Tag: sean monaghan

The Wintermas Paintings – preorder the new novel in a new Morgenfeld Trilogy

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

The first book in the new Morgenfeld Trilogy is available for preorder now. The release date is set for June 20th (though you can get the ebook a little earlier, June 10th, by going directly from the website). $5.99 for the ebook, $19.99 in print (from Amazon – the print link shows up on release day).

Fantasy trilogies are, I guess, kind of a thing, and it was fun to take a few new characters and explore Morgenfeld again, though in a whole different context.

In case you missed them, the other three novels comprise The Map Maker Trilogy – The Map Maker of Morgenfeld, The Stairs at Cronnenwood, and The Chimneys in Atterton.

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Faced with overwhelming responsibility as Morgenfeld’s new head Map Maker, Cole Palmer finds himself embroiled in sinister plots and diabolical machinations in a series of intense books for fans of the books of Mervyn Peake and Michael Moorcock. Available at your favorite retailers, including Amazon.

So over the last couple of years, among other projects, I’ve been working on the new books which comprise the Patrons of Art Trilogy. With all the kinks now ironed out and the look and feel kind of how we want it, we’ll be releasing all three new books this year. Current plans are to have The Bergeron Sculptures and The Ingersal Ballet available in August and October, as in two-monthly after The Wintermas Paintings. The manuscripts are complete and have been copyedited and proofed and right now we’re hard at work making the final formatting and covers for those books.

This is the draft look of the new trilogy, though for Bergeron and Ingersal, the cover art and layout is not final.

We also will be tinkering a little with the look of those covers on the Map Maker Trilogy – there are a couple of make-tidy things to take care of there.

Preorder links for the next two books will be coming soon. The images are from the remarkable Grandfailure, in keeping with all the other books. It’s such a wonderful style that really fits so well with the tone and feel of the novels.

Oh, also, as I did with my Cole Wright Thrillers, I’ve been writing short stories set with these new Morgenfeld characters. That’s been a blast. Writing short stories is fun, and a great way for me to get to know the characters, and to explore some things that don’t show up in the novels. Morgenfeld has a whole mess of places to explore, that’s for sure.

Anyway, with lots on the plate right now, we wanted to mention that soon, at least sometime before Wintermas comes out, we’ll be releasing at least one of the stories as a free read. A excellent way to see if the Patrons of Arts Trilogy, and even Morgenfeld, is your cup of tea, as they say (also since one of the stories is set in a tea house… too corny?).

Thanks for reading. Here’s the blurb for the first book, as I try to get your interest. Any good?

The Wintermas Paintings

Pickpocket Jason Trone flees with the spoils of his plunder. Trinkets and baubles. Hardly worth the effort. Hardly worth the risk.

Small time.

A speck in the endless corridors of the Morgenfeld’s vast city sprawl,

But when he gets an offer for the big time, Jason finds himself confronting his whole life.

And then some.

A fantasy novel that simmers with a dark brooding intensity.

Available from June 10th/20th from the usual places.

Daisy And Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts – award ballots.

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just learned that my story “Daisy And Maisie, External Hull Maintenance Experts”, from Analog last year, is a finalist for the Aurealis Awards for Best Novella.

With the story already a finalist for the Analog Analytical Laboratory award, and the Sir Julius Vogel Award, I’m feeling pretty humbled. My little story hanging out there with a bunch of stories by some awesome writers.

Now, I just wait for those results to trickle in, with my fingers crossed.

 

You can read the story for free at the Analog website, but you can also grab the ebook, with my afterword, from my website seanmonaghan.com. $2.99, but you can use the code DandM50 to get it for fifty percent off. Or use the code DandM100 to get it 100% off (that is, free). Both codes will be valid through until June 15th 2025 (when the Analog Analytical Laboratory results are announced).

Yesterday’s Ziggurat – Twelfth and final book of the Karnish River Navigations series

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Around about a decade since Arlchip Burnout, the first book in my Karnish River Navigations series arrived, the final book, Yesterday’s Ziggurat is here.

