What is steampunk?

When I decided to write this story, it was a little scary, like going into a world I had little connection with or knowledge of. The first thing I asked myself was… what in the world is Steam punk and how do you write a story worthy of being called one?

The answers I received varied widely. Basically, I was told that steam punk is anything with steam in it.  Steam? Okay, old steam engines, a flat iron, industrial revolution…ah... great. So I’d signed on to write a story about an old steam engine? How thrilling! How in the world was I going to write a story someone wanted to read about an old steam engine?

But there is a lot more to steam punk than steam. Steam punk is the unusual. It can be a melting pot of genres wrapped around the mysterious and the unknown, kind of cool and different but with all the elements we’ve come to love in our genre. Steam Punk is like entering a cave to go exploring and finding the unexpected that feels well…somehow familiar.

Harnessing just came to me. Angus tells the story of how as a child everything was turned upside down when the blood drinkers came out of the skies and took over his world. He lost everything. His entire life became devoted to finding a way to defeat them, to take back his world.

But things don’t always go as planned. All seemed lost until he came, beautiful and deadly; Shylar just walked into his world, and represented all Angus had come to despise.

But then steam punk is all about the unexpected and the unusual. Read it and find out.

*_*_*_*

Angus has never known freedom. He was born into a world overtaken by aliens who drank the blood of humans. Only Doctor Often offered hope for survival, and every day a fascinated Angus would sneak into the caves to watch the brilliant man tinker in a laboratory with its menagerie of gadgets, glued-together test tubes, and frayed wires.

Then one day, Angus goes home only to discover both his mother and little brother missing. Alone, he returns to Doctor Often, who trains and mentors him. As time passes, Angus and the doctor build their underground community, rescuing humans while food sources dwindle for both aliens and humans alike. Meanwhile, they also work on a steam engine that will one day, hopefully, allow them to build a flying machine to fight their overseers in the sky. But even though steam is the necessity to their possible survival, it’s also in dreadfully short supply.

When a blood-drinker named Shylar surprisingly surrenders to Doctor Often and his followers, he says he can supply them with steam, claims he holds the key to defeating his own race, and will help them restore the world to the remaining humans. But can Angus and the doctor trust one of their world’s bloodthirsty captors, even if Angus has seen the compelling and alluring vampire in his dreams? Is Shylar leading them all into a deadly trap, or is the beautiful, mysterious alien their dark angel?

Harnessing is now available at Amber Allure.

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