About this item
In a world where the British nobility comes to power because they have magical abilities, the American Revolution of 1776 never got beyond a few angry protests to Parliament. The colonists didn t stand a chance against a ruling class with that much power. Now its 1888, and an underground society of mechanics, scientists, and engineers is developing nonmagical sources of power via steam engines and electric dynamos that they hope will put them on an even - or superior - footing so they can overthrow the magical rulers and gain freedom and independence for the American colonies. When Verity Newton comes to New York City to serve as young governess to one of the leading magical families, she accidentally befriends several rebel mechanics. They recruit her as the perfect spy to gain inside information on the magister class in a magical Gilded Age New York. Even though Verity fights for the rebel cause, shes torn because she feels more at home with the blue-blood Lyndon children and their young guardian uncle than she ever did with her own family. She also feels the strain of her own secret, which would turn the rebels against her and cause her to be shut away by the magisters: Shes half magical herself - born of an illicit relationship between her mother and a magister man. Her very existence is seen as a threat to the purity of the magical bloodline. Meanwhile her employer, Lord Henry, has his own secret. Verity is increasingly convinced that hes the Robin Hood-like leader of a band of magical rebels working to free the colonies from British rule. As the actions of the rebel mechanics and the rebel magisters gain the attention of the Crown, Verity realizes that it will take both groups to achieve American independence, and shes uniquely situated to bring them together - that is if they can survive long enough once the city comes under martial law and the British forces stop at nothing to uncover the rebels and seize their machines.
About the Author
Once upon a time ...A little girl learned to amuse herself by making up stories in her head. She turned everyday activities into exciting adventures, and she made up new adventures for characters from her favorite movies, TV shows and books. Then one day she realized that if she wrote down those stories, she'd have a book! But that was crazy, she thought. Real people don't become novelists. That was like deciding you were going to be a movie star. You couldn't just go and do it. But, it turns out, you can, and she did. She realized her dream of becoming a novelist and seeing her stories in bookstores. And then she started to wig herself out by writing about herself in the third-person. This is her story. The Novelist's JourneyAs I said above in that bit of silliness, I've always been a writer at heart. My favorite way to play was to create stories and act them out with my Fisher-Price people, my Barbie dolls or myself and a box of play clothes. If none of those things were available, I could just sit and make up stories in my head. I occasionally got into trouble for being a little too creative, such as the time when I embellished a bit on my kindergarten experiences (where's the dramatic hook in coloring, cutting out and pasting?) .When I was in seventh grade and a bit old for Fisher-Price people, Barbie dolls or the dress-up box, I started writing these stories down in spiral notebooks. Later, I found an old manual typewriter, taught myself to type, then wrote a lot of first chapters of novels on it. I still hadn't figured out how to actually be a working novelist who gets paid for writing (finishing a book instead of writing a lot of first chapters might have been a good start) , so when it came time to go to college, I went to journalism school at the University of Texas. While getting my degree in broadcast news, I managed to structure a curriculum that might also help me in my real career plans. I took fencing (which I thought would be useful for writing fantasy novels) , an astronomy course on the search for extraterrestrial life (in case I wanted to write science fiction) , psychology, interpersonal communication, and parageography (the geography of imaginary lands) .I got serious about pursuing my novel-writing ambitions soon after I got my first job in public relations (TV reporting, it turns out, would have taken away from my writing time) when I started joining local writing organizations and reading books on how to write a novel. Then I took the big step of registering for a writing conference. With the registration fee, you could enter two manuscripts in a contest that went with the conference. I figured if I was paying that much money, I'd get the most out of it, so I wrote two entries. At the conference, I met a real, live editor, who encouraged me to submit, and one of my entries won the science fiction/fantasy category of the contest. I hurried to finish the novel the editor ha
