Genres | Alison Morton Author

Alternate history and steampunk - settling the ambiguity

Steampunk themed photo: Kyle Cassidy

When people ask me about my books, I say ‘Thrillers – alternative history thrillers.’

‘Oh, steampunk, then?’

I gnash my teeth, but put on a pleasant smile.

‘No, actually, they’re adventure stories set in our world, but where history evolved alternatively.’

‘Oh, steampunk, then?’

’No, that’s more fantastical […]

How to get the reader to read your book

Unless you write for the sole purpose of personal fulfilment (no bad thing in itself), you probably hope other people will read your work. When you publish a story, either as a freebie or commercially on multiple channels (Amazon, Kobo, Waterstones, iBooks, etc.) and in multiple formats (paperback, hardback, ebook, audio), you’re not only putting […]

Liesel Schwarz, steampunk queen

My guest today is Liesel Schwarz, writer extraordinaire of steampunk adventures. Her heroine reminds me a great deal of Karen/Carina: young women who know their minds, courageous and who try to make sense of the different (to us) worlds they live in. A life-long fan of 19th Century Gothic literature, Liesel is a hopeless romantic […]

Historically logical or completely bonkers? The sliding scale of alternative history

Basically, alternate history is a type of speculative fiction where stories are set in a world where historical events have unfolded differently from the way they did in the real world. The event that changed history (point of divergence or PoD) must be in the past from when the story is set and have affected […]

How do you know it's a thriller?

Would you recognise one on a dark, deserted bookshelf at midnight?

Generally, thrillers contain the following:

The hero(ine) faces death, or destruction of their way of life or sanity, either their own or somebody else’s, sometimes by accident, sometimes because it’s their job. The ‘bad guys’ whether the mob, sinister government enforcers (see INCEPTIO 😉 […]