I hope you’re having a great time at TRS’ fabulous anniversary celebration. In addition to the TRS anniversary, I have something else to celebrate, a new release, coming February 1st, a Steampunk/Romance under the name Maeve Alpin, Conquistadors In Outer Space.

Let me tell you a little bit about it. A historical re-enactment inspired me. I participated in a re-enactment of Hernando De Soto’s 1541 North American expedition in Arkansas at the Parkins Archeology State Park, the exact place De Soto came over 400 years before. I wanted to write something about that period so I created a Spanish Governor like De Soto just as cruel to the natives or in this case aliens, and moved it all to the early 1600’s when Spain could use a new place to explore with their discoveries of gold dwindling down and England making their way in North and South America.

When I saw the flying ship in the last Three Musketeers movie, I wanted one of those, so with alternative history I had Leonardo da Vinci create it. Then I had Galileo, while interrogated in the Vatican, confess to a planet he’d seen that should be inhabitable, which answered the question of a new place Spain could explore where England couldn’t come. Then I made Da Vinci’s giant cannon invention even larger. I decided the giant cannons were originally invented to blast the entire island of England into the sea since the Vatican had been involved in secret assassination attempts on the kings of England since Henry VIII’s break from the Catholic church. They were just going to end it once and for all but with Galileo‘s discovery they found they could use the cannons to shoot missiles full of conquistadors and settlers to this new planet. A nod to one of my favorite books, Jules Verne’s From The Earth To The Moon.

Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving inspired me as well, I used the elixir that put Rip to sleep for twenty years as a discovery made on the De Soto expedition, which they brought back. That is how my characters travel twenty years and do not die or age, they just sleep the whole time.

Here’s a blurb:
Thrown off the Spanish estate she worked at all her life, Ana, a milkmaid, seeks a new life. Disguised as a rich widow, she boards a rocket, to be shot out of a huge cannon, and targeted for the newly discovered planet, X. Sparks fly when she finds Ramon, the only man she ever loved, heir of the estate she worked on, is flying to Planet X as well. As the Spanish governor of Plant X searches for gold, the treasure Ramon seeks is Ana. His conquest is challenging, though he swears to protect and love her, as a noble he cannot marry a peasant. Ana can’t deny her desire for Ramon, but she will not be his mistress. Will his conquest of her heart succeed or will Ana make a life for herself alone amid the wonders and dangers of Planet X?

Please post any question or comments below.

Thanks,

Cornelia Amiri writing as Maeve Alpin