A Wylde Sale Appears Yonder!

The Kindle edition of Rosaria of Venice, Book One of The Renaissance of Rosaria Adalberto, is on sale for the holidays!

In the year 1491, during a steam-powered Renaissance, Rosaria Adalberto seeks a theory of electromagnetism—but finds conspiracy and intrigue instead.

The Kindle ebook will sell for 99¢ on Christmas Day only, and $1.99 every day thereafter until the New Year.

If you have yet to experience the Steampunk Renaissance, this is your chance. Buy the Kindle ebook today!

Monday Links: Xbox One, Propaganda at the British Library, and Racism at Harvard

I have found two articles of note from The Economist this week, one of which is sure to be close to gamers’ hearts. Or perhaps not: the article notes that Microsoft’s Xbox One announcement heavily de-emphasizes games, ostensibly due to falling console sales. Time will tell whether the device will garner any appeal for its more conventional multimedia use.

The second article form The Economist addresses the more sobering topic of propaganda. An exhibition at the British Library, called “Propaganda: Power and Persuasion,” aims to expose the subtlety and prevalence of propaganda, as used by governments, businesses and individuals. The subject of propaganda, and the Propaganda Model of mass media, have been the focus of some of my earlier posts on this blog, and the matter remains as relevant as ever. I highly recommend you check out The Economist’s article.

Lastly, for the strong of stomach, ThinkProgress delves into the case of how a Harvard doctoral candidate, Dr. Jason Richwine, earned his degree through a sloppily composed and blatantly racist dissertation, to the shock of many. The article is long, and the sheer illogic it reveals in Dr. Richwine’s dissertation made me throw up my hands in disgust. Nonetheless, the ThinkProgress exposé itself is a worthwhile read, if you have the patience.

With the Rosaria of Venice Kickstarter campaign launch last Friday, we now return to full updates. You can see what’s in store for this week here. So please stay tuned! And also please consider backing Rosaria of Venice, my forthcoming alt-history steampunk novel of the Italian Renaissance, on Kickstarter.com. Thank you!

Schedule Mishaps, and Kickstarter Things

As I have been busy getting the Rosaria of Venice Kickstarter campaign ready to go, I did not manage to get yesterday's post up. I do apologize.

In order to keep this from happening (as there are no signs of me getting less busy in the coming weeks), I will be scaling down my posts for a while. I will still try to keep to my Monday/Wednesday/Friday schedule, but expect more reposts and shorter comments. I will resume long-form essays—including the one planned for yesterday—as soon as things begin to clear up.

On the bright side, I'm starting to update Runicfire.net with some much-needed content. A dedicated page for my forthcoming novel is up, and that will be the main page for the project until the Kickstarter begins next Friday, May 24th. If that interests you, please check it out and keep an eye here for updates. I will also be adding a section which consolidates other fiction and goodies I post here, and just generally rounding out the site as much as I can.

And lastly, as consolation, an awesome picture someone posted on Facebook:

And with that... I will be seeing you next week with Monday's usual links. Have a good weekend!

Steampunk: A Modern Throwback to Classic Science Fiction

As I again delve into the various genres of fiction with which my current writing intersects, I discover surprising gaps in my knowledge—and more books for my reading list.

This is hardly a bad thing. Writers are fed by writing, and not always their own. Indeed, one would hope that much of it is not their own—we learn our craft first and best by reading the works of others. That is where we discover what we like, what we don’t, and in our various reactions develop the biases that inform our own voices and styles.

Runicfire Recap: April 25 – May 6

I've been crunching for finals the past few weeks, and have slipped on my Google+ and Facebook announcements. My apologies. I have, however, been continuing to pump out content here on Runicfire, and I'd like to catch up any readers who follow me on Facebook or Google+ on what they might have missed. Recap begins beneath the jump:

This Week on Runicfire: May 6th — May 12th

Monday's links discuss the definition of time, the difficulty in measuring the human mind, the launch of SpaceShipTwo, and Northern Ireland's new schism.

On Wednesday I delve into the history of science fiction, in the first of a series of posts on the genre and its sub-categories. On Friday I delve deeper into the subject with a look at the alternate history genre.

With the Rosaria of Venice Kickstarter launch approaching, you can expect more updates on the novel as well. Please check back throughout the week for these and the Wednesday and Friday articles. I believe you'll find them an interesting read.

Rosaria of Venice -- Choosing a Cover, and the May 24th Kickstarter

I'll be Kickstarting Rosaria of Venice, the alternate history steampunk Renaissance novel I wrote and am now revising, this month on May 25. The proceeds are to pay for cover illustrations (front and inside) as well as editing and proofreading.

While I won't be commissioning the final works until the Kickstarter campaign finishes, I have already been working with illustrators on concepts for the front and inside covers. The illustrator I hired to do the front, Amelia Davis, has finished color mock-ups of three possible covers:

I'm really liking how they turned out. In fact, I can't decide which one I want to use as the final. So I'm going to let the backers decide. When I run the Rosaria of Venice Kickstarter campaign from May 24th to June 14th, everyone who backs the project will get to vote which thumbnail becomes the final cover. 

So please save the date, and consider pledging if the book strikes your fancy. (If you want a taste of what the book itself is like, you can read the opening chapter here.) I will be posting more information here over the next few weeks, so please check back or subscribe to the Runicfire RSS feed for updates!

Friday Fiction – Excerpt from Rosaria of Venice

This weekend, I will be shooting part of the Kickstarter video for my novel, Rosaria of Venice. With that on my mind, I thought I would share an excerpt from the opening with you today. You may read it here.

As I am still revising the novel, I'm very interested in hearing feedback anyone might have on this chapter. In any case, I hope you enjoy the read!

The Renaissance Man Versus the Industrial Machine

In my continuing research for my novel, Rosaria of Venice, and its sequels, I came across an interesting book. It is titled, simply and appropriately, The Italian Renaissance, and is authored by J.H. Plumb. So far, it is at once the most concise and comprehensive resource I have found on the time period.

I find its description of the forces behind the Renaissance’s flowering of art especially interesting. Several factors, apparently, contributed to the rise of the artist in Renaissance Italy. The rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman works, and the technique behind them, is an obvious one. Likewise, the spread of education played a role. But one of the most important factors was wealth, including that of newly successful merchants.

The Renaissance: Real and Reimagined

This is the first part of a series in which I discuss a portion of the research behind Rosaria of Venice, my forthcoming alternate-history novel, and other matters related to that research. If you like what you read, please keep an eye out for new updates, and tell your friends!

There was a time, centuries after the fall of Rome, when northern Italy blossomed with the rediscovery of ancient culture. Perspective returned to painting, form to sculpture, and new artists expanded upon the ancient techniques. These times saw the rise of the printing press and the spreading of literacy. The new age brought political turmoil and religious revolution through the Protestant Reformation. The works of figures such as Copernicus and Galileo shaped science into a semblance of its modern form. Through the cracks of feudal Europe, the modern era broke soil.

We call this period the Renaissance.