Cover Reveal: Iron Lights
Here she is, in all her end-of-trilogy glory:
And with her sisters:
Wow. I can’t wait to have all three on a table.
Speaking of tables, this weekend is GammaCon Canberra, for all your nerdy needs!
You can find out more here, or just show up at Exhibition Park between 9am and 5pm this weekend (or 6-11pm Saturday, for Gamma @ night—yes I’ll still be there, drunk on tiredness).
Magic in the Mail
The (first?) “Murder in the Mail” Kickstarter was successful, raising thousands of dollars. You can read more about that story here.
As you can probably guess from the title, this led to further shenanigans.
There are currently TWO “Magic in the Mail” stories in development:
Magic in the Mail: Feuding Fae
This is a tale of two missing magical creatures; a phoenix and a water dragon.
Phoenixes and dragons hate one another, so foul play seems likely. Their concerned parents team up with some magic-sensitive mortals to follow the missing “children” and perhaps save their lives. The missing ones have left a trail of art behind them (because an encounter with a magical creature inspires wonderful art).
It is posted in three parcels, and includes artistic objects which you’re going to love!
It is also 100% G-rated.
$50 plus postage (or $40 if you buy the boxed set in person at a conference/fair) through the store right here.
The first mail-out will be June **2019** but you can make preorders now.
This beautiful anuragnathus (yes it’s a real dinosaur) by Alan Lam is part of the story—and yes, the Chinese character is both a clue and a red herring.
What does a dinosaur have to do with a story of magical runaways?
You’ll have to buy the story to find out.
Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire (mini story)
This is a steampunk fantasy tale set in the same world of magical metals as all my other steampunk, including my novels (in fact it takes place at the same time as part of Iron Lights and the game Attack of the Clockwork Army).
A Perfectly Ordinary (she says) shop-keeper named Xiong joins a fledgling rebellion headed up by the famous Emmeline Muchamore. It’s a tale of secrets, hope, aeronauts, lighthouses, an alternate reality Charles Dickens, and fruit ices for all.
$30 plus postage (in a single pack because I’m trying to keep it affordable) from my store here. Available now!
The first mail-out is. . . within 6 months of the first order. Probably more or less instantly. This story is a much smaller operation than the others. I’ll be feeling my way as I go.
A stripped-down version will be included with my third steampunk fantasy novel (available in August 2018), with just two black and white pieces of art included. The full version has a build-your-own hot air balloon, handmade jewellery and a steampunk song by the Littmus Steampunk Band!
Here’s one of the pieces of art. This is a print of an oil painting by Graham Gercken, who takes special orders.
Since people tend to feel strongly about the genres of both crime and fantasy, “Magic in the Mail” has its own forum, here.
All my stories are available through my store here.
Antipodean Queen 3: Iron Lights
That’s right! The title has changed.
This is the final book in my magical steampunk trilogy. The first book is HEART OF BRASS and the second is SILVER AND STONE.
You can buy IRON LIGHTS here or a full Steam & Sorcery pack here (it includes all three novels, and the full version of Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire), or at Dymocks Belconnen.
It’ll be all over the place, in both print and digital formats, this October.
Emmeline Muchamore was respectable once. Her sweetheart, Matilda Newry, certainly put a stop to that. But when Emmeline gains magical insight into a disastrous future battle, she weaponises her wild reputation in order to draw trouble and death away from her adopted home…risking everything and everyone she loves in the process.
Iron Lightsis a steam-powered tale of honour, love, magic, adventure, and mechanical spiders.
The book was launched at the Canberra Writers’ Festival (26 August 2018) and is now available in paperback via my store. Digital versions at Amazon etc will be out soon.
ISBN: 9781925652444 (paperback)
The Iron Lights of the title refer to two famous historical lighthouses which play a vital role in the tale. There will be new and dangerous magic, another evolution of the flying machine, a clockwork army, and [redacted].
Here’s the opening:
If you’re worried that you won’t have any more of my books to impatiently wait for. . . don’t. I have another full trilogy already written and edited and waiting in the wings.
