A
Midsummer Night’s Mechanical
Sensibility
Grey Series of Steampunk Suspense Book 3
Kirsten
Weiss
Genre:
Steampunk/suspense
Publisher:
Misterio Press
Date
of Publication: May 1, 2016
ISBN:
978-1-944767-00-6
ASIN:
B01DOKO6CA
Number
of pages: 224
Word
Count: 69,000
Cover
Artist: Kirsten Weiss
Book
Description:
A
Midsummer Murder
The
California Territory, 1849
Blamed
for burning down the San Francisco wharf, clockwork inventor,
Sensibility Grey has spent the last three months in hiding. Now all
she wants is to depart the gold-crazy boomtown for a new life in the
East. So when the owner of a traveling theater offers her work
embellishing his mechanical stage, she turns him down. Then he turns
up dead on her doorstep along with his enigmatic stage.
An
explorer of the mysteries of aether, Sensibility has her own secrets
to keep, and adversaries who’ll stop at nothing to learn them. Is
the mechanical stage a part of a bigger game? Or the key to unlocking
her true, magical potential?
A
Midsummer Night’s Mechanical is book three in the Sensibility Grey
series of steampunk suspense.
CHAPTER
ONE
San
Francisco, California Territory, June 1849.
Sensibility
sat cross-legged upon her bed and tried not to think. She tried not
to think of the ache where her stays pinched her back. She tried not
to think of tomorrow’s journey across the American wilderness. She
tried not to think about the clamor of banging drums and tootling
fifes and—
“Oh,
good gad!” She clenched her fist, pieces of quartz crystal biting
into her flesh. Sensibility sprang from the bed and threw open the
boarding house window. Oppressive heat, acrid from the nearby
outhouse, rolled into the room. Wrinkling her nose, she leaned out
over the fenced back yard and craned her neck. The afternoon sun
streamed through the laundry, hanging limp on the line. From her
position, she couldn’t see the street procession. But neither could
she avoid hearing their blasted parade.
Something
scuttled near her elbow, and she jerked away, slamming her head on
the window frame. White pain arced through her skull.
A
baby raccoon, not much larger than the palm of her hand, cowered on
the other end of the narrow sill. It scrabbled, hunching into a tight
ball, trapped on the high ledge.
“Ow.”
She winced, rubbing her throbbing head and glad her chignon had taken
the brunt of the blow. “How on earth did you get up here?”
The
raccoon mewled.
“You
shall have to make your own way home, for you cannot come inside.
Mrs. Watson has a strict rule about animals inside her boarding
house.”
Gently,
so as not to disturb the creature, she shut the window. The raccoon
peered over the ledge then looked at her, his expression plaintive.
Attempting
to ignore the animal, she paced the denuded room, her brown skirts
swishing.
They
had ample space to swish. Nearly all her belongings lay compressed
into a single carpetbag, set before the empty wardrobe. The bedroom
had an air of abandonment.
Unsettled,
Sensibility rattled the quartz crystals in her hand and glanced to
the window.
The
animal stared inside, forlorn.
She
tugged at her collar. It was such a small thing. But rules were
rules. “You found your way onto the ledge. You can find your own
way down.”
Sensibility
turned to the journal open on the desk. Her sketch of an unworldly
creature she’d once encountered scowl from the page. Frowning, she
slammed the book shut. It had been careless of her to have left it
open. Strange, she couldn’t remember examining the journal before
she’d gone downstairs to retrieve her luncheon.
The
crystals pressed into her palm. She was so close to a breakthrough in
aether technology, but the clues remained buried. Buried in the
remains of her father’s last journal. Hidden in a journal from a
traveling occultist. Scattered throughout her own notes and theories.
One day soon, she would fit those pieces together. It was madness to
hope she could solve that problem today.
Sensibility
opened her hand and gazed at the quartz crystals. She’d mastered
the use of aether to power small devices. But aether had other
applications, such as distance control and distance vision. These
applications eluded her. “There has to be a way…”
She
glanced at the window.
The
animal raised itself on its hind legs and pressed its tiny black paws
to the glass.
Sensibility
groaned. “I know I’ll regret this.” Pocketing the crystals, she
opened the window.
The
raccoon cowered.
