Fidelio’s Automata, An Adventure in Alternate History. Cover art by Kyle Dunbar
At Nakota Publishing, we’re having a 99 cent sale on all e-books by Arlys and me from Black Friday through Cyber Monday. In the days counting down to the event, we’ll be taking a look at each of our literary works. Fidelio’s Automata is my second novel and my first foray into the steampunk genre. The story revolves around Fidelio, a young Cuban who comes to America to perfect his invention, a spider automaton. Its purpose is to free humans from tiresome and dangerous work, but it is stolen and redesigned as a war machine. With the help of his friend Hank, a veteran turned pacifist, he aims to stop this travesty. In this book, I also explore the dilemma of Fidelio as a gay man at a time when gays were persecuted and the difficulty Hank, a devout Christian, has in accepting him. Like many works of steampunk, the story incorporates historical people: Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, labor leader Big Bill Haywood, and the Marquis DeMores and his wife Medora.