Charlotte has been at this indie publishing business for a while now, with six books and several short stories to her name so far. Sit back and enjoy this brief interview with Charlotte.
Tell me about your favorite character from your work. What about them makes them unique? What are their quirks and why will we enjoy reading about them?
20 Hours to Charles Town
When an airship madam arranges a secret meeting, can she trust her crew and a rogue operative to keep her clients safe from his handlers, her allies, and an anarchist?
The main character from my WIP is Elvira O’Sullivan, madam of an airship brothel who has arranged for a secret meeting of diplomats to be held during their trip from New York City to Charles Town, South Carolina. This steampunk story is set in an alternate timeline in which the American Revolution failed, and a number of countries have colonies in North America, circa 1840.
Elvira, or Madame as her employees call her, is always dressed in the latest fashions, tight-laced, coiffed, bejeweled, and made up to perfection, but she prefers loose silks and leathers against the cold of the airspace where she lives. She rarely touches ground, as she feels vulnerable in the man’s world below her. She needs the persona and the appearance of the rich and powerful for her clients to see her as an equal in business if not in social status.
She uses the brothel as a front for gathering financial and political information, which she dispenses to her favored wealthy and powerful clientele. This excursion is a step up from her usual business into international politics. She wants to expand her behind-the-scenes influence to prevent a war between the colonies because it would cut into her business and channel money away from her into munitions and warfare.
Texas seceded from Mexico, but it has yet to be recognized as a nation. Recognition of Texas would help her expand her excursions further west, and she could trade for their new resources including helium, which would allow her to expand to California.
She finds that some of her protocols have been violated and that several dangerous people are on the excursion to Charles Towne with the intent of discrediting her and causing an international incident to spark the war. They have 20 hours to find and neutralize these infiltrators while keeping the clients safe.
She is not “the hooker with a heart of gold” but more a solid brass magnolia, one who can be ruthless or who can bribe one of her women with the promise of a college education and training in finance if the woman can get the information she wants to negotiate a deal with the Texican client. Her many businesses employ women in other capacities—manufacturing, retail sales and health care—she provides housing, education, and a living wage for the many women and their children who make up her information network. She feels responsible for them, but she insists that they follow her rules.
Her weakness is that she does not trust anyone, despite her reliance on her network of informants at all levels of society, on the crew of her airship, and on the women who work for her. She never allows herself to be vulnerable, so she is incapable of feeling love even for her bodyguard who is her partner. At her deepest levels, she feels unlovable, the result of growing up as a child prostitute. She has overcome her past mentally, but retains much scar tissue on her soul.
She must face her vulnerability and trust that her people share her goals when her control of the ship is taken from her, and her best bet is a rogue operative who has turned on his agency.
20 Hours to Charles Town is scheduled for release in late Spring 2015.
Charlotte’s Books
Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil
A dead cellphone calls with a job offer and a promise of dragons.
Giving up what’s her self-esteem for coffee, her last chance to redeem her life comes as a job offer to be a fairy godmother. But Faery is shrinking, the other fairy godmothers have disappeared, and nothing she does turns out right.
How can she put together the happily ever after each of her clients wants with her boss standing in her way?
http://bit.ly/Maven2ed
$5.95 Kindle $15.99 Paper
Maven’s Fractured Fairy Tales
Fairy Godmother Maven Morrigan has her own way of making the happily ever after come true for The Frog Prince, Rumpelstiltskin and Beauty and the Beast. Three fractured fairy tales to bring you a smile
http://bit.ly/eMFFT
$2.99 Kindle $5.99 Paper
Separate stories also available $0.99
Bubba and the beast: http://bit.ly/BubbaBeast
MavenStiltskin: http://bit.ly/MavenStilt
Fairy Frogmother: http://bit.ly/FrogMom
Just a Smidgen of Magic: Enchantment at the Edge of Mundane
Five flash fiction stories of magical encounters in the modern world.
$2.99 Kindle, $5.49, Paper
Walking Off Heaven’s Shore
A ten-piece bucket of Southern fried flash fiction.
http://bit.ly/WalkShore
$2.99 Kindle $5.99 Paper
Turning Point
A short-short about a cup of coffee on a sunny morning and a decision about changing one’s life.
http://bit.ly/TurnPoint
$0.99 kindle
Brief bio of Charlotte Henley Babb, Author
Web designer, social networks manager, blogger, novelist, and online writing instructor, Charlotte Henley Babb has been writing since she was four, and now makes up fractured fairy tales for people who have survived beyond the love’s last kiss. Where the stories are for people over 20 who have survived marriage, divorce, child-rearing, post-graduate education, bankruptcy, empty nest, and widowhood?
Charlotte Henley Babb writes them.
Her first novel, Maven Fairy Godmother: Through the Veil, was published in 2012 and was awarded the Sharp Writ First Place in Fantasy and Science Fiction. It also received an honorable mention in the 2014 National Federation of Press Women communications contest for adult novels.. She has self-published short stories in ebook and print format, doing the technical work, cover design, and layout herself.
Charlotte has taught English in high school and junior college, written procedure manuals, and edited association newsletters. She has presented at education and writing conferences on using the Internet, blogging, and writing science fiction. She brings to any project a number of experiences: technical writer, gasket inspector, wait staff, fabric and craft retail associate, craft artificer, secret weapon, and telephone psychic. Currently she manages the website, social media presence, and monthly newsletter for Sherman College of Chiropractic.
Connect with Charlotte Henley Babb
- Blog: http://charlottehenleybabb.com
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/charlotte.henley.babb
- LinkedIN: http://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottebabb/
- Goodreads: http://bit.ly/CHBabb-g
- Amazon: http://amzn.to/CHBabb
Google +: https://plus.google.com/u/0/+CharlotteHenleyBabb/posts/p/pub
Lee Dunning 