MFRW: Steampunk Set Where? In Buffalo, New York!

It might be said that Buffalo, New York—renowned worldwide for its monster snow storms and oft-disappointing sports teams—is an unexpected setting for a Steampunk adventure. As a native born and bred in that great, gray, gritty city on the edge of the mighty Niagara, I must object. Dim and dark, industrial yet beautiful, filled with the angst and stoical endurance of its largely-immigrant population, Buffalo’s a Steampunk city waiting to happen.

When I began writing my Steampunk adventures, I fully intended to set them in London. But I thought about it and realized the black humor, wry determination and heart-deep generosity I wanted to include in my stories already existed in Buffalo in spades, and I changed my mind. And so I created a world to which I and my readers have returned again and again.

The first Buffalo Steampunk Adventure, Dead Handsome, begins with a hero who’s…well, dead. The heroine, who desperately needs a husband and wants one who won’t trouble her too much by having inconvenient opinions, decides to reanimate him using a secret ancestral talent powered by steam. The trouble is the man, once raised, refuses to remain compliant. And he has a whole lot of trouble on his heels.

From there, the series took off. I try to feature a significant aspect of the city in each book. Thus, we have an airship battle fought over Niagara Falls, a spiritual stand-off in the then-newly-built Forest Lawn Cemetery and a grain elevator rescue on the Victorian waterfront. The series is now up to nine published adventures with the tenth and final story under contract. Significant research has been necessary, as has the eye-straining study of old maps. Needless to say, I’ve loved it all.

My characters are bold, they’re flawed, they’re wicked and heroic. Like the city they inhabit, their histories have dark underbellies. The theme of the series, as a whole, has emerged as the evolution of automaton rights. What began as a wee germ of an idea in the first book, with a single, damaged steam unit, has become a motivating force in a parallel world where hybrid automatons can’t be told from humans, and some have bigger hearts than their flesh-and-blood counterparts.

Come and visit…I predict you’ll want to stay.

Dead Handsome: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure Blurb:

Clara Allen needs a husband in order to keep a roof over the heads of her assorted dependents, a roof her nasty grandfather will re-appropriate unless she is married by her 21st birthday, only a few days away.  Strong-minded, unwilling to take orders from any man, she decides to solve her problem by raising a murdered prisoner from the dead and marrying him.  She expects an empty-headed puppet; she certainly never dreams he’ll be so devastatingly handsome.

Liam McMahon doesn’t recall much about his life before his hanging in the prison yard, other than being Irish.  He does remember the kiss Clara bestowed as she brought him back to life.  Every time he looks at her, his desire gets out of hand.  But his former life is chasing him down like a steam engine, and when a couple of mad geniuses decide he’d make a fine experiment, he wonders if he’ll live long enough to claim Clara’s heart or if he’ll die all over again.

Excerpt:

The room needed to be warm–she had learned that during past experiments. It helped if the subject awakened in an environment that was moist and heated, akin to the womb. And the breath of life was more easily received by warmed flesh.

Still obviously uneasy, Georgina rejoined Clara at the table. “You know you’re going to have to touch him.”

“I’ve already touched him. Ruella and I stripped and washed him down.”

“You’re going to have to kiss him.”

“It isn’t a kiss. It’s a resurrection.”

The room had warmed quickly. Now clouds of steam billowed and surrounded the table, lending an unreality to this thing she undertook. It blurred the edges of her vision and her reason.

She rested her fingertips lightly against the corpse’s chest and closed her eyes. He no longer felt cold but he did feel quite dead. She’d learned the difference over these many months. Against all the distractions she quieted her mind and reached for the power within.

It slept much the way the man’s flesh did, resting in oblivion. Like a separate entity within her, it mellowed and simmered until she called upon it, when it flared to life, bringing life.

She let the power grow and flare and burgeon inside of her because she would need a great quantity of it, more than ever before. When it threatened to overspill her like hot water in a steaming kettle she opened her eyes.

She felt full; she felt ready. She drew a deep breath–deep, deep, deeper than ever before–leaned down and placed her mouth upon that of the corpse.

Laura Strickland Website: www.laurastricklandbooks.com

Buy Links for Dead Handsome: A Buffalo Steampunk Adventure:

Buy link Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Handsome-Buffalo-Steampunk-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00SVWWUUM/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

Buy link Amazon Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/Dead-Handsome-Buffalo-Steampunk-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00SVWWUUM/ref=sr_1_1

Buy link Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dead-Handsome-Buffalo-Steampunk-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00SVWWUUM/ref=sr_1_1

Buy link Amazon Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/Dead-Handsome-Buffalo-Steampunk-Adventure-ebook/dp/B00SVWWUUM/ref=sr_1_1

Buy link Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dead-handsome-laura-strickland/1121179536?ean=2940150186538

Buy link: iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/dead-handsome-a-buffalo-steampunk-adventure/id965666073

Laura Strickland bio:

Born in Buffalo and raised on the Niagara Frontier, award-winning author Laura Strickland has been an avid reader and writer since childhood. She believes the spunky, tenacious, undefeatable ethnic mix that is Buffalo spells the perfect setting for a little Steampunk, so she created her own Victorian world there.  She knows the people of Buffalo are stronger, tougher and smarter than those who haven’t survived the muggy summers and blizzard blasts found on the shores of the mighty Niagara.  Tough enough to survive a squad of killer automatons? Well, just maybe.

Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000002632317

Author Amazon page:  http://www.amazon.com/Laura-Strickland/e/B001KHSACW/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Author Goodreads page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/760146.Laura_Strickland

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Laura Strickland Author @LauraSt05038951

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