As if it wasn’t already a flipping awesome week here at Milford Command Central (for those of you who weren’t aware, The Kairos Mechanism exceeded its funding goal yesterday around 1:30), I have two very exciting announcements. Since I cleaned up the lair, I am able to couple these announcements with their related TBR research piles. They will be presented in an order chosen for maximum hilarity.
Exhibit #1:
This is the to-read/research pile for Announcement the First: a beloved book I’ve been working on called The Left-Handed Fate has gone to Noa Wheeler at Holt!
I’m wildly excited about this. It allows me to indulge my family’s Baltimore and Navy roots, while going a little bit crazy with arcane devices and taking the story to my equally-beloved home-away-from-home, the city of Nagspeake. Here’s a little bit about the story.
1813: Amidst the seemingly-endless wars in the Atlantic, Oliver Dexter, 11 year-old newly-commissioned U.S. midshipman, finds himself (thanks to being the most expendable officer aboard his ship) suddenly appointed the acting captain of a captured British privateer.
It should be a short cruise back to Baltimore; however, the privateer Left-Handed Fate is not what she seems to be. Lucy Bluecrowne, daughter of the clipper’s deceased captain, isn’t quite ready to abandon her father’s mission; and Maxwell Ault, the natural philosopher responsible for the Fate’s quest, believes he and Lucy and their shipmates have a chance to end the wars if they can somehow convince Oliver that peace is in everyone’s best interests. Then, perhaps, the three of them can find the pieces of the legendary–but potentially deadly–device Max has hired the ship to seek out. On the other hand, Napoleon’s spies are everywhere. Even worse, the Fate is being followed by a strange brig crewed by a mysterious crew in black-on-black uniforms whose motives no one has quite figured out.
The TL;DR: The Left-Handed Fate is like Master and Commander meets Indiana Jones meets The X-Files. You will love it. Look for The Left-Handed Fate in Fall of 2014. Bonus: I’m told it will be lavishly illustrated. I can barely wait.
Exhibit #2:
This one’s just crazy fun. All I can give you is the working title, Greenglass House. I imagine that will probably change, if only because the premise requires something far, far more awesome. This one went to Clarion Books; pub date TBD.
This is going to shock you, but Greenglass House is set in…drumroll…THE PRESENT! It’s also set in the city of Nagspeake (I seriously can’t wait for you to get to know Nagspeake, guys).
Greenglass House is an inn run by Mattie and Ben Pine, where our hero, 12 year-old Milo Pine, is eagerly awaiting his winter vacation. Most of the patrons of Greenglass House (thanks to its unique location) are smugglers, and winter is the slow season. Milo is predictably shocked when, just when he expects to have a quiet few weeks alone with his family, guests start turning up, and not the inn’s normal type of patrons, either.
In the space of a few hours, Milo, his parents, the cook and her kids are snowed in with a dozen oddball guests who have no apparent reason for wanting to spend the winter in an isolated old house. Milo, who had his heart set on a little solitude, is just about ready to have a panic attack when the cook’s younger daughter Meddy, a role-playing game enthusiast, suggests they create a real-world campaign to find out what the other guests are up to. When they discover that each guest seems to believe Greenglass House is hiding something precious, the two kids modify their campaign, intent on discovering the inn’s secret first.
Note the very small research pile. It makes me very nervous. In the meantime, though, if you’d like to poke around the city in which both of these books are set, you’re welcome to visit the official Tourism and Culture website. I do some travel writing there, and at a linked site called The Expat.
And what about The Kairos Mechanism, now that the Kickstarter goal has been met? Well, firstly and most importantly, The Kairos Mechanism will be published this September alongside The Broken Lands! I am so excited I can barely contain myself.
But what does this mean for the second half of the Kickstarter campaign? There are 21 days left, and I don’t want a single one to go to waste; until it’s over, please help me keep the momentum going! The Kickstarter doesn’t end just because the goal’s been met–we can keep raising funds until the scheduled end of the campaign, on June 9th. Here’s what will happen with the extra money raised:
- At $7500, the young artists’ paychecks will be increased.
- At $9500, I can commit to Arcana #2.
- At $13500, I can commit to a reader-illustrated edition of Arcana #2.
There are still lots and lots of very exciting rewards for backers, too, don’t forget!
