William C. Tracy is joining us today to talk about his two novellas currently in Kickstarter: The Society of Two Houses and Journey to the Top of the Nether. As of April 24, the Kickstarter is 107% funded, and going toward stretch goals! Here is the description of each:
The Society of Two Houses:
Mandamon Feldo is scheduled to meet with a high-profile diplomat to present his newest invention, but he finds the diplomat dead in a pool of blood on the floor of his office. Even worse, the diplomat, until recently, was holding a list of all the members of The Society of Two Houses—a secret organization existing inside the maji, and one to which Mandamon belongs.
If the list gets out, the Society—which brings innovation and new technology to the Nether—may crumble under the weight of the secrets it holds. Often, the ends are seen to justify the means when developing new ideas, and the Society has done its share of cleaning up ‘accidents.’ Before the murderer can release the information, Mandamon must figure out who would kill the diplomat and betray The Society of Two Houses.
Journey to the Top of the Nether:
Natina grew up studying the artifacts found by her mother, the famous explorer Morvu Francita Januti. Now, her mother has discovered an ancient machine able to drill into the impenetrable mineral of the Nether, and is leading an expedition to climb its incredibly high walls for the very first time. She wants Natina to be part of the expedition, but Natina is more comfortable helping her parents research at home—if only her mother were home more often.
The Nether’s walls are smooth like crystal, any fall will mean certain death, and no one knows what, or who, may lurk above the clouds. There are even rumors of another team of explorers following them, trying to steal their glory. It could be the chance of a lifetime for Natina, and a good way to learn how her mother became the most famous explorer of the ten species—if they survive.
What’s William’s favorite bit?
WILLIAM C. TRACY
Before I get to my actual favorite bit, here is my next favorite: this is my second Kickstarter, and this time I’m putting out two novellas, instead of one novel. The first novella is a mystery, and the other is a mid-grade adventure. I’m hoping the diverse genres will attract more readers, including parents who want to share a book series with their children.
I’ve always loved the steampunk genre, as well as books from when science fiction and fantasy were just beginning to take off. With these two novellas, I decided to incorporate the adventure stories from the Victorian era into my Dissolutionverse. Thus, The Society of Two Houses emulates a Sherlock Holmes story, and Journey to the Top of the Nether hearkens back to the adventure and discovery one sees in a Jules Verne novel. The mix of these two things—steampunk and old adventure stories—led to my favorite bit about both these books: the mechanical companions.
The Society of Two Houses is partially concerned with the main character’s new inventions, called System Beasts. They are magically assisted automatons, created to be nearly self-aware, or at least with animal intelligence. They exist in my novel too—set about fifty years later—but as mechanical beasts. One of the little side mysteries is why this happens. It’s not a big part of the plot, but something I really enjoy because it ties into the Dissolutionverse as a whole.
In Journey to the Top of the Nether, I get to turn one of my worldbuilding cornerstones on its head. The unbreakable crystal that makes up the surroundings of the Nether (a planet-sized box that serves as the nexus for ten alien species) has kept anyone from climbing all the way to the ceiling. It’s sort of a “here there be dragons” place, because no one knows what’s up that far. Enter the Crystal Beetle Drill, as Natina has dubbed it. This is a relic of long past, not quite a System Beast, but a very old machine able to drill into the crystal of the Nether. It allows the party to begin their climb.
Here are both mechanical companions in action:
The Society of Two Houses:
Kratitha held the lenses in front of her multifaceted eyes once more, then gave them absently to the Festuour before peering into the interior of our one life-size prototype System Beast, created in the shape of a proud Kirian Ethulina pullbeast. The mane of crested feathers were slivers of crystal that reflected light, and the claw-hooves were of solid steel, etched with filigree. Kratitha and Gompt had spent a good ten-day attaching and painting wooden representations of the scales along its body, covering the places where we had installed service hatches—one of which the Pixie had open now.
The creature was starting to look as impressive as we first imagined, and its mannerisms were almost entirely lifelike, with the latest adjustments to the gearing ratios. The model I was to show the Speaker was a toy compared with our masterpiece.
Journey to the Top of the Nether:
“I still like ‘crystal beetle thing’ better,” I muttered and crossed my arms. It does look like a beetle, all hunched over like that. Especially with the black shell and those jointed legs. It even has crystal mandibles. I took in the two shimmering spikes that stuck out of the ‘head’ attached to the metal shell. They look like melted glass. The device was pretty amazing, even if I thought the plan to kill ourselves climbing a sheer, slippery, indestructible wall was kind of terrible.
“Come on,” my mother said again. “We can debate all you want on the balloon ride, while you still have the energy to do it.”
And sometime later, when they have to depend on the Beetle to keep them from falling…
The beetle shifted, tipping out from the wall. I yelled, and Wailimani yelled with me. We’re going to fall!
But then she pulled herself back straight, putting her jointed legs in different holes. She reached out to drill the next set of holes, and her legs creaked forward, pulling us along, each step tipping us out over nothingness until the jointed leg found a hole and gripped it. We hung there while she began to drill, and walk, drill and walk.
Like last time, the Kickstarter is meant to bring in more art to make the experience better for readers. I love finding illustrations in the novels I read, and I like to do the same with my books. I’m really excited to show off both the System Beast and the Beetle. This time, I am working with three different artists, and I hope to have full-page interior illustrations in the mystery, and small section header illustrations in the mid-grade novella.
So if you like steampunk, or mystery, or adventure, or just want to get a book for you along with one for your kids, check out the Kickstarter for Mystery, Magic, and Adventure: Two Dissolutionverse Novellas. There are a lot of great backer rewards, and an extra short story. There are also chances to buy original artwork or even become a part of the story! See you around the Dissolutionverse!
LINKS:
BIO:
William C. Tracy is a North Carolina native and a lifelong fan of science fiction and fantasy. He has two novellas and one novel in his Dissolutionverse: Tuning the Symphony, Merchants and Maji, and the newest addition, The Seeds of Dissolution.
He also has a master’s in mechanical engineering, and has both designed and operated heavy construction machinery. He has trained in Wado-Ryu karate since 2003, and runs his own dojo. He is an avid video and board gamer, a reader, and of course, a writer. He and his wife also cosplay, and he has appeared as Tenzin, Jafar, and in several steampunk outfits. They both enjoy putting their three cats in cute little costumes and making them cosplay for the annual Christmas card.
