Posts tagged as “The Clockwork Time Machine”

The Science of …

Published June 24, 2012 by centaur

I've finally put up the presentation for The Science of Airships onto the site. Right now it's a ginormous PDF presentation linked off that page (no, really, it's huge, be warned, that's why I'm sending you to the parent page and not giving out the direct link), but I'm planning to break it apart into pieces that are easier to digest, which I'll work into the regular flow of the blog.

This is part of a more general The Science of... series I'll be starting on this blog. The pages are skeletal right now, just HTML, but I'm going to integrate them into the WordPress engine so that I can add to them more rapidly.

The plan (ha! ha! I kill me!) is to first I'll go through the +500 or so articles in this blog and reblog articles that fit under this description and link them of http://www.dresan.com/science/, then I'll start adding presentations. I'm thinking the next presentation will either be The Science of Steam or The Science of Rayguns, suitably steampunk titles ... though the Science of Spacecraft and The Science of Spacesuits won't be long in following.

-the Centaur

The Science of Airships at Clockwork Alchemy

Published May 18, 2012 by centaur

I'll be giving a presentation on The Science of Airships at the Clockwork Alchemy steampunk conference on Sunday, May 27th at noon. UPDATE: The panel description is now up:

Science of Airships

Anthony Francis

Steampunk isn't just brown, boots and buttons - our adventurers need glorious flying machines! This panel will unpack the science of lift, the innovations of Count Zeppelin, how airships went down in flames and how we might still have cruise liners of the air if things had gone a bit differently.

I started researching this topic for THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE and it's fascinating! Come one, come all and find out how much each of you are buoyant!

-the Centaur

P.S. The first diagram was generated in Mathematica using the following code:

sphere = SphericalPlot3D[1, th, phi, PlotPoints -> 5][[1]];
Zeppelin =
Function[{length, width},
   Scale[Rotate[sphere, 90 Degree, {0, 1, 0}], {length/2, width/2,
   width/2}]];
Graphics3D[Translate[{
   {LightGray, Opacity[0.6], Zeppelin[7, 1]},
   {Yellow,
Table[Sphere[{i, 0, 0}, 0.2 + (2 - Abs[i])/20], {i, -2.7, 2.5, 1.0}]},
   }, {{2.5, 0, 0}}], Ticks -> Automatic, Axes -> True,
Epilog ->
Inset[Framed[Style["Zeppelin", 20], Background -> LightYellow], {Right,
Bottom}, {Right, Bottom}], ImageSize -> {800, 600},
ViewAngle -> 4 °]

The second diagram was generated in Adobe Illustrator based on calculations done in Microsoft Excel.

P.P.S. And yes I know that it's a bit weird to do calculations in Excel when I have Mathematica, but (a) I didn't have Mathematica when I started working on this problem, but someone donated me a free copy of Mathematica Cookbook and that convinced me to give Mathematica a try for some of my diagrams, and (b) after having worked with Mathematica's notebooks and with Microsoft Excel I'm still using both, each for different things, and have come to the conclusion that an Excel spreadsheet model powered by Mathematica's symbolic reasoning engine would be thirty-one flavors of awesome!

One day.

Prevail, Victoriana!

Published April 29, 2012 by centaur

Today I finished the first hundred pages to the screenplay to JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE, officially winning Script Frenzy 2012! Prevail, Victoriana!

I'm super happy about this, of course, but this has been a very interesting experience. Even though I've left out much of the story and many of the nuances, the script is coming in massively long - 100 pages translating to about 150 of a 450 page book, probably resulting in a 300 page script with a four-hour running time.

I'm learning new techniques to cut things out - breaking things into self-contained scenes which could be deleted wholesale, streamlining conversations, recasting thought as action that illustrates the same point. I probably could easily cut this script down from 100 pages to 70 or even 50 ... but then I wouldn't have succeeded at Script Frenzy.

I believe that you can't really tell what to cut out until you FINISH YOUR WORK (a philosophy shared by many in my writing group). Writing is not editing, and often you can't tell what a story really needs until you finish it. (If you're an expert author and have passed this stage in your development, bully for you; above, I'm talking to the not-finishers). For example, can this scene be cut? It might disappear, it might become one offhand line ... or it could be expanded to a fullblown argument, if we need to highlight the tension between our heroes:

Jeremiah leans back, her eyes narrowing at her companions.