It’s an intriguing feeling, reaching the end of a project like this. I mean, at first, I didn’t even know it was a project. I was just writing a fun novel, I thought.

When I realized that I had on my hands characters I enjoyed hanging out with, and a title sequence that lent itself to a sequence of books, I began working with a little more focus toward creating a finite series.

The twelve books can be read in any order, so if you’ve not read any yet, Yesterday’s Ziggurat is as good a place to jump in as any. I might even say it’s the best place to jump in, since it was the last book I wrote, and mostly the last book I wrote is my favorite.

Available as a preorder from the usual places, Amazon for both print and ebook, and the other major retailers for ebooks. $5.99 for the ebook, $19.99 for the paperback. Release date is April 20th.

If you want it now (of course you do!) it’s available directly from me on the website – www.seanmonaghan.com. Use the code YZFriend25 to get 50% discount, valid through until April 21st (the link there should automatically apply the discount).

Oh, I guess I should mention what the book is about, right? This is the back cover blurb:

Yesterday’s Ziggurat

Decades after the diaspora, the vast canal lands of Karnth still support struggling farms.

When a sinkhole chews up Dallas Saldon’s soil-tuner, and almost takes him too, he knows he needs to rethink his plans. Tough and resilient, Dallas faces challenges with a stoicism born of the land.

But the sinkhole proves just the beginning. Placing Dallas and a new arrival in more danger than he knows.

Called in to help, Flis Kupe and Grae Sinder face challenges beyond anything from before.

Challenges that might just change everything they know about the canal lands.

And beyond.

A Karnish River Navigations novel that pits the investigators against an unimaginable foe.

My next task is updating most of the covers of the series – you’ll see that Waxing Xebec and Yesterday’s Ziggurat are the only ones with my name at the top. Fixing that now.

Thanks for reading and being a friend to the site. Most appreciated.

 

 

Waxing Xebec, blog changes and bitsy bits

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve had lots going on lately, working on setting up a new site, and exploring new ways of getting my books out and about. You might have noticed that the website here has changed to seanmonaghan.blog, from seanmonaghan.com. Fear not, seanmonaghan.com is still registered to me and will reappear on my shopify site which is currently the slightly unweildy seanmonaghan.myshopify.com.

You might see at the top of this page that my renewal for the site is turned off and an invitation from WordPress to ‘gift’ me the subscription. Please don’t. I’m downgrading, from the business plan, and the only way to do that is to turn off renewals, but WordPress won’t allow me to sign up on the new plan until after the expiry date. Frankly I’ve become a little disillusioned with WordPress over the last few years, and it amuses me that as I’m in the process of changing, they’re being kind of passive-agressive about it. Kind of helps confirm that shifting around is a good idea.

More soon when Shopify is up and running.

Waxing Xebec, book 11 in the Karnish River Navigations series, is out on preorder now.

When pirates kidnap boat builder Clemens DuToit he expects ransom demands. But the ruthless crew insist on something else. Something unique. Something different.

Racing in, investigators Flis and Grae discover the issues run deep. History reveals old scars. Scars that tear into the very heart of piracy on the River Haxley.

A Karnish River Navigations novel that pits tough characters against desperate situations, in a tantalizing, intense mystery. A must for fans, and a great place to jump into the series for new readers.

$5.99 ebook. $16.99 in print – universal book link here. Due out on May 20th.

 

Two new Sci-Fi preorders

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

After the thriller novel, and accompanying short story in January, February sees two new Sean Monaghan releases – two science fiction long stories or novellas or even short novels if you like. Quick reads?

First out of the blocks is Cami, Metta and The Cube. A kind of cyberpunk, high-tech thriller, but definitely on the science fiction side (a rental car AI with attitude, and a hypergrid terrorist). Available for preorder, with release on February 10th. Universal book link here. $3.99 ebook, $9.99 print.

Cami, Metta and The Cube

Cami Gretton, courier, entreprenuer and getaway artist, trusts too easily. When the simple job of delivering a hypergrid Testa Cube turns sour, Cami finds herself tangled in a double cross. Or a triple cross. Hard to tell.

