Back in March when I announced the new Domino Lady anthology, I hoped I would be back soon with more news. Well . . . soon has turned into six months. Still good news is good news, no matter when delivered.
So, just released by Airship 27 is my newest book “Zeppelins over Afrika.” This a what I call a novel in four parts. Meaning that it is four stories, closely linked together in time, that chronicle a war fought in Africa between British forces and Imperial German forces circa 1935. This is an alternate history adventure set in my Zeppelin World.
Not familiar with that particular world? Not surprising, while I created it long ago, not much has been actually published about it . . . so far. About eight years ago, I was asked by Tommy Hancock of Pro Se Press to write a story for an adventure anthology he wanted to publish. The premise was a flying adventure set in a world where fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft had never been invented or developed. I was intrigued and bought into the project. Since I was, and am, a big fan of anything lighter than air, I immediately decided my story would be about a dirigible. And of course, no one flew more successful dirigibles than the Germans. So, my story was planned as a German zeppelin flying an adventure in exotic setting. I chose a fictional war in Africa for that setting. This story was eventually published in Alternative Air Adventures; a fun little book that no one seems to have taken much notice of.
I had a lot of fun writing this story but when finished, I put it aside and moved on to other work. Fortunately, a couple of my friends who did read AAA liked my story enough to start nagging me about it. “What happened next with Max?” and “You ought to write more of his adventures” were some of the emails I got. Loyalty from my friends? Perhaps. But more likely they’re just alternate history fans. Alternate history has gotten to be a very big subgenre of ScFi/ Fantasy.
Finally, I gave in and wrote a sequel to my short story just to keep them quiet. This wasn’t enough, of course and more nagging ensued. Deciding that to write more of this saga I needed more background. So, I sat down and figured a whole back story to fit the stories I had written. By the time I had finished I realized I had created a whole alternate world. More details followed; including a timeline.
All this was a lot of fun. So, writing the third and fourth parts of the adventures of L-107 and young Max was easy. Well, not easy. There was the usual hard work of getting anything I write to make sense. But it didn’t seem like a lot of work at the time. I had a lot of fun writing these stories. After all, what’s not to like? Alternate history and Zeppelins? It was great fun for me. And, all those airship reference books I have been collecting for many years came in handy. So, Zeppelins over Afrika was born.
When it was finished and revised, I submitted it to Airship 27. Ron Fortier said some very kind things about the manuscript and accepted it. That was a few years ago. It took some serious searching to find the right artists and more time for them to work their magic. The wait was worth it though. When you see the cover of the book, I think you’ll agree.
Now comes the interesting part. In the intervening years since I finished writing Zeppelins over Afrika, I have done some interesting things with my “Zeppelin World” as I call it. I have written several stories and outlined even more stories covering a lot of interesting and varied aspects of my alternate world. After all, there are a lot more countries in the world than just Imperial Germany. Just imagine an alternate Graf Zeppelin or R-100. Not to mention no Hindenburg disaster.
Not only that, my alternate world also has no Nazis or Communists. Oh, there are plenty of rivalries, alliances and axes to grind. But this leads us to even more possible stories. What about Naval rivalries or diplomatic and espionage conflicts between nations in my World? The possibilities are endless.
The best part of all this is that I have several of these stories written and ready to go. It’s just a matter of where and how to publish them. Things are breaking on that front, but I cannot say too much at this time. Trust me though, it will not be years before my next Zeppelin World story will be available.
In the meantime, I hope lots of you take a chance and read Zeppelins over Afrika. It has plenty of rollicking aerial adventure in a different and, I believe, possible world.
So, here it is; my second published work this year and a whole book at that. Though it’s always possible that more work will be published shortly, I’m not holding my breath. Still, the Gods of Publishing do seem to be finally smiling on my endeavors.
See you next time.
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