When I was eighteen years old and living in Indonesia, I invented a fantasy world called Rahana. It is a place with thousands of islands and millions of potential stories, where magic is considered to be just another trade. It’s best described as being a lot like Narnia, but with pirates.
The HEEST trilogy is written for children (but is, as always, just the kind of thing I love to read).
The first book is THE MONSTER APPRENTICE.
My 2017: No wonder I need a lie down
What an epic year. I spent over 15 years of my life writing novels that nobody would touch, and now that it’s started to rain it’s pouring (which is a wonderful thing).
I spent vast amounts of time on the Tin Man Games “Choices That Matter” app (Google Play and iOS). It’s a story hub for serial interactive tales and it has over a million downloads of the free sample sections. The three stories so far are:
“And The Sun Went Out”
A near-future scifi which I co-wrote with KG Tan and Alyce Potter. It had 60 updates over 15 months, and clocked in at just over 600,000 words (longer than “War and Peace”). Each read-through is about 150,000 words.
“And Their Souls Were Eaten”
I wrote all of this one (edited by Phill Berrie and KG Tan), set in the same steampunk universe as my Antipodean Queen novels, but with a completely distinct magical problem (and taking place in Europe). The finished tale is 400,000 words long, and after that I had a nice lie down.
“And Their Heroes Were Lost”
Phill Berrie is writing, and KG and I are editing (oh how the tables are turned, hey Phill?) This is also sci-fi, but I don’t want to give away any more than that! Phill is still working on this story, and his fans are clamouring for each new update.
I also wrote, edited, and published the novel “Antipodean Queen 2: Silver and Stone“, and will be finishing that trilogy in 2018 with “Antipodean Queen 3: Iron Lights” (that’s right: the title has changed since Book 2 was published).
AND my actually-rather-good pirate fantasy trilogy for kids (like Narnia, but with pirates) that I wrote many years ago has been accepted for publication and shall begin release with a free pirate mini-ball (live music, prizes, costumes, and everything!!) on Saturday February 17th.
“The Monster Apprentice” is the first book. And it’ll be illustrated, too! Plus (shh don’t tell) one of my very very very favourite Aussie authors is going to read it and give me a cover quote!
And I have three other very exciting projects coming out in 2018! One I can’t talk about yet, one will be published on the premium label at Choice of Games (they pay VERY well for books that make the premium grade), and one is called “Murder in the Mail: A Bloody Birthday” and is a murder mystery told entirely through postcards, letters, objects, and art. That link is to the shiny new forum where readers will be able to talk to one another about who they think is the killer, and how much they love all the art I chose!
2017 was a great year for my writing, and 2018 is going to be even better.
I is happy.
Things are looking up.
Antipodean Queen 2: SILVER AND STONE
SILVER AND STONE is the middle book of my Australian steampunk fantasy trilogy, which began with HEART OF BRASS and will end in 2018 with IRON LIGHTS.
You can buy SILVER AND STONE here (I’ll even sign it for you), or the full STEAM & SORCERY pack here (all three novels plus the full version of Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire).
If that embedded video doesn’t work, you can also watch the trailer here (it includes a fast-and-dirty explanation of steampunk, and features my daughter).
Like to read the back cover? Here it is:
Getting into prison is easy.
Getting out is hard.
Getting away is nearly impossible.
Getting the power to control your own destiny might cost everything you have.
Emmeline, Matilda, and Patrick are sworn to rescue Patrick’s mother from the infamous Female Factory prison, but when a vengeful police officer tracks down their hideout, things get worse fast.
Soon they’re framed for a double murder and fighting a magical monster in the eerie and unfamiliar island of Tasmania. Patrick’s mother hides crucial papers in a tin under her prison smock, and her best friend Fei Fei is dying in the overcrowded prison.
More than one woman’s life hangs in the balance.
You can order it via Odyssey Books or Amazon US, or Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound, or Amazon Australia. It’s also for sale through Kobo, Abe Books, and The Book Depository.
As a rule, it’s easier to search for “Felicity Banks” than “Silver and Stone”.
