This week was rather excellent for me, not only did my book make the top 10 (coming in at #8 on Amazon’s Steampunk listing!), but I had a review from SPR. I’d been conscious it would be good to have a review done that would be a good critique, both for Amazon and my webpage and I couldn’t be more flattered and humbled by their kind words.
As promised I did have a list of questions I received asking about the series and some questions I wanted to address from a few comments on reviews and other places, not so much in response to feedback as curiosity for what the series will hold next.
How does the series work?
This is a twenty one book series, with two novellas, a book, a novella, another book, and so on. Kat and her story features very majorly in the first three books, and afterwards we see her story in the novellas. This is because these stories aren’t just about her and what she’s doing, but she has such a large role in things to come that it’s important between books you know what she’s up to. Plus she’s one of the most enjoyable characters I’ve ever written.
How does Captain Katarina feature in the series?
Kat holds a very dear place in my heart, and while she is a key character she is not the only character in the series. For the next few books she carries an important role, but while you have seen things from her perspective in the Hidden Monastery, this will change over the next few books. The series is designed to be read so that reading the previous book is not necessary except in the case of the novellas, which will be very important as they follow Kat’s journey over the next few years.
What kind of genre is it? It doesn’t seem to fit into one category…
This is very true and a comment I’ve heard often both in person and online. My story was exactly that, just the way I saw it and not catered to one specific genre, so I like to refer to it as a steam flavoured fantasy series. There are elements of steampunk in it, with its airships and some contraptions, but it doesn’t have an overflowing sense of these things as you have in other steampunk series. Fantasy is also a little tricky as there are elements outside of the norm, however they don’t extend to magic and other humanoid species, but its still not set in a conventional world as we see it.
Are these all archaeological sort of books?
No, and perhaps a little bit yes, there is certainly a variety of books but the overall arching theme is that in some place or time a very ordinary person is given a choice, they aren’t fated or destined, sometimes they are just like you and me. However they are put in a place and time where they can choose to take an action. We are all given choices in life, sometimes we wish we could take those choices back, but other times we would not be where we are if those choices hadn’t been made.
When is the next one out?
The next one is a novella and I had planned for release in April/May but it is looking more like May, unfortunately this little writer still has an everyday job to do, which does take up a lot of time. I am still bustling away at it whenever I can, as is everyone else who helps me. There are some future plans in the works that will make this series more exciting and interesting and I hope to talk about more of them soon.
E. J. Dawson 