Today, for the first time, I have a novel released!
HEART OF BRASS is the origin story of Emmeline Muchamore, the steam-powered badass from some versions of Attack of the Clockwork Army.
It’s on Amazon (digital only) or you can buy it in various formats, including print of course, via Odyssey Books Australia. They will post it anywhere in the world.
As always, the least intrusive and most reliable way to know when I have a new magical steampunk tale is out is via my mailing list at fellissimo@hotmail.com
(Tin Man Games will release a completely different magical steampunk game - different time, different program, different continent - in August, called “Choices: And Their Souls Were Eaten”)
Blurbity blurb
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.
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Is the tin man release something you’ve written or an independent project they came up with? If its yours do you have release platform details?
Both, kind of.
I’m currently part of the team behind Choices: And The Sun Went Out (apple or android). I knew Tin Man Games had applied for a grant so I came up with a story idea set in my steampunk fantasy world, but without spoilers or overlapping characters, and designed for the “Choices” system (and then submitted an outline to TMG “just in case”). They won the grant and greenlit the story.
So it’s my idea (with a lot of ideas added to it by other Tin People), but a very official Tin Man Games release. And I have my own personal editor, too.
In each case, the “Choices” story has a new section released each week. The first four weeks are free, and the rest is based on a subscription price. The first story will be 15 months altogether, finishing at the end of this year. The second story, “Choices: And Their Souls Were Eaten” should start mid-August. You might already have seen banner ads here and there. It will also be on itunes or android (and on android you can choose ads to keep it free if you wish).
It all feels very unreal… and I should definitely be working on it right now but I’m so psyched I can’t concentrate 
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Hmm, is it mobile only? I prefer PC for these kinds of things.
Yes, “Choices” tales are mobile only, sorry. They’re actually specifically designed so that people with apple watches can have certain character/s “speak” through the watch (if the player wants).
Hmm so I gave it a try, liked what I saw but it jumped to “give us money” a little too soon. Perhaps you could nudge Tin man on that?
Thanks for giving “Choices” a try, LordofLA! Especially since it doesn’t exist in your preferred format. And thanks for making me laugh with your suggestion to make it cheaper.
Tin Man pays me an advance against royalties (very unusual in this biz, and still considerably less than minimum wage). The free part is four weeks of content. It’s roughly 40,000 words, although each play-through sees less than half of that.
Each four-week chunk represents four weeks of full-time writing (divided between two people) plus editing by at least one other paid Tin Minion (I believe there are three editors, all of them paid professionals). There are usually four main strands happening at any given time (the first month has a more complicated map than most of the others, but relatively little variety because it’s setting up so much crucial information; one three-month period had 4-6 strands).
So I think a free first month followed by a few dollars per month (or a LOT of advertising to cover the same amount) is fair.
Not cheaper, could just do with waiting until people are a little more invested in the story before prompting for money - much like the CoG/HG free trial sections.
I got to the morning after some “events” before being asked to buy some choice tickets or watch an ad but I’m not at a point where I know whether it is something I want to pay for.
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The cover art is fantastic, who’s your artist?
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The cover artist is Elijah Toten, who specialises in book cover designs for small publishers (I think this is the right web site - I googled the name from the book jacket).
The girl is from shutterstock.
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The Tin Man Games steampunk story is out now… all the details at Choices: And Their Souls Were Eaten (fantasy steampunk)
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