The ISBN is 978-1-925652-20-8 (pbk) | 978-1-925652-2-15 (ebook)
You can use that number to quickly and easily order it into any bookshop you like. Most Australian bookshops and libraries should stock it already. If you’re in Canberra, Harry Hartog’s in Woden does a good job of keeping my books in stock.
SILVER AND STONE can always be bought in physical form directly through the publisher (who will post it to you—Odyssey is linked to printers in Australia, the US, and the UK, so if you’re in one of those nations the postage cost will be domestic).
It is extremely helpful to me for readers to leave reviews at Amazon and/or Goodreads. The more you say why you like/dislike it, the more other readers will know if it suits them or not. I do read reviews but I’m not bothered by negative ones (sometimes I even learn something), so go ahead and be honest!
Like a sample?
CHAPTER ONE
I don’t deliberately make things explode.
Patrick O’Connell stomped on the trap door above my head. Bang, bang, bang.
Three bangs was Patrick’s signal for ‘May I come in?’ He was quite well-mannered for a bushranger―or perhaps by now he’d simply walked in on Matilda and I kissing one too many times. I grabbed my six-foot iron poking stick and tapped the three bangs back to him through the ceiling to indicate he was welcome to enter.
The trap door creaked open and Patrick looked down at me, shaking his head like a disappointed parent. ‘How do you expect me to get the grease out of that dress?’
I looked down and noticed that my apron had, as usual, failed to protect my clothing. There were several spots of oil here and there, as well as dust and soot and tiny burn marks from my magically altered and occasionally self-combusting rats.
‘I don’t expect you to get the grease out,’ I said. ‘We’ll buy a new one next time we go to town.’
He grunted in reply and descended the ladder to pass me a tin mug of black tea. I tasted it, noting there was plenty of honey, just the way I liked it. So he wasn’t truly cross after all, just anxious. Patrick had good reason to be tense, given his mother’s location. He cast a glance over my desk, which lined the entire underground room on four sides. I resisted the urge to hide certain diagrams. It wouldn’t have done any good, since I’d already made several models and was experimenting to see whether the effects of magical metal scaled consistently between miniature and life-size machines.
I had to get it right―for Patrick more than anyone. His mother was a suffragette trapped in Tasmania’s ‘Female Factory’ prison, and we were going to get her out. All I had to do was figure out how to extract Mrs O’Connell without getting us all killed.
Patrick moved closer to the largest of my models: a steel train engine featuring twenty segmented metal legs designed to compensate for difficult terrain and/or a lack of railway tracks. The black silk balloon linked to the train’s roof was potentially useful to reduce the train’s weight and perhaps even harvest the heated air from the engine―but that was assuming Patrick let me cannibalise his precious hot air balloon for a radical new method of travel. From what I’d heard, Tasmania was much more inclined to dramatic vistas than was entirely convenient.
‘Are you sure it’s safe?’ he asked, rubbing his hands through his hair and making it stick up like straw. He chose not to say aloud what we were both thinking: There was little point in rescuing Shauna O’Connell only to burst into flames immediately afterward.
‘Not yet,’ I said stiffly. ‘I’m pushing the boundaries of what is possible.’
‘Hmm.’ He eyed the largest of the craters in the wall and rubbed the gunpowder burn on his cheek.
‘Would you like to see the train working?’ I asked, popping my goggles over my eyes in preparation.
‘Err. . . maybe when it’s ready for an open-air display,’ he said, and went back toward the trap door just as someone else stomped on it three times. Bang, bang, bang.
Patrick waited as Matilda descended, then he went back up the ladder into his father’s house.
Matilda examined me with a proprietary air. ‘You look unusually tidy today, but never fear―that’s easily fixed.’
She removed the pins from my hair one by one, and my red curls tumbled over my shoulders and just touched the top of my brass corset. I wore magical brass when I wanted its help to notice the most elusive details of my experiments, but sometimes it just made me notice Matilda more forcefully than ever. Matilda and I had both been working hard, knowing all the while that every delay meant another day of misery for Mrs O’Connell. Now that she was close my corset heated up, making me flush, and then deliberately opened all my senses to the woman I loved. Brass can be impertinent, and I wasn’t strong enough to resist the temptation to be distracted.
