Excerpt Extravaganza! and...BeaslePunk and the World of Steampunk

Hello blog fans! So glad you stopped by today. 

We will soon be changing up the Monday posts to bring you news that has to do with our BeaslePunk division. For a few weeks we'll be sharing all kinds of cool news from a sub-culture that is sweeping the globe with its stunning fashion, weaponry, and stories.

So get ready...starting next Monday we will begin to share the splendid-ness of this creative world.

Your steampunk blog hosts for this segment will be BeaslePunk's foudners/owners and award-winning steampunk artists, Don and Janet Beasley. 

We look forward to seeing you here!


In the meantime...here's this week's excerpt. It comes from the Hidden Earth Series. Janet Beasley's third volume released on November 4th, 2016. So here it is...straight from Volume 3 Planet Water ~ Draugar of the Abyss.

“Here it comes!” shouted Meilí. Arrowanna looked up as he and Torleik threw a large empty basket over the edge; it was tied to a heavy rope. Arrowanna felt her hair swish from the breeze of the dropping basket. It came to an abrupt halt just below Sidra.   

Arrowanna shouted, “You need to raise it a bit. I can’t get her into it down there.” The basket swung and banged into the side of the ship as her twin brothers pulled it upward. The wind blew the cold waters of the deep even worse as the tall ship rose and fell through the massive swells. Arrowanna feared the basket would hit Sidra and knock her from the rope ladder. Arrowanna shouted to her brothers, “Hold it there. That’s a good height.” She turned her focus to Sidra and lowered her voice to a soothing volume. “Now, we’re going to play the game we used to play back home with Poppie’s seaweed baskets. You’re going to step into this magic basket and make a wish, and see if it comes true.” Arrowanna held Sidra’s hand so tight it was turning white. She hated seeing the rope burns around Sidra’s wrists and ankles where she had been tangled up and thought, That must sting something awful. Arrowanna watched Sidra put one leg over the basket’s edge.

Sidra said, “Sis, it’s too big, I can’t get my leg in it. I can’t touch the bottom! Can I just make my wish now?”

“Oh, Sidra, sweetheart. You have to climb into the basket, or your wish won’t come true.”

“But we don't have any flower petals either.”

Arrowanna thought quickly and answered, “We can sacrifice a couple of things and your wish will still come true. I’ll come and lift you in, and we’ll use imaginary flower petals. I’m not going to let you miss a chance to make a wish.” Arrowanna struggled against the violent movements of the rope ladder while still holding Sidra’s tiny outstretched hand in her clutches.

Sidra screamed.

Arrowanna felt Sidra lose her footing; she now dangled by one arm.  Arrowanna’s adrenaline surged. She yanked Sidra closer to her, relieved that she had not let her baby sister fall into the depths. In one more swift move Arrowanna lifted Sidra into the basket.

“You did it Sis! I’m in the magic basket. Can I make a wish now?”

Crying through a hint of laughter, Arrowanna said, “Wait, we need to sprinkle you with the imaginary petals!” Arrowanna made quick movements and said, “Já, now you can make your wish.”

“I wish...” Sidra did not finish her wish, but rather screamed at the top of her lungs along with Meilí and Torleik as a wave caught the rope ladder just so, sending Arrowanna plummeting into the icy water. Arrowanna heard Sidra’s screams, and between the fifteen-foot swells, she saw her baby sister in the basket being raised to safety by her twin brothers. Now all they have to do is save me, she thought. She felt herself rise again and be pushed forward from the force of a wave, and the wave behind it came crashing over her.

Arrowanna disappeared.

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To discover more about this author and the Hidden Earth Series click here.