The Epiphany Club Series
The Epiphany Club follows Victorian adventurers Dirk Dynamo, Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms and Isabelle McNair as they search for the lost Great Library of Alexandria. Faced with every sort of peril, from mutated bears to wily ninjas, can they find the Library and its fabulous secrets before their criminal opponents do?
Book 1: Guns and Guano
Dirk Dynamo is enjoying a life of learning with the gentlemen adventurers of the Epiphany Club. Joining an expedition to find the Great Library of Alexandria, Dirk finds himself on the island of Hakon, where colonial life is not what it seems. With monsters in the jungle, conspiracies in the mansion and ninjas dogging his trail, can Dirk and his friends find the first clue to the Library before they meet a deadly fate?
Guns and Guano is available via Amazon and Smashwords.
Book 2: Suits and Sewers
Adventurer Dirk Dynamo is glad to be back in civilisation, with the first two clues to the location of the Great Library of Alexandria. But when ninjas kidnap his best friend and steal a priceless artefect, Dirk is forced to pursue them across London and into the sewers below. Faced with deadly assassins and the strange followers of London’s Underlord, can Dirk save Sir Timothy and the tablet before he finds himself on the wrong end of a shuriken?
Suits and Sewers is out now via Amazon and Smashwords.
Book 3: Aristocrats and Artillery
Adventurer Dirk Dynamo is back in Paris, in pursuit of the final clue to the location of the lost Great Library. But Paris is a city at war, with Prussian troops closing in from the east and the King in Shadow preparing to rise up in revolt. As violence reaches the city streets, can Dirk retrieve the last tablet, or will the path to the Great Library fall into the hands of a criminal mastermind?
Aristocrats and Artillery is out now via Amazon and Smashwords.
Book 4: Sieges and Silverware
In the face of war and betrayal, adventurer Dirk Dynamo is still looking for the clues that will take him to the lost Great Library of Alexandria. Arriving at an isolated German castle, he finds his life threatened not just by the enemies prowling its corridors, but by an army laying siege outside the walls. Surrounded by traitors, monsters and falling artillery shells, can Dirk escape with his life and with the artefacts he needs, or will he be one more casualty of a nation being born in iron and blood?
Sieges and Silverware will be out in late 2015.
Book 5: Dead Men and Dynamite
Adventurer Dirk Dynamo finally has all the clues he needs, and is heading into Egypt to find the lost Great Library of Alexandria. But as he sets out on the final leg of his trail, others are there ahead of him, people who would use the knowledge of the Great Library to nefarious ends. As he races spies and gangsters through the land of the Pharaohs, Dirk must decide how far he will go for knowledge, and what he really values most in the world – life, love or learning.
The Epiphany Club
Dirk Dynamo is used to adventure. He’s chased villainous masterminds across the mountains of Europe, stalked gangsters through the streets of Chicago, and faced the terrible battlefields of the Civil War. But now he’s on a mission that will really shake his world.
For centuries, the Great Library of Alexandria was thought lost. Now a set of clues has been discovered that could lead to its hiding place. With the learned adventurers of the Epiphany Club, Dirk sets out to gather the clues, track down the Library, and reveal its secrets to the world.
Roaming from the jungles of West Africa to the sewers beneath London, The Epiphany Club is a modern pulp adventure, a story of action, adventure, and romance set against the dark underbelly of the Victorian age.
Collects all five novellas in the Epiphany Club series. Available in all good ebook stores and as a print edition via Amazon.
Free Flash Stories
A Flash of Power – Dirk Dynamo and Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms rush to stop a runaway factor –also available as an audio version thanks to Steve Cook.
The Clatter of Dishes – an Epiphany Club dinner is disturbed when Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms’s latest inventions runs amok.
Dreaming Skies – Dirk Dynamo and Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms have their airship hijacked in the Australian outback.
A Hard and Hollow Sound – something musical is amiss when Dirk Dynamo takes a trip to the circus.
Test Flights and Turbulence – when an airship flight goes wrong, Isabelle McNair must use all her ingenuity to survive.
Three Thousand Horses – Isabelle McNair defends Victorian animal rights.
Cogwheels and Kings
The Epiphany Club find more than they bargained for in the city of York…
Glorious Summer – Dirk Dynamo’s holiday is interrupted when a cit starts shaking itself apart.
So Wise So Young – Mysteries abound as Dirk and Blaze-Simms head into the city archives.
Naked Villainy – Mysterious opponents try to stop the investigation.
A Tower of Strength – Dirk and Blaze-Simms head into the tunnels below York. The smelly, dirty tunnels.
A Thing Devised By the Enemy – The source of the trouble is revealed.
Grim-Visaged War – Dirk and Blaze-Simms confront the people threatening to bring York down.
Old Odd Ends – Can our heroes stop an ancient machine from destroying a city?
Short Stories Elsewhere
Riding a Runaway – steampunk adventurers Dirk Dynamo and Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms fight to control a runaway train full of mad science – SQ Mag 19.
