The second dark ages box.., p.43
The Second Dark Ages Boxed Set, page 43
part #1 of The Second Dark Ages Series
The businessman’s eyes glinted. “So, with a vacuum, we could trap a mist for… how long?”
“A mist?” The scientist thought for a moment. “Potentially indefinitely. But it wouldn’t be in a vacuum by the time we got it into the tube. Creating a vacuum would take a lot of energy.”
“Right, so then tearing apart the mist, once it’s trapped? How might that work?”
The scientist’s eyes lit and the pace of his speech quickened. “Any number of ways. I mean, if we had power that is. We could blast it with x-ray radiation, or bombard it with gamma rays. There is, well, was, lots of equipment there that would allow us to do that. And if the mist were already sealed in a section of tube, that would make things easier and we could do it rather quickly.”
The Duke paid close attention to the methods the scientist was reeling off.
“And what if time weren’t an issue? Imagine we had decades to wait, or to build…” He led the scientist to continue thinking aloud.
“Oh, well in that case, if rebuilding the accelerator were a possibility…” The scientist’s voice trailed off. He paused.
“Hang on. What kind of mist are we talking about?” he asked the businessman, scratching his head with a pencil. “Because there are any number of ways to tear molecules apart, especially with time and energy.”
Duke smiled. “Well, that is good to know,” he said. “You’re hired.”
The scientist looked confused. “For what, Mr. Renaud? I didn’t apply for anything.”
Mr. Renaud’s smile disappeared. “You didn’t. But you are. Do we have a problem?” His eyes glared red.
The scientist gulped and shook his head.
William Renaud’s eyes returned to normal and his face relaxed to its normal resting position. “Good. You start tomorrow. Put your affairs in order. I’ll meet you back here. We’ll be leaving for Geneva.”
He started to leave the man’s office before turning back. “You may call me Duke Renaud or, of course, Your Grace.”
FINIS
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
Written May 24th, 2017
First, let me say THANK YOU that not only did you read this book all the way through, but that you are ALSO reading these notes as well!
This book, The Darkest Night, is WAY overdue. It should have been released about three weeks ago (I was doing about a five-week release schedule before all of the extra series came in) and now, I’m just about at eight weeks. So, I dropped three weeks behinder-er.
On Facebook, I have been HEARING (ok, reading) the grief.
However, considering how hard, and the stress it caused, to get this book out this time, I’m not allowing myself a break as I move into FOREVER DEFEND (TKG 17). I already have over 2k words written (which is a record, I think. I’m not sure I have had ANY words for the next book written when the last book wasn’t even out, yet.) So, I’m writing these author notes, then I’m going to write some more on that book and see where I get.
A HUGE THANK YOU goes to one of my collaborators, Ell Leigh Clarke (with an ‘E’) who constantly refers to me as a shriveled up green guy with lots of folds for skin. Now, she deserves lots of kudos (calling me Yoda is not one of them) but specifically I want to say Thank You for the last scene of this book.
I was struggling with coming up with scientific ways to… uhhh… truly kill Michael and I learned something. I learned you never ask a physicist (yes, she is one) just how to kill something at the atomic level. It’s pretty damned scary when they understand the atoms, the molecular bonds and just how you would go about doing it.
Why Hollywood doesn’t talk with more physicists and make them scary bad guys, I don’t understand.
She was kind enough to work me through the multiple creative ways to kill Michael, how it could be done in a post-apocalyptic world, and the necessary requirements for making it happen. Then, she was kind enough to just write up the explanation with the physicist and the Duke and put in all of that science-y stuff.
So, thank you Ellie!
Speaking of Author Ell Leigh Clarke, her new space opera set in the Kurtherian Gambit Universe is selling very well. THANK YOU ALL who have read it!
Her first book link is at the end of these notes.
BUSINESS STUFF UPDATE
For those who are following the business aspects of these books, let me give a small update. For the last six months, the ratio of Kindle Unlimited income vs. book sale income is 60/40 (+/- maybe 1-2% max). Which, since generally I make more from a purchased book, means that my Kindle Unlimited has more books read than purchased books. Since Amazon really doesn’t give us a breakout, the best I can do is guestimate on some of these items.
Either way, THANK YOU for either reading through Kindle Unlimited, or purchasing the books! Every one of you make this wonderful profession a reality for me and I can’t be more blessed.
AUDIBLE
We should have the first month where our outgoing cost(s) to produce Audio is just about in-line with our income from the Audio. To date, we have done 18 audiobooks (3 are waiting for ACX Approval, including book #6 for Bethany Anne.) For the foreseeable future, we will be net-negative with audiobook investment vs. income. I hope that we will turn the corner by fourth quarter this year. The reason we won’t before then is because our book releases are increasing and therefore we are increasing the quantity of talent we are finding/hiring to produce the audio and so the expenses are ramping up much quicker than the income. The main moneymaker from Audible is The Kurtherian Gambit series (not a big surprise). So, one main income producer that is the one that pays for the rest to be done. The other series look like they will take about eighteen months for most of them to turn profitable.
