Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk
Another offering from my short story collection.
This time it is the novelette, Mechanical Wings. If you buy directly from this site, then I get the most percentage from the sale, but this story will be available on all the usual e-book platforms as well.
Hope you enjoy this story that I had a lot of fun writing.
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It’s a little late, but I’ve been assessing 2012, and planning 2013 so that takes some time.
2012 was my best year yet as far as financial rewards for writing, but there were some goals that I didn’t reach. I’m not going to get depressed about that, but it comes time to set new ones for the year ahead.
In 2012 Tee and I worked not only on novels, but on getting our own self-publishing business, Imagine That! Studios, as a nice side income stream working for us. ITS is about producing new short fiction, as well as being a way to have our independent novels out there in the wild. It did about seven times better than 2011, but I know 2013 can be even better. I started the year by releasing a project I’d been working on for awhile The Little Clockwork Mermaid, but look for more from ITS in future months.
In 2012 the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences became a Locus Bestseller, and I won a Parsec for the Precarious Child. This year means a new round of awards open up for us. First up is the Sir Julius Vogel Award, which has a special place in my heart because it recognises New Zealand fiction writers. Wrayth, the Janus Affair, and Hunter and Fox are all open to be nominated, the more nominations the better. So if you think any of these deserve to be on the list, please go nominate! Later on there are the Parsecs and the Airship Awards…so we shall see…
And just got word today that the omnibus edition of Geist, Spectyr and Wrayth is shipping. So if you’d like a hardback edition with an awesome cover, then please order away. I am very excited because this is my very first omnibus anything.
As for what I am working on currently…well now is the time to be producing three chapter and synopsis for new series. I have ideas for two. The first whose working title is the Knack, is set in 1920s with a fun new heroine and a dark conspiracy in the heart of England. I’m enjoying pulling together the plot with Scrivener, and making all the character sketches. The second idea I will be constructing a submission package for in February is set in America just after the civil war.
So I am messing about with history again, though I am not ruling out a return to epic fantasy after the saga of Sorcha, Merrick, Raed and the Rossin finish.
Also ahead in 2013 we have the release of several things in the summer. Harbinger, Kindred and Wings, and the clockwork fairytale anthology I am in are all coming out fairly close to each other.
Tee and I are also working on Ministry projects to span the slight gap between book two and three. Look for a Kickstarter in March for a print anthology. We have some exciting authors lined up to write for us, and we think our readers and listeners will be excited too.
Once again though, I would like to thank those readers and listeners for supporting me. You make it possible for me to keep doing what I am doing, and I’m going to work even harder in 2013 to keep bringing you stories.
I’ve been silent awhile, dear reader. Personal life, including my husband getting laid off from his job right after the holidays have drawn my attention away from the blog. While he continues to run the gambit of interviews, we’ve turned our attention to providing for the family with our writing. (Yeah saying that is pretty scarey)
So we’ve set out on a new venture of digital publishing with Tee’s company ImagineThat! Studios. It means there will be a lot of short stories and novellas coming out of ITS, and I’m doing the business side of it, while Tee does beautiful covers.
You’ll find ITS covering in the next few months romance, horror, thriller and Young Adult. We’re pretty excited to bring these new stories to you.
Right now, my story Magic by Gaslight is new out. This is a story that I wrote as a novella, and pitched to an erotica market. Their terms weren’t quite to my liking, and I tucked the story away. Now, thanks to digital publishing I can bring it out. I have reworked it slightly to be more of a paranormal steampunk, rather than erotica, but the story still sings to me.
If Magic by Gaslight sells well enough, I may find time in the later half of this year to return. I can see more short stories, novellas, and maybe a novel in this world. It’s available from Kindle, Nook, and with Smashwords all for the princely sum of $1.99
One of the joys of going to conventions, is the shot in the arm I often get to my creativity and way of looking at business.
During WorldCon, Tee Morris and I sat down with our agent Laurie McLean, and we both realised we were missing a trick. You see, both Tee and I have a wealth of short stories that have just been sitting around not doing anything for us.
Not only that, but with digital publishing we realised we could be expanding on our already published universes.
So we are sallying forth on this bold digital revolution.
I have already had both Chasing the Bard and Digital Magic out on a bunch of digital platforms. My novels are $2.99 each, which I think is pretty reasonable price, considering how much you get for your money.
However now you can get a quick shot of my writing—think of it as an expresso—for 99c. That’s right, as of right now there are two Ministry short stories which have been podcast out there. The Evil that Befell Sampson and Nathan Lowell’s The Astonishing Amulet of Amaratas are both on the Kindle, and are working their way through Smashwords to all the other platforms out there.
Also I have put six Erotica a la Carte stories through the same process.
My aim is to have ten stories a week available until I have caught up with the backlog—then I will begin on new stories, particularly in the Ministry series. We have plans for a YA series set in the Ministry world. This will probably begin with short e-fiction and we’ll see where it goes from there. But for now, the name Verity Fitzroy should be one you keep in mind.
If you want to help spread the word and review the titles, then please let me know by emailing pip@ this site, and I can supply a review copy.
This move into digital short fiction is affordable, and hopefully will find a toehold in the ebook market. I’m excited about the prospect for short stories on these platforms, and interested to see how this little experiment takes off.
Erotica a la carte was after all an experiment, and that has become a real joy.
As for Tee’s plans…well…you’re just going to have to ask him about that. But they are awesome!
Mechanical Wings by Pip Ballantine