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by Sophronia Belle Lyon

 
On October 30, 2012 a new book will launch, called “The Alexander Legacy, Book One: A Dodge, a Twist, and a Tobacconist.” Hope you aren’t lost already with such a long-winded title. Literary Tribute and Steampunk are pretty uncharted territory for Christian writers. In fact, some Christians will turn away because the title includes a “tobacconist”, and because it’s launching on October 30th, clearly a tie-in with that totally unchristian celebration known as Halloween.
 
Robert Louis Stevenson wrote about Florizel, Prince of Bohemia in “The Suicide Club.” He righted wrongs, fought evil, and then retired to run a tobacco shop. In this story Florizel repairs a pipe, lights it for the owner, and there is brief mention of cigar smoking. Otherwise, he comes out of retirement to help form the crime-fighting Alexander Legacy Company, along with characters from Jane Austen, Rudyard Kipling, Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and others. A literary tribute takes classic literary characters and tells new stories about them.
 
Steampunk speculates on what life would be like in the Victorian Era if people had amazing steam and clockwork technology like airships, automatons (similar to robots) and other devices. Often it has dark or occult elements. That’s the Halloween connection. This is more of a Halloween alternative, like handing out tracts to trick-or-treaters. The characters fight human trafficking, protect traditional marriage and family, and confront situations common to the gothic horror and occult-obsessed modern culture.
 
Please visit Sophronia Belle Lyon’s Facebook page and give it a look and a like. Browse the beautiful 18th and 19th-Century paintings to help you visualize some of the story’s characters. Take a look at the full print version cover art and clothing of the Victorian era. and enjoy some samples of the story and the original artwork depicting the “gadgets” that steam through this tale, including clockwork bugs and a giant catfish submarine.
 
Put on your goggles and step aboard the airship of Oliver Twist, grown up to be a brilliant but eccentric inventor. Linger in a rooftop garden filled with moving bronze animals. Pin a fashionable clockwork bug to your lapel. Meet an Indian poison maiden and see what she does with her Khanda sword.
 
Most important, track a shadowy enemy organizing pickpockets, prostitutes, drug dealers and housebreakers into a slave army bent on seeing that no one comprehends or finds true freedom again. Watch redemption come out of enslavement and see the restoration of those the world thinks of as hopeless.
 
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