The Clockwork Trollop

by James D. Macdonald, Debra Doyle

Professor Haversham's latest invention will cure the evil of prostitution and stop the spread of social disease all at one go. A story of steampunk horror from the award-winning and best-selling team of Debra Doyle and James D. Macdonald. Originally published in Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

18 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 2, 2013

About the author

James D. Macdonald was born in White Plains, New York in 1954, and raised in Bedford, New York, the son of a chemical engineer and an artist. His last significant formal education took place at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, though he passed through the University of Rochester where he learned that a degree in Medieval Studies wouldn't fit him for anything. He went off to sea "to forget," though he's forgotten exactly what. As an enlisted Boatswain's Mate in the Navy, and later as an officer, he saw the world, and discovered that three quarters of it was water. Some time later, tired of the adventure, he decided to get a job.

As Yog Sysop Macdonald ran the Science Fiction and Fantasy RoundTable on GEnie for two years ('91 to '93). He's since moved on to being Yog Sysop at SFF Net. He lives in New Hampshire, where he learned to drink Moxie and writes science fiction and fantasy for children, teenagers, and adults.

Reviews

[Corrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Clockwork Trollop by James D. Macdonald and Debra Doyle is 18 pages of Victorian Steampunk fun. Gruesome, but fun, when Professor Haversham's takes his latest invention, a prostitute automaton named Janet, for a test drive around the London Docks.

4.2 Stars

[Ray A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific little short story

Terrific little short story, has a flow, cadence and vocabulary as if written by that other Doyle, Sir Arthur.

Fun, thank you.