Which, frankly kind of bites, but that’s audio for you.
It’s way more money to produce, and not nearly the payback you get with ebooks. The only thing more expensive and less income producing (from what I’ve heard) is trying to produce and sell translations.
Yeah, I’m not going to go there. However, I am going to go to Frankfurt Book Fair in October (http://www.buchmesse.de/en/fbf/) to try and speak with both traditional publishers (get into bookstores, there is still money to be made there) and to find potential licensing options for foreign markets (outside of English).
KINDLE/KOBO and the Military
So, I have provided a bunch of Kindles to the military (Center for the Intrepid, Fort Sam Houston) and I’m excited about the next option I’m working with KOBO. They have a new device which is waterproof and seems like it would be a fantastic potential tool for our military readers. Further, I know the KOBO representative well enough to know that he will “hook us up” with additional ways for the military contacts to download books as well. I’m new to the opportunity, (I’m expecting to speak with him today or tomorrow) and see what we can do.
I’m not against Kindles, but if we can get an awesome reader they can dunk in water… I think that’s pretty cool!
We will see what happens.
THE REST (just a little sappy)
I just want to thank all of the Kurtherian Fans from whatever method you first picked up one of these books. The change in my life, my family’s life, and those that have been helped due to your support has been nothing short of amazing.
From our first efforts chatting with each other on Amazon’s forums and Facebook, to all of the ways we communicate now I wish I could just ‘tell’ every struggling author to get them up to speed.
As some of you know, I’m now considered a ‘special unicorn’ (shorthand for “don’t you expect to be able to do what Michael has”) in the community. For those who are happy believing that statement because it relieves them of believing in themselves, so be it.
For the rest, may they aspire to accomplish the EXACT same thing that Kurtherian Fans, readers, and our authors have accomplished. Because (in my opinion) it transcends just authors and readers, it’s a group that lives and thrives as a tribe that accomplishes so much more than any of us accomplish alone.
BECAUSE OF YOU, there is a 20Booksto50k group for Indie Authors that has changed lives that is over 9,000 strong. There is also a 20Booksto50k conference (very cheap, no profit involved) to bring indie authors together in Vegas this year, and London next.
Craig Martelle is the man behind that, not me.
Eventually, I’d love to make it to a fan conference, and just get to meet the amazing people behind the force known as The Pitchforks and Matches crowd.
Because, when I’ve needed a push, you guys and girls provide it.
(Whether I WANTED the push, or not!)
THANK YOU ALL!
Michael
* From earlier in the notes:
Ell Leigh Clarke’s first book is here ( http://books2read.com/Awakened ) and her third book will be out by a week from Monday.
Darkest Before The Dawn
The Second Dark Ages Book 3
Prologue
The dream was quick, it flitted through his conscious as he slept in a new bed. His mind wandered through a mist, a gray mist seeking his love.
What he had instead was pain.
He survived the pain to leave the mist, falling from nothing to a mountain in the middle of the old United States of America.
He traveled through the states, picking up Jacqueline, the daughter of an old acquaintance and a young male vampire he saved in the City-State of New York.
Traveling across the Atlantic in a blimp, the trio survived attacks by Pirates. There, they met Sabine who had been running from cannibalistic Were’s through the night. Finally, they and other friends fought off massive packs of Were’s in the old country of France.
Yuko, Eve, Mark and Jacqueline went back to Japan – helping the local police fend off an attack while Michael and Akio escaped an effort by the Duke to kill them under the remains of Notre Dame.
Now, Michael is focused on finding and killing William hopefully in the most painful way possible.
Chapter One
Frankfurt, Germany
Captain Miles O’Banion nodded to the agent and accepted the documents that allowed him to moor his ship to the large tower. The Antigrav Ship Michael the ArchAngel Returns was a solid vessel, and he was damned pleased to be able to keep her.
Looking around the offices, he had to admit the Germans had pulled together after the WWDE. They had worked to restore their city, and now they had moved it into the future as well.
He was a bit jealous.
Captain O’Banion left the large stone building which had been built hundreds of years before WWDE, and he squinted when the sunlight hit his eyes. The last few rays slowly disappeared as the sun sank below the buildings across the square.
He turned right and started walking. His crew was enjoying a bit of a night on the town. They had made it through the weather, a day-walking vampire, a vampire that had been a legend before the real legend had shown up, and now they knew there was a job for them in a couple of days. He had been able to procure cargo to take with them to England.
Life, he thought to himself, was finally looking up. There were no Nosferatu in his hold, no Forsaken around his ship, and—so far—no Duke around the corner ready to rip his entrails out of his body and shove them into his mouth.
Those rather grim thoughts kept his mind occupied until he spied the name of the bar that had been suggested to him earlier.
The two old oak doors were stained so dark a brown that they looked black. He grasped the copper handle and pulled the right door open, then stepped into the decently lit bar. There were at least fifteen tables in the middle of the floor, about eight obligatory personal booths for more private conversations on the wall to his left, and the holiest of holies—the fifteen-foot-long bar with its ten stools. Only two were occupied.
