Stories and poems from the Steampunk.com Saint Valentine's Day Short Short Competition

Self-taught tinkerer Kali McAlister is determined to build an airship and escape the frigid Yukon forever. Unfortunately, she's the heir to the secrets of flash gold, an alchemical energy source that tends to make her a popular target for bandits, gangsters, and pirates.With the help of her bounty-hunting business partner, Cedar, Kali has outwitted and eluded attackers before, and she thinks she's prepared for anything. Then her ex-fiancé strolls into her workshop.As if foo...

Half-breed tinkerer Kali McAlister doesn't care that the gold rush has stormed into Dawson and prospectors are flooding the north—all she wants is to finish construction of her airship, so she can escape the Yukon and see the world.Unfortunately, the world keeps chucking wrenches into her machinery: a mysterious gambler is pumping her for information on her bounty-hunting business partner Cedar; the notorious gangster Cudgel Conrad is after Kali's knowledge of flash gold; and a ser...

You can choose your friends, but you cannot choose your family ... or can you?Now sixteen, the twins Lizzie and Maggie are educated young ladies who have not been called “the Mopsies” in years … except by their guardian, Lady Claire Trevelyan. With the happy prospect of choosing their own future, the girls can leave their dodgy past behind, and Lizzie can bury her deepest childhood memories where they can do no harm. But is she ready to be separated from Maggie and become ...

Kali has been working toward her dream of building an airship and escaping the frozen Yukon for so long that she can scarcely believe it’s close to becoming a reality. There’s just one problem. Cedar, her friend and business partner (and maybe a little more), is in jail, and the American authorities are on their way to hang him. The Mounties aren’t listening to reason, so the only way to free him may be to break him out of their headquarters—if she can. Even if she succeeds, she’ll be bran...

This four-book set contains the “Claire Quartet”—Lady of Devices, Her Own Devices, Magnificent Devices, and Brilliant Devices, an edition of over 250,000 words.London, 1889. Victoria is Queen. Charles Darwin’s son is Prime Minister. And steam is the power that runs the world.At 17, Claire Trevelyan, daughter of Viscount St. Ives, was expected to do nothing more than pour an elegant cup of tea, sew a fine seam, and catch a rich husband. Unfortunate...

The Steampunk Megapack collects 26 tales of high adventure through Victorian and Edwardian eras--past, present, and future! Included are:MIDNIGHT AT VALDOSTA'S, by Jay LakeTHE CASE OF THE PECULIAR SAFECRACKER, by G. D. FalksenTHE ACQUISITION OF MANDRAKES AND ASSISTANTS, by Jillian VentersTHE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, by H. P. LovecraftTHE BRASS GOGGLE FACTORY WORKER, by John LeavittTHE PATH OF PROGRESS, by Brian StablefordTHE TAILED MEN, by Ar...

Professor Tikaya Komitopis isn't a great beauty, a fearless warrior, or even someone who can walk and chew chicle at the same time, but her cryptography skills earn her wartime notoriety. When enemy marines show up at her family's plantation, she expects the worst.But they're not there to kill her. They need her to decode mysterious runes, and they ask for help in the manner typical of a conquering empire: they kidnap her, threaten her family, and throw her in the brig of their fas...

After years on the hunt, Cedar Kartes is finally within striking distance of Cudgel Conrad, the criminal who slew his brother and framed him for murder. With the help of Kali McAlister, his business partner and the woman he’s mustering the courage to court, he believes he can finally rid the world of a bloodthirsty felon.But nothing is ever easy in the Yukon. The new police commissioner has taken an interest in Cedar’s checkered past, a suspicious newspaperman is trying to make fri...

Tales from the Archives are short stories set in the world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. They explore events mentioned in the novels, characters seen and unseen and may include novel teasers of things to come. This volume includes:The Astonishing Amulet of Amenartas by Nathan LowellAgent Heathcliff Durham finds himself crisscrossing Africa, looking for an Amulet that could spell disaster for any who come near it. Battling blistering heat, starvation, wild animals...

When Tara Blankenship’s writing assignment takes her to an “eco village” on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, she anticipates a quiet couple of weeks in a quaint setting. (She’s far too mature to use the word boring, thank you very much.) What she stumbles into is anything but quiet and quaint.Someone has been slaughtering livestock to scare the villagers, mysterious intruders are searching the property at night, and Tara finds a grisly welcome-warning on the porch of her gu...

After being publicly shamed and kicked out of the imperial service academy, Fortis chose to serve in the only other way possible: as a mercenary.Working far from the boundaries of his homeland, he never thought he’d have anything to do with the empire again… until a powerful wizard hires the company to destroy an imperial outpost. Fortis must choose between betraying his captain and comrades or firing on the very men he once dreamed of joining.Degrees of Delusion i...