A Cry of Hounds

Body and Soul, the Hunt Is On!

Hounds, faithful, tenacious, and oft the subject of otherworldly lore. Will they stand beside you or hunt you down? Only time (and the tale) will tell. A Cry of Hounds is an anthology presented in conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival that presents eleven tales inspired by the master of mystery, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, paying tribute to his genius for deduction and his passion for things beyond the ken of mortal men.

When we were invited to create stories for the anthology, we were asked to pick a supernatural hound from folklore to incorporate into the story. As it turns out, Danielle Ackley-McPhail presented the list of hounds on a day I was working at Kitt Peak National Observatory and by the time I woke up for the day, all the hounds had been picked except for one, the Cù-Sìth from Scottish folklore. The Cù-Sìth is described as a fearsome green guard dog of the fae who stalks many of the moorlands. If you’re walking the moors at night and hear the hound bay three times, it will find you and send you to the land of the fae where you will be trapped forever.

The setup almost asks for a retelling of Doyle’s “The Hound of the Baskervilles.” However, an excerpt of Doyle’s novel was already slated to be in the book. So, I took inspiration from Doyle’s story “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire.” Although the original is a Holmes story, I replaced the detective with my spiritualist character, Dinella Stanton, who is taking a holiday in Scotland. She hears that a vampire had taken up residence and that the Cù-Sìth had appeared. Thinking the two events must be related, Dinella investigates and does find a vampire – none other than Lord Draco from my Scarlet Order vampire novels. She does indeed find that he’s connected to the Cù-Sìth’s appearance, and now the vampire and spiritualist must work together to set things right.

The other stories in the volume are as follows:

“The Curse of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle. This is the second chapter of Doyle’s novel The Hound of the Baskervilles.  Dr. James Mortimer has come to Sherlock Holmes to describe the death of Sir Charles Baskerville, who seems to have died of a heart attack. The doctor tells the tale of how the Baskerville came to be cursed by a demonic dog. He then explains that even though Baskerville seems have died of a heart attack, the footprints of a giant hound covered the ground nearby.

“The Night of the Howling Wind” by Ef Deal. A werewolf is on the prowl in an Irish village and a murder has been committed. What’s more it’s new moon. In the story, we learn that many things can cause a werewolf to take wolfly form, including a sudden drop in barometric pressure. Sure enough, a terrible storm strikes the village all while the town doctor and a constable try to solve the murder and find the werewolf.

“The Adventure of the Exploding Airship” by John L. French. Detective Sergent Adrian Hope and his talented canine companion Constable Grace O’Malley investigate an airship that exploded over London. Was it sabotage? Was it an accident? It’s hard to tell when the only person aboard was literally blown to bits. Or were they?

“A Grecian Pawse” by Doc Coleman. Airship adventurers Professor Crackle and Miss Bang along with their companions encounter a three-headed dog while visiting one of the Greek islands. Can they get Cerberus back to his owner before the scared islanders catch them and destroy the enormous three-headed dog?

“Amber Waves of Bane” by Dana Fraedrich. Goldie Cadwaladr can walk between our “material” realm and the spirit realm. She’s summoned to help a boy and his dog who have fallen asleep and won’t wake up. In the spirit world, she finds the boy and dog being attacked by a gwillgi, a great Otherworld canine with sooty black fur and fires blazing around its eyes. Her task it to fend off the dog, then find out why the two mortals were wandering the Otherworld in the first place.

“Weighed and Measured” by Bill Bodden. Edward Bellingham searches the Egyptian dessert for a scroll that contains an incantation which will make mummies walk and obey the commands of the summoner. Of course, if you’re going to wander into the Egyptian realm of the dead, you’re likely to encounter Anubis.

“Progenitor” by Keith R.A. DeCandido. Summerlee and Roxton, associates of Doyle’s Professor Challenger believe they’ve found one of the progenitors of the original Mongolian Wolf Hound in the years after World War I. According to legend, this progenitor was brought down from the mountains by a giant. Of course, Challenger is skeptical of the folkloric explanation but grants the modern hounds may have come from an earlier prehistoric ancestor. They begin an expedition that takes them deep into Mongolia where they discover a community run on clockworks and steam.

