The big news- the news we announced at Balticon- is now out there.

Coming in summer 2011 the project Tee Morris and I wrote and talked about many, many times whose working title is Books and Braun, will be published by Eos Books.

Diana Gil will be working with us to whip this steampunk romp into taunt, terrific shape, and both of us are very excited about that. Eos is an imprint of HarperCollins, so you will be able to find this book on your shelves. This is a two book deal, so the title of the book will most likely be the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences: Phoenix Rising.

The second book is being written, and once again I am having a blast being in this universe. These characters have snappy dialogue, fabulous fashion and tend to make things go BOOM!

There will be a complimentary short story podcast planned- where many backstory threads will be explored- including why exactly Eliza got exiled from New Zealand, and what sort of childhood made Wellington into an Archivist.

Keep an eye on the website ministryofpeculiaroccurrences.com where these things will appear, and an introduction to the Ministry and its Agents can be found.

Eliza and Welly are also continuing their sparring on Twitter- and also sharing a daily news story in the world of steampunk. Follow them on BooksandBraun

This is big news- especially after my recent move of leaving my librarian day job, and to say this is a thrill is an understatement. As Super Agent Laurie McLean says so often ‘ONWARD!’

I’ve teased people long and hard about this project, and now I have a little taste for you.

Recorded before a live audience at World Fantasy Convention, award-winning podcaster and author Tee Morris and I (with the blessings of our agent) our work-in-progress now working its way through submissions: Books & Braun, our Steampunk take on The Avengers. 

This is its premiere- apart from a few little snippets on Twitter. Our plan is to eventually podcast it in this fashion: our narration, a few production elements, a musical score, and artwork featured by Carrie Seidman. We hope you enjoy this listen at what we have cooking in the creative kitchen.

BLOGGERS & PODCASTERS: We are releasing this reading under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Both Tee and I encourage you to syndicate this episode and point your subscribers to this endeavor of ours. We also would love to hear your feedback on this preview both here and at Tee’s website. Thank you for giving us a bit of space on your mp3 player of choice, and we will keep you posted on what happens with our daring duo from the clandestine organization that is The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences.

If you are going to be at World Fantasy Con on 31st of October, please come along and hear the debut reading of Books and Braun; Phoenix Rising. It will be the first chapter which is full of explosions, gun battles and maybe an airship or two. It is 10am Saturday and I would love to see you all there!