The Revelry begins on October 16, 2013 at 8:00 Pacific Time and will continue for five days and nights until October 19, 2013 at midnight Pacific Time.
Gentlemen, Ladies and Sky Pirates: Welcome to our Steampunk Darcy Revelry! In order to start off the revelry on the right foot, here are some general guidelines. Hot air balloons may only be tethered in the official landing area (Sky Pirates, please note). There is an overflow area if the closest one is full. Steam-operated shuttlemobiles are available for you convenience.
Secure your landing gear in the cabinets provided and proceed to the hallway where an automaton will guide you to your designated seat. All items in the dining area are original vintage items, including the Spode china, so kindly handle with care and do not attempt to remove from the premises. Mr. Darcy will commence the revelries when all our guests have arrived. Dinner will be provided by Cogwheel Delights, a Most Marvellous Meals delivery service.
Today we are celebrating MONICA FAIRVIEW’S new release, STEAMPUNK DARCY.
You will have the opportunity to sample an excerpt of STEAMPUNK DARCY after the Victorian sponge cake and blancmange provided by White Soup Press, famous purveyors of Jane Austen flavoured writings. Following the last course, there will be an opportunity to play the TwoChops crossword puzzle game, and enter the Rafflecopter for the following prizes:
CAMEO BROOCH similar to that worn by Seraphene on the cover of Steampunk Darcy
or a $10 Gift Card from the Coffee Time Romance eBook Store.
PRIZE UPDATE: Congratulations to Robert who won the gift card and Jana who won this beautiful Brooch
Excerpt from Steampunk Darcy
Chapter One
Alright, Mr. Hoity-Toity. This had better be good. I’m risking skin and bone to get here.
The door opened and she strode into—.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t an office. It was an emporium, a museum and the Great Exhibition of 1851, complete with Victorian gents and ladies who had the glazed look of trophy animals. Except that the Victorians were standing around instead of hanging on the wall.
“Are these actual people? Did you have them stuffed and embalmed?” she asked, by way of greeting, “Or are they wax figures, like Madame Tussauds?”
In the gloomy gas lamp-lit interior, she couldn’t tell which one of them was William Darcy until he stepped forward and bowed.
“Welcome to Longbourn Laboratories, Miss Grant.”
The smirk fell off her face.
Raven black hair with a green swirl draped over his left eye. Silver eyes like the sheen of a dagger.
Gorgeous was not the right word for him. Gorgeous was a word invented for ordinary mortals. This particular specimen was splenderous. She didn’t know if it was a real word but it was the right one.
For just a second, she had a sense of vertigo.
Vertigo? A seasoned aviator like me? To bring herself back down to earth, she focused on the flaws in his appearance. The tailored green frockcoat that skimmed the top of his knees was shipshape, except for the fluffy bits (cotton? Did he manufacture cloth?). His silver cravat would have done the most demanding gentleman proud, but it looked crooked, as if he’d been tugging at it. The silver earpiece with jade stones matched perfectly with his outfit, but it was lopsided as if he’d put it on in a hurry. Everything about him suggested a need to keep moving.
Looking for his flaws hadn’t helped at all. If anything, it had given her a chance to ogle him more closely, which somehow had an undesirable effect on her knees – and other parts of her. Her knees especially.
Nobody turned Seraphene’s knees soggy. Not without her permission.
Her gaze drifted back to his face.
He was scrutinizing her with his right eyebrow slanted arrogantly upwards, a monocle in hand.
She was definitely averse to arrogant eyebrows and she absolutely did not like monocles, no matter how fashionable they might be.
That put some backbone into her knees. She snapped out of it. He could be as splenderous as he wanted. She was here to do a job, and unless he happened to be interested in dead-end scientific research, which was her legal work, then he wanted her for something illegal and she intended to make him pay through his teeth. That meant she couldn’t afford to even look in his splenderous direction or he might just manage to distract her.
She looked at the closest surface to her, which was a shelf, and there, casually cast there – too casually –was a print newspaper with a large headline announcing the opening of the Great Exhibition with a daguerreotype photograph of Queen Victoria.
She examined the newspaper. She could have sworn it was the genuine article. Yellowed pages, jagged edges and all. It would fetch a good price. She wondered if he would notice if she nicked it. Her hand twitched.
“It’s authentic,” said the deep, British-sounding voice. “You may have it if you like.”
It was a bribe. She knew it, and he knew it. He’d chosen that newspaper deliberately to entice her.
“No thanks,” she said, putting her hands behind her back and holding them tightly together. The newspaper was bait but she wasn’t going to play fish.
“Take it with you when you leave, then,” said Darcy, with bored indifference. He took down the newspaper, folded it, and tossed it – tossed it! – onto the neighboring chair. Seraphene cringed. It was like tossing a Spode china cup onto a side table.
She refused to be rattled by his pretentious disdain for valuable objects.
“You sent me an invitation, Mr. Darcy.” A flat statement of fact.
“Call me Darcy. Most people do. May I call you Seraphene? It makes negotiating much less cumbersome. I’m delighted you agreed to see me, Seraphene.”
There was definitely something smug about the way he said it. He was taking her for granted, assuming she’d agree to any terms he set.
He didn’t know her yet.
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If you solve the puzzle, please let me know in the Rafflecopter and include your scores. Those who finish the puzzle and like my Steampunk Darcy page on facebook will be included in the drawing for the prize.
The contest will be open for five days (Monday thru Friday)
~~~~~~~~~
Before the revelries get into full swing, allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Monica Fairview and I’m the author of two traditional Jane Austen sequels: The Other Mr. Darcy and The Darcy Cousins. The Other Mr. Darcy was chosen as A Desert Island Keeper on All About Romance. My debut novel, An Improper Suitor, is a tongue in cheek Regency which has been described as a gothic parody.
I’ve been wanting to write a Steampunk romance for some time, but having written Regency and Jane Austen sequels I was waiting for a way to develop my writing in that direction. Then the idea of writing a post-apocalyptic novel struck, and suddenly, there was Steampunk Darcy. I lived in Boston for ten years and it’s a city that I love. I love the gaslights on Beacon Hill, the cobbled streets, the Back Bay, and the aura of the past that hangs over the city. I wanted to see a steamboat come down the Charles River. I originally started the novel with that steamboat, but for various reasons I decided to hold off with it until after Seraphene’s first encounter with Darcy.
While Steampunk Darcy features a descendant of the original Darcy, you don’t need to know Pride and Prejudice to enjoy the novel. My heroine Seraphene holds her own and she doesn’t let Darcy overshadow her. Seraphene is a survivor of the Uprising, an aviator who supplements her income as a researcher with cargo runs that aren’t always legal. I like her enough that I’m planning to give her a story of her own.
My next project is a YA dystopian novel called Uprising, a prequel to Steampunk Darcy that shows us Seraphene at age 15, struggling to keep herself and her little sister alive as the oceans rise and flood the city.
All this sounds very grim, I know, but the subtitle is: A Comedy Adventure so it can’t be entirely serious. I would therefore caution you not to read the novel at work or in your college classroom because you might LOL which would not be a good idea.
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http:://www.screencast.com/t/RMknNWj6er
