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A Clockwork Orchard: Rivets & Rain
Step inside the laboratory... Alternate realities where science and technology come alive has been the trademark of the genre known as steampunk. Tales of mechanical creatures and skies filled with airships sweep you up and take the reader to worlds that are just a bit different from our own...yet, somehow they seem strangely familiar. Steampunk is more than clockwork creatures and mad scientists. It is an elegant tale told with a deft touch by some of the most creative minds in fiction. Suspend your boundaries of belief and enter: A Clockwork Orchard.
- GenresSteampunkScience Fiction
192 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 16, 2012
101 people want to read
About the author
T.W. Brown
96 books302 followersTucked away in the Pacific Northwest with my wife Denise, a Border Collie named Aoife, a guitar collection, and an increasing number of aquariums sporting a variety of fish (cichlids are my new favorites), I live for football season when I can cheer on the Oregon Ducks and be disappointed by my Seattle Seahawks once again. I am a fan of Cookie Monster, KISS, and Dr. Who (along with most things British).
As a person who always dreamed of writing as well as one completely enthralled by all things zombie, it is hard to believe that I never once considered writing in the genre. It is true. I wanted to be more “mainstream”. The first novel I actually wrote is titled Dakota (as Todd Brown). It is about a pair of DEA types tossed back in time to just prior to the start of the Civil War. They are in Charleston, South Carolina, and one of them is an African-American.
The zombie thing really started when I wrote a short for a college Creative Writing class. The teacher, Ms. Bose, pulled me up and told me I had an obvious love for the subject and a real talent for the style. I decided to give it a shot.
The first thing I cobbled together was Zomblog. I wrote it as a warm up for the project I had brewing in the back of my mind. It is a journal account of the apocalypse. The funny thing is that it was never intended to be published. A few things happened and it ended up being presented to me as a gift in book format by my wife for a Christmas present. There was something I will never forget about holding the copy of that book in my hand the first time.
Because it gained a readership, and those readers asked for more, I made it a trilogy (Zomblog, Zomblog II, and Zomblog: The Final Entry). It is also because of those fans that I have returned to the Zomblog universe and just released the sixth (and FINAL) book in the series on Halloween of 2013: Zomblog: Snoe's Journey. I freely admit that I will sellout my plans to write what the fans ask for.
I really want my DEAD series to be what I am known for, and in the last year, it has really taken off. However, I will say that with the release of the fourth book in the DEAD series (DEAD: Winter), the numbers started to pick up beyond my wildest dreams.
The DEAD series (DEAD: The Ugly Beginning, DEAD: Revelations, and DEAD: Fortunes & Failures, DEAD: Winter, DEAD: Siege & Survival, DEAD: Confrontation, DEAD: Reborn) is scheduled to be a 12 part epic series.
It is told in three rotating chapters. One is from the first person perspective of Steve Hobart, a man thrust into the role of leader for a group of survivors struggling to keep alive. One chapter follows a group of four self-professed zombie “geeks” who initially believe that the zombie apocalypse would be fun and soon discover that it is nothing like the movies. The third of the rotating chapters is called “Vignettes” and is a series of snapshots from all around the world. Some of the vignettes are single chapter episodes, others are continuing threads that carry on for several chapters. A few are merged into the Steve story or the Geek story line.
Last year,I began my horror/comedy series, "That Ghoul Ava" and have found it to be my new guilty pleasure.
My blog can be found at:
http://twbrown.blogspot.com/
You can contact him at:
twbrown.maydecpub@gmail.com
You can follow him on twitter @maydecpub and on Facebook under Todd Brown, Author TW Brown, and also under May December Publications.
Book Links:
DEAD
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-The-Ugly-B...
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Revelation...
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Fortunes-F...
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Winter-ebo...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Winter-TW-...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Siege-Surv...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Confrontat...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Reborn-TW-...
As a person who always dreamed of writing as well as one completely enthralled by all things zombie, it is hard to believe that I never once considered writing in the genre. It is true. I wanted to be more “mainstream”. The first novel I actually wrote is titled Dakota (as Todd Brown). It is about a pair of DEA types tossed back in time to just prior to the start of the Civil War. They are in Charleston, South Carolina, and one of them is an African-American.
The zombie thing really started when I wrote a short for a college Creative Writing class. The teacher, Ms. Bose, pulled me up and told me I had an obvious love for the subject and a real talent for the style. I decided to give it a shot.
The first thing I cobbled together was Zomblog. I wrote it as a warm up for the project I had brewing in the back of my mind. It is a journal account of the apocalypse. The funny thing is that it was never intended to be published. A few things happened and it ended up being presented to me as a gift in book format by my wife for a Christmas present. There was something I will never forget about holding the copy of that book in my hand the first time.
