Take a C A R N I V A L E ride...
Hop on this steampunk airshp for some otherworldly trips today.
As you wait your turn in line, read this freebie online from the Fall issue of the Subterranean Press...
by Daniel Abraham
- steampunk short story
Excerpt:
As I have grown old, I have watched the world of my youth fade with me. The damage done by the Great War will never be calculated. And yet, even now, I hear from my friends in the circles of power - in truth, most are now the children of my friends - that a third war in Afghanistan is all but certain. Even more than the war on the continent just passed, I find myself in dread of this new conflict and the powers it may provoke.
And yet, also I feel the nostalgia of old hunts, old games, old enemies now lost to history, and feel again not the rush of conflict but its echo. And recall the unparalleled eyes of a most singular woman I once knew…
–From the Last Notebooks of Mr. Meriwether, 1919
CHAPTER ONE: The Two Empresses
It was the third of December in 188-, and snow swirled down grey and damp upon the cobblestones of London. Meriwether paced before the wide window of the King Street flat impatiently. Balfour sat before the roaring fire, correcting a draft monograph he had written on the subject of Asiatic hand combat as adapted to the English frame.
“I cannot understand how you can be so devilishly placid,” Meriwether said at last.
“Practice,” Balfour grunted.
READ the rest here.
AND look who's sitting at the bar...
Perhaps we should grab a drink and have a chat as well.
* image source by Foxfires -thanks to Sasha Soren, author of Random Magic for photo heads up,
* image source for James McAvoy is a special HAPPY BIRTHDAY treat to Donna of Moira Rogers - check out her birthday gifts for fans here
