by Rebecca Diem
Cat felt her lower lip tremble, but she could feel Morris’ stare and knew she must be brave as she fought for composure. The Captain looked her in the eyes as he rested a hand on her shoulder.
“You’ve done us a great service, little Cat.”
He said nothing more, but picked up her brother with one arm and offered his other hand to her. Cat took a shaky breath, lifted her chin, and picked up their belongings before slipping her small hand into his.
They took the carriage to the tallport where the Captain boosted her brother onto his shoulders and led them up and up and up the spiral stair to a sleek and beautiful airship. A frowning man stormed onto the deck as soon as they had boarded.
“Now Captain, if I find out you’ve been to dinner at Winnie’s without the rest of us–”
He stopped at the sight of the Captain Duke, blue coat flapping in the wind, a toddler clinging to his hair and a small girl standing at his side.
“Change course, Trick. We’re being led into a trap. I’ll explain later, but I think we may find time to pass by the Haven instead,” he said, leading them toward the mess hall.
“But, Captain–”
“Oh, and I seem to have found us some new pilots. Meet Cat,” said the Captain Duke, nodding in her direction, “and Mouse.”
To be continued…
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Author’s Note
Once upon a time, an author was dreaming a steampunk dream of gadgets and gears and mad genius professors with clockwork limbs.
But she began to wonder: why does the Professor invent her inventions? What inspired her innovations at the forefront of this fictional technological boom?
And a story began to form. A child surrounded by books, living a thousand lives beyond the walls of her home. A young woman who saw opportunities in a way no one else could. A professor who made a practice of dismantling the limitations placed upon her work.
Professor Georgina Jameson Sewell is one of my favourite creations (named for Jamie and Georgina, who bought the 99th and 100th book sold at my first Fan Expo Canada in 2015), and she captures so much of the spirit of innovation I wanted to convey in this series.
The universe of the Tales of the Captain Duke is built on the idea that it’s possible to twist the fabric of history and see our world in a different light. Steampunk disrupts our assumptions and opens us to the question: what if…?
What if there was a college built for female scholarship in the Victorian era, founded by Mary Somerville and funded by the heirs of Ada Lovelace?
What if the social model of disability was developed a hundred years earlier and prompted the kind of technological advances that would eradicate many injustices of the 20th century?
What if a band of airship pirates could challenge assumptions about mental health and identity, with powerful bonds of friendship?
These are the things I get to play with between the lines.
On a more historical note, one of my very early drafts for the series had the connection to Princess Beatrice and the Isle of Wight. Queen Victoria’s youngest child was married to Prince Henry of Battenberg on July 23, 1885, almost a year to the day before Clara became the stowaway debutante. Their first child, Alexander, was born in November 1886. The Royal Family spent many summers on the Isle at Osborne House. Beatrice eventually married at a nearby church, and later retired to a private residence on the grounds of the estate.
Another detail is an essential feature of the town of Reading – Huntley & Palmers biscuits, a major economic driver of the region. Their biscuits were shipped all over the world in their distinctive tins. I liked the idea that Emily Palmer might have been a contemporary of Professor Sewell.
I have another secret.
I was reading Orlando by Virginia Woolf when I began to write the Tales of the Captain Duke. It’s one of those gorgeous books that stays with you long after you turn the final page. The protagonist, Orlando, has a lover named ‘Marmaduke Bonthrop Shelmerdine, Esquire,’ and describes in detail his many nicknames, dependent on her mood:
‘Tell me, Mar,’ she would say (and here it must be explained, that when she called him by the first syllable of his first name, she was in a dreamy, amorous, acquiescent mood, domestic, languid a little, as if spiced logs were burning, and it was evening, yet not time to dress, and a thought wet perhaps outside, enough to make the leaves glisten, but a nightingale might be singing even so among the azaleas, two or three dogs barking at distant farms, a cock crowing — all of which the reader should imagine in her voice).
– Woolf, Orlando, Chp. 5
And that, Reader, is how our Captain found his name.
– Rebecca Diem
August 2016
Acknowledgements
It’s been quite the year. I had no idea there would be so many of you when I started to publish my stories, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to share this one with you as well.
My first thanks are to you. For every tweet of encouragement, every comment and review, every time you shared my books with friends and family.
Thank you again to my editor, Arden Dier, whose thoughtful and merciless advice is responsible for countless improvements on my initial drafts.
Thank you to my beta readers, Lori Steuart and Paola Loriggio, for always being there to listen while I untangled a tricky bit of plot.
Thank you to Stevie Mikayne, for believing I could do it and keeping me sane while I did.
Thank you to Steve Armstrong for designing the cover and always finding the perfect portholes.
Thank you to Sarah Dier-McComb for the beautiful cover art. And I promise, here, in writing, that the next one will be a beach scene.
Thank you to the staff of the late, great Dark Horse Queen West, the eternal Bean Cellar, and my newest love, the Early Bird Espresso Bar. Finding myself bereft of a writing spot has made me treasure my favourites all the more.
Thank you to Brooklyn Marx for being such a powerful voice in our world and ensuring that Professor Sewell would be one in hers.
Thank you to the Toronto Steampunk Society for your support and inspiration. I couldn’t ask for a better crew.
Thank you to my geek girl squad, who always get it, even when I can’t even.
And finally, to my family. These books are a collective effort, and I couldn’t do it without your endless love and enthusiasm. Thank you.
– Rebecca Diem
August 2016
Rebecca Diem is a writer, music lover and nerd. She is the author of the indie steampunk series Tales of the Captain Duke, following the adventures of a defiant young aristocrat who saves a band of airship pirates from certain peril and talks her way into joining their crew.
An avid bookworm, Rebecca was honoured to receive a ‘Nose in a Book’ award from her elementary school librarian, and has a dedicated To Be Read shelf in her growing library. Somewhere between reading Virginia Woolf and Neil Gaiman she began to write her own stories.
Rebecca now calls Toronto home and is on a never-ending quest to find the perfect café and writing spot.
Web: rebeccadiem.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: RebeccaDiemAuthor
Twitter/Instagram: @kthnxbex
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