Books

Press Release: Video Book Trailer for Her Majesty’s Explorer: a Steampunk bedtime story released.

February 22, 2012
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Coal City Stories provides a sneak peek into its first publication Her Majesty’s Explorer: a Steampunk bedtime story, which is to launch  February 28th, 2012. See the video at the Coal City Steam blog: http://wp.me/pDibz-6C Praise is rolling in from around the Steampunk community. Here is what some early reviewers are saying: “St. John Murphy Alexander, ‘Her Majesty’s Explorer,’ is literature’s most charming mechanical man since L. Frank Baum’s Tin Man.” ~ Jim BarnesIndependent Publisher. “I just finished reading Her Majesty’s explorer to Chloe (9 years old) and 1Isabella (just 6). They both loved it, and both wished they could have their...

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Review: The Buntline Special

February 20, 2012
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Review: The Buntline Special

The Buntline Special by Mike Resnick is a Steampunk portal into the historic old West. As mechanical genius Ned Buntline assists famed inventor Thomas Edison on a secret mission, Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers prepare for their face off against the McLaury brothers and the Clanton gang in the famed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. It is a crisp new take on some legendary characters. The Mississippi River separates the budding United States of America from the untamed riches that lie out West. Indian medicine men like Geronimo hold powerful magic over the land, preventing the expansion of...

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Agatha H Has Just Enough Spark

February 16, 2012
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Agatha H Has Just Enough Spark

Agatha H and the Airship City is the first installment novelization of the Girl Genius comic series by Phil & Kaja Foglio. Largely based on the first three volumes of graphic novels, it examines a Victorian alternate history where the fine line between technological intelligence and madness has blurred into war. The character of Agatha Clay is a bumbling student at Transylvania Polygnostic University. What she doesn’t realize is that she has something called the “spark” in her, the element of Mad Science within one which gives them the ability to create fantastic things. Her character is fun to...

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Rolling the Dice on Steampunk

February 16, 2012
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Rolling the Dice on Steampunk

There are many in the Steampunk community that have sat down at a table, pulled out a character sheet and rolled some dice to determine the odds of surviving against some horrific monster or devious trap.  Yes, Role-Playing is a familiar hobby to many with experiences ranging from the classic fantasy of Dungeons and Dragons all the way up to the gothic horror of White Wolf.  Everyone has their favorites that they look back on fondly, or still like to pull out and give a spin from time to time with several friends over drinks and snacks.  Steampunk is...

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How to Write the Perfect Murder

February 9, 2012
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Hail and Hello fellow writers. Courtesy of my wife, I’ve just learned that in 1892, a Dr. Robert Buchanan murdered his wife. This bears no relation to my relationship with my own spouse, by the by. The not-so-very-good doctor overdosed his wife with morphine and then applied atropine to her eyes. This removed the closed pupils that would have indicated immediately that she had died of a morphine overdose. Concerned readers shall note that the authorities eventually apprehended Buchanan. Apparently, in his reading of Murder and Mayhem at university, the fellow managed to skip the course in “not living...

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“Pilgrim of the Sky” Gets Lost Through the Looking-Glass

January 24, 2012
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When Maddie Angler finds herself passing through an antique looking-glass from her own world into a decadent Steampunk mirror-world, she thinks maybe it’s the final straw in a long string of troubles since her boyfriend Alvin went missing and presumably died. She has been dealing with Alvin’s mourning mother, Alvin’s slightly underdeveloped but beloved brother Randy, and her own wants and needs after his death, not to mention moving out of their old apartment and trying to decide how to move on from the grief and confusion. Once she finds herself in a steam-powered alternate reality, however, she discovers...

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Every Journey Requires of the Traveler…a Starting Point

January 19, 2012
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As a writer, I am startled by the tidbits of history I encounter in my reading of the daily news. Moments snipped out of time become collected in a handy repository: my notebook, the backs of envelopes, the scattered scraps of paper on the floor beneath my desk. Ahem, yes, I did mention that I was a writer? Right. Today, I came across a little gem amidst the rough and it occurred to me that, being very much among the company of writers in my pursuits online, it would be good of me to share. To wit, I give...

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Review: Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance

January 16, 2012
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Review: Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance

Hot and Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance is edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg, the duo who brought us the anthology Steampunk’d, and contains stories by many of the authors whose tales graced the first anthology.  I’m not a fan of the romance genre, so it was with some trepidation that I picked up this book; however, my reluctance proved unwarranted. Not only are the stories in Hot and Steamy rife with romance, but they also feature strong characters, fascinating settings, and unpredictable plots. I daresay this collection is even better than Steampunk’d! A few of the characters featured...

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Interview: Ged Maybury

January 5, 2012
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Interview: Ged Maybury

Already established as an author for the children and young adult market (a finalist in the New Zealand Children’s Book Awards ’94 and New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards ’01),  Ged Maybury has just released “Into the Storm’s Domain”, the first book of his new Steampunk series “Across the Stonewind Sky.” The series has had a very ‘novel’ (ahem) approach to promotion through the community as Maybury is well known in the Brisbane Steampunk community for his outfits and devices as much as for his authorship. Doctor Fantastiques (DF): What’s your elevator pitch for Across the Stonewind Sky? Ged...

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Fun with a Steampunk Santa

December 28, 2011
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Fun with a Steampunk Santa

Christmas might be over, but those who found an e-reader under their brass tree can keep the joy going with Steampunk Santa by Marc Vun Kannon. In the early years of Santa working out of his elfish workshop, he cruised around the countryside in a horse drawn sleigh and used a ladder to enter houses from above to deliver his presents. But as business picks up, he envisions the need to go worldwide with his toy distribution. As 19th Century technology grows, Santa enlist the ingenuity of his workshop elves to come up with a new and better means...

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