College Class Studies My Short Story: The Nubian Queen

Today was a very good day. I spoke to a college creative writing class who had read and studied my short story, The Nubian Queen featured in the DAW Books anthology, Steampunk'd edited by Jean Rabe and Martin Greenberg.

It's the first time a college class has ever studied my work, to my knowledge, and that was quite an honor. I was invited by professor Kent Bean of Snow College, who had heard me speak at Life The Universe and Everything (a writers conference in Utah), and he wanted me to speak to his students.

We spoke about the story and then about some nuts and bolts issues with creative writing and working as a full or part time writer. The whole thing was fun and I really enjoyed speaking to the students and hearing their questions about the story and writing itself.

Here's a quick description of the story: In The Nubian Queen, the last descendent of Cleopatra the Great must risk everything to save her country in an 1800’s alternate history Earth where Egypt is the center of the world.

Here's a link to a free podcast (34 minutes) of the first half of the story read by the awesome voice actress Annie O'Connel-Torgersen, and also a link to the book on Amazon.com.

I hope to someday write a novel about Queen Sahdi, but time will tell. If you've read the story, please write a review on Amazon.com and email me your thoughts, or post them here, about the story.

Best wishes,

Paul Genesse
Editor of The Crimson Pact anthology series and author of The Iron Dragon Series

Steampunk'd

Steampunk'd is the new anthology from DAW Books and releases November 2, 2010 and features my story, The Nubian Queen.

Read the first half of the story for free on my website in the Works section, or listen to a free podcast here: http://web.me.com/paulgenesse/Site/Podcast/Entries/2010/10/27_The_Steampunk’d_Anthology_from_DAW_Books.html

The podcast is pretty awesome. It's read by Annie O'Connell-Torgersen, who is an acclaimed voice over artist and a friend. She's married to Brad Torgersen, a sci-fi writer and a Writers of the Future winner.

Annie happens to be perfect to play the role of Queen Sahdi and I knew that from the moment I met her. You see, Annie and Sahdi are both strong black women.


In The Nubian Queen, the last descendent of Cleopatra the Great must risk everything to save her country in an 1800’s alternate history Earth where Egypt is the center of the world.

Check out the book on Amazon.com.


Back Cover Copy:


Science fiction is the literature of what if, and steampunk takes the what if along a particular time stream. What if steam power was the prime force in the Victorian era? How would that era change, and how would it change the future?

From a Franco-British race for Kentucky coal to one woman’s determination to let no man come between her and her inventions . . . from an attempt to turn lead into gold which has far-reaching implications to a reporter’s cross-country airship journey to cover the story of a scientist out to tame the desert’s heat . . . from the hunt for a near-extinct creature to an attempt to rid Europe of the fey . . . from “machine whispers” to a Thomas Edison experiment gone awry, here are fourteen original tales of what might have been had steam powered the world in an earlier age.


Stories by:

Michael A. Stackpole * Donald J. Bingle
William C. Dietz * Jody Lynn Nye
Bradley P. Beaulieu * Dean Leggett
Stephen D. Sullivan * Matthew P. Mayo
C.A. Verstraete * Paul Genesse
Mary Louise Eklund* Marc Tassin
Skip & Penny Williams * Robert Vardeman