BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT EXCERPT: The Watchmaker's Ball

Christine Norris took history and connected it with fantasy to craft another intriguing steampunk read for BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT. The following excerpt is from her contribution to this Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology.

The Watchmaker's Ball

“Stand straight, Alice. Slouching isn’t proper for a lady.”

“I’m not a lady,” Alice grumbled. She didn’t know how her posture could be less than poker-straight, considering the amount of muscle that had gone into lacing her corset. She dragged her feet as she followed her mother and older sister across Fairmount Park, through the crowds, and toward her doom.

“Alice Elizabeth Purcell, I won’t talk to you again. Keep

up.”

Alice tried not to roll her eyes and trudged on. Ever since her older sister, Katharine, had talked to that boy at the bookshop, she had been begging their mother to take them to the Centennial Exposition. So here Alice was, on her way to an afternoon of torture and utter despair.

The Women’s Pavilion.

Alice had come along hoping she would get to glimpse the amazing machines on display in the Machinery Hall, but they were on the other side of the fairgrounds. She had begged her mother to let her go see it, but her mother had forbidden it.

“It’s not proper for a young lady of your station to be looking at dirty machines.”


Ready to discover more and find out if Christine's Alice will do what's proper or not? Amazon and Smashwords are taking pre-orders already! Links for the paperback will be available soon!

BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Excerpt: Follow the Steam Rabbit

The following is an excerpt from author Liam Hogan's short story which is included in our Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology, BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT.

Follow the Steam Rabbit

Alice peered over the top of her book as the rabbit – white, about three feet tall, and standing erect on its hind legs – went rushing by. It stopped a little way ahead of her, pulled a pocket watch on a chain from its oversized waistcoat, and hopped in alarm. After announcing in a metallic, clanking voice just how late it was, it rushed off in a cloud of steam, with only a sly backwards glance of a pinkly glowing lens to show that it was even aware she existed.

She sighed, made a mental note of her page number, 345, easy enough to remember being half as large as the sum of its proper divisors, and put the book down on the root of the tree that shaded her reading spot, before setting off in pursuit.

It was obviously one of Uncle Charles’s inventions: a steam-powered, oversized mechanical rabbit indeed. But without a closer look, she couldn’t tell if it was malfunctioning or merely following its creator’s increasingly bizarre instructions.

When she had been younger and not much taller than that fur-covered automaton, she’d delighted in her uncle’s flights of fancy and in the marvelous inventions that came out of his underground workshop. Indeed, it was this inspiration that had turned her inquisitive young mind to the pursuit of science and to mechanical textbooks such as the one she had just abandoned on the riverbank.

But her uncle’s genius never seemed to go anywhere; he might as well have been a mere toymaker. That would have suited his childish delight in getting each new clockwork or steam-powered device to work. Such a waste. For Professor Charles Dodgson, engineering was merely an enjoyable diversion, a way of entertaining his mind while not engaged on the latest arcane mathematical challenge. Whereas it seemed to Alice that his dusty dry mathematics ought to be relegated to his moments of leisure and he should give himself over fully to his inventions, he seemed blind to his own genius, to the concept that his mechanical marvels could in a very real way free mankind from its arduous toil, from the dangerous and menial burden of manual work.

Alice would not make the same mistake.



Ready to Leap down the rabbit hole and adventure with Liam's undoubtedly clever Alice? Smashwords and Amazon are accepting pre-orders for the ebook now, with paperback pre-order links soon to be available!

Author Judith Graves Appearances

Watch for Judith Graves appearing at the following venues:
  
January 28, 2013: Family Literacy Night
Dr. Bernard Brosseau School, Bonnyville, Alberta, Canada

Presentation on “How Inspiration Strikes”, and a reading from her steampunk short story, The Steadfast Steam Soldier, published in Winter Wonders, a charity anthology that supports literacy.

February 23: Young Authors’ Conference
Sherwood Park, Alberta

THE BONES OF THE STORY: Screenwriting and FICTION TO DIE FOR workshops

Graves will talk about writing scripts for film and television and offer tips on the craft of screenwriting. Learn how to plot a script using her outline structure, The Bones of the Story.  From gripping logline to epic showdown, she’ll provide students with the foundation they’ll need to create their own dreadfully cool scripts.

February 24: Freedom to Read Week

The brilliant blogger, Amy, from A Simple Love of Reading is celebrating Canadian Freedom to Read Week with guest posts by a number of authors. Graves will be kicking off the week with a post on censorship both as a library technician and a young adult fiction author.

You're Invited to a Gothic Tea Party

What are you doing on Friday the 13th? Want to have a hauntingly good time?

Join author Judith Graves at Beantrees Coffee House in Cold Lake, Alberta, for a Gothic tea party to celebrate the launch of her books:

Don't forget to dress in costume!!

Calling All Steampunk Fans

If you love steampunk, you'll love Amelia Strangeways:










Author Judith Graves has combined the paranormal with steampunk for a haunting new series. More info at Strangeways Novels.

Take a peek at the book trailer:

Judith Graves Blog Tour

For her new release, author Judith Graves is going on tour. Join the celebration of the official launch of the second book in the SKINNED series, SECOND SKIN.


During the month of March Judith will be doing interviews and guest posts on some fabulous blogs, as well as features on her own site. It will be a month of giveaways, SWAG, and great conversations.

In honor of Second Skin’s major theme, FACING YOUR DARKEST FEAR, she’ll look at what scares us – from horror films, fiction, phobias, folklore and the beasties that haunt our dreams. Thankfully, she'll only talk about others' sheer terror – Eryn and her monster-hunting crew are the ones who get thrown to the wolves.

Here’s the line up of blog stops and author thus far:

3/1 – Tour kick off (my blog)
3/7 - Jennifer R. Hubbard – guest post exchange and feature on my blog
3/8 – Electrifying Reviews – guest post
3/9 – Fragments of Life – author interview / character interview
3/10 – Just Deb – guest post
3/12 – Ellz Readz - guest post
3/13 – Book Swarm - character interview and review
3/14 – Late Bloomer – guest post
3/15 – Heather McCorkle - author interview exchange and feature on my blog
3/16 – Dawn Dalton- author interview exchange and feature on my blog
3/17 – Dawn Ius – author interview
3/19 – Denise Jaden - author interview exchange and feature on my blog
3/20 – Joy Preble – author interview exchange and feature on my blog
3/22 – Janet Fox - author interview exchange and feature on my blog
3/25 – Lauren’s Crammed Bookshelf - author interview
3/28 – Bewitched Bookworms – review

Judith's books in the Skinned Series:
Available Now Books 1 and 2

COMING IN 2013...

 COMING IN 2014...

A steampunk e-serial starring Amelia Strangeways. Ghosthunter. Necromancer.

Leap Books Launches

Leap Books is thrilled to announce three new titles:

FEBRUARY 12
 The second book in Judith Graves' Skinned series:

 

ISBN-13 978-1-61603-006-3
ISBN-10 1-61603-006-2

With Fiends Like Eryn…

Monsters. Bloodsuckers. The evil. The damned. Eryn McCain knows they exist—she's been hunting them since she was a child. At sixteen, she's ready to take on all comers. Being a shapeshifter gives her an advantage when it comes to her unusual part-time job. The hours suck and the pay is, well, non-existent, but bonuses like inhuman strength and night vision make tracking scary beasties a dream come true. Especially in a town like Redgrave.

When an ancient demon targets Redgrave High, Eryn and her crew of hunters must face their innermost fears to prevent the Harvest Moon Dance from becoming one serious Monster Mash. Loyalties are tested and temptations abound. With questions ever brewing, can Eryn share a future with the brooding, noble, human Alec—the hunter after her heart? Or will she succumb to her enemy's son, Wade, a seductive predator as bloodthirsty as she is?

What happens when you’re both the beauty and the beast?


FEBRUARY 14

Patrice Lyle's humorous paranormal...

ISBN 13 978-1-61603-013-1
ISBN 10 1-61603-013-5

Morgan Skully is the world's only blonde demon girl, and she's got a brand new, very unusual afterschool job. Spying for the Devil. She'd much rather use her cloak-and-dagger skills to spy on hottie-licious Derek with her friends, but the Devil won't take no for an answer. Luckily for Morgan, her new boss is kinda hot. Her assignment is simple: find out who at Pitchfork Prep is funneling secrets to the Siberian Werewolf Council. If she succeeds, pedicures and platinum highlights are just the beginning.

But if she fails…there's more on the line than killer shoes.

MARCH 28

An anthology of ghostly tales by Maria V. Snyder, Candace Havens, Shannon Delany, Jill Williamson, Linda Joy Singleton, Heather Kenealy, Judith Graves, Kitty Keswick, Dawn Dalton, Carmen Tudor, John W. Otte, Halli Dee Lilburn, and Mark Finnemore 

ISBN-13--978-1-61603-020-9

Edited by Kat O'Shea

Haunted houses. Haunted hearts. And a past that refuses to die. . .

Leap Books summoned best-selling paranormal and dreadfully talented debut authors to conjure up Spirited, a haunting collection of 13 tales guaranteed to keep you up all night.

Get entombed in stories of Egyptian treasures, shudder at tales of malevolent spirits, and become enthralled with the adventures of witch-hunters, ghost seekers, and lost souls. From steampunk to cyberpunk, our collection spans past, present, and future hauntings. One story actually leaps off the page with 3D augmented reality.

Go ahead. Turn the page if you dare. We won't tell if you sleep with the light on. Because after all, there's no rest for the wicked.

All proceeds from the sale of SPIRITED will be donated to 826 National.

Print book available exclusively from the Leap Books store.