Baen Books commissioned this map of western Europe in 1888 as a two-page spread in The Forever Engine, due out next January. I like what they did with it, particularly the gears for cities and towns. It covers the area where the action of the novel takes place and from some of the unlikely smaller locations included, you can probably figure out that some of the important action takes place in out-of-the-way places like Kokin Brod. You get a nice look at London and Munich as well, however.
They've also commissioned cover art well in advance and may end up with some interior art as well, so I'm very pleased with the care they're taking with the project. It's not too soon to start some buzz about this book. If it sells well, I can pretty much guarrantee sequels. When we get a little closer to publication, I'll post some sample passages here. As soon as I get the go-ahead from Baen (which I think will mean as soon as they are happy with it) I'll post the cover. Cool cover.
Very nice!
ReplyDeleteJust to nitpick, however: there's a typo in the German city of "Saarbrücken" (it's actually spelled with an umlaut and 'ck', not 'ch')...
Sorry I'm just getting to your comment but it got stuck in the Spam filter for a few days until I rescued it. Thanks for spotting the typo.
DeleteAh the curse of the typos - I don't think Saarbrücken / Saarbruecken, or even Sarrebruck if you're from the French Commune, has ever been spelled with an "h".
ReplyDeleteI can't find any variant English spellings for it (e.g. Munich for München), so I suspect the anglicised form would be Saarbrucken - one doesn't muck about with accented letters in blighty, don't you know, and it makes those dashed silly foreign names much easier to pronounce in a proper language like English.
Looking forward to the book anyway!
Clive G
Clive,
ReplyDeleteGood catch and I'll send a note to the poblisher. There should still be plenty of time to make some changes. I expect we'll go with Saarbruecken vice Saarbrucken, as at least the American English convention is to substitute ue for the umlauted u.
I did a quick check and noticed that Visegrad is also mispelled (as "Visgrad").
Frank
I'm surprised the French Commune hasn't liberated the Rhineland OR Belgium yet.
ReplyDeleteThere was a war in 1884-5 involving some of that territory, but nothing ended up changing hands.
Delete