Tales of an Altered Past Powered by Romance, Horror, and Steam by Donald J. Bingle

Writer on Demand TM Vol. 5: Tales of an Altered Past Powered by Romance, Horror, and Steam includes four stories:

“Dashed Hopes” (approximately 4,250 words) is a tale of invention, romance, and tragedy set in the coal fields of England. This story originally appeared in “Hot & Steamy: Tales of Steampunk Romance,” edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenburg (DAW Books. Inc. 2011).

“Rejecting the Anthropocene” (approximately 2,400 words) is a cautionary tale about the dangers of ignoring science, no matter how unpopular it may be. This original steampunk story appears in print for the very first time in this collection.

“Gentlemanly Horrors of Mine Alone” (approximately 7,100 words) is the ninth story in Mike Stackpole’s The Chain Story Project. Each of the stories in the chain begins with a scene set in The Wanderers’ Club in London, where patrons take turns telling stories of their adventures and derring-do. Though the plots and characters of the various tales differ and each adventure is self-contained and independent, every story-teller starts out by referencing the story before his in some fashion before telling his own tale. This story follows on the heels of Robert T. Jeschonek’s “Blazing Bodices” and precedes Michael A. Stackpole’s “The Adventure of the Ghost Watch.” Mike Stackpole’s character, Rogers, is used with permission.

“Foggy Goggles” (approximately 4,200 words) is a tale of an adventuresome reporter, two world-changing inventions, and unintended consequences. This story originally appeared in “Steampunk’d,” edited by Jean Rabe and Martin H. Greenberg (DAW Books, Inc. 2010).

TALES OF AN ALTERED PAST is available from Amazon.

*****

Author of Net Impact, a spy thriller which incorporates real-world conspiracy theories, GREENSWORD, a dark comedy about global warming, and Forced Conversion, a military science fiction novel set in the near future. Also author of a variety of short fiction in the science fiction, fantasy, thriller, horror, steampunk, romance, and comedy genres, including stories in the Dragonlance and Transformers universes and in a variety of DAW themed anthologies. World’s top-ranked player of RPGA Classic roleplaying game tournaments from 1985-2000. See my writing and gaming resumes at www.donaldjbingle.com., including a listing of the more than thirty anthologies in which I have stories. Some of my previously published stories have been collected by theme in my Writer on Demand TM series and published on Kindle, including Tales of Gamers and Gaming, Tales of Humorous Horror, and Tales Out of Time. My award-winning short memoir, Father’s Day, is also available on Kindle, as is Gentlemanly Horrors of Mine Alone, the ninth story in Mike Stackpole’s Chain Story Project.