Matilda smelled of smoke and eucalyptus from her time spent burning off the nearby forest: a delicious mixture of our temporary outback home all tangled up with elemental fire. And she smelled of her own unique spice, making me want to lean forward and inhale until I swooned. Her coppery-brown eyes shone in the lantern-light, ready to laugh. Her lips parted. Her breath quickened. . .
I kissed her, and forgot I was holding a square of tin. It binged in emphatic delight, and I dropped it, hoping to defuse its magical enthusiasm. That wouldn’t have been a problem, except it landed on one of my rats, who immediately combusted in surprise, burning yet another large hole in the wooden floor. The tin parped in distress and Matilda stepped back. Her heel caught in the new crater.
She fell backward with a shriek, and I instinctively dived forward to catch her. As we both tumbled to the ground, I grabbed for something to hold on to. My hand hit the wooden strut holding up the opposite side of my workbench. The strut snapped in two, and the back half of the bench creaked alarmingly. I rolled off Matilda and crouched under the desk, bracing it with my hands and shoulders.
Matilda sat up, twisting around to face me. ‘Emmeline! Are you all right?’
‘Are you?’
‘Why are you holding up the table?’
‘So it doesn’t fall down.’
‘Ah.’ She stood and hastily moved objects from the collapsing bench onto the sections of the work table that were still secure.
‘It really is quite heavy,’ I said through gritted teeth.
Matilda moved faster, grabbing models and papers and cogs and jars and pliers at top speed. It wasn’t fast enough.
‘Poking stick,’ I said.
‘Now is hardly the time.’
‘Use the big iron stick to hold up the table. It’s strong, but it needs to be cut down to size.’
She grabbed the length of iron and laid it across two of the solid workbenches, making a triangle shape. There was an axe hanging on the wall so she grabbed it and hit the poking stick hard. It was no use. She cast the useless axe aside. Her frantic gaze landed on my rats.
‘Matilda, no!’ Just because the rats recovered quickly from deaths in the family didn’t mean they should be exploded willy-nilly.
She didn’t listen. She grabbed a rat and some string, and tied the innocent creature to the midpoint of the iron rod before grabbing the axe once more and crouching to meet the rat eye to eye. ‘Burn through that metal, or I’ll cut off your tail.’
The rat squeaked in terror and exploded outright, snapping the iron bar and casting a fine spray of blood, fur, and mechanical parts onto the nearby walls and floor. Matilda grabbed the remains of the poking stick and jammed both halves under my bench.
I slid out gratefully and rubbed my aching shoulders. ‘You killed my rat, but you did it in such a timely manner I can’t complain. Are you sure you don’t want to officially become my lovely assistant?’
‘Absolutely not,’ she said. ‘Although I confess I understand your penchant for explosions a little better now. That was fun.’
‘I don’t deliberately make things explode!’
‘What a shame,’ she said. ‘It’s a very attractive quality.’
‘Oh really?’ So this was flirting. I hadn’t had much practice at such things before I was transported to Australia. The other convicts had all known just what to do―I remembered my friend Lizzie with a sigh―but I hadn’t practised when I had the chance. It was a tragic oversight, but Matilda appeared to like me anyway. I leant casually on the workbench and tried to raise an eyebrow.
Crash!
The shored-up workbench collapsed, throwing papers, cogs, inkwells, and screwdrivers every which way. One lens of my goggles blackened with ink, and several small cogs landed and then stuck in the brass frame. Through the other lens I saw my match-tin spring open and several phosphorus matches spill out onto the rough floor, igniting at once.
Unfortunately, I had spilled enough grease over the course of several weeks to thoroughly soak the wooden floor, which promptly caught fire. My skirts were well within range of the flames, and I leapt up onto the more solid part of my workbench at once, laying more or less flat so I didn’t collapse another section. I was all too familiar with the flammability of my crinolines.
