Welcome to the world of Trafalgar and Boone, a world where airships battled in a Great War that was fought by soldiers who utilized magic and summoned monsters to do their bidding, a world that they must defend by working together to stop an evil far greater than either of them could ever have imagined.
Title: The Virtuous Feats of the Indomitable Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone.
Series: Trafalgar & Boone
Author: Geonn Cannon
Genre: Steampunk
Release Date: 1st September 2015
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In 1899, a secret society tried to use a young woman to bring an ancient evil into the world. Twenty years later they will return to finish the job.
After the Great War, London is settling once more into the gentle routine of peacetime. The airships that once protected England's coast now ferry people back and forth across the Thames, the magically-inclined are free to return to their normal work, and those who seek treasures left behind by ancient civilizations are again free to explore. Dorothy Boone shunned a life of luxury to follow in her grandmother's footsteps by uncovering the mysteries of "the worlds that came before ours." When a package explodes upon delivery to Lady Boone's townhouse, she is drawn into an unlikely alliance with her nemesis, Trafalgar of Abyssinia, to find the culprit.
They soon find themselves unraveling a plot that has left many of their allies dead and the rest in fear for their lives. A group of treasure hunters with a fiendish plot to take over England has begun eliminating its competition in order to fund an expedition to retrieve the last item they need for a summoning that will bring an ancient evil into our world. With no one else to trust, Trafalgar and Boone must put aside their differences and forge a partnership to stop their mutual enemy. If they fail, a world that still bears the scars of the Great War will be once again thrown into turmoil.
After the Great War, London is settling once more into the gentle routine of peacetime. The airships that once protected England's coast now ferry people back and forth across the Thames, the magically-inclined are free to return to their normal work, and those who seek treasures left behind by ancient civilizations are again free to explore. Dorothy Boone shunned a life of luxury to follow in her grandmother's footsteps by uncovering the mysteries of "the worlds that came before ours." When a package explodes upon delivery to Lady Boone's townhouse, she is drawn into an unlikely alliance with her nemesis, Trafalgar of Abyssinia, to find the culprit.
They soon find themselves unraveling a plot that has left many of their allies dead and the rest in fear for their lives. A group of treasure hunters with a fiendish plot to take over England has begun eliminating its competition in order to fund an expedition to retrieve the last item they need for a summoning that will bring an ancient evil into our world. With no one else to trust, Trafalgar and Boone must put aside their differences and forge a partnership to stop their mutual enemy. If they fail, a world that still bears the scars of the Great War will be once again thrown into turmoil.
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AUTHOR INTERVIEW
What made you decide to write a book in the Steampunk genre?
I love steampunk! I think my first real exposure to it was
probably Cherie Priest's novel "Boneshaker", but the love really set
in with a SyFy series called Sanctuary. It had a kickass heroine who used cool
gadgets to fight creatures from the Victorian age until today. The idea of a
woman brought up in a very proper society running around and chasing monsters
really made me want to explore that genre.
Do you have the whole Trafalgar & Boone series planned out now or is
it still a work in progress? Do you know how many books there will be in this
series?
I try not to plan it out too much. I know a few things that will
happen later on, but I want to leave room for the next book to surprise me. I
don't know how many books there will be! At least two at this point. ;)
Who/What/How did you get your ideas for your Trafalgar & Boone
Series?
I actually talked about this in the dedication! I had a dream that
was either really short, or I only remembered a snippet of it when I woke up.
Two women got onto an elevator with a man. They were all bloody, muddied, and
beaten up. Their clothes were torn and they were completely dissheveled. The
women looked at each other and started to laugh, and the man just rolled his
eyes at them as the doors closed. I knew their names were Trafalgar and Boone.
I mentioned it on Twitter and, with the help of three friends, I formed the
basis for the novel.
Did you have to any of research for the Trafalgar & Boone Series? If
so what/how did you do it?
Oh, so much of all kinds. The 1920s Dorothy and Trafalgar inhabit
is different from ours (airships and magic are commonplace) so I can squirm by
on a few of the facts there, but there's research for the artifacts they seek
out and the creatures they discover, etc. Google is your friend! ;)
How long did it take you to write The Virtuous Feats of the Indomitable
Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone in comparison to an individual book
from one of your other book series?
