Bring it Back(list) with Cindy Spencer Pape

"George" art by John White

I fell in love with steampunk before it existed as a genre. I just always loved old things, futuristic things and anything that blended technology and beauty. Old ironwork gates, steam trains, ornate hair combs, you name it. Now that I've gotten into steampunk I know why I saved all the old costume jewelry and embroidered hankies my mom and aunt gave me to play dress up with as a kid.

When steampunk started to hit big in 2010, I was ALL over it. I  developed Steam & Sorcery as kind of a catch-all story, with elements and tropes from horror, mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and, of course, historical romance.

To put it in simple terms, I described my then-work-in-progress as "Mary Poppins Meets Van Helsing." I was struggling to with what to call my group of Victorian monster-hunters, until my husband suggested that perhaps, in a world with vampyres and werewolves and magick, the Knights of the Round Table might have never disbanded.

I looked at the story I'd written so far. It had Arthurian references throughout that I'd never realized were there. One of the major families in what became the Order was named MacKay, or son of Kay. (The name of King Arthur's seneschal.) Another was Lake--the English translation of Lancelot's du Lac. My hero, Merrick Hadrian, was a baronet--a hereditary Sir. From there, the entire story, indeed, most of the rest of the Gaslight Chronicles series fell into place. With the addition of George the mechanical mastiff and a bunch of streetwise, supernaturally talented orphans, the world came alive.

Six years after its publication, Steam & Sorcery remains my most sucessful novel. It earned 4.5 stars from Romantic Times and several "reccomended reads." Library Journal called the Gaslight Chronicles "possibly the ultimate in steampunk romance." It also earned a 2011 EPIC award. It's been translated into German and is available in ebook, print or audiobook format.

This weekend April 27-May 1, Carina Press/Harlequin has put the e-book version on sale for half price ($1.99 down from 3.99.) If you're new to steampunk, or to my writing, you can find it for that price on Kindle, Google, Apple, Kobo and Nook in the US, or Kindle, Apple or Kobo in Canada, as well as from Carina Press. As an added bonus, the second story in the series, Photographs & Phantoms, is free across all of those venues.

*****

Blurb:Sir Merrick Hadrian hunts monsters, both human and supernatural. A Knight of the Order of the Round Table, his use of magick and the technologies of steam power have made him both respected and feared. But his considerable skills are useless in the face of his greatest challenge, guardianship of five unusual children. At a loss, Merrick enlists the aid of a governess.

Miss Caroline Bristol is reluctant to work for a bachelor but she needs a position, and these former street children touch her heart. While she tends to break any mechanical device she touches, it never occurs to her that she might be something more than human. All she knows is that Merrick is the most dangerously attractive man she's ever met—and out of reach for a mere governess.

When conspiracy threatens to blur the distinction between humans and monsters, Caroline and Merrick must join forces, and the fate of humanity hinges upon their combined skills of steam and sorcery...

*****

Cindy Spencer Pape firmly believes in happily-ever-after and brings that to her writing. Multiple award-winning author of the best-selling Gaslight Chronicles, she has released around fifty novels and stories, which blend fantasy, adventure, science fiction, suspense, history and romance. 

Cindy lives in southeast Michigan with her husband and three spoiled dogs. When not hard at work writing she can be found restoring her 1870 house, dressing up for steampunk parties and Renaissance fairs, or with her nose buried in a book.