Friday, August 30, 2013

Steampunk Roo - A new children's story

I'm interrupting edits on my novel to write a story for my daughter's tenth birthday.  I've decided to call it "Steampunk Roo" since my daughter's nickname is "Roo".

The concept is that a Steampunk Kangaroo has discovered that water stops are being vandalized.  It's terrible news for the Steampunk animals of Australia.  Steampunk Roo and Buzz, a Steampunk dragonfly, are on a mission to solve the problem.

The fun part of this story is coming up with all the ways that the Steampunk animals work and interact.  In addition to that, they live in Steampunk Canyon, which has been fun to create too.  The problem is that I'm trying to write a children's book and that means I have a limited number of words to work with!  I have to tell the story at some point!




Excerpt:

Steampunk Roo turned and hopped through the vast grasslands in search of watering hole to replenish her tank.  If she didn't get water soon, she wouldn't be able to move at all!  She had been traveling all through the hot day to get to Steampunk Canyon.

Pistons in her kangaroo legs pushed onto springs that propelled her forward at a ground eating twenty miles per hour.  Copper, brass and steel gears turned, adding tension to thick bands of rubber that would store energy for the next hop.  A belly oven burned coal to heat a large water tank that in the rest of her upper body.


Gears in her neck allowed her head to turn upward.  It was finally cooling off as the sun lowered and thin clouds slid across the sky to provide some shade.  She scanned the grasslands for signs of danger and saw movement in the distance to her right.  Tiny gears allowed the mechanical lenses of her eyes to slide forward and zoom in on it.  A family of Steampunk wallabies foraged peacefully.

I'll publish this story sometime in the next couple of weeks.  I hope you'll enjoy reading it just as much as I enjoy writing it. :)

All my best,

John H. Carroll

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