The bad news is, DAW didn't want my work.
The good news is, because my usual publisher is much more accommodating, I can share this with you!
Here is my Christmas gift to everyone who has put up with my nonsense over the last year!
This preview contains the first three chapters of the novel, which should give you some idea of what to expect without spoiling anything.
I have yet to nail down a release date for this book and the final draft may differ *somewhat* from the text presented here, but this is about as revised and refined as I could get it on my own.
From the cover copy:
Meet Arthur Carrick, Duke of Upcaster. He and his retainer, Sir Balthasar, are fighting to save his dukedom from a scheming courtier, except...
...they're not. The real Arthur and Balthasar are in suspended animation in a cutting-edge immersive virtual reality lab in Seattle, Washington in the year 2036.
Now it's sink or swim as they navigate the treacherous waters of courtly intrigue amid traitors, schemers, and the Beziards, a heretical sect winning converts among the nobility. They believe their world was created by an evil or insane god.
One thing's for sure: The lab's owner, Ted Ducasse, is no saint. He's created a World War I simulator that has bled into the other sims. Now the lab's lead tech, Isa Chetal, fights to keep control of the project she started before someone gets killed for real.
It's happened before.
Lies, greed, quantum computing, and medieval heresy collide under the ominous shadow of World War One in The Linen Butterfly.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jcag2cnctq30-qO_GP5aOo_7NjDDrtxj/view?usp=sharing
Showing posts with label medieval. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medieval. Show all posts
Sunday, December 24, 2017
Monday, August 28, 2017
Linen Butterfly Update
I finished two chapters tonight. Getting into the part of the book that's much more smoothly written so work will begin speeding up.
The parts I'm working on now are basically less than a year old because I completely rewrote this bit. In the original "Goldenlea," Sylvia lived in a camp in the woods like a Hollywood medieval outlaw. Now she's a titled lady who lives in a decaying manor in a rotten borough in a remote province, like a real medieval outlaw. This, of course, changes the dynamics of the story quite a lot.
The characters and subplots that were written out completely have also changed the dynamics. This is where the story diverges sharply from the original. The story is more focused and delivers its punches more directly.
I really think those who liked "The Goldenlea" will appreciate what I've made of it. And those who didn't like "The Goldenlea" may still like "The Linen butterfly." I'm very proud of how it's shaping up so far.
I hope this isn't my magnum opus though. It'd suck to be played out so soon; I'm only just getting good. It will be the absolute best novel I can write for now but that's a temporary thing. If I can't write better in a year, then I'm slacking.
The parts I'm working on now are basically less than a year old because I completely rewrote this bit. In the original "Goldenlea," Sylvia lived in a camp in the woods like a Hollywood medieval outlaw. Now she's a titled lady who lives in a decaying manor in a rotten borough in a remote province, like a real medieval outlaw. This, of course, changes the dynamics of the story quite a lot.
The characters and subplots that were written out completely have also changed the dynamics. This is where the story diverges sharply from the original. The story is more focused and delivers its punches more directly.
I really think those who liked "The Goldenlea" will appreciate what I've made of it. And those who didn't like "The Goldenlea" may still like "The Linen butterfly." I'm very proud of how it's shaping up so far.
I hope this isn't my magnum opus though. It'd suck to be played out so soon; I'm only just getting good. It will be the absolute best novel I can write for now but that's a temporary thing. If I can't write better in a year, then I'm slacking.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
"The Linen Butterfly" Progress!
I hit a crucial benchmark with "The Linen Butterfly" tonight. I finished the first half of the story arc- rewritten from scratch from the original "Goldenlea"- and pasted in the second half.
The second half needs to be reworked for length, style, and content and then the whole book needs a good once over, but the current word count is 126k words so my goal of 110k words is absolutely on target once all of the redundant, obsolete, and unnecessary material is removed from the second half.
This includes several passages that I copied and pasted from the second half and moved into the first half to make the story flow better. Those will be removed from the second half and new material will only be added if it makes the narrative flow better.
My goal is still to have a draft ready for proofreading in one month, and to have a draft ready to submit by the end of the summer. Knock on wood, I'll have "The Linen Butterfly" out by January.
Saturday, April 29, 2017
Linen Butterfly Update!
Current goal: finish "The Linen Butterfly" by late August. Three years late from my original goal but I promise it'll be the be worth it!
