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"Business As Usual" is a standalone short story that takes place some months before the events of Gideon Smith and the Mechanical Girl, the first entry in David Barnett's the steampunk/Victoriana adventure series.
Spring, 1890, and England needs a hero. Gideon Smith is yet to step up to the role as public protector of the Empire, but in the background and the shadows, Mr. Walsingham pulls strings to keep the often outlandish threats to Britain and her interests at bay. It is a role that lies heavy on his shoulders, and here we find him composing his end-of-year report to Queen Victoria.
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David Barnett
David Barnett is an author, a lightning rod, and a man who has lived multiple lives within multiple worlds of chaos. After years defined by the jagged friction of the underground music scene and a scorched-earth lifestyle of indulgence and excess, Barnett eventually learned to transmute his demons and harness the power of his ghosts, channeling a legacy of reckless abandon and outlandish antics into the art that saved his life. Writing from the raw intersection of survival and an insatiable appetite for the next extreme, he navigates the beautiful and the brutal with unflinching honesty. A winner of the 2025 WriterCon First Place award for Memoir, Barnett writes not to seek absolution, but to expose the price of chasing dreams and the toll of trudging through the muck in search of the signal beneath the static. He resides in Austin, Texas, where he has served as a steward for misunderstood minds and disaffected souls, remaining a dedicated seeker of the next distorted, exquisite frequency.
More by David Barnett
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