Could even be worse.

Cami needs every skill in her possession to extricate herself. And then some.

A near future thriller from the author of Dangerous Machines.

Second up, on February 20th, but already up for preorder, is Fubrelli’s Ghost. Science Fiction, but of a very different kind (I think). Set on Jupiter’s moon Callisto and, given the title, a little bit of the supernatural. Available for preorder with release on February 20th. Universal book link here. Again, $3.99 for the ebook and $9.99 in print. I have yet to figure out how to hang the print version into the preorder system, so that will be released a few days before the 20th.

Fubrelli’s Ghost

Jupiter’s huge frozen moon Callisto suits Claire. Suits her perfectly. Its rugged, barren landscape entrances her as she works with the station crew to fathom the icy secrets.

But when a ghost shows up, Claire and the crew face secrets that go far beyond science.

Secrets that might just change the entire nature of deep space exploration.

A space adventure from the author of ‘Problem Landing’ and ‘One Hundred’.

 

Planning Releases for 2020

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

 

This year we’re targetting getting twelve releases out. This will be a mix of standalone short stories, novels and collections. If we can really get things together, a couple of the collections will be omnibuses of a few of my earlier novels.

For January, February, March and April there will be four science fiction releases, three standalone short stories, “Life-Span”, “Fabulous Skies” and “Mem, and Cyborg”, and the novel Deuterium Shine.

The novel is the first in a new series – The Jupiter Files. The second book, Tritium Blaze will be out later in the year. There are no concrete plans for a third book, so this might well be a duology. Of course, the obvious third book would be Hydrogen Something. Can’t use Sonata since Ian M Banks did that so well already. Would it be cheeky to call it Hydrogen Coda? After all it would be the last book. Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself there.

“Life-Span” is available for preorder from Amazon, Smashwords, and other retailers. Just $2.99 for the ebook and $5.99 for print, since it’s a short story. Release day is January 31st.

The blurb goes like this:

Cody Albine watches as her elegant and well-organized presentation collapses. Right in front of her last chance at getting corporate funding for the project of a lifetime. Her absolute passion.
But hope lies with her friends. It might take compromise, but a little compromise between friends never goes astray.
A short biological sci fi thriller with a heart. From the author of Overrun and L-Own.

 

“Fabulous Skies” will be available from February 29th, Deuterium Shine from March 31st and “Mem, and Cyborg” from April 30th. All will have preorders for about a month. Short stories stay at $2.99/$5.99, but the novel will be $5.99/$16.99 (probably – still working on the layout and the size of the print book dictates the price).

 

Moving on from there, May will be a collection of literary short stories, with some previously published. June will be the novel Desert Creepers, the fourth book in my Captain Arlon Stoddard series. It’s been a while since the last volume, so it will be great to get this series going again. There are two more already written in the series – Core Runners and Underworld Climbers.

July will likely be an omnibus of shorter sci-fi novels, August will have a collection of sci-fi stories, September should be Tritium Blaze. For October we’re targetting another omnibus, this one of earlier thrillers, November another sci-fi stories collection, and December will be book three of the Morgenfeld fantasy series, The Black Chimneys in Atterton.

That’s it. A big year that will push me out there into some areas that challenge me.

Exciting times.

The Stairs at Cronnewood now available for preorder

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

Stairs at Cronenwood (1)Book II of The Morgenfeld series is now available for preorder from the usual bookstores.

Release date is December 15th.

 

Enter a bizarre and twisted world. A building without end.

A missing man. A raid on the Map Archive. A descent into desperation.

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The vast city of Morgenfeld spreads across the land, an endless array of buildings jammed one against the next.Investigator Gail Deurgans takes on a new and challenging case. Way out of her usual territory. Mapmaker Cole Palmer and his staff work hard keeping track of the maze of the city. Another plunge into the depths of a place not even its denizens understand. The perfect journey for readers who love the fantastic worlds of Mervyn Peake and Michael Moorcock.

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mapmaker 2019 (1)Morgenfeld Book I, The Map Maker of Morgenfeld is available too. Both books are standalone, so you can still dive into The Stairs at Cronnenwood first.

