Tag Archives: steampunk

Where to buy Pilgrim of the Sky!

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I mentioned this over at the Pilgrim site, but forgot to do so here. I blame illness. And pregnancy! Anyway…

You can purchase the novel at the Candlemark & Gleam Website, at Amazon, and at Barnes & Noble.

And some reviews:

From Library Journal:
Maddie Angler’s lover, the brilliant and eccentric graduate student Alvin Roth, has disappeared and is presumed dead. Instead of moving on with her life, Maddie travels to Boston with Alvin’s socially challenged younger brother, Randy, to deliver a box of research papers to Alvin’s adviser, Dr. Keats. This simple action propels her into a parallel universe where she discovers through encounters with a more gregarious Randy that Alvin is not only alive but that he has discovered the secret of multidimensional travel and grown dangerously powerful.

VERDICT
Steampunk meets goddess worship in this unusual and highly original story of loves that cross the borders of time and space. Exploring the concept of multiple universes and the social, artistic, scientific, and religious differences among them, Barron’s debut is an sf adventure that mixes high action with exquisitely detailed depictions of everyday existence in these alternate worlds.

From The Steampunk Chronicle: (full review)
“Natania Barron’s first book, “Pilgrim of the Sky” from Candlemark & Gleam publishing is magical romp between worlds mundane, affluent, spectacular, primitive, and then back again.  This is a work of romantic Steampunk fiction where faces and bodies can be switched almost as quickly as fortunes and loyalties.  Behind those faces and – as she learns – behind Maddie’s own face, lie enormous power that brings the various worlds into great peril if she cannot solve the mystery of her beloved Alvin’s machinations and decide which allies she will draw close and which enemies she must draw closer.”

From Stories of My Life: (full review)
“Maddie is one of the best heroines I’ve read about. Or perhaps I should say she’s one of the best written: Natania Barron manages to take us to the deep pits of anodine life and near-depression at the beginning, when she thinks her old boyfriend is dead. She manages to confuse us with her feelings regarding the “special” brother of said boyfriend, with whom she’s forged a bond that, at times, feels uncomfortably close to love.

“Then, she blends it perfectly into the misgivings of a whole new reality, a place where she doesn’t know who to trust and where faces, familiar and alien alike, haunt her from a past that only at times belongs to her. In this world, Maddie makes mistakes and amends, and her change towards heroine begins.”

From So Many Books, So Little Time: (full review)
“Pilgrim of the Sky is a trip through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole for a new audience of readers. It is a ethereal mirage of splintered gods, improbable magic, and the threads of humanity that weave us all together. Above all it is a story about love, in each of its aspects and all of its possibilities.”

You can also check out the Goodreads page for the book, where apparently the trend is to ask for a sequel. :)

A moment of blatant self-promotion

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The Mammoth Book of Steampunk is looking for reprint recommendations. And whaddya know, but I’ve got a bunch of stories that would qualify for just that. They’re seeking suggestions over here. So if you’ve read something of mine that you like, please feel free to let them know! (I added some notes to help you remember each story.)

  • “The Brass Pedestal” – Steampunk Tales #4, Short Story category, November 2009 (Sophronia seeks revenge on her philandering, relationship-destroying brother by getting a bug implant and a metal corset)
  • “Dead’s End to Middleton” – Crossed Genres #16, Short Story Category, February 2010 (seven gun-toting, alien-killing sisters in the American West, and the kid who falls in with them)
  • “Dr. Adderson’s Lens” – Bull Spec #1 – Short Story category, Spring 2010 (invisible, soul-sucking birds, some zombies, and a very special lens)
  • “A Dear, Lovely Thing” – Faerie Magazine #20 – Short Fiction category, June 2010 (a skeptic professor discovers a clockwork fairy in her garden)

That should do it! Thanks in advance.

Official Pilgrim of the Sky Announcement from Candlemark & Gleam

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I’m not terribly good at describing Pilgrim of the Sky. But thankfully, my publisher is! To get a better idea of what the book might be about, and what I’m currently immersed in edits with at the moment, consider the following from their announcement post:

How to describe this novel? Hm. That may be a tough one. It’s sort of…a world-hopping, reality-bending, art-historical, socio-religious steampunk odyssey. And that’s just for starters.

It takes place both in our world – in a corner of the world that I’m particularly familiar with and fond of, Western Massachussets – and in a number of other worlds, each of which has its own character and flavour. Natania has an unbelievable knack for description and imagery, and I can honestly say that the lush descriptions of Sixth World make me want to pack up and move there, just to get a taste of floating mansions, copper corsets, and electromagnetic horseless carriages in a refined pseudo-Victorian society that has some truly surprising twists to it.

