@authorjwegan.bsky.social
Author of alternative histories and an historical fiction duology. Historical board gamer. Family first. Veteran of the RUF War. A Canadian in the beautiful Ottawa Valley of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation. http://historicalalternatives.blogspot.com.
To alter history, one must know it. And so, I research more than I write. Here is some of what I am reading as I shape the 6th century climate catastrophe in my next book of the Roman Sky series, Empire’s Frost.
So, there were coffee plantations in 6th century CE Arabia. This is good news for Cillian, the MC in my Roman Sky series, set in that era.
I was out at 5am when it was -30. It’s midmorning now and has warmed up to -26. And it’s not winter yet.
Last Saturday, I was at the other local book sale I do each year. I had fun and sold out the stock of my historical fiction duology, The Ceasefire War and The Ebola War.
I play board games and made one for my alternate 6th century novels. Each player starts Ducemculi with 15 pawns and a dux in 2 rows with open flanks. Whoever captures the other player’s dux or 10 pawns wins. I also put actual 6th century games in the stories. Who else has games in their stories?
It is a creepy honour to see my first novel is among the 1.5 million titles that META “took” to develop its AI. But then, Google’s AI gives a good summary of that novel. I guess the AI share data and so my reaction is, “AI, AI, Oh!”
C captures the meaning I take from the title by showing the entire person as a small object against a large cityscape who could be easily missed.
The Maple Leaf Forever. We value our good neighbours and families to the south but not a regime that is hostile to our freedom and wellbeing. Meanwhile, I will continue to write my stories set in an altered 6th century.
My Roman Sky series sells well in the US, UK, EU, and Australia. Only seven weeks’ royalties has paid for the editing, cover, formatting, and author’s stock of my latest book, Justinian’s Torch. Yet I have few sales at home in Canada. So, I will try again to alter that trend at Canada’s bookstore:
“Angel and Mercy: The Ceasefire War” was my first novel. It was about two girl rebels trying to survive the final months of the RUF War. It was also about my tour in the Sierra Leone Army then. It was easier to write fact as fiction. So, it was good to read this new review by someone who was there:
Correction: Book VII.
Working on Empire’s Frost, Book VI of the Roman Sky series, but taking time to enjoy my surroundings. This morning’s mist and sunrise were greeted by loons’ haunting calls and fish breaking the water’s surface to breakfast on bugs.
After one week, Justinian’s Torch has reached #2 in two sales categories and #30 in a third. And it placing 25,914 out of a million titles [or more] overall puts it in the top 3% of a huge market. This level of readership is great for an indie author to see.
I have begun writing Empire’s Frost. It takes place as a dark, cold haze blankets this alternate 6th century Earth, as it did ours. Despite this, Rome and Gothia must repel the invading Persians and their allies. So, my new story needs a new map with place names from six languages. But which six?
Mom and Dad were in army during WW2, two grand uncles survived the trenches during WW1, and I was “on loan” to Sierra Leone Army during the RUF War. My tour inspired my first two novels. My alternate histories draw on my experience and interest in history.
“Winter of 1813” sold well at Indigo yesterday. It’s an alternative history, but its Canadian theme attracted buyers. With me in the photo is my fellow author, John W. Partington. Today, I am reviewing the editor’s mark up of “Justinian’s Torch” my latest alternative history of the 6th century.
I will be signing books at Indigo in Kanata on Sunday. This Canadian chain has all nine of my novels as ebooks and now carries five as paperbacks.
I would like to believe my handwritten notes would be proof enough, if challenged. I discovered my first novel was in the searchable database posted by Atlantic Magazine of books taken without payment nor permission to feed AIs. Too bad my book’s theft is not proof that I wrote it.
After weeks of dealing with a respiratory virus I have finished the last chapter of Justinian’s Torch and updated its map. Farewell to the Scoti (Irish) and Caledonii (Picts) as the airships must fly east to another alternative history. And I posted something about the Roman Sky series on Blue Sky.
Draft 2 Digital distributes to major booksellers as well as sells on its own site.
This is the draft cover for Justinian’s Torch, Book VI of the Roman Sky series. It shows 6th century Roman airships fire bombing the Highlands, the parts held by the Scots. But Rome’s allies—Picts, Britons, and Druids—do not like this way of waging war.
Update on this story:
The Canadian Broadcasting Standards Council has issued a statement announcing it can no longer accept emails about CTV Your Morning and Rachel Gilmore due to receiving a “large number of complaints”
www.cbsc.ca/make-a-compl...
I’ve been pushing for Canada to drop the F-35 and buy Sweden’s Gripen.
Welcome aboard. I am working on my sixth book of The Roman Sky series. The series is an alternative history genre I call Gaspunk as it is set in a 6th century that has airships, based on a missed opportunity in our history. Writing is my third career.
Planning the 6th century invasion of the Mull of Kintyre: forces, distances, terrains, names, times, winds, and sea-states—all for one chapter. Readers will not see all this detail, but I need such research and actual history to write a realistic alternative history. I am a plotter, not a pantser.
Andrew Coyne wrote in the Globe and Mail today that 47 aims to ruin Canada with tariffs and annex it. “But what is essential at this moment is the demonstration effect: to show we are not afraid, our resolve is ironclad, and we are willing to pay whatever price we must to preserve our independence.”
Our bilateral int sharing with the others would still continue. A hobbled CIA and the compromised new heads of US int pose a far greater risk. America can no longer be trusted and is no longer a leader of the free world. But the current regime does not care; it does not need allies, only autocrats.
It’s what I thought, and that something more significant is being arranged. And why is the 21st century seeming more like the 6th century that my stories are set in?
thebeaverton.com/2025/02/trud...
No one in Sierra Leone drinks civet coffee, nor do I. But I do like haggis.
Reader of Sci Fi and author of alternative histories, sometimes counted as Sci Fi.