Tag: Steampunk

Flash: Clockwork Dragon

Erin Penn 3 Comments

Image by Laith Abushaar on Unsplash

“I did it!” The white-coated mad-man screamed. “Do you see that Meriday? It lives!”

Cowering into the corner, hoping his dark skin would hide him from his master’s creation, Meriday felt the sting of pride. It wasn’t Mr. Floyd who had figure out he needed four crocodile bones down the neck to hold the soul of the steam automaton, but Merry. His momma had taught him some of the secrets of the wild women before he got sold down river. It wasn’t Mr. Floyd who had fetched the ash from a burned church to make the black fluid for the hydraulic pumps. Sneaking through Virginia during the unrest looking for the right riot, the right town, to get the ash had taken months. The border North so close, but Mr. Floyd talking to one politician after another even closer, demanding to see him every Sunday during his quest.

It certainly wasn’t Mr. Floyd standing in the middle of the hurricane flying a kite like he was some thrice-damned descendent of Mr. Franklin. But white man will claim credit and there is nothing old Merry can do to stop him. Not that Merry wanted credit for mechanical mayhem his owner had raised. The door of the barn near, he wondered if he could slip out before master noticed.

Before the dragon noticed.

Master didn’t see the light in the dragon’s eyes. The orange light of zombie. The light of clockwork consciousness.

Something had responded.

Master didn’t lie in that the dragon lived.

(words 251; first published 11/23/2023 – flash written for Facebook Group prompt with a goal of 50 words)

Book Review: Buffalo Soldier

Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

Buffalo Soldier by Maurice Broaddus

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Having stumbled onto a plot within his homeland of Jamaica, former espionage agent, Desmond Coke, finds himself caught between warring religious and political factions, all vying for control of a mysterious boy named Lij Tafari.

Wanting the boy to have a chance to live a free life, Desmond assumes responsibility for him and they flee. But a dogged enemy agent remains ever on their heels, desperate to obtain the secrets held within Lij for her employer alone.

Assassins, intrigue, and steammen stand between Desmond and Lij as they search for a place to call home in a North America that could have been.

 

MY REVIEW

Book club read for March by the ConCarolina 2020 Guest of Honor.

An alternate history, steampunk, weird west novella which sticks a lot of material in a very small space, maybe too small. It has an exploration of different storytelling traditions, a commentary of expansionist governments, and the pure fun of guns and the wild west. I think the central plot is figuring out how a found family works.

The ending is abrupt, but as stated throughout the storytelling examples – stories are messy, and clean, and complicated, and simple, and you never know where they end or begin.

The copyediting/proofreading could use another pass to eliminate the couple-few repeated phrases.

Author Spotlight: Jason Gilbert

Erin Penn

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People I am thankful to know includes Jason Gilbert. This author is about a diametrically opposed to me as you can get. He writes steampunk (which is not in my skill set): The Rifle Chronicles and Gaslit Insurrection, just to name two. He is integral to many of the local film festivals in the Charlotte area such as ConCarolinas. This grew out of love of bad movies, for which he wrote the book – Bad Movie Beware!: 100 Movies No Human Being Should Ever Watch. And he also publishes Urban Fantasy through Falstaff with The Coldstone Files.

His day job is teaching.

He can also loves heavy metal music and can lug books like a fork lift when at cons.

He’s great fun to know if every now and again our non-overlapping interests make conversation a little surreal with the explanations required.

Author Spotlight: Larry N. Martin

Erin Penn

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Larry N. Martin is part of the Gail Z. Martin and Larry N. Martin writing team. Together they have created the steampunk Jake Desmet Adventures, the urban fantasy monster hunter Mark Wojcik – a mechanic out of Pennsylvania, the post-apocalypse Wasteland Marshals, the historic fantasy steelworker Joe Mack, and I am going to stop there for brevity. I know there is more; this team is so prolific they have their own imprint: Sol Publishing … and they still create works for other medium and small presses. 

For the most part, Ms. Martin runs the social media and marketing end of the post-production while Mr. Martin takes care of the editing and uploads. Watching them churn words is like watching a waterfall, the magic never ends.

Even with all of that, Mr. Martin creates books on his own including the fantasy The Splintered Crown and the science fiction novel Salvage Rat.

Of all the many genres he works in, I’m going to say Mr. Martin loves Steampunk the best. He even cosplays in steampunk at conventions. I’m not sure it’s his favorite genre to write in, but his eyes sparkle the most when he gets on the Steampunk and Costuming panels.

Author Spotlight: MJ Blehart

Erin Penn

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I’ve known MJ Blehart for a long time, a couple decades or more, even before the automobile accident that sent him down his new path. The accident where he wasn’t in the car with all the protection of air bags and crumple zones – car vs. human walking equals a lot of problems for the human walking. The doctors seeing a rotund computer geek said he would never walk without aid. Don’t ever tell Mr. Blehart what he can or can’t accomplish.

The man fences now – hence the writing for the anthology “Spells and Swashbucklers“. He knows Swashbuckling.

He also writes, blogs, edits, podcasts, and reads for audiobooks. His blog is focused on Positivity and how Consciousness Creates Reality. Occasionally he collects the posts into non-fiction publication. Most of his fictional work is self-published and shows his growth as a writer. The constant immersion in writing fiction, blogging non-fiction, and exposure to other writers as an editor and reader has him growing by leaps and bounds. Look at his work on Medium.com to see his style interests you: https://medium.com/@mjblehart