Diagrams, Schematics, Maps, and Tables in A Blanket of Steel
Why do I add so many visuals to my thrillers?
My undersea colonization series The Rise of Oceania, which consists of six TechnoThrillers that take place underwater on Earth a hundred years from now, is set during a new Cold War between the world’s superpowers. The idea is based on violent climate change on the surface. Nations are falling to rebellion and dictatorship, people suffer food scarcity, refugees flood the surface searching for survival and safety, and governments are failing. Because of rising water, cropland destruction and famine, nations are developing the ocean floors. My characters live in Trieste, on the shallow continental shelf off the coast of Florida in the Gulf of Mexico. Truman McClusky, or “Mac,” and his twin sister Meg, once lived there together with their parents. In the novels they work underwater … farming, mining, repairing vehicles, and so on. Mac is also involved in espionage and spycraft, which is where my series begins, with The War Beneath. The series is set underwater due to climate change, but it’s not about climate change. It just provides the setting. The series is espionage/spycraft/military/thriller.
I’ve always believed that any good thriller should include graphics, maps, schematics and more. Readers, especially of SF, Fantasy, and Thrillers have great imaginations, and they can easily visualize settings, even if they’re not fully described. Our minds fill in the picture, so to speak. But I’ve always thought that visuals add to the texture of the story. Readers really appreciate them.
Here are some from my newest book, A Blanket of Steel, that I thought you’d like to see. The artist is Cheyney Steadman. The process to develop each schematic is thus: I would send a terrible, hand-drawn or paint-generated idea, and she would take it and design something incredible. She’d ask me a few questions about the setting, the mood, and the genre, and then she’d design it based around my answers. Then there would be a period of back-and-forth and refining. The end results are just incredible. I hope you enjoy seeing them!
Here they are, with captions under each to describe their purpose in the book:
SC-1, SeaCar-1
This is Mac’s seacar. It is featured on the A BLANKET OF STEEL cover and spine, which was imagined by Nelson Housden. This vessel makes its first appearance in THE WAR BENEATH, and is in all six books.
Trieste
The undersea city off the coast of Florida. Most superpowers in the 2130s are settling the continental shelves and fishing, farming, and mining to provide resources for the mainland.
The Dreadnought
Four football fields long. This is operated by a prominent adversary who first appears in FATAL DEPTH.
Churchill Sands
The UK underwater city in the English Channel. The mayor is one of my favourite characters, Sahar Noor.
Blue Downs
Blue Downs, the Australian underwater city located in the Bass Strait near the Tasman Sea.
The Complex
An important mining base in the South Pacific Ocean, located on the brink of death … an abyss called “The Drop.”
The Facility
An underwater manufacturing plant.
The Roach
The Roach is a vessel I designed used to scoop polymetallic nodules from the seafloor. Nodules cover the ocean abysses and are gravel- to potato-sized rocks rich in metals like copper, manganese, and more. Estimates range from 500 billion tonnes to 1.5 trillion tonnes of these. No digging necessary. Just scoop them up. The biggest obstacle is the immense pressure at depth.
The diagrams I’ve shared add an element to the story that I just love seeing in the thrillers that I also like to read. And there are more in A Blanket of Steel that I haven’t shared … maps and tables and other drawings too.
A Blanket of Steel just received a “Finalist” award in the Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards. It is also a Silver Falchion Best Action/Adventure Finalist as well as a 2024 Top Pick. It is currently a Semi-Finalist in the 2024 CYGNUS Book Awards. I am very proud of it. The exciting book trailer and purchase links are here:
A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!
WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
——
A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.
“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite
“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest
“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels
Book Cover & Jacket Copy:
AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!
A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …
Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.
Taunting him.
Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.
If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.
But the assassin could be anyone …
Watch your back, Mac.
A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:
The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007
———
TSJ’s Awards
Follow TSJ on Facebook
Follow TSJ on Twitter
Follow TSJ on Instagram
Enter TSJ’s contests here
Enter your email into the widget at the right to follow TSJ’s blog Life After Gateway.
THE WAR BENEATH: FIRST PLACE 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Action / Adventure Category Winner, 2019 Silver Falchion Award Finalist, 2018 CLUE Award Semi-Finalist, 2019 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist, & 2019 CYGNUS Award Shortlister
THE SAVAGE DEEPS: FIRST PLACE 2020 CYGNUS Award Winner, 2019 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards Finalist, 2022 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist; 2019 CLUE Award Shortlister
FATAL DEPTH: FIRST PLACE 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Award Winner, 2022 Silver Falchion Award Finalist (Best Action Adventure), 2021 CYGNUS Award Semi-Finalist
Praise for THE WAR BENEATH
“If you’re looking for a techno-thriller combining Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and John Le Carré, The War Beneath will satisfy … a ripping good yarn, a genuine page-turner.” — Amazing Stories
“One very riveting, intelligent read!” — Readers’ Favorite
“If you like novels like The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising,
you will certainly enjoy The War Beneath.” — A Thrill A Week
“If you’re here for thrills, the book will deliver.” — The Cambridge Geek
“… an engaging world that is highly believable …” — The Future Fire
“This is a tense, gripping science fiction/thriller of which Tom Clancy might well be proud . . . When I say it is gripping, that is the simple truth.” — Ardath Mayhar
“… a thrill ride from beginning to end …” — SFcrowsnest
“… if you like Clancy and le Carré with a hint of Forsyth thrown in,
you’ll love The War Beneath.” — Colonel Jonathan P. Brazee (RET),
2017 Nebula Award & 2018 Dragon Award Finalist
“Fast-paced, good old-fashioned Cold War espionage … a great escape!” — The Minerva Reader