A Wind Will Rise – Dirk Dynamo and Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms fight an airship pirate – Avast, Ye Airships!
Words of Wisdom – Engineers strive to preserve the machines in a clockwork version of Baghdad – On Spec #105.
Other Steampunk
Riding the Mainspring
A steam-powered cowboy with a taste for death.
A daring art heist in a moving city.
A zeppelin flight through the smoke-filled skies of a Europe torn apart by volcanoes.
This collection brings together nine stories of mechanical endeavour and daring do from worlds where pistons and clockwork are king. Each short story explores a different steampunk possibility, from the Wild West to the sewers below Venice. Starring scientists, detectives, criminals, and more machines than you can shake a pair of brass goggles at.
So get on board and ride the mainspring to adventure.
You can read more about this collection of steampunk short stories, including what other readers thought here. It’savailable for the Kindle through Amazon or you can get a copy for free by signing up to my mailing list.
Mud and Brass
How far would you go for love, or for justice, or for the perfect gearwheel?
Thomas Niggle grew up a mudlark, hunting for scrap on the polluted banks of the River Burr. One of the countless poor living in the shadows of Mercer Shackleton’s vast factories, he has dragged himself out of poverty using his mechanical skills. An encounter with Gloria Shackleton, the Mercer’s daughter, offers Niggle the possibility of love, but it also offers something else, deep in the heart of the Mercer’s domain.
What hope can the future hold for a boy raised amidst the mud and brass?
You can read more about this steampunk short story, including what other readers thought here. It’s available for the Kindle through Amazon and on other formats via Smashwords.
Life Among the Gearwheels
A steampunk detective series:
An Offer of Employment – Above the heaps of broken gears, detective Talia Ravenswing gets an offer she wants to refuse.
Friends in Low Places – Talia begins her pursuit of Jan Shofflekrep.
The Sanity of Crowds – At a protest rally, Talia closes in on her target.
Stay Back – Amid the noise and dangers of The Anvil, Talia learns more about Shofflekrep.
Across the Factory Floor – A confrontation takes place in an empty factory.
Faces of the Dead – Shofflekrep’s hideout is revealed.
Hammer and Anvil – Talia fights for her life amid the noise of a factory floor.
Free Flash Fiction
And the Turk Played On – a gaming machine brings disaster for a revolutionary general.
Beyond the Cold Steel Rails – train driver Elenna pushes against the boundaries limiting her life.
The Brass Samurai – a relic of war defends a Japanese village.
Broken Rails – a high stakes train race across a war-scarred wilderness.
The Case for the Prosecution – a pirate goes on trial in a steam powered court.
The Christmas War – clockwork toys muster beneath the Christmas tree.
The Clatter of Dishes – an Epiphany Club dinner is disturbed when Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms’s latest inventions runs amok.
The Daimyo of Dust – samurai hunt a deadly mechanical prey.
The Factory No Hands Built – A crippled machinist struggles to rebuild her life.
A Flash of Power – Dirk Dynamo and Sir Timothy Blaze-Simms, gentlemen adventurers, rush to stop a runaway factor –also available as an audio version thanks to Steve Cook.
A Hard and Hollow Sound – something musical is amiss when Dirk Dynamo takes a trip to the circus.
Lord Brooker’s Library – adventurers reveal an ancient library that’s more than it seems.
Mech Seventeen – a mechanical soldier puts his comrades’ lives at risk.
Not All Hands Tell the Time – Professor Liveci finds more than she expected when Master Forenti fits her with a mechanical hand.
Not Your Assistant – disagreements abound as two engineers try to complete a machine.
The Otley Listening Machine – an engineer tries a bold experiment to keep his factory running.
A Railway to the Moon – an engineer faces his greatest challenge.
Requiem for a Clockwork King – a prince recounts the story of his father’s death.
The Revelation of Brother Rufus – demon blood is spilt in a battle between crusading steam trains.
Scrap Diving in the Aether – a flying scavenger finds strange machines in the upper air.
Shining Like Crystal – a thief looks for the source of a fabulous mechanical bird.
Smog – mudlark Fred races home as a toxic fog closes in.
Sweet Smoke – something is amiss in this strange factory.
Taking Time – obsessed with his competitor, an engineer hacks a difference engine.
Temple of Terror – an explorer faces mechanical danger in a jungle temple.
Three Thousand Horses – Isabelle McNair defends Victorian animal rights.
Tick-Tock – a clock maker is haunted by the ghosts of gears past.
A Ticking of Gears – a detective with acute hearing is challenged by a locked room murder.
When the Sleepers Wake – dissent stirs on an armoured war train.
Short Stories Elsewhere
Goddess of the Barricades – romance emerges from the chaos of a rioting steampunk city – Plasma Frequency 14.
Steel and Steam – a tale of steampunk horror set in colonial Africa – in Ghosts, Gears & Grimoires.