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by Mary C. Findley

Sophronia Belle Lyon drinks tea, creates mechanicals, shoot when she can, travels widely, and writes Steam Pulp Literary Tributes. A certain mysterious man with fabulous shoulders is the genius who inspires her never say die heroes and eccentric inventors. She was a Cauldron Spirit in 4th Grade and has taken apart her share of clocks. Airships carried her to Italy by way of Iceland and Luxembourg. She was privileged to miss the Swiss Alps due to the misfortune of steaming through them at midnight in pitch darkness.

Characters made the leap from classic 1800s novels to band together against human trafficking and the rise of a slave empire. Implacable villains mean to turn the social order on its ear, creating a web of deceit, domination, and debauchery. These adventurers combine steam and gear technology with families, friendship, faith, and fortitude.
Let me share a few reviews
A Dodge, a Twist, and a Tobacconist:
“Not only surprised but intrigued. I have never read much Steampunk it just didn’t seem to reach me. I could not stop reading this little jewel. I cannot wait to see what Ms. Belle has in store for her readers next.”

“I don’t usually read Christian fiction, so I was a bit surprised. The steam-punk/Victorian lit. connection is super fun!”
A Dodge, a Twist, and a Tobacconist is the first book in the series, and the ebook version is free.  It also has a print and illustrated version. The Pinocchio Factor is the second book, and features a grown-up Oliver Twist as an eccentric inventor. The third book is The Most Dangerous Game, featuring Pecos Bill and hi wife, Sluefoot Sue (in case you ever wanted to know what her riding that giant catfish was all about). 

Jeremiah 15:19-21 

These verses made me think of how we fail the Lord sometimes … Get distracted and fall away from wholehearted service, or become rebellious and stubborn. The Lord invites us to return, and His forgiveness will restore us to “stand before him”, like a servant stands ready to do his master’s bidding. 

Then I thought about writing Steampunk, and how man takes good things and twists them, making them evil and vile, or real-life people who corrupt the innocent. Classic themes, characters, and settings become vehicles for sex-peddling, feminist diatribes, exalting the occult, and all the other things Steampunk sometimes does.  But the verses above say God urges us to “take forth the precious from the vile”. He says … *shivers running up and down my spine* … “thou shalt be as my mouth”. I get to speak for God. I get to speak for God! 

there’s a strong caution in the Jeremiah passage. I can use Steampunk for His glory, but I have to be careful not to let my hunger to extend my reach — to use this offbeat but popular genre to attract people into the sphere of God’s influence — God says, “let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them.” It’s the old analogy of the person standing on the chair trying to pull up the person on the floor. I can’t end up on the floor. I can’t get down on the world’s level. I have to bring them up into that “Sun” Keppler talked about. I also have to remember that I’m supposed to be rescuing souls, real, precious lives, not just writing a book about it.