Crown Phoenix: Night Watchman Express
(
The Crown Phoenix #1)
An
underground factory a terrifying laboratory, and the eerie whistle of the Night
Watchman Express…
Miriam has only her guardians' son for company, and she and Simon dislike each
other from the start. But they must find a way to trust each other, or they
will end up on the sinister Night Watchman Express.
Full of danger, suspense, betrayal, and a hint of romance, this steampunk
adventure is for readers of all ages.
Excerpt
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“Look!” Simon pointed to the cliff face. “What are
those things?”
‘Those things’ were a series of flat, silver
circles set into the rock in the shape of a larger circle, perfectly spaced
apart. There were twelve of them, and they were level with the cliff. Neil ran
his hand over one and could not distinguish where they ended and the rock
began.
“Never seen anything like it,” he concluded at
last. “Look – the stone itself is completely smooth and flat. It’s as if
someone planed down the cliff itself and set those metal discs into the rock.”
“But who?” Simon jabbed at the circles with one
finger. Contrary to his expectations, no secret door slid open to expose a
secret passageway lined with overflowing treasure chests and grinning
skeletons.
“That won’t do anything.” Neil pushed Simon away.
“They’re not buttons, or levers, or anything like that.”
“How do you know?” Simon demanded.
“They aren’t meant to move at all – see? A button
would have some kind of rim or space to move in.”
“Well, what are they for, since you’re so clever?”
“No idea.” Neil probed the circles again and shook
his head.
Simon was
bored with the puzzle. “Come on, professor, let’s go and find someplace to eat
our grub. Afterwards we’ll go back up and explore the house.”
“Wait a bit.” Neil pointed at a flat stone in
front of the mysterious circle. “That bit of rock is a different color from the
others near the cliff – see? It looks as if it was moved there, on purpose.”
“Really?” Simon forgot his hunger. Without
hesitation, he jumped onto the rock. Its position put him right in front of the
circle; its diameter was taller than his head by about a foot. Simon spread his
arms out to the sides and stared stiffly ahead, waiting for something to
happen.
Neil began
to laugh. “You look just like that Da Vinci drawing,” he said.
“Oh, you mean that one of the bloke with the lines
in the geometrical figures.” Simon resumed his position, crossed his eyes, and
stuck out his tongue. “How about now?”
“Come on, let me have a go.” Neil leaped onto the
rock and shouldered Simon aside. After a few good-natured shoves, Simon stepped
off and watched Neil stand in one stance after another.
“Feel any machinery or magic or anything?” he
demanded.
“Nothing.”
Neil jumped back onto the sand beside Simon. “I’d really like to know who came
up with the design for inlaying those discs,” he mused.
Simon had already turned away, and he pulled out
the large napkin tied around their food. “I’m famished. Let’s sit over here
and–”
There was a loud scream from the direction of the
house. “What was that?” Simon forgot the stolen breakfast. “Come on, let’s go
and see!”
Neil was already running towards the steps. Together,
they raced back to the house, away from the waves and silent stones.
Crown Phoenix: The Devil's Kitchen
(
The Crown Phoenix #2)
In The Night Watchman Express,
Miriam and Simon were kidnapped and thrown on the strange train... Now in Book
Two of The Crown Phoenix series, they arrive at the terrifying destination
known as Devil's Kitchen.
There they will face human experiments in a laboratory known as The Infirmary.
There Miriam will be forced to work in an underground factory.
There Simon is held in a luxurious prison by jailers who are as beautiful as
they are deadly...
And their courage will be tested to the breaking point.
Crown Phoenix: Lamplighter's Special
(
The Crown Phoenix #3)
Lizzie and her
beautiful sister Ninna are forced to work in a huge Manor and on a steamship to
support their family.
They are caught up in several mysteries:
The squire’s oldest son cannot leave the attic
An old typewriter seems to move time and space
A passenger hides in a secret room
A beautiful visitor is plotting against them
And Lizzie discovers that she has a strange, new ability.
She and her sister must discover the secrets of The Lamplighter’s Special
before their enemy catches up with them.
Guest post by Alison DeLuca
The Third Eye
While I was writing the Crown Phoenix series, I had a
definite voyage in mind. The book would start with a mysterious train in the
distance and end with my main characters, Simon and Miriam, riding to an unknown
destination on The Night Watchman Express.
