Another New Book Coming Soon!

Well, I did promise two a month so I could get to twenty. I don't know if I'll be able to reach that goal now that I'm working full-time, but I can certainly give it my best effort. I've got some finished books that aren't yet published, so that will help.

So, what's this new one about? Well, it's called The Gilded Age: Beginnings. Sound fancy? Maybe. It's a world-idea I've had in mind for quite a while. It's a super-hero story, sort-of. It's a short-story anthology, set in late 1908, a few months after a certain really big explosion in Russia. And while it's going to have people with some unusual abilities, you won't see anyone running around in long underwear and a cape.

Of course, I'm doing the Let's Read series for the original Traveller game, but that's a game I never played. I have, however, played several different super-hero games, including Villains & Vigilantes, Champions (3rd, 4th and 5th editions), Marvel Super-Heroes (the yellow boxed set by TSR in the 1980s), and DC Heroes (the Mayfair boxed set, also from the 1980s). Invariably, the 'official' settings for these games always have the heroes starting out in the late 1930s, just before World War II breaks out. That makes sense, since the first superhero ever, Superman, made his debut in May of 1938. Yes, I know Action Comics #1 is dated June, 1938; it went on sale in May.

But I wanted something different, because while World War II is the defining era of the 20th century, it didn't exist in a vacuum. And, of course, I'm a history buff; I may have mentioned that a time or two before. So, when I decided to develop this superhero universe, I needed a different starting point. Some focal event that fundamentally changed everything to allow people with extraordinary abilities to exist. Some games, like Champions 5th edition, set the starting point for 'real superheroes' in Nazi Germany, where experimental science and forbidden magic mix to create the potential for superpowers (not to mention the impossible technology that supers are always building). Pretty much all of them, while they might include 'low-level' superheroes and creatures like Sherlock Holmes and Dracula, still don't have costumed heroes appearing until 1938 or so.

I wanted to go deeper, to the era that was foundational for the Golden Age of the 30s-40s. And the Tunguska explosion of 1908 was ideal for my purposes. Details on what actually happened are sketchy, but I grabbed what information I could and built an origin story around that event. I'll post an excerpt in a couple of days, my first blog-post excerpt since I started.

So, what can you expect from the Gilded Age? It's a world where people with these extraordinary abilities aren't going to be advertising them; movies are in their infancy, and commercial radio doesn't exist. Print is king; newspapers, dime novels...and the pulps. You'll meet characters like the Ghost-Girl, the Fireman, the Running Man, and the Bloodhound. And there's a taste of steampunk, as well, for future fun. Yes, there will be other books; I plan to run this as an anthology series with different characters introduced alongside the ones that start here.

I know, it's ambitious. But, it's something I have been working on for a while, on-and-off. I was planning the sci-fi anthology, but that will be delayed until next month. In the meantime, though, I hope you'll take a look at this new concept, and enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Of course, if you just can't wait to read that, you can always check out one of my other anthologies, such as A Universe of Possibilities, or my newest book, Cold Star. Both are available at an Amazon website near you.