I'll have the first draft done by my mid-June at this rate, and revisions will be relatively fast. The biggest operation will be merging the two halves which were written with slightly different continuities.
I expect to shed about 10-20% of the total volume of the text because there are some redundant passages and some scenes that no longer work. I'm also going to trim the ending a bit, it runs long. My total word count should still be about 110k.
It will be the longest and most involved story I've ever written in part because it takes place in two different worlds. I hope you all will enjoy a medieval swashbuckler with a hefty dose of cyberpunk!
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Worldbuilding: Medieval Currencies
One of the fun things about worldbuilding is figuring out sundry things like how basic exchanges are reckoned!
I thought I had it figured out in "The Goldenlea," but I think I'm revising the old system I had in those books in favor of one that has a bit more basis in history for "The Linen butterfly."
Previously in "The Goldenlea," I had a three-tiered system of coinage. This was based on the Anglo-French model of the Livre, Sou, and Denier, and on the thought that it was mostly the same as pre-decimal UK coinage. But that was a mistake. In fact the Livre (Pound) was not a standard coin in its own right until much later.
In fact the Kings of France tried to standardize a Livre coin in the 13th and 14th centuries and failed because it was over- or undervalued. The Livre, for most of the medieval period, was a unit of account for large sums but not an actual coin of the realm. Most transactions were rendered in silver Deniers or the gold Sou, or Solidus.
I revised my Gold Sol/Silver Luna/ Copper Terra system. Instead transactions are rendered mainly in silver Terras and Gold Sola, and an additional unit of account, called a Handweight, has been added. Of course, larger sums can be rendered in marks for accounting purposes.
I thought I had it figured out in "The Goldenlea," but I think I'm revising the old system I had in those books in favor of one that has a bit more basis in history for "The Linen butterfly."
Previously in "The Goldenlea," I had a three-tiered system of coinage. This was based on the Anglo-French model of the Livre, Sou, and Denier, and on the thought that it was mostly the same as pre-decimal UK coinage. But that was a mistake. In fact the Livre (Pound) was not a standard coin in its own right until much later.
In fact the Kings of France tried to standardize a Livre coin in the 13th and 14th centuries and failed because it was over- or undervalued. The Livre, for most of the medieval period, was a unit of account for large sums but not an actual coin of the realm. Most transactions were rendered in silver Deniers or the gold Sou, or Solidus.
I revised my Gold Sol/Silver Luna/ Copper Terra system. Instead transactions are rendered mainly in silver Terras and Gold Sola, and an additional unit of account, called a Handweight, has been added. Of course, larger sums can be rendered in marks for accounting purposes.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Where I Am As An Author
As you probably know if you've read the posts in this blog so far, I am a small press author and I don't make a whole lot off my writing. It started out as something of a hobby, writing from within the furry community where making a living off of any sort of work is unlikely; it's a small, mostly Interned-based community that enjoys stories, art, and other media involving anthropomorphic animal stories and although sexual material is definitely out there, non-sexual stories and art still sell decently well.
The first book I published (also the first manuscript of any sort I actually sold copies of) was a dieselpunk action romance called "Basecraft Cirrostratus," and yes, it did play somewhat to the sexual aspect of things. I've been told by a few non-furry readers, though, that aside from the sex it's actually a decent early attempt at a story, kind of in the vein of "The Rocketeer" and "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" in a dystopian setting inspired by the neoliberal crony capitalism and dominionist politics of the 2000s. As such, it was hardly "porn" so much as an adventure story with erotic scenes.
It got decent reviews, and was greeted enthusiastically enough that I began to think that maybe I would eventually have what it took to support myself as an author. I was called out on being too brief and breezy in my pacing, sort of the opposite of what you hear about amateur authors most of the time. There were also minor issues with forced dialog and a plot just a little too fraught with convenient coincidences (though I did lampshade it somewhat in the sequel by having all the loose ends from the first book come back to haunt the protagonists). But after a while, sales slowed and I decided to put something else out.
The first book I published (also the first manuscript of any sort I actually sold copies of) was a dieselpunk action romance called "Basecraft Cirrostratus," and yes, it did play somewhat to the sexual aspect of things. I've been told by a few non-furry readers, though, that aside from the sex it's actually a decent early attempt at a story, kind of in the vein of "The Rocketeer" and "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" in a dystopian setting inspired by the neoliberal crony capitalism and dominionist politics of the 2000s. As such, it was hardly "porn" so much as an adventure story with erotic scenes.
