Newsletter – Pieces of Me – 3

July 2022

Welcome to ‘Pieces of Andrew’

Unfortunately, my ‘newsletter is turning out to be not so much a quarterly newsletter, and more like a highly irregular update on what this author has been doing. Somehow, despite COVID, and ‘life’, it turns out that I have been quite productive over the last two years with a number of projects now approaching fruition, including:

  • Nadir, Book 2 in the Clemhorn Trilogy being listed by Zmok books for a US Fall release
  • Vortex on Vertu Prime, Book 3 in The Portal Adventures has been scheduled for early February next year
  • Postproduction for the Nightfall audiobook now being completed with a release planned for later this year
  • For the Honor of the Agency, the first book in the follow-up to the Clemhorn Trilogy is waiting on feedback from my publisher.
  • I finally finished the first draft of White Hills, a new ‘police procedural’ set 65 million years in the future, and it is presently undergoing a structural review with an editor.

Latest News:

If you’re interested in listening to the first chapter of the Nightfall audiobook the mp3 is available for FREE download by clicking on this link

 

 

 

 

Have I mentioned that Nadir, the second book in The Clemhorn Trilogy is scheduled to be released by Zmok Books this US Fall?

“Soon after Iapura led fifty-three survivors to found a new empire on a parallel Earth; he sought to expand that Empire to the Mmbuto é. It was an attempt that did not end well for either party, and led to the Edict that banned any contact with an advanced line.

Now, fleeing the surprise attack by Miro and his new allies; Donald, Conrad and their father find themselves seeking the aid of the Mmbuto é, a line that has no cause to love the Cross-Temporal Empire. But they have no choice if they are to gain the allies they need for their return, knowing that they cannot risk another failure.

Meanwhile Ivy must fight a solitary war on Etu, facing attacks on two fronts, and Arnold’s very personal treachery.

Can they prevail in a war that has set sibling against sibling and shattered the very foundations that bound the Empire together.

More information on the Clemhorn Trilogy here.

I’ve just sent the final edits for Vortex on Vertu Press back to ‘Peasantry Press’. We’re now working towards getting everything ready for a February ’23 release.

Thrown back in time on a strange planet, Tania, Mark, and Windracer’s only hope of getting home is a bossy, alien teddy bear called Edward. A bear who has decided to adopt Tania, much to her disgust. The last thing Tania needs is someone else telling her what to do—her mother does enough of that! And the holiday had started so well when her mother had invited them to Vertu Station with her.

But the Station is a wreck, and her mom quickly accepts an offer from the manager of Vertu Prime’s 5-star hotel to put the children up for a week. The hotel, occupies the lower floors of the planet’s sole remaining arcology; a massive, pyramid-shaped, self-contained city.

When archaeologists accidentally activate an alien temporal warp generator, Tania, Mark, Windracer, and Edward are thrown backward through time. With Edward’s power reserves dangerously low, it is up to the three friends to reach the generator and turn it off—before it destroys the planet.

More information on The Portal Adventures here.

And if you haven’t read 1827 – Napoleon in Australia by yours truly yet, perhaps you should buy the Alternate Australias anthology (only $6.50AU). Napoleon was shortlisted for the international 2021 Sideways Awards for Alternate History, as well as winning the award for the 2020 Best WA Professional SF Short Work, Western Australian Science Fiction Achievement Awards, (Tin Ducks). The anthology also includes the short story that went onto to win the 2021 Sideways Awards — Matthew Kresal’s Moonshot. — which is well worth a read.

After the success of 1827 – Napoleon in Australia, The Dragon and the Lady of Uliad is to be included in another SeaLion Press anthology: Emerald Isles: Irelands That Never Were in late July. This story is a little longer than Napoleon’s, and tells of Merlin’s and Uther Pendragon’s visit to Ireland to gather help to expel the Saxons from Britain, and what happens when Uther meets the Lady of Uliad. As one of my friends said after reading it – “Really enjoyed reading it. It has the just the right amount of violence and gratuitous sex.” My response, “The sex is not gratuitous. Where do you think babies come from?”

 

 

What I’m Working On:

  • The marketing plan for Nadir (I knew there was a reason I’m writing this). I’m also working on the Nadir Trailer.
  • The marketing plan for Vortex on Vertu Prime.
  • While Clemhorn’s been held up, I’ve been making good progress on completing The Honor Trilogy (For the Honor of the Agency, For the Honor of the Empire, and For Honor Alone) which are the the immediate follow-up to Clemhorn.  Following feedback from a beta-reader with absolutely no previous experience in Alternate History I’ve been writing a series of brief vignettes for the beginning of each chapter to provide some background to the Cross-Temporal Empire, this is one.
  • Hague Publishing has also been taking up a lot of my time, with the release of Melanie Rees’ Petrichor, and Leonie Rogers’ Dark Days. The impending releases of Ruth Fox’, The White Pavilion and Alice Godwin’s Slipstream, and progressing Adrian Dean’s Asparagus Grass, and Shaune Lafferty Webb’  The Journing Plague. And mentoring my second Intern Robyn Hooper (thanks Robyn).

 

 

How Was I to Know They Were Bloody Frogs

The 3rd Baron of Chiselwick, Ernest Chiselwick III, had command of the British heavy cavalry brigade at the battle of Waterloo,. The battle was fought between the combined English and French army under General Sir John Moore, and the army of the Allied German States under General Georg von Bismark. Following the battle the London ‘Punch’ lampooned Chiselwick as being ‘responsible for the most inglorious action of that inglorious battle’ when, mistaking the French 2nd Corps for Prussians, he ordered his Brigade to charge them, shattering the allied forces and rendering his own Brigade unsuitable for further action. When challenged by General Moore to explain his action, he is recorded as saying “Dammit to hell John. How the hell was I supposed to know they were bloody frogs? All foreigners look the same to me.”

Forced to resign his commission, Chiselwick retired to his estates in Ireland, where he spent his time at the gambling tables at the Sandwich Club. It was here that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread as it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage, while eating, without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands. Other players soon copied him, and when the idea crossed the Irish Sea it became known as the ‘sandwich’ after the club. In Ireland, however, the sandwich is still more familiarly referred to as a ‘chiselwick’.

Chiselwick, George, Baron.
’30 Interesting Facts on the Chiselwick Family’.
Self-published.

What I’m Reading / Listening to:

I started listening to audiobooks recently (as a consequence of recording Nightfall with the fantastic talent of Alan Malcolm and Sally Bruce) and have fallen in love with the media. The three series I’ve been listening to are:

  • The Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith. This is where I discovered that audiobooks can add an emotional resonance to a work that reading may just have missed.
  • The Harry Potter series by J.K.Rowling. Narrated by Stephen Fry. Stephen is just such a great voice actor. The only person I know who can keep all four grandkids (4-9) quiet in the car for 20 minutes!
  • The Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews (Dramatized Adaptation by Graphic Audio) Narrated by Nora Achrati as Dina Demille. Other voices: Jonathan Lee Taylor as Klaus Demille, Jon Vertullo as George Camarine, Christopher Walker as Nuan Cee, and Scott McCormick as Orro, and 25 others actors. Have to say I was surprised to hear Nora’s accent, quite Texan, until my wife reminded me that Dina is actually Texan. Who would have thought Texans spoke with a Texan accent. I am presently waiting impatiently for number 4 in the series to be released (1 August). You can hear a small sample here: https://www.graphicaudiointernational.net/innkeeper-chronicles-2-sweep-in-peace.html

Want to say thanks to this author person?

Leave a short review of my book, any book, anywhere you like. Honestly, reviews are like gold nuggets to an author.

Until next time.

Andrew