Lost

Into the Dust #1

by Ren Cummins

A young woman awakens in a strange world filled with unusual people, with no memory of how she got there. Pirates, constables, superheroes and stranger things await her in this fantastical place, and the many questions she has will have to wait.

From Ren Cummins, author of the young adult Steampunk series "Chronicles of Aesirium", and Kiri Callghan, author of "Funeral Potatoes", come this series of childhood dreams, adult remorse and all the fantastic adventures which lie between.

"Lost" is the first story in this series, introducing the readers to the world of Uphoria, and launching the adventure of a thousand life times.


Sample:

Shrill whistles resounded off the buildings and streets, and people hurriedly ducked back inside the doorways as she came running past. She remembered from an old movie about how most criminals were caught while they were on the run; she’d need to find a place to hide, quickly, before she was seen. Even as her mind formed those thoughts, however, a pair of men in dark blue uniforms ran around the corner just ahead of her. Both had nightsticks in their hand, and the one on her right began furiously blowing his whistle the moment they spotted her. Confident that the bulk of the crowd remained behind her, the best option was to plow on ahead. Now I get to see if all those self-defense classes pay off, she thought with a grimace. In only the worst possible conditions.

She kept her speed up, running straight at them until the last possible moment, where she dodged to the left, staying on the opposite hand of the man with the whistle. As she’d hoped, the two constables nearly ran into one another in their attempt to grab her; the man on her left took a swing with his club and nearly clobbered the other. She struck with her left hand into the man’s stomach, catching him off guard and driving the air from his lungs in a burst that launched the whistle from his opened mouth. With her right hand, she grabbed his nearest arm and spun him about as she rolled in the opposing direction, using the momentum of her spin to place him face to face with his partner. They collided, face-first, and were already falling to the ground as she completed her spin and resumed her original course.

The adrenaline of the brief encounter was already filling her veins; she could feel the rush as her body enjoyed a burst of speed, and her thoughts returned to what the Pirate Hunter had been telling her. I just have to want it, more than anything.
As the end of the street approached, she felt it – a conviction, a certainty that she could do anything, whatever her mind could imagine. I can fly, she realized.
She could almost hear the voices behind her, raised in anger and frustration that this girl was going to elude her in the one direction they could not follow. Taking one last step on the stony streets, she raised her face to the sky, arms akimbo, and launched herself upwards…

33 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 20, 2012

About the author

Born in California, Ren lived in three more states and one other country before finally settling down in Seattle, Washington. There with his wife and daughter and their two dogs and one of the heaviest cats in existence, he juggles a love of writing, music, science fiction and the occasional desire to make an honest buck.

After a college professor in his English department took a good look at his work and aspirations, and subsequently challenged him to find his voice out in the world and not in a classroom, Ren decided to interpret this challenge positively (and not in a "why don't you just sod off, you tosser!" sort of way) and has been working to find that very voice ever since.

Along the journey, such relatively mundane occupational interruptions like working as a hotel manager, music studio engineer and middle eastern drummer for belly dancers offered their respective distractions, but only served to diversify his voice, granting new accents and dialects. His life-long studies of philosophy, religion and the evolution of language have also played their part in affecting the development of his writing style.

Along with short stories and a developing anthology of Children's stories, Ren has been writing a series of steampunk-themed novels, collected into the "Aerthos Trilogy", an epic adventure centering around a twelve year old orphan girl who discovers that her own destiny is tied irrevocably to the past and future of their divided world. The first novel, "The Morrow Stone" was nominated for the Steampunk Book of the Year 2010 by Steampunk.com.

When not working on novels, Ren can also be found sipping on a white chocolate mocha, playing RPGs (dice or video games) or trying to teach his dogs not to jump on the couch.