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Throughout the Month of March, I will be posting parts of ADVENTURESSES.

From "Adventuress"

Clarissa stood on the deck of the airship, shivering in the cold wind, trying to hide behind her brothers. Tom and Matt stood very tall and fierce looking with their hair whipping in the wind. They'd protect her from any man in shoe-leather.

The alert siren had sounded half an hour before, and the next minutes had been a frenzy of racing crew, fainting women and general chaos. Clarissa kept her head and watched the pirate airship heave them to.

The crew, a motley collection of men and women in clothes that only half-fit them, swarmed aboard. In their midst, a tall woman, taller than most men, strode through the mess. Clarissa watched her with unseemly interest. She'd never seen anything like her and wanted to memorize every detail. Perhaps the paper in Dodge City, or penny dreadful publishers would pay her to tell the story.

The woman's left boot came over her thigh, but the right was cut away to let her draw the arcane looking pistol she carried. Two more, of different make, crossed in her wide leather belt, Mexican style. Her long duster coat fell to her knees, and Clarissa saw the straps holding it close to her thighs. A man's embroidered waistcoat and a band-collared shirt, without collar or tie, led Clarissa's eye to the woman's face. She flinched at the sight of a scar that ran up from her jaw and disappeared under an eye patch. A set of flying goggles, one lens blacked out, rode the brim of her battered leather hat.

“Toldja we should have taken the train, Matt,” Tom grumbled, as he glared at the pirates.

Date: 2012-03-03 12:16 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com
Nice! Very nice. :) Can't wait to see more. :)

Date: 2012-03-03 01:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com
Next Friday will be another first page.

The book will be available at http://www.inkstainedsuccubus.com or http://www.lteraryunderworld.com on April 1.

The D-Man Checks In

Date: 2012-03-03 09:53 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Always kinda wondered and chuckled at these airship fantasies. What?! Nobody owning one of the potential target airships--knowing there might be air-pirates lying in wait for them somewhere along the route--ever think to arm their passenger ship with so much as a single cannon or deck gun, or even just arm the crew with rifles? Put a few good holes in the pirate airship gas bag as it approaches, and let gravity do the rest. Use an over-sized crossbow with an incindiary bomb (much lighter on weight than a metal cannon or deck gun), and the pirates crash to a fiery death. Essentially the same reason why the Germans stopped sending airships after Britain on bombing runs during WWI; they were too vulnerable to simple ground fire & nasty little fighter planes.

By contrast, the air-pirates can't realistically shoot down a passenger airship, as the resulting fire from the ruptured and burning gas bag after the craash will destroy or badly damage most any valuables aboard--unless stored in a safe--and likely kill most passengers worth any ransom... Ergo, BAD IDEA. Not worth the effort or incredible risk.

I kinda like my fantasies to make at least a little bit of logical sense. This stuff doesn't.

Re: The D-Man Checks In

Date: 2012-03-03 10:18 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] valarltd.livejournal.com
If you can't get into the trope, move on to the next story, don't piss on everyone else's wheaties.

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