Title ~ The Lady Astronomer
Author ~ Katy O'Dowd
Tour Host: Lady Amber's Tours
~Blurb~
Lucretia's life as an astronomer is quickly turned on
its head by her eldest brother when he is commanded by the king to build the
grandest telescope in the land. Her nights spent on rooftops gazing at the
stars are replaced by adventure as the family move to be nearer the king. In a
race to build the Forty-foot telescope on time, misfortunes take their toll.
The lady astronomer finds court life to be more dangerous than she could have
ever imagined. Can she find the strength inside to overcome the obstacles
threatening her destiny? Only the stars will tell.
~Author bio~
Katy is an arts and entertainment
journalist and has worked for Time Out, Associated Newspapers and Comic Relief
and her articles have appeared in The Times (London), Metro (London) and many
other arts and entertainment publications, paper and online.
She reviews for the Historical Novels
Review and the British Fantasy Society, is a commissioning editor at Pendragon
Press and is co-editor of the Nasty Snips II Project for that press.
Alongside writing with her Dad under the
pen-name Derry O’Dowd, whose first book ‘The Scarlet Ribbon’ was chosen to
launch the History Press Ireland’s fiction line, she writes under her own name.
‘The Lady Astronomer’, a YA Steampunk
novel, is out with Untold Press. She is currently writing a Steampunk adult
series because writing for tweens and teens is damnably hard work. However, the
good people at Untold might just have persuaded her to write a sequel and short
set in the Lady Astronomer’s world.
Links:
Katy blogs at www.katyodowd.com
Twitter @katyod
Facebook www.facebook.com/katy.odowd
Contact:
katy@pictureandword.com
A few facts:
I wrote The Lady Astronomer for my
eldest son – he was jealous that I had used my younger son’s name in something
else I was writing.
I work with an Astronomer on books that
require his expert knowledge – the idea for The Lady Astronomer came to me
while reading another book that he recommended I read.
The Lady Astronomer is inspired by the
life of Caroline Herschel (1750-1848). She suffered from both Smallpox and
Typhus, was a milliner, soprano, her brother William’s Assistant – he
discovered Uranus, then known as George’s Star for the King who funded the
build of the ‘Great Forty-Foot’ telescope – and most importantly, perhaps,
became the first woman in recorded history to discover a comet. Not to mention
the first woman in the UK to receive a working wage, from the King if you don’t
mind.
Publisher:
The Lady Astronomer was published by
Untold Press www.untoldpress.com
on 26th September 2012. It is currently available as an eBook and
paperback.
ASIN:
B009HIIKS0
Where to buy:
You can purchase The Lady Astronomer on
Amazon USA and Amazon UK.
~Excerpt~
Siphonaptera
jumped on to the flat roof, hidden by his tiny size and the darkness of the
still night. Though stars peppered the skies with diamond dust, their light
would no more have illuminated the predator than a candle at one end of a
particularly dank, gloomy tunnel.
He
paused on his long hind legs, lifted his head, and fixed a beady eye on his
prey. Three warm bodies for him to gorge on. If his front legs had been longer
he would have rubbed them together in glee at the thought of the crimson blood
lying in wait within his unknowing quarry. Blood. His tube-like mouth parts
quivered in anticipation. He jumped again and came ever closer. His tiny belly
rumbled and he stopped before realising the noise was so minute, nobody could
possibly have heard it. Victory would be his! Just one more jump. Two. Three.
The excitement of wanting, and knowing it was within reach, filled him in a
great rush. And then he knew no more.
A
sudden shriek made Lucretia's heart leap and her hand fly to her chest. Her
head whipped round and her left eye, hugely magnified behind her monoscope,
fixed on her ring-tailed lemur crouched nearby.
"Leibniz,
how many times have I asked you not to make noise when I'm at a critical
juncture?" She sighed. "What do you have there, boy?"
The
lemur sauntered over, arms behind his back.
"Show,
Leibniz. Show." She raised herself from the roof and brushed down her
dress.
Leibniz
reluctantly held his arm forward and opened his paw. Within lay a smudged smear
that had once been Siphonaptera. Lucretia peered until she could make out what
it was. She stepped back and grimaced. "Well, feel free to eat it. I hate
fleas."
The
lemur's pink tongue picked the squashed flea up gently and deposited it into
his mouth. Leibniz closed his eyes in appreciation and savoured the tiny
flavour before it disappeared, which it did rather too quickly for his liking.
He scratched his bottom, sat down, and looked up enquiringly at Lucretia. His long
black and white striped tail curled like a question mark.
"Don't
ask me." She shrugged. "Let's get on with some more work before
sunrise." So saying, she lay down on her stomach again and lifted her
Newtonian sweeper telescope to her good eye.
"Now,
where was I?" She muttered, trying to find the exact patch of sky she had
been studying before being so rudely interrupted.
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