After a very boring, poorly attended RustyCon, we’re looking forward to Mythicworlds, also in Seatac. Knowing those folks, we can definitely count on at least being entertained. Jeff and Shannon will represent Clockwork Dragon at the region’s premier faerie festival.
Jeff will have copies of his latest new release, Street Fair–the highly anticipated sequel to Foul Is Fair. Stop by the vendor’s room to say hi!
After spending last weekend at OrcaCon, a superbly organized first-time gaming convention in Everett, WA, the team is heading to RustyCon. This 33rd year of RustyCon features Gene Armstrong, Steven Barnes, and Julie Zetterberg as Guests of Honor. Clockwork Dragon is pleased to be part of the marketplace for this established science fiction convention. Join us the evening of the 15th through the 17th!
New from Myrddin Publishing, this collection of diverse fantasy stories all focus on a central theme of a house in the woods. Forbidden romance, horrific madness, playful boys, and more can be found within.
Ten stories showcase the talents of ten Myrddin authors, including Clockwork Dragon’s own Lee French. Her story is set in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era.
An excerpt from Forever by Lee French:
Mrs. Tucker patted both boys on the head and turned to knock on the front door. It opened before she touched it. Mrs. Connor, a slim white woman with blonde hair swept up in a neat bun, looked the Tuckers over and raised a delicate eyebrow. Her broad-striped blue frock coat covered a crisp, white cotton dress. Mrs. Tucker yanked her hand back for fear of sullying the woman’s fine clothes.
Not wanting to hear a sneer in the lady’s voice, Mrs. Tucker launched into her story without waiting to be greeted. “Mrs. Connor, excuse me. I’m Mrs. James Tucker. I’m looking for live-in work. I been keeping the Baxter house for two years and they happy with me, but ain’t got no space for me and my boys after Mr. Tucker passed few days back. My boys ain’t no trouble and they do a good job washing up in the kitchen. I can cook, clean, sew, and watch after littles.”
Mrs. Connor’s brow lifted in surprise, and she crossed herself. “I’m sorry for your loss.” Her bright green eyes took in the boys slumped together, and she gave Mrs. Tucker a long, slow looking-over. Pity shaped her mouth into a sad smile, and she wondered if they’d have been better off as slaves.
Into the Woods: a fantasy anthology is available in both ebook and print on Amazon.
Starting this weekend at Gifts For Geeks, an annual event at the AFK Elixirs & Eatery in Renton, WA, Clockwork Dragon will be offering Mad Science Institute, Foul Is Fair, and Girls Can’t be Knights as a set with a special price of $35 for all three print books.
These three books are the series openers for our three Young Adult science fiction and fantasy lines by Sechin Tower, Jeffrey Cook, and Lee French.
This deal is only available from us in person! Come see us Saturday, December 12, 2015 in Renton, or at any of our 2016 convention and event appearances for this great offer.
Writerpunk Press is holding a Facebook release party on December 5th and 6th, celebrating the release of our second charity anthology: Once More Unto the Breach: Shakespeare Goes Punk 2!
The release party weekend will feature authors, artists, editors, and others who took part in putting the anthology together, along with a number of other authors of science fiction and fantasy.
Additionally, to help promote and celebrate the release, the first charity anthology, Sound & Fury: Shakespeare Goes Punk (already listed on this site under Jeffrey Cook’s books) will be .99 on kindle all week.
Excerpt from Dogs of War by Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins:
The Brute, eighty-two tons of armor, firepower, and treads taller than most men, ground its way across the desert floor. They said the monster tank had already been a museum piece, a relic of older days of war, when it had been smuggled across the sea after the days of fire rain. It had tracked the desert again and again before it saw seven years’ respite in the enforced ‘peace’ under the Tyrant—before the tank and its commander had been instrumental in bringing down the last man to try claiming dominion over the whole desert empire. In the generations since, it had seen war, because war was all the people of the desert knew.
Many said the only original part the tank had left was the battered metal plate bearing the name its original crew had given it. In these days, in times of nomads and a transient existence, such a legacy was a thing so rare that every commander of the heavy tank came to share its name—including the quiet and studious man serving as commander now, who seemed ill fit for it, save in record of his victories. He stood proudly, so his torso emerged through the main hatch, that all could see Brian June as his family’s inheritance led the procession of his warband into the recently conquered capital.
The capital, so called because it had been the Tyrant’s and because it was the only thing truly worthy of being called a town in five hundred miles, had been thought unconquerable, the last, invulnerable bastion of Lord Phillip’s might, and the key to enough resources to sustain a war. But Jules the Conqueror had done it. He’d built his own army, convinced them of the possibilities, and won victory after victory. He’d gained the allegiance of Marcus’s cycle gangs. Others followed, eventually, including the Brute himself, and together, they’d collapsed the last great resistance to uniting the desert empire—to be led by a council of the warband leaders who had made it all possible.
Sound & Fury: Shakespeare Goes Punk is available in both ebook and print on Amazon. For a limited time, the ebook is only $0.99.
Once More Unto the Breach: Shakespeare Goes Punk 2 will be available in ebook and print on Amazon December 5, 2015.
The final installment of the Mad Science Institute series is here!
