Author: StevenDBrewer

Author of speculative fiction and poetry in English and Esperanto. Teacher of scientific writing. Lover of natural history. (he/his)

At BayCon, I spent a fair amount of time in the Dealer Room selling copies of Revin’s Heart. And sales were brisk. I sold all of the bundles of printed copies I had and could probably have sold twice as many. I am not certain, but it may have been the most popular item at the Water Dragon Publishing table.

I’ve got my pitch down. I had a great spot to sell from: right at the entrance when people come into the room. If someone pauses coming in — or if I can see that they don’t already have a ribbon, I ask, “Would you like to be an airship pirate?” and point at the ribbons. Nine times out of ten, they’ll say, “Ooh! Yeah!” and take a ribbon. (Tho there are always a few weirdos who say, “No.”) While they’re putting on the ribbon, I say, “It’s for my steampunky fantasy adventure Revin’s Heart with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist.” After they digest that, I say, “It’s a series of 7 little novelettes that are five dollars each. But right now you can buy a bundle of all seven for twenty-five dollars. [pause] It’s like you get two free.” Then, I hold up the bundles and say, ‘And you get a choice! Do you want it tied up with a white ribbon, a red ribbon, or a GREEN ribbon?”

The hook and ribbon draw people to the table. They sell themselves on the story. And the choice of ribbon gets them invested in the decision. It’s a one-two-three punch that knocks it out of the park. I’ve been rather surprised at my own ability to sell.

Even after the physical bundles were gone, I had good luck also selling the digital bundle. There is a QR code I can have people scan. People are surprisingly willing to fight with their phone to navigate the complex interface to buy something.

To be honest, it’s not an a economic winner for me: in monetary terms, I don’t really make any money doing this. All of the royalties I’ll earn don’t equal one meal in the hotel, let alone the cost of the travel to get here. But every fan is precious because they talk. And have friends. And it contributes to building a following.

And it’s super fun and rewarding to see people enjoying your creative work, which is worth a lot more than any amount of money.

Mount Shasta

I was extremely gratified to receive a positive review for all of Revin’s Heart by The Faerie Review. She said:

I was not expecting to come to love Revin, Grip, and Will as much as I did over the course of the series. […] Brewer has done a masterful job of bringing this world and it’s inhabitants to life, and while there have been some dark moments, they’ve been balanced by the light-hearted and heart-warming ones.

Liliyana Shadowlyn in the Faerie Review

As Sssindy would say, “Now you’re makin’ me blush!

When I was hospitalized in February, it threw my BayCon plans into doubt. Finally, I decided to travel by throwing caution to the winds and making a cross-country road trip with my son to sight-see along the way. We rented a car drove from Massachusetts, through Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, finally arriving in California. We saw the Dells, the Badlands, Yellowstone, Portland, Crater Lake, and drove the Coastal Highway — about 5000 miles in total. And, after BayCon, we will surrender the car at the airport and fly home. It’s been an incredible odyssey.

I’m looking forward to BayCon. I mostly intend to be at the Water Dragon Publishing dealer table to sell books. It looks to be a great weekend. Drop by to say hello!

Map of the Islands of Revin's Heart

Revin’s Heart takes place on island nations — or on airships traveling between the islands. The first book, The Third Time’s the Charm begins with Revin traveling to Havelock on the Madeline, a large passenger airship that is attacked by pirates. Read on for a tour of the islands of Revin’s Heart.

Havelock is ruled by a Duke who seemingly has absolute control of the island. We see a little of the island in The Third Time’s the Charm and see a lot more when Revin and the Professor go undercover in Crossing the Streams, visiting the capital and then the Hermitage, a research institute; Sendia Springs, a hot spring resort; and Beskin Harbor, a quaint seaside village.

Belleriand appears for the first time in For the Favor of a Lady. Revin and Grip walk for two days to the capital and visiting Ravensbelth, the sprawling palace of the so-called Butcher Baron of Belleriand. It has many luxurious chambers and salons (the Blue Room, the Tapestry Room, the Porcelain Room, the Portrait Gallery), and an immense library. Although the Baron is the most powerful noble on Belleriand, his power is not so absolute as the Duke of Havelock and he must use deft political action to be effective.

