Announcing 'Steam Patriots'!

Eaglepus by Patrick Arrasmith

If you are a fan of Steampunk Holmes than you'll like a new product we are brining to market, STEAM PATRIOTS by authors Scott Wakefield and Rory Boyle!  Scott and Rory, fellow servicemen in the U.S. Coast Guard, wrote an incredible treatment for the series which just blew us away!  As if that is not enough we are also announcing that the artist for the series is the very talented Patrick Arrasmith whose vintage scratch board art has graced many book covers as well as editorials in many National magazines.  This is a creative team that can't be beat!

STEAM PATRIOTS  takes place in 1776 at the start of the American Revolutionary War and features, among other famous patriots, George Washington, General at War, Benedict Arnold, double agent, and Benjamin Franklin, a man who has fundamentally altered society with his fantastic steam-powered inventions.

STEAM PATRIOTS  chronicles the adventures of Felix, a young man with an unusual gift: a photographic memory.  Follow Felix through this alternative universe as he serves General Washington and apprentices to Benjamin Franklin in a American Revolution that is both familiar and alien.  With huge steam-powered tanks, and other devices the Founding Father's never imagined, Felix travels across the Colonies and through Europe in a clever, action-packed, and often funny bid to win America's freedom.

As is the case with our celebrated Steampunk Holmes series, STEAM PATRIOTS  will be released as a series of several novellas in multiple channels including eBooks, Web books, audiobooks, paper books, and fully interactive iPad books.  The first book of the series will be available as an eBook in the fourth quarter of 2012 - to be quickly followed by the Web book, paper book, audiobook, and interactive iPad book. 

As we did for Steampunk Holmes, we sill launch a Kickstarter Campaign to finance development of the first two books in the STEAM PATRIOTS series. The Kickstarter campaign launches on September 14th, 2012 and will end October 14th, 2012.  We have a lot to accomplish between now and then including developing our Kickstarter video, book trailer, and reward selections.

After our very successful Steampunk Holmes Kickstarter campaign we hope to have learned enough to run an even more successful STEAM PATRIOTS campaign.  We aim to raise enough money to support the development of all the artwork for at least the first two books in the series in addition to some more software development in order to create the book app, the web app, ebooks, and more.

Please help spread the word about STEAM PATRIOTS -- the more fans we have before we launch our Kickstarter campaign the more likely we are to succeed. Follow STEAM PATRIOTS  on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and tell your friends!

Steampunk Holmes: Looking for BETA Testers!

Development of the interactive iPad edition of Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus is coming along well. The ability to jump from section to section and to pop-up animated illustrations of gadgets and character portraits, among many other features, is in the works.

For example, when viewing the mechanical drawings of the Widowmakr, Sherlock Holmes motorcycle, the reader can animate various components of the vehical with the touch of a finger.  See top left for a composite video example (in the application only the component you touch will animate and it will do so until you tap again or several seconds have elapsed.)

The portraits are also animated. If you forget who a character is you can touch their name and a profile with a portrait pops up on the screen. The portraits are all lightly animated - each in its own way.  For example, the portrait Inspector Lestrade (top right) looks right and arches his eye brow every now and then.

The BETA, which launches in mid-August, will be limited to a few select individuals so that we can keep the BETA manageable. As soon as the BETA period is complete (when we've flushed out all the issues ) the full version of the Book App will be released to the App Store (no later than November of 2012).  If you are interested in being included in the BETA program, please send an email to MonsonHaefel@Gmail.com telling us which iPad device you own and, in one sentence, why you think you should be selected for the BETA program.