But that’s only part of this novel. Pilgrim of the Sky also features murder, ambition, greed, multidimensional travel, and opiate abuse. You know, as you do.

That about says it, indeed.

I have an announcement…

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Today is September 22nd, which happens to be the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, give or take. And while this day is perfect for gorging on cheese and mushrooms, taking walks in the park among the trees, and starting adventures, it’s also a good one for announcements (or so I’d like to think).

No. I am not disappearing. I have no magic rings, and even if I did own one, I’d probably have lost it by now or else left you entirely. I’m far too much of a Took to let a ring sit in an envelope for years.

The announcement is this: I have sold my first book! And no, it’s not that one. And not that one, either. But it is Pilgrim of the Sky, and it will be finding a home at Candlemark & Gleam, with a release date (tentatively) of August 2011!

I got the news shortly after I got out of surgery, and after talking back and forth (as lucidly as I could manage) with Kate Sullivan, one of the editors, I decided that Candlemark & Gleam was really the best home for Pilgrim of the Sky. I wrote the book with independent, small presses in mind, and after it received one very perplexing rejection almost a year ago, I’d been waiting for a place I felt fit the vibe of the book. When I saw a Tweet announcing submissions for this new, ambitious, small press, I figured there was nothing to lose. Plus, I really like their approach.

Even cooler? I feel like they really get the book. Which is no easy task. Pilgrim of the Sky is genre-smooshing, incorporating science fiction, fantasy, time-travel, multiverse theory, metal corsets, steampunk, romance, Romantic poetry (especially Wordsworth), and a little bit of religion and a heap of art history. (And floating mansions. And did I mention a talking raven and a guy that turns into a horse? Can you see why I didn’t query this one to agents?)

Still, as strange as the book may be in its genre, it’s still rooted in reality, being the only book I’ve ever written to take place in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where I grew up. A lot of what I have to say in that book comes from the 18 years I lived there, and my experiences in that unforgiving climate. For that reason it’s surprisingly personal. The settings in many cases come straight from what I’ve seen–going from Northampton and the First Churches and Nini’s Pizza to Sunderland and the great, 18th century Colonial homes, then along the Masspike to Boston. (As I said in an old post just as I’d started the book: There’s something odd about that part of the world that you can’t quite put your finger on… it’s no coincidence that Lovecraft wrote about New England, let’s just say.)

I will keep you posted in the future, as I’m going to be heading into edits, soon. I’m one of those curious people for whom the editing process is enjoyable, so I’m actually thrilled to be revisiting Maddie, Randall, and everyone else–especially knowing that in less than a year I’ll be able to share their story with readers!

Fiddling in short form.

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Last night I finally wrote* a synopsis of The Aldersgate. I’m not sure why I hadn’t done this before, since I’d queried it and submitted it to a publisher–but somehow, there it was, un-synopsized (which, I’m aware, is not a word). Normally I kind of dig doing synopses–I did three of them in one weekend a few months ago, and it was almost refreshing. But, those three novels were not multi POV.

The problems with writing multi POV synopses is that clarity cracks. You have so many details, intertwined–and if you forget a minor detail, you have to back if that minor detail turns into a major plot point. Plus, there’s all the back and forth! Lots of “meanwhiles” and “back ins”. Lots of jumping from head to head, which works considerably better in chapter rather than paragraph format.

But I did it!

As it stands, it’s a little longer than I’d have liked. In general, I’m pretty satisfied with it. I do realize that it’s supposed to make sense to me; whether or not readers will understand it is an entirely different question. The long synopsis also made me realize that the hook I had for the novel wasn’t accurate. It described the whole projected series, but not the book itself. It was very exciting to retool that, in a weird way. It’s frustrating, absolutely–but when you get something that works better in the end, even though it’s just a sentence long, it feels quite triumphant.

We writers complain a great deal about synopses and hooks and all that. But the truth is, it’s an essential part of novel writing. If you can’t boil down your story to some basics–if you can’t write a sentence to wrap around the whole thing–something’s amiss. If you’re like me, writing a novel is never the hard part. Thinking big is easy. The challenge comes with thinking small, with pulling back to the micro level. But, as I learned in poetry classes in college, thinking small and perfecting that approach can only enhance the long form.

At any rate, that’s what’s going on right now. I’m also working on a peripheral Aldersgate Cycle novel, which takes place toward the end of the first book, but in Ardesia. It’s about secret societies, corrupt guilds, madmen, magic, and love. Having a fun time with it so far!

That’s the news from here!

*Well, look. I’m typing. I’ve been typing. I typed a whole ton last night. My hands aren’t perfect, but I was able to do it (almost 4,000 words, I should add). I think the strength training is really doing the trick, as well as just losing a few pounds in general. Yay for me!