Harway is the home of King Reginald the Arbiter. All of the nobles in Revin’s Heart supposedly owe fealty to him. Revin travels there in The End of His Rope and is there for basically all of Then They Fight You (with several notable exceptions). Harway is the largest and most powerful of the islands. Harway is also home to the Royal Academy, the premier research institute among the islands. The Professor was famous at the Royal Academy before he joined the pirates as their chief engineer.

Candlemain, a smaller, less-developed island, is neutral in the war, but the intelligence agencies of both Havelock and Belleriand operate here. There’s no aerodrome, and airships simply land in an open field just out of town. There’s a colorful farmer’s market on Thursdays where locals sell produce, fish, and meat. The pirates resupply here and Grip receives their mail. The pirates often stay at a boarding house, run by Mama Kane, that offers nice views of the pier so they can watch for the arrival of The Little WormMaid.

Kapper Island — a small, steep rocky island — ­­is introduced in For the Favor of a Lady. It has no harbor and only a few small strips of beach. The pirates have their base here with a berth for an airship under camouflage. They have a number of semi-permanent tents that the pirates stay in. And they have a small sailboat, The Little WormMaid that they use to travel to Candlemain a couple of hours away to resupply. There is a steep trail up the mountain with switchbacks that they run up daily for exercise.

Devishire is the island Revin is originally from. Born female, he grew up in a small town where his family were coal miners. In his town, women were oppressed: girls were not educated, and were expected to be married at a young age to keep house and bear children. Revin escaped by cross-dressing and going to the capital where he met a law professor and became his student and research assistant. This story, Riva’s Escape, is a side-story that will be included when Revin’s Heart comes out in January 2024.

We don’t visit Ironton or Woodseer during Revin’s Heart. But Ironton is the island that Will is from. And we learn that there was a war between Ironton and Woodseer in the past (when Will was Revin’s age) for which Hannah (Revin’s adjutant in Then They Fight You) was involved in negotiating the peace. A side-story, Curtain’s Rise, is set on Ironton during this time and tells how Will met Grip’s father. This story will be included when the Revin’s Heart collection comes out in January 2024.

So-called “Storm Island” features in The End of His Rope where Prince Stewart, using his nom-de-guerre “Words” was participating in an archeological study. He and his colleagues were looking for clues to locate the island with the Eternite Mine. Although it’s referred to several times in the story, Revin never visits the Eternite Mine, but I wouldn’t count on it not appearing in some subsequent adventure with Revin.

This map only lists the things that were talked about in Revin’s Heart. That’s not to say there aren’t many other tiny islands that were never mentioned. There may well be other things beyond the borders of the map, as well. Perhaps we may get to find out more about some of these places someday.

Rewriting the RulesRewriting the Rules is the final novelette of Revin’s Heart, my steampunky fantasy adventure with pirates and airships and a trans protagonist, available on June 23 from Water Dragon Publishing.

People often ask me why I wrote Revin’s Heart. To be honest, I mostly wrote it to have fun. I like friendly adventure stories. I loved those kinds of stories when I was a kid and I don’t seem to see them as much as I used to. But I also wanted to tell a story about a trans character that I thought might appeal to both queer and straight audiences.

I came to understand that I was bisexual when I was still in puberty, in the 1970s. But I grew up in an extremely oppressive environment where admitting something like that would have resulted in constant bullying and threats of physical violence. I concealed my bisexuality and it’s only been in the last couple of years that I came out of the closet. I did so, in part, after reading an article that called on queer elders to help young people understand how oppressive conditions were back then. And also in response to the growing oppression happening now. I was too fearful to come out of the closet then. But I know where I want to stand today.

In Revin’s Heart, we learn within the first couple of pages that Revin is trans.

Before they headed to dinner, Revin made his excuses to stop in the lavatory. After using the facilities, he checked his chest bindings to make sure they were tight and didn’t show through the shirt. And the pad, which was still spotting, but thankfully the worst of the flow was done. Thankfully, the Professor wasn’t very observant. Revin didn’t like to imagine the consequences if his secret was discovered. (from The Third Time’s the Charm, part one of Revin’s Heart).

One of my goals was that the reader might forget for long stretches that Revin is trans at all. But only to have the fact brought home when circumstances or language draws a contrast that has special significance to Revin (and the reader).

