News from Squire's Isle

A while back, I wrote a quickie little story. Melissa Scott (author or co-author of many many great books, including the awesome “Lost Things”) liked it enough to suggest I turn it into a full-fledged novel. I was game (I usually am) so I gave it a shot. The end result was this novel. It’s steampunk, it’s romance, it’s action/adventure, it’s possibly the start of a trilogy. I’m not entirely sure about that. The story, as it stands, has an ending. But you know what they say about endings… they don’t happen in real life. You just decide to stop telling the story. I believe Dice has more stories to be told. This is either a look into her life during a particularly harrowing time, or it’s the first adventure in a series of them.

Whatever the answer, I hope everyone enjoys it! Maybe if it sells well enough the decision of a sequel will be made for me. ;D

RAILROAD SPINE
In a world where a little knowledge truly is a dangerous thing, Candice “Dice” Bodger is about to get an awful education.

Employed by the military as an airship captain, Dice knows exactly as much as she needs to get her cargo from one field to the next. Information is fiercely regulated, and sharing of knowledge is punishable by death. Dice has no interest in learning until she begins an illicit romance with the engineer assigned to her ship. The romance is shortlived when the man she loves is captured and Dice’s crime comes to light. Dice, though spared execution, is forced to give up her ill-conceived child moments after his birth. Despondent, she is given a new lease on love when she falls for the midwife who helped her through the pregnancy.

Marked as a criminal, Dice decides she might as well earn her tarnished record. She tracks down the group of rebels her lover belonged to and offers her services as a smuggler. In exchange, the rebels agree to help her find classified information that could lead her to finding her son.

Her work as a smuggler frequently puts her in danger but Dice soon discovers the true cost of crime when someone close to her is fatally injured. Faced with losing yet another loved one, Dice decides to take drastic measures that could destroy the entire rebellion… or put an end to the government’s tyranny once and for all.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/250715