Category: Jake and the Dynamo

‘Jake and the Dynamo’ 2 Preview

Jake and the Dynamo (remember that book?) is still unavailable as of this writing since the unfortunate out-of-businessing of my publisher. I have no known date for a re-release, but I am seriously considering self-publishing within the next few months and also releasing volume 2 the same way. Volume 3 is also underway, though I’ve set it aside for the moment for another writing project. In any case, here is a preview.

It had been a Sunday afternoon in early spring. The weather was at last warming up, so Marionette’s drafty attic was comfortable again after a terrible winter. Although her joints didn’t stiffen up in cold as readily as a human’s did, and though she couldn’t suffer frostbite or pneumonia, she could still feel miserable. She had spent much of the winter warming her fingers over a small cast-iron stove and painting a few strokes at a time before needing to warm her fingers again.

Now down to shirtsleeves and green boyshorts, she spent a lazy Sunday lying in her cot. The paint-flecked bedclothes were in a tangled mess, partly over her and partly under.

Kasumi Sugihara, down to a sports bra and boxers, lay beside her and smoked a cigarette. In her magical form, she was Card Collector Kasumi, but for the moment, she was merely an ordinary fifteen-year-old girl. She and Marionette had wiled away the late morning and much of the afternoon reading magazines, talking about TV dramas, discussing battle tactics, and gossiping about which boys they hated.

Marionette held, balanced on her stomach, a crystal Pontarlier glass of milky absinthe louche. She gazed at it for half a minute, raised her head, and took a sip. A faintly bitter scent of blended herbs met her olfactory sensors, and then the drink slipped smoothly down her synthetic throat.

Continue reading “‘Jake and the Dynamo’ 2 Preview”

Update on My Projects

I won’t deny that I’ve been struggling with the third volume of Jake and the Dynamo. For this volume, I had a lot of clear vignettes in my mind but no idea how they related to one another. So I’ve been writing disconnected scenes without really knowing what I was doing.

Fortunately, I finally had a breakthrough: I had a single plot point come to me that tied everything together, so I’m working on the book tonight and it’s flowing reasonably well.

On that note, I have no update on publishing. I haven’t heard back from any publishers to which I’ve submitted, so I will probably, in the next few months, give them up and submit to other places.

Sneak Peek: ‘Jake and the Dynamo,’ Volume 3

I finished the essays I was working on for a side project, so now I’m back to working on the third volume of Jake and the Dynamo, currently under the working title of  The Shadow of His Shadow. Here’s a foretaste. As always, there is no guarantee that this will be in the final product.

On an added note, I am still waiting to hear back from some publishers to whom I’ve submitted, so I have no updates on possible releases of the previously published volume or its sequel.

At last, these treatments were apparently at an end. The bespectacled goblin sniffed once, made another mark in his ledger, and threw a loose silk robe over Jake’s shoulders. Then the trolls dragged him through yet another dank hallway, finally depositing him in the Bedchamber of Darkness, where he fell to the floor in a heap.

The trolls bowed respectfully before turning, leaving, and shutting the door behind themselves.

Jake raised himself to his knees and blinked against the gloom. He saw a large, four-poster bed atop a pedestal reached by steep stairs. On the walls hung an array of bizarre devices, most of which were unfamiliar to him—but the collection of coiled whips and handcuffs had an obvious purpose, as did the bloodstained rack standing in one corner. Ropes and chains dangled under the canopy above the bed.

He swallowed loudly.

On the bed lay the coldly beautiful woman he had earlier seen in the inner sanctum of the Temple of the Moon Princess. In a filmy dress of glossy black, she had one broad hip exposed, like an imposing hill in the middle of a plain. Her full, blood-red lips were slightly parted, and her round breasts rose and fell with her breath. Her raven-dark hair splayed across an embroidered samite pillow.

Frowning against bruises and stiff muscles, Jake carefully pulled himself to his feet.

Am I … am I about to score with the Dark Queen?

The Queen said not a word. She merely reached out with one shapely yet bone-white hand tipped with sharp nails as red as her lips. She patted the comforter once, twice. At the same time, she raised an arched eyebrow.

Continue reading “Sneak Peek: ‘Jake and the Dynamo,’ Volume 3”

Update on ‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’

I’ve received some images indicating the progress on the cover art for Dead to Rites, the next volume in the Jake and the Dynamo series.

I don’t think it would be any of my business to give details, but the talented artist doing the work has encountered a lot of problems in the process, almost as if some unseen power doesn’t want the book published. (I say that because I ran into strange trouble of my own while writing it.)

Anyway, things are moving along even if more slowly than I would have preferred. I have received a few images of the art, but post only the one here, as I figure I shouldn’t spoil it.

Anyway, Pretty Dynamo is still looking good. I absolutely love this interpretation of her outfit.

‘Dead to Rites’ Is on Its Way!

I don’t have a precise release date yet, but Dead to Rites is getting close to its release. We had a bit of a mix-up involving different versions, but that’s resolved now. I learned something from my experience with the first book and, though it would be crazy to say that volume 2 is error free, I think I can say that it is much more closely edited.

So, if things go as planned, the book should be out next month—I hope early next month. The format has been completely revamped, and I’m excited about it because this next volume will be much more readable and stately-looking than the first. If you thought volume 1 was an attractive book (I thought so, anyway), volume 2 will look even better.

And of course, I’m crossing my fingers in expectation that it won’t be very long after this I’ll be announcing the release of Rag & Muffin.

‘Jake and the Dynamo’ Nominated for an Award

I confess I’ve never before heard of Happy Frogs, but it is apparently a fledgling organization with some interest in promoting science fiction and fantasy.