“You told me he was a man, Griphon!” he said. Revin quailed inside, but stood firm and the Baron continued, laughing. “But this is a youth. A boy! And yet you tell me he saved your life?”
“Without doubt, sir,” Grip said to his father. “I would not be here today were it not for the quick thinking and bold action of this young man. And I took him for my squire with no further recommendation.”
“Darling,” the older woman said. “Don’t keep the boy from his breakfast.”
“That’s right,” the Baron said. “A boy like you is always hungry, like as not. Eat your fill!” (from For the Favor of Lady, part two of Revin’s Heart)

Revin’s world is divided among the common people, the nobles, and the pirates. The common people largely reject queer people. The nobles tend to privately tolerate queerness. But it’s only among the pirates that queerness is accepted and celebrated.

Revin grew up as a commoner and discovered early on the danger of being different. We see, through the books, as he learns the shape of the world and the communities it is divided into. Rewriting the Rules is about his realization for how he can undermine the divisions that separate commoner from noble and begin to create a more equitable world.

But, as I said up front, this is mostly just a fun adventure story. It has a trans protagonist who is trying to find his way in the world, but finding support, acceptance, and allies along the way who care about him and accept him. I hope you too will care about him and accept him. And join him for his on-going adventures!

BayCon, here I come!

In October, 2022, I registered for BayCon and was super excited to look forward to attending since my publisher, Water Dragon Publishing, and many of the authors I interact with, are from the Bay area. Unfortunately, when the time to put yourself forward as a participant happened, I was hospitalized and it was not at all clear I would actually be able to attend.

Since then, I have made great strides in terms of my recovery and recently made the decision to attend after all. I will not on the program, but will attend and be available to spent as much time as I want at the Dealer Table selling and signing my books.

This is especially exciting because the Revin’s Heart series is finally complete! The seventh and final chapter, Rewriting the Rules, has gone to the printer and is now available for pre-order. At BayCon, we’ll be able to sell complete bundles of all seven parts together for the first time!

So I invite you to come find me at BayCon so I can sell you my books and sign them for you. It should be a lot of fun!

BayCon is July 1-4 at the Santa Clara Marriot.

Pamela's Panties over the Bridge of Flowers

After a long, dark winter and a busy spring, summer finally begins! Being hospitalized in February and then spending the spring trying to recover and stay current with my teaching, I got very little writing done. But summer promises to be better.

The final installment of Revin’s Heart, Rewriting the Rules, comes out June 23! I’ve been writing posts for a blog tour that should happen the week before it comes out. It’s been fun writing the posts, but it’s meant I haven’t been posting anything here.

I didn’t get NO writing done. I wrote a piece of flash fiction A Bad Night in Cloudrise, which I submitted to the Queer SciFi Flash Fiction Contest. And I also wrote a Better Angels story over spring break: The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss. But, other than my #VSS365 fragments, I didn’t get much fiction writing done at all.

That makes sense, in that my students come first. My writing class was among the best I’ve ever had! They really brought passion and commitment to their Proposals and Projects. I was impressed and touched to see their drive and excitement. Just a few students can really tip the “feel” a course has, but this was like a groundswell. It was wonderful. My honors students were, as always, an ongoing source of inspiration. It’s simply amazing to get to know students throughout a whole year and watch them develop skills and self-confidence. I’m so grateful I get to teach this course.

This summer, I have two projects I need to wrap up and then a big project I want to focus on. While writing Campshire! (a Revin’s Heart project) a story occurred to me that I wanted to tell. Lady Cecelia’s Flowers is about 2/3 written and I just need to write the buildup, the climax, and the epilogue. I know what’s going to happen — I just need to let the events flow onto the page. And while I was writing the triple-M, I had an idea for an ambitious Better Angels story: The Complicated Camping Catastrophe. I’ve got it outlined and have written a dozen scenes, but I want to get it wrapped up before I move on to the Big Event: The Ground Never Lies.

For about a year, I’ve been writing scenes and vignettes for a story about Veronica Bellox, a geomancer with an anger problem, and Sophie, the sheltered girl who falls in love with her. I wrote a kind of pilot short story that went off the rails. But there’s a fun story here and I think it will need to be a novel to tell it properly. And that’s what I hope to spend the balance of the summer on.

Due to my uncertain health, I was unable to plan to attend events during the winter and so was unable to propose myself as a participant for BayCon, but I’m still hoping to attend, to meet people and sell books at the Water Dragon Publishing dealer table. It’s not yet certain I’ll attend, but I’m working on it. Watch for details soon. I may also be at a local Queer Pop-up Market on Saturday for Pride. Fingers crossed.