Matilda was wearing rational dress―a rather distracting set of trousers―by way of a compromise between dressing like her father’s British notions or her mother’s native ones. She kicked off her heels and used her bare feet to stomp out the fire while I lay helplessly on top of several homemade models designed to combine magic, steam, and silk in order to design a better airship. One of them slipped and drifted to the ground. It didn’t smash onto the floor, but floated gracefully. How marvellous. It worked. I resisted the urge to distract Matilda by pointing out my latest success.
The fire was almost out, and I carefully lowered myself to the ground, trying not to damage any more of my laboratory. Matilda stomped out the last of the fire and I just watched her, guiltily delighted at the sight of her black and blond tresses falling loose around her face.
At last we were safe.
She looked at me and laughed. ‘You were saying?’
‘Something about not exploding things,’ I admitted. ‘To be fair, you did specifically say that you enjoy the occasional fireball.’
‘So I do.’
She slipped her shoes back on, apparently unhurt.
‘Did Patrick ask you when we’ll be ready to rescue Shauna?’ she asked, casting a guilty glance upward, where Patrick and his father were stoking the kitchen engine ready to bake bread for lunch.
‘He’s focusing on safety today,’ I said. ‘He seems so calm, but he’s fetched me seven cups of tea already―and not mentioned Mrs O’Connell once.’
She nodded. We both knew how much Patrick wanted to rescue his mother; a passion matched only by his desire to keep Matilda and I safe from similar harm. Too bad he hadn’t made friends with a pair of girls who would gladly wait at home while he faced all the danger.
I picked up the model that had drifted to the ground. It was little more than a hot air balloon with a propeller and a rubber band to represent a steam engine. With enough magical aluminium, we could neutralise the considerable weight of a steam engine and thus solve one of the greatest problems of airship construction.
The issue of how to fill the varnished silk with air had stymied me until now. ‘What if we hurled ourselves off a cliff?’ I said thoughtfully.
‘Sounds good,’ Matilda said with just the tiniest hint of sarcasm. ‘Can I tell Patrick? His face will make quite the picture.’
Bang.
‘Sounds like you’ll get a chance right now,’ I said.
Bang.
Matilda and I waited in silence for the third stomp on the trapdoor. It never came.
‘Uh-oh,’ said Matilda, dropping her frivolity like an old coat. ‘Two bangs. Isn’t that code for―’
I pressed my fingers to her lips and nodded, mouthing, ‘Our time just ran out.’
She took both my hands in hers and squeezed my fingers until I thought they might snap in two.
The third and final book in the Antipodean Queen Trilogy will be released in 2018 (probably August).
Antipodean Queen 1: HEART OF BRASS
HEART OF BRASS is my first published novel; the beginning of all my (mostly Australian) steampunk fantasy stories.
You can buy it here, and in all the usual book places (online and offline).
You can also buy the full Steam & Sorcery pack here (all three novels plus Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire).
Book 2 is SILVER AND STONE.
Book 3 is IRON LIGHTS.
The book trailer is here.
Like to read the back cover? Here it is:
Emmeline Muchamore is a well-bred young lady hiding explosive family secrets. She needs to marry well, and quickly, in order to keep her family respectable. But when her brass heart malfunctions, she makes a desperate choice to steal the parts she needs to repair it and survive.
She is unable to explain her actions without revealing she has a steam-powered heart, so she is arrested for theft and transported to Victoria, Australia – right in the midst of the Gold Rush.
Now that she’s escaped the bounds of high society, iron manacles cannot hold her for long.
The only metal that really matters is gold.
The ISBN is 978-1-922200-58-7 (pbk) | 978-1-922200-59-4 (ebook)
You can use that number to quickly and easily order it into any bookshop you like. Most Australian bookshops and libraries should stock it already. If you’re in Canberra, Harry Hartog’s in Woden does a good job of keeping it in stock.
HEART OF BRASS can be bought in physical form directly through the publisher (who will post it to you—Odyssey is linked to printers in Australia, the US, and the UK, so if you’re in one of those nations the postage cost will be domestic).
You can also buy either print or digital copies from Amazon US, Amazon Australia (kindle only at the time of writing), Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Abe Books, The Book Depository, etc.
