Sausages, Steam, and the Bad Thing

Steam engines. Danger. Air ships. Sausages. A tiny dog. Murder. And more sausages. The daring adventures of an execrable pirate are not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. That most infamous pirate of the rails, Captain Ramos, faces off against the Grand Duke of Denver's Chief of Security, Colonel Geoffrey Douglas, much to his chagrin. In this collection of five novellas, find action, adventure, mystery, sausages, and a tiny dog with a big appetite.

In "Murder on the Titania" the newly appointed Chief of Security for the Grand Duke of Denver, Colonel Geoffrey Douglas, must capture a murderer midair before the airship Titania lands and allows him--or her--to escape.

In "The Ugly Tin Orrery" Captain Ramos finds the aforementioned object in the midst of a regular raid on a freight train. The inaccurate and hopelessly ugly little device leads her down a dangerous path of murder and espionage that will not leave her crew unscathed.

In "The Curious Case of Miss Clementine Nimowitz (and Her Exceedingly Tiny Dog)" a simple house robbery leads to the discovery of a murder and Chippy, a tiny dog with a big appetite. While waiting for Chippy to allow some expensive jewelry to pass, Captain Ramos tries to unravel a family feud gone from petty to deadly.

In "Blood in Elk Creek" Colonel Douglas and Captain Ramos find themselves unaccountably on the same side in the Black Hills, squared off opposite the army of the Grand Duke of Denver's right-hand man, General del Toro. With the Infected used as weapons and genocide as the relentless general's end goal, failure is not an option.

And while the Captain is away, in "Do Shut Up, Mister Simms" the ever-loyal and long-suffering Mister Simmers must wrangle a cranky crew and the captain's conniving girlfriend Deliah. He's not so much waiting for the other shoe to drop as hoping it will simply kill him when it does.

Bio: Rachael Acks is a geologist and writer. In addition to her steampunk mystery series from Musa Publishing, she’s had short stories published in Strange Horizons, Crossed Genres, Lightspeed, and Shimmer. She’s a proud member of the Northern Colorado Writers Workshop and SFWA. Rachael lives in Houston with her two furry little bastards and a lot of rocks. In her not-so-copious spare time she lifts weights and practices kung fu. To find out more, visit her website at: http://www.rachaelacks.com