Steampunk

The Traitor’s Son is Now Available!

The Traitor’s Son is Now Available!

It’s official! The Traitor’s Son is now published!

It’s available at all major eBook retailers

Ethan Stanwood’s life will never be the same now that he knows the truth…

In The Traitor’s Son, Book 4 of The Inventor’s Son Series, Ethan’s quest to find his father has only become more desperate as he realizes that the more time passes, and the more others discover the truth of what Marcus Stanwood has done, the more likely he will be denounced as a traitor to the Crown. Ethan is determined to keep that from happening, but to do it, he himself may have to betray the very things he values the most. Ethan realizes that he will need to ally himself with someone whose ambitions, from the very beginning, have brought out the worst in Marcus Stanwood and have turned Ethan’s life into a chaotic nightmare.

At the very same time, Ethan is wrestling with his own growing powers. His witch master is reluctant to control it, but when Ethan experiences a frightening episode, Hardwick is forced to reconsider. The method he uses to restrict Ethan’s power appears to be a blessing, but could easily turn into an insidious curse.

 

For a limited time, the eBook version of The Traitor’s Son is priced at $0.99. The print version will be available shortly, so keep an eye out.

 

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A Minor Change to The Inventor’s Son Collection

A Minor Change to The Inventor’s Son Collection

Hi, everyone! Very briefly, I wanted to let you know that I have made a slight change to the title of the digital boxed set edition of the first three books of The Inventor’s Son. It will now be listed in the eBook stores as The Inventor’s Son Collection (Books 0-2) because that is a much more accurate description of the contents. “Book 0” is commonly used for numbering a prequel book, but I’ve never been able to use it in the stores since they would not allow me to use anything but whole numbers. Since this set contains the prequel novella, Book 1 and Book 2, I wanted to make sure that the title of the set reflected that, now that I have gone and made sure the numbering of the volumes in all stores all correctly corresponds to the correct books.

The set includes:

  • The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning, book 0, which has added material and is exclusive to the set (or to the mailing list).
  • The Inventor’s Son, book 1 of the series, a full-length novel.
  • The Scientist’s Son, book 2 of the series, a full-length novel as well.

The new retail price will be $4.99 in all stores, and in the coming days, there will be a pre-order set up for The Traitor’s Son! Watch this space.

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The Next Steps with Changes to The Inventor’s Son Series

The Next Steps with Changes to The Inventor’s Son Series

Hi, everyone!

It’s October 1st now, and I have delisted The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning from all sales channels. Google Play books, again, will probably be the first one to have it removed, followed by Amazon. Then Kobo, Nook, and iBooks will probably have it delisted by the end of the day tomorrow. The version they all were selling was the original version, and I’ve since added some material and revised a few things. The revised version is exclusive to The Inventor’s Son Collection Books 1-3 or to subscribers to my mailing list. I’ll be updating the book tables and all the book pages to reflect this change. Any older versions of the eBooks might have links to the Amazon pages, and I’ll try to track these down and redirect them if possible to this page.

There’s more coming! As I come up with the changes, I’ll be posting about them here. Stay tuned…

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Detailing the Progress Made with Updates to The Inventor’s Son Series

Detailing the Progress Made with Updates to The Inventor’s Son Series

Hello, everyone! This morning, I took the first steps to changing the price of The Inventor’s Son back to $3.99. The price has already changed at Google Play because such changes are usually immediate there. I suspect it will be a few days before the change is completely done with Amazon because Nook takes a little time to change pricing as well. Amazon likes to price match as long as one of their competitors has a lower price on a book, and in my experience, Nook has always been the laggard.

I have decided to leave the price of the boxed set at $3.99 temporarily. This is probably because I will be releasing a new boxed set when I release The Traitor’s Son, and it will include The Inventor’s Son, The Scientist’s Son, and The Explorer’s Son, and that set will probably be priced at $7.99. The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning is still up for sale through the end of the week, but it will be unpublished by October 1. It will always be available for free to anyone that wants a copy if they join my email list, and who knows, it might appear on Instafreebie from time to time as well.

So, as for progress on The Traitor’s Son, it is in its final stages. I did get set back a little, but I’m sorted out now that the worst of the power outages, internet outages, and supply shortages from Hurricane Irma are behind us in my immediate area. I’m going to try and streamline the formatting process so that I can get the paperback and eBook copies for sale at the same time this time around, rather than having the paperback delayed for a long time, but if I find that my system is not working, I will release the eBook version early, then release the paperback when I have it finished.

You’ll see more from me soon!