It is extremely helpful to me for readers to leave reviews at Amazon and/or Goodreads. The more you say why you like/dislike it, the more other readers will know if it suits them or not. I do read reviews but I’m not bothered by negative ones (sometimes I even learn something), so go ahead and be honest!
Like a sample?
Full disclosure: I screenshotted the beginning of my book from Amazon (where there’s a longer sample) because I don’t know how to take the final editing marks out of the copy I have. Sad but true.
Antipodean Queen 2: SILVER AND STONE will be released on October 10 2017 (you can pre-order through OdysseyBooks.com.au) and the third book in the trilogy will be released in 2018 (probably August).
Steampunk Stories
I have amused myself for some years by writing a number of stories and novels in a wide range of utterly different formats. Presumably this is due to an unconscious desire to confuse and frustrate the largest possible number of my own readers.
ALL my steampunk takes place in the “Steampunk & Sorcery” universe, including the “Antipodean Queen” novel trilogy.
In an effort to give completionists a fair go, this blog entry will always display the full list of all my steampunk tales, where to get them, and whatever else you may need.
Each story is designed to stand on its own without spoilers, but the first Antipodean Queen novel, HEART OF BRASS, was written first.
In reading order:
1. Flight: An Alchemical Adventure. An interactive story that starts in 1783 when the protagonist (who has been imprisoned on Death Row in Versailles) is allowed to be the first person to fly in a hot air balloon. The protagonist is the first to tell you that they are the greatest mind of the age—they are the alchemist who discovered magical metals. In the canon version of the story they stay evil and ultimately become the baddie in “Choices That Matter: And Their Souls Were Eaten”. She is also Madam Alchemist, although in this story you can choose your own gender. It’s $5 at https://felicity-banks.itch.io/flight-an-alchemical-adventure.
2. Choices That Matter: And Their Souls Were Eaten. An interactive story set in 1837 Europe, originally released as a serial story through the Tin Man Games company’s Choices That Matter app. It is now complete, and will be released on Steam at some point (probably 2019). I like to pretend the player character is Emmeline’s relative, even though the story has a completely unique premise and plot. It is available as an app for iOs or Google Play. The beginning is free.
3. The Case of the Missing Soul. This is an interactive story written using Twine. The main point of difference is that it’s designed for four players to play together. It is still under construction at the time of writing (March 2019). None of the characters appear in any other stories.
4. Madam Alchemist portable escape room (Canberra only, sorry). This is set in the same year and approximate location as the above stories, but you get to be trapped by soulless monsters with a group of friends. How fun is that? Details here. No spoilers and no in-world knowledge is necessary ie this stands alone.
5. Antipodean Queen 1: Heart of Brass. A young adult steampunk novel set mainly in 1854 Australia. Emmeline Muchamore’s origin story. You can buy physical copies through Odyssey Books, who will post it anywhere in the world. You can also order it through any bookshop (the ISBN will help you; it’s 978-1-922200-58-7). You can also buy either print or digital copies from Amazon US, Amazon Australia, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Abe Books, The Book Depository, etc. You can read the blurb and beginning here.
6. After the Flag Fell. A printable interactive story that won the 2015 Windhammer Prize. That version is free here, and an updated version is included with all editions of Heart of Brass. It is set immediately after the events of Heart of Brass.
7. Antipodean Queen 2: Silver and Stone. The second book of the novel trilogy. Like the first book, it’s available on Amazon US, Kobo, Odyssey. The paperback ISBN is 978-1-925652-20-8. The blurb and beginning are here.
8. Escape From the Female Factory is a printable short story that happens at the same time as events in Silver and Stone. It should be read after the novel, and is only available as a special feature with the novel.
9. Antipodean Queen 3: Iron Lights. The third novel of the trilogy is now available in physical form! Digital availability is coming soon. The paperback ISBN is 9781925652444 and the blurb and beginning are here. It takes place at the same time as “Stuff and Nonsense”, “Attack of the Clockwork Army”, and “Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire”. I recommend reading the novel first.
