Feb. 5
6:19 PM
The Enterprise Of Death Details Revealed
The Enterprise of Death, my next novel, is now available for pre-order on Amazon UK. While this is a pretty cool milestone in its own right, it's especially noteworthy as the presence of the book on Amazon necessitates a somewhat detailed synopsis of the plot and characters, something I put off revealing as long as possible. This gets back to my intense, obsessive aversion to spoilers, something I've been working on in my personal life as well as my professional one. It's tough--if I see a spoiler, I will kick that spoiler in the balls, and anyone who complains that "but all I said was that Bill Murray has a cameo, how is that a spoiler" gets kicked in the junk, too. But I'm working on it. And I think a step in the right direction would be admitting that The Enterprise of Death does indeed have a plot, and, though I was hoping to save this, it has some characters in it, too. I know, right?
Step two is a bit bigger, but I'm ready for it: rather than having you hear it from Amazon UK I think it best if I mention a few of the details about the novel that I've hereto kept under wraps. I'm really, really excited about this one, as I was able to include a host of elements that I was unable to include much of, or at all, in The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart, including but not limited to issues of gender, race, sexuality, and the undead. You heard, or rather, probably failed to infer from my vagueness--my protagonist is a black lesbian necromancer. Among other things; she's much more than simple or sensational descriptors, of course, but I think that ought to convey just how different a project this is from the Brothers Grossbart.
Without giving anymore away where our lead is concerned, I did want to mention several supporting characters--I attempted to incorporate even more history into Enterprise than I did in the Brothers Grossbart and so a few cast members are very real. First up is everybody's favorite alchemist, Theophrastus Phillippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim. Or, as he preferred to be called, Dr. Paracelsus. He's a fairly young man in the novel but already quite taken with certain theories he would later develop--and a ladykiller to boot:
In addition to Dr. P, another famous Swiss face figures prominently into the story: Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, a painter, engraver, poet, playwright, pro-Reformation politician, and mercenary. Please: no Renaissance Man jokes. You've probably seen more work by this (probable) apprentice of Titian than you realize but rather than including here one of the pieces I mention in the novel I'll instead display a random awesome image by the witch-happy Manuel:
I'll post more Manuel images the closer we get to publication, and some of them might even relate to the novel! For now that's all the bean spillage I can handle without crying and rending sundry articles of clothing. Take care, enjoy the weekend, and I'll see you all in the future.