D. J. Butler

1859. War is coming. In the mounting tention all eyes turn west, to the Kingdom of Deseret. The Madman Orson Pratt's per… 1859. War is coming. In the mounting tention all eyes turn west, to the Kingdom of Deseret. The Madman Orson Pratt's perfection of air-ship technology already has every power scrambling to get Deseret's Brigham Young into the war as its ally, or sidelined permanently. The stakes only rise with the rumors that Pratt's newest invention is a working, deadly, phlogiston cannon. Sam Clemens of the United States Army rides into Deseret on his amphibious steam-truck, the Jim Smiley. Racing against him on the land-ferry Liahona comes Captain Richard Burton, explorer, linguist, soldier, and hard-headed man of science. Edgar Allan Poe, a master spy presumed dead for a decade, travels in disguise as an exhibitor f Egyptian antiquities, doing his dirty work for the clandestine confederate leadership with flesh-eating clocksprung scarab beetles and a hypnotic hypocephalus. The rivals fight each other tooth and nail and clash with the Kingdom's loyal but eccentric defender, the Deseret Marshal Orrin Porter Rockwell. read more

Millennia-old demons hunt both Hiram Woolley and his son. A former music teacher spends eternity being tested (tortured?… Millennia-old demons hunt both Hiram Woolley and his son. A former music teacher spends eternity being tested (tortured?) on his knowledge of-and ear for-music. Monsters hunt down an injured goat herder as he tries to retrieve his wayward goat. Not everything in the online world is as it seems, especially this far from Earth. Karma always comes to those who wait, and especially to those who don't. Join the Bard of Sarovar as he explores these and other imaginative worlds! This collection contains 32 entertaining yarns, including six original filks songs and two short stories published here for the first time, plus four essays on the topics of his own works and the business of writing. The Bard of Sarovar will entertain you from the first page to the last. Start your adventures today! read more