JEREMIAH

Let me guess. He lied.

GEORGIANA

(nods)

I do love dear Albert, Jeremiah, but the reason I stole your mark was to make a personal appeal.

PATRICK

Einstein was about to rediscover the weapon that ended the Civil War. In the Victoriana, the Peerage suppressed that knowledge.

GEORGIANA

The point of the mission was not to steal Austrian secrets, but to convince him to keep them secret.

Jeremiah scowls, looking at the both of them.

JEREMIAH

And you kept this from me.

GEORGIANA

The mission was ... Need to know.

JEREMIAH

What kind of mad dictator came up with that rule?

(points at Patrick)

And why did he get---

PATRICK

To confirm what he was up to. The Lady Georgiana had to train me to operate the Crookes counter.

Jeremiah is glaring daggers at the two of them...

At my stage in scriptwriting, it's going to be far easier to tell what to leave out after I've put it all in. So, even though I'm going to shift gears back to Dakota Frost #3, LIQUID FIRE and the Science of Airships panel at Clockwork Alchemy, my plan is to finish THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE script in its entirety. Then I'm going to cut it mercilessly until it hits a 2 hour (ish) running time. Then I'm going to hold a reading where a group of friends will read the script aloud so I can see how it sounds (a trick I learned from my friend the playwright Jim Davies). And then I'm going to cut it again.

And then Script Frenzy will probably roll around again, as I'll have to squeeze all the above in around regular work and writing. But if I keep at it, after a few years of writing scripts I'll probably have something pretty tight, something that might actually be salable. Not that I won't try to sell THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE, but I won't let failure to sell the first script I've written in twenty years stop me.

I'm in this for the duration.

Prevail, Victoriana!

-the Centaur

UPDATE: I forgot to mention SCRIVENER. Scrivener, Scrivener, Scrivener: without you I wouldn't have finished THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE on time. I don't know if you'll replace Microsoft Word -- I've been using THAT for almost a quarter century --- but you made the process of producing a script effortless. Thank you.

Back on Track

Published April 28, 2012 by centaur

We made it to "back on track". 94 pages, which is just enough to finish up by Monday if I do 3 pages per day. I'd rather "finish" Script Frenzy tonight, so I can relax a bit tomorrow and get back to LIQUID FIRE. Let's see what we can do to do that.

Oh, right, excerpts. I can't do latest excerpts as we've moved past the first twist of the story. Here's a bit from a bit further back:

Jeremiah arrives moments after Georgiana, who's wearing a slit-front traveling dress over boots and pants and has a leather satchel. She's discreetly checking a deranger.

GEORGIANA

Well, Jeremiah, have you everything you need?

She dry-fires the deranger, while Jeremiah checks a first aid kit she keeps in her left pocket.

JEREMIAH

Whether I'm to stab or be stabbed for the queen, I'm ready.

GEORGIANA

Is that a literal or metaphorical stabbing you're hoping for?

Patrick arrives wearing an aerograph pack, not unlike a cross between a television and a World War II field radio.

PATRICK

Oh, gentlewomen, please.

(notes blunderblast)

You've quite taken to that. I should give it to you.

JEREMIAH

(smiles)

Yes, you should. Check your pack?

Check your pack, wind your braces, buckle your chin-strap.

Prevail, Victoriana!

-the Centaur

UPDATE: Taking a break at 96 pages. That should be enough for tonight, and I've just about closed down the Coffee Society ... but if I get more beans and vinegar, who knows?

Aaalmost there…

Published April 28, 2012 by centaur

19 pages so far today. 1 and a half pages to go to put me back on the track I should have been all month.

Stay on target.

-the Centaur

Stay on Target

Published April 28, 2012 by centaur

Eighty-five pages in. There's so much I would want to do to this script; so much I want to cut out, to streamline. But now's not the time to do that. Now's Script Frenzy, it's only 7pm, and I'm just 8 pages shy of being back on track, back on the REAL track, the 3-a-day-to-finish track. Let's see if we can do it. Latest excerpt:

Jeremiah looks back at her companions, mouth hanging open. Patrick is struggling with the straps of his aerograph.

PATRICK

Why am I lugging this? I should just polish up a sliver of obsidian and pack it with magic---

JEREMIAH

Settle down. That wasn't magic. We need to establish our location---

GEORGIANA

Oh, I know where we are.