“You,”
she said, “being a wild animal, will attempt to bite me if I rescue
you. But I will have none of it. I shall pick you up, I shall take
you outside, and you shall neither bite nor scratch. Do you
understand?”
In
a swift motion, she grasped it by the scruff of the neck and lifted
it inside. It writhed, and her grasp on it loosened.
She
gasped. “Don’t….”
The
raccoon dropped to her desk and shook its head. Whiskers twitching,
it scuttled to her abandoned luncheon tray and made free with a bit
of toast.
About
the Author:
Kirsten
Weiss worked overseas for nearly fourteen years, in the fringes of
the former USSR and in South-east Asia. Her experiences abroad
sparked an interest in the effects of mysticism and mythology, and
how both are woven into our daily lives.
Now
based in San Mateo, CA, she writes steampunk suspense and paranormal
mysteries, blending her experiences and imagination to create a vivid
world of magic and mayhem. Kirsten has never met a dessert she didn’t
like, and her guilty pleasures are watching Ghost Whisperer re-runs
and drinking red wine.
Sign
up for her newsletter to get a free copy of the full length urban
fantasy novel, The Alchemical Detective, and updates on her latest
work at: http://kirstenweiss.com
Interview
Where are you from? I’m from sunny San Mateo,
California! It’s on the San Francisco peninsula, which is why I use that area
for my writing quite a bit.
Tell us your latest news? My big news is my third
book in the Sensibility Grey series of steampunk suspense is here! I’m so
excited, because I love the steampunk genre, and it’s just in time for the
Clockwork Alchemy convention in San Jose, CA, where I’ll be speaking.
When and why did you begin writing? I’ve been
writing since I was a little kid, but I didn’t get serious about it until about
five years ago. Now, I can’t imagine doing anything else.
When did you first consider yourself a writer? About
a year ago I started writing full time – both fiction and business writing.
Only now do I feel like I can call myself a writer, which is kind of silly.
I’ve been a writer my whole life.
What inspired you to write your first book? I was
unemployed and brainstorming potential jobs. When you brainstorm, no answer is
bad, and the crazier the better. I came up with private detective, then
“metaphysical detective” popped into my head. I started wondering what a
metaphysical detective would do, and The Metaphysical Detective
was born.
Do you have a specific writing style? My writing
style is still a work in process, but I like Elmore Leonard’s advice to leave
out all the boring bits, and try to follow it.
How did you come up with the title? My first book in
the series was Steam
and Sensibility, a riff on the Jane Austin novel, Sense
and Sensibility. Then I found myself stuck trying to find titles that match
classic novels! A Midsummer Night’s Mechanical fit the book well.
Is there a message in your novel that you want
readers to grasp? Life is a marvelous adventure!
How much of the book is realistic? I tried to set it
in “real” San Francisco, 1849, though I did fudge some bits. Of course,
steampunk is alternative history, so the real San Francisco didn’t have aether
weapons and clockwork devices. But it did have a vigilante group called The
Hounds and very little law and order. I use that in my book.
Are experiences based on someone you know, or events
in your own life? The feelings and reactions are real, but this is alternative
history, so the action is pure fantasy.
What books have most influenced your life most?
Nancy Drew novels – my first mystery inspiration.
If you had to choose, which writer would you consider
a mentor? There are so many – Edgar Allan Poe, Agatha Christie, PG Wodehouse…
Do I have to choose just one?
What book are you reading now? I’m reading Witch Crafting. I write a lot of
supernatural mysteries, and I very much enjoy reading about magic.
Are there any new authors that have grasped your
interest? I like Candy Korman’s work quite a bit. It’s eerie and rooted in
classic horror, but she definitely goes her own way.
What are your current projects? I’m working on a
trilogy, The Witches of Doyle, which is a supernatural cozy, as well as a
supernatural suspense story – The Mannequin Offensive.
Twitter:
@KirstenWeiss
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/kirsten.weiss/
Tour
giveaway
Grandprize:
ebook copies of The Sensibility Grey Three-Book set, and the entire
Riga Hayworth series of seven urban fantasy novels.
Second
prize: ebook copies of The Sensibility Grey Three-Book Set
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you for hosting me today!
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