The Makings of a Princess Story
Hello, Turtleducklings! Today I am super excited because I get to unveil… … … … … … … … THIS! What is it, you ask? It’s our next release, an anthology of longish short stories by three Turtleduck Press authors, plus a sneak peek at our next novel. (Never fear, KD Sarge—our fourth author—hasn’t gone anywhere. Look for her next piece right here on December 1!) And yes, each story features outer space. And at least one princess. To be honest, I had a lot of trouble with mine. I didn’t want to go the route of Star Wars, with a grand space opera, since I only had the length of a novelette to work with. Next I ran through some classic Star Trek rip-off ideas and abandoned those as well. But then what? How to reasonably put a princess in a space setting and give her an adventure…oh yes, and a romance? Luckily, I already had a space setting—the steampunk ‘verse featured in The Haunting of Heatherbrae Station. It’s based on an alternate nineteenth century where a powerful source of energy, called ether, enabled humans to invent space travel more than a century early. Lots of fun…but I still wasn’t sure how to use it this time around. The real nineteenth century was a rich time, full of new inventions that made people feel they were living in an era of change and modernity. And it was also a time of social change—for example, numerous countries in Europe…