So, I’m all rested up and recovered from an amazing weekend at the Steampunk World’s Fair (review in the works). What’s next?

Why, another con appearance, of course…

Concluding The Ministry MAY-hem Tour (at least, this part of it) is an old favorite of mine — BALTICON. It was nearly ten years ago when I first arrived at this event with Morevi.  I looked something like this back then…

This was before the time of facial hair, before the days of podcasting, before the days of Facebook, Twitter, and Social Media. Right now, I’d love to go up to that guy and say “You have no idea what’s in store for you, bro.”

What a long strange trip it has been. And with the premiere of Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, it may just get a wee-bit stranger at Balticon 45 as tea parties, time traveling dances, rock-and-roll courtesy of Ditched by Kate, and panels-panels-panels are all in store! Here’s my schedule for the next few days…

FRIDAY
New Independent Voices in New Media — 6:00pm, Chesapeake
(New Media GoH, Pip Ballantine will be taking my place on the “Alien Sex: What Could Go Wrong?” panel at 9:00pm)

SATURDAY
The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Tea Party & Book Launch — 3:00 pm, Chesapeake

REMINDER: At the Ministry tea party we are giving away prizes, including a Catherinette steampunk ring AND a Dr. Grordbort signet ring. Constellation Books will be there to sell books, and we will provide tea and cookies!

Antigone’s Wrath LIVE — 4:00pm, Salon D
Low Budget Filmmaking — 9:00pm, Chesapeake

SUNDAY
Metamor City LIVE — 5:00pm, Chesapeake
The Time Traveler’s Ball (serving as DeeJay PirateBoy) — 10pm-1am, Garden Suite

MONDAY
Networking Vs. Platform — 10:00am, Salon C
The Shrinking Man Project LIVE — 1:00pm, Derby

The schedule is subject to change (in case of invites to join other panels), but now you know where to find both Pip Ballantine and myself. Don’t be a stranger — say hi, buy a book, and get your geek on at Balticon!

Hey, everyone!

Just in case you missed the big launch last week, Pip and I premiered Tales from the Archives,  a collection of short stories from the Victorian England of The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. With original theme music composed and created by Alex White, we are featuring original steampunk short stories from…

• P.C. Haring of Cybrosis
• Starla Huchton of The Dreamer’s Thread
• Helen H. Madden of Heat Flash
• Phil Rossi of Eden and Harvey
• Chooch Schubert of Chronicles of the Order:“The Destruction of Station One”
• Jack Mangan author of Spherical Tomi
• Nathan Lowell of Trader’s Tales: The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper
• Valerie Griswold-Ford of The Apocalypse Cycle
• Grant Stone, Sir Julius Vogel winner for numerous short stories

Last week, Pip kicked things off with “The Evil that Befell Samson” and this week we present the supernatural steampunk “Dust on the Davenport” by author O.M. Grey.

Agent Simon R. Boswell, still considered the green agent of the Ministry, takes on his own a supposed haunting in Islington. Hauntings tend to be nothing too serious for agents specializing in the unexplained; but for Simon, this case supplies surprises of all kinds, around every corner…

About the Author:

O. M. Grey is rather camera shy and is a complete novice when it comes to modern technology. She prefers to live in the cobwebbed corners of her dark mind writing paranormal romance with a Steampunk twist. When she’s not writing, she’s reading or tending the garden or drinking a hot cup of tea. (Just two drops, please.)

O.M. Grey’s Avalon Revisited is released by Blue Moose Press and available from Amazon.com (print and Kindle), Barnes and Noble (print and Nook ), and the iBook Store. Find out more about the author at omgrey.wordpress.com.

Featured Voice Talent (in order of appearance):

• Paul E. Cooley
• Tee Morris
• Philippa Ballantine

Theme music for the Ministry composed and created by Alex White.

You can subscribe to Tales from the Archives on iTunes (and leave us a review there), or with your podcatcher of choice at the Ministry website. If you hear a short story you particularly like, go on and feel free to syndicate it on your own blog or podcast. Thanks for listening!

Hey, everyone!

You might have heard about this on Twitter last week when Pip and I premiered the first episode of our anthology podcast (more on that in a moment), there is a pretty strong showing of steampunk on Twitter, and one writer in particular started up a movement that have become a weekly event I always look forward to on Twitter.

Meet Nancy Overbury, the creator of #SteamTuesday on Twitter.

Nancy is a graphic designer and artist located in Montreal, Canada, and has nursed over the past few years a passion for steampunk. She promotes on Twitter a variety of  links — literature, film, art, fashion, music — you name it! If it’s steampunk and she hasn’t mentioned it on Twitter, you’ll find it on her blog.

So when Pip and I were trying to figure out when we wanted to drop episodes of Tales from the Archives, I immediately thought of Nancy’s special day on Twitter dedicated to steam, gears, and cog. Last week, the first episode “The Evil that Befell Samson” written by Pip Ballantine, went live:

It is revealed just how Miss Braun ended up being exiled from her native country, New Zealand, and working for the Ministry in its London Offices. It’s a tale of nefarious doings, stalwart ladies, and the sound of clockwork.

