A New Year, A New Series

If I had to categorize myself by genre I wouldn't call myself a steampunk author. I've written steampunk books, sure, but the question of "what makes a Michael Coorlim book" isn't answered by gears and airships. Rather, I like to think that what makes one of my books explicitly mine is more a matter of rapid pacing, tight plotting, snappy dialog, and a certain set of themes.

My books ask these questions because I ask these questions. Constantly. I find the subjective nature of reality to be fascinating in both concept and manifestation.

In my upcoming series Shadow Decade, due out in early 2016, I branch out into science fiction set ten years in the future. I'm tempted to call it cyberpunk due to some of the themes — trying to get by in a hostile corporate-driven world of greed and intolerance — but that pretty much describes the modern world pretty well. We even have self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses.

It's not steampunk, but it's written with much of the same wit and many of the same themes as my Galvanic Century books. I'm hoping that many of my current fans will be willing to give it a try.

The Big Expense: Cover Art

Writing a book is pretty cheap as long as you're willing to put in the hours. The only big expenses are editing and cover art. While I can do my own covers without embarrassing myself too much, I vastly prefer to commission from freelancers. The results are better, my sales are better, and I get some needed work to another artist. Win win win.

My kickstarter for the Iron Horses Can't Be Broken cover art was wildly successful, so I've opted to do it again... this time, for all three books in the Shadow Decade series, as I plan on releasing them only months apart. My goal is low... only the $100 it would take to acquire the stock art to composition a cover myself... but my stretch goals are all about paying someone more artistic to handle it for me.

How You Can Help

If you're interested in the series or just want to help out, donate to the kickstarter. Donations encourage others to donate. And I think the rewards are pretty cool.

If you don't want to or can't afford to, that's cool too. You can still give me a hand by sharing the kickstarter campaign to those you think would be interested. Share it in your social media networks, post it to communities you belong to, tell your friends.

A question before I let you go...

If you're planning to check out Shadow Decade, what appeals to you about it? Or, if you aren't, what's turning you away?