It took about a month (just over, actually) for the first draft,
and then probably another week for editing and revisions. That's a little
longer than normal for me, due to the research required to get everything right
so I wouldn't have to go back and fiddle with it.
Will there be any novella’s as part of the Trafalgar & Boone Series?
There already are, in a way! I've written a handful of shorter
stories featuring Dorothy and Trafalgar (and their friends, rogues, and
allies), but those stories aren't part of the overall novel series. Dorothy
meets Trafalgar in a completely different way, they have a different first
adventure, and a completely different arc than they have in the novel. Same
characters, different road.
How do you come up with the Title and Cover Designs for The Virtuous
Feats of the Indomitable Miss Trafalgar and the Erudite Lady Boone Series? Who
designed the Cover of your books? Did the same designer do all of your other
series too?
The title grew from a desire to invoke penny dreadfuls and dime
novels, the kind of popular fiction that would have been around in the time the
novel takes place. "The Strange Case of Jekyll and Hyde," and
"The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe," and
"The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders" get
shortened to just the character names for convenience. I thought it would be
fun to mimic that style to give the novel a bit more flair from the very
beginning.
The covers are designed by a variety of people (Heidi DeCausemaker
has done the vast majority), but I wanted something special for this novel.
Again, to bring to mind penny dreadfuls with covers that were almost like movie
posters. I knew that it would have to be something that was actually drawn, so
I found an artist named Rita Fei who does simply marvelous work. Hopefully we
can get her for future T&B covers!
Which character would you choose to be in the Trafalgar & Boone
series and why?
Tough question, but out of this book I think I would want to be
Beatrice Sek. She gets to go on all the adventures Dorothy goes on, plus she
can do magic. Gotta love that!
Are the character names and place names decided after creation? or do
you pick a character/place name and then invent their personality/traits?
A lot of times it's a bit 60/40. I'll have the idea for a
character, then name them, and then let them figure out who they are from
there. Trafalgar and Boone, like I said, came from the dream. But characters
like Riley Parra and Claire Lance got their names first and everything built up
from there. Giving the character a name and casting them helps me form them in
my head (I cast all of my novels, but I try not to share too much so people can
come up with their own ideas. In one novel I cast a brunette, and someone told
me they saw the character as a blonde).
Are there any plans for the characters from your other series to feature
in the Trafalgar & Boone series?
Never say never! But it would be tough with this one, since it
takes place in such a different world (and a different time frame) than the
other things I write. It would be hard to explain how Claire Lance ended up in
London fifty years before she was born. ;) Most of my novels do exist in a
semi-shared universe, however. Almost all of my standalone novels take place in
what I call the “Squire’s Isle Universe,” with characters crossing over here
and there. Underdogs takes place in a world separate from Squire’s Isle. And
the “Radiation Canary Universe” bridges the Squire’s Isle and Underdogs worlds
(Radiation Canary exists in both, but the two are separate from each other). It
can get complicated.
Which of the book series you have written is your favourite? And why is
it your favourite?
Hard to say, but I think it has to be Underdogs. I love the
characters, I love their evolution, and it’s fun seeing what they get up to in
every book. My past series (Riley Parra and Claire Lance), I set up a clear
ending after five books. I figured that was a good place to end any series.
After five, you start getting unwieldy and bloated with backstory, so it just
seemed right to give them an ending rather than stringing readers along. With
Underdogs, I wanted to keep them alive, so I decided the series would be made
up of arcs. Books 1, 2, and 3 have a distinct arc that comes to a satisfying
conclusion. Then with book 4, you can jump in with no foreknowledge and enjoy
it just as much.
I also love it because it came so close to not existing. I wrote
the first short story with the characters as a sort of obligation to a website
for Halloween. I wrote a few more stories because they were fun, but then I put
it on a shelf for almost six months before I decided to go back and see if
there was anything there. I’m so glad I did!
If you had to choose to be a character from any of your series, which
would you be and why?
I keep harping on Underdogs, but I’d be Ariadne Willow. The
ability to turn into a wolf at any time? Absolutely! Plus she lives in Seattle,
has a cool job, and her girlfriend is sexy. What’s not to love? ;)
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