After a lot a lot of work and countless revisions, I finally released Cog and the Steel Tower.

Cog and the Steel Tower

The eBook version is only 99 cents and the print version is $10.99 for a trade paperback ($10.66 at the time of this post, actually). It’s been available since May 5th, but I wanted to wait to announce it on my blog until there were some reviews and it takes awhile for those to start trickling in.

So what is Cog and the Steel Tower all about? The story is about a girl named Cog who is bursting with mechanical talent and wants more than anything to be engineer. She lives in a fantasy world powered by steam-age technology and with a touch of the mystical. For the first thirteen years of her life, she’s been raised by her uncle and grandmother in a small village where she has found a role working in her uncle’s workshop. Then her long-absent mother returns and turns her life upside down.  Before long, Cog is stowing away on an airship heading for the crown city where she finds adventure and intrigue as she follows her dream of becoming an engineer.

Here’s my official blurb:

Thirteen-year-old Cog loved getting her hands greasy in her Uncle’s workshop and building the occasional mud-cannon before the return of her mother knocked her life completely off its rails. Before long she’s stowing away on a royal airship and tricking her way into a dream apprenticeship with the Queen’s master engineer by pretending to be a boy. But her situation takes a dangerous turn when she discovers a plot to assassinate the Queen and throw the kingdom into war.

If she can keep her identity a secret despite her best friend developing a crush on her alter ego, unravel the deadly conspiracy, and keep the demanding master engineer happy, then maybe she can have the future she’s always wanted. Keeping hidden identities and saving kingdoms may not be the same as fixing a steam wagon or an auto-mechanical potion mixer, but Cog has a set of precision screwdrivers and she isn’t afraid to use them.

Follow Cog’s rollicking adventure as she uses her wits and ingenuity to find friendship, trust, and justice in a colorful but sometimes unforgiving steampunk world full of mechanical mayhem.

The book is targeted toward for 4th grade and up, but adults seem to find it a fun read as well.

Time to me to get moving on that sequel.