Steampunk Sci-Fi or Gaslamp Fantasy?

As a cross-genre writer, I'm often most comfortable whenever I can mix things up a bit, adding elements of science fiction to fantasy (and vice versa), horror to historical fiction, and comedy to all of the above. The weird western genre is one of my favorites, bringing the uncanny to the American frontier with monsters of all kinds. Overlapping that time period but set mainly in Victorian England are two genres I haven't dabbled in until now: steampunk science fiction and gaslamp fantasy. Trappings of both can be found in my novel Madame Antic's Hotel Grotesque, but what's the difference between these two subgenres?

While both steampunk and gaslamp stories can take place in the same alternate-historical era, steampunk tends to be more scientific with its gadgets, technology, and anachronistic vehicles, whereas gaslamp fantasy includes sorcery, magical creatures, and an acceptance of the supernatural existing alongside its characters. So which direction does Madame Antic's lean? While there is plenty of gadgetry, nothing in the story is steam-powered. The world I've created prefers electrik power instead. And while there are portals and mention of magik, there's no sorcery involved or unnatural beasts (besides the villains). That's why I'm selecting Alternate History, Steampunk, Gaslamp Fantasy, and Horror as the primary categories when I list it for sale. I reckon that just about covers everything leading up to the big reveal at the end. No spoilers!

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Cover Reveal - Take Two

Some of you may remember when my novel Madame Antic's Hotel Grotesque first greeted the world, way back when. At the time, I was pleased that it had finally found a publisher after a long, harrowing search. But I was never impressed with the cover art, among other things, and some experiences are best left in the rearview mirror. 

Fast-forward to 2025: The rights have reverted to me, and I'll be republishing it myself in a couple months. Here's the new cover, in all its brooding glory. Nothing fancy, but it does the job. And it doesn't make me cringe every time I look at it. That's an improvement.

But wait, there's more: I'm planning to rapid-release both sequels this summer as well. So stay tuned for cover reveals and blurbs galore!

The Halfway Point

Passed the 45K mark in my latest work-in-progress: Angels & Androids (Dome City Investigations, Book 3). I'm feeling pretty good about where the story's going; I just wish I had more writing stamina these days. And time. That's it for excuses. I'm averaging a few hundred words a day when I can BICHOK (butt in chair, hands on keyboard). A far cry from the 1K/day regimen I had going for a while, but any movement in the right direction is progress. So I'm celebrating this minor victory.

When will the first draft / sloppy copy be done? No idea. End of the school year would be ideal—then I could spend the summer on revisedits and formatting with an autumn release in mind. At the end of Book 2, I gave myself an easy out and said the third installment wouldn't be available until Spring 2026. Maybe I'll aim for something in between. Split the difference. 

Right now it's all about BICHOK: the discipline to shut out a myriad of distractions and give this novel the attention (I think) it deserves. Having plenty of fun along the way, of course.

15 Years

A decade and a half ago, my first short story was published: "Hero for Hire." To celebrate this quindecennial (a new word for me; thanks, Internet), I'm giving away Suburban Samurai wherever eBooks are sold. It includes the original story as well as its sequel, "League of Suburban Heroes." Chuckles guaranteed.

I'll never forget how excited I was to get that acceptance letter. Holy cow! I remember I was at work, on break checking my email, and I had to scramble to the restroom. Wasn't sure I'd be able to contain myself in public. Later that year, I'd sold enough short fiction to buy the Kindle I named Gizmo, still with me to this day. (Take that, planned obsolescence.)

If I've done the math correctly, I've spent only 1% of my royalties over the years, hoarding the other 99% into a high interest-yielding account. Every now and then, I'll spend the monthly interest on something fun like a new cover for Gizmo or a TV series from way back when. Things I can look at and go, "Hey. My wordsmithing paid for that."

Writing brings in only about 5% of my annual income, so not enough to live on. (Unless I move into a van down by the river. Mrs. Fowler might object.) Even so, that 5% is hard-fought, considering the millions of other authors out there vying for readers' attention. Every time someone buys one of my books, it takes me right back to that day I sold my first story. And that feeling is priceless.

An Ode to the Library

"Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future." - Ray Bradbury

My mom introduced me to the public library when I was an impressionable wee lad, and I remember being amazed by how many books there were, and that we were allowed to take them home with us. As a teen, I'd bike over to the local library every week or so, and while in college, if I wasn't too busy shooting pool, I would spend most of my spare time at the library studying and whatnot.

When my wife and I lived in San Diego, our local library was within walking distance, and walk we did, rain or shine (mostly shine), to peruse the stacks, checking out books, DVDs and CDs. Upon moving to West Michigan, one of our first priorities was to get member cards at the county and city libraries, and we visit both locations on a regular basis. 

As technology continues to advance, so do the library's offerings. I've mentioned Hoopla and Overdrive before, and Gizmo (my 15-year-old Kindle, looking real spiffy these days in his brand-spanking new cover) holds at least half a dozen library eBooks any given week. But there's also a paper-and-glue library book in my backpack as backup, going wherever I go.