(staring overhead)

But that's less of an answer than a new conundrum.

Jeremiah and Patrick turn to follow her eyes. Fifty feet away, a weathered archway over a wide road says...

That says ... what? You'll have to wait and see. (Though people who've read "Steampunk Fairy Chick" can probably guess.)

-the Centaur

Today’s the Day

Published April 28, 2012 by centaur

Today's the day I can get back on track. Already 5 pages in to today's quota, it's barely past noon, and I'm not scheduled to do anything today except write. No birthday parties, no trips to the park, no ferrying people about the whole Bay Area and Pacific Coast Highway. Just writing. Latest excerpt:

Harbinger motions to an aeronaut to take his place at the console. Jeremiah leaps down into the navigation trench, art deco glass crunching under her boots. She peers about.

JEREMIAH

Lower us over the shorter tower at our five o'clock. It looks to have a flat roof and a fire escape.

BIRMINGHAM

(looks in telescopes)

We're on it, Commander.

JEREMIAH

Doubly capital.

She leaps up the stairs and joins Patrick, who is extending his hand to Georgiana --- but with his eyes on Jeremiah.

PATRICK

Just like old times.

Georgiana, as oblivious as Jeremiah, takes his hand and rises, and the three of them are together again.

GEORGIANA

Just like Austria.

JEREMIAH

Let's hope not, you stole from me all the best men.

PATRICK

There are other fish in the sea.

The three of them walk together from the bridge.

JEREMIAH

We'll keep an eye out for you---

PATRICK

Oi---

Here goes nothing. Onward into the seas of time!

-the Centaur

At 73 Pages…

Published April 27, 2012 by centaur

... 27 left to finish by Monday night. That is all.

-the Centaur

Excellent Progress is Not Enough

Published April 23, 2012 by centaur

I've done 6 pages of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE today, double the needed Script Frenzy rate.

If only I wasn't already 40+ pages behind!

I don't think I've ever been this far behind on a National Novel Writing Month-like challenge, or with so much else to do in my life.

Time to step up my game.

New late-night coffeehouse detected, spouse alerted, necessary emails sent, distractions out of the way. 3 pages to go to get back on target; a magical 4 pages will put me ahead for the day - a pace that can only lead to victory! What would Jeremiah say?

GEORGIANA

Oh, dear God, I'm right.

The murmuring now becomes an open free for all. All the characters start speaking over each other.

PATRICK

Hang it all, it's not possible for him to undo history---

NATASHA

Fine for you, you're a man, you've a place in the world he wants---

BIRMINGHAM

So we've found him. Excellent. Any similarity to this speculation is surely simple coincidence---

SIR ALICE

Coincidence? We've never gotten a demagnetizer past the Confederates antenna arrays before---

Jeremiah calmly draws her sole working Kathodenstrahl and fires a blast straight up. The unlit chandelier beneath the apex of the dome flickers with lightning and light.

JEREMIAH

Do I have your attention?

(glances around)

Gentlemen and gentlewomen. The Lady Georgiana has identified an a threat to our very existence, and Sir Alice has just confirmed it.

She holsters her weapon, then looks at the spectroscope.

JEREMIAH

Sir Alice, I must recommend extreme boldness.

Extreme boldness, indeed.

Prevail, Victoriana!

-the Centaur

Stay on Target

Published April 23, 2012 by centaur

31 pages in. Stay on target. Latest excerpt:

INSET: she turns her pliers, exposing five distinct sets of wheels with settings at the heart of the navigear.

... perhaps five, though the last might be an imaginary residue---

SIR ALICE

An imaginary residue, leaving us with a time machine, like Wells's aerograph romances? Lady Georgiana, you've fallen too much in love with young Einstein for your own good!

GEORGIANA

(flustered)

Be that as it may, the Machine is gone from a sealed hangar, and Commander Willstone, Lieutenant Harbinger, Sargeant Natasha and twenty of her Falconers saw it disappear with their own eyes accompanied by the distinctive ripples I think would be generated by this device---

BIRMINGHAM

But why would he even do such a thing? Tomorrow comes whether you want it to or not---

GEORGIANA

But yesterday doesn't. If you could travel to the past, there's a good chance you could change it.

SIR ALICE

Good God. What would a reactionary like Lord Christopherson do with our history?

