The Machine God (The Drifting Isle Chronicles)
Page 19
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About the Author
MeiLin Miranda writes Victorianesque fantasy and science fiction from her 130-year-old house in Portland, Oregon. Her love of all things 19th century (except for the pesky parts like cholera, child labor, slavery and no rights for women) has consumed her since childhood, when she fell in a stack of Louisa May Alcott and never got up.
MeiLin has been a professional writer for most of the last 35 years, focusing on nonfiction until a cardiac arrest and near death experience in 2006 convinced her she'd better get moving if she meant to write fiction.
Visit her website, where you can talk with her and fellow fans, get bonus stories, wallpapers, and peeks into future books in the series: http://www.MeiLinMiranda.com/
If you received this ebook for free (and I'm not going to ask how), it's not too late to contribute to the author. Paypal whatever you think it's worth to meilin@meilinmiranda.com, or better yet, go to the nearest fine ebook retailer near you and buy a copy of it or one of my other books.
Thank you for reading.
Books by MeiLin Miranda
An Intimate History of the Greater Kingdom
Book One: Lovers and Beloveds
Book Two: Son in Sorrow
Book Three, due mid-2014
Fairy Tales from the Greater Kingdom, Vol I
Prequel stories: “Accounts” and “The Gratification Engine” (ebook only)
The Drifting Isle Chronicles
The Machine God
Songbird, due mid-2014
Aria Afton Presents
The Mage's Toy
The Amber Cross
Bride of Three Princes (as Aria Afton), due late 2014
Other books
Scryer’s Gulch Episodes 1-53
Short stories
"Dalston Junction"
"Vista Bridge," in the anthology Allegories of the Tarot
About The Drifting Isle Chronicles
In January 2012, a team of fantasy authors began an ambitious new project. These strangers, each with a unique writing style and genre focus, came together to create a new fictional world that would blend the mechanical wizardry of steampunk with the classic magic and mystery of epic fantasy.
As the weeks passed, the authors created a sprawling city peopled with all manners of aristocrats, inventors, artists, scholars, travelers, and of course, sinister criminals. But strangest of all was the ancient island they placed among the clouds above the skyscrapers.
And then each author took a separate piece of this new world and wrote their own novel about it: a journey of discovery, a crime thriller, a tale of magic, and an investigation into the long forgotten secrets of a lost civilization. This is one of those novels.
Titles in the Drifting Isle Chronicles
Black Mercury by Charlotte E. English
The Kaiser Affair by Joseph Robert Lewis
The Machine God by MeiLin Miranda
Starcaster by Kat Parrish (coming 2014)
To learn more about the series, or to learn how you can write and publish your own official Drifting Isle novel, visit:
http://www.driftingislechronicles.com
Acknowledgments
Joseph Robert Lewis deserves the credit for The Drifting Isle Chronicles collaboration idea. He solicited writers, chose the group and has more or less been project manager/cheerleader. Along with Joe, Charlotte E. English, Kat Parrish and myself, writer Coral Moore contributed a great deal to the creation of this world. Sadly, she had to leave the project just before the final push, but the music magic was all hers. The Choir, the Duets, composer Simon Ritter and his muse, singer Johanna Diederich, are all from Coral's part of the universe. (We will see more of Simon, Johanna and other Drifting Isle characters in my next DIC novel.) Thank you to Charlotte for letting me borrow the Goldsteins and Til Mencken from her DIC book Black Mercury. I cannot tell you how freaking fun it was to work with this group, and I'll miss them when it comes time to write my next book.
Many thanks to the members of the Gunroom, which it's the Patrick O'Brian list of the world, innit? They gave me invaluable advice on tactics, logistics and politics, as always. Deeper old files you've never seen. Gunroom member Dr. Graham Wellstead specifically helped me with owl stuff. Oh, the mistakes he saved me from.
Beth and Ted Barrial of Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab/Trading Post send inspiration wafting from my pulse points every day. Hand of Hermes FTW!
Thanks to cover artist Elsa Kroese (http://www.elsakroese.com/), who stepped in at the last minute and saved our graphics bacon! She did a gorgeous job to boot.
Annetta "Netta the Eddita" Ribken (http://www.wordwebbing.com/) is the editor without whom I could not work, or work as well at least. I couldn't have found little-girl Ofira without her.
Tim Sevenhuysen at 1889 Labs (http://www.1889.ca/) did a beautiful job with my paperback formatting, as always.
My family puts up with my scribbling. Gods bless 'em and keep 'em.
Finally, thanks to the 147 people who bought The Machine God during the Kickstarter presale. You're reading this because of them.
a supporter from Kickstarter
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