 

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Some Important Updates on the Status of The Inventor’s Son Series!

Some Important Updates on the Status of The Inventor’s Son Series!

Whoa, got your attention? Don’t worry, The Traitor’s Son IS scheduled for release. ARC copies will be available when I create a pre-order (I decided I’m going to do a month-long pre-order for it just like I did with The Explorer’s Son) but in the meantime, there are a few changes I am making with the rest of the lineup.

The most important and impactful will be these two changes:

  1. After October 1, The Inventor’s Son will no longer be “permafree” in any of the sales channels. The price will be set at $3.99 as it had been when it was originally released. If you have not gotten a copy of the book and it’s before October 1, check your favorite online eBook seller. Amazon will probably be the last one to revert to paid status. I have given away thousands of copies of The Inventor’s Son since I made it free last year. With the advent of services like Instafreebie, having the book free in stores makes less sense than before.
  2. After October 1, I plan to unpublish The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning. Again, as with having a free book in an online store, having a book for sale that has always been meant to be a “reader magnet” makes little sense. It will be available exclusively in boxed sets and as a reader magnet. You can find out more in upcoming posts. In the meantime, if you want to read the original version of The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning, you can check it out on Wattpad, but if you want the better version that’s available in the boxed set, for free, then sign up for the SB James Author and Artist Newsletter to have it delivered to your email inbox!

As of now, I have no plans to take the rest of the series down from any of the online sellers like Kobo and iBooks, so no need to worry about that. In fact, I most likely will not make this series exclusive to Amazon. I do plan on participating in future Instafreebie promotions, so you can be on the lookout for that. I find that these promotions, run alongside other authors in my genres, are the most satisfying and successful.

There will be more changes coming so stay tuned!

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The Big Cover Reveal For The Traitor’s Son!

The Big Cover Reveal For The Traitor’s Son!

The Next Book in the Series is Near Completion at Last!

 

As you can see, I’m sticking with the same theme of Ethan’s hand holding something that is emblematic of the story in the book. In this volume, Ethan has a dilemma: does he continue his search for his beloved father, or does he turn him in?

You’ll be hearing more and more about The Traitor’s Son as the release date gets closer. I wanted to get the cover out there so that everyone would know that the book really is on the way!

 

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Working Furiously on the Paperback Version of The Inventor’s Son!

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Mock up provided by Covervault, and the real ones will be ready for the holidays!

These are a long time coming, I know! Pricing should be available soon, as well as links to Amazon. I believe they may only be available through Amazon for the short term, with wider availability coming by the end of the year, but we will see. One advantage you’ll have with buying a print version through Amazon will be the Kindle Match, which I think I’m going to be able to set to FREE. In other words, if you buy the print version and just can’t wait until it’s delivered to read it, the Kindle version will be available for free!

For now, I plan to have print versions of The Inventor’s Son, The Scientist’s Son, and The Explorer’s Son. I do not have immediate plans to create a print version of The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning. I think that book can remain an eBook only. But let me know if you think you might want that book in print; it’s only time spent on it, and there are other authors who have made print versions of novellas, so I’m flexible.

Stay tuned!

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Making a Few Changes at the Site

making a few changes

My website building is coming along slowly but surely. I got a lot of traffic last week with the blog post about the difference between Steampunk and Gaslamp Fantasy. It got me thinking that the post wasn’t as optimized as it could have been, so it led me to make a couple of changes.

  • You will now notice that I have installed Disqus for commenting on my blog. Previously I had WordPress’ commenting, which was fine if the person commenting was logged into WordPress. There are a lot of people however that are not, and Disqus makes logging in to comment a lot more flexible for would-be commenters, so yesterday I activated the plugin, so you should be seeing Disqus commenting enabled at the bottom of this and every blog post.
  • My super sale on The Inventor’s Son and The Inventor’s Son Collection is coming to an end as I write this. But do not despair! There will be opportunities going forward to get great deals on my books, along with a lot of other goodies and fun stuff, and the best way to find out about them is to join my mailing list! You will be getting The Inventor’s Son: The Beginning as a thank you for joining, and remember that this is the revised and expanded edition of the book that is only available in the Collection, not as an individual book at any of the retailers. While the original edition of the book is available for free at most retailers, this may not be the case for much longer…
  • I want to do more blog posts about subjects like the difference between Steampunk and Gaslamp. Perhaps some posts about the origins of Steampunk as a genre, an examination of magic systems of favorite series of books and movies, and most importantly, what significance does the octopus have to Steampunk?
  • I will be getting the new home page up…ASAP.

