The Clockmaker's Apprentice

by C. V. Wooster

In the whimsically mechanical city of Chronopolis, where every street runs on gears and every citizen is bound by the tick of a clock, Elara, a sharp-witted young apprentice, works under the eccentric and cryptically charming Clockmaker. Life is as precise as a pocket watch—until the city’s central clock tower begins to malfunction.

But this is no ordinary maintenance issue.

The tower, it turns out, is a gateway to alternate realities, each more bizarre and beguiling than the last. As time unravels and chaos seeps through the gears of her world, Elara must venture into these strange timelines—where clocks run backward, people live frozen in moments, and logic is entirely optional—to uncover the truth behind the tower’s collapse and her mentor’s secretive past.

Guided (and frequently bewildered) by the Clockmaker’s half-helpful riddles, Elara finds herself at the center of a grand mystery involving the nature of time, reality itself, and a city built on the illusion of control. Along the way, she battles paradoxes, befriends talking cogs (yes, really), and discovers that sometimes, the most powerful force isn’t time—it’s understanding one’s place within it.

Full of witty banter, steampunk flair, and philosophical mischief, The Clockmaker’s Apprentice is a clever, highbrow fantasy adventure that explores what happens when time stops behaving… and a very curious girl decides to fix it.

Kindle Edition

Expected publication August 27, 2026