Type Like a Poe Boy

In Which Our Typist Strolls Down the Rue Morgue

I posted a while back about my Clockwork Deseret story universe that combines alternate history (the US broken up into the Four Americas: North, South, Texas, and Mormon Deseret), Lovecraftian horror, steampunk espionage, and Victorian/Edwardian pulp adventure.

The stories are standalones told out of chronological order, much the same as Heinlein told his Future History or H. Beam Piper his Federation and Empire tales. They take place roughly from the 1840s to the 1910s.

Clockwork Deseret is stories about various national espionage agencies battling Lovecraftian horrors and other supernatural creatures while also contending against other nation’s spies in a stearmpunkian-urban fantasy Great Game of the late Victorian/early Edwardian period. While most of the story center on Deseret in America’s Great Basin, the stories also showcase other nations in this alternate timeline.

One of the conceits of the series is that each nation favors their own national approach to magicks. The Yankee North, for example, with its great chemical and industrial plants in New Jersey favors chemical alchemy and factory-mechanical magicks. The gothic Confederate South ancient Egyptian dark arts and mummification. The British specialize in cantomancy and poetomachia, magicks derived from the written words especially poetry. Belgium and gem-cutting Antwerp use gem- and stone-based magicks. And so on.

Another conceit is the use of elements and characters from fantastical public domain fiction, much like Moore’s League of Extra Ordinary Gentlemen. Thus, Jonathan Swift’s undying Struldbrugs appear (although their immortality is achieved through alchemic-mechno-zombification). Thus, H. G. Well’s Dr. Cavor and his moon-tripping, anti-gravity Cavorite make their appearance. And so on.

Which bring me to the subject of today’s Substack post.

Today sees the publication of my latest Clockwork Deseret story -- or rather, the first 5k word installment of a CD novella to be serialized in four parts.

“Opera of the Abyss Part 1: Murder and the Rue Morgue” appears as the lead-off story for Liz Busby’s new magazine of LDS science fiction entitled Further Light.¹

As its title suggests, Part 1 draws heavily on a certain short story by Edgar Allen Poe and while there’ll be sinister simians afoot, complete with foggy rooftop chases, most of the details will be new and fresh and altered to fit into the Clockwork Deseret fictional universe. And as the title suggests, this story leads into a much larger tale of gothic goings-on in a certain Parisian Opera House. Adventure and peril ensue.

This is a story I’ve been wanting to tell for a long, long time and thanks to Further Light., I have a unique venue to tell it. Wander over to Further Light and give it a read!

With over a hundred professional publication credits, Lee Allred’s award-winning fiction has appeared in Asimov’s SF Magazine, anthologies, online magazines, and various other venues. He’s also scripted for DC (Batman ‘66), Marvel (Fantastic Four), IDW (Dick Tracy), and Image Comics (Madman Atomic Comics).

1. Don’t let the venue worry you if you’re not LDS. My Clockwork Deseret stories have been published in a wide variety of fiction publishing venues, both LDS market and national market. I don’t make any distinction writing for the two. They’re not (most definitely not!) religious tracts. I write them for a wide audience using LDS cultural and historical background is all. There are cultural Easter eggs (like CTR Combat Tactical Rings or Liahomers) that non-LDS readers might not get, but the stories are meant for a wide audience.