My vacation is ongoing, so I’m going to keep this pretty brief. I haven’t done much this week, but I’ve finished a short story about Emonael after the events of Marin’s Codex (only ~7400 words, so not long), and I’ve worked a bit on my Pathfinder 2e adventure, which has been difficult so far. I’m curious to see how the upcoming week goes, and am trying to resist the urge to write a Victoriana/Steampunk short story.
I’ll probably fail to resist. We’ll see! I’ll check in next week, though.
Ancient Dreams 
Victorian settings and steampunk seem to go hand in hand, truthfully. It’d be interesting to see your take on it. Perhaps if you don’t do a full fledged novel, Lilith could stumble into a Realm where steampunk is the rule? She’s already met Powers, after all.
Anyway, that’s me being greedy. Enjoy your vacation!
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I always thought that Victorian settings and steampunk were pretty much the same until just a couple of months ago.
Turns out there are three major variants of Victoriana. One is a bit like Sherlock Holmes or regency romance, where it’s just set in that era. Second we have Gaslamp, which is essentially Victoriana plus supernatural elements, but is otherwise pretty accurate to the era (the Parasol Protectorate romance series by Gail Carriger comes to mind). Third is Steampunk, which follows the ‘punk’ aspect of an alternate technology path using steam technology. Obviously, while the first category is pretty incompatible with the other two, there’s nothing to say you can’t have both Gaslamp and Steampunk in the same book. …I may be a little too enthusiastic about this. ANYWAY!
I suppose it’s possible that Lilith could run into something like that. Alternate universes are an /incredibly/ common staple of superheroes, after all… but not in the currently-planned series. I know what’s going to happen and that’s not part of it.
Right now what I’m thinking about is a ‘prequel’ story to set the mood for the Pathfinder adventure I’m writing on my vacation, since I’m also planning to build pre-generated characters for it. If the writing goes well, I might write a couple more adventures, too.
Anyway, hope that you’re doing well!
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Enthusiasm is usually a good thing. I’ve seen the adverts for the Parasol Protectorate, I just keep putting off acquiring them. I have 6 or 7 different books that I’m paused on (in some cases because sadly, I’ve become satiated on the plot line), so I’m not quite willing to go grab another series just yet. OTOH, I did just grab a new manga simply because ‘why not?’ so there’s a bit of leeway still. (I find Japanese light novels and manga fascinating, though tropes abound. Well, that and the ridiculous titles some of them have… that’s a hook in and of itself.)
I appreciate that you take the time to respond to us, and hope all is well with you and yours.
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Oh, I agree on the enthusiasm front! As long as it doesn’t burn out before anything gets done, anyway…
I did start on the short story, though. Didn’t do anything /today/, but that’s because I was reading the new Dresden Files book at first (finished early in the day), then we had other stuff going on for the rest of it.
As for responding, it’s something I decided on /long/ ago. As long as I can reply without things getting too negative or it impacting my day to day productivity, I /want/ to reply to those of you who like my books. I like explaining things, like my thought process and opinions where things in the books are concerned.
Anyway, I’m doing pretty decent, and hope you are as well!
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I am curious about your take on a Steampunk series. I do know that if you make one, it will be AWESOME! You put in a lot of effort in your books which makes it worthwhile to read them.
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Heh. My one concern is whether to try to alter the ‘voice’ of my characters or not. If so, I might end up reading things like Alice in Wonderland for a while… which could have odd effects on my writing.
I don’t know if I want to do a series yet, but the short story has been fun so far. Admittedly, it’s very deliberately in media res, showing a combat scene, so it’s going to be /very/ short. We shall see!
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Is there a way to get to the Emonael short story, or is that just something that’ll be included in a later book?
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I’m intending to share chapters of the Emonael Short via my Newsletter once Dusk Gate is out, while I’m working on Queen’s Journey, so there is that way to get it. That won’t be until around November, though. I’m debating on putting together an anthology of short stories for Ancient Dreams, but I’m not sure I have enough stories yet.
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Sounds good. Just wasn’t sure if I was missing seeing it somewhere, like the Stars & Shadows shorts.
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