During the academic year, I don’t have much time for writing. I’ve managed to do a few things. But I can’t wait for summer!

My serial, It’s Complicated (aka “The Mary Stories”) has begun coming out at Kindle Vella. The first three chapters are free-to-read. Chapters will release weekly on Fridays until June 9.

On April 22, 2023, I submitted the final manuscript of the Revin’s Heart series: Rewriting the Rules. This is the last novelette in the series and it ties up all of the loose ends in a very satisfactory way.

I was also invited to write the Foreword for the Spring 2023 Dragon Gems anthology. My first effort was praised for being excellent, but only for — ahem — a more specialized literature. So it was conserved against such time as such a thing might be published and I was invited to try again. So I did try again and (as a joke) wrote one for a horror anthology. And then the editor said, “Hey! We’re doing a horror anthology in the Fall and I’m totally saving this for that. So can you try one more time?” So, I did and produced a satisfactory Foreword. So, you should totally buy the anthology to read my awesome Foreword. Oh! And there are some excellent stories in the anthology too.

I’ve written a new story that’s pretty exciting (if I say so myself): The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss. The Angels are on a morale boosting tour on the planet Palisade when fighting heats up.

“‘Pedes incoming!” was blasted over the loudspeakers.

The soldiers, with good discipline, began to scatter to their positions. The Angels fell back to the cargo hatch. Cap’n Tau started the engines which first whined and then grew to a grumbling roar. David from his perch, spotted movement coming from the west.

“‘Pedes on the base!” he reported, and took aim with his Ublyudok particle rifle.

The ‘pede soldier morph was a large centipede-like creature. They had little intelligence and carried no weapons, but were vicious and single-minded. They were highly flattened with thick exoskeletons, huge pincers, and many legs, that could roll at great speed like a hoop. There were dozens rolling across the tarmac toward Angels’ Wings.

David fired the Ublyudok, which emitted a deafening scream, and hit five ‘pedes in rapid succession. But there were many more coming.

from The Better Angels and the Military Morale Mishegoss

And there’s yet another Better Angels story in the works. And I’ve got several manuscripts out to markets. Hopefully I’ll have more good news soon.

In just a few weeks, the academic year will wrap up and I’ll have the summer to focus on writing. I’m hoping to finally start working on The Ground Never Lies. I can’t wait!

It’s Complicated (aka The Mary Stories) is a serialized rural fantasy available through Kindle Vella about an older man who moves back to his childhood home and meets the “imaginary friend” he had as a child who, it turns out, is not so imaginary. And he discovers that there’s something special about his land and that someone — or something — is willing to kill for it.

She was dressed the same as the night before, with an old-fashioned ruffled blouse & skirt, a red cape, white stockings, & patent-leather shoes with gold buckles. Her hood was up today, wet with rain, covering her pretty curls. “He said he had fun with Mary. Are you Mary?” I asked. She cocked her head over on one side, then smiled. “You not ‘member. You call me Mary.” “W-What are you?” I asked. She raised her hands up next to her face & spread out her fingers. “I scary monster,” she said.

From To What Do I Owe, Episode One of It’s Complicated

It’s Complicated begins April 7 via Kindle Vella with weekly episodes through June 10. It’s first story presented via Vella. If it attracts a following, I could potentially write more episodes during the summer: there’s a lot more story to tell.

I plan to read two passages at Flights of Foundry (at 7pm EDT on April 14). And, of course, I’ll be reading a lot of other stuff as well. Come join the fun!

On  March 18, 2023, I offered a presentation at @nerdsummit, Publishing 101: Writing books for fun and profit. It went well and was well received. The recording is now available at youtube. At 41:18 you can hear me reading The Better Angels and the Super Sticky Situation, a 500 word bit of flash fiction i wrote for Valentines Day at The Truck Stop at the Center of the Galaxy.

Coming up in April, I will be appearing at Flights of Foundry, an online writers convention. I will be offering a reading on April 14 at 7pm Eastern time and on April 16, I will serve on a panel about Geology for World Builders at 3pm.

I’ve proposed myself to be an online participant at the Nebulas May 12-14, so keep your eyes peeled.