Thrilling Tales of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences
Page 30
Karina Cooper, after writing happily ever afters for all of her friends in school, eventually grew up (sort of), went to work in the real world (kind of), where she decided that making stuff up was way more fun (true!). She is the author of dark and sexy paranormal romances, steampunk adventures, crossover urban fantasy, and continues to write across multiple genres with mad glee. Her award winning steampunk series, The St. Croix Chronicles, is the RT Reviewers Choice Awards recipient for Best Steampunk Novel 2012.
One part glamour, one part dork and all imagination, Karina is also a gamer, an avid reader, a borderline hermit and an activist. She co-exists with a husband, a menagerie and a severe coffee habit. Visit her at karinacooper.com, because she says so.
Delilah S. Dawson is a native of Roswell, GA and author of the Blud series for Pocket, including Wicked as They Come and Wicked as She Wants, as well as two e-novellas, The Mysterious Madam Morpho and The Peculiar Pets of Miss Pleasance. She has a short story in the Carniepunk anthology and an e-novella called Follow Me Boy, set in the Shadowman universe for Amazon’s Kindle Worlds. Her first YA, Servants of the Storm, is a creepy paranormal set in Savannah, GA and will hit bookshelves in summer 2014. Wicked as She Wants was recently awarded the May Seal of Excellence from RT Book Reviews, who called her “a wonderfully fresh new voice!” and “on the fast track to the top of the genre!” Delilah enjoys horseback riding, cupcakes, and geekery and lives with her family in Atlanta. Visit her at delilahpaints.blogspot.com.
Glenn Freund is a biologist and artist who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley and is part of LoS Productions LLC a southern California based Production Company. While at Berkeley he studied Neuroscience, Animal Behavior, and Endocrinology, later applying those skills at Pomona college in immortality research. While in Southern California he became one of the founding members of the Jr. League W.A.T.C.H. a community building organization which is a spoof of the Jr. Park Rangers and the Neighborhood Watch, bringing in the tongue and cheek nature of The League of S.T.E.A.M. He is also the producer and engineer for the S.T.E.A.M. Geeks podcast, a bi-weekly podcast, which discusses a variety of topics in and around steampunk. The podcast can be found on Twitter at @steamgeeks while Glenn can be found at both @DrGlennClock and @jrleaguewatch.
Lauren Harris is a fantasy writer, voice actress, and the co-creator of 2012 Parsec Finalist, Pendragon Variety Podcast for aspiring writers of genre fiction, where she is known as “Scribe.” Her voice acting can be heard on Audible.com as well as fiction podcasts such as EscapePod, The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, and The Drabblecast B-Sides. On occasion, she can also be seen cosplaying in a variety of steampunk fashions. Though she spent three years living in Tokyo, Lauren currently resides in a renovated tobacco shed in rural North Carolina, where she is pleased to have running water, wifi, and all her teeth. Find out more about her voice, costume, and editorial works at lscribeharris.blogspot.com.
Leanna Renee Hieber is an award winning, bestselling author, an actress, and playwright who graduated with a Theatre degree and a focus in the Victorian Era. Her debut novel, The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker won two 2010 Prism Awards, and is currently in development as a musical theatre production. Darker Still: A Novel of Magic Most Foul, was named an American Booksellers Association “Indie Next List” title and selected for a Scholastic edition as a highly recommended title. Leanna’s short fiction has been featured in Wilful Impropriety, on Tor.com, and in Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: Tales of Gaslight Fantasy. Her new series The Eterna Files, launches in 2014. A member of Actors Equity Association and SAG-AFTRA, Leanna works often in film and television on shows like Boardwalk Empire. When not writing or on set, she’s telling ghost stories, cavorting at Goth clubs, corset shopping, channelling Narcissa Malfoy, wandering graveyards and adventuring about New York City, where she resides with a wonderful gent and their beloved rescued lab rabbit. Take a look at all she is up to at leannareneehieber.com.
Jack Mangan is an author, podcaster, musician, smitten father, and considered by the editors as “The Iron Man of Podcasting,” born in New Jersey, but now residing in Arizona. “The Clockwork Samurai,” featured in Ministry Protocol, is actually a sequel to his first Ministry story, the 2012 Parsec-nominated “Night’s Plutonian Shore.” Aside from the Ministry writings, Jack’s fiction and non-fiction works have appeared in numerous online, print, and podcast venues, including such prestigious outlets as Interzone Magazine, Podthology: The Pod Complex, Michael A. Stackpole’s Chain Story, Theme and Variations, 2020 Visions, Variant Frequencies, and Tales of the Talisman. His words and worlds have also appeared on independently-produced audio productions at Wander Radio, Variant Frequencies, and Beam Me Up Radio. His novel, Spherical Tomi, was among the first wave of podcast fiction releases, and was the first number one title at Podiobooks.com. His Deadpan Podcast has enjoyed a diverse, fun, weird history and a dedicated following since 2006. More info about Jack Mangan and his work at: jackmangan.com.
Dan Rabarts lives in New Zealand and has been writing since he was big enough to hide a torch under the blankets at night and scribble stories in the back of his Maths homework book. Because who needs Maths, right? His fiction can be found in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Aurealis, and in the anthologies Dreaming of Djinn, Bloodstones, When the Hero Comes Home: Volume 2, and Regeneration. His stories have been podcast on the StarShipSofa, Tales to Terrify, Tales from the Archives and Wily Writers’ podcasts. Most recently, he has put on an editor’s hat to compile a chilling, thrilling collection of flash-length horror tales called Baby Teeth: Bite-sized Tales of Terror. He has been a finalist for New Zealand’s Sir Julius Vogel Awards multiple times, both for fiction and non-fiction. Find him lurking on the web at dan.rabarts.com, or in the dusty corners of the house, bleeding words across a page.