I hope to see you back here soon!

 

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What is the Difference Between Steampunk and Gasplamp Fantasy?

What is the Difference Between Steampunk and Gasplamp Fantasy?

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Recently I had come across the question of what the difference between Steampunk and Gaslamp Fantasy was. It started because I was telling people that I actually had written some Gaslamp Fantasy novels. It turns out that though people are actually familiar with what Gaslamp is, they aren’t aware of the name of the genre. So today, I’m going to outline the differences between Steampunk and Gaslamp.

Before I do that though, let’s talk about the similarity between the two related genres and figure out why they sometimes get confused. Steampunk and Gaslamp often have a similar outward appearance, and if someone looks at a picture of a character in a Gaslamp tale, they would immediately think of Steampunk. The top hats, the goggles, the corsets, the Neo-Victorian or Neo-Edwardian settings, and of course the gadgets and tinkerings and dirigibles… These all remind people of Steampunk. And Gaslamp Fantasy has all these elements as well.

But where they differ is subtle sometimes. Some people even consider Gaslamp as an offshoot of Steampunk. But it is actually a branch of the Historical Fantasy family. This link to the website Goodreads has a good list of Gaslamp Fantasy books, and this link to Goodreads that shows a list of Steampunk genre books.

Let’s select two books, one from each category, and examine the differences.

aeronauts windlass

The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher: this book belongs in the Steampunk genre. Why? Look at the plot description:

Captain Grimm commands the merchant ship, Predator. Fiercely loyal to Spire Albion, he has taken their side in the cold war with Spire Aurora, disrupting the enemy’s shipping lines by attacking their cargo vessels. But when the Predator is severely damaged in combat, leaving captain and crew grounded, Grimm is offered a proposition from the Spirearch of Albion—to join a team of agents on a vital mission in exchange for fully restoring Predator to its fighting glory.

 

Soulless
Soulless by Gail Carriger: This book, though very well known as Steampunk, is quite frankly a Gaslamp Fantasy book:

Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she’s a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she was rudely attacked by a vampire, breaking all standards of social etiquette.

Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire — and then the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate.

With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London’s high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Finally, who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?

Do you see the difference in the focus of the plot, just from the plot descriptions? In the case of Aeronaut’s Windlass, if you didn’t know that it was supposed to be a Steampunk book, you’d probably think the book was a space opera, with the focus being on a ship (dirigible airship in this case) that was damaged in battle (a space opera trope if ever there was one). The focus is on the technology, at least in this first volume of the series. Is there magic involved in this plot? Of course (this is Jim Butcher, after all), but as long as the scales tip in favor, plot-wise, on the technology and the gadgets, then it’s Steampunk.

In the case of Soulless, on the other hand, we see the words vampire, werewolf, supernatural, soul… If  you removed the name of Queen Victoria, you might think this was urban fantasy! We see nothing about gadgets in the book description (though in the book, the reader is shown various examples of more advanced Neo-Victorian technology). In this book, the focus is on the magic, and therefore this scale is tipped toward Gaslamp Fantasy.

thenewIScover2015
In the case of my own book, The Inventor’s Son, there are gadgets and tinkerings (and in the case of The Explorer’s Son, huge dirigibles). In the plot description, you can see there is some focus on those things:

The Inventor’s Son is the story of young Ethan Stanwood, whose father is a brilliant, but reclusive, inventor and scientist. Sickly and isolated, Ethan’s entire world revolves around his father and his work. He believes that this is all life has to offer him, in spite of the latent magical talents he’d inherited from his long-dead mother that are beginning to surface.

When his father flees London one Monday morning, Ethan’s quiet life is swiftly turned into a fight for his survival. His father tasks Ethan with bringing his most important prototype that he was forced to leave behind when he departed. Unfortunately, he has only left the vaguest of clues for Ethan to follow in order to find him. Ethan has to find his father, but he must also face his father’s foes who will stop at nothing to get Ethan and the prototype.

In my series, I have endeavored to make sure there was a fine balance between the focus on tech and the focus on magic, because Ethan is the child of an inventor and a witch. Because the focus seems to be on Marcus Stanwood’s prototype and the struggle to keep it out of enemy hands, you could almost call it Steampunk. But the books actually focus more on Ethan’s journey with the development of his magical abilities, especially in the later books. This is what puts my books in the Gaslamp Fantasy and Historical Fantasy categories more than Steampunk. For the sake of simplicity, readers have shelved my books as Steampunk, and that would not be incorrect, technically, but they do belong in Gaslamp Fantasy as well.

 

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