A brand new steam punk anthology brought to us
by Xchyler Publishing? YES PLEASE!!!!
Shovel the coal and stoke the boilers as nine steam punk authors
explore islands of mystery and adventure across the seven seas.
The Clockwork Seer by Katherine Cowley: On an island of oddities, a young clairvoyant
struggles for normalcy, but deadly automatons have other plans.
Sindisiwe by Scott E. Tarbet: A slave girl in Zanzibar escapes a beating when
a stranger in the marketplace proves her past is more than just a fairy tale.
Stand and Deliver by TC Phillips: Neither shackles, slave labor, nor the island’s
deadliest inhabitants will prevent these brothers from meting out justice to
their father’s murderers.
Island Walker by C. R. Simper: Kit digs her treasures out of trash heaps, but the
theft of her invention leads to discoveries money can’t buy.
A Mind Prone to Wander by Danielle E. Shipley: Beyond a locked door lies Rowan Charles’
death or his sanity, and the survival or extinction of his people.
Curio Cay by Sarah E. Seeley: The future of humanity rests in the hands of
three time-traveling scientists battling biomechanical creatures in the
Jurassic past.
The Mysterious Island of
Chester Morrison by Kin Law: Dodging her chaperone,
a debutante stumbles into adventure and romance at the World’s Fair.
Revolutionary by John M. Olsen: A dirigible captain goes down with his ship, and
wakes to find himself a captive of a sky-dwelling civilization.
The Steel Inside by Gail B. Williams:
Darkness lurks in Sarah’s forgotten past, kept hidden by those who claim to be her devoted husband and loyal servants.
Darkness lurks in Sarah’s forgotten past, kept hidden by those who claim to be her devoted husband and loyal servants.
Purchase your copy here:
Amazon Kindle USA: http://www.amazon.com/Steel-Bone-Nine-Steampunk-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00YQRAIICAmazon Kindle UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Steel-Bone-Nine-Steampunk-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00YQRAIIC
Gail B. Williams
Gail Williams lives in her own private dungeon populated with all
the weird and the wonderful she can imagine. Some of it’s very weird, and the
odd bits and pieces are a bit wonderful. With a vivid imagination fuelled by a
near death experience at the age of three, there was really no other choice for
Gail than to write, something she’s been doing for as long as she can remember.
She’s tried not doing it, but it never works for long, her brain gets itchy if
she hasn’t written anything for a couple of days. Gail is English by birth, but
lives in Swansea, Wales, married a Welshman and they have two fantastic
children. They live with the world’s most imperious and demanding cat. An asset
management specialist by day, a freelance editor and keen writer of an evening
and weekend, she really needs to learn to sleep. To find out more see www.gailbwilliams.com
Character Casting: Selected by the author herself!!!
Sarah – Not sure who I’d cast for Sarah, possibly Anne Hathaway.
Andrew – Always interested in science and medicine,
Andrew is largely self-taught as his background wasn’t affluent enough to allow
him to study as he would have wished. When the opportunity arose for
him to travel to foreign lands he grabbed the opportunity with both hands
rather than languish in a rut where he would never achieve his goals. Fate
and a terrible storm brought him to the island and when he was rescued, he’d
thought he was dying, the shard of wood in his chest convinced him of
that. When Sarah and Trimble had pulled him from the water, he’d
taken one look at her and fallen for his dark haired angel.
I think Hugh Darcy would be great
in this role.
Mrs Flynn – An experienced
housekeeper, Mrs Flynn had managed one of Sarah’s father’s houses for
years. She’d know Sarah form birth. Speaking up to defend
the young girl was the reason Sarah’s father was more than happy when Mrs Flynn
volunteered to be exiled to the island with Sarah
The woman in this picture is Kate
Duchêne, who is a little on the young side for this role, but she's picture
perfect. She also has this hard looking exterior,
but she plays softer on the inside so very well.
Mr Trimble – A tenant farmer for Sarah’s father who
had never seen eye to eye with the man, Trimble was far from a sociable man,
but he took quite a shine to young Sarah, not minding if she tagged along with
him when she was allowed on the farm. When Sarah’s father decided to
sell the farm, Trimble was out of work and out of a home, so he was more than
open to the idea of a life of relative solitude on the island. Open
air and hard work were all he needed in his life.
For looks alone, I'd pick Warren
Clarke, though now he's sadly past, I'm not sure who I'd cast.
Now a little excerpt for you to apply those faces!!!
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Excerpt
*Note from the author*
At this point
Sarah has come to, she knows she's had an accident, but she doesn't know what
it was or how it happened. She assumes
that her amnesia is simply a predictable result of the accident.
Only the
winder to go on now, Sarah thought, as she slipped the handle in place and
secured it with a small cotter pin. Her bottom lip between her teeth, she
rotated the handle for a small test.
Chimes
rhythmically filled the air as the two little marionettes circled the wooden
dance floor.
“You always
had such a genius for clockwork.”
She looked up
to see Andrew at the open door. The smile that spread across her face was
involuntary. “Has it been an hour already?”
As he stepped
into the room, she stood from her work stool to meet him half way. His arms
were open and his embrace welcomed and returned. “Actually, it's been over two,
I'm afraid I got caught up in my own work. Sorry.”
“No matter.”
His gaze
moved to the automaton. “So they dance again.”
She looked
over at the machine.“He looks a little like you.”
“She looks a
little like you.”
“Two twirling
figures forever locked in a mutual embrace.”
“There are
worse ways to spend eternity.”
Glad of his
arms around her, she looked up at him as the mechanism wound to silence
“Two.”
He looked
from the automaton to her. “Two?”
“You said
there were two things I love to do up here. What is the other one?”
His smile was
saucy and appealing. “Well, you are my wife.”
*Note from the author*
I picked this
excerpt with because it's the time at which Sarah is happiest within the
text. She's well, she'd enjoying her
tinkering and she's very much in love with a man she has no reason to doubt. It's one of the most tender points of the
story.
June 28
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June 30
July 1
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