“Ember Eyes” by Jessica Lucci. An orphan named Moxie befriends a strange ember-eyed, black puppy in days when she’s working at a factory. Years later, Moxie invents a means of collecting energy from the sun. A jealous man from the factory where she now works means to steal her invention and Moxie learns the value of having loyal friends.

“The Houndstooth Affair” by Aaron Rosenberg. Someone has broken into the Metropolitan Museum of Art and stolen a clockwork hound built by the jeweler, Cartier. Detective Huggins of NYPD is on the case with the best tech available in 1880s New York and more than a few Doyle-inspired quips at his disposal.

“A Glimpse of Death” by James Chambers.  Morris Garvey, the richest man in New Alexandria, employs many of the street orphans to be his eyes and ears in the city. When a group of the Troubleshooters get word that the Scottish Ambassador may be killed, they go to investigate and have a close encounter with a barghest, a supernatural hound with fire in its eyes and an omen of doom. Unfortunately, the ambassador met an untimely end anyway and now two of the Troubleshooters are at death’s door. Now Garvey teams up with the Queen of Witches to find out who unleashed the devilish hound and save the two young people.

“They Who Have Lost Their Way” by Danielle Ackley-McPhail. Angel can enter the realms of the dead through her dreams. During one dream, she learns that something is consuming souls and that the souls of her departed mother and brother are in danger. Talented at creating clockwork creations, she finds her father’s invention for bringing one who ventures into the land of the dead back to life. She uses this and a special brew to cross the threshold into the land of the dead while still conscious. Aided by xolos, dogs who guide the dead, she must find and destroy the soul-consuming creature before she herself becomes a permanent resident.

“Sherlock Holmes and the Stonyhurst Terror” by Christopher D. Abbott. A reverend comes to Holmes because something has been digging up graves. He suspects the culprit is a Yeth Hound and once such a creature becomes strong enough, it can attack the living. Holmes takes the case because he believes there will be a rational explanation. Watson and his friend Dr. David Billings help with the investigation and soon encounter what appears to be the creature itself!

I hope you’ll join us as we explore the worlds inhabited by these terrifying canines. A Cry of Hounds will be officially released on August 1 and it’s available for pre-order at: https://www.amazon.com/Cry-Hounds-Forgotten-Lore-Book-ebook/dp/B0CTHQLPSV/

Other Aether: Tales of Global Steampunk

In the anthology Other Aether edited by Greg Schauer and Danielle Ackley-McPhail, invention and adventure go hand in hand. Clockwork technology and ingenuity are not the sole purview of Jolly Ol’ England. By airship or locomotive, prairie schooner or steamboat, it is time to explore the global landscape through lenses polished in the Age of Steam!

I was excited that Danielle and Greg invited me to be part of this anthology. My story in the book is called “No One Alone” and its an origin story for Onofre Cisneros from Ensenada, Mexico. He’s the pirate captain and submariner of my Clockwork Legion novels. When we meet him in Owl Dance, Cisneros feels he must resort to desperate means to induce investment in his dream of a submarine boat. My story tells how he built his first submarine and how he sought a legitimate investor only to encounter disappointment. Cisneros builds the submarine for his community and he sees himself as no one without the support of his friends. Of course, “no one” or “no man” in Latin is Nemo. Now, here’s a look at the other fine stories you’ll find in this volume.

“The Kami of the Mountain” by Cynthia Radthorne. Set during the battles of the Meiji Restoration, Radthorne imagines a world where the forces of the Shogun and the Emperor battle with steam-powered cannons and crossbows. Caught in the middle is Haramata Castle, a neutral site near the mountain with hot springs and rice fields. Miako is a Lady of the Court who is fascinated with machines, including the steam pipes under the castle that feed both the baths and the steam weapons. When the old man who tends the machinery unexpectedly dies near the beginning of the battle, Miako finds herself chosen by the Kami to save Haramata Castle.