NATASHA

Amass an army.

BIRMINGHAM

Overthrow the crown?

JEREMIAH

I know. The blackguard told me. He's gone to undo Liberation.

Onward...

-the Centaur

Making Progress…

Published April 20, 2012 by centaur

Yerk. Still amazingly behind ... 23 pages in, need 77 more to go. Need to write 8 pages a day to get back on track. Can you say AAAAAAA! I can. People stare at me when I do. But I can. Here's a bit more about the script from the Script Frenzy site:

Latest excerpt:

Green crackling fire envelops the whole machine, tinged by a growing blue glow of Cerenkov radiation. The air around the machine ripples, like the machine is dipped in water.

Images begin appearing in the rippling miasma: Jeremiah and Patrick, Natasha raising her weapon, a footman falling. It's clear these are a jumble of events, past and future.

JEREMIAH

(tilting her head)

That's more than an air craft.

START FLASHBACK

Jeremiah, in a ridiculous dress, half undone, lounges in a punt. She waves at the shore, where Patrick walks with Georgiana, who glares jealously on.

Jeremiah plucks a bit of cheese from a basket, strong hands push a pole, and the camera pans back to a young Albert Einstein, similarly disheveled, pushing the punt.

JEREMIAH

I wish we had more time.

EINSTEIN

(smiling sadly)

What is time, but another kind of space? Ripples in one move us along the axis of the other.

Jeremiah looks aside, where a dragonfly alights on a leaf. Water churns around the pole, an eddy catches the leaf, and it is whipped back around the pole as it moves forward.

JEREMIAH

If ripples are time and space, what's flow? Can we get more time?

EINSTEIN

(winks at her)

Must I give up all my secrets?

JEREMIAH

(crooks her finger)

If you want to make more ripples.

The dragonfly alights ... and Jeremiah takes his hand.

Poor Albert! Jeremiah will only break your heart. Onward!

-the Centaur

Script Frenzy 2012: THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE

Published April 11, 2012 by centaur

I'm so busy I can't see straight, so that must mean it's time to take on another project. I'm doing Script Frenzy this month, a challenge to write 100 pages of a script in 30 days, much like National Novel Writing Month, only for film.

I'm adapting my recently completed novel JEREMIAH WILLSTONE THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE to film. I'm using Scrivener. It's great. Here's a sample of the screenplay:

EXT. NEWFOUNDLAND - CONSERVATORY. NIGHT

A mammoth complex looms in the night, an airship hangar made of glass attached to a hulking Victorian palace.

Lightning reflects off the glass of the hangar --- then flashes of light appear inside the windows of the palace.

INT. STAIRCASE. NIGHT

More flashes illuminate a long, narrow Victorian staircase with wainscoting and elaborate rails. A figure hurls herself backwards down the stairs, firing electric pistols from both hands as she bumps down the steps on her rear, sliding on her tailcoat.

JEREMIAH slams into the base of the stair, gritting her teeth, keeping both guns trained back the way she came. She wears a long tailcoat, an black corset vest filigreed with gold wire, and a pair of airman's goggles on her forehead.

At the top of the stairs, crackling green foxfire ripples over the metal bands of the stout wooden door. Holes are blasted in it, and light shifts behind them, but JEREMIAH has no clear shot.

She sees sparks coming from her left gun, and tosses it aside with a curse. She glances at her right gun, seeing the indicator bead hover between three and four notches. A creak upstairs refocuses her attention. Jeremiah murmurs to herself as she focuses on the holes in the door.

JEREMIAH

Very well, sir, show yourself. Three shots? I'll get you in one.

Here I mumble "J Michael Straczynski's the Complete Book of Scriptwriting," "The Empire Strikes Back Fascimile Script," "other writing resources I'm too tired to mention". What? I'm only 9 pages in when I should be around 33. Back to work!

That is all.

-the Centaur

The Rules Disease at Write to The End

Published March 7, 2012 by centaur

I've a new essay on writing at the Write to the End blog, called "The Rules Disease." A preview:

Anyone who seriously tackles the craft of writing is likely to have encountered a writing rule, like “Show, Don’t Tell,” or “Never Begin a Sentence with a Conjunction.” “Don’t Split Infinitives” and “Never Head Hop” are also popular. The granddaddy of all of them, “Omit Needless Words,” is deliciously self-explanatory … but the ever baffling “Murder Your Darlings” is a rule so confusing it deserves its own essay.

