After I finished the first book in the Alexandrian Saga – Fires of Alexandria, I had a neat little idea: to write short prequel stories about Heron solving crimes and mysteries around the city.
The idea wasn’t such a stretch. In each book, Heron is tasked with (or takes on) a major mystery that has far-reaching consequences like who set the fires in the Great Library, though they never turn out quite as anyone expects. I’d also found other minor inventions and happenings that stoked my interest to write about, things that would never make it into the main books, and Heron was the perfect catalyst to tell stories about them.
I wrote the first of these stories, The Price of Numbers, and realized that I was going to write more than just one or two, though I didn’t have time to finish the others with multiple trilogies in the works, so I sat on my notes and waited for a break from my novels to tackle the rest of them. This past winter I finally found the time to finish the short stories, five of them, including the last, The Curse of the Gorgon, which is the longest by far, novella length– if you’re into that kind of nomenclature.
The stories are positively Sherlockian, with twists on the mystery genre that can only be pure Heron, told through the point-of-view of the Magistrate of Alexandria, a character that only has minor roles in the books.
A note for readers that have never read the Alexandrian Saga: Heron is a woman disguised as a man (her dead twin, actually), because that was the only way she could practice her trade as an inventor and scholar of the Great Library. By history’s reckoning, Heron was a man, though not enough is known about the inventor as a person to truly rule out the possibility he was a woman!
Eventually, I’m going to collect them into one little book, but for now you can find them at all the major sites for the introductory price of $0.99. I will, of course, let you know when the collection is out, under the name, The Adventures of Heron, if you’d like to purchase the paperback, but for now, enjoy yourself with stories of Heron, one-by-one. They can be enjoyed in any order, but I would recommend reading The Curse of the Gorgon last, for reasons you will understand after you have read it.
The “Heron of Alexandria” Short Stories
The Price of Numbers: Amazon, B&N, and KOBO.
The Weight of Gold: Amazon, B&N, and KOBO.
The Blood of the Gods: Amazon, B&N, and KOBO.
The Virtues of Madness: Amazon, B&N, and KOBO.
The Curse of the Gorgon: Amazon, B&N, and KOBO.
All stories will also eventually be on Audible or Amazon as an audiobook (about half of them are ready now.) Check links on Amazon to purchase.
Also, Audible was kind enough to give me a few audiobooks to give away for free, so if you repost (FB, twitter, or whatever) this message, I will randomly select a winner on June 15th and send you the links and codes for the free audiobook (The Price of Numbers.) Make sure to include my FB name (Thomas K. Carpenter) or twitter handle (@thomaskcarpente) so I can tally your entry. Good luck!