10. Stuff and Nonsense is a live-action role-playing game designed for beginners (possibly children). It’s a little like those ‘Murder Mystery’ board games, but with actual (silly) games thrown in. The printable version is available by emailing me at fellissimo@hotmail.com with the subject line STUFF AND NONSENSE. I converted it into a Twine game (with images), which is quite different to the original story, and which you can play for free here. It has some very minor spoilers if you read it before the books. Big spoilers if you read it before the role-playing version. THIS STORY TAKES PLACE AT THE SAME TIME AS ANTIPODEAN QUEEN 3: IRON LIGHTS. Hopefully that’s fun for people who want to explore the world of the novels a bit more. You won’t know the “canon” version of the story without reading the novel, so you can feel free to decide which ending you like the best. Also, a particular character is definitely not there in the novel. The novel is canon, but the game is just not as fun without [redacted].
11. Attack of the Clockwork Army. An interactive story that takes place in the 1860s, mainly in Australia. It allows you to play as one of Emmeline’s siblings if you wish (which will cause spoilers if you haven’t read the novels) or as an original character in a slightly different and spoiler-free reality. Available here as an app for any device, or it can be read on your browser. It uses the ChoiceScript tool. THIS STORY TAKES PLACE AT THE SAME TIME AS ANTIPODEAN QUEEN 3: IRON LIGHTS. Hopefully that’s fun for people who want to explore the world of the novels a bit more. You won’t know the “canon” version of the story without reading the novel, so you can feel free to decide which ending you like the best.
12. Magic in the Mail: Emmeline’s Empire. This is a short story told DURING THE EVENTS OF ANTIPODEAN QUEEN 3: IRON LIGHTS, in which a side character is the main character. Hopefully that’s fun for people who want to explore the world of the novels a bit more. It also stands alone as a steampunk story. “Magic in the Mail” (and “Murder in the Mail”) are two storytelling formats invented by yours truly. The “classic” version is physically posted to the reader. The parcel contains letters, objects, and artworks that together tell an immersive story that asks the reader to participate (in this case, by building a convertible flying device). This one is special because it’s cheaper ($25 for Australian residents instead of $40; probably $40 for everyone else, including postage of the story). It also includes a song by the Littmus Steampunk Band and a piece of handmade steampunk jewellery made by Liesel Turnbull. A stripped-down version will be included as a bonus with the Iron Lights novel. It will include a limited number of 2D black-and-white artworks only. You can buy the full version for $50 here.
The simplest way to know when a new story is coming out is to join my mailing list by writing an email to fellissimo@hotmail.com with MAILING LIST in the subject line. I don’t share emails, and I won’t spam you. Usually the mailing list gets about one update a month with major news only (new releases, conference appearances).
PS Here‘s a great article on the whole field of steampunk novels (those not written by yours truly), including links to many many reviews. It’s highly out of date, but the books are still good!
Procrastination Technique #452: Reviews
I’ve written about reviews before, and I’m always fascinated, whether the review is positive or. . . not so much.
The Tin Man Games app “Choices: And The Sun Went Out” (including the second story, my steampunk fantasy, “Choices: And Their Souls Were Eaten”) has just under a hundred reviews (mostly just stars) on itunes and has just passed 600 reviews on Android.
Android apps have a cool feature where they say how many people have installed an app, and this app, our app, has been installed over 50,000 times! It boggles my mind that so many people are reading words that I write, and it makes me evil laugh when I read the desperate pleas of addicted readers hanging out for their weekly story fix:
Mario Zalout wrote:
Love it It’s hard for me to find games like this. I constantly crave the story, wanting more. However, I’ve caught up with And Their Souls Were Eaten about 3 times, and I always hate the break I have to take in between. And The Sun Went Out helps with that though, and since I know it’s considerably longer I work at it whenever Souls needs an update.
Theresa Budd wrote:
Great game but… This is a really great game but I wish they would update the bear version. I was having so much fun playing it and now I’ve got as far as can but they need to update it so I can finish the story please.
Zachery Fitzpatrick wrote:
You’ll love the story …..untill you get a nice distance in…. then the book shuts itself on your fingers and then throws itself into a fire and tells you wait for a update.
