The Great Magnetron Logophile Challenge

Last April, I sent out a challenge to loyal Magnetron fans:

Calling all logophiles, verbivores, and other ostentatiously learned geeks: Share your favorite obscure English word to win fabulous prizes (okay, they'll probably just be free ebooks). Top responses will be strategically deployed in my next book, The Kraken of Cape Farewell--with appropriate attribution of course!

Our judges have been hard at work choosing the winners, who are listed below with their winning entries:

• Hugh McCormick - Apricity, Hugger Mugger, Jollux, Snow-broth
• Jordan Bryant - Cantankerous
• Clarence Bonner - Defenestration
• Tracy Abernathy - Droud
• Christy Lynn Foster - Gorgonize, Groak, Jargogle
• James McAllister - Shankalicious (way to make things difficult, James!)

These six lucky and ostentatiously learned geeks will each receive a free copy of Rise of the Hogalum Society in the ebook format of their choice, and will be suitably immortalized in the acknowledgments section of the next book in the Magnetron Chronicles series, The Kraken of Cape Farewell.

Congratulations one and all and thanks for playing!

Historical Background Notes

In response to reader input, Volumes 1 and 2 of the Magnetron Chronicles have both been appended with Historical Background Notes sections:

"This volume contains a variety of historical and scientific references, abstruse jargon, and intentional anachronisms. To enhance the reader’s appreciation of the aforementioned story elements, a more or less scholarly examination of them is presented below. It should be noted that these remarks represent not exhaustive research but good faith attempts at historical accuracy, and that they have been written predominantly in passive voice so as to appear more scholarly than they really are."

New editions of the Magnetron Chronicles books are being released one at a time with this additional historical and other background information.  If your older copy doesn't include this section, fear not!  All of the background information will be published on this website as well, with hyperlinks to additional information on the web.

Start reading here or click the Historical Background Notes link on the right.

A Trilogy of Pentalogies?

With the publication of Luftigel and Doppelgänger, the first five volumes of the Magnetron Chronicles are now available as Kindle ebooks.  However, a new book, Rise of the Hogalum Society has also been released recently, a happy event which has nevertheless caused some confusion.  Therefore, a bit of explanation is in order.

The Magnetron Chronicles is a planned trilogy in fifteen parts, a series of fifteen novelette-length (10-15,000 words) volumes compiled into three longer books, each containing five smaller volumes.  The first five volumes in the series are now available as ebooks from your favorite online stores:

• Volume 1: The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum
• Volume 2: Spring-heeled Jack and the President's Ring
• Volume 3: Escape from Xanadu
• Volume 4: High Crimes and Miscreants
• Volume 5: Luftigel and Doppelgänger

These first five volumes are also now available together in Book I of the Magnetron Chronicles trilogy, Rise of the Hogalum Society.  This admittedly oddball arrangement is enumerated in greater detail here.

Cover Reveal for Book I

The first complete book of
the Magnetron Chronicles Trilogy

The newest Magnetron Chronicles book will soon be available at Amazon.  It will include all of the first five individual volumes, plus a bonus short story, at a special price!

Steam Whistles Past the Graveyard...

The fine folks at horroraddicts.net generally have their hands full peering into fresh graves and chasing down bloodthirsty monsters.  Now, they have ventured into the weird world of steampunk with a look at two steampunk series, The Magnetron Chronicles, and The William's Hunt series by my Facebook writer pal, Krista Cagg.

Reviewer David Watson checked out the first volumes of each series, calling Cagg's Shove Off "short and sweet, with a lot of action," and The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum "excellent... fun... a must-read."  Check out Watson's horroraddicts.net review here!

Volume 5 Cover Reveal

Cover for the upcoming fifth volume

Here it is, the cover for "Luftigel and Doppelgänger," the fifth volume in the Magnetron Chronicles saga.  This cover depicts the Luftigel, the Hogalum Society's advanced airship, engaged in a pitched battle with the League of Miscreants' copycat airship over the city of Berlin.  If you look closely, you can almost make out Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin pointing and taking detailed notes.

Luftigel and Doppelgänger

The latest volume of The Magnetron Chronicles is in final editing, and henceforth the working title shall be known simply as "the title," or more specifically, "Luftigel and Doppelgänger."

In this fifth volume of Magnetron's journals, the strange truth regarding Magnetron's previously unexplained disappearance in 1900 is revealed, as are hitherto unremarked romantic interests.  Having journeyed to Berlin, the Hogalum Society members seek to clear their names and hunt down Eldridge Compost before he can do more harm.  In so doing, they will be drawn into Compost's twisted schemes, culminating in an aerial battle to the death over Prussian skies.

More information--including a cover reveal--coming soon!

"A world of vast, quirky potential..."

Dieselpunk author and pulp aficionado Grant Gardiner has recently reviewed "The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum" on Goodreads, giving it 4 Stars (Recommend).  Gardiner's latest project is his "Tommy Thunder and the Tales of the Aether Age" series, set in an alternate timeline 1920s America.  Thankfully, he took some time out to offer some insightful remarks on the first book in the Magnetron Chronicles series, calling it "fantastic... whacky steampunk... in the style of an H. Rider Haggard adventure story."  Check out his review here, and then plot a course for his blog here.  There be two-fisted, hair-part flipping action and adventure dead ahead...

Winter of Our Daring Gents

eSteampunk's long-awaited second issue

At long last, the December 2012 issue of eSteampunk is available from the steampunk imprint of eFiction.  This issue features D. L. Mackenzie's "The Smiljan Breach," a prequel to the Magnetron Chronicles series featuring Dr. Hogalum on a Viennese bender, the Luftigel's maiden voyage, and a cameo appearance by none other than Nikola Tesla.

eSteampunk's second issue also brings you Matt Bett's "The Safest Passage," George S. Walker's "The Case of the Night-walking Automaton" and eSteampunk's first serial, "Black Dragon Blues," plus stunning cover art by Jonathan Hunt.  Available in PDF, MOBI, and EPUB formats for only $3.99!

Tesla Sighting

The latest Magnetron story is a prequel called "The Smiljan Breach."  Available free exclusively at Wattpad, The Smiljan Breach features the incomparable Dr. Hogalum along with a somewhat younger Hogalum Society.  Our heroes encounter intrigue in Vienna and board the Luftigel on her maiden flight to Smiljan, birthplace of Nikola Tesla, whereupon horror and hilarity ensue.  Check out the story for free at Wattpad before it is submitted for publication elsewhere!

The Goodreads Magnetron Quiz

That's right, the Goodreads Magnetron Quiz is a short collection of perplexing posers about The Last Adventure of Dr. Yngve Hogalum, the first volume of the Magnetron Chronicles series.  Not a Goodreads member?  Why not?  It's absolutely free to join.