 

 

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Black ChimneysIn other news, I’m nearing completion of writing The Chimneys at Atterton, Book III of the series. This one’s really twisted and doing my head in. The cover and title are just holding for now. Once it’s done and ready, we’ll see how it feels.

Because we were away traveling for an extended period, I’ve been writing it on my mini set up: a phone with a little bluetooth keyboard. The set up works well while traveling, but throws me now I’m back home. Do I transfer the work to my regular writing computer? What if I lose the thread from the mini set up? Oh no (wipes forehead), the trials of being a writer.

Still, I hope to have  Chimneys out sometime in the middle of next year.

 

 

The Map Maker of Morgenfeld

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

The Map Maker of Morgenfeld thumb

I have a new novel out, and this one has a bunch of intriguing things about it. Intriguing to me, anyway.

First, it’s a fantasy, which I don’t often write. That said, there are no wizards or magic or dragons, no vast armies of conquest, no hero smiting demons with a terrible swift sword. This novel grows out of my younger self’s love of Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast series (I even shamelessly bastardized the name).
My style is very different from Peake’s. Well, of course, writing has changed over the years, and while Peake wrote some wonderful books, they are a product of their period. I like to think I’ve captured something of their essence in my own world.

Secondly, I wrote the novel while traveling. In April and May of 2017 we had a fabulous voyage to Santiago, Easter Island, the Atacama Desert, Quito and the Galapagos Islands. Almost six weeks away.

I wrote every day. Usually stolen moments in the evenings, at kitchen tables, or in dining rooms. Once or twice in noisy cafes.

The trip was awesome. But it was cool to maintain that writing momentum throughout. Especially with the focus on a project. I suppose elements of South American culture and lifestyle may well be wrapped up somewhere in the book.
Thirdly, or perhaps this should be my first item, I wrote the novel on a phone. We traveled light. Carry-on luggage only. Taking a laptop, with a bulky charger, would have been a nuisance. I discovered the cool little Rapoo bluetooth keyboard. I bought the Docs2go app, which allowed me to format the document nicely as I went, and also to track my word count.

I designed and 3D-printed a stand for the phone. I bought a travel wallet, one intended for money and cards and documents, and used that to create a neat little package for the keyboard, stand and phone so they could all just drop into my backpack easily.

All of those elements make The Map Maker of Morgenfeld perhaps my most unusual novel so far. I’m sure that traveling influenced the writing. I’m sure that the restriction of the phone influenced the writing.

I hope it all worked out into a readable, enjoyable book.
The cover illustration is near-perfect for me anyway. By Grandfailure | Dreamstime. It really shows the clutter and maze of Morgenfeld better than I’d pictured it.

Available all over, in print ($12.99), and as an ebook ($5.99), Kindle, Smashwords, and so on.

The Bubbcat in Cirsova

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

cirsova-4My short story “The Bubbcat” appears in the Fall issue of Cirsova magazine. Cirsova has now reached its fourth issue and goes from strength to strength. I’m pleased to have my story here.

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Dolci D.’s job should be simple. Retrieve and protect the Bubbcat. Easy. It turns out, the device can just about take care of itself. And when people start bombing subway stations, Dolci D. needs every bit of help the Bubbcat can give

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A great collection of stories here, running the whole gamut. I’m pleased to be in such great company. Lots to enjoy.

 

Aussie SF Snapshots 2016

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

aussie sf snapshotsAussie SF Snapshots takes a quick look at the Australian SF community with a series of incisive interviews. I was fortunate enough to be interviewed by the esteemed Shauna O’Meara for the 2016 Snapshots. Shauna’s widely published and a Writers of the Future winner. I’m honored to be among such great company.

My interview is here: Sean Monaghan

Some of my friends also have snapshots.

Shauna’s is here: Shauna O’Meara

Steve: Steve Cameron

Gerry: Gerry Huntman

Talie: Talie Helene

Oh, and while I am actually living back in New Zealand, I hold dual citizenship, and I completed my masters at the University of Queensland in Brisbane.