Philippa Ballantine - Author

Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk

Blog

Time to Create

This is the time of year when I have to start pedaling really fast on the writing career. I have three books coming out in the next six months, and May has two conventions back to back.

But it kicks off next weekend at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and I am really looking forward to this event!

I am heading there to be one of the keynote speakers. This is a great event, that started of small, but is now a buzzing one-day event.

Here’s the pitch

CREATE South is a meeting for those interested in art, blogging, podcasting, video, social networking or any other form of self-expression. Serving the residents of the Grand Strand and beyond, it is a venue to bring together like minded people to network, teach, and learn. If you would like to get involved in these arenas but don’t know how to start, this is the place to be. With introductory presentations and hands-on detailed demos, the beginners and the experts alike will have plenty to learn.

This year there are discussions on things like brewing your own beer, to metallurgy. My husband, Tee Morris is presenting on safety and social media. My keynote is at 9.30am and is about reckless optimism, and being a creative. In short, my journey.

Here’s the tentative schedule.

Hope to see some of you there, and please, if you are there, come up and say hi!

 

Wrayth by Jason Chan

Once again Jason Chan has delivered. Behold the cover of Wrayth! Coming August 28th from Ace Books.

I love how Jason has captured the trio looking towards the future. Merrick (YAY he’s on the cover!) looks concerned…as well he should. Sorcha is concentrating on the power in her hand (perhaps she is blinded by that). The Rossin is letting forth a challenging roar (are we going to see more trouble from him?)

What does that mean…. well, Wrayth reveals more about Sorcha’s past, and the Order faces new challenges from both geist and human forces.

Pre-order now from Amazon and Barnes and Noble

Huzzah to the Hybrid

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

The Janus Affair Cover

It’s been a time for cover revelations, and here’s another one.

The adventures of Eliza and Wellington continue in the Janus Affair, coming in late May this year.

Evildoers beware! Retribution is at hand, thanks to Britain’s Best-kept secret agents!

Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain’s latest hyper steam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance…with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown.

The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure. And though their foe be fiendishly clever, so then is Mr. Books…and Miss Braun still has a number of useful and unusual devices hidden beneath her petticoats.

I love this cover because it conveys the adventure and energy of the book. Eliza looks hell bent for leather on adventure, while the joke of Wellington’s face remaining concealed continues.

Behold the covers!

It is a beautiful moment when an author sees that covers that will wrap around their words, and in the last two days I have seen one new and been able to reveal the other.

One is the cover of the German edition of Phoenix Rising—which being from a foreign publisher I didn’t get to see in advance. The second, for Hunter and Fox from Pyr Books, I have seen evolve as Lou Anders editor and art director extrodinaire, kept me in the loop. Now I am able to reveal it.

The artwork is by Cynthia Sheppard who has a wonderful talent for making the bizarre truly beautiful. You can preorder Hunter and Fox on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

And here is the cover for the German version of Phoenix Rising. The Germans have gone with the series title Books and Braun. Unfortunately I have no idea who the artist is, but I love the different take on Eliza and Wellington.

 

 

 

 

Christmas with the Ministry

It’s a busy time of year for everyone, and the run up to the final days before Christmas are crazy. So I’m ever so pleased that Harper Voyager picked Phoenix Rising as one of ten books that they are discounting for a limited time to 99c.

And best of all this is a cross platform promotion. The book is available in all formats at 99c. Yep, it’s a Penny Dreadful…at least for a time.

Kindle — http://amzn.to/o31YFI
Nook — http://bit.ly/rBBrT7
Kobo — http://bit.ly/ulBPet
iTunes — http://bit.ly/uuQ0XS

This book has done wonderful things…more than we could have ever expected; won the Airship Award for best written work, and got into the finals for top Science Fiction novel of 2011 on Goodreads.com. So please buy, enjoy and spread the word. This is a great deal, a great way to introduce people to steampunk, and a great way to prepare for the arrival of the Janus Affair which is coming in late May 2012.

The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences will be finishing up the Tales from the Archives, and dropping a Christmas episode before the end of the year. In 2012 we’ll be releasing a new book trailer for the Janus Affair…and what we have and who we have helping us make this happen is super exciting. So hold onto that bowler—next year is going to be a big one!