[Eugene Cundiff]

I’d point to the Ring of Fire universe, personally.

https://www.amazon.com/1632-Ring-Fire-Book-1-ebook/dp/B00BEQLQNE is the first in the series, which started the shared setting and covers the inciting incident for it.

[Eugene Cundiff]

My strategy – beginning with this new release but honestly drawing from my previous efforts as well, call them warm-ups for the main event – is similar to yours as mentioned above, if not (yet) as prolific. I’ve embraced the glory of being a neo-pulp hack, and I say that lovingly. As a famous fellow of my state once said, ‘you can get poor feeding the rich, or get rich feeding the poor,’ (he was of course referring to fast-processed fried chicken and not books, but the principle still applies); all my classical inspirations were blue-collar souls making a living off their words and not remotely considered highbrow in their own lifetimes (Shakespeare, Poe, Twain); even the more-modern ones have ever been tied to ‘lowbrow’ genres and mediums (David L. Robbins, Gaiman, Barker).

I’ve found a genre that is hungry (Space Western), spliced in touches of a related one that is also hungry (Dieselpunk), created a setting and a cast, and begun laying out a myth-arc spread across single stories (the ‘Gargoyles method’ of which I am an immense supporter). Tight, punchy works (I’m shooting for the 40-45k mark for each) with the sensibilities of those old classic series (Deathlands was mentioned, but for me it’s prominently ‘Endworld’), focusing on the story and the characters – flawed people who are not always even that nice, who pay evil unto evil but at the end of the day are on the side of the angels. Homage and pay tribute to the classics of the genres.

I have plans laid for the next two in this new series, and plans for a few heavier myth-arc books beyond that; the goal is to mix wild romps that expand the setting with heavier, more-serious installments that reveal backstory and while keeping with the irreverent tone, are a bit darker – Firefly, Gunsmoke, Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers, Have Gun, Will Travel – all the major thematic influences tended to follow this pattern and thus so am I.

I’m also going all-in on covers that embrace a vintage series feel – logo, titles, art, even taglines. May be confirmation bias at work from the circles I run in, but I’ve come to discover that there’s a lot of nostalgia for that style of cover, and the fans of the style are the fans of the genre(s) I work in. Maybe someday I’ll even be making enough to commission custom artwork like the greats of yore, but for now, find a good artist on the stock sites whose style and work suits the series and buy up enough images to last several books – which coupled with saved cover elements makes for a unified series look.

[Eugene Cundiff]

The Heirs of Babylon – Capepunk Dystopian Alternate History
Exiles of Babylon
Outlaws of Babylon
Princess of Babylon

Secondhand Angels – Biodieselpunk Space Western
Secondhand Angels: The Highwayman Job

Standalones
Songs of Earth: A Teller’s Tale  – Appalachian Space Western

[Eugene Cundiff]

I have an idea, I google it to make certain its not been prominently used, and go from there.

Of my published works, ‘The Heirs of Babylon’ series is named for the central characters – its a title for their group they take up in the second book. It’s also got a few various reference-layers going on, as both ‘Fallen, Now, is Babylon’ and both Christian eschatology and Mesopotamian /Classical mythological cycles sneak in at the edges.

As for the other books (one published, series forthcoming) the ‘verse itself doesn’t yet have a single name – the stories spread across three time-periods and three settings (one of which was used for a stab at game-development and thus exists only in the background of the two book-settings); muddying that further is the fact that that the third setting, the planet ‘Verlorene,’ was intentionally designed to host possible spinoff work beyond the upcoming ‘Secondhand Angels’ series. The primary link being history and various bits of technology shared betweeen the settings. If one ever comes to mind, I’ll share it. 😉

[Eugene Cundiff]

I generally keep one large universal file Bible per setting, which covers both things that are in current books / WIPs and things that have not yet appeared ‘on-screen.’

This is separate from (what passes for) my WIP-planning.

I find having notes about the world makes it feel more lived-in and coherent. To use an example from the upcoming release, one of the main cast is known as both ‘the Hero of Tannhäuser Pass’ and ‘the Butcher of Battersville’ – and only one of those gets explained and referenced in the first book, mainly because the character in question has no good memories of that latter name and doesn’t talk about it much. (It’ll become relevant around Book 3).

I’m also a huge proponent of a good in-setting dictionary and having established slang and terminology that’s not just for the technobabble; it’s another little ‘help the world feel lived-in’ trick: when dealing (for example) with a setting close to seven centuries (and three colony waves from Earth), it’s about as reasonable to expect the common parlance to sound like ours as it is ours to sound like Shakespeare’s.

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