Still devastated by the death of his fiancé, Dean Lazarchek stumbles upon an ancient technology with the incredible power to recreate a living mind. To resurrect the woman he loves, he must confront bullet-proof thugs, dogfight in hyper-advanced gunships, and battle an old college rival who now commands the fury of nature itself. Even if he succeeds, he has no way to know if he will bring back his lost love… or an alien entity that wears her face as a disguise.
Excerpt:
Dean shifted his aim to the second mosquito pod, but its pilot was better at bobbing and weaving than the first. It zipped behind a row of apartments, then somehow reemerged dead ahead, its guns blazing electric blue in the twilight. Dean’s pod rang with a grazing blow and a long crack sluiced through the glass by his right hand.
Jerking rapidly on the flight stick, Dean spun crazily as he tried to find his target again. His stomach heaved at the tumultuous motion, and by the time he got the enemy pod back in sight, he saw it sweeping around an office complex, speeding towards him with its rail guns carving the air like knives.
Suddenly, an uprooted tree flew into the enemy pod, smashing it like a fist hitting a hollowed-out egg.
Dean swore and then spun himself around to witness a massive funnel cloud fifty yards away, marching through the center of the city like Godzilla himself. It snatched up whatever was in its way—cars, street-lamps, even small buildings—and whipped them around and around before hurling the remains across the city. Lightning flashed, illuminating other funnel clouds reaching down towards the ground like the fingers of a monstrous hand.
“I thought the storm was out at sea!” Dean jerked on the controls as he felt the winds pulling him inwards.
“That one was,” Tesla explained. “They often come in pairs, though the counter-clockwise ones tend to die more quickly here in the southern hemisphere.”
“Just tell me how many there are!”
“Currently: six—at least. Within the next thirty minutes there could be as many as twenty.”
“Twenty?” Dean couldn’t believe that he’d heard right. Single tornadoes of this magnitude had been known to devastate entire towns, inflicting millions of dollars in damages, and claiming dozens of lives. Twenty tornadoes unleashed on a city this size… the only word Dean could think to describe the devastation was “biblical.”
Ghost Storm is available in ebook and paperback on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.
This year for Halloween, Clockwork Dragon will appear at Jet City Comic Show in the Tacoma Convention Center. 
Tickets are only $10 for one day or $18 for a weekend pass. It takes place October 31st and November 1st, 10-5 both days. We’ll have copies of all our books, tiny dragons, and laughs aplenty. Come watch Lee and Jeff lament not being able to get started on their NaNoWriMo projects until Monday! (And maybe also sneak some writing in on the side.)
A fantasy take on the Joan of Arc legend with an Arabian Nights twist, Al-Kabar follows a woman shaped by tragedy and thrust into the position of championing the common people. Corruption runs rampant over the desert land of Serescine and Fakhira must learn hard lessons to fight against it.
Excerpt:
Tahjis grabbed her arm and tugged her to her feet. “Never show weakness. Get up, shake it off, keep going.”
She pulled her hand back before she touched the wall to use it for support. “Never?”
“No.” He smacked her hand. “When you pull back, don’t bring your hand so close. Let it fall to your side or cross your arms.”
She dropped her hand to her side and took a deep breath. “This is going to be harder than I thought.”
“Don’t think about how small you are. You’re the biggest, baddest man ever. No one can beat you, no one can put you down. You’re the king of your hill. Head up, eyes forward, walk like you own the street and you’ll fight to defend it.” Despite his words, Tahjis seemed to cower away from everyone and everything, including her.
Squaring her shoulders, she scanned the street and thought about the idea of every spot she placed a foot on being somehow hers. No one could take her space away from her. She belonged here, and nothing would change that. Her gait took on a swagger, with her head high and her arms out and ready to hurt anyone who came close.
Al-Kabar, a fantasy novel by Lee French, releases on September 18th. Print and ebook editions are available on Amazon, Kobo, and Barnes & Noble. The ebook edition is 99 cents for a limited time, until the 26th.
Addy’s boss has been murdered. She’s next. She’s been folded into something that supernatural forces want, and it looks like she’ll have no choice in the matter. Tab’s been through hell to make sure this sort of thing doesn’t happen—literally.
The red-winged Angel of Free Will cares vehemently about individual agency in human destiny. How much he cares about Addy herself may be another thing entirely, but at any rate, she has a better chance with him than with the rest of the Angelic family, Fallen or otherwise. In a run for her life and a race in which the involvement of the Devil himself is considered among the least of their worries, Addy must find enough moments of calm to unfold the Angel’s Grace inside her, learn from the visions it provides, and find the keys to Heaven and Hell.
Excerpt:
I got out and was greeted with semi-warm air, the smell of salt, and a light breeze, which was nice. I think it was getting on towards the weekend, and was a little sad I didn’t even know what day of the week it was. We’d been gone for hours, but it felt like days, and I couldn’t remember anymore what day it’d been yesterday when I’d gone into work and…
I closed my car door on the thought—and the sight of my boss and friend lying there—and palmed the remote that would lock the doors. I had left the key in the ignition to make for a faster getaway. I closed my eyes and listened to the gulls and the surf on the shore and relished the soothing silence it brought to my mind. My troubles dimmed under the warmth of the sun on my face, the hurt washing out with the tide. Novocain for the soul.
Airs & Graces, an urban fantasy novel by Jeffrey Cook and AJ Downey, was released in July and is currently available in print on Amazon.
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