It got decent reviews, and was greeted enthusiastically enough that I began to think that maybe I would eventually have what it took to support myself as an author. I was called out on being too brief and breezy in my pacing, sort of the opposite of what you hear about amateur authors most of the time. There were also minor issues with forced dialog and a plot just a little too fraught with convenient coincidences (though I did lampshade it somewhat in the sequel by having all the loose ends from the first book come back to haunt the protagonists). But after a while, sales slowed and I decided to put something else out.
Saturday, March 7, 2015
"The Vimana Incident" E-Book Now Available!
I got a number of requests from friends who wanted to be notified when this book was out as an e-book, and now I'm pleased to announce that it has been released from Bad Dog Books!
http://baddogbooks.com/?product=the-vimana-incident
http://baddogbooks.com/?product=the-vimana-incident
Friday, February 13, 2015
Hello Everyone!
Just a short hello to say that this will be my first blog focusing primarily on promoting and sharing my writing!
I've decided to use Blogger as my platform because it seems there are still a lot of users on it. I had considered Wordpress but decided to use that platform for posts of a more personal nature (that account will not be linked here, sorry).
I've been writing since I was about six or seven and I first got serious about it back in my teen years. I have lived all over the place, including Myrtle Beach, Madrid, London, and Las Vegas, but I have settled in Northwest Oregon and I do believe I'm happy putting down roots here. The places I have lived and people I have met are a major inspiration for my writing.
I'm also a mystic, a self-described Gnostic Syncretist with a strong attraction to esoteric Christianity, western mysticism, and Buddhism. I consider my name, Rose LaCroix, to be a wonderful synchronicity with my interests as the Rose Cross is a symbol that very much describes my spiritual outlook. I won't go too much into my specific beliefs or experiences here but I've had my brush with the ineffable, and it often serves to put a fire under my muse when it gets lazy.
My first novel, "The Goldenlea," took five years to complete and five more years to publish. During that time I was able to complete and publish a second novel, "Basecraft Cirrostratus," which was nominated for a Rainbow Award for LGBT fiction and for an Ursa Major Award for anthropomorphic fiction. Last summer, I published my third novel, "Escape from St. Arned," which was a sequel to "Basecraft Cirrostratus."
My upcoming novel is part of the reason I've decided to make myself more visible on social media. It's a hybrid of a 1930s space opera, a Phildickian science fiction story with Gnostic and psychedelic themes, and historic fiction with medieval settings. The addition of anthropomorphic animal characters gives it almost the feel of a postmodern Reynard story. If that sounds awesome, stick around.
I've decided to use Blogger as my platform because it seems there are still a lot of users on it. I had considered Wordpress but decided to use that platform for posts of a more personal nature (that account will not be linked here, sorry).
I've been writing since I was about six or seven and I first got serious about it back in my teen years. I have lived all over the place, including Myrtle Beach, Madrid, London, and Las Vegas, but I have settled in Northwest Oregon and I do believe I'm happy putting down roots here. The places I have lived and people I have met are a major inspiration for my writing.
I'm also a mystic, a self-described Gnostic Syncretist with a strong attraction to esoteric Christianity, western mysticism, and Buddhism. I consider my name, Rose LaCroix, to be a wonderful synchronicity with my interests as the Rose Cross is a symbol that very much describes my spiritual outlook. I won't go too much into my specific beliefs or experiences here but I've had my brush with the ineffable, and it often serves to put a fire under my muse when it gets lazy.
My first novel, "The Goldenlea," took five years to complete and five more years to publish. During that time I was able to complete and publish a second novel, "Basecraft Cirrostratus," which was nominated for a Rainbow Award for LGBT fiction and for an Ursa Major Award for anthropomorphic fiction. Last summer, I published my third novel, "Escape from St. Arned," which was a sequel to "Basecraft Cirrostratus."
My upcoming novel is part of the reason I've decided to make myself more visible on social media. It's a hybrid of a 1930s space opera, a Phildickian science fiction story with Gnostic and psychedelic themes, and historic fiction with medieval settings. The addition of anthropomorphic animal characters gives it almost the feel of a postmodern Reynard story. If that sounds awesome, stick around.
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