Because it gained a readership, and those readers asked for more, I made it a trilogy (Zomblog, Zomblog II, and Zomblog: The Final Entry). It is also because of those fans that I have returned to the Zomblog universe and just released the sixth (and FINAL) book in the series on Halloween of 2013: Zomblog: Snoe's Journey. I freely admit that I will sellout my plans to write what the fans ask for.
I really want my DEAD series to be what I am known for, and in the last year, it has really taken off. However, I will say that with the release of the fourth book in the DEAD series (DEAD: Winter), the numbers started to pick up beyond my wildest dreams.
The DEAD series (DEAD: The Ugly Beginning, DEAD: Revelations, and DEAD: Fortunes & Failures, DEAD: Winter, DEAD: Siege & Survival, DEAD: Confrontation, DEAD: Reborn) is scheduled to be a 12 part epic series.
It is told in three rotating chapters. One is from the first person perspective of Steve Hobart, a man thrust into the role of leader for a group of survivors struggling to keep alive. One chapter follows a group of four self-professed zombie “geeks” who initially believe that the zombie apocalypse would be fun and soon discover that it is nothing like the movies. The third of the rotating chapters is called “Vignettes” and is a series of snapshots from all around the world. Some of the vignettes are single chapter episodes, others are continuing threads that carry on for several chapters. A few are merged into the Steve story or the Geek story line.
Last year,I began my horror/comedy series, "That Ghoul Ava" and have found it to be my new guilty pleasure.
My blog can be found at:
http://twbrown.blogspot.com/
You can contact him at:
twbrown.maydecpub@gmail.com
You can follow him on twitter @maydecpub and on Facebook under Todd Brown, Author TW Brown, and also under May December Publications.
Book Links:
DEAD
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-The-Ugly-B...
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Revelation...
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Fortunes-F...
http://www.amazon.com/Dead-Winter-ebo...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Winter-TW-...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Siege-Surv...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Confrontat...
http://www.amazon.com/DEAD-Reborn-TW-...
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
June 4, 2019
I was lucky enough to win a contest through May-December Publications before this book came out and was the person who got to not only name the book but also wrote the forward for it. Below is that info.
A Clockwork Orchard: Rivets & Rain:
To those who think that Steampunk is a new genre, this book is not for you. You have already made up your mind that what you are holding is just the latest attempt by the marketing machine to attach to the zeitgeist that is alternate history, but I am going to tell you differently: This is not your father's Steampunk.
They say that "brown is the new black" and this is just another passing phase in the world of those who seek to be outside the societal norms like the punk or goth movements. I say that this movement-that they so surely wish to push off as a passing fancy-is more than one hundred years old and was the playground of some of the most daring and scientifically analytic minds of the 19th and 20thcenturies. To the uninitiated, Steampunk may seem like just brass rivets sewn into the fabric of the rich tapestry of life, but to those who are truly students of the culture, Steampunk is that and so much more.
The stories contained within this anthology are a view into the mind's eye of the children of Verne, Wells, Baum, and Babbage. The minds of the past, influencing the writers of tomorrow with all the precision of a well-oiled machine, given life by the steam that powers us all: imagination. You now have the chance, dear reader: put the book down and go back to your daily routine or allow it to take you by the hand and lead you through the orchard. The choice is yours, and we are waiting for you to decide...
A Clockwork Orchard: Rivets & Rain:
To those who think that Steampunk is a new genre, this book is not for you. You have already made up your mind that what you are holding is just the latest attempt by the marketing machine to attach to the zeitgeist that is alternate history, but I am going to tell you differently: This is not your father's Steampunk.
They say that "brown is the new black" and this is just another passing phase in the world of those who seek to be outside the societal norms like the punk or goth movements. I say that this movement-that they so surely wish to push off as a passing fancy-is more than one hundred years old and was the playground of some of the most daring and scientifically analytic minds of the 19th and 20thcenturies. To the uninitiated, Steampunk may seem like just brass rivets sewn into the fabric of the rich tapestry of life, but to those who are truly students of the culture, Steampunk is that and so much more.
The stories contained within this anthology are a view into the mind's eye of the children of Verne, Wells, Baum, and Babbage. The minds of the past, influencing the writers of tomorrow with all the precision of a well-oiled machine, given life by the steam that powers us all: imagination. You now have the chance, dear reader: put the book down and go back to your daily routine or allow it to take you by the hand and lead you through the orchard. The choice is yours, and we are waiting for you to decide...
September 22, 2012
Like many collections there are high points and low points. This has more of the high points, and so would get a 4* rating from me. However, a lack of chapters makes it difficult to skip to the next story. This formatting "issue" drops a star in my book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews