It’s a Steampunk love story. Set in a Steampunk world, but people living in that world are just like us. A man, lonely following the death of his beloved wife three years before, only now he is beginning to allow himself thoughts of finding new love again. But somehow that does not seem right. The thought of meeting and being with a new woman feels too much like cheating on his dead wife.
In the same city, a woman, now widowed four years, busy with her career as a pediatric physician, and raising her thirteen-year-old son, knows the boy needs a father figure in his life. And with her own loneliness, she has needs as well. But as she examines her image in her looking glass, seeing the tiny wrinkles beginning to form, and that grey hair that stands out against its fellows, she asked herself, what good man would find her attractive, and want to become a part of her life? And, take on the role of dad to her son. Where would she find such a man?
In another part of the same city, another man, a captain of industry, having spent his former years living a life of self-indulgence, with women, travel, and the pleasures his money could afford him, finally met the woman who would change all of that for him. Falling in love, and planning a life together, they begin their dream of a grand adventure. He began building a lighter than air airship. A flying ship. When it would finally be finished, the couple planned to embark on a honeymoon adventure cruise, sailing high above the ground below, sailing to destinations they do not intend to plan ahead of time. They would simply go where the wind carried them. But it all came to an end when the woman died suddenly and unexpectedly before the dream could become reality.
The unfinished airship now sits abandoned in its place of construction. But it remains in the possession of a caring friend. A friend who will be, along with his own kind hearted wife, the key to turns in the story. Life and new love are possible after loss for those who desire it.
A Christian Steampunk love story. A story about facing the grief of the loss of a spouse and learning that it is okay to find new love again after loss. A story about second chances. A story of reliance on faith, returning to faith, and trusting in divine Providence. A story of chance meetings, which are not really by chance, but are answers to prayer. A story of hope renewed and second chances.
A Steampunk adventure love story. A story about facing death in an epic adventure. Five people in a fragile lighter than air airship, flying high over the ocean, through a storm that threatened to break apart their tiny ship, and plunge them to a certain death far below..
The wind, the lightning and even the rain and hail battered the lighter than air airship sailing four thousand feet above the raging ocean below. Now blown far off course, the craft was now vulnerable and at the mercy of the raging storm outside. Would the five people aboard survive the night? Or find themselves dropping headlong to the surface below, and to certain death?
It was their honeymoon cruise. And the maiden vge of the airship which had been Christened ‘Abigail,’ named in honor of Josias Lancaster’s long ago passed fiancée. Now Josias’ after his years of grieving his loss, finds love again, and now the two will live the dream Josias and Abigail never got to enjoy.
Their destination was Paris. But they never reached Paris. Instead they found themselves lost somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean far to the south of their desired course. And things were about to become, shall we say, interesting for those aboard the tiny airship.
This is Book 2 of the 'Legacy of Abigail' series. The story in this volume is complete on its own, but surely you will want to read more. There is enough of the backstory contained within this story, if you have not read the prior volume to enjoy and understand this story. The next volume, 'When Love Finds Hannah,' continues the adventure.
(An excerpt from the book)
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Ann Lancaster awoke in a fright. Something was wrong. She felt herself about to be tossed from the bed. Laying on her back, with her right hand, she punched Josias who was sleeping next to her. The tossing from the bed did not happen, but the fear of it remained.
Shocked out of a deep sleep, he awoke and instantly sat up in bed. Then he almost fell over, and would have, had he not thrown out both hands against the mattress to steady himself.
The ship was rolling. Rolling severely from side to side. Against the closed window panes behind them, the whistle of angry winds buffeted the glass. They were flying above the ocean through the midst of a storm. And it was no meek storm.
The ship was swinging from side to side, and now a hard bump jolted it, and sent Ann’s heart pounding with fear. “What’s happening, Honey?” she asked, in a hoarse whisper.
“A storm,” he answered, in the low whispery quality which was his voice. “It seems to be a big one.”
A Gaslight fantasy novel. Elijah Weatherspoon's world is turned topsy turvy when he unknowingly releases a genie from an old clock he had just bought. Just a plain old windup clock in a brass housing which is formed in the shape of a castle. Who would have known what was inside the old clock?
But now here he was sitting on a park bench, and on a bench across from him, the strangest of characters. A genie, so it turns out. But now that the genie is free from the clock which had been his prison for more years than he would tell, he owes Elijah the customary three wishes. But will he pay up?
Genies are not all the legends and old stories tell them to be. One can not always expect them to fulfil their promises. Three wishes? Elijah Weatherspoon was soon to find out the true nature of those promises. A comic tale of facing mizerhood head on, and learning what really matters in life.
When one is fortunate enough to find a mysterious lamp, rubbing the lamp will free the genie who has been imprisoned within that lamp for a thousand years. Out of gratitude, the genie is empowered to grant you your desires in the form of wishes. Usually three wishes.
But what happen if the genie has a whole different idea about gratitude for his release and your wishes are turned upside down? Instead of good fortune, you receive the opposite. And the genie seems more interested in playing tricks on you than on granting your wishes.
That's what Elijah Weatherspoon found, to his dismay. Seeming all misfortune contrary to the wishes he asks for. He asks for riches. He asked for good health and a long life. He asked for prestige and influence within the circle of important men.
What comes his way seems to be the very opposite. Now his world is turned topsy turvy. And he wishes he had never bought that cursed clock. A gaslight fiction novel.
A gaslight fantasy novel. It was just a plain package wrapped in plain brown paper and tied together with twine. There was no forwarding address, nor was there a return address. There was only, printed on one side, a name. “Miss Penny.” A story of strange things happening in the night, of betrayal, manipulation, failure, and finally, redemption and second chances.
Almost a century before, a woman named Penny was murdered on the eve of her wedding, by the man who had promised to take her as his wife. The story was revealed in an old, yellowed newspaper. Was that Penny the one who’s name was on the package containing the wedding dress?
Now, two friends, both co-workers in the dead letter department of the Post Office, find a mysterious package left on the front step of the Post Office building. Opening the package, they find an aged and faded wedding dress. But something came along with the dress. Something sinister, and frightening. Something to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Was it just in his head? Or was it a real haunting? Was the wailing, and the sound of a woman's voice in his room at night really linked in any way to the faded old wedding dress? Was she searching for the dress, and what did it really mean to her? Assuming the voice was actually that of a woman. Dead or otherwise. Or was he simply going crazy and imagining it all? Is it a ghost story, or rather a psychological thriller? Read it and come to your own conclusion. A gaslight fiction novel.
For the soon to be married couple, or the newly married couple. Biblical advice for your marriage.
The author offers the experience coming from close to one hundred combined years of marriage. His and his now wife Patsy, with both of their previous marriages and now their own.
Both widowed, and now having found each other, they have learned much over their two lives both together and with their late spouses.
Married life comes with great pleasure, but also the potential for great strife. Those areas of the not so pleasant are addressed in practical terms. The author cannot answer every single situation with a ready answer. But, the guidelines provided, if the couple will allow God to lead in their marriage, they will find the going much smoother.
The author offers practical advice for the new to be married for the first time, as well as for those about to be married, not for the first time. Blending families, addressing financial plans, trust, marital intimacy, and a host of other topics the soon to be married should consider before they join hands at the altar.
Pastors and others who will officiate weddings will find a wealth of material for advising soon to be married couples in pre-marital counseling.
And it’s all from a biblical perspective. Putting God first in the marriage goes a long way toward assuring a successful and happy marriage.
Hannah was pretty. Most would probably say that she was more than pretty. She was beautiful. But Hannah never saw herself that way. Just the opposite. After all, not one man among her people has ever tried to court her. Her mother never told her she was pretty. Nor did her sister.
But her sister had all the men she wanted. Surely her sister was prettier, and thus the men liked her better. No man would ever find Hannah beautiful enough to love. After all, her sister who is much prettier than she is was rejected and left at the alter by a man who left for another. Another whom he said was much more beautiful. If that happened to her sister, what hope is there for Hannah?
Hannah was just a nurse by occupation. But she was not the type of nurse that holds the respect and prestige we usually associate with those in that field. She was a junior nurse and her job was doing the tasks regular nurses held to be below their station. Her work was boring, low paying, and without praise or recognition. She held no status within the nursing occupation. How was she to ever to attract the attention of a good man who would love her and make her the wife she longed to be?
She knew what her future would amount to. She would do what she now did, and always would do, even into her old age. And it would be a lonely life and an even lonelier old age.
But, she did not count on the stranger who’s care she was assigned to. A man who came out of the unknown west. He was a crew member on a flying ship which came to her isolated island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, and he and his fellow crew members on that airship do not look like her people.
She tended to him as his nurse while he is convulsing from an injury. Now she found something stirring within her which was new and strange. But surely, he could not learn to love her. She's not pretty enough, she tells herself. After he recovers from his injuries, he will leave and return to his people and his home. But he has different thoughts on the matter.
A Slow Burn Romance. Love was right before Sarah Vandergriff's eyes all the while, but she refused to see it. Bryan Wimberly had loved her from the time of their early teen years. She liked him in return, but not in the way he wanted her to like him. He was her best chum. Even her confidant. He was the one she enjoyed being with. Why couldn't he just be content to be that close friend to her? Why did he have to want so much more?
There was nothing amiss about Bryan in her judgement. He simply was not what she believed she desired in a man. That ideal man would be a very masculine and sophisticated man. He would be a man of the world. Rugged, mysterious, and the image of the knight in shining armour who would come to her, capture her hand and heart and carry her away to his mysterious and romantic castle far away.
