Monthly Archives: June 2020

More ways to order The Magic Battery

This entry was posted in My writing Writing and tagged Kindle magic battery on by

I’ve been working on making The Magic Battery available in more ways.

Discount codes work only with Smashwords, sorry. To give a discount for the Kindle version, I’d have to enroll in KDP Select, and I can’t enroll because Amazon doesn’t have an exclusive on the book. Smashwords offers lots of download formats, including ones you can put on a Kindle. Again, the dollar-off discount code for June on Smashwords is RW83R.

It’s your choice how you want to buy it. The Kindle version has nice-looking drop caps at the start of each chapter and some other nifty features.

If you got the book a while back, check the Smashwords page for an update. I’ve fixed some minor errors.

Capitalizing (on) skin color

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged capitalization race usage on by

In the first half of the twentieth century, race was widely considered a scientific concept. Terms like “Caucasian” and “Negro” were capitalized to emphasize their significance. Today science recognizes that no objective division of humanity into genetic races is possible. One group shades into another, and differences within groups are greater than those between them. The view of people as members of races has done only harm, setting people against each other.

I prefer strictly descriptive terms when possible, such as “light-skinned” or “dark-skinned.” At the same time, I recognize that dark-skinned people very often get badly treated. It just lets me avoid giving unwarranted significance to these categories. A person with straight, blonde hair and light skin is as human as one with black, curly hair and dark skin. Their experiences are likely to be very different, but their humanity is the same.
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Quick update on The Magic Battery

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged magic battery on by

Smashwords was giving me error messages on the ePub file it generated for The Magic Battery. I found a way to eliminate them. This means the book is now eligible for the Smashwords Premium Catalog, which will make it available through additional channels. I’ll post an update when this happens. If you downloaded the ePub, you can grab the new version on Smashwords. The latest version also corrects a minor inconsistency between the table of contents and a chapter title.

Tip from your friendly neighborhood file format mage: If your submission to Smashwords uses the “Quotations” style, you may be better off changing it to a paragraph style that gives your quotations the appearance you want. That was what gave me trouble.

I got my first review on Smashwords, with five stars! It says, in full: “This is a very enjoyable book, and the themes of racism, sexism and religious bigotry are well handled. Oh, and the magic is, too.” I didn’t even know there was a theme of racism, but I’ll take it!

The Magic Battery: How you can help

This entry was posted in My writing and tagged fiction magic battery on by

Getting out a self-published novel is a team effort. If you’ve read it and liked it, or if you’d just like to help me out, we can be on the same team. The goal is to reach out to the people who’d enjoy the book if they knew about it. They’re people who like thoughtful fantasy, alternate history, and the exploration of ideas. People who are very likely like you, if you’re reading this. (Rule #1 of publicity: Flattery gets you everywhere. :)

What can you do? You can mention the book in your blog or social media, linking to the Magic Battery page. You can follow and share the book’s Facebook page. Feel free to mention coupon codes unless I’ve asked you to keep them private. The sharable code RW83R gives a dollar off on Smashwords through the end of June 2020.

Add the book to your library list on LibraryThing, Goodreads, or similar sites.

Best of all, you can review the book. I like favorable reviews, but say what you like. Tell your readers why they may like the book.

If you have ideas for promoting the book, let me know. I’m looking for someone to read a sample aloud to put up on YouTube. (My own reading voice is terrible.) If you could do it or know someone who can, let me know.

And a huge THANK YOU for whatever help you can provide.

The Magic Battery and Martin Luther

This entry was posted in My writing Writing and tagged history magic battery on by

One of my first decisions in planning The Magic Battery was to set it in 16th-century Germany. Germany, because that’s the part of Europe I know best. The 16th century, because it was a period of dramatic changes. Copernicus had set out a new view of the universe. Paracelsus had challenged long-held ideas in medicine. Luther had taken on the Catholic Church and divided Christendom.

Luther never appears “on stage” in my novel, but he is frequently mentioned and quoted. Many of the quotes that I use are real; the ones on magic are made up, but I tried to make them true to his character. The main source in my research was Lyndal Roper’s Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet. The book was also an excellent source on life in that period.
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The Magic Battery: Now on Smashwords!

This entry was posted in My writing Personal Writing and tagged fantasy fiction magic battery writing on by

My novel The Magic Battery is now available as an e-book on Smashwords. As an expression of thanks for reading my blog, I’m offering it for $1.99, instead of the usual $2.99, with the coupon code RW83R through the end of June.

This is a novel for fans of thoughtful historical fantasy. It presents an alternate Germany where magic works, and where the authorities allow only Christian men to practice it. Thomas Lorenz discovers a way to store magic spells in gadgets that people can buy or rent, putting magic in the hands of anyone with a little money. The conflict that develops parallels the effects of the real-life innovations of Luther, Paracelsus, Copernicus, and others.

In sixteenth-century Saxony, magic is a trade. Mages draw power from the World Behind, but they don’t understand it. Thomas knows that magic needs to be scientific, that it follows mathematical laws. He draws inspiration from his master Albrecht Ritter, who knows nothing is ever “good enough,” his teacher Johan Brandt, who is hiding an infamous past, and later his wife Frieda, who sees the prospect of a more enlightened future. He faces the persistent opposition of Heinrich Gottesmann, a fanatical lawyer and witch hunter. He learns that there is more at stake than just a new way of making lamps.

I’ve been to some of the places used in the book: Heidelberg, Wernigerode, Quedlinburg, Hildesheim. I’ve engaged in considerable historical research to get the period right. Apart from the magical elements, the setting is as close to the historical Germany of the 1540s as I could make it. None of the characters hold 21st-century ideas; that would be absurd. However, Thomas and especially Frieda see beyond their time.

Links, reviews, and shares will help to get the word out. You can link to the Smashwords page or to my page on this site.

What writers can do 1

This entry was posted in Writer ethics Writing on by

These are dire times. Police have killed George Floyd and David McAtee. Donald Trump had people tear-gassed so he could take a walk. He is threatening illegal military deployments and shooting in the United States. Rioters are destroying property and assaulting people. Journalists have been the target of both police and mobs.

I’ve felt helpless, even though I’m not close to the locations of violence and am relatively safe personally. But we’re seeing the country tear itself apart by a thug president and thugs (both with and without badges) in the streets. One thing I can do, for whoever may notice, is remind the people in my profession that we can make a difference. We can speak out, forcefully and responsibly.

We should speak out for principles, not factions. Telling some group of people how horrible they are may feel great, but it accomplishes nothing. Talk about what is right and wrong. Call attention to wrongdoing — brutality, bigotry, abuse of power. Name names. But don’t attack people for being black or white, male or female, registered to vote as Republican or Democratic.
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