“No Safe Harbor” by Aaron Rosenberg. Phillipe Huron a Detective-Inspector from Paris arrives in Hong Kong via airship. He’s searching for Father Chapdelaine, who abandoned his parish for reasons unknown. Huron and his parrot Dupin team up with local Inspector Wu and follow what clues they have only to figure out that Father Chapdelaine is a pawn in a much bigger plot.

“Mervat in the Maiden’s Tower” by Jeff Young. Mervat, the matron of a hospital founded by Florence Nightengale has been summoned to Constantinople’s airfield. A large Chinese airship has arrived and the harbormaster is afraid they have brought the black plague to the city. He wants Mervat to assess whether or not that’s true. In addition to being a healer, Mervat has assistance from her cousin and from a nearly forgotten goddess who appears in visions.

“Ghosts in the Infernal Machine” by Ef Deal. Didier Rabôt is a fifteen-year-old who only wants to exist in peace to tinker with his electrical experiments and prepare to enter university. However, his neighbor has been talking about his dissatisfaction with the king and then started building something big in his apartment. Didier and his friend Jacky fear he might try to assassinate the king with some kind of infernal machine he’s building. They come up with a way to sabotage his efforts. In the meantime, Didier learns he might be more attracted to his friend Jacky than he originally thought.

“The Sand Boat by James Chambers. Morris, an inventor, and his friend Marceline, a diplomat, are visiting Cairo. She wants to surprise him by taking him down the Nile to see the Pyramids of Giza. While on their way, they’re confronted by a group of men from the Cult of Bast who want to capture and kill them in a blood sacrifice. Fortunately, they’re saved by Amun Zaki, an Egyptian engineer who wants to keep his fellow engineer safe, but also wants to assure that developing technology for Egypt is done by Egyptians. They head for a meeting with a like-minded leader at the Pyramids. To get there, they travel in a sand boat, a steam-powered overland craft invented by Zaki, which proves to come in handy when they run into unexpected trouble.

“Justice Runs Like Clockwork” by Christine Norris. Set in New Orleans during the Civil War, we follow Pricilla, a spy for the Union who has many advanced weapons and works out of a secret base under St. Louis Cemetery adjacent to the French Quarter. The Union Navy is advancing on New Orleans. Pricilla’s mission is to do as much damage to the slave trade and get as many slaves to safety as she can before the invasion begins.

“On the Wings of an Angel” by Danielle Ackley-McPhail. Sadie is the entertainment in a Montana saloon where a tinker has been through and induced the owner to buy a number of his gadgets. The tinker’s finest gadget is an elaborate construction that gives Sadie the appearance of being an angel. Her pure voice and innocence help bring customers into the saloon. The problem is that as Sadie gets older, the miners in town are no longer seeing her as such an innocent, untouchable angel. Fortunately, there may be more to Sadie’s angel wings than appear at first sight.

“Correspondence Transcribed in Code, Addressed to the Widowed Mrs. Clydesbank” by Beth Cato. This story is told in letters from El, who works as an engineer for an airship manufacturer based in California, to her mother. To work as an engineer, El has taken the identity of a man and works primarily on the mooring towers for the airships. However, this region of California is fertile and birds present a real danger to airships. Rather than taking sensible precautions, the company decides to be more aggressive in managing the wetlands and wild areas to discourage the birds. El tries to convince the management of their error, only to be rebuffed and now must decide whether or not there is another way to fight the system.

“The Merrie Monarch’s Mecha” by Hildy Silverman. Hawai’i’s King David Kalâkaua is working to establish the sovereign island’s reputation around the world. He has diplomatic missions with both Japan and America. In the meantime, one of his engineers is building a giant mecha to demonstrate Hawai’i’s proficiency with technology. A botched assassination attempt puts the King’s people on alert and the mecha is deployed during the formal coronation ceremony. It’s a good thing, because the ceremony comes under attack!

Other Aether is scheduled to be released on June 1, 2024. If you didn’t support the Kickstarter, you can pre-order copies of the ebook at: https://www.amazon.com/Other-Aether-Tales-Global-Steampunk-ebook/dp/B0CW1FRMR5/

Print copies are available at: https://www.amazon.com/Other-Aether-Tales-Global-Steampunk/dp/195646333X/