In this second novelette in the Magnetron Chronicles series, Phineas Magnetron and the Hogalum Society investigate the disappearance of President Grant's West Point ring. Their investigation becomes intertwined with the mystery of Spring-heeled Jack, the shadowy terror of England, leading them from Calais to London, and back to America for a bizarre encounter with the notorious General Southwick.

Quotes that make you think in a different perspective.

Why did they take me? Why do they want me? Why am I what I am?

Delaney Escott lives in a world where popularity reigns supreme. If you want to be noticed, social status is everything. The government is run by the Superiors: a very exclusive group of individuals who are virtually flawless. They are smarter than us and stronger than us, and to join their ranks is the highest honor. The Superiors pay an annual visit to the top schools in the nation and evaluate the students, choosing one boy and one girl - the most Popular in the school - to go the Capitol and train for Superiority. Delaney thinks that she's the only one indifferent to (and perhaps even suspicious of) the Superiors, until Caleb Payne, the most popular boy in school, approaches her with a request. He has a task for her, one that he believes she is uniquely capable of completing. And as she helps him, Delaney discovers that the government is hiding many secrets - and that the truth of the Superiors is far from what people believe it to be. [Watty Awards 2012 Winner, Science-Fiction: On the Rise]

The Magnetron Chronicles, Volume 1 Phineas Magnetron is an eccentric Nineteenth Century inventor blessed with a strange gift he doesn't completely understand. As a former soldier and current member of the Hogalum Society, an inscrutable secret organization of crime fighting adventurers, Phineas is no stranger to peril and derring-do. But when the Society founder dies, Phineas embarks on a daring and improbable caper to bring the good doctor's greatest dream to fruition posthumously. In the process, he not only horrifies his Society brothers, but unearths a haunting and compelling mystery. About The Magnetron Chronicles: The Magnetron Chronicles is a serialized steampunk tale told in the grandiose style of Jules Verne, but with satirical Twainian wit. Chapter by chapter, the story builds as quirky new characters join the fray and perplexing new mysteries and situations arise. Traveling the globe, Phineas Magnetron and his Hogalum Society encounter suspicious policemen, mentally ill criminals, wood-craving aliens, a witch doctor, a mad oracle, and a cross-dressing female matador, among many others. However, this "steam dream team" always manages to triumph over impossible odds and improbable obstacles as they preserve order in a disorderly world. More information: http://themagnetronchronicles.blogspot.com

My poems have a home now! *complete*

Play every step by the song. Close your eyes so you never doubt. Follow the leader and do what Simon Says. It all seemed so simple. But that was exactly what it wasn't. Every beat is a lie, every step backwards is really a step forward. Open your eyes and see the truth. We all follow the leader who never was meant to be. Simon defies everything by simply existing. Move to the rhythm of the ballad. Look to heaven and see Hell. Don't climb the wall and you won't fall down. Follow the rules, and no one gets hurt. But people did get hurt. They always do. Cover your ears when the guitar starts strumming, run from the rhythm. Heaven is obscured from view, so we never did get a chance to know any better. Scale the wall and take a chance, we wait to catch you at the bottom. ~*~ Life for Trine Johnston has never been easy. She was always the middle child, and her parents always held her to the highest of expectations. Her younger sister was the typical little angel, and everyone knew it. Whatever she wanted, she would get. And when Trine's parents split, things just got worse. One day, everything changes. Trine receives a mysterious package in the mail, reading "DO NOT OPEN". What do you expect someone to do when it reads that? Open it, of course. And when she does, all hell absolutely breaks loose. She wakes up the next morning to find out that her entire life was a dream, and the reality she lives in is lived to the beat of music. Simon's music. But was everything really a dream?