QSFer Marie Brown has a new MM steampunk romance out:
Sir Simeon Meriwether Kerrigan, fresh out of college, was expected to marry his cousin Rebecca and settle down like a proper gentleman. But he didn’t want to. And a farewell-to-bachelorhood voyage on his steam-powered airship with his dearest friend brings both disaster and a shocking discovery.
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Excerpt
Sulking again, eh?
Sir Simeon Meriwether Kerrigan, owner of the fantastic skyship
Midnight Aurora, wealthy beyond the ken of mere mortals, displayed
a most troubling trait of sulking like a little child when the world
failed to bend down and serve him as he desired. Like now. Simeon stood at
the furthest forward point of the skyship’s gleaming wooden deck, hands
locked on the brass railing, head down. Edwin Julius could see tension in
his body, a certain stiffness of posture beneath the elegant daytime suit.
Tendrils of wet gray streamed over the man as the skyship plowed through
low-hanging clouds. Edwin wondered what it would be like to rest his hands
on those tense shoulders, feel the taut muscles warm and relax beneath
affectionate ministrations.
Awkward thought. Edwin sighed, shook off the wayward desires, and
stepped up to the railing beside his friend.
“What’s bothering you, Kerrigan?”
“What makes you think there’s something bothering me?”
“Well, let’s see…” Edwin replied with a faint smile. “You won’t talk
to anyone, you’re barely civil even to Rebecca, and you’re hanging over
the rail of the Aurora as it flies through a cloud. Need I say
more?”
“Oh, very well, then. There’s something bothering me.” Simeon
straightened from his bent posture, but still his dark eyes avoided Edwin.
They remained focused on some distant vision known only to him.
After a moment of silence broken only by the steady thumping of the
steam-powered engines, Edwin prompted him to continue. “And what would the
problem be, old lad?”
“It’s of a rather… personal nature, so if you don’t mind I’d—”
“Rather not talk about it, I know,” Edwin interrupted. “It’s my guess
that your problem is Rebecca.”
At that, Simeon did turn to glare at him. “Rebecca is not a problem,
she is my cousin.”
“And as such, you care about her deeply… perhaps too deeply?”
“You know nothing of my issues, Julius! Go now, and trouble me no
more!” His eyes betrayed deep inner turmoil, despite the unchanging facial
expression.
“You don’t mean that, do you.” Edwin continued to gaze steadily into
his friend’s eyes, bright with distress behind brass-rimmed lenses.
Tension hummed through the damp air for a long moment, then Simeon
glanced away. “No, I do not.”
“I thought not. Now, if you’re done being difficult, perhaps you could
tell me what is going on in that head of yours?”
“Perhaps I could. But then, perhaps I could not.” Simeon allowed
himself a faint twitch of a smile.
“Kerrigan…” Torn between exasperation and amusement, Edwin settled on
shaking his head with a smile of his own.
“Julius, my friend, there are some things which you simply do not want
to know. Such as the true cause of my troubles.” A flicker of emotion
crossed his face, gone before Edwin could identify it. Longing? Not
likely.
Simeon turned away, with a curious reluctance which sent a shiver of
hope racing through Edwin. Could it be that—no, impossible. He must be
imagining things, seeing something he only wished for.
Author Bio
“Marie Brown has lived in many locations across the United States, but spends most of her time exploring the realms of imagination. Currently located in Colorado, her brief moments of free time are spent in front of her computer, frequently covered in cats.”
Blah.
Yeah, okay, that’s all true. But I’m tired of hiding behind a bland, third-person pseudo-bio, utterly lacking in personality.
Hi! I’m Marie Brown, and I write a lot. I self-publish through Smashwords and Amazon because I got tired of getting “well-written, but not our thing” rejection letters. Because, you see, most of my fiction tends to include characters that are either bi or just plain homosexual, and despite increasing acceptance of human sexuality and its many variations across the world, heroes and heroines are still supposed to be straight.
Well, mine aren’t. So if you’re brave, and you don’t mind that the main character of a story either isn’t interested in sex at all, or is quite likely to hop in bed with someone of the same gender, then give my writings a chance. Come explore my fantasy worlds, or my science fiction worlds, or even spend some time with an occasional random love story set on Earth.
And by the way, just this once, I wrote this entire blurb without a cat on my keyboard.
Intriguing!