Dennis M. O'Flaherty

<p>Quit Harvard as a kid to join the Marine Corps, where I spent four years as a machine gunner, radioman and whatever came along, finishing (like Napoleon and other great men) as a Corporal. Returned promptly to Harvard, got a B.A. in Russian History, went on to Oxford, where I did a B.A. in Russian Literature at New College, and an M.A. and D.Phil. at St. Antony's College in Modern History (Russian) including a year in Moscow and Leningrad on the U.S. State Department Cultural Exchange Program.

From there on to California and USF Law School, from which I busted out after a couple of years and went to Hollywood and the picture business, where I toiled on the West Coast's Grub Street for many years, writing everything from film scripts (shared a Mystery Writers of America Edgar award with Ross Thomas for screenplay of Francis Coppola's "Hammett") to many Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoons (my favorite).

Moved to Arizona a few years ago for some peace and quiet and ended up slaving over a steampunk novel (go figure). Like steampunk even better than the Ninja Turtles and think I'll stick with it for a while.

"<b>The year is 1877. Automatons and steam-powered dirigible gunships have transformed the United States in the aftermath of the Civil War</b>. All of the country’s land west of the Mississippi was sold to Russia nearly fifty years earlier, and “Little Russia,” as it’s now called, is ruled by the son of Tsar Alexander II. Lincoln is still president, having never been assassinated, but he’s not been seen for six months, and rumors are flying about his disappearance. The country is being run as a police state by his former secretary of war Edwin Stanton, a power-hungry criminal who rules with an iron fist."</p>