Showing results by author "Pip Ballantine" in All Categories

The chase is on! After rescuing Queen Victoria from the clutches of the Maestro, Agents Eliza D Braun and Wellington Books are in hot pursuit of Dr. Henry Jekyll. While he continues his experiments on the aristocracy of Europe, he leaves a trail of chaos and despair in his wake. However, when Eliza and Wellington run him to ground in India, they are forced to come face to face with ghosts from the past, and the realities of empire.

Evil is most assuredly afoot - and Britain’s fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade... and a librarian. These are dark days indeed in Victoria’s England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing, washing up as corpses on the banks of the Thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences - the Crown’s clandestine organization whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling - will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest...

After being ignominiously shipped out of England following their participation in the Janus affair, Braun and Books are ready to prove their worth as agents. But what starts as a simple mission in the States - intended to keep them out of trouble - suddenly turns into a scandalous and convoluted case that has connections reaching as far as Her Majesty the Queen.

Having narrowly escaped the electrifying machinations of Thomas Edison, Books and Braun are looking forward to a relaxing and possibly romantic voyage home. But when Braun's emergency signal goes off, all thoughts of recreation vanish. Braun's streetwise team of child informants, the Ministry Seven, is in grave peril, and Books and Braun must return to England immediately.

Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain's latest hypersteam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance...with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown. The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure.

There is no time to rest for Eliza D. Braun and Wellington Thornhill Books. The man who has haunted and hounded them since the fall of the Maestro, Doctor Henry Jekyll, is now on a killing spree, using bizarre, theatrical murders as a way to taunt their inability to capture him. It falls on Books and Braun to turn the tables on Jekyll and bring him to justice. As Wellington and Eliza continue their pursuit of the madman, Jekyll, the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences stand against a recent surge in House of Usher activity.

Verity Fitzroy and the Ministry Seven have the run of London, and that is the way they like it. While she loses herself in machines and adventures, and the work they get from the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, why her parents were killed remains a mystery she can't leave alone.

Lucinda is a witch in a alternative Victorian London, where being a witch is a death sentence. Her coven harnesses sensuality and passion to make magic, and that is a crime according to the Association of Magicians. Women with control of sex and magic are too dangerous to tolerate. So Lucinda and her coven live in secret. That is until she meets a young American magician, and their attraction cannot be denied, but they have always been taught such a thing can never be.

After her brush with the Silver Pharaoh, Verity Fitzroy and the children of the Ministry Seven retreat to London to recover, but adventure always seems to have a way of finding them. With her Uncle Octavius still somewhere out there, Verity is sure the terrifying disappearance of children in the fogs of the capital cannot be a coincidence. The ancient mystery of the Emerald Flame is on the verge of being solved, which will mean an end to life and death as the world has known it. The race is on to find it first, and the winner will hold the fate of the future in their hands.

Anastasia Brassingware is a daughter of English aristocracy, but her station has been brought low by her father's belief in ridiculous quick schemes. Now forced into penury, she must take any menial job. A chance meeting with enigmatic pineapple merchant, Lord Heathcliff Redd, has changed everything.

Over the past decade, social media has transformed from a fad into a necessity for writers. But for the inexperienced author, trying to make sense of - much less master - the available platforms can be a frustrating experience. The variety of social media options alone is dizzying enough: WordPress, Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, YouTube, Pinterest, and more. Whether you're just starting to create an audience or looking to refine your online presence, this guide will equip you with the essential tools you'll need to succeed.

Four steampunk novelettes from the authors of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris. Includes Little Red Flying Hood, Aladdin and His Wonderfully Infernal Device, Little Clockwork Mermaid, and Mechanical Wings.