Trevor Veltema wrote:
So good Honestly the best game I’ve played, I was on it from 12am to 7 am, it’s very addicting
Johannes Haler wrote:
UPDATE MORE PLEASE The story And The Sun Went Out is easily one of THE best stories I’ve ever read. The plot about how the sun disappesring and stuff is just amazing! Please, I’ve reached the part where update is needed and I NEED MORE! Thank you Tin Man Games, for making reading fun, and making one of the best books I’ve read!
There’s a whole sub-group who are angry that you have to pay (or watch ads) to read the whole story. Since I know exactly how much I earn (hint: not an enormous amount), I’m not entirely sympathetic to these:
Alper Can Buyuk wrote:
Ad-fest So you need “choice-tickets” to make decisions and progress the story. The only way to get these is either purchasing them, or buying a pass which allows you to progress through the app. The other option is watching a 30 second ad for a measly 3 tickets, completely breaking the immersion. Shouldn’t be a free app in the first place if this is the way the devs are gonna go about it.
Franz Airyl Sapit wrote:
TOO PRICEY. NOT WORTH IT. In my local currency, two Story Pass (needed to play this,”pay to play”) of this game is worth as much as Dragon Age Origins, a PC game. Imagine that.
Kaneki Ken wrote:
Money-grubbing morons. Whoever is the developer(s) of this game is seriously an annoying one. Not only do you deem it, unfavourable to have a narrator. To continue the story, you force us to give you money? How cheap is that of a practice! You don’t deserve money of you’re too lazy to have a voice actor!
In their defence, ebooks are sold in a much simpler system. There’s a big yellow button that says “free sample” and it’s easy to understand that the free sample is specifically designed to suck you into buying the book. These story apps are exactly the same thing, but app stores list them as “free, with in-app purchases” which isn’t deliberately misleading but it feels like it is.
Sadly, there are sometimes bugs and those reviews are always awful. The only up side is that bug-fixing horrors are someone else’s job to fix. Yay?
I love it when reviewers give useful information (and even more when they rebut the “I don’t want to pay/watch ads” reviewers).
DERPING Dubstep wrote:
Worth the read Don’t expect this to be an adventure game with managing inventory and fight enemies. If your looking for that you better off getting something else but don’t let that deter you from this experience. Like it is described by the developers the story is really choice based. I noticed how different the story was when i looked at the screen shots and compared it to mine, i was surprised. (And their souls were eaten seems really interesting hope we get an update soon)
Kat Hargis:
Amazing Currently reading The Sun Went Out- and the story is compelling and leaves me craving more. It is definitely worth to purchase the Story Tickets pass or whatever it’s called. Not only does it support the creative geniuses behind the story, but it also keeps me satisfied with long reads rather than short ones. Compared to other choice-based novels, this one is probably my top pick, beating even TellTale games. Once again, definitely worth that I initially spent. Looking forward to the updates on the story!
krazykidfox wrote:
Fantastic I’ve read both stories up to date. They’re both fantastic, and I’m eagerly waiting for more content. Pick this game up, hands down. While yes, you do have to either watch ads or buy tickets to progress through the stories, it’s honestly a very fair and generous system that stands out from all of the Free-To-Pay mobile games out there. Props to you, devs. Get this, you won’t be let down.
I don’t have a name wrote:
Awesome (Currently reading “And The Sun Went Out”)Intriguing, mysterious, smart and a bit dangerous. I love the fact that, although the choices you have are both natural and logical and not extremely different from each other, any choice you make has a huge impact on the story, changing it in major but still subtle ways. The only downside, in my opinion is the fact that you can’t redo a choice. You have the option to start the whole story from the beginning but I don’t want to repeat everything just for one mistake
I really love that people are passionate about the stories!
The first story has been running over 14 months and is well over 500,000 words altogether (although each read-through would be about 100,000 words – the length of a regular book).
The person known as “I don’t have a name” is going to love the stuff that happens towards the end of the first story, when literally hundreds of seemingly insignificant choices have the power to save the world. . . or doom it forever.
The final final final piece of the story will be released roughly on Christmas Day. If you want to read the whole story from beginning to end—possibly several times, so you get different experiences—then this is your moment to jump on board!!
Felicity Banks 