This is part of my ongoing column The Centaur's Pen.

-the Centaur

Now that’s a sign we have a protagonist on our hands…

Published February 9, 2012 by centaur

Above is a wordle of the near-completed first draft (as opposed to rough draft) of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE. Wordles are great visualization tools for your texts, and this one reveals ... well, yes, Jeremiah is the protagonist.

Actually, now that I think of it, the full title of the book is JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE so I should have expected that her name would bubble to the top.

Jeremiah's also the protagonist of "Steampunk Fairy Chick", which was published recently in the UnCONventional anthology now available on Amazon ... why yes, that was a shameless plug, why do you ask?

-the Centaur

The Stack is Growing

Published January 27, 2012 by centaur

FROM THE WRITER'S ANONYMOUS 12-STEP SUPPORT GROUP MEETING: Hi, I'm Anthony Francis, and I'm an author. ("Hi, Anthony!") To feed my addiction, I get stuff published.

My first published novel, the urban fantasy FROST MOON featuring magical tattoo artist Dakota Frost, won an EPIC e-book award. It's out in paperback, Kindle, in German as SKINDANCER, and soon to be audiobook thanks to the wonderful reading skills of Traci Odom. The second book in the series, BLOOD ROCK, came out last year to good reviews, and the third book, LIQUID FIRE, will come out later this year. A spinoff series starring Dakota's daughter Cinnamon Frost, HEX CODE, will come out next year, also part of a planned trilogy.

One of my short stories, "Steampunk Fairy Chick," was recently published in the UnCONventional anthology. The story, featuring steampunk adventurer Jeremiah Willstone, is based on a novel called THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE (again part of a planned trilogy) which I've got in rough draft form with a possible release late this year or early next year. Another of my short stories, "Sibling Rivalry," was published in The Leading Edge magazine in 1995, but is now available on my web site. I also write flash fiction. One of my flash shorts, "If Looks Could Kill", was just published in THE DAILY FLASH 2012 (pictured above) and another, "The Secret of the T-Rex's Arms", was just published in Smashed Cat Magazine.

My nonfiction research papers are largely available on my research page, including my nearly 700-page Ph.D thesis (hork). I and my thesis advisor Ashwin Ram have a chapter on "Multi-Plan Adaptation and Retrieval in an Experience-based Agent" in David Leake's book CASE BASED REASONING: EXPERIENCES, LESSONS AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS, and Ashwin, Manish Mehta and I have a chapter on "Emotional Memory and Adaptive Personalities" in THE HANDBOOK OF RESEARCH ON SYNTHETIC EMOTIONS AND SOCIABLE ROBOTICS.

I have more writing in the works, including a novelette called "Stranded" set in the Dresanian universe from which this blog takes its name, and more writing on the Internet. But what I list above is The Stack At This Time - what you can get in print. Enjoy!

-the Centaur

Teaser for Steampunk Fairy Chick

Published December 14, 2011 by centaur

The UNCONVENTIONAL anthology is now available on Amazon, featuring my story "Steampunk Fairy Chick" starring Jeremiah Willstone, heroine of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE. The editors of the anthology, Kate Kaynak and Trisha Wooldridge, have made teasers of the first few pages of each story available, and you can read the start of "SFC" here. If you can't wait for that, you can see the first two paragraphs below:

Please enjoy! -the Centaur

Who Am I?