In fact, writing the books was like being on a train. The
current scene on my screen was very clear and present, and as I hurtled away to
another chapter, that location became clear. What was unclear and yet to be
captured on paper grew more focused as the books progressed.
Even though my journey was mapped out for me, however, I
received some jolts of inspiration along the way that I just couldn’t shake.
For example, one night I sat up in bed, my heart pounding. I had a sudden
vision of a beautiful woman locked up in
a cage that hung from a long chain. She swung back and forth, and the
only way to access her was a tunnel through the mountains.
I heard the creak of the chain, the dripping of the water in
the tunnel, and the low voices of two children who discovered her. That scene,
of course, became a pivotal part of the second half of Night Watchman.
Another image came to me as I was stopped at a red light, on
the way to my daughter’s school. I saw a boy and a girl on the deck of a
steamship. Between them was an old, battered typewriter that hummed as if it
had mysterious, mechanical innards. Their hands were on the machine, clutching
it tightly to make certain that it wouldn’t smash as they sailed through a
strange storm at sea.
Again, the image became real, as though it bloomed. I heard
the wind whistling around them and the hissing of sparks that flew from the
machine they held so tightly. The boy, Toby, tried to say something to the
girl, Lizzie, but his voice was snatched
away by the uproar of the storm.
As soon as I pictured the image, I couldn’t wait to go home
and write it. (Of course, I had to go and chaperone a Brownies meeting at the
time, so inspiration just had to wait.) I entered that fog, familiar to many
writers, that comes from existing in two places at once – I handed out paper
cups of juice and helped the leader set up games for the girls, but all the
while I was lost at sea on my steamship, The Lamplighter, as it was nearly torn
apart by a wild, electrical storm.
That scene eventually became one of my favorite parts of The
Lamplighter’s Special, the third book in the Crown Phoenix series. To this day
I read over it, while editing or formatting, and wonder, “Where did that inspiration come from?” I still have no idea.
When my inspiration takes a day off and my muse has a head
cold, I developed an exercise for helping ideas flow. Once I have a
concept for a chapter (Barbara imprisons Simon in a tiny attic room)
I make up lists of words that come to mind with the concept. The attic prison
led to : Stockholm effect, hunger, exhaustion, dirt, loud music, soiled
mattress. That list let me begin to see Simon, my spoiled, rich boy, now held
in a tiny garret by jailers who tortured him psychologically. He lay on an old
bed, stained with age, clutching his head in agony as someone played loud music
outside his room. I’m afraid that as disturbing as it sounds, that scene was a
lot of fun to write!
Another list led to the creation of the home where Riki, my
girl from the island of Lampala, lived. I wanted her family to be very
well-off, and the house had to be beautiful. At the same time, I really wanted
to evoke an island setting. My list included images such as: parrots, lily
pond, fountain, curved roof, large shutters, wide porch, flowered vines, carved
squids. At that point, I could suddenly see the house in front of me. I can see
it now – if you go in the front door and up the stairs, Neil’s guest room is to
the right. It has huge wooden shutters, embellished with carved squids and
mermaids, to close off the heat of the day, and there is a tiny fountain in one
corner.
I love that third eye – the one that somehow conjures up
scenes that never existed before. My images are sometimes bright, sometimes
dark and deadly – but they are my own.
About the author
Alison DeLuca grew up on an organic farm in Chester County,
Pennsylvania. Her parents were British,
so in the summers she went to stay with her grandparents near Dublin.
There was no stereo or TV there, so Alison, her sister, and her
cousins spent the summer inventing stories and plays for each other. “This gave me the ability to entertain myself
with my own imagination in any situation,” she says. “We used to be taken to
tea with great-aunts, and we were expected to sit on an uncomfortable couch and
not move or say a word. It was possible
to endure it because I was watching my own little stories play out in my mind.”
After graduating from West Chester University, Alison became
a teacher of English and Spanish, teaching students from kindergarten up to
college level. She loved teaching, and it was with reluctance that she left the
classroom to be a fulltime mom when her daughter was born.
While she was teaching and raising her daughter, Alison took
every free minute she had to write. The
Night Watchman Express and The Crown Phoenix Series were the result.
She is currently working on the final book in the series, as
well as several other projects.
You can find Alison here:
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