Devices Brightly Shining: A steampunk Christmas novella featuring smart, brave women inventors

Book excerpt: On the first day of Christmas My true love gave to me Dreadful relations, high expectations, And a sudden urge to pull up ropes and flee. It is the event of the season—on Twelfth Night, the Dunsmuirs have invited the cream of London society to celebrate the marriage of Lady Claire Trevelyan and Andrew Malvern at a reception to which the Prince Consort himself is expected. Captain Ian Hollys brings his fiancée Alice Chalmers to attend and meet his family—people who cannot see past her flight boots to the woman who stands by his side as an equal. When two young cousins of Gloria Meriwether-Astor arrive in London, the inhabitants of Carrick House are happy to welcome them. Sydney and Hugh Meriwether-Astor are completing a world tour, and the Dunsmuirs’ ball is just the thing to cap it off in splendid fashion. But Maggie learns that Sydney has his own plans for the family business. And unlike Gloria, said plans don’t include cutting off the supply of arms to the Royal Kingdom of Spain and the Californias. It’s time for Alice—someone with a spine, an airship of her own, and reasons to put fields of air between herself and decisions about her future—to pull up ropes and warn Gloria that betrayal is closer than she thinks … “All of the women are planning their own lives. Even better, they’re all planning different lives, different paths—because there’s more than one way for a woman to live and be strong and express her agency... The books are already turning into far more than Claire’s story and I’m happy to see that.” —Fangs for the Fantasy, on Devices Brightly Shining Devices Brightly Shining is a novella connecting Claire’s story with that of Gloria Meriwether-Astor in the Magnificent Devices steampunk world. No strong language, just a very proper kiss or two and a satisfying solution. If you like books by Gail Carriger, Lindsay Buroker, or Nancy Warren, you’re in the right place. Enjoy!