Captain O’Banion walked over to it, nodding to the barkeep as he grabbed a stool and sat. “Rye, if you have it.”
The tall barkeeper nodded and turned to the shelves to take down a bottle of liquid whose unique brown color came from aging in wooden casks. He grabbed a clean drinking glass, walked over to Captain O’Banion, and set the glass down. Placing the neck of the bottle on the edge, he asked “Half or full?”
“Better give me half.” Captain O’Banion sighed, then chuckled as he reached for the glass. “I don’t have to be anywhere, but if a call comes in, I can’t be worrying about slurring my orders.” He lifted the half-filled glass to the barkeeper, who grabbed the change the captain had laid on the bar. “To living beyond our wildest hopes.”
The barkeeper raised an eyebrow, taking in the man in front of him. The captain certainly wasn’t well dressed, so he wasn’t speaking about money. “Rough time?” he asked. The captain sipped his rye and nodded. “Weather or pirates?”
The captain put out the pinky on the hand holding the glass. “Very bad weather,” he told the barkeeper, and then put out the finger next to his pinky, holding the glass with his thumb and first two fingers. “Pirates,” he added a finger, and the barkeeper frowned. “And vampires.”
He took a sip of the rye, then realized he couldn’t release any more fingers without dropping his glass as he completed enumerating his challenges. “Oh, and Weres. It was damned scary.”
The barkeeper looked down the bar to the two guys drinking and talking before throwing a rag on the bar in front of Captain O’Banion. “Vampires?”
The captain nodded.
“You from the Michael the ArchAngel Returns?” he asked, his voice low—damned near a whisper. The captain nodded once more. “I heard someone in here last night with the latest news of what ships were arriving. Said your ship was one of those that went west across the Atlantic for the Duke?”
Captain O’Banion grimaced. He hadn’t chosen to be a captain for the Duke, but life was like that. One minute you were minding your own business, the next they shanghaied your ass, placed Nosferatu in your hold, added some vampires to keep them in line, threatened to kill you if you disobey orders, and shipped you to America. “I am the captain of the Michael the ArchAngel Returns.”
“You interested in making some money?” the barman asked. O’Banion eyed him, and the bartender shook his head and put up two hands. “It isn’t illegal. Some people wanted confirmation on the name of your ship.” He looked around the bar, keeping his voice low. “There is a lot of speculation. The people,” he pointed to the captain and then back to himself, “who can confirm the information without any doubt will get a nice payday.”
“Oh.” The captain tossed his drink back and then lowered the glass, dropping it on the bar. It made a solid whump when it hit. “I can do that.”
“Word is out that there are some people who want to know if that ship belongs to a vampire.”
“It did, and it still does, sort of.” Captain O’Banion temporized, “Truth is, it belonged to the Duke. Another vampire named Michael took it over, had me change the name, and gave it to me so long as I stopped here first.”
The barkeeper’s eyes gleamed in delight. “Michael? He said his name was Michael?”
The captain nodded. “Since we are sharing information, what is the amount?” he asked the barkeep.
“Over three hundred for quality information, four hundred if you can give them assurance, and a thousand for solid proof.” He picked up the glass and placed it on a tray under the bar. The glass clinked against some other dirty glasses down there. “That’s why I’m willing to share. Half of a thousand is more than the full amount for just assurance.”
“You’d likely just get the three hundred for quality information. They would give me the thousand for proof.”
Captain O’Banion considered Michael’s last words before giving a mental shrug and saying, “I’ll go for the thousand, but we have to talk about your cut before I do this.”
“How are you going to confirm?”
The captain reached up and scratched his forehead above his left eyebrow. “I’ve got the images to prove it,” he replied.
“Pictures?”
He nodded and smiled. “We captured footage those first few hours.” He looked at the barman. “With permission, of course.”
“When can they see them?”
“How about noon tomorrow?” he replied. “That will give us time to make the ship ready for visitors. If they give me until the day after, I’ll have better video they can take with them.”
“You going to charge them for the extra video?”
“Nah, they can just take it raw if they want. I’m not going to piss anyone off. They made offers, so I’m taking them up on what they want and not trying to jerk them around.”
Captain O’Banion pushed against the bar, slid off the bar stool, and eyed the barkeeper, hoping his warning was getting through the man’s avarice. “Greed never works. Take the big score that just walked into your hands and be happy.”
With that, he gave the man a nod and walked back to his ship. He hoped Amanda and Arnold were still on the ship, then at least he wouldn’t be lonely when he locked the doors and made sure no one tried to climb aboard without permission.
It seemed like Michael had gotten what he was looking for, which was attention when Miles got to port.
Unfortunately, the captain wasn’t sure it was the kind of attention the old vampire had been looking for.
Three Days Later
Michael took a sip of the drink in his hand as he and Akio sat in the old café looking at the city’s skyline in the evening light. He made a face. “Gahh!” He put down the small cup. “This is making me wish for Starbucks, and that is saying something,” he admitted as he looked around the city block.
Akio just smirked and took a sip of his tea. He had plenty of leaves from Japan with him and had purchased some hot water to steep it in.
