Magic, Metal and Steam by Tickety Boo Press Ltd

[Gary Compton]

Sorry to hog press releases but me and my team have been busy. When I say team I mean that I am the bag of cement that holds it all together but they are the fantastically amazing sandstone of Tickety Boo Towers that everyone admires and talks about.

This is the literary equivalent of the Thrilla in Manilla, the Ali v Frasier 1975 boxing match of the century. In the red corner we have the old bruiser, J Scott (Masher) Marryat. And in the blue corner we have the light on her feet Teresa (Floats like a Fairy) Edgerton. In between them is the cowering author waiting to be knocked into shape.

Two amazingly talented editors who will work jointly on the stories that get past me (wicked laugh). Teresa first then J Scott Marryat second. Here is the press release.

WHERE MAGIC MEETS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

MAGIC, METAL AND STEAM

edited by Teresa Edgerton and J Scott Marryat

Call for submissions:

We are looking for stories of science-fantasy, set in the period between 1560 and 1900 (stories need not take place in our world if the setting has the flavor of that era).

So what kind of stories are we looking for? Think alchemists and natural philosophers, clockwork and automatons, secret societies, machines and/or gadgets powered by magic, cabinets of wonder, animal magnetism, patent medicines -- and these are just some of the things we might be looking for. (If you have an idea and you aren’t sure if it will fit, drop us an email.) We prefer to look at stories in the vicinity of 2K to 5K.

Authors will receive 1P per word and a share of the royalty pot. Send your submissions to submissions@ticketyboopress.co.uk. I am confident that if you have 3-4 stories in our anthologies you will quadruple what you get initially.

Submissions will be open till end of June but send in as soon as you are ready. Please send a word doc with your name, story and the anthology (Gary Compton-50 Shades of Insanity-Magic)

Here is the cover art by Aty S Behsam:

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Gosh, Gary, you're keeping us all out of mischief... Just to check - something extended from a writing challenge entry is okay if suitably extended and changed? Jo

 

[Gary Compton]

Gosh, Gary, you're keeping us all out of mischief... Just to check - something extended from a writing challenge entry is okay if suitably extended and changed? Jo

Yes that's fine. I've been dying to share this as Teresa is really excited about it.

This WILL be amazing.

I am even going to attempt a ghost story where the main character has magic clockwork glasses that can see spirits.

 

[Erin99]

I do love that picture! Well done, Aty! You're phenominal. Like I've said to Gary before, it's very memento mori.

Good luck with this antho. You certainly don't lack authors, here and on FB!

And yaaaay! Teresa's on board! You have a talented teem.


Did I just write "teem"?! Oh dear. That's my brain's nudge to get resting, since I've been out today and already could hardly speak right cos my words kept slurring, weirdly, lol. I think I've been overdoing it on the website-making! Righto. Better try and get rested enough to be coherent tomrrow.


*cheers for rteresa*

 

[ratsy]

That picture is really cool. Gary, you sure are going for it! Great job. I can't wait to see the first finished product.

 

[Gary Compton]

That picture is really cool. Gary, you sure are going for it! Great job. I can't wait to see the first finished product.

That's a very good sentiment and it could be something from the "Unexpected," file.

Wait and see...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I've been dying to share this as Teresa is really excited about it.

Yes, I am. And I hope the Tickety Boo regulars -- and a lot more writers, too -- will be equally excited.

 

[ctg]

Fantastic. Well done Grand Uncle Compton, you're putting out a flurry of books and getting a new editor. Welcome to aboard of Gary's ship Teresa.

A question: can I use time-travel as a device to transport my MC in the past, (in the alternative reality - parallel earth)?

 

[thaddeus6th]

I really like the cover.

I want to get my Aliens submission in (it's very close to being done) before I start work on one for this.

Although I'm more of a traditional high fantasy sort I did make a world which probably fits the technological timescale (steam trains and electrical engineering just coming into play). Hmm.

 

[chrispenycate]

Fantastic. Well done Grand Uncle Compton, you're putting out a flurry of books and getting a new editor. Welcome to aboard of Gary's ship Teresa.

A question: can I use time-travel as a device to transport my MC in the past, (in the alternative reality - parallel earth)?

Of course you can. Herbert George Wells' 'The Time Machine' was published in 1895, so the concept is completely contemporary. Be sure to include lots of polished wood, brass and Leyden jars.

While the cover is splendid, and makes me desirous to create a 300 word story about it , I find the ambience more seventeenth century, Newton and the coexistence of alchemy and sorcery with the newfangled science and its mathematics than the nineteenth with its industrial revolution and the squalor of those flocking into the cities. Obviously, that is one person's opinion (and the tree hundred word challenges have demonstrated the range of different interpretations that can be drawn from one image; the skull might symbolise the difficulties of advance in medicine, Burke and Hare, the quill and candle reaction to the invasion of fountain pen and gas mantle, but I find it a little retrograde for the energetic and progressive Vicrtorians.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

But Chris, as the press release says, we're looking for stories set any time between 1560 and 1900.

And you and I are thinking alike. When I first saw the artwork, a week or so ago, I told Gary privately that the picture looked very 17th century to me --except for the odd little, possibly steampunk, devices near the bottom. So I think it's perfect, because it spans almost the whole period.

Newton and the coexistence of alchemy and sorcery with the newfangled science and its mathematics than the nineteenth with its industrial revolution ... the skull might symbolise the difficulties of advance in medicine, Burke and Hare, the quill and candle reaction to the invasion of fountain pen and gas mantle

Any of the above could fit. It's a very rich period for magic and science both (and both together).

 

[Stephen Palmer]

I am even going to attempt a ghost story where the main character has magic clockwork glasses that can see spirits.

I did that a couple of years ago, except without the clockwork... "The Crossroads" in Unspoken Water.

Very best of luck with this, Gary, Jeff, Teresa. I have a suitable story, but it's with another editor at the moment.

PS - fantastic cover. Love it.

 

[ctg]

What about using a character that lived in that era to unveil the past through an object that is brought in the light at later time? For example I already use Jane's house and the items she stores in there to build background for the character in the From Exopolis to Necropolis (and back again). So could I use similar kind of tale, as I'd really like to draw from that pool of thoughts and ideas a story into this submission because that world is full in these sort of intrigue details?

 

[Gary Compton]

We got our first submission today. Yay!

Foxbat off his blocks quicker than Linford Christy on crack.

Well done, Ken.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

What about using a character that lived in that era to unveil the past through an object that is brought in the light at later time?

Maybe. Are you saying that the story would take place in that era but revolve around an artifact from an earlier time?

 

[ctg]

Yes, I started it already and it kind of happened.

 

[Gary Compton]

Yes, I started it already and it kind of happened.

Go for it, Panu!

As a nephew of Great Uncle Compton it is always a pleasure to here your ramblings. Love to you and your lovely better half.

 

[Foxbat]

We got our first submission today. Yay!

Foxbat off his blocks quicker than Linford Christy on crack.

Well done, Ken.

As my ex used to say: fast doesn't necessarily mean good

 

[alchemist]

Well, I've started on mine. 800 words in and I kinda like it. Unfortunately my knowledge of airships in warfare is a little limited so its off to Wikipedia for me!

 

[Gary Compton]

Well, I've started on mine. 800 words in and I kinda like it. Unfortunately my knowledge of airships in warfare is a little limited so its off to Wikipedia for me!

Is that the other writers forum I'm a member of LOL

By the way I have started writing mine and it is so much fun and such a change from rampaging Nazis