The Frogs’ recently created Ribbit Award has this year been renamed the John W. Campbell Literary Prize because WorldCon recently relinquished the name of the famed sf editor for its award for new fiction. I had caught wind of that name change a few months ago and didn’t quite believe it, but it is apparently real.

In any case, Jon Del Arroz recently announced the nominees for the newly minted Campbell award, and Jake and the Dynamo is a nominee for Best Fantasy Novel. I am just arrogant enough to say that, if nothing else, I am confident it is the funniest book on the nomination list.

I am of course honored and humbled. This couldn’t come at a better time, either, since the sequel is due for a release in the near future.

In any case, remember to vote early and vote often if you think magical girls deserve a larger place at the table in the world of speculative fiction.

I certainly think they deserve a larger place. I mean, have you seen the way they eat?

 

Brief Update on ‘Dead to Rites’

Just got word from my editor about progress on Dead to Rites, the next volume in Jake and the Dynamo.

My publisher is currently rushing some things to get ready in time for Dragon Con (August 29 to September 2), which has pushed my book release back a bit. I’m crossing my fingers for September, but we’ll see.

Speaking of which, I had a sort-of chance to make it to Dragon Con this year, but couldn’t take the time from work or excuse the expense on the plane ticket, but I am hoping to make it in future years, so at some point I may show up there with other members of the Superversive stable.

‘Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites’ Submitted!

I have just finished the final edits (on my end) of Dead to Rites, the second volume of Jake and the Dynamo.

As usual, the process took me (embarrassingly) longer than I predicted. Although this phase was supposed to be just proofreading for final edits, I ended up deleting a scene, fixing some minor inconsistencies, shuffling a few other scenes around … you know how it goes.

Nonetheless, this book required less extensive reworking than the previous one did, which means I was able to dedicate most of this time to the nitty-gritty points of grammar and style—and that means a better experience for the reader.

If the publishing process is the same as last time, the galley will appear on my desk just once more, asking for my approval after it goes through a final round of someone else’s edits. Then my work on it is done.

I’m jumping from this straight into my next project, which is producing the final, submission-worthy draft of Rag & Muffin. I previously intended to work on my Christmas novel Son of Hel first, but after I realized how much research it will require, I decided to finalize this other novel that’s already written instead.

If things go as planned, I will have two books out this year and two out next year. That’s not exactly pulp speed, admittedly, but it is at least better than average.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Proofing
100%

Roffles Lowell is also working on the illustrations. I couldn’t resist, in the header, showing this detail from one of the pictures he’s sent me (I will have to struggle to resist showing them all before the book is published). This is not the first time he’s drawn Dana Volt in her non-magical form, but I think it’s the first time he’s drawn her as such for a book illustration, and I love it.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites Progress Update

Image: Source unknown.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

I know I haven’t posted much lately, but as this has been Holy Week, and I’m Catholic, I’ve been quite busy. I’m also finishing up Dead to Rites, and I’m in the oh-my-gosh-I-have-to-get-this-thing-out-of-the-house-I’m-so-sick-of-it phase of the writing process. I tend to hit a period of malaise and despondency as I’m finishing a project, but this one has gone more smoothly than the last. Although crafting the final chapters was like pulling teeth, my editor only asked for minor alterations, and I was able to move forward on her requests without the lengthy period of blockage I had with the first novel.

Jake and the Dynamo: Dead to Rites
Phase:Proofing
80%

I just finished the grueling and monotonous task of running the book through a spelling and grammar checker. I didn’t do this with Jake and the Dynamo; since I use so many made-up or foreign words, and since I write complex sentences the average grammar checker can’t handle—as well as a slew of sentence fragments in dialogue—I’ve inadvertently trained myself not to see the red and green underlining. I was subsequently embarrassed to find typos in the final draft of my first novel that a spellcheck could have caught, though the book had seen an editor and proofreader even after I had edited it extensively.

With this in mind, I put Dead to Rites through the checker, and it was as agonizing a process as I had envisioned, but it also caught several typos I might have easily missed while proofreading, mostly in the form of missing letters in some of the more exotic names. It also highlighted idiosyncrasies of my writing style, especially my bad habit of starting sentences with and, so this will give me opportunity to vary my sentence structure more as I make the final edits.

Only two steps are left in my editing process: I am going to do my customary search and replace for common grammatical errors, and then I am going to print the whole thing and read it through with a red pen to find any mistakes, overused words, or loose sentences I missed while reading on the screen. After that, it’s off to the publisher to go through a professional proofread before it sees print.

My editor wants a couple of characters’ motivations clarified. I’m still figuring out how to do that, but I don’t think it will require more than a few sentences, and I’ll determine where to insert those as I’m doing the read-through of the hard copy.

I mentioned before that my next project was Son of Hel, an action novel about Santa Claus and Krampus. I’ve realized, as I’ve begun working on Son of Hel, that it will require considerable research to do it justice since I want to combine together all the Christmas folklore I can find. But I also want to publish two novels this year, so I think my next book out will actually be Rag & Muffin, which is already complete in rough draft form.

Jake and the Dynamo, Book 2 Sneak Peek

I’m continuing to make the final edits on Dead to Rites, the second book in the Jake and the Dynamo series. Meanwhile, our interior illustrator, Roffles Lowell, is hard at work making the illustrations.

After we saw the final version of the paperback, Lowell suggested some changes for this version that will make the pictures sharper in black and white, but as you can see from this picture above, he has all-around stepped up his game.

This image depicts an early scene, in which Dana Volt and Jake’s girlfriend Chelsea square off in the virtual-reality fighting game Magical Girl Rumble. Chelsea plays as Sword Seamstress while Dana plays as Pretty Dynamo. And I must say that Dana looks great in her skater outfit.