Tiffany Trent is the author of the young adult steampunk novels The Unnaturalists and The Tinker King, as well as the Hallowmere series. She has been published in numerous other venues, including the anthologies Corsets & Clockwork, Magic in the Mirrorstone, and Willful Impropriety. When not writing, she is usually out playing with 60,000 bees. Visit her at tiffanytrent.com.
Alex White grew up in the Deep South, where he still resides. He writes and produces his podcast, The Gearheart, which is a three-time Parsec Finalist. He also holds the distinction as to being the biggest contributor to the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, having designed the Ministry coat-of-arms, composed and performed the theme to the Parsec-wining Tales from the Archives podcast, created the covers for this anthology and The Ministry Initiative roleplaying game, and written “The Boy, the Bomb, and the Witch Who Returned.” An artist and composer during the day, Alex has plied his trade for a US President, many major corporations, and most importantly, other authors. He asks too many questions of strangers and may be terminally curious. Alex can be found at thegearheart.com.
Peter Woodworth is a New Jersey native and resides there still, happily teaching English at a small local college. The first two books in his post-zombie-apocalypse Dead Heroes trilogy, Runner and Domino, are currently available on Amazon, and the final volume Knockout is scheduled for release in late 2013. His short fiction has appeared on websites such as Terrible Minds and 365 Tomorrows, as well as in several anthologies: Gimme Shelter; We Are Dust; Have Blaster, Will Travel; The Lost and more. A longtime game designer, he has written a stack of roleplaying books for both tabletop and live-action play for the likes of White Wolf, Evil Hat, West End Games and Eschaton Media. Peter’s next project will be writing the supplement Rogues Gallery: The Ministry's Most Wanted for The Ministry Initiative from Galileo Games. When he isn’t grading papers or writing novels, he reads a lot, runs too many RPGs, is seriously addicted to Fantasy Flight board games, and LARPs whenever he can swing it. You can find him online at peterwoodworth.com.
Our Field Directors
Pip Ballantine, New Zealand native, Fantasy writer and voice talent, is the auth
or of Ace Books’ Books of the Order and Pyr Books’ Shifted World series. She has also contibuted to both fiction and non-fiction collections such as Clockwork Fairy Tales and A Taste of True Blood. She is also the co-creator with her husband Tee Morris of The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences novels. Her awards include the 2011 Airship Award for Best Steampunk Literature, a 2012 Parsec Award for Best Short Story, the 2013 Steampunk Chronicle Reader’s Choice for Best Novel, and a 2009 Sir Julius Vogel Award for her podcast of Chasing the Bard. Today she continues to podcast alongside Tee with both The Shared Desk and Tales from the Archives. She currently resides in Manassas, Virginia with husband, daughter, and a furry clowder of cats. You can keep up on what is currently occupying Pip’s writing desk at pjballantine.com.
Tee Morris has been writing for over a decade, his first novel, MOREVI: The Chronicles of Rafe & Askana, a nominee for the 2003 EPPIE for Best Fantasy and the first novel to be podcast in its entirety in 2005. In 2008, Tee won the Parsec Award for Best Audio Drama for The Case of the Singing Sword: A Billibub Baddings Mystery, and wrote and edited several short story and essay collections like Farscape Forever: Sex, Drugs, and Killer Muppets, So Say We All: Collected Thoughts and Opinions on Battlestar Galactica, and Dragon Moon Press’ Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy series.
In 2011, Tee penned Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, written with his wife, Pip Ballantine. The title went on to win the 2011 Airship Award for Best Steampunk Literature and become a finalist for Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Science Fiction of 2011. Tee and Pip returned to the Goodreads Choice Awards in 2012 with The Janus Affair: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, and received Steampunk Chronicle’s Readers Choice for Best Novel. While working on the third installment, Dawn’s Early Light, Tee and Pip continue to produce podcasts with their Parsec-winning Tales from the Archives, a podcast anthology featuring short stories set in their steampunk universe; and The Shared Desk, a light-hearted look at the life of a writer. You can find more about Tee’s upcoming releases and works in progress at TeeMorris.com.
TS (Tee) Tate received a Master of Arts in English in 2008 from Southeastern Louisiana University. She has studied under Edgar nominee Tim Gautreaux, Booksense Pick novelist Bev Marshall, and Clarion West graduate and World Fantasy nominee Cat Rambo. She has more than ten years of editing experience and is currently the Editor-in-Chief of LitStack.com. She has spent the past nine years in the corporate environment as a Technical Editor and has previously edited for Christine Rose, Phoebe North, Heather McCorkle, Laura Pauling, Anne Riley, Christine Fonseca and UF writer Carolyn Crane. With Heather McCorkle, Tee co-founded the #WritersRoad chat on Twitter.
A SFWA member, Tee is currently working on several creative projects, including her second novel and various short stories. Her flash fiction, “Street Noises,” was included in the Pill Hill Press anthology Daily Frights 2012: 366 Days of Dark Flash Fiction (Leap Year Edition) and her short “Til Hunt Be Done,” was included in the Winter Wonders anthology from Compass Press. A diehard New Orleans Saints fan and no stranger to the Humpty Dance, Tee lives with her family in Southeast Louisiana.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Introduction
The New Recruit
A Feast of Famine
Chinoiserie
Panther Nights
New London Calling
Where the River Shines
The Incident of the Clockwork Mikoshi
The Trouble with Phoenixes
The Boy, the Bomb. and the Witch Who Returned
Our Lady of Monsters
The Mystery of the Thrice Dead Man
The Clockwork Samurai
A Nocturne for Alexandrina
Authors
Editors