C.J. Moseley's Blog, page 132
December 23, 2014
A little Theriocephalic league poster idea I’ve been working…
A little Theriocephalic league poster idea I’ve been working on…
In “Ironmaster & Other Tales” the Theriocephalics were originally created to help fight the Great War (which lasted 31 years) by Prussian Alchemists, although the Commonwealth soon raised their own Cauldron-born troops to aid the cause. After the war the League fought to gain the Theriocephalics human rights and freedoms.
December 22, 2014
mapsontheweb:
If Earth didn’t rotate. New distribution of land…
If Earth didn’t rotate. New distribution of land and water masses.
Not sure about that as without the spin the Earth would change shape under the Ocean too, but that there’s an excellent alternate Earth for an RPG or fantasy novel (or Sci-fi of course)
Now we just have to work out where the Amazon and Congo are going to empty and where the people might want to live, bearing in mind the enormous deserts that would form in the centre of that continent.
December 21, 2014
December 20, 2014
boingboing:
Great Firewall of Cameron blocks Parliamentary…
Great Firewall of Cameron blocks Parliamentary committee on rendition/torture
Well it is meant to protect us from anything extremist. I suspect the Labour website will be the next block.
December 19, 2014
thinknorth:
My mind has been bent lately on cosmic fantasies,…
My mind has been bent lately on cosmic fantasies, pondering the experience of space exploration, and what lies beyond the boundaries of our knowledge. I want to go beyond, I want to know the makings of our universe.
The New Age Explorer ...
December 18, 2014
art-of-swords:
Combination of Battle Axe and Hidden…
Combination of Battle Axe and Hidden Sword
Dated: early 18th century
Maker: unknown
Culture: Indian
Medium: steel, silver and gold, gilded and plated
Measurements: sword blade length: 43.8 cmSource: Copyright © 2014 The Wallace Collection
The Indians had brilliant combination weapons.
Welsh mythology is the western version of the Japanese Yokai….
Welsh mythology is the western version of the Japanese Yokai. Full of bizarre beasts and spirits that seem far removed from those of a more classical mythology (I’m looking squarely at certain early fantasy novelists that were so busy making up a British Mythology that they swerved most of the good stuff we had here).
This is an image I knocked up of one of the Welsh lake and river monsters, a Chimerical beastie, part Crocodile and part Beaver, so I think it’d look like this… The English would probably name it a Beaverdile, or maybe a Crocodeaver… But in Cymru it is called the Afanc (Avank).
Why do I want a picture of an Afanc? Well, it seems at least one has a mention in “Ironmaster & Other Tales” and it just happens to be in the big battle at the zenith of the plot, that I thought might make a pretty good cover image…
December 17, 2014
leadhooves:
totallyfubar:
I have a physics textbook from…
I have a physics textbook from before the electron was discovered and they just sound so frustrated it’s hilarious
SOMETHING is doing this, but fuck if we know what the fuck it is. GodDAMN
These days we just slap dark on it…
December 16, 2014
emporioefikz:
JET POWERED MONORAIL VEHICLE – AEROTRAIN
(via…
JET POWERED MONORAIL VEHICLE - AEROTRAIN
(via STRANGE VEHICLE)
Want.
December 15, 2014
Working on the Blurb for Ironmaster…
[caption id="attachment_14680" align="alignright" width="300"]
The Cover text is pretty dashing...[/caption]I hate writing blurbs... Blurbs are meant to draw the reader in and make them want to read it.
For me they represent trying to cram two or three years of writing into a short pithy paragraph or two, something I find really tricky to get right first time, and usually need a couple of goes at...
Take my latest project, it's a mosaic novel (already a difficult sell - a collection of linked stories that build a single story, most of the stories are standalone, but some are definitely not) set in an alternative world where the British Royalty allied themselves with ancient Faeries politically to grant every one with titles magic, and vice-versa. It is a Steampunk universe, with a rich Alchemist middle class, who own starships and run trade empires that spread from Earth across the solar system, but few of the stories reflect that, most are set in the same fictional county on the border with Cymru.
Anyway here's the blurb (it might change as I move through 3rd, and probably, final draft and add illustrations and so on to the body of the text... But because of the way I work, I'm taking the time to make the cover now and so want the blurb for the cover) that I've currently got :
From the author of “The Paradox War” trilogy, a new mosaic novel set in a world of Dark-Faery tale magic and Steampunk mad science.
In 1560, Queen Elizabeth I finally sued for peace with the Faeries that plagued her lands. The new Covenant granted noble titles to those with magic and magic to those with titles. Now its the 1980s, and after centuries of mage rule, including a recent 30 years of total war in Europa, followed by 20 years of uneasy peace, the world is ready to embrace change.
Over 30 tales of Airship Pirates, Flying Monsters, Alchemical Adventurers, Rocket Ninjas, Chthonic Horrors, Mad Scientists, Occult Detectives, Dog-Headed Cops, Folk-Magicians, Seelie and Unseelie Faeries, Infernal Conspiracies, Sorceress-Queens, and Punk-Rocker Spies, build into the story of a revolution, and a Civil War that will change the doom of a whole universe.
[caption id="attachment_14679" align="alignleft" width="300" class=" "]
The spine of the new book cover[/caption]What do you think? More importantly do any of my Beta readers (or Alpha readers) think that I've missed something important or given too much away?
Would you want to read the book that had that blurb? Or would something about it turn you off?
Let me know...
