger plans. The flow of aether on Earth is too weak for him. He would rip a hole in the fabric of space, threatening every life on or above Earth, to create an aetherstorm.

Let me know what you think!