Then she met a man like that. Two such men, actually. But they both turned out to not be what her dreams had always told her such a man like that would be like. In life, not dreams and fairy tales.
Then everything changed for Sarah. In a moment's time, her world changed, and nothing would ever be the same again. The accident left her without the use of her legs. She would never walk again. And, to make it worse, if it could possibly be worse, the man of her dreams, the kind she had dreamed of since her youth, and the one who had promised to make her his wife, betrayed and abandoned her. Now she knew. No man would want her. Of that she was convinced.
But Bryan wanted her. He had never wavered in his love for her. What would it take to get her to see what was there all along?
You first met Sarah Vandergriff and Bryan Wimberly in the first book of the series, ‘A Ship Called Abigail.’ Both just kids, just now thirteen years old, they quickly became the best of friends. For Sarah, Bryan was her best chum. For Bryan, his feelings were more. We know the tension that existed between them. The slow burn. As we read the story, we wondered, would Sarah ever come to her senses and recognize what everyone but she saw?
Now in the concluding story of the series, ‘An Empty Quiet Place,’ both are now grown into young adults. Still close as friends, Sarah’s still sees him as just her closest friend, while Bryan’s feelings for her have grown to become so much more.
For everyone who has desperately prayed for a loved one, even when that loved one has given up on themself, and loses all hope. But you have not given up on them. And you will keep praying for them.
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The Best of romantic love novels set in a Steampunk world, and Victorian Style Romantasy Fiction.
Feel-good stories by author Dan Dooley
Read the review: An Empty Quiet Place
This page offers more information on the stories in the books, and the author's ideas on story telling.
The author does not believe that a book should leave the reader feeling stressed, angry, resentful, or holding ill feelings. Nor should they feel that the book, instead of entertaining and enlightening them, has left them feeling like they are being pressured to support or engage in some "cause." Not that standing up for beliefs is the wrong thing to do. Righteous beliefs and convictions are important to hold and support. But for most of us, when we read a novel, we want to not only be entertained, but finish the final page with good feelings. For those who have lost at love, our desire is for that second chance. Whether the loss was the result of the passing of the loved one, or even when the loss is the result of betrayal, the ability to find love, and to love again is buried deep within the human heart. It demands only the desire and the willingness to take a chance.
This is the philosophy the author follows in his stories. Even if the novel is a ghost story, or phycological thriller. Learning and having fun is what reading is all about. The reader will root for the characters, and share with them, the emotions of joy, fulfilment, even the sadness, grief, fear, anxiety, and the thrill of finding that one true love.
With they key story, that is, the blessing and the thrill of finding new love after loss, throughout the the entire series, a slow burn romance story is woven. That is, the love story between the two young ones Bryan Wimberly and Sarah Vandergriff. That love finally finds itself in the concluding novel, 'An Empty Quiet Place.'
Each novel in the series can be read on its own as a standalone, but to really get the story in all of its nuances, the author hopes that you will read each novel in its order,
The Legacy of Abigail consists of a four book series
I needed an image for the cover of one of my books. Not being good at art, myself and not wanting to pay the big bucks most illustrators demand, I decided to give AI art a try. Actually, this is two images, each created as a result of entering the description in text form. Then I used my photo editing tool to merge the two images. This is just an example of what can be done.
Read the review: Mister Weatherspoon's Unfortunate Clock
Currently available in printed form only. Paperback. A digital version may come later.
A Tip: To really get a feel for the spirit of each book, the story within the book, read the professional review for each book. Highlighted in yellow, above each description here on this page.
A Ship Called Abigail A romantic Steampunk novel. A dream is born, and a dream dies. But new love comes after loss, and a lighter than airship finishes construction and takes on the name of a lost love.
Legacy of Abigail Book #1
Voyage of Abigail A dream finally realized, almost ends in disaster and loss of life. But out of near tragedy comes new life and new hope. A Steampunk adventure over stormy seas.
Legacy of Abigail Book #2
When Love Finds Hannah Two people from worlds apart find each other and find love. And a people and their civilization is saved. The romantic Steampunk adventure continues.
Legacy of Abigail Book #3
An Empty Quiet Pkace She could deny the love that was right before her eyes, but it was not to be denied. An accident with tragic results was not going to stop the love that was meant to be. The concluding story in the series.
Legacy of Abigail Book #4
Mister Weatherspoon's Unfortunate Clock Genies are not all the legends and old stories tell them to be. One can not always expect them to fulfil their promises. A comic tale of facing mizerhood head on, and learning what really matters in life. A gaslight Fiction novel
Miss Penny's Wedding Dress It was simply an old and faded wedding dress. Wwhat seemed to come along, as though attached to the dress was a hair-raising nightmare for one young man. A gaslight Fiction novel
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