Continuing from the theme of last week, this week we take to the air with the pirates again and begin a discussion of Avast, Ye Airships. 🙂

In 2015, Mocha Memoirs and I wanted to publish a Steampunk anthology. As you might have guessed, I really like airship pirates–in fact, the book came out a year before the album and was actually one of the potential Kickstarter rewards for Pirates Vs. Dragons.

We will be going over the stories for the next few weeks like we did with Dark Divinations, RieTales, and Bruce and Roxanne from Start to Finnish over on the RieWriter website. Because we aren’t doing daily posts on each blog, we will be going over more than one story per post.

To begin, here is the table of contents (Author links where available):

Come and Be a Pirate — Rie Sheridan Rose
Beneath the Brass — Stephen Blake
Maiden Voyage — Jeffrey Cook and Katherine Perkins
Colonel Gurthwait & the Black Hydra — Robert McGough
Captain Wexford’s Dilemma — Ogarita
Her Majesty’s Service– Lauren Marrero
A Wind Will Rise — Andrew Knighton
Hooked — Rie Sheridan Rose
Go Green — Ross Baxter
Lost Sky — Amy Braun
Miss Warlyss Meets the Black Buzzard — Diana Parparita
Plunder in the Valley — Libby Smith
The Clockwork Dragon — Steve Cook
Adventures of a Would-Be Gentleman of the Skies — Jim Reader
A Clouded Affair — Steven Southard
The Climbers – D. Chang
The Steampunk Garden — Wynelda Ann Deaver
Lotus of Albion — Steve Ruskin
And a Bottle of Rum — K.C. Shaw

The anthology opens with the lyrics to one of the songs from Pirates Vs. Dragons because it was too perfect not to use it, and Marc said: “Go for it.”

The first story is Stephan Blake’s “Beneath the Brass.” Written as a series of diary entries, it tells the tale of a young woman who was committed to a mental asylum only to be “rescued” by a cyborg and taken aboard a piratical airship. Her adventures with the pirates make for exciting reading.

“Maiden Voyage,” tells of a dancer and her companion who foil a pirate invasion of a luxury airship on its first voyage. It is a rousing tale of derring-do proving women should never be underestimated. 😉

In “Colonel Gurthwait & the Black Hydra,” two old hunters try to play a practical joke on a third who desperately desires to be included in their club. The results are not at all what they expected.

The premise of “Captain Wexford’s Dilemma” is that an airship has accidentally gotten itself possessed, and now the crew must figure out what to do with their unwanted guests.

“Her Majesty’s Service,” is an interesting tale of a “Spider” aboard a royal airship. These crewmen flit about the ship tied to the rigging like spiders on silken strings. It’s a hard job, but bears its own rewards, as Nandi discovers in the course of the tale.

Next week, we will continue the walkthrough of the Avast, Ye Airships anthology.