With original theme music composed and created by Alex White, Tales from the Archives will be featuring original steampunk short stories from these talented authors:

• O.M. Grey of Avalon Revisited
• P.C. Haring of Cybrosis
• Starla Huchton of The Dreamer’s Thread
• Helen H. Madden of Heat Flash
• Phil Rossi of Eden and Harvey
• Chooch Schubert of Chronicles of the Order:“The Destruction of Station One”
• Jack Mangan author of Spherical Tomi
• Nathan Lowell of Trader’s Tales: The Golden Age of the Solar Clipper
• Valerie Griswold-Ford of The Apocalypse Cycle
• Grant Stone, Sir Julius Vogel winner for numerous short stories

You can subscribe on iTunes (and leave us a review there) or with your podcatcher of choice at the Ministry website. If you hear a short story you particularly like, go on and feel free to syndicate it on your own blog or podcast.

And make sure when you are on Twitter, give Nancy a tweet and consider tracking the #SteamTuesday for some incredible finds out there in the aetherwebs!

I never like seeing friends stressed out. Whether it is intensely stressed out or just out of their groove, it just kills me. It is amplified more when I feel the bumpy ride of Life’s rougher patches. Last week, snapping back from what can only be described as an “emotionally charged night” between me and the World, I read up on a writer and friend I admire and hold dear. Turns out he was also hitting a rough patch of road.

Phil Rossi, the multitalented man with the flowing hair of awesome, began a series of posts called “Paralysis.” He’s working through a writer’s dry spell; and in “Part I: Stranded,” he went “All In” like the rock-and-roll badass that he is:

“Another truth–I’ve never been in this place before. I don’t recognize the countryside.  The air here is different—heavy and overwhelming. Talk about a wrong turn. In the past, I’ve been able to work through any creative block. This is different.”

It was in this passage from the second posting in this series entitled “Part II: Patience” where I felt like I clicked with Phil on the raw fear now gnawing away at him:

“The journey easily becomes a desolate stretch of road, the destination coming no closer, when faced with daily emails wondering about when the next piece of fiction will drop and having no good answer or while watching idly as peers put out new material every other day (or so some day it seems).

When did any of that start to matter? At some point, it didn’t even exist.”

The troubadour of the tight jeans and cowboy boots is right. When did any of this — the comparisons, the results, the numbers — matter? When did all that come into play?

For me, it came into play when this story Pip and I wrote together, sold. First here. Then overseas.

Getting published isn’t the hard part. It’s living up to the hype.

There’s a lot riding on Phoenix Rising. At least, that’s what I’m seeing. The book hasn’t sold a single copy, and yet we’ve made back our advance. How? International sales. Australia and New Zealand. Germany. Russia. Everyone—even our super-agent—is floored by this; and we are thrilled. While this momentum is building, Pip and I are still working the marketing angles. We have been building up our modest Twitter account for Agents Books and Braun, running #SteamTuesday tweets, the odd steampunk article or three, and dropping teasers for both Phoenix Rising and the sequel in the works, Of Cogs and Corsets. We also have the Tales from the Archives podcast that launched last week, and a green light from the publisher to shoot a book trailer. Then starting in April, Pip and I hit blogs and podcasts, ramping up the following month with Ministry May-hem. (See what we did there?) That’s when we hit the road.

As the clock on the Ministry website continues to count down, a news story concerning a new publishing sensation reached my ears, and I found it a little hard to believe. I thought it was nothing more than eBook hype and propaganda. Being the librarian with the Black Belt of research fu, though, Pip pulled up the video…

Amanda Hocking’s story is pretty astounding when you look at it objectively. For pennies compared to what I have invested into my own writing career, Hocking has sold a staggering number of digital books. 900,000 and climbing. She has become a juggernaut of literature in less than a year, and reached that point in her press where she is debunking a few myths of her amazing ride. I admire that.

But on seeing the clip, I went on a rant in front of Pip. A rant you will never hear and never read. Safe to say, I didn’t react well to it. At all.

The odd thing about this rant was is I couldn’t pin down what I was feeling. I wasn’t angry at Pip. (Obviously.) I wasn’t angry at Amanda Hocking. (Jealous? Yeah, okay, maybe. Just a bit.) I was angry at something, I knew that. (Check…although furniture kicking never occurred. At least, on this instance.)

After spewing out this private rant, I dropped back into my chair and attempted to return to my work-in-progress, drained of any motivation and inspiration to write. Completely. I snapped, “What’s the point? Why the hell do I even bother?”

That was when Pip said it: “You can’t give up. You’re not allowed.”

Then it hit. And it’s still hitting me. I figured out why I was so angry…I’m scared.