Recently, our local library informed us that Freegal Music is available to all patrons. Free streaming music without ads. Tens of thousands of albums, if you can believe. I've been playing instrumental post-rock while I write and, during the work day, introducing my students to the jazz styles of Miles Davis and John Coltrane, the slack key vibes of Leonard Kwan, and some really cool blues guitar compilations. Great background tunes for embarking upon scholarly pursuits.

All this to say, I've always been a big fan of libraries, and they keep giving me reasons to appreciate them for evermore.

Year in Review: 2024

I started out the year strong, editing the first book in my Dome City Investigations trilogy and getting it ready for an early February release, which went well. Then I started working on the sequel, which also went fairly well; I had it drafted, revised, edited, and polished up for its June release date with time to spare. All I had left to do was write the third book, scheduled to greet the world in December. Except...that wasn't going to happen. An idea for a novella between Books 2 & 3 started to blossom, but then it went nowhere. As did an idea for another novella, as did plans for Book 3. We were dealing with an unexpected death in the family at the time, and I'd just started a new part-time teaching job, so writing couldn't be a priority. It had to wait. In the meantime, I began brainstorming how to combine the plots for both novellas and Book 3 into one kick-arse trilogy finale. So that's what I'm working on now, and fingers-crossed, it may be good to go by next summer. Working title: Angels & Androids. The goal: just have fun with it.

Novels Written: 

Infidels & Insurgents (90K)

Angels & Androids (35K...in progress)

Books Published:

Dust Freaks & Demigods

Infidels & Insurgents

Audiobook Produced:

Out of Time (Virtual Voice experiment)

Blog Posts: 12

$ale

A bunch of my books are currently on sale for only 99¢ each, and some of my $4.99 titles are marked down to $2.99. How about that? Consider it an early Christmas present. Peace on Earth, goodwill toward everybody, and cheap reads! Unfortunately, I haven't been doing much writing these days—the new day job is still kicking me in the heinie—but I'm hopeful that will change this winter when I have a couple weeks off. In the meantime, I wish you a blessed Holiday Season, and I'll see you on the other side.

Slow Going, but Going

Hit the 20K mark today on my current work in progress. Originally intended to be a Dome City Investigations novella, it's now turning into Book 3. We'll see where the story takes me. So far, I've got a character in witness protection, two android assassins tasked with his extermination, and masked freedom-fighters looking for trouble. Our heroes, Sera and Dunn, have been captured by unsavory types, and it doesn't look like they're going to escape unscathed. Because if they want out, they'll first have to survive an underground cage match.

I had a lot of projects lined up this summer, but a close encounter with poison sumac put most of them on the back burner for a couple weeks. I've been taking medication to help with the inflammation and maddening itch, but it's left me feeling a bit wonky. Even so, I've gotten a few things done around the house, which is always nice. And I plan to fully eradicate our yard of the dread urushiol offender, wearing long sleeves, long pants, and gloves, of course. Lesson learned.

Looks like I'll be subbing again this fall. It's been four years now since I taught full-time. For the last couple years, I've been a building sub at the local middle school down the street. I show up each day, and if they need me to cover a class, that's what I do. Any subject, grades 6-8. If all the teachers are present and accounted for, I help with cafeteria supervision, hall monitoring, and shelving books in the library. After twenty years of teaching, this job feels like semi-retirement.

In other news, I'm slowly unshackling all of my books from Kindle Unlimited and allowing them to roam free, which means you'll be able to find them at Barnes & Noble, the Apple store, and Kobo, among other retailers. My audiobooks are available from Audible and Apple, as well. Feel free to buy as many as you like, and then tell everyone you know about them. You'll make my day.

New Release

eBook     Paperback

Somehow, everything is connected.

The case seems straightforward at first: a high-tech heist at a jewelry shop specializing in priceless items favored by the upper castes. Except the thieves make an impossible getaway, and they're caught on surveillance employing a powerful military-grade weapon Sera Chen is all-too familiar with. 

If that's not weird enough, the Prometheus cult unexpectedly reemerges, threatening death to infidels refusing to believe in their venerable AI. Amid the ensuing mayhem, a mysterious government agent appears with a cryptic warning for Sera. And to top things off, there's a killer lurking in the maintenance tunnels under Dome 1's streets.

Sera and her partner Dunn make a good team. But everyone has a limit, and theirs will be tested when a high profile coup threatens to take over the Domes, revealing the interrelated nature of recent events.

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Editing Update

Took about a month of blood, sweat, and tears (not so much), but it was well worth the effort, and I'm pleased with how the edits turned out. Trimmed some fat, fleshed out a few scenes, cut and tightened the dialogue, improved the overall pacing, and fixed a dozen or so typos along the way. Next, I'll give the manuscript one more proofreading pass in Word, which always seems to catch things I've missed in Docs. Then I'll start work on the formatting: eBook and paperback.

The blurb is good to go, and you can check it out here. There's a lot going on in this novel, and summarizing it in a way that piques reader curiosity was no small task. I may give it a tweak at some point, but for now, it's serviceable enough.

I'm kicking around the idea of writing a couple novella-length adventures that take place between Infidels & Insurgents and the next book, Angels & Androids. Just not sure which order to do this in. Novellas first? Novel first? Dinner then dessert? Guess I'll go where the muse takes me.