Published September 7, 2011 by centaur

me in front of the bell bridge books promotional material for BLOOD ROCK

Who are you? Good question. I'm Anthony Francis, and I write stuff and make computers jump through hoops for a living. What have you done? I'm most notable for the EPIC award winning urban fantasy novel FROST MOON and its sequel, BLOOD ROCK, which are about magical tattoo artist Dakota Frost and are therefore hopefully both more interesting than my ~700 page PhD thesis on context-sensitive computer memory. Also on the computer side, I've done some exploration of robot emotions. What are you doing next? Forthcoming in the Dakota Frost series is the third book, LIQUID FIRE, and this November for National Novel Writing Month I plan to work on HEX CODE, the first in a spin-off series featuring Dakota's adopted daughter Cinnamon Frost. Are you working on anything other than Dakota Frost? I've also recently completed a rough draft of the first book in a new series, JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE. A short story set in this universe, "Steampunk Fairy Chick", will be included in the forthcoming anthology UnCONventional. What are you working on currently? I'm also currently working on a fourth new series with the working title STRANDED, a young adult science fiction novel set a thousand years in the future, featuring a spoiled young centauress who must rescue a shipload of children who have crashlanded upon a world she wanted to claim as her own. This story's set in the "Library of Dresan" universe from which this blog takes its name and which was setting of my very first unpublished novel "homo centauris", which I am now happily milking for its 57 billion year backstory. Anything else? I have a flash fiction story called "The Secret of the T-Rex's Arms" to appear on the Smashed Cat Magazine. I've also published one short story, "Sibling Rivalry" in the Leading Edge Magazine. I have a webcomic, f@nu fiku, on hiatus. And I'm actively involved with helping people succeed at 24 Hour Comics through tutorials that I and my friend Nathan Vargas have put together at Blitz Comics. Is that enough questions for now? Yes, it is. Please enjoy. -the Centaur

Future Books

Published July 18, 2011 by centaur

piles of notes between caffeine fuel and computational engine

An exchange from Facebook:

Anthony: Just finished a rough draft of JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE ... my fourth completed novel! Wallace: Anthony it is great that you have 4 what are they? We know Frost Moon, blood Rock, what was the 3rd? Barbara enjoyed putting them on audio. Anthony ‎#1 is one you haven't heard of ... HOMO CENTAURIS is my first completed novel written in the early 90's. The next two were FROST MOON and BLOOD ROCK ... the third one in that series, LIQUID FIRE, is about 75% done. THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE is the first in a new series. P.S. The working titles of the next three Dakota Frosts (4,5,and 6) are SPECTRAL IRON, PHANTOM SILVER and SPIRITUAL GOLD. The working titles of the next next three (7,8, and 9) are something like SPIRAL NEEDLE, HELICAL LANCE, and CIRCULAR KNIFE. And the working titles of ... I'll stop there. I can keep going, but I won't ... don't want to spoil the surprise. I've already mentioned some of the later ones online. :-)

Assuming I get that far ... no, I'm planning to get that far, and farther, God willing. -the Centaur Pictured: piles of notes between caffeine fuel and my computational engine.

Rough Draft of The Clockwork Time Machine

Published July 13, 2011 by centaur

I just completed a rough draft of my fourth novel! My first steampunk work, JEREMIAH WILLSTONE AND THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE, clocks in at 90,000 words of completed story! [caption id="attachment_1128" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="The Title Page and Draft History of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE"]

[/caption] Here's another excerpt for those who like a tease ...

With Patrick’s blunderblast slung over her shoulder, Jeremiah whizzed through the streets on her autocycle, discharging its cylinder flat out, its teakettle scream and clanking frame adding another layer of mist and noise to the steam and bustle of Boston. Her legs were tensed, her knees bent against the pedals, half to jump the cycle over curbs, and half to keep the juddering vibration from the cobblestones of Beacon Hill from rattling her tailbone clean off. She squealed to a stop before the Moffat’s, pulled the cylinder and tossed it to a street urchin. “Top me off?” she asked, hopping off onto the sidewalk with a whirl and pulling her bag out of its basket in one smooth motion. “Yes, ma’am,” the boy said, taking the cycle. His eyes lighted on her vest, her denims—and on the big brass buttons on her lapels, a steering wheel, sword and airsail overlaid with a stylized V. “Are you an Expeditionary?” Jeremiah smiled. “Yes,” she said, ruffing his cap so that tufts of blond hair showed. “Maybe one day you’ll become one too. Polish the brasslite a bit and there’s a second shilling in it for you. Quick now; I won’t be long.”

I've got some cleaning to do and a whole 'nother draft before the beta readers can see it, but still ... on to LIQUID FIRE! -the Centaur

Closing in on a first draft …

Published July 1, 2011 by centaur

Some strange device I saw at the Maker Faire

I'm getting close to a first draft of THE CLOCKWORK TIME MACHINE. First book in a new series, and I'm having a blast writing steampunk. I've also written a story with the same characters, "Steampunk Fairy Chick", that I've submitted to an upcoming anthology. Very exciting! -the Centaur Pictured: a strange machine I saw at the Bay Area Maker Faire that looks vaguely steampunky, vaguely time-machiney.