Valves & Vixens Volume 3

I invite you to take a trip into where steamships, clockwork and steampunk are king. Within these pages are stories that will take you beyond the reality as we know it. So join us and step into the world of Valves & Vixens...A Race and a Rescue - Katherine EvansReihani is a fearless airship pilot that believes there is no obstacle or challenge she can't overcome. So when her cousins kidnap her lover and then challenge her to an airship race to get him back, she agrees. And while she has complete faith in her abilities as a pilot, her cousins have never been known to play fair. With Tieko's freedom on the line, she knows she'll have to keep one step ahead of them or lose her lover forever.Washing Away - SS Hampton, Sr.December 31, 1900, New Year's Eve. A murder of a prominent British politician, an Opportunistic computer technology entrepreneur in a seedy hotel in Washington, D.C. Is the murder nothing more than a sleazy robbery, maybe industrial espionage, or perhaps revenge? Lady Elysia Delacroix Stuart, a brothel owner in Washington, and her sister Lady Cassandra Delacroix Gordon, a member of the brothel, are on their way to Chestertown, West Delaware-the American Indian state, created after the Revolutionary War-for a New Year's Eve celebration. The American Indian state leads the world in early computer technology and Lady Elysia's family played a role in developing the technology. She also had a secret and less than pleasing history with the politician, and finds herself suspect in his murder.Green Spectacles and Rosy Cheeks - Jean RobertaSignor Vitrina, master clairvoyant, is a foreigner in Victorian England. He promised to take care of his old friend's daughter, Dorothea, who is learning to see the past and the future in a square of white silk; but her reputation is so compromised by her position that she doesn't expect to find love. When a determined customer braves the rain to ask for help, the two clairvoyants discover his passion for photography - and for Dorothea. She yearns to give him the discipline he needs. Will she become his strict Muse, and will he reward her with his devotion? Love is the hardest outcome to foresee.Daedalus and the Automaton - P.R. ChasePR Chase's short story, Daedalus and the Automaton, imagines a pleasure 'bot's experiences on board a high-society, high-flying hedonistic airship. As a guest--not as a service machine--&quote;it&quote; begins to develop an identity as a &quote;she&quote; through the power of choice and the urgency of desire.Adrift in a Sea of Stars - Vivian GwynnEmmeline knows just about everything there is to know about space travel. She knows how to stoke a boiler and trim a solar sail, how to take off from a Tsiolkovsky tower, and how to cope with long days and nights with no company but the stars. But when she's assigned Victor Yorke, the handsome young heir to the Lunar Trading Company, as her copilot, she might just learn something new.Flight and Fancy - Parker RoyeThomas Whitlock needs a stall at the Ascension Day market if he's going to make enough money to leave Newcastle for the south. When his latest negotiations with costermongers fail to produce anything but animosity, Thomas permits himself an evening to forget his troubles-only to find a different sort of trouble when he meets Smythe. A creature of the traveling night market, compelling and enigmatic, Smythe draws Thomas to him despite his misgivings. Will Thomas be able to resist Smythe and salvage his reputation? Or, like his clockwork contraptions, will Thomas's desire take on a life of its own?Falls the Shadow - Kim KnoxAether smothers the city of London. To navigate a safe passage, a sacrifice must be made. A pilot must offer pieces of their soul through the casting of runes. Cara Howe, a rune-pilot, knows her end is near. She'll meet a pilot's fate: the aether will soon devour her whole. But airship captain, Elijah Sand, has other plans. He's willing to stand between her and death...even though it may cost him his own life.Ship With Me - J.HepburnThe sea gave Rory a new life, a new family, and enough pride to call himself a man, and all it took in return was time with Lean - his first friend, his first lover, and his only love. He can see her regularly, and that is enough for both of them until an unexpected change of plans forces them to choose between Rory abandoning the best life he has ever had, and Lean overcoming her deepest fear.