I’m scared that Ministry won’t go the way people are telling me it will go. I’m scared the book will hit the shelves and people will hate it. I’m scared that I’ve got all these great ideas, but I’ll suddenly find myself unable to get beyond the pitch. I’m scared of losing that ability to write. I’m also scared with the international sales already set, Ministry is going to fall short of everyone’s expectations.

But what Amanda Hocking triggered was a fear that I’ve always thought has loomed over my writing career: I’m scared that I’m doing something wrong.

At least, that’s what my head is telling me.

I understand what Pip meant though. I’m not allowed to give up. Neither is Phil. We still have stories to tell. We have audio to engineer. For guys like us (and anyone driven by passions of a creative nature), the rules no longer apply. No matter how bad it may seem, we’re not allowed to give up. Onward. Always.

This fear isn’t a bad thing. It’s good. It keeps me focused and driven. I know that when I’m the most terrified, I’m sharp. My heart pounds like a jack rabbit before a speaking event, before a panel discussion, and when introducing myself at the beginning of a workshop. I know that I’m alive, and every rapid pound in my chest reminds me that I have earned the right to be here and it’s time for my “A” game. If I didn’t want to take a chance, if I didn’t believe in what I create, if I doubted my skill and talent, then I could find contentment in writing stories and keeping them to myself. I have chosen a path that agents, editors, and publisher have all told me few undertake. The fear is my acknowledgement of a challenge before me, and I am ready to face it.

Speaking of facing those demons, I understand Phil’s writing again.

“I was rewarded with the start of what could be a very tasty short piece of fiction and the knowledge that, yes, I can do this.   We are defined largely by our own perception. If I think I can’t write, then I’m not going to be able to do it.  If I consider myself capabable of telling a good tale, then that’s just what’ll happen.  Belief is a powerful thing.

And in this case, I’d say it’s magic.”

I found out this weekend it was his idea for Tales from the Archives that has got his butt back in the chair. Inspiration. Kind of like how his earlier blogposts inspired this posting.

In a perfect world, I believe that how we should be to each other: inspiring. That really is, as Queen once put it, a kind of magic.

UPDATE: When this post went live, Lou Anders of Pyr Books pointed people in his Facebook feed to Amanda’s blog. In her March 3 blogpost “Some Things that Need to Be Said,” Amanda goes even deeper into her success and some of the misconceptions and bold assumptions people are making. She also offers her own observations of being a self-published author versus a traditional press published author, and she pulls no punches:

“Self-publishing and traditional publishing really aren’t that different. One is easier to get into but harder to maintain. But neither come with guarantees. Some books will sell, some won’t.”

Before you get on the “Who Needs Traditional Publishing?” bandwagon, you will want to read this heartfelt and brutally honest posting from one of digital publishing’s success stories.

And to you, Amanda, I say “Kia Kaha! Now get your butt back in that chair and write!”

Back in December, you might recall a blogpost proclaiming my love for New Zealand smut. Well, Chef Ballantine appreciated my kind words so much concerning the podcast too hot for iTunes, Erotica ala Carte, that she invited me to cook in her kitchen. The ingredients this naughty Gordon Ramsey (with help from her listeners) threw at me were:

• Alternative History
• Government Bureau
• Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down

The end result is the short story (borderline novella) “Release Me” which dropped just before Balticon. As I mentioned, the story seemed to write itself and really took on some serious momentum, surprising (if not, disturbing) me. The end result, though, I am quite happy with:

In an alternative America a superhero learns a lesson in control.

Inspired by my favorite film of the year so far, Watchmen, I went with a government bureau of superheroes instead of something along the lines of The X-Files. (I think that is what folks were expecting.) There are also a few nods to the Twitter community and a homage to one of my Geek Chic heroines. This was a lot of fun, and a terrific exercise for me as a writer. So as it stands, J.C. Hutchins has challenged me with writing a thriller and Pip has tapped me for erotica. What’s next? Horror?

Scott Sigler? Phil Rossi? Any of you guys wanna throw the gauntlet?

Have a listen, and let me (and Pip) know what you think.

After enjoying a slot in Charlie the Beer Guy’s Speaking of Beer, Phil Rossi and I decided to take all this content we’ve been producing for well-on two years and turn it into our own show. Launching the TeeMorris.com Monster Feed is MicroBrewed, two guys who revel in their geekdom and enjoy the micro-brewed beers they drink. Recorded last night from Clyde’s in Loudon County, Virginia, we reboot the podcast within a podcast…and fly on our own with only a pint glass and our rapier wits as our co-pilots…

Heaven help us!

Featured Microbrews

• Stella Artois
• Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

Concerning Clyde’s. Just take a look at this place…
(click on the images for a better look)

And just so you know what it is we are nomming on during the recording…

Some of the topics we hit:

• Clyde’s
• Is Stella Atois really a “microbrew” considering its history?
• The demise of Dominion
• What you can expect from Microbrewed?

Thanks for listening, and feel free to leave comments for Phil and myself here. Sláinte!