My writing

Progress on Spells of War

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This week, I’ve started rewriting the first draft of Spells of War. The first eight chapters went pretty quickly, without any huge changes. The biggest departure from the first draft, though, is that the action will now span 1556-1557, instead of all taking place in 1556. Things just got too crammed against the approach of winter and Ramadan. With the new timeline, the mages on each side will be able to develop more weapons and train the Landsknechte and Janissaries respectively in their use. This means adding material about what happens over the winter without letting the story drag.

A character who shows up late in the first draft will make his appearance earlier. This will let me build up his role in the story more effectively.

I’ll be putting out a call for beta readers before long, perhaps in early January.

A review of The Magic Battery

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Author Walter Donway has posted an enthusiastic review of The Magic Battery on the Savvy Street website. I love not just his praise, but his understanding of what I was aiming for.

Full disclosure: I recently posted a favorable review of Donway’s Retaking College Hill, but there was no tit-for-tat agreement between us. He emailed me a draft of the review last week, asking just for factual corrections.

End-of-year sale on Smashwords!

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I’ve joined the end-of-year sale on Smashwords. For the rest of 2020, you can get The Magic Battery and Files that Last for 50% off with the code SEY50. This code is provided right on the pages for the books, so you can just go over and buy the books or give the link to others. This sale is only for direct purchases from Smashwords.

This is a site-wide promotion on Smashwords, so you’ll find lots of other discounts if you head over.

If you’ve been waiting for an opportunity to read about Thomas’s magical inventions or learn how to preserve your data, and you have some free time this week, it’s a great opportunity to pick up these books.

A new Magic Battery story 1

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“To Gain the Whole World,” a new story in the world of The Magic Battery, is now up and available to read free of charge.

Nikolas Fest was the character who gave me the most trouble in the story. I had to throw out a whole chapter about him after getting beta reader feedback. Most of the characters are well-grounded. They know what they’re after and what they live by. Nikolas is constantly striking out in different directions and has trouble putting his life together. It’s harder for me to understand that type of character, but they’re often the interesting ones. In this story, Nikolas meets with the Meistersinger Hans Sachs, and he faces a dilemma about how to treat his own past. Meanwhile, pushbutton magic is starting to become a part of everyday life.

It has some spoilers for The Magic Battery. If you haven’t read the novel and hate spoilers, I recommend buying and reading the novel first. :) If you can deal with a few spoilers, it could help you decide whether the hovel will interest you.

If you spot the allusion to an early TV show, let me know in the comments.

More ways to order The Magic Battery

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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.

Quick update on The Magic Battery

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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

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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

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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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