When the boiler explodes on the airship Lucky Lady, killing three men, first mate Gavin Roberts finds himself in the crosshairs of one of the most powerful men in Europe. Sir Cornelius Smothers, an iron-fisted shipping tycoon, has lost his youngest son in the boiler explosion and he holds Roberts responsible for the accident. Determined to rescue both the Lucky Lady and his own name, Roberts negotiates a deal with Smothers to purchase the ruined airship within three years, a bargain which promises certain death if he defaults. Renaming his crippled airship the Horizon, Roberts begins to rebuild her with the help of an eccentric inventor and a motley handful of loyal crew members. When the Horizon rises to life again as the fastest airship in the sky, she earns fame but also increases Smothers' wrath against her new captain. Battling airship pirates and dodging malfunctioning automatons, Roberts must fight to keep the Horizon in the air and pay off his debt before his luck and his time run out.
About the Author: Melissa Ann Conroy grew up in the wilds of Nebraska in a suburb surrounded by corn and feral turkeys. She promptly fled her hometown at eighteen for college and international travel when the realities of in-state tuition drew her back home. Presently she shares a house with her oldest brother and a fat Basset Hound named Erasmus. At various points of time, Melissa has wandered across Mexico, Honduras, Canada, Spain, Morocco, England, Scotland, Belgium, France and Gibraltar. She spent a month studying abroad at the University of Oxford (which mainly involved eating scones and punting down the Thames), was nearly kidnapped by a camel in Tangier, narrowly missed falling off a cliff in Tegucigalpa, and was held up by a thieving Barbary Macaque in Gibraltar. Melissa has held an odd collection of jobs over the years. She earned a B.A. and M.A. in medieval English literature and taught college-level composition courses for several years. She spend a year in front of the camera as an ESL instructor on a weekly English-learning TV show and worked as a producer for an international education organization. Currently, she is a medical helicopter dispatcher. When she isn't writing, Melissa is usually outside on her bike, putting together steampunk costumes, or spending time with friends and family. She holds a black belt in Japanese sword-fighting, likes to cosplay River Song from Doctor Who, and is a decent low soprano.